A Long Weekend

1100 miles long, in fact. A visit to the Adventure Overland

Show at Stratford-on-Avon.

 

 

This event has been a favourite of ours for a few years, but this year I was due to be working overseas so Sue accepted an invitation to a "girly" weekend in Dublin. In the usual way of things, though, my trip was postponed until next year and Sue had already bought her tickets so...I had a solo weekend which I filled with the trip Down South.

We'd read a fair amount of criticism of the show over the last year, mainly from folk who feel it should offer more to encourage their attendance. Our take on this...the show exists, for us, as a venue for like-minded people to meet, chat, share views, ideas and offer inspiration. The trade pitches are interesting and a useful source for those just starting out in the game, but not exactly essential for us. By contrast the seminars and hands-on sessions are of more interest and only work if there's an enthusiastic, engaged audience. In other words, the show only works if it's supported by people who are prepared to contribute something, even if this is just their presence.

Tom McGuigan, the organiser, threw out an All-Comers invitation - or perhaps that should be "challenge" - for anyone who had a passion for a subject to share this with everyone via a presentation at the seminar venue. Given that this seemed like one of those "money-where-your-mouth-is" moments, I volunteered to give two 45 minute presentations on navigation-related subjects. Tom offered free entrance and camping for the duration which wasn't a bad swap given that I was intending to go down anyway.

A couple of weeks later and I had two fairly polished slideshows. Tom then decided that the subjects could be used as a basis for a "workshop" on navigation. Hmm. The structure of my slideshow didn't really work like that and anyway, I've got no real idea of how a "workshop" works other than imagining a classroom with a dozen big tables covered in maps and a lot of strangers standing around looking at each other and shuffling their feet. I would have to lead the discussion, or whatever it turned out to be, and unless the room was full of enthusiastic amateur explorers, would probably have to keep talking. With that in mind, Sue and I rehearsed it and decided to keep it in the "Chalk and Talk" format just for the sake of time. I talk, they listen, questions at the end.

We packed Elly for the trip and I made a few last-minute adjustments. Another drainpipe was added to the passenger side and we put some of the kitchen stuff back in so I didn't have to live on Mars Bars and pot noodles. We pre-chilled the Engel and I filled it with all the essentials of life...curry and beer. The wireless temperature sensors appear to work well, but the position I chose for the display unit makes it difficult to read as it's in deep shadow compared to the brightness outside, and my eyes are taking longer to adjust from "outside" to "inside" viewing nowadays. I finally ditched the HUDL tablet for OSM (maps) or anything else - it's just given up, I think. The touchscreen is now a "hit it with something hard" screen and even then it's a lottery if anything appears so it's gone into the bin.

The trip down was marked by the high winds and torrential rain further south. In fact, the further south I drove the worse it got. Just after Carlisle I stopped to change my trainers for waterproof walking boots as my right foot had been soaked by water dripping from behind the dashboard. I'd cured the overhead shower with the drainpipes but clearly there's wet stuff getting in somewhere else. Need to find that before it does damage, I thought, about 10 minutes before the windscreen wipers and heater went onto "permanent transmit". I couldn't turn either of them off which, given the conditions, wasn't a major problem. Later on, though, I had to keep squirting screenwash to keep the wipers lubricated and stop them squeaking across a dry screen. In the end, and when the rain stopped, I pulled the fuse out. 
The bigger door mirrors don't cope well with high speeds. Well, anything over 65 is "high speed" in this vehicle, and at that velocity the mirrors vibrate in the slipstream so badly that they're almost useless. A bit of tightening and tweaking of the support arms improved things a bit, but the view needs improving, particularly now the fridge cuts the rear view in the internal mirror by half. What I could see in the blindspot mirrors was useful, though.

 The weather forecast for the weekend wasn't too bad, but the arrival of Storm Ali had made the journey down and the first night a bit of a challenge. My plan had been that if it was too bad I could always sleep on the Wolf box bed, but in the event I decided to give the roof bed its first real bad-weather test. I slept like a baby despite the gale outside, and only minimal rocking. I did, though, make sure I was pointing into wind to give it the best chance. A check around in the morning revealed some - actually, quite a bit - of condensation on the channel around the top of the side curtains. I'd not realised that this was bare metal, so it'll have to be insulated with something. There was still a damp patch at each rear corner too, so I put some seam sealer onto the curtains where they were stitched.

