Renault Trafic Van Camper Conversion

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...

Bear with me, this is going to be a long winded post, full of descriptions and links. If you like anything you have seen in any of my pictures or videos, hopefully I won't miss any, but I will pop all Ebay and Amazon links on this post so you guys can find it easily. HAYNES MANUAL - So I started off the year with the purchase of the van, and consequently the Haynes Manual , almost immediately - CABLE - electrical cable to wire the van up, this included extending my reversing camera cables, wiring led's, etc, you name it. I ordered multiple times from this seller! Always buy more than you think otherwise you'll spend your life waiting for more or buying more expensive stuff closer to home. CARPET LINING - This was one of the first things needed, as removing the ply lining to insulate behind means you might as well carpet it whilst its all out. This was extremely good value, and I managed to carpet everything I needed, including my mini bulkhead, 3 door trims, both s...

Some stuff I missed from the last post will be in this post! I also videos a lot of what I did so the video is posted below. Along with everything else that I did in November, I also stole some ideas from other people and pinterest. Namely in the screwing mason jar lids to the underneath of a shelf and then using the corresponding mason jar to store little bits of crap that you don't need lying about in your house let alone lying about the space in your van, and then screwing the jar back onto its a lid, hence creating creative storage solutions. That was a mouthful. I don't even have a photo for you, so you'll have to watch the video to see. Going with the cheap and cheerful (functional), I decided a while back not to install 240v electrics as I couldn't be arsed, and it was quite expensive. I work with boats, so I knew of cheap installations for 240v electrics as they are the same. I found a power cable for boats that came with 3 standard uk plugs on the end...

Sooo despite the quiet, I have in fact been doing things. I seem to have an obscene addiction to buying things for my van.... the latest purchase being a set of front mats, in a lovely grey with red edges. These are thanks to Marks Mats, a guy I heard about on one of the TVP (Trafic, Vivaro and Primastar) groups on Facebook. He doesn't seem to have a dedicated Facebook page, so just search for Marks Mats and the guy will come up. Absolutely great value, he sent these to me for £20 inc delivery, and there are a range of colours available, and you can choose from all the colours for mat colour and then again for the edging. I ordered on the wednesday, and they were in my van by Friday night! For a slightly more luxurious carpet, you'll have to bang out another £10, but I'd say it was worth it for sure. While I'm on the subject of Facebook groups, there are a load of guys like Mark from Marks Mats that advertise stuff at discounted rates on the groups. Ive also o...

Improvements continue.... Had a few more nights in the van recently, and decided that some more additions needed to be made. Firstly, the new usb charger I installed at the back of the van has a MASSIVE, brighter than the sun blue LED on it, that keeps me awake when I'm trying to sleep. In the dark it is quite bright. This isn't really a modification, more of something a piece of masking tape will solve!! I then decided I hate the look of the rear door cards, so I asked a reputable company for a quote to carpet them and the side door card. £300!!! That was obviously a no go, but I was also told that the cards would need replacing with ply etc etc etc. Nahhh, I decided to see if I had any carpet left, and I did, so a quick trip to Screwfix for some more spray adhesive, and I was away. The first one was a bit rough, I was fecking about in the dark doing it at home, and missed some creases, and I was confident that they would fit back on the van even with carpet stretched ...

Hellooo! Its been a while! Since coming back from our first proper trip, we both rather got way laid with work. Kat has now started a new job and I was finishing the summer back at work. Despite not doing any trips, I have been using the van lots. Turns out its quite good on fuel, and the full tank (£90) I put in before our trip to the Isle of Wight is still going! Im only just down to quarter of a tank now. I have however made some improvements and additions, namely in some more tongue and groove wood to hide the metals parts of the van, and some lights. Here's a brief time-lapse of some of the improvements, with another VLOG in the making currently of all the little bits and bobs I ordered for the van whilst on holiday this month. Some more additions are my fruitful exhibits from the Southampton Boat Show, a Dryrobe car seat cover. Totally awesome and worth it for £22!! Current further plans include but are not limited to: An insulated curtain - to cut the l...

Just got back from the Isle of Wight, which was our first proper trip away with the van, being totally reliant on it. It was great, it worked like a dream, no breakdowns or any problems actually. Everything worked as it should, and the EGR blanking plate seems to have done the trick. She even coped well in a muddy field, and we did a considerable amount of driving around the island too. I won't bore you with the details on here as below is the video log of the trip, which will be much better than reading me ramble on here. We went to the Garlic Farm twice, as it rained, and we discovered our tent/awning was rubbish, as it broke, and it wasn't waterproof. We all took the thing down early in preparation for some ridiculous weather!

