Wow... Well over a year since my last post! I'm actually ashamed of myself for leaving this blog, and my van project, for so long. This past year and a half or so has been a real rollercoaster ride for me, lots of ups and lots of downs, but finally things are on the up again and I couldn't be more excited for the adventures that lie ahead with my van project! So, where to begin?! There's so much I need to tell you all to get you back up to date with everything! I'll only be skimming through a lot of things in this post, but in future posts I will go into a lot more detail about each subject, along with loads of juicy pictures to accompany them! Rock 'n' Roll BedI've had the Rock 'N' Roll bed in for well over a year now. I bought it from Cannon's Forge based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, which isn't far from where I live. I can't remember the exact price I paid at the time, but their website does list the current prices and all the option extras you can order along with it. My bed came with 2 x 3 point seat belts, meaning I can have 2 extra passengers in the back. This comes in really handy even if there are only a couple of passengers, as cramming 2 'larger' people onto the front bench seat can be a rather tight fit. I had my bed upholstered by Cannon's Forge too. I chose to have a black patterned hard wearing fabric (which I believe to be a Mercedes fabric but I may be wrong) and black leatherette. I'm really happy with the look and feel of the bed, and it does feel extremely well put together and solid. I also opted for the memory foam and I couldn't recommend it enough! It's unbelievably comfortable, much better than the bed I have at home, and well worth the money. All their beds come with free fitting. Mine is bolted to the underside of the van, and can easily be removed and refitted in about 2 minutes with 4 bolts. Fitting The CupboardsNow on to the most daunting and difficult tasks, fitting the cupboards! I bought a set of premade plain MDF cupboards from Majestic Camper Supplies on eBay for £249.99. Delivery was extremely quick and even though they came without instructions, it wasn't too difficult to work out how to put them together! The exact cupboards I bought can be found here, and below is a picture of it from their eBay listing. All I had to do was build the cupboards and fit them against the van's ply wall, which is a lot easier said than done! I test built them soon after they arrived, and without the bed fitted to give me more room to play about. They were extremely simple to build and fit together really well. I then took them down, put them in my garage, refit the bed and forgot about them for about 6 months. That was until one of my best friends and his brother (who is a joiner by trade) offered to help me permanently fit them last week, and below is how they turned out. As you can see, for the first time in this whole project, it finally looks like a campervan! You might also notice from these photos that the cupboards still need the doors fitting, the ceiling still needs finishing and they're looking very bland and boring. But that will all change in the very near future! If you're wondering what the black duct tape is around the wardrobe and fridge panels are, it's there because them 2 parts are currently being held together with Wood Gorilla Glue, and I've bodged it together temporarily with tape! I was dragged into fetching some fence panels for my back garden at home by my Dad, during the time I had the cupboards in the back for test fitting. As I had no way of securing the fence panels, I went around a sharp bend at a junction (slowly I may add), and the fence panels slid into the cupboards, snapping those parts. This really disheartened and demoralised me, which is a reason (or excuse) as to why it's taken so long to get everything sorted! Split Charge SystemAlong with the Rock 'n' Roll bed, the split charging system I have in the van has been fitted for quite some time, but it's now tidily fitted inside the cupboards. I opted for the Durite Split Charge Kit. It's a very good price and a decent bit of kit, extremely simple to install and get working instantly. Basically, for those that don't know what this bit of kit does, this charges my Leisure Battery using my van's alternator and takes power from the van's battery. I can now run my van electrics off my leisure battery, and if it was to run out of power my van can still be started, which will then start recharging my leisure battery again. My van battery is under the passengers floor matt in the cab, so I ran the cable through a hole next to the battery to underneath the van (using a rubber surround to stop water getting through) and then into the rear of the van by going under the drivers seat. I will get loads of photos showing how I did this in a future post, and I will go into a lot more detail about all the products I bought and fitted. New Vinyl FloorI had to fit a new vinyl floor to the van because the one I originally put in was rubbish. It got damaged very easily. Even leaving a small tool box on the floor, and not a very heavy one at that, left holes in it. The last straw was when my friend put the bed down and the legs brushed against the vinyl, totally ripping a huge chunk out of it. It wasn't his fault, it was definitely going to happen at some point! I went rummaging around online for a hard wearing vinyl and come across this on eBay. I went for one of the sparkle glittery options (the Black - Nightsky). The floor is now totally transformed. The vinyl is very hard wearing and even when I was knocking my cupboards up it didn't leave a single mark or scratch on it. I highly recommend this vinyl! Remapping The VanNot long after getting the van I took it to one of my friend's garages, 'SR Automotive', to have it remapped. He is a Viezu Approved Dealer. I will post up more details of the remap very soon, but it gave me ~15% better fuel economy, ~30 bhp and more torque. I can definitely feel the difference in the way the van drives, it feels a lot more responsive than before and I'm getting ridiculous MPG. What's Coming Up?I know this is quite a long post, I have tried to keep it as basic as possible just to get you up to date with everything without boring you too much, but I will quickly go through a few things coming very soon!
And the most exciting thing of all is coming this coming weekend...CAMPING! I will be starting a new series of posts, titled 'The Adventures of Chunder and Chode' (all will be explained soon), which will follow me and my girlfriend on our camping adventures around the UK and Europe. This weekend we are planning on going to Scarborough, so keep checking back for more! Expect loads of photos! And Finally...Because this blog has been very inactive recently and I almost totally forgot about it, I ended up spending ages trying to recover all the accounts I use for it (I have a really bad memory and usernames/ passwords escape me on a regular basis). Over the next couple of days I'll be logging into my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube and bringing all of it up to date and back in line with the blog.
Thank you very much for reading!
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AuthorHey guys I'm Billy, a lorry driver from the UK. Join me throughout my various travels and projects. Archives
August 2017
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