Three-Two-One....

...ignition. Blast off! With a whoosh and a roar, the Wallas hob is up'n away!

Or, in our case, not. If this was a moonshot, we'd have got about as far as first-stage separation before the mission was terminated with an embarrassing "phutt". We are dismayed....

But before we get to that, it's time to unveil our new rear end. So to speak. Elly has had a massive makeover over the last few weeks purely to accommodate the Wallas hob, some of which we've already shown. With all the trim and fancy stuff now in place, it's time for the Grand Tour of our Grand Design. Actually, Kevin McCloud probably wouldn't be that interested...more in the territory of George "Oh My Word" Clarke and his Amazing Small Spaces. 

So, cue drum roll, here is our new home-on-wheels, our latest room-with-a-thousand views, with sales pitch from Bodgit & Scarper, Estate Agents:

The view from the entrance hall

"Hello and welcome to this rare opportunity to view a unique approach to Pikey Living. From the street you could be forgiven for thinking that this is just another 110, but open the back door and...
The designers have thoughtfully provided space for 3 Wolf boxes along the entrance corridor which can form a bed base if the occupant is solo, unmarried or in trouble. There's room to stretch out too - the area under the drawers and storage box which used to have the wheel change kit is now clear, allowing a space to place the feet. Or foot, if pedally challenged. We like to be inclusive.

Moving along, on the left we have..

The kitchen

 This is mostly 12mm waterproof external grade ply with aluminium edging, sensibly finished with quick-drying, heat resistant woodstain varnish from Messrs Ronseal. The drawer and closet fronts are 6mm ply as they carry no loads. The rubber flooring which extends up the skirting boards (or where they would be) is waterproof, hardwearing and easy to clean and is insulated underneath.

And on the right, we have...

 

The lounge/diner

😃The tip-up seat won't be a pair - see previous on this - but it doesn't matter since the only time it needs to be is if we're carrying passengers, which almost never happens. If/when it does, someone's going to be sitting on the floor or on the guest chair:

This is a seat from an old Series which was thrown out from a mate's garage. I thought I'd never find a use for it and it almost went into the bin... The load rail can act as an anchor point for a lap belt in extremis. Probably not legal....must remember to take it out when MoT time comes around again. 😶

Ahem...excuse me, don't interrupt! Moving on along the corridor, on the left we have...

The sitting room

This cosy little nook is a quiet haven for the non-chef to relax and enjoy the papers while other activities take place.

😉It keeps me out of the Soup Dragon's way.

60 litres of drinking water can be stored under the desk top which  is removeable to allow access to the filler cap, as well as being a lap-top laptop tray.

 With the worktop folded into place, the kitchen is 1/3rd bigger without sacrificing anything. The view through the blind spot window isn't compromised whether the flap is up or down. It's supported by timber fold-out bracing which makes it capable of easily holding 30kgs.

 Retracing our steps and looking to your right, we have the sink, neatly covered by this bespoke worktop, just like they have on telly. This can itself be covered with an aluminium sheet, tailored to fit, that was lovingly crafted from an old computer cabinet. It can be used as a cutting board or a heatproof potstand.

 The sink is an innovative design feature which came about in response to the extortionate delivery charges demanded by The Usual Suspects in the caravan accessories business. The sink has 2 depths depending on how clean one wishes to be or how dirty one has become. In the worst case, the sink may be extended...

...to provide a hip bath. There is ample headroom should the bather wish to adopt a more erect stance.

 The slide-out fridge freezer is a masterpiece of the Skip Diver's art, using as it does items that have been carefully retained 

 he means "hoarded"

for many years. This re-use of materials doesn't reflect the previous, numerous and failed attempts to achieve this result, which have reduced the Materials Store 

He means "junk pile"


to a mere fraction of its former volume.

Kitchen storage has been imaginatively arranged to get a quart into a pint pot. Once again, recycling of various items has reduced the carbon footprint of the design and freed up space to accumulate yet more treasures from the Tip.

 A family-friendly dining experience is enhanced by this pull-out table which allows 3 people to dine in close proximity provided they are not over Size 10 or have big arses. Prospective occupants who exceed this criteria may have to dine Al Fresco. If he's open. 
We hope you have enjoyed your tour of this delightful bijou mobile residence."