Since buying the van in January, there has been a wobble in the steering wheel when going around corners. After taking the van to Kwikfit (for convenience as there is one near my work), I was informed that I needed new CV Joints and tracking rod ends. I caved and let them install, for an outrageous £271!! The steering wobble got much better, but didn't totally go away, and I spent 6 months ignoring it whilst I fitted out the van, sorted the EGR valve, got it through and MOT, fixed the driveshaft seal, broke down in a McDonalds drive through, and much more. Starting to get expensive, but as I have started to use it more in preparation for our trips, I decided to get it looked at. My suspicion is the tracking needs doing, which my mobile mechanic has confirmed, but it also turned out some of my wheels are basically 50p shaped, definitely not round! To counteract that I have swapped the 50p shaped wheels with straighter ones, as I won't feel the rough edges on the back parti...

After my last post, I realised again we required more!! So I have made a basic shelf to go underneath the boxing in the corner of the roof that houses the electrics and the reverse camera wiring. Im holding it in place currently, but this is the rough gist. I will also be covering it in a remaining piece of tongue and groove wood that I have floating about so it matches the rest of the van. I have painted the inside with a product called Plastikote (also known as Plasti-dip elsewhere except note is cheaper on eBay and just as good). Its a spray on vinyl wrap, and has worked well elsewhere covering parts of the plastic trim in the van. The beauty is if you don't like it or want a change of colour, it simply peels off. I've sprayed the inside of the shelf as its a rough kind of wood, which although I have sanded down, there were still a few loose bits that may cause splintering, so by covering it with the Plastikote, it keeps it relatively smooth, and besides, you won...

Having decided to start driving the van a bit more day to day to ensure its smooth running, I noticed a lot of stuff moving around in the back from where its just been left. I also then realised that I'm lacking majorly in storage... Theres only so much stuff that can be held in one place with bungee cords! I decided that I needed a place to store the little things, such as cups, glasses, cutlery etc. Having a look around pinterest gave me a few good ideas, such as: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/333618284887007447/ So this is what I set out to do. Turns out from where I made the table, there was already a platform built in to provide support for a shelf, I cut 2 pieces of wood, screwed them in shortly after, and was left with this: It is very basic, I know, but it will do the job for our Isle of Wight trip coming up. Maybe in winter I will remove the table and apply some more carpet, but for now, it will do. I have ordered more of those tiny net holders too as they ...

Our first trip is coming up, that being the Isle of Wight for Cowes Week (sailing event) and to visit some other places whilst there. We have booked a spot at Comforts Farm in Cowes (http://www.comfortsfarm.co.uk) for a few days, and now for quick tip! It generally costs around £60 each way to take the Wight Link ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne in the Isle of Wight. The trick to making that cheaper is to travel at anti social hours. I have booked the outward ferry over at 3am, and the return journey at 1 am! It cost us £27 each way, so all in all no more the £60 for the whole trip! Just going one way during the day would cost the same if not slightly more normally. I have already started loading the van up with stuff we need, food, pots, pans, utensils, disposable cutlery and plates and bowls etc. This is because we haven't got a sink or waste and fresh water tanks built in yet, I figured the van is a little small for that and we don't have the space. So everything gets...

So the van is at last mostly complete! We have had our first few nights out, and she is very comfortable. We will deffinetly be buying a drive away awning though to enlarge our space and to ensure we don't get too stuffy inside in the summer.. We have some rough edges to tidy up such as the side of the table obviously, and some other holes in the chassis, the rear doors are still uncovered (might just be painted), and it needs a little more storage. We've got a load more of those little net compartments that are great for holding phones and nick backs, phone charger cables, battery isolator keys, etc etc. The table was made from a piece of kitchen work surface I found onsite where I work, and then a small wooden frame made with quite cheap wood from B&Q, as I didn't want anything too heavy. It has been screwed in so it doesn't move, but is easily removed to use the van as a van. Sadly I still haven't put enough into the van to be able to ta...

