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| ChrisCSL Member Since: 10 Aug 2019 Location: Berks Posts: 186   
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Amazing save. You're a hero
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1st Apr 2021 12:56pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153 
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Wow, thanks everyone. I appreciate all the encouragement. I don't want to admit how much time I've spent browsing other camper builds on this site
 I'll definitely keep the thread updated as things progress. Next task for me is going to be soundproofing and thermal insulation.
Carriages Auto Services are based in Manchester and did the work for me up to this point including supplying all of the bodywork.
 Yes it is. I wanted a LHD because I'm hoping to do a few European trips and then work my way up to the first big trip driving to Seoul. I'd like to take on the pan-american route at some point in the future too. It'll just be easier to sit on the "correct" side for those journeys. It's hard getting used to it though - I keep instinctively grabbing the door instead of the gear stick. |
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2nd Apr 2021 10:54am |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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I've spent the last few weekends tackling an important issue - making the noise manageable.
I accidentally bought too much silent coat so I went to town and covered everything in it. I used 2mm for most of the back, 3mm on the wheel box and roof (except a little bit where I ran out) then 4mm for the seat boxes and footwells.  Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I added 6mm closed cell foam to keep some heat in. I'll see how that does but I've purposely left space to add some wool insulation if the foam isn't enough. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I haven't done the floor yet because I couldn't decide if foam was a good solution there. It's probably the most likely place to get water trapped so at the minute I'm thinking of a thin rubber sheet, ply on top and then add a finishing layer of nicer wood down the line. Click image to enlarge Next plan is sorting the floor then ply lining the roof and walls. |
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18th Apr 2021 7:56pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10742 
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Great amount of work done there, should do the job
 1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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19th Apr 2021 8:08pm |
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| glpinxit Member Since: 31 Jul 2010 Location: rural Somerset Posts: 156
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Rather than closed-cell foam on the floor and wheel-boxes you might want to consider using Mass Loaded Vinyl. Foam will insulate thermally but adds little sound insulation. When I sound proofed mine before carpeting it I stuck MLV over the butyl (silent coat equivalent) anywhere that might carry a load and am very happy with the results (I used Dodo Mat from eBay). Cheers, Guy. |
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13th May 2021 2:33pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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Well after a bit of work on the camper things slowed down a lot so I haven't posted any updates in a while.
Once the soundproofing was finished I booked a week off work and a campsite in the lake district as a motivator for me to get the fridge and sleeping arrangements sorted. Unfortunately I didn't really get the time, so I had to come up with an alternative solution. Click image to enlarge It was a great week away and I learnt a lot about where I would naturally prefer to cook, sit during the evening, etc and that was really the main purpose of doing it. Click image to enlarge One of the other things I realised during that trip was that it's extremely boring not having any decent audio on a long drive, so I bought myself an upgrade. Click image to enlarge When I started looking at the wiring behind the dash it was a bit of a mess so it all had to come out and get sorted. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I tried a few different layouts using cardboard so I could get a feel for whether they would work. It seems like the most common one to go for is the galley style with a bench one side and drawers/kitchen on the other. Then unfold the bench into a bed to sleep on. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I couldn't get along with that in the end though. There wasn't enough room to stretch my legs so they started aching after not very long, plus having the big kitchen unit directly in front didn't make it feel like a very relaxing place to be. After many, many different combinations I finally settled on this one. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The front seats would have to be tilted forward every time but having a bench behind them to sit on gave much more leg room and felt a lot more open. The kitchen at the back would let me cook inside or outside and a lot of space was left over for storage. And then I pretty much parked the camper up for almost a year. Not intentionally but I just never seemed to get any more time to work on it. Things got busy at work, I started a couple of other projects etc. Until last week when decided not to put this off any longer, handed in my notice at work and booked a ferry for the middle of May. Deadline now looming I started with what I thought would be the easiest part - putting the bench together. In my mind I wanted a nice oak frame with some kind of softwood inlay that would also be drawer fronts, then a padded cushion and backboard. Unfortunately my woodworking skills are non-existent so it didn't really turn out anything like that. At first I tried to make these fancy mitre joints and then since the wood batons I was using weren't long enough, I joined them together with a half lap. Click image to enlarge Soon I realised doing a 3-way mitre wasn't going to be able to take the weight of me sitting on it, so I changed those for a tongue and groove with a pine dowel inserted (mostly for aesthetics). Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Since I'd reused the wood from the first attempt I had to join it in the middle of the beams and I ended up with the same lack of strength issue as before. I spent about 4 weeks on those two attempts and with only about 75 days left to finish the entire thing, I ended up just using metal L brackets to join it all together. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge When planning out the electric requirements I was informed that the camper absolutely MUST be able to run a hair dryer and straighteners, so I ended up choosing a 3kw inverter/charger and 460ah lifepo battery. I don't want to carry any big gas bottles (or deal with having to refill them) so I'm planning on using an induction cooker which makes me feel a bit better about what seems like massive overkill on the electrics. I ran the camper as a daily driver with this frame in place so I could see if it worked, but it didn't. The driver seat doesn't recline as much as I would like or roll back far enough so I ended up hunched over and too close to the pedals. After all of that effort I ended up just making a plywood enclosure. Click image to enlarge Which is pretty much how things stand right now. I am hoping to have the electrics all in place and wired up by the end of next week and then I can move on to creating the benches and some storage space. |
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10th Mar 2023 1:06am |
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| diesel_jim Member Since: 13 Oct 2008 Location: hiding Posts: 6092 
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nice work there.
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10th Mar 2023 5:33am |
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| steveww Member Since: 05 Jan 2022 Location: Uppingham Posts: 567 
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Don't tell my wife that you can have a hairdryer while camping!
Nice work, keep on with the build and sharing status updates. |
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10th Mar 2023 12:19pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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I was thinking for a while on whether to go with a pop roof or a roof tent. At some point I'm sure we'll go with a pop roof but for now it makes more sense for us to go with the tent. I'd also been thinking on a roll cage, which I finally decided on after Henry's little mishap.
The past couple of weekends I spent mostly stressed out about whether I was cutting holes in the right places. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge And then I had a well earned break Click image to enlarge No updates on the hair dryer situation just yet. I'm still in the process of getting the inverter wired up. |
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2nd Apr 2023 10:16pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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Back to the electronics side lately and I've made some decent progress with it all.
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge On the roof is a 175w Renogy solar panel. I initially bought 2 of these when I was going to have a pop top but with the roof tent now there is only space for one. I could fit the second and lose some other roof storage but I decided to see if one panel is enough for now. Click image to enlarge The panel leads in through the roof, down the B pillar and through the breaker on the left. Next to that is the main battery cable going through a 300a fuse and then an isolation switch. The smaller switch cuts the connection between the main and leisure batteries for the DC-DC charger. I wanted all of the switches easily accessible on the outside of the box in case of emergency, although I am planning to make a cover so they can't get knocked accidentally. Click image to enlarge In front of the battery is the DC-DC on the left and MPPT on the right. Both of these just take input from different charging sources and send it to the distribution block. MPPT for solar and DC-DC for alternator charging. I made a mistake with the DC-DC as it gets very hot and I haven't left it with enough ventilation space. I could relocate it to under the passenger seat as that's empty right now but even then I felt like it wouldn't be enough. In this particular unit there is a bridge which can be removed to put the unit into a disabled mode for maintenance so I've tapped into that with a dashboard switch which lets me turn it on and off while driving. I will open the lid of the electronics box while the device is operational to let the hot air out and with the dashboard switch I can more easily turn it off as soon as the battery is full. Click image to enlarge On the other end is the shunt that monitors how much power is flowing in and out so I can get an idea how much capacity is left, then the distribution block that joins everything together. I went with a Lynx Distributor because it has lights that can show if a fuse has blown, but I later found out this is powered by a 5v output from a different Victron device (BMV-712) which I don't have. It's possible to splice the connector cable and supply 5v to get the lights working but it's not high on the priority list right now. Click image to enlarge The last major piece is the Multiplus-II Inverter/Charger. I have one power socket wired up to this for the time being just to test out if it works but will eventually have one dedicated socket for the induction hob and 2 others for anything else - laptop charger, camera charger etc. I still need to find a good place to mount it but there is a campsite power hookup also wired to the multiplus. This will hopefully let us connect to campsite electrics and keep the battery charged up if we need