Campervan Cold Water System (We Have Running Water!) | Transit Van Conversion E36
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- čas přidán 9. 04. 2023
- We've been looking forward to this project for a while as we're going to be installing the cold water system in our campervan so that we have running water!
We decided to go for a fully pressurised water system in our van as we have the shower and sink and wanted something that just works the same as in the house, so just turn on a tap and water comes out.
We're using the Shurflo Trailking 7 pump and Seaflo Accumulator and connecting it all together with John Guest 12mm pushfit pipe. It's our first time doing any plumbing in the van (or anywhere else!), so hopefully it'll all work without any leaks! 💧
Thanks for watching! Any comments or questions? Let us know below!
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Products used in this video (includes affiliate links *):
↠ Shurflo Trailking 7 Pump - geni.us/FvjF (Amazon)
↠ Seaflo Accumulator - geni.us/ApQGZ11 (Amazon)
↠ Shurflo Inline Filter - geni.us/ml8a8vD (Amazon)
↠ Hapilife Tap - geni.us/kQb5m (Amazon)
↠ Pipe Cutters - geni.us/VVEId (Amazon)
↠ Holesaw Kit - geni.us/Vz37a5 (Amazon)
↠ Loctite 55 Sealing Cord - geni.us/RZ21 (Amazon)
↠ Sanding Drum Set (similar to the one we have) - geni.us/aJVNpWX (Amazon)
↠ Victron Lynx Distributor - geni.us/BRX0 (Amazon)
↠ Blue Sea Fuse Hub - ebay.us/82Ohou
↠ Scrubba Wash Bag - geni.us/NdDwY (Amazon)
↠ 85L Water Tank - www.directwatertanks.co.uk/85...
↠ Water Inlet Cap - ebay.us/U83MnX
↠ Drain Tap - ebay.us/tQgl9x
↠ 40mm inlet pipe - ebay.us/ZxZiaH
John Guest 12mm Fittings:
↠ Pipe inserts - geni.us/BhqP5V1 (Amazon)
↠ Elbows - geni.us/j8GXAWE (Amazon)
↠ Shut-off taps - geni.us/mDVQn (Amazon)
↠ John Guest Release Tools (makes getting the pipes on and off easier!) - geni.us/fWg0s30 (Amazon)
↠ Everything else! - ebay.us/ngauL6
* Disclaimer: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you choose to click on them we may earn a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
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Filmed with:
↠ Sony ZV1 - geni.us/LW73Jx (Amazon)
↠ GoPro Hero 8 - geni.us/PsIIH9 (Amazon)
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* Disclaimer: Some of the links above may be affiliate links. If you choose to click on them we may earn a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
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All our videos are for entertainment and show our process of converting our campervan. They're not intended to be tutorials and we may make mistakes along the way, so always do your own research and if in doubt about anything then make sure to get advice from a suitable professional
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#vanconversion #campervanconversion #vanlifeuk
Discovered your videos 2 days ago and just binge watched the entire series. What a brilliant series. It’s great to see how not only the van has progressed but you and your skills too. Looking forward to the next one!
Thank you very much! Yeah that is nice, you end up learning a lot of new skills through the build. It's nice when you get to repeat something you've done before so you don't have to think as much 🙂
I just love how detail oriented you two are. I think its one of the best van build series. Thanks for sharing the build. I look forward to E37 Hot water :)
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying watching it 😊
Can't wait for the next project. You are very through in your planning and building out the van which makes your series enjoyable to watch.
Thank you very much, glad you're enjoying watching it all 😊
I didn't know you have to adjust the pressure of the accumulator. Thanks for sharing the info. Much appreciated 👍
You're welcome! It was surprising how much of it difference it makes when it's adjusted properly 😛👍
i really like your pictures. It makes it clear to see what you are doing.
Thank you! That's all Abi's handy work 😃
I have to say, having converted three vans, what you would give to have the pair of you on the job with me. You make it look human and yet know what you are doing. Amazing videos.
Thank you very much! One van build is enough for now though for us 😀 Glad you're enjoying the videos 🙂
Great job working thru the water part of your build. The Cat... Too Funny. 🤣
Cheers! And yep that's Jackson, he like's to get involved! 😺
I was looking at underslung tanks for my fresh water and grey waste but after watching this video I am going to install my fresh tank in the garage for sure and just have my grey water tank underslung. I am not concerned if the grey waste was to freeze up but like you say you don't want your fresh water freezing up in colder climates. Great video from start to finish!
