Building a Campervan part 3

The kitchen units.

What a bloody job this stage has been, i bought a full sheet of light weight furniture board to make the units, 1 upper and one lower. This stuff is amazingly expensive, the best price i could get for one sheet was £115.00 and i had to drive 50 miles to collect it.

Anyway, once i had the board i set about designing the base unit and it soon became apparent that i would need 3 sheets, which the budget just would not allow.

After some consideration i decided to use the expensive board for the outer skin of the unit and the rest of it with 12mm exterior ply. The 12mm plywood is much more hard wearing and once painted black it will blend in just nicely.

The next problem was how to make the doors, Youtube provided the answer to this and i can highly recommend a series of video's i found which explain the important parts step by step.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X244qd2NhBg&t=518s

I bought a router for a good price, made a template and set about cutting the doors out of the main front panel. I had decided on three as i require one for the water, one for the Cooler and one for the gas bottle.

I made the template out of 6mm plywood as that is the material i have most of, this was my first mistake. My second mistake was buying a cheap router bit and my third mistake was using the template with a cheap router bit.

The plywood was just way too thin so the force required to guide the cheap router bit around the template caused the ply to bend and the router gradually veered off line, unfortunately i missed this as i was busy trying to breath through the dust that soon filled the garage.

This happend in several places and i have been forced into repairing the damage as best i can. To be honest only one of the repairs is easily visible and some work with a black marker will hide it reasonably well. In the end i used the jig saw to cut out the doors for the top unit. Much easier for an amateur and i achieved a much better result.

The doors have a plastic trim all around the edge which fits is a 2mm groove, this groove has to be cut with a router so i simply bolted the router under my work bench with the cutting tool (good quality this time) poking through a hole. It worked a treat.

Although a little difficult to fit, the plastic trim finishes off the edges perfectly and also allows for a certain level of inaccuracy in the router work. Luckily.

We bought a Smev 9222 sink unit with all the necessary fixtures and fitting, after a cup of Yorkshire tea and a good think, i set about fitting it. To my amazement i had it all done in a day. Fitting the sink unit, water system, cooler box and gas fittings.

The water containers, one for clean and one for waste, are only 10 litres as full they will weigh 10 kilo's. This is heavy enough when it is my partner Debbie who is most likely to fill or empty them. If they prove to be insufficient i will upgrade them to 20 litres or even add proper tanks under the van.

The gas compartment requires a drain through the floor in case of leaks and this was a sod as the floor is 2 inches thick, however i used some plastic pipe and angled it towards the back of the vehicle to ensure i don't get any road spray ingress. We will be using a 6.5 kg bottle as this will be sufficient for our needs but have yet to buy the bottle as it is £65.00 for the first instance with the £40.00 deposit included.

So, kitchen unit complete, now its time to finish the wiring, this is definitely my week area, i have little experience with any wiring and find the logic of it difficult to grasp, however i don't have any money left so i am going to spend some time reading about it and will have to work it out myself. It does mean removing much of the sink unit, however that will give me the opportunity to improve some of the area's that i feel i could have done better.

The "Fell bus" is getting close to use-able which is important, all of this hard work and money is for a reason. I have started training again and will need the Camper van (Fell bus) for all the weekends training next year. It has to be ready for early March 2017 when i start training properly for the coming season.

There are many challenges on the menu for next year, some of which i have been talking about for a few years but there are two which i would really like to complete. One is the Joss Naylor challenge. The other i will talk about if and when i get fit enough to consider it, i will have to be fitter than i have ever been and not just physically.

If you have been daft enough to read some of the rubbish on this blog you will have worked out that my mental fitness is the weak area, hence this will be the area i work on most.

Now, where is the book on Camper van wiring?

A room with a view

Its actually an office with a view.

The office where i work these days has a great view out across Burnley, Lancashire, England. (In case any non UK readers happen to stop by).

Worsthorne Moor and the Mary Townley loop, within spitting distance, where much of my running has been done in the past and hopefully in the future, we also have a nice grassed area outside the front of the office, all of which makes it idea for bringing Eska our dog to work each day.

As i type Eska is laid out on the office floor, exhausted from chasing her ball around in our lunch break. (Yes, a real lunch break). Eska is only 18 months old so much fitter than me, however that doesn't stop me from trying to beat her to the ball.

Our Campervan sits at home on the drive as i usually get a lift to Townley park in the mornings where Eska and i walk for a while before starting work. The route home is a little harder as this usually involves jogging up hill for 3 miles and then over the moors to home.

