Wednesday 9 November 2011

Update for November

We continue to make progress in our conversion though the cold and dark evenings tend to restrict much in the way of after-work tinkering.  As the weather was lovely last Sunday we had a drive out to Chatsworth House where we had our first proper van-brewed cuppa, and then on to Bakwell where Harvey had a good run around chasing birds.

Split charge system finished, tested and working.  The picture is of the fused supply at the starter battery end.
















Our combined sink, hob and grill is finally fitted!  It is a second hand unit purchased on eBay, we can't justify the £300+ prices for ther fancy new Smev jobs and specifically wanted one with a grill.  Building the aluminium grill housing from scratch and getting it to fit was a real pain.


The sink unit was originally fitted in a caravan and has a lip around the edge where it overlapped the caravan worktop, so in our installation it sits about 1cm higher than the work surface.  We put a lot of thought into how to overcome this obstacle.  The sink is fixed and screwed onto small battens that sit around the inside lip and which are themselves stuck and screwed down to the work surface, with a tile edging strip stuck down around the sink using Sikaflex.

The picture shows the gas supply pipe taped to the back of the cupboard, this is a temporary measure!  Also there is a 38mm gas drop-out hole drilled through the floor, which will eventually be covered by a small plastic grill cover, and on the right at floor level the leisure battery (110Ah Lucas sealed, deep cycle), self sensing split-charge relay, 12v isolator switch and mains battery charger.


Back to the sink/hob and grill combo.  I was quite concerned because the gas supply pipe sits inside the grill housing.  The unit was obviously built this way deliberately, so it is not a safety risk and having checked forums online it seems that it is quite a common setup.  As an additional safety measure and just to set my mind at rest I intend to rivet another piece of aluminium between it and the burners to deflect any heat from the supply pipe.  Gas connection was tested and adjusted and it does not leak however I will check it regularly for leaks until the gas installation is finished.



23mm waste which exits the van through another hole in the floor.






Finally the rear of the van taking shape.  Bed is panelled now but I think I will carpet it at some point.  Rear most cupboards will have sliding doors for ease of access when the bed is down.  Rear quarter shows a single mains socket, a switched voltmeter which indicates our leisure battery condition, and a 12v cigarette lighter socket.  Some trim and carpteting to be tidied up here and around the window.





That's all for now, next up we have begun to work on cupboard doors, the seat/bed upholstery is just about done and started to think about high level cupboard units and how to contstruct the headliner.