Thanks 👍😀 And yeah that's exactly what our thought process was. In really cold places we can live without using the underslung waste for a while but we need to have the fresh. We have insulated our underslung waste tank a bit to hopefully slow down the rate of freezing, but if it does freeze it's not the end of the world 🥶
It is all coming together now; the running water is a big milestone and amazing pressure from the tap. 😊👍
Thanks Errol! Definitely felt like a big step forward to have running water 🙂
Nice design and workmanship.
Wiring my van was interesting.
The plumbing was not fun.
Definitely a thumbs up 👍
Thank you! 🙂 It was a bit of work to get it all connected up, fun to turn on the tap and see it working though 😄
Great job!
Wherever you put the switch for the pump, make sure it's easy to get to when you leave the van so it can be part of your locking up procedure to turn it off.
Cheers! And yeah we're planning on building a switch panel with all of them and the various gauges and things we have. It'll probably live in the cubby hole to the right of the shower. For now it's just a big mess of wires 😃
I've got Tim and Abi withdraws. Hope Jackson is keeping you save as your watch-cat. Continued safe travels. 🙏
Thank you, we've been really enjoying being in the van! And as it happens the next video should be out tonight...! 😃
@SelfBuiltStories I got the notice!!! Awesome. Perfect timing. Wow, quite the video. Incredibly difficult to follow without Abi's drawings... Abi, were you a graphic designer prior to being a van builder? Well done again you two.
Cheers! And nope, she is a nurse 😃
You have no idea how I've been waiting for another video 😅
😀 We hope you enjoy it!
I love hearing the sheep in the background. Do they all belong to you?
Glad you like them, they like to make themselves heard that's for sure! Not ours personally but families 🐑
As always very meticulous work. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.😊
Thank you! We will try 😃
Have got to say, i really enjoy seeing how you work thru each part, looking forward to seeing the next part with the hot water
atb
Barry
Thanks Barry! 🙂
Great video again guys top marks. We're getting close for the 🔥 water. I can't wait 👀 🕺🕺
Cheers! Yeah won't be long now... 😃🔥
Another well thought about installation and fitted like professionals, you must be very close to being finished and set about travelling.
Thank you! Yeah not too long to go now! 😀
Nice strong steady flow, even when you turned the shower on. Brilliant👍😀
Yeah we're pretty happy with it! We figured seeing as we're having a recirculating shower there was no point having one of the water saving shower heads and a smaller pump, seems to be working out pretty well 😀
@@SelfBuiltStories Brill👍👍
🙂👍
If you mount the pump on anti-vibration mounts and connect the water with flexible hoses you may lower the pump noise significantly.
Cheers, yeah can add some more dampening though we don't find it noisy actually and it will be inside our bench seats when they're done. Quite like the low vibrating sound it has to know it's all working 🙂
Making brilliant progress looking forward to the next video
Thank you 😊
Excellent video and have to say I’m very impressed with your setup. I’ve worked as a vehicle technician in the security industry for a major cash carrier company and for years because of the design I and many of my colleagues have struggled to maintain the complex security systems fitted. The way you explained and executed the installation was just brilliant. From your video I now know what the problem was I’m just glad I’m now retired because it would be a major upgrade for a massive fleet of vehicles.
Thank you! Just wondering though, did you mean to comment on another video, as ours is only about installing a water system? 🙂
@@SelfBuiltStories it was actually. The video I watched was the one where you fitted the b2b
@@micksparrow8214 Ah! That makes sense now, cool, thanks again 🙂
Great channel Abi & Tim I was planning to buy a mobilehome and now I'm thinking of building a campervan after watching you😂😂😂 Keep the video's coming it's much better than watching the TV 😀 Thank you for all your hard work putting these together
Thank you very much! Have fun with the build then! It's a big project for sure (bigger than we thought!) but a rewarding one too :) And cheers! They take a long time to film and edit so we appreciate it 😊
Hi, just wondering if you made a start on your campervan and if so, how's it going? 🙂
Timely video, just starting my plumbing work on the van 😀Thanks again, another great technical and entertaining video again. On the sink waste, I've bought the same sink. Barratt Tanks, recommend using a 25mm smooth bore flexible pipe not the ridge version as the flow rate is better and less chance of waste being trapped. You can buy a 28mm to 25mm reducer for a couple of quid. Looking forward to your next one!
