A Bit More Skip-Diving, and we have....

...a few more bits of Old Crutch that will be given a new lease of life.

 The rear awning still didn't work. At least, it was a bit of a faff to put up and had guy lines. In our experience these are as much use as booby-traps to trip unwary campers as they are to hold anything up. There are better ways, these just need inventing. 
We had another rummage around in the garage attic and found another, heavier, rubberised groundsheet/tarp thing with some pretty solid eyelets and some more bits of Old Crutch. With a bit of creative re-assembly these were made into something that was long enough to span the tarp, adjustable and could be broken down into manageable lengths.
With all the bits assembled we fought to put it all together in the usual gale. The addition of a few bits of bungee held it more firmly together than before, and we could get rid of two of the four guylines. I think, if we get the tension right, we can even replace the remainder with bungee cord from the lower corners of the tarp. This makes it sturdier still, removes the trip hazard and the potentially difficult placing of pegs in hard ground - like our driveway - hence the fire extinguisher!

The new arrangement doesn't have the down-to-the-ground coverage of the previous one but I don't think this is a problem. We also still have the side curtains that we made for a previous experiment in this area, which could be used to completely enclose the back door for, say, a shower cubicle. We wouldn't use it for that unless in extremis though - we don't need a muddy puddle right outside the door.

The interior fit-out continues apace. The fridge slide has undergone some re-design...

We got some heavy-duty drawer runners that are supposed to be able to carry 60kgs and used the mounting points previously used to hold the non-sliding sliders. For a change, everything lined up perfectly, even the pre-drilled holes in the runners line up with the holes in the mounts, so I was very happy with that. Normally, of course, that doesn't happen. Once it was all assembled the Soup Dragon expressed her satisfaction with the new design...phew!

The fridge now moves effortlessly in and out, and we've wrapped it in camping mat for more insulation.

This might not be very effective since it isn't sealed all round but just tied on with thin bungee cord, but it's worth a try given that the commercial alternative insulation jacket is very expensive. Because the fridge can now slide out, we can open it without having to tip the seats forward, which was always a faff since the catches are hard to reach from almost everywhere - one downside of aftermarket seats that are a bit wider than standard.

It wasn't until I'd fixed everything in place that I found that the cutting board that I'd left in the forward storage bin was now too big to get out....I managed to get a thin saw in there to do some surgery and this is the result:

I'm sure it'll work just as well.

On the subject of seats, I finally got a reply of sorts from Exmoor Trim. I wanted to be sure I could get another of the "brown logo" seats before starting work on that aspect of the "kitchen". After a lot of wasted time it turns out that they're available, perhaps, on special order, if they can find the right colour vinyl from somewhere. While we wait for a definitive on this, I decided to just get on and fit the one we have:

The seat frame was supposed to have adjustable brackets on the frames for the seat back. Mine aren't, they're welded on. This required a bit of ingenuity to fix them as none of the holes would line up with the factory rail in the tub. I modified a few bolts to slide into the cargo rail that we fitted...

...and cut to length they hold everything very firmly. The base is just screwed to the baseboard at the moment until we get the other seat to fit next to it. There may be a tiny bit of shifting around to be done, and we don't want to drill any holes until then.

The seat's very comfortable and the right cushion thickness to sit at the stove at the present height, so it'll do the job for now. The second seat might eventually come from Exmoor Trim, but they aren't the most responsive of suppliers.

Because we're still planning the diesel hob installation the present arrangements will be there for a while, so we've made a kind of overhead screen to protect the underside of the bed if we want to use the stove without popping the roof up. I'm still playing around with a design for an extractor fan, and I've sourced some computer fans that are a bit more effective than the ones I trialled earlier, so hopefully we can make some kind of housing for these that'll pull all the fumes and smells outside.

Opening the driver's door in the rain yesterday I got a small shower of water on my knee, an inconvenience I thought I'd sorted with the Elephants Trunk drainage tube. Since this is made of translucent plastic it's got all gunged up with algae and is now blocked. Having now proved the concept, though, it didn't take long to replace the plastic with something a little more permanent and smarter.

 I couldn't find anything the right diameter to use as a support for the bend except another bit of plastic tube, so I had to do a cold bend or it'd be a right mess. Because of this the tube cracked at one of the bends. I'll have another go with a bit of annealed tube (from a tent pole repair kit). Being opaque it shouldn't get filled with grot quite so easily, but I'll add some kind of filter at the top anyway.

I've spent quite some time preparing for the AO show at Stratford which happens the weekend after next. It's already getting chilly at night up here so this will be a good test of the roof tent in less-than-ideal conditions. Let's hope the rain holds off, though...