PRAGUE!

we recently spent two days in Prague with the campervan, which was a lovely place to visit, i just wish we had more time. we stayed in a campsite called sunny camp, which was a ten minute walk from the subway system, we caught the train into the city which cost about 50p and took 20 minutes delivering us right into the heart of the action! the city is so small once we got in we could walk around everywhere and have a look. its full of old gothic buildings, art deco interiors, and beautiful stone carved facias.
it was very hot (around 30 degrees) and our little coolbox fridge didnt stay too cold, so when i return home i plan to buy a two or three way fridge.

we also drove out to kutna hora to visit the bone church, sedlic ossuary, got some great photos but its an eerie place!

sailing the irish sea!

so we took the van over to ireland for a week, the good thing about ireland is there are no laws for campervans so you can park anywhere as long as there are no signs, ( we are always respectful of our environment and leave no trace we have ever been there) so far we have founds lots of parking places and small laybys along the coast by the sea, we got the ferry to Dublin then drove up to Donegal, beautiful countryside and coastline, lots of campsites as well if you don't like free camping, however the best views are from free camping by the sea!

heres a view i had this morning

germany

so we have spent the last month on the road in the van, it is holding up very well except for the zig which blew up, so we returned home and bought a new one, it was the first time we hooked up at a campsite and it kept tripping then the zig stopped working, it was second hand from ebay so i bought a brand new one, this also allowed us a few days to add some more bits, its still not 100% finished but it is in a very livable standard, the shower works great and we can each have a 2 minute shower, gas is still fine have been using the 13kg for cooking and for the water heater everyday an it hasn't run out yet which i am amazed at, heres a couple of pics from germany, so far we have been parking in service stations and parking stops for free every night, and been able to fill up our water tanks each evening.

warming ya cockles

well i had to cough up an expense i didnt account for, and that was a heater, it has been so cold i decided we had to get one and nobby from the sbmcc forum kindly donated a carver heater for the project as he didnt need it for his build, sadly once we got everything in we just couldnt fit it in, the space we thought we could get it into was just to close to the bed, so i trawled ebay and managed to get a propex heater with all the bits for £295, a lot cheaper then a new one and i will no doubt be glad of it in europe. we fit it at the end of the seat/bed box and will have a vent and grill through the front of it

the carver heater, just to damn big!

 the propex heater

cutting (door) corners

so it has been an really annoying week, we got all the 12 volt electrics going through the zig and now the shower is all one thought we would start with getting that working, and straight off the bat the shurflo pump wasn't working, it wa pumping but no water was coming through, i put this up on the sbmcc forum and eventually got some good advice (thanks nobby) what we eventually did was take my whale pump and attatch it to the end of the shurflo hose in the water tank, we then ran both the pumps, the whale ran the water through the shurflo got all the air out and got it running! i got some trim for around the door from b&q its plastic in a u shape and its 12mil thick so fits around the 9mm wood, carpet and lino on the walls.

dad also did all the gas work and the gas drop out vents, these need to be in any cupboard or space there is a gas connection, so there is one under the sink with the gas bottles and the gas manifold, one in the bedbox where the heater is and one on the cupboard where the water heater is. the little grills used to cover the holes were from tool station and a steal at 25p each. dad also taught me a neat trick if you want to check if your newly installed gas connections are leaking, mix some fairy liquid with water and put some on the connections with a brush, if the fairy liquid bubbles up its leaking!

gas drop out vent inside the van

 gas drop out vent outside underneath the van

 the gas manifold

dad then spent the afternoon tidying up the wiring and electrics we bought so socket boxs from b&q and put plain flat fronts on them so we could put all the connections inside around 90p each box

i spent the afternoon making doors for the cupboards, i just made these out of mdf, we then gave them 3 coats of kitchen/bathroom paint from b&q (the missus chose purple its subtle and goes with the grey). firstly we had to make a template so they were all the same, for this we used the corners of an icecream tub, drew around then cut them out. the bigger doors over the front seats we have to measure and make out own template for the corners, once they were painted we put the handles on, and screwed on the hinges and catches for the bottom to keep them shut whilst driving.