I put the new rear awning up in a stiff breeze, so it was a bit of a struggle. Once up, though, it did a great job. The springiness in the fibreglass pole was enough, once I'd stopped it being displaced by the wind, for me to get rid of the guy lines completely. It rained hard on Saturday night but the water just ran off exactly as predicted! Very pleased with that...and the fact that some folk declared their intention to copy it.

I did the two talks which seemed to go down well although the room that'd been set aside for them wasn't well signposted and I think that some of my potential audience might just have given up looking for it. It took me 2 hours to find the right place as well, and I thought I knew where I was going! Several bum steers and a lot of to-ing and fro-ing later, everything eventually came together although it was a bit of a last minute thing, which I gather is Tom's style.

Like I said, the weekend, for me, is all about meeting new people and exchanging ideas and experiences. I had a warm welcome from these guys...

BOOBS - the banner tells the story.

The banner says it all, really. They made me very welcome at their gazebo-cum-chatroom and we shared a common interest in making something useful out of the junk in our sheds and local skips. Their firepit/brazier made from an old washing machine drum is a stroke of genius and a work of art. We swapped a few ideas and addresses, stories and beer.

One of the guests who dropped by was this chap:

Richard Matthews has some tales to tell...

who'd just completed a round-the-world drive in a Nissan Micra! Quite a trip, and probably a book in it, I think.

The trade stands were set up by the Usual Suspects, really. They weren't doing what you'd call a roaring trade due to the howling wind (Saturday) or the lashing rain (Sunday). A few folk commented that the numbers weren't anything like those of the previous year and I did get the impression that things were a bit quiet. There didn't seem to be much to interest the ladies, either, which possibly meant some of the guys didn't hang around any longer than the time needed to do a couple of circuits of the "shops" in the wet. Certainly, I didn't feel inclined to make my normal examination of the campsite for Good Ideas that I could steal.

I bumped into Kelly and her partner from Doncaster on the LVB stand. She was the lady I spoke to after Larry's phone call back in June who persuaded us to get moving on the AluCab conversion. Her Defender has probably got the most unusual colour scheme I've seen so far - Shocking Pink isn't in many people's off-road palette.

It's interesting to see that so many folk use the backs of their trucks as storage space, not living space. The most common solution for cooking is a gas stove on a backdoor shelf which is great if the weather's kind but a bit limiting in our experience. Kelly has the large swing-out awning though, so provided it's not too windy or there aren't too many bugs, this would work well with the addition, perhaps, of some side curtains if it gets cold. The awning you see above though is serious money which we haven't got, now that we've blown the budget on....

...a Wallas diesel hob and heater. The UK distributor was there and I'd spotted the banner from my parking spot on the other side of the course. Having not seen one of these "in the flesh" I wanted to get an idea of how it performed, heat, noise and all that before parting with the cash. Brett didn't have a unit I could take away, which I found a bit surprising, but we agreed he'd waive the shipping charges for a deal...

The rest of the shopping consisted of a new horn to replace the one that was drowned a while ago and has never really recovered, a socket-and-chain gadget that will make getting oil filters off a bit easier and a "snow cowl" for the fan/heater intake. This won't fix the present problem but it might make it less likely to occur in future...assuming I can repair it first. The next guy in the line, who'd been humming and hah-ing over what he might buy so allowed me to jump the queue, also asked for one, but...
I'd walked away with the last. I offered to sell it to him for cost plus a tenner, but he wasn't playing. He looked a bit grumpy...

The journey home was uneventful but the damage to trees from the previous storm was obvious - lots of mature trees, including oaks, with broken trunks and ripped boughs.

I'd read in my research for the talks that "equinoctial gales" aren't statistically as common as we think, but when you see this every year, it makes you wonder what's going on. Anyway, I got back home on Monday having spent the night, comfortably, in a roadside car park near Carlisle. The joy of a pop-top...stopped at 2030, ready for bed at 2035! Slept like the dead for 10 hours...bliss. This was the first multi-day outing for the new accommodation and I have no complaints - it worked perfectly, so now all I have to do is get used to the fact that I can stand up to get dressed. Old habits die hard!

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...

Going Around in Circles.

Now that the background work is complete down one side of the truck, it's time to start on the more interesting stuff.

However, before I got to grips with more challenges inside, I had another look at the Masai windows. Their suggestion regarding a DIY repair didn't mention that the bare metal would have to be etch primed to give the new paint any chance of adhering. Without primer the topcoat would flake off quicker than a leper's lips so possibly the etch primer wasn't applied to the frame to begin with, hence the problem. Anyway, I've followed their instructions to the letter on the OS window and we'll see how long this "repair" lasts. The NS window I've done my way. They haven't bothered to respond to my whinge about their answer and "solution". Will I buy anything else from them....?



