Category: Stuff
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Dometic Waeco CRX-50 Fridge
This seems to be a pretty popular fridge for conversions. It’s a simple compressor fridge, not a 3-way fridge that can also be powered by gas, so it works much like a fridge you’d have in a house – only it’s 12V, instead of 240/120V. It’s basic, but it does have a nifty removable ice-box,…
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Vega LED ceiling lights
We’ve got 4 of these mounted along the centreline of the roof, each controlled with its own switch (as well as a master switch for the whole ceiling light circuit). They’re wired up, but hanging loose at the moment, as we don’t have the roof cladding in, but they look simple enough to fit, just…
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Lumo LED spotlights
We’re mounting 4 of these gooseneck 12V LED lamps on the walls of the van, to provide directed task light. I’m not 100% sure about the quality. One of them has a slightly wobbly plate around the LED, that I can’t figure out how to tighten up. But apart from that, them seem solid. £19…
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Comet submersible water pump
This is the lowest flow rate water pump we could find, but still claims to be 8-10 litres per minute. We don’t know exactly how water is going to work in the van yet – how much we’ll use stored water on tap. But we expect it to be minimal, and as the flow rate…
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Recycled plastic insulation
This is the third type of insulation we’re using in the van. The primary type is the rigid Celotex board. We’re using expanding foam around that to seal the gaps, and fill in some of the ribs. This loft insulation comes in a roll like the traditional glass-fibre insulation, and we’re using it in some…
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Sealey AK3984 Short-Arm Threaded Nut Riveter
If you’re using rivnuts, you need a tool to fit them. You can hack about with spanners, or buy a cheap tool, but I’ve found this one works well, with minimum frustration. Sealey do a similar tool with longer arms for larger rivnuts, but this should work fine for sizes up to M8. £30 from…
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Rivnuts
Rivnuts (AKA nutserts, and other names) are a type of ‘blind fastener’; that is, they can be fitted through a surface without access to the rear of that surface, unlike, say, a nut an bolt, where you need access to both sides to fit and tighten the nut. The van is full of such surfaces, in…
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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…
Andrew Sleigh 