Renault Trafic Van Camper Conversion

So I have still haven't been anywhere yet, but hey the month and the year are still new! Despite the square wheels, I drove the thing home the other day, in order to give it a bit of a clean. Last year before our trip to the Isle of Wight, we sort of sporadically kitted it out with bits here and there, so I wasn't exactly sure what we had inside. I took everything out of every knook and banged it on the table to see what we actually had. Like utensils, cutlery, pots and pans etc. Turns out we had everything we needed onboard, a couple of sharp knives, normal cutlery, disposable cutlery (not very environmentally friendly I know, but more about that later). Tea supplies were also plentiful, UHT milk and cups of all shapes and sizes. So good good, no need to buy anything else yet that I can think of (except for another portable stove and a ridge monkey)! All that was needed was a reshuffle and a tidy so I know where everything is. I decided all cooking utensils and some cu...

Finally got the van back from the garage, new power steering pipe and gear box mounts sorted. No more leaks or rattles for the time being. As mentioned in the last post, I was thinking of changing the spare wheel tyre, as it turns out the garage did a health check on the van for me, running their skilled eyes and hands all over it, and that was the only other thing they mentioned. So along with the car also needing a service soon, and two new rear tyres, then tracking, the van needs a new wheel (just the one thats misshapen), all four wheels balanced properly, a new tyre on the spare (balanced also), again followed by the tracking as I already know that that is out... Its been such an expensive beginning to a new year, and its only going to get worse with my car too.. After receiving the van back, and now realising my car needs some attention, the wheels on the van may have to wait a little bit so I can conserve cash. How bad can it be? They wheels have been like they are for a y...

Got lots of new things coming up in the near future for the van, including some trips away in it at long last! I still can't believe that our last proper trip was Cowes week last August!!! Nothing overly exciting to begin with, but I bought two steel wheels to replace the 50p shaped ones currently on the van. My mobile mechanic swapped a front wobbly one with a rear one so I wouldn't feel so much wobbling when driving, but I've been meaning to swap them for a while. And get the tracking done after 6 months!! I won't feel so bad now going in, I can ask them to swap the tyres onto the wheels, pop the new wheels under the steering wheel, get all the wheels balanced, and the tracking done, and hopefully thats my problems for now solved. Secondly! My insurance is now sorted hopefully, I'm just waiting for proof of my no claims to come through in the post. Once I have that, I have found a slightly damaged (chipped) sliding door window with opening in it, that I am ...

Because we bought our Trafic in Jan this year, everything is up for renewal now...which sucks along with christmas. I've had the renewals for a little while now, and to be honest have probably been procrastinating from dealing with them as I hate dealing with these things. Feels like I'm throwing my money away. For the price of insurance and breakdown cover, I could have bought the awning and side window I have wanted for ages. Anyways, I managed to get my insurance down to cheaper than my cheapest new quote, so have renewed with the insurer I've been with for the last year. Funny thing though, I had my old man on a a named driver, last year he took the insurance right down because he was born in 1882 and been driving longer than I've been alive! This year, I changed his profession and it doubled the insurance!!!!! So removing him has made mine cheaper, along with the reduction in mileage, 6000 was a bit keen this last year. AND then, I called the AA. They sent ...

In one of my previous posts I alluded to a curtain being made to replace the poor attempt at blocking sunlight from the cab, i.e. the towel thats been hanging on a bungee for ages. Well the curtain still hangs on a bungee, but its an actual curtain now. Well more of a blind as its not in two halves, but its got foil insulation inside it to try and retain some heat. That is much better! Its made out of an old duvet cover, I thought it would look nicer as a funky curtain. Until next time!

I decided to split parts I bought for the van to keep it running apart from all the bits I purchased for the conversion, so here they are, the list is fairly extensive!! BRAKE CALLIPERS  - I suffered from a jammed calliper at one point so had to replace the entire unit, I still have the other side to fit at some point! The link is for one, but at only £50, not bad. EGR BLANKING PLATE  - So I bought this after my van broke down on me in a mcdonald's drive thru. Turns out my EGR was sticking open, which meant it lost its vacuum and died. Had I known at the time I would have gotten out and smacked it with a hammer to get it going again. Alas I did not know this. Anyway after the AA sorted me out, my engineer friend at work explained to me that no-one replaces EGR valves (not at £90 for a Trafic) and that I should blank it off. After removing the EGR and cleaning it after discovering it did in fact still work, it still kept failing, so I removed and blanked it off. It keeps ...

This is the third and final list of stuff purchased for the van. I felt it didn't really fit into the other categories as these weren't necessary, but made my life both in and when driving the van much easier and nicer. REVERSING CAMERA - I got to drive a friends van when I moved flats once and he had installed one of these, made life much easier. Especially when you have never driven a van before and it feels like you're driving a tank. Odd really as I drive 42 tonne marine forklifts for a living, and this van felt massive on a road! An extremely cheap and worthwhile upgrade, which is the reason it was one of the first upgrades made before I started anything. WIND DEFLECTORS - These were bought for three reasons. 1) they look cool. 2) the allow me ventilation when camping so I didn't need to cut a vent hole, and allow for my power cable to run through as I decided early on not to bother installing 240v electrics, and 3) because the van has no A/C, and they stop th...