Awesome, missed these pics. Nice work stumpyjumper.

Made a fair bit of headway today, striiped out all back down to the bare metal. Covered the wheel arches in flashing and spent ages completing a cardboard template for the roof.

Found a set of 3 LEDL lights in B&Q that work off 12v so that was easy 🙂

Work called off again so ill get some celotex fitted tomorrow then when i get home in a week or so ill get the roof cut, lights wired and fitted 🙂 Really enjoying doing all this myself. Very steep learning curve with the electrics but its really not rocket science.

Yea, I like the simplicity of your bed tbh. With the room you have it’s the best option. I’ve just spent the day stripping mine out and buying the insulation. All systems are go. Nae work due to storms.

This is the bed about halfway down. I dont plan to make mine as solid at the front as i want to maximise every bit of storage space but for me this is the current plan 🙂

Ace, love these. Have had my brain fried for the last few days trying ti plan it all out before i start, especially the electrics which i have absolutely no real idea about. All is now good though. I will say that i have borrowed pretty much all your ideas Satzer. I owe you big time for all the photos and ideas.

Waswas yep that is the idea, i cant find the link but i found a van build thread on T4forum that had one of these beds / bench and i love the idea. I was over visiting a mate today who has a Vivaro decked out as well and he put me onto someone who makes bench foam and coverings to order. He had some done in a waterproof fabric and they are ace, This conversion is growing arms and legs 🙂

Sazter, I’m not sure if it’s the same idea but I’m making a bench with the top made of slats in a row that slide out and make a small double bed. Hope that makes sense without a picture. I can send you a link later if you want. It won’t be much more work but gives a lot more room.

Awesome mike, cheers. This elektrickery is a minefield 🙂

OK i said no more but i have a bit of a puzzler, i have ordered all the kit to fit the leisure battery and fuse box, it seems pretty simple. What i don’t get though is the wiring of any lights and other appliances into the fuse box. The blade types have 1 socket for the positive. Where does the negative go? You cant have an electrical circuit with 1positive wire in a fuse box. I know i could wire it to the vehicle itself but is that the only solution?

My googling skills are not throwing up much so i am assuming i am being a nugget.

Cool, i have just had a wee visit to http://www.campervanlife.com and they advised 10mm. But if its in the kit ill be happy 🙂

Sazter, I’m trying to find out what rating of wire connects the fuse box to the leisure battery. Can you remember what you used? Sorry to pester you

Well thats the leisure battery kit ordered thanks to sazter, I am away with work for 10 days so i wont be posting anything on here until i get some headway with the van. And stumpy i would love to see your pics. All van related pictures are welcome 🙂

@sazter, thanks a load for that eBay link. Just bit the bullet and bought the kit. But I’ll be blaming you if it all goes wrong though 🙂

I’ll be firing an entry in for this years tweedlove EWS. Got a couple of other things planned but I can give this a real go as I live a couple of hours away. 5 days is just brutal. Pacing your riding will be key.

Hey, i saw the post on my thread. Im glad you fixed the links as it was worth it. Loving your work. Especially with the leisure battery. How did you learn to do the wiring as currently i have decided not to bother with one but i am going to put the roof on sides on batons so they can be removed easily if i decide down the line to fit some wiring 🙂

Great work 🙂

MrSparkle, good van thread. A window on the sliding door is my next plan. Need to phone a few places to get it priced up. If you dont mind me asking how much was yours?

Northernmatt,thats the van thread to end all van threads. Awesome 🙂

Thanks all, good advice to keep me going until the next idea / problem.

Scotroutes, i don’t think i will use it anywhere colder than Aviemore in the winter 🙂 but i want to do this right the first time and putting batons in didn’t seem to much of an issue TBH. I was just wondering about the best way. The floor is not really a problem, the roof needs to be bombproof obviously.

decisions decisions 🙂

scotroutes, no rush on the lining. Is the plywood on the floor directly on top of the insulation then?

Do you know anyone locally that can get you a test ride. I know thats always the default answer when asking about new bikes but i really think it will be worth it.

I tried a spitfire in a wee car park test when i was at one of the Innerleithen enduros earlier this year, i quite liked it and even though i was not in the market for a new bike i booked a test ride and took it to laggan for the day. It absolutely blew me away. I put an order in that day.

I know that the banshee is the rune’s is the smaller brother but it climbs very very well as the suspension is so good. And i was coming from a DW Link Turner so if it was crap i would have noticed right off.

It wont be a wasted day even if you have to travel a fair bit.

Renton, seriously mate you have been trying to sell that bike for ages on various forums with not a sniff. Take the money and get the bike you want. Far too much dithering going on.

iolo, but as mentioned before what is adequate cover. And for who?