Back inside. We explored the best arrangement for the fixtures a while ago, and decided that to get decent  - read "barely possible" - access to the storage bins the fridge would have to be on sliders. This would also allow it to be moved to the centre aisle for La Chef to get easier access; the benefit here would be it could be opened fully without having to tip the driver's seat forwards, and could provide extra worktop space closer to the hob. Sliding it back to the OS is necessary when on the move otherwise it blocks the view through the blindspot window.

The runners clear the Wolf box so this storage- and the single bed base - still works although I'll have to sleep the other way round with my feet at the front end.

I had a pair of heavy duty slides that had originally been used to mount video projectors. These can take serious loads but are really lightweight and superbly engineered. I spent the whole day fiddling about with these and eventually had them mounted so that they were level, square and solidly fixed to the truck bed.

I was very pleased with the result...until I mounted the (empty) fridge on top. Given the restricted access since we can't get in front of it to pull it out the fridge didn't want to slide very easily at all. It worked, but only just and bearing in mind this was without the top extension or anything in it, I was forced to admit that it didn't work well enough.

The problem, I think, is the Delrin lining to the slider mounts just doesn't have the necessary "slipperiness" to work in the way we need despite plenty of silicone lube. A wasted day, going in circles trying to get everything to work and ultimately failing, but better to admit it now rather than having to do it again later when other stuff will be in the way, like the new seats.

I contacted Exmoor Trim to see if they could replicate the seat I already have. They asked me to send a photo. That was over a week ago and no response. Maybe it's me? Harrumph!

Little bits'n pieces...blind spot mirrors - the little 50mm ones - stuck to the door mirrors, which give an improved view that's altogether safer than before.



Then there's the net pocket on the passenger side, at the special request of the Navigator,

that holds water bottles and tea flasks and stops them rolling around and annoying the Driver every time we turn a corner!!!





 
The CB radio is re-installed in the very handy overhead tray that comes with the Alu-Cab roof. There's also plenty of storage up there for maps and guidebooks too, although they'll probably need some kind of restraint given our experience with my DIY version. Getting showered with books on every steep upslope became a bit predictable. We removed the handle from underneath the "ceiling" too - it was just low enough to whack us on the head if the roof is down.

After a few more "ups and downs" with the roof we've worked out that if it's pulled down too quickly the air can't get out and this makes the fabric "balloon" and get trapped in the side seals. This is made a bit worse if the bungee cord that gathers it all in isn't set high enough. All little things that you only work out by trial and error. It might be better to leave the tops of the side panels undone by a few centimetres to allow the air to escape more easily.

The new door seals will take along time to bed in, so we've closed the enormous draughty gap on the driver's door with rubber exclusion strip.

 

Not only is it now air and water tight, it also makes the door close with an even more expensive sounding "thud" than it had before after the vibration damping stuff was stuck into them.



I'm now waiting for a tube of Tiger Seal (which is apparently lost in the post) so I can fit the new heated back window, and some heavy duty drawer runners that will hopefully solve the fridge access problem. Everything remotely useful has to come by mail order - I can't even buy a stainless steel screw anywhere within 40 miles...the joys of rural life!

Taking a break.

We gave ourselves a weekend off from playing with our toys and did some culture instead...

that's if you consider, as we did, spending a soggy Saturday evening with 25,000 pissed-up Picts wearing Saltires as cloaks and jumping up and down in the mud to "Beat The Drum" and "Stamping Ground" as culture...

Yep - Aye - we went to see the final concert of Runrig - and what a great night it was.

The venue couldn't have been better chosen, in the fields below a floodlit Stirling castle; the music was predictably outstanding and the audience "engaged", as they say. A good craic. A great band said "goodbye" very well. Hard to believe that they've been around as a band for all of my adult life....

On the way home I was reminded of why I've been trying to work out some kind of cruise control for the throttle. After 4 hours with my right foot flexed at about the same angle it became quite sore and when I got out to refuel I was hobbling. The same thing happened when we were going through Spain - hours of almost fixed-throttle driving on almost empty motorways left my ankle almost permanently bent out of shape. Some kind of manual control of the gas pedal would be useful when the compressor is running, too, so we can have the alternator work a bit harder to replace the electrical juice to the battery. The latter should be easy, not sure about the cruise control, though.

