Sunday 31 May 2015

Left-side support module

The first of the bed support modules is now completed. I covered the base platform with vehicle trim (affixed by glue and by stapler gun), then put two beech laminate furniture boards on top as the walls which would provide storage and would support the bed board on its top. This module can be placed onto the left folded rear seat, while the right part of the rear bench can still be used for seating passengers. This will allow a single bed being used with only that single rear seat being folded.





Thursday 28 May 2015

Inspection by the cat

The scruffy cat from the neighbors stopped by to inspect the car engine. Everything seems alright there.


Blinds

From Wilco I got 60cm wide silver horizontal blinds, to keep the light out and to create a bit of a stylish atmosphere. The blinds are currently up to 160cm long, but I can remove most of these blinds to shorten the vertical drop so that it just covers the window space.


Without the blinds.


With the blinds.

Monday 11 May 2015

Cargo Net in the roof

For additional lightweight but bulky items like bedding I added a stretchable cargo net. This can be removed if not needed. It will carry all the bed blankets, pillows, matresses.

Sunday 10 May 2015

The (future) bed

For the bed I bought 4 1200x600 mm MDF boards, cut them down to 900x600 mm, and connected two of each with a "piano hinge". This will be the foldable underlay of two beds which will be placed on top of the work top. Since this vehicle has the raised roof, it is not necessary to put the bed down very low, but instead the whole worktop structure can be used as a stable basis. These two beds (one on the left, one on the right) will also be able to be connected via a bridge board, so that the whole vehicle width can be utilised. This is a distinctive advantage over most campervan installations that I have seen - most use the 3/4 with for the Rock&Roll bed only, so that the width of such a bed usually is only about 90-110 cm. Mine will be able to cover the whole width of 140 cm - a nice double.


Monday 4 May 2015

Upgrade of the 12V electrics

When preparing the vertical auxiliary panel, I used the opportunity to re-wire the electric box which I had assembled. It had been too small to be closed, so I now used all that empty space in between the panels for laying out the wiring more generously, with better access. I also had bought a new volt/amp meter for the battery which would indicate if current goes into the battery (charging) or goes out. The previously used ampmeter only did show current that did come out of the battery. The new meter is installed in the grey box in the centre. I will still have to decide what to do with the now obsolete previous V/A meter.


I also got another solar controller, rated at 30A, which has a multifunction display and shows more information about the status of the voltages / currents. And I added two green LEDs which indicate the status of the split charge relay: one LED indicates it there is voltage from the front vehicle battery arriving at the split charge relay, and the other LED indicates if the split charge relay is connecting both batteries (when the engine is on and the alternator recharges both batteries).

Sunday 3 May 2015

A shelf and another vertical panel

Now it was time to finally hide all those cables of the 12V circuits which were spread on the work top above the refrigerator. The first step was to attach a shelf at the top of the side window. There was a mounting point which had originally been added as a part of the disabled-wheelchair seat belt - it was above the right rear side window and provided a strong mounting point. I got an 80cm long rounded shelf board from B&Q and cut it so that it did smoothly stretched from the rear panel to above the side window.


Then I prepared the final vertical panel, which would fit under that shelf, parallel to the rear panel.


And here is how the completed area looks:


I also had attached the carbon-monoxide detector and the smoke detector (on the top part of the rear panel). And, as can be seen in the above Photo, there is even a space for the coffee maker (it is attached to the work top so that it does not slide or falls).