Cheers! And yeah we decided on running 40mm domestic smooth bore waste pipe everywhere under the van into the tank for a nice fast flow. We only have the short section of 28mm corrugated from the sink down to join up to it, but we've left it so that it'd be easy to swap that out for a domestic waste trap too if we need to later on. It's a great sink! Hope your plumbing is going well, a nice job to tick off 👍🙂
So excited to see a new video from y’all!!! As always, great job!!!
Thanks Vicki! 😊
Nice to see you guys again! 😊
Thanks Jack! 😊
Im gonna be bit gutted when you guys finish the van😂 what am I gonna watch. Brill video as usual .
Haha, thanks 😄 Don't worry still a few projects still to go... And then there's always Netflix 😛
Great video. I was absorbed in the process the whole time. Congratz on the running water!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed watching it 😊
I always look forward to seeing your progress on the van, your both looking so much more confident with the tools and top-notch workmanship. the first adventures will be amazing I'm sure.
Thank you very much 🙂 You definitely get familiar with tools and learn new skills, looking forward to the adventures now though for sure 😃
Amazing how smooth (if that’s the right expression) the water flows, proper hardware. I see it in other builds as well, using so many couplings with 90° knees personally I would try to use a little couplings possible. My plan is to 3D print 90° degrees brackets with a large enough radius. A bit like the brackets that often comes with washing machine and so forth. But again a very informative episode! Best rgds, Albert 🇳🇱
Cheers, and yeah very happy with the flow rate, we wanted something that feels similar to being in the house and it all works great 🙂 And fair point for sure! We tried to minimise the number of connections we needed as much as possible but tricky in some areas because of the really tight spaces we had to fit it all into (even more so for the hot water... 😛). You can buy ready made brackets like what you're talking about to hold the pipe for shallow 90 degree bends like that, most of our corners though are a bit more abrupt so we've used the elbows. Have made sure that all of the joints are accessible though and not hidden behind walls, except for things like where they join to the shower valve but will be making that a removable panel 👍
What an amazing couple! I love your videos
Thank you so much!! 😊
Have you had any mistakes lol? Always so seamless and perfect! You are pros
Haha cheers 😄 But yep, lots of mistakes along the way! We try to show them as much as we can, probably the most time consuming was our leaking window... that took the best part of a month to rectify 😂😄
Great stuff, inspirational. Well done
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it 😊
Great update guys! You're making some great progress 🙂 The detail you go to is crazy!
Thank you! 😊
great work guys!
Thank you! :)
Great video again guys
Thanks!
What an amazing van you're creating :)
Great videos
Thanks Pete for all the continued support 😊
Great video 👍
Thanks 🙂
Woohoo! Flowing water at last! And always (hopefully) only through the intended parts! 👍☺
I do like the push and connect system - but boy are there ever a lot of fittings. To me, every fitting is a potential problem zone and I'd be too scared of possible leaks 😵💫. I will actually mount the pump (and the reservoir) in a 3-4 inch deep cut-away tray of a water container with a moisture sensor. Pressure pumps can go awfully wrong and they will pump until the tank is empty. Will you be using an additional filtering system?
Great choice on the filler cap inside 👍! I will also feed the 230V landline to a connect inside through the door as I don't want to cut holes in the side of the van. I've seen many filler installs with equally sized vents, does the smaller diameter pipe work for you?
I do love Abi's drawings - very easy to follow and very clear. The second power panel - great idea. I'll copy that! 😇
I do love your build videos thus far, you put so much effort into the van - absolutely amazing 🙌. One thought though: Have you been on a scale yet 😯? All of the wood and stuff you've added - have you kept track of all the weight thus far?
Keep it up! Cheers from Germany and stay safe! 🚐☁🍀
Cheers! 🙂 Yeah it was very fun to see it all working. You can turn on a tap all day long in the house and take it for granted but something about connecting it all up in the van and having water come out, very satisfying! There are a few fittings yeah but we tried to only use them where we had to, and given the tight spaces particularly in the kitchen cabinet there wasn't really anyway to do it with less. Although to be honest, we've found the push fit to be really reliable. The only small leaks we've had were when we hadn't pushed them in completely, but when properly seated home they've been great and we've pumped a huge amount of water through all the pipes now so not really worried about it. We have thought about adding a filter for the drinking water but haven't yet (we'll have lots of filters for the shower of course). And yeah the inside fill port works great, fills really nice and quickly. No problem at all with the breather tube, it's 10mm and more than adequate for taking it as fast as the hose can give it. And yep we've weighed the van a few times now and try to keep track of the weight of things as they go in too. But we think we're going to uprate the van a little anyway to give us a bit more flexibility 👍 Thanks for all the support as usual 🙂
Another excellent and informative video, always enjoy watching thanks so much for sharing all your efforts
No problem, thanks for watching! 🙂
Love your videos. I’ve been playing catch up and I finally am!! Can’t wait to see how the water heater / circulator works.
