The Dispatch | Expert | Scudo Hub

It is at that point what ever was wrong showed itself, I hope not as was done less than 2 years ago and very few miles but I will pop the covers off and check. If its jumped more than one tooth though my guessing is engine will be scrap.

Update, the RAC were wrong there is a very small leak from a weld on the down-pipe by the cat but its not the issue needless to say.

Kind of hoped the shaking and banging was the harmonic balancer on the crank pulley as I gather these are quite a common failure but although it does have a bit of rusty dust on it there is no noticeable play and and engine still shakes/bangs when started without the serpent belt, I gather usually it would stop if pulley not under load if was the fault (also would not explain the power loss if this was issue)

So next thing is big ends, so I have removed inter-cooler pipe and pump off the sump and tonight will remove sump itself and see what I can find.

My uncle and cousin live near there.

This is all very posh, to be honest I just screwed mine to the side of the vans roof with little o rings behind the screw heads.

Yes its all registered as a camper, I think I was taking the piss a bit with my fixed cooking equipment, a £10 single burner with its feet fixed to some hole in the worktop, but they were happy.

I could easily get some Fiat badges but I enjoy winding up my local Alfa club too much with pictures of them on my van lol, very usefully the old van wheels fitted my old Alfa 75 so I can get the alloys refurbished and still move my car.

Solar Panels

So my solar kit consists of two 100W "12V" Monocrystaline panels (they are more like 18V but they are for a 12V system) I used these rather than the typical 40V units as the controller for the 40V units costs as much as the panels again but the lower voltage panels only need a basic cheap controller costing a few quid.

20181017_205459 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Made up so S shaped alloy brackets and mounted the panels across the van under the roof rack so rack can still be used with care.

20181017_205508 by phataardvark, on Flickr

20181027_152939 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Cables come through the roof through sealed cable bungs into the cupboard and then out the back panel and in to this natty little £6 solar controller.

Cushions, initially I shortened the existing ones and stapled over the trimmed down ends. Then later I got some fabric which was a close match to the front seats and borrowed the use of my mothers overlocker and sowed up some new covers.

20180816_210928 by phataardvark, on Flickr
First cushion is fixed so was fitted first and others trimmed to match that mount on the upper Rock&Roll frame.

20180818_170308 by phataardvark, on Flickr
The other cushions all shortened and ready to go on the frame.

20190209_155543 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Retrimmed in blue and fitted.

IMG_20190410_130032[1] by phataardvark, on Flickr

IMG_20190410_145757[1] by phataardvark, on Flickr
A laid flat as bed (well flattish)

Sorry I work in IT so I embedded it in the company name like some smart arse, link as per reply above.

So next part o the build is the Rock and Roll Bed

I started off by buying a cheap 2nd hand one but did not realise before going to see it was a full width one where as I needed a 3/4, however having travelled over an hour to see and it was only £200 inc cushions at I bought it anyway as I could just narrow it myself to fit.

20180818_113022 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Main bed frame ready for narrowing.

20180818_113831 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Chopped

20180818_115404 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Ready to weld

20180818_150929 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Welded and painted

20180815_194508 by phataardvark, on Flickr
Lower frame done

Van Windows Direct

I just turned a 3rd one upside down for the rear quarter.

I got them from ebay last year but the company that sold them are no longer doing them, but if you hunt through enough on phrase "Camper Van Decal" you will probably find another company doing them, dont go too cheap though as quality of the vinyl really effects how good they look, these were good but did have a muffin decal on the back which was utter crap.

Yes I liked the blue too, I would have accepted a white camper but was well chuffed to find a metallic blue one so cheap, and it had to be post 2004 so I can drive to London in it without paying through the nose.

See guidance on this very site, although the DVLA page saying what your camper should have is twin burner or microwave the actual law says it only needs a single burner.