The kitchen looks like a kitchen!

After installing the gas and water supply, and the waste pipe, we could fit the kitchen permanently. We made a raised base unit to accommodate heater ducting, plumbing and two custom made drawers so there is no wasted space under the units. 

The units were glued and screwed together and secured to the floor and walls of the van. We've fitted our cupboard hinges and doors (B&Q GoodHome Alpinia Shaker Style in Matt Ivory), and worktop (Ikea Ekbacken in Light Oak). 

We've cut holes to accommodate our appliances, and sealed all the cut edges of the worktop with gloss varnish to waterproof.

We've installed the sink (Smev 928 round sink), tap (chrome with pull-out hose from eBay), drinking water tap (Comet London microswitched tap), and hob (NJ Domino-G LPG 2-burner hob in white glass)

The reason for the two taps is so that we have a dedicated drinking water tap supplied from a 15l plastic water carrier under the sink. This means if we are filling up the 100l underslung tank from a water source we are not 100% about the quality we can still have separate clean drinking water. It also means we can easily ask to fill up the small container from any pub/restaurant tap.

Another reason for the separate water system is that when we use the van in the winter and it's too cold for the underslung tanks and the water system is drained and winterised, we can still use the drinking water tap.

The worktop is fixed to the cupboards with lots of 90 degree brackets.

WOOOOO it looks like a kitchen!! 

The gas was connected up to the hob and leak-checked... It works!

Heater Installation

So after much deliberation we decided that the best water heater/room heater combo would be the Truma Combi 4e. Its by far the most efficient and modern heater on the market and can be controlled via your phone using "i-net" to warm up the van before you get back from a walk or the pub. 

The heater will be installed in the bottom of our utility cupboard. 

A bit of planning and prep was required prior to final installation. Holes for the rear of the heater and ducting outlets were cut in the cupboard along with a gas drop vent in the floor.

The heater has 4 hot air outlets, of which we will use 3 with one blanked off using Trumas blanking kit.

The 2 outlets on the left will supply hot air to the front cab area of the van, and to the area just in front of the kitchen units. The other air outlet runs along under the units and behind the drawers and exits in the middle of the van at floor level. 

To make the heater run as quietly as possible we used a section of acoustic felt ducting from MV heating in each of the air outlets. This should make a big difference to any noise being transmitted from the heater to the blown air outlets.

The flexible alloy ducting is joined to the acoustic ducting using a section of stainless tube internally and is clamped by a stainless band mounted to a bracket on the floor.

Gas Installation

The gas system has arrived from LPGshop.co.uk! We've got a 30 litre gas tank that will fit under the van between the main chassis rail and the sill. We've opted for an underslung gas tank as it frees up more storage space within the van and is easy to top up, so running out of gas is less likely! We will also have a Livello LPG gauge mounted to our control panel so we can easily see the remaining level from inside the van.

The tank is jacked up into place and holes for the mounting straps marked and drilled through the van floor. These bolts will still be accessible from inside the van by removing the drawer should we ever have to renew these fixing straps in the future.

The Angle of the tank is very important so that the 80% cutoff works and that no liquid LPG can exit the tank into the regulator. Once the angle of the tank is set using a gauge, the rubber straps are fitted to the steel mounts and the tank is secured.

The filling point is mounted just under the pillar on the driver's side.  We decided to reinforce the bracket by welding another tab onto it, the bracket is then sealed and riveted onto the inner sill and outrigger.

The 2 stage regulator is mounted to the underside of the van floor as high as possible with the test port easily accessible. Holes are drilled and grommets inserted and the pipes made up to connect the regulator to the tank.  Pipe is made up to connect the fill point to the tank also.  All gas pipework under the van is done in 8mm rubber coated copper pipe.

Inside the van the gas comes into a 2 way manifold mounted in our utility cupboard which will house the Truma Combi 4e heater, bin, cleaning stuff and tools etc.

The screw holes in the manifold wouldn't give it much support drilled into the chipboard cupboard so these holes were tapped and threaded to take an m5 bolt to securely clamp it to the cupboard.

Kitchen Units

As I said there's a lot of planning involved in any camper conversion.  We've spent A LOT of time planning this kitchen part...

Once we'd decided what sizes of units will suit us best, of course I'm out with my spreadsheets again to compare costs for several kitchen unit companies.

We compared Ikea, B&Q, Howdens and Wren and have decided on B&Q.

So we spent the whole day today building kitchen units...

We've gone with B&Q's 'Caraway' range as it comes in the sizes we want, and is pretty cheap...

Experts in flat pack furniture building...

For the base cabinets, we're having one at 300mm, two at 500mm, and one at 400mm. On top of the 300mm unit closest to the drivers seat, we're having a 150mm unit which will serve as a wine cupboard.

As wall units, we're improvising and using 2x 300mm wall cabinets turned on their side to open upwards.

We had to make another hardboard rear panel for those 300mm wall cabinets that we're turning sideways as the one that comes with the unit obviously has gaps to accommodate the side hinges that we don't need...

Here's all the base cupboards built and assembled!

Kitchen in situ!!

Roof ribs and more nonsense...

Today we've started the roof. We've measured and cut 'ribs' from 12mm ply.

We cut little grooves in the surface of the ply to allow it to curve and match the shape of the van...

The planks of ply were glued and screwed to the body of the van...

Next comes the nonsense... 

We sprayed the 'no nonsense' spray insulation into the gaps in the roof ribs to insulate. And the stuff went everywhere... We learned from the last time though and put down a protective cover to contain the nonsense... 

Framing Part 2 - and SO MUCH MEASURING...

Today we've finished the framing by doing the same on the other side of the van. Next we measure all the 'walls' of each little 'cupboard' space

These are measured out onto 5mm ply and cut out using a handsaw.

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Each 'wall' is carpeted using Veltrim...

Each carpeted panel is glued and screwed into place. Now we have some furry cupboards!