Cheers! 😊 Yeah we're looking forward to getting those videos out 😄
Hi, loving your channel as this is something I would love to do but I think you demonstrate the need for patience that would be lacking!! 😂 Nerdy comment coming but it's a big part of my job! - Looking at the cold water storage, is there anything that needs to be put in place for Legionella prevention? I'm surprised the tank is not insulated to keep it cool although I suppose that wouldn't last long, especially in summer. The large top cap would allow for a low level chlorine addition every day or so and the test strips for outlets are pennies but would be piece of mind especially having a shower on board that is high risk. It would mean bottled water for drinking but I think that would probably be safer anyway. That and a carbon monoxide detector for the LPG and diesel heater and smoke detector in the living area and garage (battery storage) is my job flap out of the way, now back to your videos!! 😂😂❤
Hey, cheers 😀 That's an interesting thought, would be surprised if the cold tank got up to 20C+ as any point for it to start to build up as it's regularly filled up from cold taps and the whole tank volume is replaced fairly frequently as we're using it. New water is added every few days or up to a week at most. Being able to test everything would be pretty cool though, where would you recommend for picking up some strips? We like not having to use bottled water but we have been thinking about possibly adding a separate filter before the cold tap as well. For our hot water we'll be taking the tank up to 60-70C periodically to kill anything off, and replenishing the water every few days as well so not too worried about that. And yeah we have a smoke and CO alarm on board, as well as a fire extinguisher and gas leak detection pen. Thanks for the comment 🙂👍
Thanks for the videos. Very good to watch. Please could you let me know what pressure you set your accumulator to? Thanks
You're welcome, thanks for watching! And we set it in the region of 17-20PSI (for our 30PSI rated pump), but it took a bit of experimentation. We went back and forth a few times changing the pressure and testing it at the taps till we got it just right, it makes a big difference when it's all matching nicely 👍😀
Thanks for the video guys! Way better value than some of the previous. Your van is looking amazing.
Thanks 🙂👍
Great job guys. Hopefully hot water will cause no issues. Love the John Guest stuff here but it’s not cheap.
Cheers! Yeah the 12mm stuff especially, but they do work really well and so simple to put together. We found there's a few different sellers on eBay that all seem to be cheapest for a few of the different types of connections, so we did a lot of shopping around 😛
Hi another great video ❤ I couldn’t find the link for the resin Belfast sink Jack
Cheers :) And we have this one: www.thismovinghouse.co.uk/product/camper-van-belfast-sink/ 👍
Hello, thanks for all your video. They are incredibly helpful and soothing at times of much flapidness
@ 6.19 you show the small fitting on the bottom of the tank for the feeder pipe. I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me what this fitting is called please?? I've been umming and ahhing about my water tank, but it's time! This is it! I'm going in!!!!
Your video has given me much confidence (as have some of your other videos which I've watched repeatedly - thank youuuuuu), but this one little thing I cannot find online. If you see this comment and recall what it is, I'd be incredibly grateful 😁😁😁😁 Cheers very much!
Addition: I think it's a bulkhead connector.
Hey, no problem glad to hear it 😊 And sure no problem, the one at the bottom of the tank that is for the cold water supply is a 12mm JG bulkhead/tank connector. It's the one listed as '12mm Bulkhead' here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223155488264 . Hope that helps and good luck with the water system install! It's a very rewarding moment when you have water in the van!
@SelfBuiltStories cannot thank you enough. Had a 3 month break from building and forgot about the level research and questions one faces!! REALLY APPRECIATE YOU GUYS xxx ps, followed the link and ordered the tap yesterday 👍👍👍👍
@@minttea4972 No problem at all, and yeah there is so much to research for each project! 😬
hi guys, love the series! super helpful with out conversion. not sure if you still read the old comments but i'll try anyway - where did you get the fittings for the inlet on the top of your water tank that you added, for water fill + breathing pipe? can't find them from the description info and they look perfect for this as we are using the same setup as yourselves. cheers !
