qwakers

collection next day is only if not in stock, if it is, you can collect within about 30 seconds

do more practice. getting the machine set up right is most important. also on thin stuff don't try to seam weld it, just lots of tacks. and move about, don't just weld in one area, itll distort. strong welds dont have to look great, as long as theres penetration itll be fine, just use a grinder to clean it up! also, a good auto dimming helmet makes All the difference.

dso sunday i got a fair amount done on sunday replaced the solar panel, now charges fine. remains to be seen if the controller prevents it discharging at night. fitted the shower tray, the waste, and glued it down. just got the trim it out around the tray, fit the toilet and fit sink and shower head. trimmed the corners of the walls to clean up the carpet edges, used black plastic angle and superglue. looks good from here the old solar panel ocv was only 14v, the new one is 21v, so in low light levels it would pull down to 11v and thus discharge the batterys. the new panel doesnt, so all is well there. dont know weather thats a fault or just a carp panel.

yes well lets not argue about that here

im never going to spend 200 on a controller 😂 and id disagree that hes clueless, he might have got two points materially wrong but the one point he makes is that it IS missing componants that it HAS TO HAVE to make it mppt, so at best its a pwm, and at that price, an expensive one. the result of which, im happy enough with the £8 pwm controller already fitted! if your setup works then great i was just mulling over the idea of changing to mppt, and have decided not to bother.

too high risk, most of them aren't mppt... ive already got a cheap pwm controller so if i upgrade i want to be sure what im getting...

o you have a link to one you recommend ?

nice but pricey

in theory i agree with you. but cost vs benefit is my problem right now. sure there are cheap mppt controllers on the bay, but i doubt that (A) they are actually mppt and even of the are then (B) i doubt theyre going to work as well as they should... im having real trouble finding a reliable supplier.....

im currewntly fiddling about on this website to try and decide weather its worth a controller upgrade whilst im at it http://www.enerdrive.com.au/mppt-vs-pwm-solar-controllers/

100watt

floor cross members are very well attached and substantial I beam style. the plan is the locate the tie-down hooks over the cross members and bolt straight through the floor into the I beams. should be more than strong enough!

so the ceiling of the loo is in, all the walls are done, so its just fit shower tray and hang the sink. slight irritation, the solar panel i bought (not on the cheap either!) has shat itself... 😡 its open circuit voltage has dropped to 11.8v and when connected (minus solar controller) it drains the battery at .8 of a amp. result... batteries resembling a pancake. i know its cloudy but it should be producing SOMETHING! now having spent a little time reading, the open circuit voltage of this panel should be about 14v which is carp! all other panels ive come across show a OCV of about 21v for a 12v panel! bought another on the recommendation of a solar guy and it was only a fiver more expensive. will send the original back. jobs left to do as of this afternoon. Sort solar. fit internal doors finish toilet room finish trimming the walls fit tie down points x8 weld ramps hinges on make ramp longer and folding (ideas here have changed somewhat... will see if it works!) make it look pretty! (de sticker and clean up the outside) getting there. just a few more weeks work, i hope! also got a gas engineer coming out week after next to have a gander at the hob and cooker. they're misbehaving and i'm sure could do with a good service.

today was the flooring and walling day well, today and yesterday. yesterday i repaired and sealed the floor today i fitted the laminate and refitted the seat unit. then finished the back wall of the toilet room. getting there

no worries loving your work on the lotus too

call your recovery (rac aa et al) and tell them you've locked yourself out. when they arrive sign the disclaimer and you'll be in inside 5 mins (been there, done that)

pics from the last few sessions. solar panels (no i'm not climbing a ladder just to take a pic of a solar panel.) gas stuff water tank and then onto today. so, one step forwards, two steps back. decided to take the chequer plate off the floor. that way i can use it to make stuff with and not have to buy more and its not useful in the living area anyway. look what i found.. leading edge of the floor is rotten. GOOD NEWS! someone had cut the floor away in the past to work on the gearbox. probably to do the clutch. which is good. but they didn't bother to properly re seal the floor around the cut, so yeah, the middle is rotten and most of the firs 6" of the floor has gone with it. so out came the seat unit. then up came the rest of the chequer plate, and out came the hammer. its not too bad, should be a nice cheap fix. the fibreglass coated ply that used to be where the door and windows now are is rathe helpfully about the right size. so ill use that. save me a few quid. and when i'm done ill underseal it or something to stop it happening again. grrrrr. oh, and say hello to old smokey, its a bit hard to start when your using contaminated petrol to run it (about 10% diesel)

youd be surprised. its quite light in side and also the solar panel is more than capable of keeping the battery fully charged. plus, light coverings need cleaning more often and show stains more. even before i had the solar, and before i had fitted the windows, the lights could be on 5 days in a row and not be significantly discharged. they are LED after all.

the batteries have been left alone since they where chained up. if they get interfered with again im going to put them inside with the leisure batteries.

or did you mean where the cross under the sink? in which cas, was not intentional i wasnt paying attention, and will be changed later.

yes its less than ideal but im just copying dads setup and his was built by a coachbuilder. its better than the other option, which is do the whole lot in flexi 😳

so today's plan was to get the gas all plumbed in which was a good plan, and nearly happened so first i decided on where to run the copper hard pipe, ran it along the 5th floor cross-member and up behind the sink cupboard in the end. secured all the way along with p clips and all was well then i measured up and cut the flexi pipes then took them to hydroscand for a boat load of fittings (and the p clips) as my local hydraulic guy couldn't help me. "we don't touch gas!" loads of gas grade ptfe later and it was ready for testing.... only to find out my regulator doesn't. bloody thing lets no gas through. bugger. i know i promised ya'll a load of pics from Sundays work. but the time i got round to it it was dark, so these from today will have to do...

yeah, it cost me a couple of grand to be allowed to drive it. its a 15tonner so even old people cant drive it either the walls are 1” ply coated in fibreglass and im not insulating them, cost too much and be too complicated to do it right, makes it a pain to fit windows etc. the ceiling is now insulated quite heavily. heat rises, after all.

so today i have..... fitted the solar panel. first part of doing this was to get all the stuff onto the roof and clean the grime off the roof. now the roof is fibreglass so fairly flexible and i didn't want to drill it, so i used a pu adhesive (the expanding/foaming type) to stick two 1" timber battens to the roof (weighted down to allow the glue to cure. after a hour, i put a bead of sikaflex round it for belt and braces then screwed the panel to the battens. that's not going anywhere. (they don't call it gorilla glue for nothing :D) then i ran the wires through conduit down the front of the box and drilled it through into under the seat area. attached it to the isolater and charge controller, job done. took much longer than it sounds. then i sorted out the water tank, easy enough to do, in theory. got it all attached with all the pipework in place then ran the lorry round to by my house and a hose out to fill it up. that done i tried to test it, and found the self priming pump, doesn't. serves me right for eBay cheapy buying. got another pump coming for that, so that's that. put a couple of cigarette sockets in the front of the seat unit so i can plug my inverter in, so now i don't need my generator except for the really heavy stuff. put the wall cupboards back up all of which i have no pics for as i left my iPad inside the house and couldn't be bothered to go get it. pics tomorrow. or Tuesday. depends on work not actually that much left to do. I've got to sort the flooring out (Tuesdays job) finish the toilet (probably next Sundays job) and sort the internal doors. then its just the car tie down points, winch (will have to wait for the coffers to refill) and ramps.

yeah over here that would just be a paperwork exersize, mot it, tax it and fill out a form. job done.