the template for the corners

 cutting the corners

 the finished product

 the doors over the cab

holy sheet!

well things thundered along today, the overhead storage cabinets were boxed in yesterday so today we  cut all the doors into then and then carpeted the whole lot, i also carpeted the wall and around the window which dad boxed in, my brother also put in a light which runs off the main hook.

i also went to get a splash back which you can see abouve the cooker, its stainless steel metal and was cut to size and profiled to fit around the back door, i got it from a family friend at Camberley Precision Sheet Metal, they did and awesome job and it wasn't too expensive, if you need some sheet metal i'd give them a call their on Bridge Road in camberley.

the shower holder was also screwed into place and the shower head and cord put into place

Dad worked on getting the water pump and water tank into place and hooked up with the water heater, he then boxed it all in as we are having a wardrobe above it

waterworks

The shower has now been sealed, all thats left to do is attach the shower head, and connect it to the mixer tap, i bought it online and it has a microswitch in it, its specially designed for motorhomes and cost about £35, the shower head kit i got in wilkinsons for £7

 Micro switched mixer tap

 rear of the micro switched mixer tap

so as mentioned before we decided two have two seperate water tank, one for the sink and one for the shower/water heater, there were a few reasons for this, firstly the sink and shower are on opposite sides of the van, having two tanks will spread the weight evenly. we won't have to run any pipes underneath the floor, and if we need hot water for washing up we can just boil a kettle i didnt see the point in firing up the water heater fto to the washing up its a waste of gas to heat 9 litres when we will probably only be using 2 or 3.

fiamma 21litre roller water tank, will be boxed in and should lay underneath the water heater, i have a shurflo water pump for use with this.

 the 20 litre water tank underneath the sink, i have bought a small whale submersable pump for use with this one, the sink tap also has a microswitch in it

 how the rear of the van is currently looking

freezin me jacobs off!

well the weather certainly is bloody cold at the moment, currently -9 so we have been putting an electric heater in the van 24 hours so its warm when we work in it but also overnight so all the glue and sealants have a chance to work and set properly.

last week dad fitted the henry ge water heater, i forgot to add pictures so here they are, he made a template marked it out then cut the hole with a jigsaw, had a discussion on the sbmcc forum about water heaters, i was going to get the malaga but it was £50 more expensive, so went for the henry on the plus side it is lighter and slightly smaller, this was fitted at the back of the van next to the shower, and managed to get it only for £309 including delivery.

Saturday was full on, last week my brother did his final exams at the end of his electricians apprentiship and is now a qualified electrician, so i managed to convince him to give up his saturday morning and install the mains hook up, consumer unit and sockets which he kindly did. it is still -9 degrees luckily plenty of tea and bacon sausage butties kept the troops going.

 wiring a socket in for the water heater

 the outside electric hookup, sits flush with the side of the van then pops out to plug in

 rear of the ehu inside the van, the wire comes in and goes into the consumer unit

 socket's installed by the seat/bed

we also finished the lino in the shower, i will get pictures added soon, we started to box in the water heater but decided to go get a water tank first to makesure we could fit it all in, i got a fiamma 40l but it was about half an inch to bit to slide in the gap, so i went back and got a 23l one which will slide in underneath the water heater. i decided on a seperate tank for the sink/cooker which is another 22l so in total we have 45 litres of water, with the weight evenly spread across the van.

cushion for the pushin!

My cushions arrived today! these ended up being a far bigger expense then i expected, but a good nights sleep is important and we will be sitting on them in the living area aswell so a decent foam and hard wearing upholstery was something we just needed to stretch the cash for. They came to a total of £325 including delivery from ebay. they were custom made to the measurements i sent, i did a lot of shopping around and this was the cheapest i could find

we also ordered some vinyl graphics from ebay, which were £25, they weren't as big as expected so we ended up cutting them and using part for the back and a small bit to go over the front wheel arches. With the current weather fitting them was a bit of a pain but their on now.