The wall (carpet) lining material has arrived and is a perfect match for the headlining under the bed, and it came with a can of spray glue as well. I've finished the foam insulation so now we should have a good base to stick the "carpet" to. This should give a more muted feel to the sound in the back as well as being warm to the touch. This ought to help with our anticipated condensation problem and generally give a more professional look to the finish. Another nod to the moisture issue is this slot that we cut in the side panel. Once again, the cut took more time than necessary since we measured 4 times before cutting once.

This is covered by louvres on the outside, fixed in place with pop rivets..

 and this sliding vent on the inner:

The things holding it all aligned are called "clecos" - very useful things.

 With all the cutting and insulation done, it was time to get started on the cosmetics. Lining "carpet"; actually, more like a thick felt.





  I had a test run on one of the vertical pillars, and a good job I did....until I realised, not being a soft-furnishings sort of bloke, that the stuff had a "good" side, and the Other One.  You'll have worked out that I had a 50/50 chance of either getting the glue on the Right Side or the Other One. Which one did I choose?

Anyway, having realised I managed to peel it off - destroying it in the process - but learned the lesson the cheap way. Would've sworn a bit if I'd done a large panel first....

This is the final assembly. Cargo rail and load straps fitted, the top brackets of which hold the "pelmet" in place. The LED lighting strip hooks over two of the load strap brackets so we can easily move it outside. It's a standard strip, glued to a length of ally door trim.

We made a removable panel- see above - for the "big bit" of the driver's side since I needed access to the nuts that hold the external accessories. I thought about just glueing the liner to the insulation but this would've been a) lazy and b) a potential difficulty if we ever want to take those parts off, perhaps for a respray. The panel can be easily removed once the trim for the rear side window has been taken away. This took some thought to ensure that this would be possible without interference from one side or the other. All done with 6mm ply and some woodstain/varnish to make sure that nothing would warp.  Must say that I'm impressed with the stuff we used for the lining - easy to form around odd angles and curves because it has some stretch. Once the cargo rail and straps were re-installed, this bit is done. The lighting strip is removeable for use under the awning, but I put in a dimmer switch for those romantic evenings indoors...

A little bit of carpentry, and the driver's side is looking finished, or at least neater...

I've just noticed the untrimmed edge above the window - should've used a torch to light things up a bit

 

The lack of overhead cover to the back door was something we noticed last weekend, so I applied myself to a solution using, as usual, scraps and junk that was (were?) laying about.

I've had all this stuff knocking about for years, mostly originating from the skips at work!

 This is what we came up with as a "first try".

This didn't survive the troop-trial on the driveway. The plastic brackets, seemingly good enough on the bench, couldn't take the leverage of the long arms and cracked. Having removed all the internal trim panels to bolt it all together and then replaced 'em , I had to take them all off again to dismantle everything. 

Back to the workbench, and a complete re-think. As usual, I'd over-engineered the first try, and came up with a much better solution the second time around using the ever-popular bungees, the windbreak, some fibreglass tent poles and 2 steel awning poles:

As a try-it rig, we used a fibreglass tent pole and bungee hook to support the cover. It's braced around the "helper strut" for the roof.

 

In fact, if I stitch a length of cord along the edge that mates to the vehicle, I don't need the fibreglass pole to hang it off. The cord will take the strain and 2 bungee hooks over the helper struts will anchor it at an appropriate height. The real triumph here is the catenary arch. This is formed by several fibreglass tent poles flexed under the canopy and gives a nice taut roof that will allow the rain to run off and not pool. For anyone who's clever enough to note the slope back towards the truck...Well Done, but as the vent of the roof tent overhangs the cover there shouldn't be much, if any, run-off in that direction. 

 I hope. 

The actual cover is the same one we use for a windbreak and is supposed to be a bird hide, which is why it has a zippered flap in it, which is just at the right place to be a window!

I'm not keen on the guy lines to hold the steel poles up, and neither the steel poles, actually. My preferred aluminium poles are quite expensive, so we'll go with the heavy, cheap ones until we're sure it all works properly. Previously I've used some cannibalised aluminium crutches to make adjustable poles, and bloody useful they've been. High-quality material that apparently has a very short operational life, given the number I've seen thrown away. Must find some more....

Troop Trials of the New Roof.

Our second excursion took place this weekend, and we have a bit of work to do....