it. Click image to enlarge On the other end of the box, again on the outside for easy access, I have all the fuses and breakers. For mains power I've got the main breaker and then a 16a RCBO with space for a second if I ever need it. For 12v I've just got 2 fuse panels joined up. Click image to enlarge Not very visible in the pictures but tucked away in the corner is a Cerbo GX. Initially I was going to use a BMV-712 as it looks more rugged and I only need a simple overview but after discussing with someone from Roamer who built the battery, they talked me into the Cerbo. The two major advantages are that Roamer could remotely access the whole system and troubleshoot for me if I had issues (they also programmed the multiplus remotely with their battery settings) and I can channel my inner nerd and see everything on VRM. It also has this fancy touchscreen with an overview which I'm not sure where to mount yet. The Cerbo has a couple of relays that can be enabled based on temperature reading so I've put the sensor near the DC-DC charger and picked up 2 computer fans that I can set to automatically turn on if the unit gets too hot. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The main part left to do now is wire in the sockets. Most of the devices will be 12v so I've got some USB and Hella sockets to wire up to the 12v fuse board and then the 3 mains sockets for other appliances. Before I can do that I need to build the benches and kitchen though. With 15 days until we leave I would really prefer to be further ahead than this. Click image to enlarge Unfortunately some time was lost after we took a trip to the Lake District to test out the roof tent. On the way home I saw the temperature gauge shoot up and once I got out I could see we'd lost all of the coolant. The water pump gasket had failed but fortunately I had a 10l water canister we had used for the camp trip so I managed to limp between service stations to keep topping up and we slowly got through the 100 mile journey back home. Changed the water pump gasket and P-gasket over the following weekend and enjoyed almost 2 full days without issues until the fuel injector return pipe split. Losing time from the interior build was annoying but in the end I'm just happy these issues came up now, as if they lasted a few more weeks we would have already set off. I've done another 300 miles over the bank holiday without any problems so that's put my mind at ease for now and I can concentrate on figuring out how to do the plumbing... |
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2nd May 2023 9:48am |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10742
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Great progress in all area's of the build and as you said, it's better to happen in the UK than overseas
1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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17th May 2023 10:15pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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Thanks Clayton. I'm definitely glad we got some issues out of the way before setting off. I'd like to at least make it to the first country before we have a breakdown
Speaking of which, we had another fuel leak a few days after fixing the first. So far no other issues though so I'm feeling a lot better about setting off now. We should have headed down to Dover for the ferry on the 17th but I ended up pushing it back a little. We just weren't quite ready and it didn't make sense to go in the state the camper was in. Our new date for the ferry is 1st of June so we currently have 8 days to get everything finished. To start getting everything checked off we started from an empty back. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The side benches went in and are secured to the top of the wheel box. These have hinges which allow access to a storage compartment on the floor. Click image to enlarge To make the storage compartment work we added the sides in and secured them to the floor. The kitchen cabinets also made it in at this point as they need wiring to run through them on the right and all the plumbing to be added on the left. Click image to enlarge Last we added the backboards so that we knew our dimensions for ordering seating foam. These will be secured but are currently loose. Click image to enlarge Finally, we got the foam so we can see how it will look when it's completed. Click image to enlarge Currently we're about half done with upholstering everything. There's some more storage to make on top of the electrics box and then the walls and roof to clad. I have no idea how I'm going to do the walls and roof yet, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. One other little external job, I fitted a steering guard for a bit of extra peace of mind. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge |
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24th May 2023 8:31pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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Well the final day for working on the camper arrived and this is where we got to.
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge We didn't get time to finish the ceiling or walls but everything else got done. I even made a little decked area on the roof. Click image to enlarge Then we set off to get the ferry to Calais. So far we've been through Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, now we're on our way to Denmark. Some highlights so far were Autoworld, the Atomium, Wunderland Kalkar and Miniatur Wonderland. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge |
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5th Jun 2023 11:49am |
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| TexasRover Member Since: 24 Nov 2022 Location: Paris Posts: 1050  
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Yes you tripled the value (once exported) |
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5th Jun 2023 12:46pm |
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