Diary Of A Camper Conversion
Having settled on the position and orientation of the main tank, I could start connecting up pipes. In the process of figuring out its position I did start cutting and connecting pipes yesterday, but having changed my mind, they will need re-doing. Luckily the pipes I already cut are only short, and I need to order 1 more length of hose anyway due to the length of my system.
Putting the pipes together was easy. I’ve got a handy dandy pipe cutter that made it easy to get the lengths right and then I used my favourite pliers (every mechanic has them) to squeeze open the spring clamp and slide it over the pipe and connectors. I tired to get all the spring clamps rotated so accessing them in future is convenient if repairs / modifications are needed. Its easy to access now without all the other things in there so I’m trying to make it easy to get to in future if needed.
Time for some more holes in the van. I’m over my fear of it now I’ve got one hole in there and can use it as location reference. But the number of holes in the floor of the van is getting alarming. The blower box needs 4 pipes feeding it; the hot water flow and return, and the air conditioning flow high and low pressure pipes.
The hot water pipes run internally to the adjacent cabinet with the tank, thats easy. But the air conditioning will have some equally large pipes that need to run to the compressor and radiator. One of these on the back of the blower box points straight down and so this requires another hole in the floor.
Then we need a hole so the blower box can actually blow air into the van. I’ll be putting a vent in the side of the cabinet so internal air can be heated and recirculated, but I’d like the option to draw in fresh air from outside. So directly beneath the blower fans there is now another hole. This will just have to stay a hole for now, but I’ve found a 12v operated butterfly vent valve that can be installed here. It will mean I can choose between recirculating the internal air and drawing in air from outside. I’m quite overly excited about this upgrade in future. but till then I’ll probably have to plug the hole to keep it warm inside.
All of a sudden a very exciting development occoured. A deliveryman dropped off a big parcel containing my skylight blinds! These had to be custom made to fit my odd sized windows, but are REALLY NICE. The install is literally just screwing them into place, but first i needed to finish carpeting the inside of the skylight wells. This took a bit of spray glue and time to stretch and pull the carpet into position. I took extra care around the window over the bed, because I know I’ll looking directly up at that one and any misalignment or scrappy bit would annoy the hell out of me. But now they are in and its possible to make the whole living area dark!
Well… except the huge open access to the cab and front windows. That is yet to be done, but I have a plan for closing that space off.