A lot done but not much progress
After my success purchasing a roof vent complete with a fan unit off eBay, I managed another purchase, or two
Before I get too far ahead, Just for Mike
$00mm sqare hole in the roof
Outer lid and frame
Dropped inplace through the hole, from the inside.
Fixing screw hole just visible in the corner
Inner frame
Pretty cover with sliding blind
The thought was, when cooking in "Lightning" it was actually not "in" but standing outside at the rear of the teardrop. Initially, I was going to use the same 2 burner/grill and gas bottle "in" the demountable. I was aware that the gas bottle needed to be in a sealed gas box with drop outs for any escaping gas. Not a problem
. When the Smev 2 burner/sink combo with the smoke glass lid came up on eBay, I thought that is much better than my old hob unit. It was faulty and the owner wanted a 3 burner instead of the 2(which was now 1 burner as the second went out as soon as you let the control knob out) I am hoping that it is an easy fix as I think it is the flame out thermocouple gone down, just replace.
The problem was it was near Scarborough for collection only
I had intended to get some pvc sheets from the "Cladding Warehouse" in Bradford to line the walls and make the shower room hygienic and watertight. A couple of good sheets to do the shower and a few more seconds for the walls to be covered with van carpet. Again the goods,(just the seconds) were collection only. I hadn't wanted to get them yet as there is too much else to do before I get to that stage BUT. If I combined the trips it makes it more economical.
Too much indeed.
With the mains in socket already fitted, I moved the leisure battery to its potential position and connected up the battery charger. Considering the last time I used the battery was in May, I was surprised that after 10 minutes the charger clicked over to full.
I have a plugin voltmeter that fits a cigarette lighter so I thought I would check it out.
I'm not quite sure how it happened but, I managed to get a short in the temporary wiring
First I could smell burning
,
Then, there was smoke
Then there were burnt fingers trying, unsuccessfully to unplug extremely hot bullet connectors
Then there was PANIC
I kicked the crocodile clip off one of the terminals of the battery.
Boy did I say Blow it
I then went to find my battery cut off switch and moved fitting it higher up the list of thing to do
Sheets of pvc after unloading them. I have a frame that fits on my roof bars especially for carrying 2440mm x 1220mm (8x4) sheets. It has worked fine on relatively rigid sheets
These 2mm thick pvc sheets were similar to trying to hold a bag of snakes. They bowed, sagged, slid about
nightmare
One of the "seconds" sheets was 300mm longer than the standard 8x4 but I thought that will be ok
After getting all the sheets strapped down I then went around and gaffer taped the edges to stop the wind getting in between them. They will be fine, I said to myself
The satnav had decided to go home down the M1. I didn't like that idea so changed the route to A1(plenty of laybys). I still had to go along the M62 to get to the A1.
I stuck to under 60 mph. Trundled along the M62 with a host of heavy goods lorries. I could see the front of the frame through the top of the windscreen and the extra 300mm sticking out in front. It will be fine
Then I heard a noise something like organ pipes resonating from the roof
A quick check through the top of the windscreen. Wheres that extra 300mm gone
A check in my rearview mirrors. Not behind me. But then again neither were the lorries. They were about 100 yards behind. Something had put them off from following me at there usual 6 inches. The image of a Ford Ranger with a blue sail flash through my mind
The M62 hard shoulder changed between "Use in an emergency only" to "Use for next junction" or "Congestion use hard shoulder". I was in a "Use for emergency only section so I pulled over to survey the situation. A quick look showed the sharp edges of the pvc sheet had cut the gaffer tape and the 300mm extra piece allowing the wind to get under it. Although I know the hard shoulder was for emergency use only, not everyone did. Or perhaps the matrix boards had changed but I was confronted with a group of cars coming down the hard shoulder towards me at some speed. I jumped back into the truck, the hazard lights were already on and I rolled down the hard shoulder to the next off point and found a layby. I cut the extra 300mm off. Applied almost a roll of gaffer tape.
I continued the rest of my journey home at 50 mph without any problems. Even the lorries 6 inched from my bumper gave me a kind of reassurance
All in all the trip took 11 hours for the round trip.
Today it all seems like a dream, not the nightmare it was, especially when I look at the cooker/sink combo