We took Elly to Stonehaven for a night out. This didn't work out quite as we'd planned as the town was chock-full of people and cars. With nowhere to park we had to just pass through and decided to pay a visit to Dunnottar castle instead. 
 

image from Trip Advisor

Arriving there we found the carpark full and the off-road carpark - the verge - full for a mile...We had our picnic lunch at the end of this line and then disappeared southwards to our overnight spot.

We'd booked in as a single tent plus car. The warden's rep queried this. Were we not a "campervan"? If so we'd attract a charge of £20 per night, not the £10 for a"tent + car". I pointed out that the 6-berth bungalow tent almost next to us had a car parked alongside and was taking up 4 times the area that we'd occupied, and were being charged £10. I guess if we'd pulled out a pop-up tent and thrown it on the ground alongside Elly, the debate wouldn't have arisen...we all had a laugh about it and I paid £10.


After another comfortable night we awoke to a much wetter view than the night before. It'd obviously been raining for quite a while but I hadn't heard a thing. In a tent, of course, the rattle of raindrops on canvas would've disturbed my slumbers straight away, but the tin top overhead deadened the sound completely. We did notice that the outer corners of the mattress squab that goes over the "escape hatch" were wet. The cause of this needs investigating but is clearly either the zip or the seam in the corners of the tent fabric. The seams are supposed to be sealed but there's clear daylight visible through the stitching. Most tents need "conditioning" to let the threads expand and create a waterproof seam, but this hasn't happened with these. They've had 2 good soakings now, so perhaps it's time to get out the seam sealer and give them some attention.

The second area to be improved is the overhead cover outside the back door. The roof tent gave a superb "porch" that protected us from the rain when the tent was open. The overhang of the Alu-Cab doesn't provide anywhere near the same level of protection, so we're going to improve on that somehow. 

One reason for the weekend was to try to work out a new arrangement for  the back end. Lots of options here, the obvious one being to rip everything out and start again from scratch. This'd be a bit  of a waste of materials and experience - some of what we have works very well. Let's face it, after so many experiments it ought to! The thought of starting school again...not appealing..surely there's something we can preserve?

The increase in the available height would allow us to raise the cooking area. This was the premise from which the whole exercise was begun. It now appears, after more thought, that the ability to stand up and cook is ideal "but not necessary all of the time". Can you hear the silence and measured breathing here? 😩. In fact, the 160mm or so of extra headroom even without folding the sleeping platform into the roof gets rid of the claustrophobic feeling of brushing against the ceiling all the time.

So.....we both stood inside again and discussed the options. The cardboard mock-up of the Engel was put in and moved about - much easier than doing that with the Real Thing. 

The fridge can't go on the other side as it'd block the "blind spot" window.

 We want to keep the storage bins but the 2 smaller ones at the front end are blocked by the Engel in this configuration. Options are to make access from the side, put the Engel on a slide so we can pull it out of the way or accept that it's "dead space". Not happy with the latter - a bit like surrender! We'll find a way....

I assembled a folding seat that we'd got from eBay at a bargain price.

With the Engel at the end of the storage area, there's room for 2 of these seats side-by-side. The squabs lift up to allow us access to the storage underneath and are handily each the same width as the lids. We only have one seat at the moment and the material is, I think, out of production, so we may have to buy a non-matching second seat and 2 dust covers - probably a good thing anyway.

We made a dummy cooker and set it at the level that would allow stand-up and sit-down use, and put the folding chair in place to see how much room 2 of them would need, side-by-side. Tried to imagine it all being used; which doors needed to open at the same time, what gets in the way of something else, all that ergonomic stuff. Lots of compromise solutions suggested themselves, but in the end we came up with something that seems to work given that there are some "must haves":

Engel fridge and top extension is an example. 

This "TwoZone" accessory only seems to be available in Australia. We found it very useful to use it as a fridge and keep the larger lower section as a freezer. It takes up a lot of space but it's worth it. Cold beer! A steak when 4 days out from the market is a real bonus.

And some "can't do anything about", like the position of the water storage, for instance.

Of the present arrangements, the "NAAFI flap" is so useful we wanted to keep it.

 

For those not old enough to remember, the picture shows the reason for the description...

This opens up the back end to the view, fresh air and conversation. 
We haven't sold much tea or ice cream as a result of having it, but it does allow passers-by to chat.😊






We want to be able to use the inside tap - and thus a sink, even if it's a removable bowl - and this suggests it should be on the side it is now or we'd have to run plumbing and wiring to the other side of the vehicle. By not having the cooker so high we could keep it and the sink roughly where they are now and still keep some of the opening area of the flap. It will still leave enough to give a useful view and, more importantly, ventilation.

