Category: Campervan
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One week in the Brecon Beacons
We’re almost 6 months into our conversion, and the van is still looking very van-like. However, we have some basic utilities in, and it seems like a good time to test them out. So we’ve headed to Wales, to the Brecon Beacons, looror a week-long holiday and alpha-test. A quick recap – what’s in: Plywood…
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2017-08-06: Bench bed and cladding test
We’ve been busy on various jobs since I last wrote, mostly trying to get some basic components built in prototype form for we can take the van on a short trip and test some things out. Almost every design/build problem in the van is a chicken and egg problem. And we tie ourselves in knots…
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Dometic Seitz Mini Heki Rooflight
This is a pretty simple rooflight, about 40cm x 40cm across. It does the job, but I can’t say I’m super impressed: it feels very flimsy, and only comes in a disgusting peachy cream caravan colour. It’s also the frontmost object mounted to the roof of our van, so will take the brunt of all…
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MaxxAir Maxxfan
Following the crowd on the this one. This is the fan that seems to be most frequently recommended, at least by American convertors. And none of the European ones look all that good. It’s well designed, surprisingly stealthy when closed, and seems pretty quiet on low settings. £290 from Rainbow Conversions.
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Crimping tool
These are used to crimp terminals onto wires for the 12V electrical system. The top tool with the yellow handles is the cheap version we bought first. It can be used to cut wire, strip insulation, and crimp terminals – but it does a bad job of all these tasks. So after struggling with this…
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Butyl tape
Has the consistency of chewing gum that hasn’t dried. Stays that way. Used it to gap fill between the bumps on the roof and the homemade plastic insert when trying to make a flat surface to mount the roof light and fan. £11 from LeisureLines.
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Sikaflex 512 Caravan sealant
This adhesive cures (unlike butyl tape) but stays flexible. Used to seal and stick the homemade plastic inserts to the roof under the roof light and fan. £9 from LeisureLines.
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Sika Lastomer 710
Butyl based sealant which stays sticky and flexible. Used to fix the roof light to the roof. Recommended by Dometic who made the roof light. £9 from LeisureLines.
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2017-07-09: Fitting roof light and fan
We fitted the fan and the roof light this weekend. Each job took a whole afternoon. I started with with the Maxxfan. I didn’t take many photos because the whole job was a bit stressy and I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I needed to concentrate. The Maxxfan is great – we were…
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12V Fusebox
We run all the power from the battery to this fusebox, which then gives us up to 12 circuits for all the van systems. This is a pretty solid fusebox, but one thing to note is that it has 2 separate 6-way positive buses. That’s a feature that some people need, but we don’t. So…
Andrew Sleigh 