Finally making a start on my camper conversion

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tricky these things are to sort i know i allways have to get ideas from others builds ,i suppose if its boxed in air tightly and insulated and open to the outside you be allright ,not like your going to sleep with it running,will be interesting to see your finished set up ,keep the pictures coming :):)
 
jamesmartin said:
tricky these things are to sort i know i allways have to get ideas from others builds ,i suppose if its boxed in air tightly and insulated and open to the outside you be allright ,not like your going to sleep with it running,will be interesting to see your finished set up ,keep the pictures coming :):)
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No, I wouldn't be sleeping with it running, I have an Eberspacher for that and even that doesn't get used unless temperatures are down to below 0°c or colder as my sleeping bags are very good.

When I first got the genny, I used to transport it in the back of a Transit. But the fuel cap has a breather and petrol could slosh out when on the move, not a lot, but enough to make a smell, also as internal temperatures went up, the fumes in the tank would expand and you started smelling it. This was why my camping gear got relegated to a small trailer. Then when I finished work, I just had to hook up the trailer and I was on my way within minutes. I only ever had to stop to top up my water supply at a fresh spring I know.

This practice worked well but when I went from kayaks to inflatable RIB's, I couldn't pull both trailers. This is why it has taken me so long to get started on my conversion because I couldn't make up my mind whether to get rid of genny (I bought it new and it's probably not even used a full tank of fuel yet) and I am loath to part with it. I really want it in the Landy as I live in a block of flats and many times I have used it for doing DIY up in the hills. It can run all my power tools with the exception of my Plasma cutter and (probably) my welder, I've never tried that yet.

It's a bit crazy, I know, but it's one of those things that has gotten into my head that I want to do and I will do it even if it doesn't turn out to be as practical I hope it will. At least then I can say I tried, even if it's an epic fail.
 
Clanforbes said:
That is impressive ... waaaay too posh for me though. I'm going much more basic than that.

Today's efforts were minimal...

I have my daughter staying with me for a few days as she is having a new bathroom suite fitted. So today's jobs were mostly small odds and sods to be done in preparation for other stuff, a bit of a lazy/sleepy day for me.

Though, I did get around to cutting another hole in my other wheel arch for extra storage ... No pics yet, but should get some tomorrow and I'll update it then. As I hope to be a bit more productive then. My Rad Haz will probably go in tomorrow and maybe the start of the flooring.
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I am at the start of converting my 110 hardtop to camper, I used to have a proper camper for years, (for my fishing expeditions) then I decided I would need a 4x4 camper, so bought my 110.
The pictures of the 110 above was for sale on Ebay over a year ago, I think it was 12k.
It is also the sort of idea that I want to go with although, I will only go up half way with the cupboards,not to the roof, calm the colours down a tad, and also I don't fancy the tiles.
I have just put a pair of tinted Masai sliding windows in, and have taken photo's doing that,and will do a sort of build thread when I have done a bit more, as it will be more interesting then.
By the way have you looked at the lockers the utility hard tops have where rather than cut the inside wheel arches up you fit a box and there is a door on the outside, the locker is the size of 2 5 gallon jerry cans
I don't know if you have seen this link I posted on another thread on camper conversions, it is where the photo's above came from.
land rover camper - Photobucket
Groups
 
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Ham Salad said:
I am at the start of converting my 110 hardtop to camper, I used to have a proper camper for years, (for my fishing expeditions) then I decided I would need a 4x4 camper, so bought my 110.
The pictures of the 110 above was for sale on Ebay over a year ago, I think it was 12k.
It is also the sort of idea that I want to go with although, I will only go up half way with the cupboards,not to the roof, calm the colours down a tad, and also I don't fancy the tiles.
I have just put a pair of tinted Masai sliding windows in, and have taken photo's doing that,and will do a sort of build thread when I have done a bit more, as it will be more interesting then.
By the way have you looked at the lockers the utility hard tops have where rather than cut the inside wheel arches up you fit a box and there is a door on the outside, the locker is the size of 2 5 gallon jerry cans
I don't know if you have seen this link I posted on another thread on camper conversions, it is where the photo's above came from.
land rover camper - Photobucket
Groups
Click to expand...

