Sunday 1st Dec - Replace Interior Campervan (ambulance) lights with LEDs

Last night I decided to take an interior light unit out of the roof and try to work out how to rewire it for LEDs.  I'd already brought a 5m stretch of LED strip which could be cut and rewired into lots of smaller sections.  So now I needed to quickly learn how to cut, rewire and solder LEDs.  Turns out it was not too difficult.

The single interior light I took out came apart quite easily. I then cutting out and unpicked most of the items not required from the original fluorescent strip unit and simply left the switches and the black / red wires.

Time to get the soldering iron out.

The LED strip I brought was ok to cut every 3 bulbs so I trimmed it to length and began soldering the new 12v wires onto the strip. It wasn't simple intially but worked ok. Wiring it to a battery charger I could see I had some success although my solder joints were poor. I re-soldered, then repeated again with a second strip to fill the box with light.  I connected the wires to the initial input wires and we had a light I could try in the ambulance.  To my surprise, it worked first time and as I'd hoped filled the van with way more light than the old 8w fluorescent strips!!!

So this morning I stripped and cut 12 more cables, got some more male and female connectors so I could remove the lamp holders faster in future and set about removing the other 4 holders from the van.

It didn't take long once I was in the swing.  My soldering was way better, my cables all ready, only one bank of LED's which had some diode issues.  An hour or so later I had a van with 5 working lights jam packed with LEDs = way more light and way less power than the ten fluorescent strips I removed.

So here is the end result (taken in the dead of night). And now I've got a place light enough to work in over the winter nights.

Next steps are bolting in the new seats, getting the old vents removed and filled and then putting in the mains hookup. So it's time to buy a mains RCD.

Saturday 31st Nov - Seat day. And the day I find out if my hopes for the layout will work

I collected some chairs this week from Southampton. Removed from a brand new transit minibus. So they'll be bolted in soon once the floor plan is completely set.

But I wanted to get them in situ so I could see if it was all going to feasibly work.  Getting 5 people in this van without using the kitchen area for sleeping is now our plan.

Passenger seats aside I decided to spend Saturday afternoon seeing if I could do something about the awful drivers seat.

So the passenger seat came out.  I tried my hardest to work out how to get that seat unit to fit the framework from the drivers seat unit but it was never going to happen without some serious cutting and welding.  So I started stripping the covering and the foam from the frame hoping it would then fit onto the drivers frame (cutting my knuckles to shreds in the process as the bottoms of these seats are sharp!).

I then did the same with the drivers seat hoping the passenger seat foam and covering would slip right on. It didn't initially, but a bit of persuasion and I've got a drivers seat again (with way more foam and way less gaffer tape).

A luxury leather job will have to be a future project.

Luckily the new double minibus seat will fit so I plonked it in place and removed a load of bolts and the original seat belt.

That all took way longer than it should!

But all in all it's positive thus far.

Sunday Nov 24 - Early morning and late evening #2! The Campervan Layout to sleep 5 people

So I was awoken by something about 5am and ended up not being able to sleep due to continued thoughts about Annie.

• How will the layout work
• What seats shall I get
• What will run off 12v
• What will run off mains
• Where will the kids sleep

etc etc....

So I wrote a list over breakfast and started answering some questions when I got home from work tonight.

I've sourced some brand new minibus seats for the front and also the main vehicle.  So the wife, baby and two other daughters will have somewhere to sit once I collect those later this week.  Importantly they have seat-belts built in and once fixed to the chassis will create a nice safe place for the kids to travel.

The seats in the rear will need to be utilised as bed space but we'll sort that once they are in.

I've spent this evening (no tape measure yet) just trying to work on a layout.  very similar to that off of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces http://bluemooncamper.blogspot.co.uk/.  Although our beast is not as cute as theirs I think we will have more space.  So adopting that layout with a longer kitchen for more storage and an extra storage area should be possible.  I hope. 

I'll only really know when I get the seats, bolt them in and then start drawing on the floor.  But!!!  the images below show my floor-plan and my wall plans.  

Right now, it's time to get on eBay, buy some interior LED strips, a hook up, waterproof power outlet connector and a plug converter so I can power Annie up on the drive.  She will be my workshop soon and lit up at night my wife will know where to find me and my power tools.

Nov 23rd - Just the beginning for Annie the Ambulance - Our 999Camper

Well a few weeks ago we watched amazing spaces and fell in love with the little ambulance turned into a camper van by a great family for their children.  With three cherubs ourselves we face the same issues with regards holidays and want to go on many more over the coming years.  So the appeal of being able to just disappear at the drop of a hat was hard to ignore.

We chatted here and there for a few weeks after the show about going for it but not really ever thinking we would. However, last week, an old Bedford appeared in a layby 500 yards from our house. It was not for sale, but we both spotted it at different times and brought it up in conversation.

Thursday just gone, the signs went up. She was for sale!! I wandered the dog up there in the dark on Thursday already knowing we wanted it. It sounded good. Low miles, tax, MOT and in our price range. This combined with the very fact that 'Annie' was also an ex Ambulance made it even more appealing.

I arranged to go see it Friday night, again in the dark. And after a good chat with the owners I was even more tempted. They were a great couple whose change in circumstances meant they had to sell the van.

Annie wouldn't start so I left with the books and history and a plan to see it again on Sat morning with a jump pack. Unfortunately the jump pack yielded no success and I was getting worried. But just as I was about to leave I spotted that the filler cap had no lock. Perhaps she'd been siphoned as well as having a low battery??

I took the battery this time and charged it overnight. Retuning to Annie on Sunday morning with fuel and a fully charged battery she sputtered into life and at that point the deal was done and she came home.

Sundays are busy days for us but I had enough time to strip a load of stuff out and work out the space we have to work with.

Plenty of fun over the next months and plenty of learning to be done...

Seats, inner framework, wiring, kitchens, sleeping arrangements and a general tidy up on the outside.

April will be here before we know it (that's when I hope we can take our first spontaneous trip away) so keep popping back and check Annie's progress as the winter takes hold.