I've Done it now

[bjh]

I fitted the drivers seat today and then found the seat belt buckle would not fit . It would not fit the passenger seat one either. Have refitted the original exploding one ( pre tensioner) to the slide rails, I could not bolt it to the seat!! it just means I have to bend it down when rotating the seat. Its probably better in the long term as it is back to what Peugeot fitted originally and no problems with the warning light on the dash. The passenger side will not be a problem as I will use the one off the passenger seat as that one will bolt direct to the seat.

 

[bjh]

I tried looking at alternatives but the prices are ridiculous. You did very well getting a pair of Galaxy seats at that price. The seats I am now fitting came out of 'grey' imports that are converted into small campers. Very complicated sliding mechanism, but the swivels are integrated into the base of the seats and fairly low profile, so just mounted the seats onto the original Peugeot seat rails. They seem quite comfortable, but not been tried on a long journey yet.

 

[Landyseverywhere]

Don't know if you're at the stage of looking at interior boarding yet but Magnum had pallets of formica type sheet (8x4) think £30 sheet,great for showers, worktops tables etc,cut/trim with palm router spray adhesive.
Also had black 1 side 3 or 4mm ply £10 sheet
As well as light ply 15mm they do identical finish wall board(standalone or spray glue to
standard ply. Much cheaper than l w ply
and if carefully framed or backed similar weight(only faced one side)

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I bought one of those sheets back in 2011, brilliant stuff great quality.

 

[bjh]

Don't seem to have progressed much with the van. Family been with us for a few weeks now as all services disconnected while their place is being rebuilt! Just for 2 weeks! 7 weeks later maybe another two weeks or so. Can't blame them as they lived in appalling conditions since the rebuild started.

• So far both swivel seats fitted. Seem to work okay and kept original seat buckle with the pre tensioner, so no problems with fault lights.
• Have bought a Cookology 83litre AC compressor fridge. It works well and just right for the family at present. It is quiet and seems to be low power consumption. Makes very little difference to the power meter display. Fitted a vent and fan level with where the fridge compressor will be. I will fit an actuator and temp controller to operate the fan and shutter.
• Fitted two 110Ah carbon lead batteries from Alpha, one behind each front seat and boxed in to make a platform for ones feet when seats swivelled round. System looking after itself very well, but the phone app is a bit lacking and clunky. Fitted my 1300W inverter. It runs well on the ac lead light, but a bit noisy on the FM radio. Tried a 750W heater and I thought it was running well, but the indicated input voltage on the inverter display started to decay, eventually dropping out. Tried an 850W toaster, same thing, ran for a short time and then tripped out. Voltage at batteries was holding up at about 12.7V. Had used a 25mm2 cable to the inverter, but it was getting warmish. I thought 25mm2 would be plenty, but apparently not. Not sure why the voltage would drop slowly when the battery voltage was holding up? Any ideas?
• Framework up for the washroom. Could not get a ready made shower tray to fit so am going to make one using a tanking kit. Anyone else done this? Just trying to find where to cut hole in floor and where to mount the waste tank. Autocraft were excellent with the tanks. The original waste tank would not fit where it was supposed to go. I was the second person that day to raise this and they had another one the next day. Seems that the Adblue system on the Boxer messes things up. They very quickly provided a return label for the original tank and delivered a slightly smaller tank to fit further back, plus a refund for the price difference. Excellent service.
• Beds and slats received from Ikea. Framework for top bunk ready to go in, but will get in the way for now.
• Have decided to go for a Chinese diesel heater. Very unsure at first, but the feedback seems to be pretty good. Have worked out how to get hot water and space heating from one unit, using two air diverter valves. When only need hot water the air will go through a boiler and be diverted outside. If only need heating, the hot air is diverted away from the boiler and if need both, air through the boiler and back into the main line. Suggestions from people with experience of these heaters, re reliability and temperature control would be much appreciated.