Hello, Bonjour, Ciao, Hola, Hallo, and WELCOME to my channel, who the hell am I?
My name is Hugh and very simply I am an amateur DIY van converter looking to learn, explore and expand both my knowledge and personal experiences. I plan to keep converting random vehicles and exploring as far a field as a dare to go. What I hope to provide with my content is an honest, real and fun approach at van life and maybe even small space living out side of vans.
So please subscribe, become a DIY Nomad and if you dive in and follow my adventures hopefully I may inspire you & others alike to break the mould and experience things that they wouldn't normally experience! You only have one life so live it!
Good video, gives me ideas for my Sprinter stealth van. Already ordered some stuff for next upgrade on electronics. Here in Finland we call these white terminal blocks 'suger cubes'
3 things i didnt notice mentioned as a fellow owner. 1) a DODDLE to clean the cooker top if you spill stuff, Mr muscle glass cleaner, a scourer and a paper towel and its back to a factory finish. 2) because the burn process is enclosed, you dont get condensation from the fuel adding to the steam in the van like you would burning gas. 3) if you connect to the main tank, no issues with fuel additives like redex / rhino.
like all diesel engines, to get the thing started you have a glow plug to preheat the diesel. The current consumption when the glow plug is on is around 9 Amps and lasts for up to about 7 minutes depending on ambient temperature. Best used with a Lithium battery as if it drops below 12.0V. During startup it will failsafe and shutdown. This can be prevented on lead acid / agm systems by running the engine until the 3 flame symbol is lit.
Ah that paper insulated hose again you get reinforced it’s not as cheep though🙈!! But we used it on air ducting to and from brake ducting !! And it’s way more flexible without kinking !!
Hi you get compression fitting for the hard plastic use the black as the clear is susceptible to UV degrading !! Also butting it up against input on pump inside some tube if bent can obstruct opening restricting flow !! The best on other fuel lines are crimp ones you get a more even distribution on the grip!! I used to do motorsport and all these that iv’e said are all tested and proven as we’ve all gone through that with fuel lines especially on fuel injected engines as re pressure !! Also same on any air lines like on air jacks same plastic tube with pressure fittings !! 👍
This is exactly how I'm building mine. I was going to go down the road with an automatic transfer switch. But as my inverter is IT grounded and new regs on bidirectional protection devices, I popped my head into the rabbit hole and thought stuff this. Without making the system to test each possible fault and protection for safety I thought it was better just to keep the two systems separate. Good to see you have a 2 pole MCB 💪🏼
Hi great video. Thanks for sharing. Can you advise if the OBD port safe that you fitted comes with the relocation mounting bracket that we saw in your video or did you make the bracket? Keep up the great work 👍
Regarding the nylon fuel line and the click clicking from the fuel pump. You suggest to “soft mount” the fuel line to reduce the fuel pump clicking sound. Could you please explain what soft mounting means? A valuable video, so thank you.
These were standard issue in the vintage campers - mine is a 1969 Travco Dodge A108 and I still have the original pipes and mounts. Just need to recanvas it
The bodge will trap moisture against the metal and rust from the inside out again. seam sealer and paint is a way better option fyi, cracking vid tho 👍
A Stoplock Pro Steering Wheel lock is very very difficult to remove (more than 5 mins with a grinder attack) and a highly visible deterrent. £55. For me it pays to advertise that the van has extra security, so thieves don’t even try.
Hey Hugh, awesome vid. Thanks. I just bought a boxer men to do the same so great to find this. A favour to ask - any chance of posting a link to the captain seats please??
I would be nice if you talked about maintenance, because that's where Truma is a no-go for me. Because Truma does not consider or care about the end user, they do everything needed to seduce manufacturers to buy their products. Truma is NOT interested one bit in the end user : ZERO information on how to service your unit yourself, and the ONLY way to service the unit is to take it out entirely, disconnect all lines and electrical wires. So if you have a truma, you are going to have to travel to one of 3 states that have a truma service provider, bring them your truma and pay them to service it. If you live in your RV full-time, expect to do this yearly at a minimum. Once I had forgotten that I had shut off my propane line to the truma and got an error. I tried again once, then realized my issue, put the gas back on but the truma did not start at my next try (likely needed a couple of tries before it worked again). But then had another error, undocumented in my manual. Saturday, high altitude below freezing camping, no heat, no hot water, no info, no support available. Monday I called my dealer and he had to contact truma to know what the error was. Truma said it required a hard reset at a dealer / service facility. BUT there was nothing wrong with my truma nor my propane. So truma decided to build their product to stop working for good even if everything is fine and to provide no recourse. Again, this goes against the point of RVing. So terrible company that is good at one thing : building a product that manufacturers want to buy. For the rest, they do not care.
Through my single burner induction testing, you can use anywhere from 6ah-15ah of battery for each meal. Most of the time I'd use 10ah total. So as long as you have an extra 100ah of battery available, that's 10 meals, or 3 days worth without any charging at all. This is fantastic for the average user. But, if you're a foody that LOVES cooking, I'd stick to propane. Cause you can get an RV propane OVEN which is awesome.
Hi i put in a 5kw that f the fuse, no ideas whats up with it, i put in another fuse but nothing works it doesn't light up or work in any way , so putting in a 2 kw, does anyone know if the wiring harnesses are the same
I run my diesel heater from my engine battery, I think it would flatten my leisure battery quickly, I run the engine in my motorhome while it's starting, consuming must power, till it quietenes after about 5 minutes, then I turn my engine off, so the power comes back to the habitation section of my fiat Ducato coach built motorhome..( stupid idea) anyway, how long can I run the diesel heater ( on low ) before it flattens the battery ? Thanks 🙏
