Building a campervan and sharing the love
If I don’t add them here I’ll forget them! Bear Foot Theory documents the life of a van dweller in her custom built Sprinter including some awesome kit reviews.
I like the idea of the teak shower deck, hers looks to be a custom fibreglass tray which needed a bit of further work to tweak it.
Well good news, the water heater gas system and auto igniter works just fine. Bad news, the boiler has rusted on the left side resulting in a gas leak at the end of the boiler which results in a flame where there shouldn’t be one.
Boilers (the rectangular stainless part with the gas jets in it) are around £50 and standard off the self spare parts. The entire brains of the system can be removed from the roadside and the boiler replaced easily.
The rust problem is due to heat, the proximity of water and exposure to the elements as this all faces the roadside. I am going to try a repair initially as the boiler box is not under any pressure, just heat. If the patch I am going to try with some exhaust epoxy and spare metal sheet doesn’t work I’ll bite the bullet and buy a new one.
The water tank needs to be pressure tested, the wax thermostat that acts as a safety preventing overheat also needs testing and then she needs a clean up and can be installed into the van side ready for the pipework.
I’ve hauled a Carver Cascade 2 water heater out from our donor caravan for our campervan build. These combination gas/mains water heaters have been common place in caravans for years and little has changed. Parts are pretty easy to obtain and the unit can be services and maintain. There’s a handy service guide for them on Practical Caravan.
Ours is in pretty good nick having examined it today; that said it will need to be test run on the bench outside first, then cleaned up before install. I see no sense in cutting a square out of the side of the van only to find I need to rework the install!
I found a handy resource for anyone looking to use a Carver Cascade heater online at Arc Systems. I’ve replicated the documents on the resource pages for anyone else that wants them and will add anything else that I find that’s relevant.
I have been plotting how to best install our toilet when I came across this video when I went down the rabbit hole that is YouTube…
I now have a new subscription for me to keep an eye on, cheers Jaz.
When you absolutely, positively have to have spare wheels with you; what’s better than a motorbike? Next up will no doubt be a bike tow/loft hitch for the back.
I needed a commuter I could park in the city and ended up buying a second hand BMW F650GS Dakar. Good news is that it is a great bike and gets me 70mpg on an average day, bad news is that it has distracted me from work on the van and updates here. For one I have a parasitic load on the starter that I need to cure, I am pretty sure that it’s coming from the split charge circuit having replaced the alternator regulator.
I may well add a few posts on here covering BMW single cylinder maintenance issues that I come across. Obviously she needed a service and a few repairs to make her suitable for the road, a clean up and some parts bolting on.
In the meantime here is a great website from a couple travelling around the world on their BMW F650GS: https://lifewelove.com/en/
Now I find a commute on my 650 comfy, but it’s a different league hauling all your kit and partner on the back too!