So where are we up to now?
Next is the most important part of a good camper van, and possibly the hardest to integrate to the rest of the vehicle. The bed. It’s a really awkward problem when you think about it, especially if you are as tall as me!
Each year a bunch of friends and I all make the effort to meet up on mass and go climbing. We always stay in the cheapest and closest campsite to wherever we need to be. Sometimes this is as close as across the road, making the walk-in so short we can watch climbers from our circle of tents. When we were students, it was always tents because that’s what we had so that’s what we used, but now we want a bit extra comfort so vans are starting to enter the group.
Another chance to get some vannery work done presented itself this week. A lot of prep work has gone into getting to where I am now. Plenty of time spent sitting in the van looking at its curvy shape and my wood stock (giggle) Working out the best way to get the most features I want into the space has meant that progress has been slow, up until today, when some of my plans started to become a reality.
Hoorah!! Major milestone completed!! All holes have been plug welded in my holey police van!!
I have been searching for about 5 months now to plug the holes in my roof. I’ve searched the local businesses, fabricators shops, car body shops, DIY stores and friends of friends sheds for someone (or thing) to fill them.
Today my Van swallowed a whole sheet of plywood in one big gulp.
With the help of my Bro™, we man-handled the sheet into the back of the van. I parked strategically on the road to give us space to cut the board up outside. The neighbours didn’t seem to mind us using the space, that was until I spotted that their car had a fine dusting of man-glitter all over it!
Next job: Insulate the walls of the van and prepare for boarding.
I was staggered just how much of a difference covering the walls of the van would have on the acoustics in there… when I bought the van it was just a shell with some badly fitted plastic panels flapping around. As you drove along, the van made such a crashing din you could barely hear the bag of cats screeching in the back. Now it’s (partially) insulated, it’s so much quieter you can have a normal conversation without going hoarse.
As a mechanical engineer, electrics are a bit like magic to me. There are different types and flavours of magic and woe betide any electrical item you feed the wrong brand of power. They really don’t like it. If you spot any magic white smoke escaping the product, it needs replacing, no joke. With this in mind, I did some research and along with Vandogs ebook guiding me, came up with this.
In a house you start from the top of a room and work down, well I ignored my holes in the roof and started on the floor because I’m just so excited to start!!! Continue reading I’ve got a floor to settle with you
The Van
I bought this van from a dealer who sells old police vans. It has windows in the back and structural tracking in the floor for extra seats. It’s got a roof vent with fan for ventilation. It’s short wheelbase so fits in a std size car parking space but medium height so I can uncomfortably stand and more importantly I can get a bike in the back easily. It’s front wheel drive so I keep max headroom in the back and also really powerful because it’s ex-plod and I refuse to be the slow camper crawling up a hill in wales.
Time to start a new adventure…
For a long time I have been thinking about my transport requirements and travelling. I love travelling by motorbike (can you tell?) day to day they are just better than cars but long distances by motorbike are pretty boring. Motorways are dull as dishwater and don’t do the bike any favours either in terms of mega miles on the clock. I’ve been all over europe on the Versys, my motorbike for the last 7 years. She’s a dear old lady now but I bought her new 47k miles ago. Continue reading Van-ishing Trick