I'd been trying to figure out how to build an extractor fan into the wall on the other side, and it wasn't going to work very well. 
The fact that cooking smells and steam, plus the wet by-product of cooking on gas, hasn't really been a bother before was because our bed was on the other side of the roof. Now, all that damp atmosphere was going to be enclosed and we need some way of getting rid of it. Opening the doors and windows is the obvious way but not ideal, especially if it's wet, windy or calm and midgie. The ability to use the NAAFI flap as a vent is good, but it has to be alongside the cooker to be effective. If the weather is too bad even for that, there's room to install a small extractor fan, perhaps made from a computer fan like Daphne's, in the flap. We've tried an insect net over the opening but with even a slight breeze it can get too close to the flame. Maybe I'll continue with this experiment:

This is a duct, electric motor and model aeroplane propeller donated to the cause of DIY by the engineering manager at work. It shifts a lot more air than a computer fan, but it's got 4 times the area.

This brings us back to the choice of cooker/heater. We thought about carrying a single burner gas stove to use on the drop-down table on the back door. 

This needs the door to be open while the burner's in use, which is a bit of a limitation and no good for heating. Using the existing double-burner stove introduces a lot of moisture into the air; this is bad enough from cooking but if we wanted to use it for heating too, it'd be impossible in cold weather. Imagine all that wet air condensing on everything? Camping Gaz or propane doesn't work so well in a cold environment so we'd be forced to keep the cylinder inside. This is what we do now and I've never been happy with the idea but because we were sleeping "outside", it was a compromise we could live with. We're not prepared to make that compromise any more, now that we're sleeping in the "same room". Nonetheless, the burner/sink combo in the Smev range here...

...seemed to fit the requirements quite well and at a reasonable price. It'd only do cooking, though, but we thought that leaving a burner on for a while would heat the truck up nicely if it weren't for the moisture it'd produce.

Petrol stove? We had one of these for a while, a Coleman. Worked well but produced fumes and I was never really happy with the need to pressurize the fuel to get it to vapourise. I've seen these stoves flare up with spectacular results, which would mean only using them outside the vehicle. This wouldn't work most of the time.

A diesel powered heater like an Eberspaecher is one option for heating; the common solution but expensive. 

 These are apparently the "industry standard" for heaters and are fitted to, for instance, Pulse ambulances. There are a number of variations on this theme ranging from cheap Chinese "knock-offs" to UK-supplied lookalikes with a decent warranty. Added to the list of "possibles".


  We heard a (false) rumour of a combination cooker/heater made by the same company and it was while researching that we found this:



diagram from the Wallas website

These are expensive but they are fuelled by diesel which is obviously quite handy as we have a tank full of it already. The extra height needed for the "standing cook" option would be provided by the need to raise the hob by the depth of the body. The heater option is built-in. The diesel is burnt to heat the hob and the heater fan blows recirculated air over it, so no water vapour gets into the truck.

There are a few You-Tube videos with detailed reviews of these options which we've seen. While seemingly not as fast as gas the Wallas cooker is safer, cleaner and does 2 jobs in one without the drawbacks of gas. The other advantages quoted on the website like "As diesel is a non-pressurized fuel there are no tunnel or parking concerns. No worries when looking for parking on your way to the opera in the city centre." weren't on our list of concerns, but I guess they cater for varied tastes...This is definitely a contender.

A company called Truma offer a combination heater/water boiler, but this only does part of the job and needs LPG or Propane as fuel, but can run from electricity as well. Fine for campsite use but no good off-grid as our limited-capacity system couldn't run it.

Oh - nearly forgot...there's always this:

Our woodstove was bought as a nice homely-kind-of-thing to have on a wild camp, and it'd provide constant hot water. It does that but needs constant attention to do so. Fine if we've nowt else to do, but keeping boredom at bay isn't a problem we often have, I'm glad to say, so our little Frontier stove doesn't get as much use as we thought it might. And no good for cooking, either. The heat isn't controllable or predictable and the stove needs shelter and the correct fuel (dry camel shit works best!) to be a viable alternative to a gas or other stove.

The above isn't, by any means, a complete review of all the options but that would probably take a week and bore us all to death.We're still debating the options but, despite the cost, we favour the Wallas hob/heater combination for a long term solution. I'm just off to see how many pennies we have left in the piggy bank.