Hey, glad you're enjoying the videos! We got them both from the same place, this is the angled fill: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/camping-water-carrier/rv-tanks/bulkhead-and-tank-fittings/tank-fitting-40mm-angled-inlet . And this is the breather pipe: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/caravan-plumbing/rv-tanks/tank-connector-3-8inch-with-nozzle . The angled fill took a while to find, almost everywhere else only seemed to have straight ones! HTH and good luck with the build 👍
@SelfBuiltStories haha you guys are awesome, rapid response with links as well thanks so much I really appreciate your help. All the best on your travels maybe we'll see you out and about one day!
@@fdgfdgfgdfgf haha no problem, yep see on the road! 😛
As always, amazingly useful video. I'm about to start drilling through my floor and I'd like to use the magnet method as you guys have done. Can you tell me what strength fishing magnets those are? I don't want to get something too strong or too weak (since the depth of 25mm PIR and plywood floor will decrease strength significantly) yet would rather not overpay for something too strong either. There are so many to choose from! Also considering a 100kg 'switching magnet since I have a fear of not being able to remove it from something! Also, someone said you can use a ball bearing on one side rather than two magnets... might save a bit of cash if it works
Cheers, glad it was useful :) And sure, ours are rated for 250kg. That seems to be a good sweet spot as we can feel the magnetic force through the van even through our composite floor which is 25mm PIR, 12mm ply and vinyl. But not so strong so that we can't remove them from the underside easily. They take a bit of force to remove but nothing too bad, and a lot easier it you remove at an angle. Interesting idea with the ball-bearing, let us know if it works if you try it 😀
Hey I don’t suppose you have a link to your sink? It looks great! Keep up the good work
Hey, sorry for the slow reply! We have this one: www.thismovinghouse.co.uk/product/camper-van-belfast-sink/ 👍
Great useful video as usual! Every time I get stuck on a section of my build, I always come to your videos first because I know it’ll be described and executed perfectly! May I ask could you please comment the link for the angled bulkhead filler inlet on the tank? And the barbed one next to it? I can’t find it anywhere! Thanks - Toby 😊
Ah cool, glad they're useful! And sure, the angled inlet is this one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/camping-water-carrier/rv-tanks/bulkhead-and-tank-fittings/tank-fitting-40mm-angled-inlet. And this is the barbed one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/caravan-plumbing/rv-tanks/tank-connector-3-8inch-with-nozzle. Yeah it did take a while to find the exact ones we needed 😛 HTH!
Hi folks great video love the quality of your work and level of research. One observation, is the pre filter the right way up?
Cheers! And yeah ideally it would point down but where we have it is where the thread naturally wants to stop. The wingnut version is better as you can orient it any way and still tighten it up but we already bought this one before we realised about those. It's not a big deal though, just means when we're emptying it we'll put a small bowl under it so water doesn't go everywhere 🙂
Hi guys! Really helpful video! We're just putting out water system together for our van at the moment. Ive been looking online for that angled bulkhead connector for the inlet pipe and the connector for the breather tube but can't seem to find them anywhere. Any chance you could point us in the right direction. would be much appreciated 🙏
Hey! You're welcome, and sure, we got this one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/camping-water-carrier/rv-tanks/bulkhead-and-tank-fittings/tank-fitting-40mm-angled-inlet. And yeah it was pretty much the only one we could find on the whole Internet that was angled 😛
Hi, is there a link to the bulkhead connector you used? The part the 50mm inlet tube connects to on the tank. Thanks love your videos!
Hiya, cheers :) And sure, we have this one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/camping-water-carrier/rv-tanks/bulkhead-and-tank-fittings/tank-fitting-40mm-angled-inlet 👍
We loved watching your build so far. Have you managed to finish the van? Would love to see a walk around episode of the finished van 😊
Awesome, we're glad! 😊 And we've been in the van for a few weeks now so will make a video tour of it at some point, but have a bit of a backlog of build videos to finish editing first 😃
@@SelfBuiltStories that's brilliant, thanks again 😀
No problem, you're welcome! 🙂
Hi, enjoyed watching your van build so far, well done both, a quick question about the water system, have you used the John guest speed fit locking clips as well by any chance? They stop the fitting being accidentally pushed in and a bit of vibration letting the pipe slipping back out causing a leak that you may not notice
Thanks! And yeah we did look at the clips and considered it, but in the end decided not to. Particularly for the 12mm JG fittings the cost can quickly add up and we thought the clips were a bit on the pricey side. We haven't seen many people use them to be honest, and from our experience it's actually quite hard to remove the pipes anyway even without the clips on them. We actually bought some JG release tool spanners to make that bit easier 😛 We can always add them in future but for now haven't had any issues and we've pumped a lot of water through the system now 👍
I think the biggest problem with things like these are the constant vibrations it will be exposed too. Not sure what type of construction works best to mitigate that.