 I have yet to measure the whole route but in fair weather it usually takes us about 2 hours and 20 minutes, when i start training again i'm pretty sure i can get that well under 2 hours.

Currently i only run the whole route once a week and walk parts of it while waiting for my partner to pick me up along the way.

First things first, get well enough to train.

Building a campervan part 2

You wouldn't believe how much work there is in converting a van into a campervan, so far i would guess that it has taken 2 months of evenings and weekends and cost way too much.

The problem is very much one of familiarity, i have not converted a van to camper before so had very little idea about what was involved, obviously i knew it would need insulation and carpet lining, a bed and kitchen but i did not intend to do each job to such a high standard. There seems very little point in doing this unless i do it the best i can.

I bough 24 square metres of smoke coloured carpet and have since bought another 4 metres, add in the 36 cans of contact adhesive the cost is around £200.

When it came to the carpet lining i started with the ceiling and used one piece of carpet for the whole ceiling (as you would expect). The sides are covered in one piece again and i also covered the wheel arches with the same piece. This stretch carpet is the dogs bolloxs, although not a simple job it really isn't that hard and with a little thought and forward thinking the bigger sections where completed.

The hard part was all the little parts and joins, the C posts by the back door i had expected to be difficult but all went smoothly, i carpeted right up to the door seals. I also carpeted the wheel arch boxes on the inside as i figure this will reduce any rattles from stuff stored in there. 

The door panels are screwed on with the screws enclosed in plastic caps, i have done it this way so these panels can be removed to gain access if needed. It must be a nightmare for mechanics working on some of these campers.

Although i have carpeted way more than i needed, i do very much like the (nearly) finished job, the carpet starts half way across the B posts and ends at the door seals on the C posts.

Just behind the front passenger seats is the Rock and Roll bed, i travelled to Bridgend in South Wales to buy it,  although expensive the quality of the finish is very good. 

Its way too heavy for me to remove from the van on my own so i just keep shoving it out of the way and working around it. Eventually it will live near the rear doors.

The boxes around the wheel arches will be used for storage on one side and the other contains the leisure battery and any tools we may need to carry. Both boxed area's will also form extensions for the bed to make it full width.

Since taking this picture i have made carpeted panels for most the the white area's and boxed off the rear door check straps. Although the carpeting is almost complete there are still a couple of little jobs remaining, these need to have the kitchen units in place to finish and i still need to figure out how i'm going to make the door for the storage compartment above the bulkhead.

Next job, that will be making the kitchen units. That should be interesting - honest. :)

Building a campervan part 1

My long suffering partner and i have wanted a campervan for a few years but any within our budget are frankly shite. It seems to me that some people don't really understand what a campervan is supposed to be.

Our search in the usual places was fruitless and asking around trade contacts was no help, so after a few beers (sounds familiar), we decided that we would buy a suitable van and convert it ourselves.

The starting point was a suitable van and we bought a 2009 Vauxhall Movano 2.5 CDTi, it is a medium wheel base, medium height model so has enough room to build a full width bed and the roof height means the head clearance is perfect. These were the things which were of most importance to us, certainly where the rear space is concerned. As there is only Me, Debbie and Eska our dog we will only be fitting sleeping room for 2, Eska will be sharing with us.

We have set about doing it as best as we can, the first job was painting the floor, it had been used as a mobile wheel refurbishing unit and had several bolt holes through the floor which attract rust so i filled them in, removed any rust and painted the floor with Hammerite.

Next i glued batons to the floor, filled in between the batons with 1 inch insulation board and covered it all with 9mm ply. Gluing the batons in place meant no screws holes in the floor.

Next was ply lining the roof and sides of the van, this was a reel challenge and has taken many weeks of work. Of course i had to put any wiring in place first and insulate the whole thing. i have double insulated the roof and sides, first using 1 inch insulation board and then covering it all with self adhesive thermal foil bubble insulation. The ply lining was a sod as each board had to have a template made and many fittings to get it right, although the B and C posts were probably the most awkward. Now there is no bare metal in the back what so ever.

Once ply lined i was able to install the roof vent, now that is a scary job, there are no second chances here, it has to be right first time. I'm glad i had the sense to pay someone to install the side windows, i really didn't fancy that job myself.

So i have learned much recently, mostly that converting a van into campervan is a much bigger job the i had imagined, these sorts of things do tend to go that way. Also, the order of jobs has been hard to get right and i have fitted and removed the ply lining many times for various reasons

I suppose the next step will be the carpet lining, although we have most of the major components needed to finish the van, the Rock and Roll bed is still on order and we have to drive to Bridend in south Wales to collect it, a folding bed creates so much extra space and with seat belts fitted will allow us to carry upto 5 people, making it an excellent support vehicle for my running exploits.

