Demountable camper group

The contents of our bin this morning (Could this become a daily serial? I'm sure the interest is there. ) ...



Among other things it now contains off-cuts of vinyl, from the roll, which I laid on the camper floor yesterday and which is definitely staying stuck. It's actually much nicer to look at than the previous stuff and has a 2mm cushioned layer under it as well so it's an improvement in every way.



The far end of the floor will eventually be raised of course with water tank, pump and storage under it and more of the same vinyl over it.

It's no wonder the progress on my camper build has slowed right down. I just had to make a round trip of just over 1000 miles in order to pick up some wall boards to line it with that I couldn't get locally and couldn't get delivered. They're nothing special but cost about a third again on top of the price I could have got them for in the UK. Add to that autoroute tolls and fuel for the motorhome (it's a 5.2 litre V8) and for that price I want the thing lined in bloody gold leaf!

Oh well, musn't grumble - nice trip up to Vosges. One demountable en route - an old Tischer Trail 230 on a Nissan heading north on the A7.

"I just had to make a round trip of just over 1000 miles in order to pick up some wall boards "

Martin, has this build ground to a halt for now then, its gone a bit quiet mate

zildjian wrote:Martin, has this build ground to a halt for now then, its gone a bit quiet mate

No it hasn't but it has slowed down. I'll post an update over the weekend.

Well it's been a long time since I lasted posted an update on my camper build but that reflects the fact that progress has slowed down or at least it feels as though it has. In reality I'm not sure that it has actually slowed very much but the changes that have been made are certainly less dramatic than when I was building the shell. So here's where I'm at now ...

Most of the lining board that I hauled back from north-east France a month ago is in and that means I've been able to finally finish the door frame and to fit the inner frames of the window and locker doors.


The only areas that still remain to be lined are those where I need to route cables before the lining goes in. Basically that just means a lighting circuit around the roof. All other cable routing is either already done or will be inside the lining.


I had already fitted a couple of LED marker lights, front and back, but had originally thought that I would be able to get away without putting tail-lights and a number plate on the camper, relying instead on those of the pickup, but when I had the camper on the truck in order to move it back at the end of September we reflected long and hard on whether that was enough (or even legal) and eventually decided to err on the side of caution. So I have since fitted small light clusters (LEDs) and a number plate with its own light of course. The other addition on the rear of the camper is the 'eyebrow' above the door which is a combined gutter and outside light (LEDs again).


Because the camper extends beyond the tub to the end of the lowered tailgate I've been able to make use of the exposed but sheltered side walls to tuck the external shower in behind the tail-light on the left-hand side ...


... and the 230v intake and 13-pin socket behind the one on the right-hand side - out of the weather, out of the way, and neat I think.


Instead of having trailing 12N and 12S cables permanently hanging from the camper I've made up a short connecting cable which plugs into this 13-pin socket at the camper end and into the towing sockets on the pickup. And when the camper's not on the truck of course it can simply be removed and stashed away in a locker or wherever.

All these lights and electrics mean wires of course, and lots of 'em! Unfortunately the people from whom I initially bought cabling take the Henry Ford approach to colour - they can supply any colour you want, as long as it's red or black. So I've had to resort to using identification tags when connecting to the multi-coloured 'spaghetti' inside the impressively fat cable coming in from the 13-pin socket.


Since then I've found a cable supplier with a more liberal approach - I can now get blue and brown as well as red and black!

Don't want to see a jungle of wires now you've made such a tidy job of the rest, you know how an ipod looks in bits,
well we expect a Steve Jobs type approach with nice neat runs of cable if you must have them

looks very smart all the same, nice seeing the interior pictures now its getting near finishing

Brilliant fit & finish there Mate, what is your background? great to see a selfbuild being finished off nicely for a change

Alexd wrote:Brilliant fit & finish there Mate, what is your background? great to see a selfbuild being finished off nicely for a change

Thank you very much. Nothing useful in my background I'm afraid - self-taught bodger in everything I know.