Yeah we haven't had any issues so far but many more miles and time will tell. We have tried to use rubber spacers and leave some flex in the pipework to mitigate some of that though 👍
Abby love your detailed diagrams I'm a very visuals van newby and would love you to place these diagrams on your list below I for one would love to follow them 😉cheers from Bunbury western Australia x x
Thank you 😊 We're visual too and like to have the diagrams to get our heads round how everything will work and fit together. We'll probably get round to putting them all on a website at some point when we get a chance 🙂
Hi Tim and Abi, loving your videos 👌.Where did you get your breather pipe inlet connection for the top of your tank please. Kind regards Nick
Hey Nick 👋 Cheers :) And sure it's this one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/caravan-plumbing/rv-tanks/tank-connector-3-8inch-with-nozzle. Took us a while to find one!
Many thanks and keep up the great work.
@@nicholasparker2854 No problem, thanks :)
Hiya! When you bought your plumbing supplies (tubes/pipes, valves/taps, elbows etc), did you order everything up front based on your initial plans, or did you buy as you went along with the installation? I've planned everything on paper for my plumbing, but nailing down the exact quantities and specific products is proving a bit tricky. The John Guest products are a bit pricey, so I'm trying to figure out the best approach without getting more than I need... 🤔Any tips would be really appreciated. Thank you!
Hey! Yeah that was tricky! We made a diagram of the water connections and then like dominoes tried to go through it pipe by pipe end to end and count how many of each type of connector and insert we'd need. So we had a good idea but yeah it was very hard to be exact as until you start putting it all together you don't know exactly how you're going to route it, and there's nothing more annoying that being almost at the end of a project and not having one tiny bit of plastic to finish it! So with stuff like the shut-off valves, one way valves, tees and things that we were pretty sure we knew how many we'd want we ordered the exact number, and then we over-ordered on elbows and inserts so we'd be able to route it in different ways. Highly recommend a good number of the stem elbows too, they're really useful for making tight corners without needing a tiny bit of pipe as well. And yeah they're very pricey for what they are, so we shopped around and found eBay was the best place to get them. We found between 3 or 4 sellers they would be a bit cheaper on one type of the connector (think we have some links in the description), and all had free delivery. So we split it up across them all. And we also treated the cold water, hot water, and recirculating shower as three separate projects and just bought the ones we needed for each one at the time. HTH and good luck 😀
@@SelfBuiltStories thank you so much!!
@@maddisonlt No problem! 👍
Looking great so far! How heavy do you reckon the van will be at the end? I'm sure you've got a table for that, right?!
Cheers! And yep of course 😄 We try to keep track of weights of things as they go in and have weighed the van a few times now too. We try to build with weight in mind and save it where we can, but we think we might also uprate it a little as having some headroom over 3.5T would give a bit more flexibility 👍
Great video! Just wondering if you have links/names for all the fresh water connection bits + the filler tubes that you used. Really struggling to figure out what I need for my own build. Your videos have been very helpful!
Cheers :) And we got it a lot of it from eBay, like the fill port (www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144157371031) and most of the pipe and connectors too (e.g. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185659041034). There are various sellers on eBay and some where cheaper than others for particular connectors, which added up quite a lot. So for each type we shopped around the best ones. HTH 👍
Hi! I have absolutely been LOVING your videos! Truly such a pleasure to watch. But I have been wondering, are all these tools from you? Or are you renting/using the tools from somebody else? I would love to one day have my own van conversion, but it’s already really expensive as is, to buy all the tools with it will be even more expensive. So I was wondering! :)
Hiya! That's great, glad you're enjoying them all 🙂 And the majority of tools we use are either second hand from car boot sales etc or borrowed from family. The ones we've ended up buying new are the more specialist ones specific to the van, which is pretty much everything for the electronics, the rivnut tool, pocket hole jig and small intricate things like right angled bits. We also got our own useful staples like jigsaw, drill, screwdrivers etc that end up being used for pretty much every project. If we do have to buy something we make sure to shop around because as you say it can get expensive quickly. Some of the handy tools we have we've just picked up in Lidl! You don't need a lot of tools to get started though, they just make it a bit easier 👍
Haven't seen the whole video yet, but the inlet pipe seems to be redundant since it is located next to the tank cap.