There are a lot of questions being raised and the organisers need to answer these clearly. You cant run an event and enforce insurance and then be very very vague on what that insurance needs to cover and to what amount.

bigjim – Member
I find it a bit difficult to sympathise with people who have made a lot of money working in the oild industry losing jobs.
Not everyone earns the big bucks, I’m not an engineer and don’t work offshore so I earn a pretty miserable sum compared to many of my colleagues

The people hardest hit will be the contractors in the supply chain, these guys do not earn the big money and will be the first to take the hit when contracts stall or are shelved.

The oil and gas industry lives very much in a bubble, especially in Aberdeen. Times have been good for a few years, but a couple of lean years might be on the cards. But remember the platforms whether producing or not are still pretty much fully manned currently. Routine and maintenance work still carries on.

It will take a while for the cracks to show but if oil stays low for more than a year then yep a lot of people, myself included will be out of work.

Scotroutes, ill take that off your hands. Where do you live and ill see if i am passing sometime soon 🙂

How much material have you got left? I take it that its the carpet material you have in your pictures above 🙂

BoardinBob – Member

@mactheknife

Renault and Vauxhall have acknowledged the injectors are a problem on the vivaro and tragic. They’re paying for repairs apparently so its worth contacting the dealer

yea i had a read of the terms for Vauxhall helping with repairs to faulty vans. Basically my van is out of the age range. Its an 08 plate and it was up to 6 years old. Plus i had my repair done at a garage which is not a main dealer so again that strikes me out.

What i will do is try and get an answer from them to see if they will fork out for any future injector failures within a given time. I might as well whistle i reckon but worth a try.

But it has not put me off the van yet, i am really looking forward to getting stuck in with my conversion and using it for biking and weekends away camping.

Captain seats look awesome and with the bulkhead removed might be worth spending some cash on. Does anywhere know a place in Scotland who would do this work. I am not happy doing it myself yet.

Love it, i was pretty disheartened after I bought the van due to the engine issues but posts like yours and scotroutes are getting me excited again. I’ll be working on the back first with insulation, and re plying the sides and roof. I have some ideas for a side bench that pulls out to be a small double bed. Luckily I have a good mate who is a joiner.

Does the solar panel power the leisure battery?

Sierra, that sounds awesome. Have you got any pics?

Ooft, got a purty hefty bill coming tomorrow as my vivaro has had a power problem which turned out to be a corroded injector. Seems to be a bit of a problem with some vans and the seals around the bonnet. Hopefully the other injectors don’t go the same way.

125 is more than enough drop unless you resemble the BFG then no drop will ever be enough.

crashmagnet, i did but as far as i could see there was no 30.9 option which was the size i need 🙁

bikeneil – Member
^^ isn’t that a Trade advert ^^

Thats a fanny boy comment if there ever was one. Bet you loved to tell on your mates in school 🙄

Ah thats good to know chestrockwell, i haven’t managed to play with one yet.

Thanks guys, I have had a reverb for few years but its going on the boys new build. I absolutely hate the lever with a passion and i was looking at getting the southpaw for the lev or trying the shifter bodge.

Ill hum and hah for a bit longer then go for my usual impulsive buy.

cheers

Also there is a page set up on Facebook called Kitebay – 2nd hand kitesurf listings.

A lot of kit is advertised there.

johnny, where do you live? if you think you will be heading onto the water then head to the beach one day and speak to the people who are kiting. They will give you some good ideas on local conditions etc and hopefully there contacts so you have someone to head out with when you have had some lessons.

I started with a 3m PKD Buster. I played with that for a few weeks then bought a landboard which i loved.
My kites progressed in size but for landboarding i ended up using some old Peter Lynn Guerilla kites which were an absolute blast .

Then i met a lad who became a really good mate, he showed me how to kitesurf and all the deep water packdown stuff. So onto the water i went and i have not looked back. Nothing much beats it.

From there on it became a full on addiction 🙂 The amount of different kites and boards i bought were unreal.
Currently have a set of Cabrinha Switchblades which for me are perfect.

So just get a 2 or 3 m traction kite and have some fun. See where it takes you 🙂

covert, how much are you looking for. Quite fancy a set of these. Also have you got spare pads? no biggy if you dont. 🙂

cheers

What has helped me most from bikejames has been his advice on strength and mobility which in turn have helped me on the bike no end. That and his kettle bell workouts fit in well with me.

Last year i looked at bikejames. I eventually ordered his Ultimate MTB program. There was a LOT of information in it but once you break it down its a very good structured program. Lots of kettlebell work involved.

The hardest part for me was changing my routines. I do like my comfort zones 🙂

I rated them until the shoulder strap disintegrated on my enduro one. Not an issue i thought, ill order another from Ride Guide. It took 4 emails and a phone call to get an answer that they would order one in their next batch from the US. 3 months later i had heard nothing so i email the WingNut directly in the US asking to purchase another strap. I received a positive email saying they would sort it for me.

Well unsurprisingly i still have no shoulder strap. There seems to be some communication issues that i think come from Ride Guide.

Anyhoo. Great packs apart from that little drama 🙂