Black dog

Burning Bridges

Some days are harder than others and looking back is never a good thing for me, if i was supposed to look back i would have eyes in the back of my head.

Many times i have been guilty of going back, however going back can be progress if it takes you where you want to be. So i have never been a fan of burning bridges, however there are times in your life when its clearly the best thing to do, it kind of stops you going back to something that, feels good because its comfortable, but soon turns out to be a mistake. 

Now the wording in the image is perhaps a little misleading, i would never want to see people hurt, either physically or physiologically, however metaphorically it works, because having those people on the bridge when it burns would exclude them from existence.

There are other ways to deal with things or people that are not good for you, a psychiatrist once told me to think about a person who may irritate or annoy me, either dress them up in a way that demeans them or put them in a situation that does the same, have a laugh to your self and whenever said person comes into your mind you will see them as ridiculous or amusing. This works but be warned, don't place anyone or anything in a nasty or evil situation as that can only harm one person, you.

My old friend John has a bad habit of seeing only the bad side of a situation and he often responds accordingly, unfortunately he may gain great satisfaction in the short term but looses out in the long term. He doesn't agree with my analyses here but from the outside looking in....... Perhaps an argument for another day. 

I often use a system of meditation that involves treating an issue or problem as a present, wrapping it up with a nice bow and giving back to the person who gave it to you. In my head it says thanks for your shit but, you can have it back.

So recently life has changed considerably, i left a situation which was doing me more harm than good and some months down the line i can look back and smile, it has not been easy, it has been life changing but it sure has been worth while.

We delude our selves when we focus on the negative.

Training Part 1

About this time last year a friend and I ran the new Cross Britain trail which starts in Barmouth Wales and ends in Boston Lincolnshire.

Even over 7 days 280 miles is a long run and the following months were filled with injury and exhaustion, I felt fit and strong but my running fitness was very poor and it soon became apparent that the rest of the year was a right off.

One of the injuries I suffered with was hip pain, every time I ran my hips hurt so bad that I couldn’t sleep at night, even walking was uncomfortable. Sitting in a soft office chair for any amount of time was impossible.

So after months of resting and rehabilitation I have started training again, although I remember how to do it, the act of training seems to be more of a challenge. I have become used to sitting on my now, very fat arse. When I bend over to touch my toes the first think to make contact is my tummy on my thighs!! Typing this makes me laugh as I’m drinking tea and dunking biscuits, lots of biscuits, listening to the rain on the conservatory roof and dreading the 8 mile cycle to work.

Work has been my saviour I suppose, the work is physically demanding and I usually work my arse off because that’s how I’m made, so although I have gained weight I have also gained core strength and become a little more agile. Although a physical job has helped with my fitness it does often mean that I’m quite tired by the weekend so pushing myself to train can be difficult.

My endurance has always been my strongest asset and having a physical job has helped to improve that, now I need to start putting it to good use and get back to training in the hills again.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Lake District and did leg one of the Bob Graham round, its only 12 miles with 5,000 ft of ascent but my quads were smashed by the time I arrived in Threlkeld. Although I did manage to keep to a 24hr pace and it reminded me why I run the fells, the Lake District is absolutely beautiful.

The route back to Keswick is a simple jog down the old railway lines, 4.5 miles of pleasant scenery and smiling walkers. Except the bridges have been either damaged or completely washed away by recent floods, which means wading through rivers and long diversions. TBH I had a good run and was satisfied with the days training.

Last weekend I went to the Peak District for a run with Chris R and a friend of his called Steve, the plan was to complete the Kinder Dozen in around 8 hours whilst attempting to enjoy ourselves. I checked on the LDWA web site which says the route is about 22 miles with 10,000 ft of ascent. So I loaded the GPX track on to my phone to make sure we didn’t go astray.

8.30 bank holiday Friday and we set off, the whole route was off the trails and into the rough, every bloody ascent and descent, except for the final descent. I’m sure the person who devised the route set out to punish people for being daft enough to go out there and do it. However despite this we had a great day out and finished in about 8 and a half hours. More of the same required.

The Peak District never ceases to amaze me, always delivering a good day out with some of the country’s most beautiful scenery, very different to the Lake District but no less dramatic.

So now I have my training underway I can start to plan for the year ahead and have entered my first long distance race for quite some time, the Lakes Mountain 42. Hopefully I am fit enough to complete the whole route and without a doubt, it will be good training.