Yeah we could use the tank lid directly but in practice we find it more awkward. The fill point allows the hose to fit in snugly for hands free filling, less reach into the garage and less chance of spillage. We have things stored in the garage too so the lid might not always be accessible, plus just gives a bit of extra length for the breather pipe. So we prefer it for convenience 👍
Another great video guys. Could you share the link for the Scrubba bag please, much appreciated xx
Cheers Norma! And sure, we've added a link to it in the description 👍🙂
Nicely done! What PSI did you end up settling on for your accumulator? I have what appear to be the same pump/accumulator combo and will soon be wet testing the whole system... I had not even realized I had to set up the accumulator, so thanks for that tip!
No problem! Yeah it's not the most obvious thing at first. It says it should be set to around ~3PSI below the pump cut-in pressure. For us the cut out pressure is 30psi, but the cut-in pressure which is lower wasn't listed in the specs anywhere so we had to find it by trial and error. There's some good info on boating forums and things for finding the cut-in pressure, we did something similar to this: Turn the pump on with the taps off. Allow the pump to run till it switches off. Pressure in the accumulator will now be the pump cut-out pressure. Then turn a tap on slowly and wait till the pump switches on. Immediately switch the pump off. Measure the pressure in the accumulator which is now the pump cut-in pressure. Open a tap till the water stops. Pressurise the accumulator to just below the cut in pressure. If we remember right we set it to around 15psi, though the analogue gauge we had wasn't the most accurate to read. It's obvious when it's correct though with a bit of playing around, as you get really nice smoooooth water flow 😃👍 HTH!
@@SelfBuiltStories Thanks so very much for 'the long answer'! Man, that's a step by step how to! I have a feeling you just saved me a lot of messing about. Always enjoy your build vids. I've used all sorts of tips from your build. Thanks for sharing!
@@owenparker6651 No problem, you're welcome, good luck with yours 🙂
Hi do you have a link to the filter that you used please - I'm loving all these videos - thank you
Cheers! And it's the shurflo inline filter that we used - have added a link to the description. You can get it with a few different connection options, we went for the screw ends but would possibly consider the wingnut version too which possibly would have been easier to tighten up and ensure it's sitting and the right orientation. HTH 👍
Great video as always, it’s been so useful following your journey while we’re doing our van. Just wondered about the water pump switch and where you sourced it from? 😊
Cheers! And they're just the illuminated rocker switches from here: www.12voltplanet.co.uk/illuminated-round-rocker-switches.html. You can get the LEDs in different colours 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories fantastic, thank you. We’re looking forward to the next video 😀
@@euanwilliamson5680 No problem!
Going to try this next year, do you know total cost to build as per your spec ? And congrats 👏 really well done
Cheers :) We have been keeping a record of it but haven't totalled it up yet, possibly at some point we'll do that and make a post about it. But most of the links to all the kit and products we've used should be in the descriptions to give some idea in the meantime if that helps
Hi Tim and Abi love your videos , very informative. Where did you get your water tank from, thanks in advance Nick
Hey Nick, cheers :) And we got this one: www.directwatertanks.co.uk/85-litre-upright-water-tank . HTH! 👍
Many thanks for the reply, will be doing our cold water very similar to yours 👍
@@nicholasparker2854 No problem, good luck with it!
Hi! Do you know what fitting did you use for the air inlet on the water tank?
Hey! Had to search around for a while to remember where that one came from! Was this one: www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/caravan-plumbing/rv-tanks/tank-connector-3-8inch-with-nozzle. HTH 👍🙂
Thank you for a very informative video , im going to go for the same set up. Please do you have a link for the filler cap and pipes. 😊
No problem! And we got it from eBay: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144157371031. And most of the pipe and connectors too. There are various sellers on eBay and some where cheaper than others for particular connectors, which added up quite a lot. So for each type we shopped around the best ones. The pipe we got from www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185659041034. HTH 👍
That's perfect thank you so much! I've saved the links 😊 enjoy your van and adventures 🙌
@@luciedimond244 No problem, we will, cheers!
How many hours do you think you guys have spent building your camper? BTW you’ve done ✅ an amazing job so far 👌
Thanks! And hmm not sure exactly to be honest, but it's a lot, especially if you include all the time spent researching and getting all the parts 😛
How are you dealing with hot water? You could use a hotfill electrical boiler. They use about 400w to heat 10L hot water.
Hiya, we actually have hooked up a heat exchanger from bobilvans which uses our diesel heater for the hot water. We have a separate 18l tank and it can get it to 40C in around 10-15 mins 🔥
@@SelfBuiltStories oh nice. Thanks for the reply.
No problem!
