After the recent changes we thought we’d have a chat about what we now think of the changes and how they’ve worked out for us. Making so many changes to the campervan in a short period of time always means a few compromises and we also talk about the future plans we have for our van.
It’s been two weekends since we started testing all the new things that we’ve changed in the van, We tweaked a few things after our visit to Sentry Circle to see off Betty Boondockers and have just given them a try out at our weekend with Campervan Tales so here is what we have found..
The wheels and tyres are fab! They look really good, are really stable and quiet when driving and they take out all the little lumps and bumps in the road – they didn’t help so much when we were stuck in the mud at Sentry Circle but that’s some some sticky mud – in Hindsight we should have lowered the tyre pressure to help but still.. Fab change, here’s the link to the wheels, we ordered these with different tyres, which were goodyear wrangler https://goo.gl/ZCxoRp
The new Remiss Window blinds are a great improvement, so much so we might be getting rid of the curtain! The thermal properties are really good and we get the space in the cab back again for clothes and extra seating without being on show. I had to make a fabric “sausage” to lay on the dash as there is a little gap that lets the light through but the sausage works a treat. Buy the kit here… https://goo.gl/zuDn8m
The Cupboard is my favourite bit (weirdo! haha) The faff of storing the food and kettle etc in the “Wardrobe” before was a real pain with the way the twin doors opened and blocked off the rest of the van and the lack of shelves and decent lighting wasn’t ideal. So now we have 5 shelves with really good strip LED lighting and plenty of baskets for storing the food. John has also changed the magnets that we use to keep the bi-fold cupboard doors closed which also work a treat, we’ve kept some of the original ones that aren’t as good or we’d never get the door open as the new ones are THAT good.
For Sentry Circle we took a rough draft of the Duckboard flooring and it was finished off nicely for our trip to see Campervan Tales – John had sanded and oiled it so it fit perfectly and was nice and smooth. It makes such a difference to using the loo with the height and it looks very swish indeed. The new extractor fan is great too – clears up all the smells (yes we do “number 2” in there!) but also keeps it nice and fresh with there being no window.
Changing the table to have 2 folding legs and stowing it out of the way is a great change – even if it is a small one. We did have it with the one leg it came with but that meant we had to take a second table to use outside so John fitted another folding leg to it and we now stow it above the cab as Cooper seems to like it without the table over his head and it just gives you that extra bit of space when you walk in to be able to simply stand to one side or to dry off Cooper or take your shoes off. Buy the folding leg kit here… https://goo.gl/g89GS3
The raised bed is far more comfortable, having a standard double sized bed with a decent mattress and the ability to leave it made all the time is so much easier. Coop has found he can jump up with a little help too as he does love his snuggles up there. The storage underneath is brilliant too – so much better. We just need to find a better way to store things under there for easy access and a better way to keep things from moving around. We still need to find “A place for everything and everything in its place” as we’ve moved almost everything we store in the van with all the changes and haven’t quite found a new place for it all yet – John needs to stop leaving hats everywhere – he’s working on that now 🙂 I need to make some pockets so we can just “pop” things into them to get them out of the way while we are still milling around in the van. I don’t know if you guys do the same but we have 2 kinds of “tidy” in the van – theres the “i’m still going to use that so i’ll just leave it there” tidy then there’s the “packing up to drive away” tidy.
John has managed to change the heating ducts to the right ones as we were sent the wrong kind before we went to Sentry Circle so now these are all as they should be and work a treat. The one right at the back had to be “bodged” a little in the meantime so the airflow wasn’t ideal but with the new duct cover at the back it blows up towards the doors under the bed and stops the cold air from creeping around the door and under the covers so I stay nice and toasty.
Lighting wise we have more fairy lights – Yay!! Haha.. also the dimmer switch makes the lighting at the front of the van far better as about 12 spotlights in the front area alone is a tad overkill so being able to dim them is lovely. John also wants to change the plug socket for the Inverter as at the moment it’s under the bed which isn’t ideal so he’s going to pull some cables through to nearer the kitchen to make it more accessible, also will fit a couple of USB ports or a 12v socket there too.
John also added some LED reversing lights to make it easier reversing at night as the ones on the van aren’t up to much and also some cracking LED DRL fog lights at the front too. DRL Foglights… https://goo.gl/e7KLLy Reverse LED lights… https://amzn.to/2VETY98
All the improvements have made a big difference for the last couple of trips, being able to bring everything we need and actually use them – like the outdoor chairs and the fire pit and the food too! We tend to fetch half the kitchen with us and take it all back so it was nice to be cooking and using the new cupboard and having room for a lot more than we actually took with us.
We are going to leave things as they are for about 6 months or so and if we are still happy with it when Winter rolls around we’ll be looking at ripping out the remnants of the bunks in the under bed storage and re-jig the boiler and battery set up so all “Auto-Fail” bit have been taken out and we’ll have lots more better, more usable storage – so watch this space..!
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