Hi Ham,

Thanks for your comments. I have had a look at the photo's you have and I must admit there are some impressive conversions there. I will not be going anywhere near that level of poshosity as I'm a rough and ready sort of character. I did consider the outside lockers, but I preferred the anonimity of nothing external showing what might be inside.

All I'm looking for is a reasonably well insulated area with a base to sleep on and a few basic amenities, like the ability to boil a kettle or heat some food. I don't want to spend a lot of money on it and as I already had the genny I decided to put it back into service instead of leaving it sitting idle in my garage collecting dust and spiders.

Once I throw in some floor covering and a Rad Haz kit I'll be planning a very basic sleeping platform and that will be about it. I use my landy for fishing trips and a few days away now and then, I don't go away to sit about in it so the comfort level isn't important to me beyond being able to get a good, warm, dry sleep, I'm looking for functionality rather than luxury.
 
hi m8

love the build pics -even the mrs was impressed and she's never interested!?

when you say;

Fourthly, the exhaust is to be vented through the floor to the outside world.

i work with lightweight generators and landrovers and have to say, venting through the floor may be a bad idea.

at the very least you need to vent to atmosphere through the roof as the fumes will hang under the vehicle for some time even after the genny is switched off, and will permiate upward -venting through the roof will allow the wind do disperse the fumes much quicker.

though if your set on venting under your vehicle, fit a lengthy exhaust extension (the type the army get with the wolf can be found on ebay)

the boxed in idea is pretty clever too -are you going to fit an air inlet through the bulkhead?
 
deaftonewonder said:
hi m8

love the build pics -even the mrs was impressed and she's never interested!?

when you say;

Fourthly, the exhaust is to be vented through the floor to the outside world.

i work with lightweight generators and landrovers and have to say, venting through the floor may be a bad idea.

at the very least you need to vent to atmosphere through the roof as the fumes will hang under the vehicle for some time even after the genny is switched off, and will permiate upward -venting through the roof will allow the wind do disperse the fumes much quicker.

though if your set on venting under your vehicle, fit a lengthy exhaust extension (the type the army get with the wolf can be found on ebay)

the boxed in idea is pretty clever too -are you going to fit an air inlet through the bulkhead?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments deaftonewonder. Yep, I appreciate that venting underneath could have it's serious disadvantages, but the locales I usually find myself in are generally very breezy (otherwise the west coast midgies would eat me alive) but my way round it was to probably have the end of the exhaust very close to the edge of the body so that the gases should be vented beyond the underside, but again, I think it unnecessary to overdo it as the genny will only be running for the time it takes to boil a kettle or microwave a ready meal and it won't be used when I'm inside the landy for anything other than a few minutes. Even then, the landy interior will be well ventilated. At the moment, I don't plan to vent the box the genny will be living in, I expect to open the box to start the genny, leave it open while genny is running and close it up when I'm finished with the power. But as I have said, and cannot stress enough, I only use the genny to boil a kettle (about 3 minutes) or microwave a ready meal (about 5 minutes) or maybe both one after the other (maybe 10 mins total.) I am always considerate of other campers and wouldn't run it just before bedtime nor very early in the morning. Therefore the risk of fumes causing me any problems really are minimal.

Today I came up with a nice, really silly idea. Wouldn't it be nice to have a pump assisted shower installed with a wee bracket of some sort on the side of the Landy. Then in the morning I could hook a shower head into the bracket, stick a pipe into a tub of water, fire up the genny and have a shower beside my landy ... it is only a figment of my imagination and will never happen, but I just have this mental picture of myself standing in my swimming trunks having a shower in the middle of nowhere. :) :)

Thanks RickyB for the links to the lockers, but it's too late now as I've already done most of what I'm doing in that way and I am trying to keep the outside looking as original as I can, I don't want to advertise that there's more going on inside it than normal.
 
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Once again, a bit of a "nothing to show for my efforts day"...

Today I concentrated on wiring up some lights and a cb aerial base onto a new roof bar which will being added soon. Also I found that the short length of pipe on the original exhaust for the genny is too short for me to cut in half for my original idea so I had to try and fabricate one myself. I plasma cut a flange shape out of a nice bit of 4mm stainless I had lying about and also used the plasma cutter to make a hole for the exhaust gases etc. Then I had to try and weld my bit of EGR pipe to this and here is where I struggled. The EGR pipe is so thin that my newbie level welding abilities just kept blowing holes in it. But I solved that by farming the job out to a professional who will do it for me. I also cut a couple of small plates out of a bit of chequered plate as there is a hole in my roof where a rotating beacon used to be and the rear o/s quarter above the back door has about 8 or 9 holes in it where I assume work lights have been at some time. I intend to silicon/sikaflex the plates in place on the inside to prevent water ingress before I fit my Rad Haz kit. Also I've been measuring some wood for other parts of the jobs I have in mind....

