Saturday, 20 August 2011

Crew Seat, Temp Flooring and more Wiring...


The van's coming on really well now. So far I've got up and running:-
Hot & cold running water plumbed into kitchen & bathroom, electric flushing toilet, shower, gas grill and gas hob.
Mains hook-up with consumer for site electrics or garage connections. This is connected via a contactor that allows use of the same circuits for both Mains and Inverted power Sources. It automatically switches over when mains electric is connected via the external mains socket.
Microwave, Kettle, Toaster and Water Heater running off solar panel rigged to 2 x 140ah Leisure batteries and mains inverter.
3 way fridge running on 12v, 240v mains and gas.
Eberspacher Diesel Air Heater for the cabin, Flat Screen TV/DVD, 3x USB Charge Points (front, middle & rear)
Bluetooth iPod connected ICE with 6 way Kenwood speakers.
LED low energy lighting. (12v)
Halogen Lighting. (12v)
Blue LED mood lighting. (12v)
Extra Crew Seat with travelling for 4 (seatbelt restrained)





Plumbed in the gas yesterday, so was able to box in the appliances
and faced of the undersides of my fabricated units to neaten them off.


Managed to blag a piece of 'scragg-end' wood effect vinyl when I bought the grey stuff for the kitchen walls. Wasn't quite wide or long enough for a proper fit, but it does the job great until I can get round (and afford) to fit the proper finished stuff.

Still need to box off the overhead cab-locker storage area and design some sort of table/sleeping area at the front.
Starting to look the job now though.



Main Control Panel above for the cabin electrics. I rewired the switch for my power
inverter to work remotely on the panel. It also illuminates when on so it shouldn't
be left on inadvertently.




Control Panel for Galley










Friday, 19 August 2011

Kitchen & Shower Completed


Dropped lucky with the toilet hatch. Didn't hit any steel supports, but had
to fit it over a rebate in the van body. Used part of the cut out as an infil... 


The walls of the van are already well insulated, so I'm hoping we
won't be getting many issues with condensation etc.









Knocked up a narrow drawer above the fridge for cuttlery











Monday, 8 August 2011

Kitchen & Plumbing

Finished off the bed/seating area now, so have moved around to the other side where the kitchen is going to be.


Found the final location for the fridge, so was able to measure & mark the vents and flue.


Cut-outs made in floor to enable any leaking propane gas to fall out of the van
(LPG vapours being heavier than air)



 Connected up the mains too, so am now able to run fridge on mains electric, charge van batteries up during hours of darkness, as well as use power tools off the van's power sockets.
Solar Charger (black), Mains Charger (red) and Mains Consumer Unit



Shurflo Pump fixed in rear 'garage' area

The Shurflo pump is quite a powerful unit. As I had mounted it on the
bulkhead between the living area and the garage, I fixed it to a seperate board
and then sandwiched the board and screws between rubber-grommets
 to dampen vibration & noise.


This pump is a diaphragm type, which works on a pressure switch that is built in to it. When the taps are closed, the pressure builds up in the pipe and this operates a microswitch in the pump that switches off the power. When the taps are opened, pressure drops and the pump kicks back in from the microswitch.

Fitted 2 PC fans onto the vents to assist cooling.
'Inhale' at bottom & 'Exhale' at top.
These are connected to a thermal switch that kicks
in when the area behind the fridge becomes hot



Smev inset sink now fitted onto the worktop

Electric water heater is loose fitted under the sink. Power is fed via the neon switch next to the 2 gang plug.
Both of these are fed from the mains inverter connected to my batteries, or mains electric if on hook-up 


I decided to use the other cupboards that I removed, but needed to cut them down
to allow for the shower/toilet area


The doors & fittings will be taken off and the doors then faced
with the wood-effect fablon used on the other side



Faced off the new cupboards and used them to help support the housing for my microwave & gas grill


A bit of a dry run outing at Josh's football practice.
Managed to knock up a brew and chill in front of the telly for an hour!