Apparently a common problem with Renault Traffics, Nissan Primastars and Vauxhall Vicars is the EGR Valves. (These vans are all the same minus the badge). I found this out the hard way when the van turned itself off in a McDonalds drive thru. It was just like the key had been turned off. Embarrassingly, I had no choice but to knock on the window that I had just ordered from, as the lady had disappeared. Eventually three guys came and pushed me out, and then one guy came and handed me my order whilst I tried a few things I thought may be the problem and called the AA. Turns out the EGR was blocked and sticky. The AA man smacked the valve with the bottom of a can of Easy Start spray, sprayed some in whilst I turned the key, and she burst into life! After that I removed it and cleaned it, quite well I thought, but sadly to no avail. It stopped a few more times, and I saved myself by smacking it with a readily available hammer in the back. After some research it was decided it n...

Got it through the MOT! Wasn't expecting that, maybe I should have more faith in my own mechanical skills. Got the new washer jets literally five minutes before I was going to have to cancel the MOT because of dodgy washer jets! Fitted them pronto and got it through, with just an anti roll bar linkage on the advisory, and a slight gearbox leak to investigate. We will hopefully get out now for a night, despite needing to link the batteries still, and buy a curtain, camping stove, and to decide whether we will have a little sink, fresh and waste water tanks etc. I have finally finished the carpet (mostly) too, and also had a problem with the EGR valve! But thats another post. As it starts to tidy up I will post more pictures, the LED lights I installed look awesome at night.

So we have now bought and placed inside a sofa bed, it cost £120 from eBay, and it looks awesome with the union jack on it! I had to reinforce the bottom as it was fairly cheap, and replace the factory legs as they weren't tall enough to get over the wheel arches. The legs cost £3.28 each from B&Q, and I bought six, so three each side. Along with the reinforcing wood, they were the perfect height for the arches without arch covers on. Yes, its a bit caveman, when we want the bed we have to drag the sofa out a little bit, and fold it down. But it fits perfectly, no space is wasted over the arch, and when used as a sofa, there is storage space behind for a couple of camping chairs, that will go under the bed once made. I will be bungeeing the bed too, so it will stay in place and is more secure, but will be stretchy enough so we can fold it into the bed and back into a sofa again. I then set about making a table worktop, with the intention of maybe eventually cutting a hole...

Moving right along.... So after placing and taping a lot of insulation to the roof (duct tape to Dialls Loft Insulation in place, and then foil tape to cover that over with foil insulation, and seal the edges), we went back to B&Q, and bought some slim tongue and groove wood. We bought x5 packs of 2 metre stuff, and I still have 1.2 packs to spare! Due to the planks I installed on the roof previously, this didn't take very long at all and was very easy. Therefore I can move swiftly onto the LED Lights. These came from Amazon, cost about £15 for all 3. Again, having previously installed all the wiring through conduit, these just needed crimping together and screwing to the tongue and groove wood. Simple. And now to carpet, again very easy! Bought 5m squared of the stuff plus x4 bottles of adhesive as a kit from eBay for £45. Might have been easier with two people, but I seem to have managed just fine :) Below is also the time lapse of everything mentioned in this post:...

Next up! Is the bulkhead and the roof needed insulating. To start, I gave up on making a full size bulkhead. This is because of the seats. Where they have a backwards incline, and I wanted my bulkhead to be about an inch thick and filled with insulation to keep the heat in, this meant that the amount of space in the back of the van was getting considerably smaller, and the bulkhead was starting to poke out into the side door. Instead, I've made myself a 2 foot high mini bulkhead. For two reason: One, being that it would provide some storage at the bottom of the seats, and two, being I then have a panel to mount a USB, Switch and Volt Metre, and a car stereo. I'll be adding the car stereo in the future, but at least I have somewhere to put it! As you can see in the picture below, I have already installed some pallet wood onto to the roof, so I have something that isn't metal to screw the tongue and groove roofing into. Luckily with the Renault Trafic, there are raised...

So after paying an inordinate amount of money to keep the van going, it was time to buy insulation, strip the back out, clean and re assemble. We started off by sanding the scratched metal parts inside the rear doors with white hammerite, as it looked awful, and I realised they would remain on show once completed. The next bit was to remove the already installed ply lining. As well as the recent new clutch and engine, the pre installed ply lining was a huge factor in deciding it was the van for us, as that was a relatively big job that I didn't then have to do! All we had to do was remove, insulate and replace over the top, easy! Easier said than done, as it turns out... It had been sealed on the edges to stop rattling while driving. Awesome idea, but made removing them a nightmare. After considerable amounts of cutting with a stanley knife and scraping with a flat head screw driver, it was all off, as can be seen in the time lapse below: Once all was removed, all I had...