The parts I ordered for the advisories on my MOT arrived this afternoon, and they will probably get fitted on Friday. It's just the bushes for the rear axle drop links/radius arms (Flo-Flex poly bushes) and the rest of the work is brake pipes.

So, I'm off for a good night's sleep as tomorrow should be busy, busy, busy......
 
Nah it was open daily during the summer months when I was going there most week-ends, even on Sundays, but that was when the post office was in the shopping mall. I missed going there the past couple of years. I never had reason to buy any fuel there 'coz I would re-fuel in Inverness and a full tank would get me over the Bealach na Ba both ways and home again, with plenty left to spare.

From my front door to Toscaig Pier is exactly 198 miles. A long way to catch a few mackerel, but I fell in love with the place, I even managed to get friendly with quite a few of the locals.
 
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It's been a few years since we have been - the second last time was when TT were there digging - the very last time was when TT was first shown on TV, which we watched in the campsites large cafe/greenhouse.

access to the pub from a gap in the campsite fence, straight down the back into the back of the pub - grappling irons needed for the climb back, or a long walk

come to Orkney, no midges !
 
Sean said:
It's been a few years since we have been - the second last time was when TT were there digging - the very last time was when TT was first shown on TV, which we watched in the campsites large cafe/greenhouse.

access to the pub from a gap in the campsite fence, straight down the back into the back of the pub - grappling irons needed for the climb back, or a long walk

come to Orkney, no midges !
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I have thought about popping over from JOG a few times, but have never done it yet. I probably will one year, as I have been on many of the other islands.

Yeah, Toscaig and Applecross. Many years ago, I read an newspaper article about the pumps at Applecross. The story related how the locals were desperately trying to find someone to take over the local P.O. and shop. If they couldn't find anyone, they would have an 86 mile round trip for fuel. I told myself then that I'd have to visit the place sometime.

My first visit was only passing through as I was doing the west coast sticking to the shore line for as much as I possibly could. Since then I'd passed through another couple of times. Then in or around 2004/2005 I did a similar tour but took my motorbike on a trailer. I'd park the van on a main road and explore as many of the tiny little side roads as took my fancy, that was the first time I found the old pier at Toscaig. I came over the pass and decided that since I'd never turned left at Applecross, I would do it and see where the road went. When I got to the pier, there was a swedish gent fishing and he told me he'd got 4 mackerel earlier that morning. Since I had a rod and reel back in the van (I hadn't fished for years) I took a quick look at what he was using as lures (black feathers with tinsel) which I had seen in the shopping mall in Applecross. I went back and bought all they had on display and returned to the van with my bike. Brought the van over the hill and stayed on that pier for the next week, eating hardly anything but fish. From then on for the next two or three years I was up there almost every week-end from late spring through the summer, I would arrive about 5am on the Saturday morning (I'd finish work about 1am) and would drive up through the night, stay until Sunday and then head home again.

I always felt quite saddened when coming over the pass on my way home for the last time each year and always looks forward to my next visit. I think I'll spend some time there this year as I've missed regular visits the past two years.
 
You can buy a shower bag,it's like a rubber bag which holds about 2-3 gallons you hang it on a bracket,some have also got solar panel to warm the water, the one without the panel relies on the sun warming the bag of water it has a shower head and tap and relies on gravity, they work pretty good, I only go 48 hours max and part of the fun is to go home a bit smelly, LOL.....
 
Ham Salad said:
You can buy a shower bag,it's like a rubber bag which holds about 2-3 gallons you hang it on a bracket,some have also got solar panel to warm the water, the one without the panel relies on the sun warming the bag of water it has a shower head and tap and relies on gravity, they work pretty good, I only go 48 hours max and part of the fun is to go home a bit smelly, LOL.....
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,, Yeah me too, if I am out for more than two days or so I book into a caravan site for a night to use their showers ... depending on where I am, if there is a council run site then I just wander in and use their facilities.
 
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