All we need now is a bloody cooker that works! We're going to the Danny Boyle "Pages of the Sea" Remembrance event in Findhorn Bay tomorrow and had hoped to be able to provide tea and bacon sarnies to friends from our brand new kitchen but it's not to be; at least, not using our very expensive Wallas hob, it ain't. We can't get it to work. We'll be using the Old Faithful gas cooker instead. Hmmm.

We've spent a long time this week firing the Wallas up and trying to get it to stay lit. It works fine - up to a point - now that we've finished the fuel plumbing. I'm still waiting for some parts that might be useful to come from the supplier since he's happy to swap the "bean tin" for the VW T5 kit. In the interim I've plumbed the fuel line into the main tank using the redundant breather pipe I blocked off before since it was breathing a little too readily! I've passed the fuel pipe through some PVC hosepipe so it's protected under the chassis and now the connections are made the diesel flows properly into the filter and beyond. In fact the filter filled so quickly the pump must have quite a powerful suck to it.

This is the final Final Arrangement of the feeds to the Wallas hob. I think....hope?

The ignition sequence works just as the manual says, but after exactly 4 minutes and 50 seconds - actually plus or minus 5 seconds on that - we get a flameout indication and everything cools down. This time is consistent over the 15 attempts we've now made to get it going and suggests to me something other than fuel starvation; like some kind of auto-shutdown is happening. We've been through the fault-finding guide in the manual and eliminated all the listed causes, so we're stumped. Again. Not only that but I've had to run the engine occasionally to keep the battery up to charge and I've now got a bloody headache from the fumes.

Having got thoroughly fed up with playing about, I gave up and turned my attention to something else. 
In the box of bits that the PO gave me was the broken cover to the rear door latch. I nearly binned it but now that I've seen how much these trivial bits of plastic cost, I'm glad I didn't. Obviously nobody makes copies of these so we're forced to pay Landrover Dealer prices. You can add a nought or three to the actual production cost to get a replacement...so I've repaired it with a bit of aluminium trim left over from the kitchen.

 I intended to put the ally under the edge to make it neater, but this makes the cover stand so proud of the frame the chequerplate skin won't sit down correctly, so I had to put it on top. It's not too noticeable, though, and a lot cheaper than the alternative.

Another quick job now that the heater box and blower duct are back in, was to put one of these on...

We've replaced the cable grips on the drainpipes with proper p-clips too

This is called a Snow Cowl and hopefully will keep the water out of the blower duct and prevent the problem that the other one suffered from. Some people reckon that a ram-air duct on this intake works to assist the blower, but our experience doesn't support that theory. I reckon that you need to be moving at considerable speed for a small duct suchas anything that can be fitted here will have any significant effect; otherwise it just gets in the way and actually collects more water than the standard intake grille. Since we never get up to anything approaching Escape Velocity, we wouldn't ever get any benefit.
I thought I had some photos of the final stage of refitting the blower motor, but can't find 'em. Suffice to say that the resistor

arrived last Friday at 12 and everything was back together and blowing like the London Philharmonic by 2pm. At 2 speeds anorl 👍

 

I also made up a couple of these:

They need a slight dimple in the centre of the slot to make them easier to use, and a coat of, in our case, black paint to make them less obvious. If you're an Alu-Cab owner, you might realise why I've made them. If you're not, I'll not give anything away. 'Nuff to say that they address another security problem in addition to all the others that Defender owners have. If anyone wants an explanation, post a comment with your Alu-Cab receipt and I might tell you...

A short update for Alu-Cab owners...the slot that I cut in these was slightly too long and I've closed the gap a little with a washer on the back. The important thing is to support the channel by the lock so it sits high enough to guard the vulnerable area. I'm sure you'll know what I mean....

And finally, say Hello to the newest recruit to the Elisfor Overland Adventure Society:-

"Jess" is a Coxie - a cross between a collie and fox, we think. Anyway, she's car-friendly, lightweight, quiet and likes to travel. She's been in the Shetland Islands since birth 2 years ago and spent the last week in trucks, ships and strange places. She's been with us for 36 hours now, and has already decided where she likes to spend her afternoons!