Have you considered the weight distribution of the van? There seems to be a lot weight in one side of the van, you will suffer with poor handling, cornering and overall traction if you in the wet or snow
Not a criticism, love your videos, they are very informative, i am just curious if you consider it while building the van
Cheers! And yeah no problem it's a fair question, and we've thought about it quite a lot. We imagine the van in different quadrants for the weight distribution, so back left is electrics and batteries, back right is water tank. Top left will be the underslung gas tank and top right is kitchen. Then down the middle so centrally distributed is the oven at the front and grey underslung tank at the back. The one anomaly is the shower as that is only on one side obviously and can't go in the middle (actually not true, have seen some vans do that!) but we have the fridge cabinet on the left as well to offset it. It's a tricky balance for sure but we definitely keep it in mind 👍
What is that sanding attachment on the drill?! I need this!
Yeah they're really handy, we use them a lot! Look for 'sanding drum set' 😛 We've added a link to one very similar to ours in the description, there's a few on Amazon 👍
Hey hey! Where did you find the info on how to balance the accumulator PSI? Thanks so much!
Hey! Yeah so our accumulator recommends setting the pressure to be ~3psi below the cut-in pressure of the pump. The tricky part is actually finding out what the cut-in pressure is as it's different to the rated 30psi pressure which is around the cut-out. We found the easiest way was a bit of trial and error doing something like this: www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/110321-pressure-to-start-with-in-an-accumulator-tank/&do=findComment&comment=2615748. Once you get it right, you'll know. It's the difference between a really nice smooth flow whether the pump is on or not, vs really juddery pulsating each time the pump kicks in. Good luck! 👍
Thank you so much!!@@SelfBuiltStories
@@mdpaver1 No problem 👍
Did you use a 6mm2 wire for the psi pump? X
Hiya, no we used 3.0mm², which is what we used for most of the bits around the van that we didn't buy a specific larger size for (like the diesel heater, fridge etc). The pump we have draws a max of ~10A so you could use 6mm² but it would be overkill unless you had a particularly long wire run 👍
following closely as i have the same van and about to start, have you weighed your van with the progress to date? im looking to be able to carry some load as well as the fit out.
Cool, and yeah we weighed it a few times during the conversion, the last one came in at 3.3T with full tanks and us inside, but it wasn't completely finished. Since then we've uprated it to 4T so we have a lot more headroom to play with now and flexibility to carry more supplies 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories how do you uprate it? beefed suspention?
@@mikezoom42 Our van chassis can take 4T but is downrated to 3.5T so it can be driven by most people on a B licence. We uprated it back to 4T with www.vanweightengineering.com/. Upgrading the suspension wasn't strictly necessary for that but we've decided to do it anyway seeing as the old springs were a bit tired and it's going to be under a load all the time, so we got some new 3+1 heavy duty springs
Nice and simple but the sink drain tube shouldn't come back up higher than the sink drain.
Yep simple is often best. The U bend rises up to the same level so we could clip it neatly out the way, works great 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories I'm planning out my own build as I look for a used Ford Transit AWD van and I've been looking at the compact trap/drain set ups where a single hose comes out the side and running it right into a 6 gallon grey tank/jug under the sink. I've always liked simplicity though and just looping the hose to a quick release bracket on the back wall of the cabinet seems like a good way to go and it's easy to remove and drain. The older I get the more I find that simplicity is the best way to go and sometimes it takes more effort and intelligent thought to get there, as you've done with your systems.
Cheers!
Yeah the irony is that the simple solution is often harder to get to. Good luck with your build 🙂👍
How long you have been building this and where you have lived all this time
Hiya, we're down in Devon and it's been a big project on and off for a couple of years with some breaks along the way 👍
did you eventually install a water level sensor + gauge? what fuse do you reccomend for that?
Hiya, yeah we did, we have two KUS gauges for the fresh and grey tanks with float level sensors. They use barely any power so a tiny 1A fuse should be fine 👍
thaaaanks :)@@SelfBuiltStories
No problem 👍
This is the most nerve wrecking thing for me lol just wondering how u fitted that rocker switch, I can see the live in and out but wondering where the 3 (from what I can see) negatives come from 😮
Very satisfying to have water come out the tap though! 😄 And the rocker switches we're using have an LED in them so have their own circuit which needs a negative/ground connection to work. If you had a basic switch without the LED it wouldn't need the negative connection. And the reason it looks like 3 is because for our temporary setup we piggybacked the negative onto the one going back from the pump using a wago connector. Later on we're going to make a switch panel for all the switches and controls we have with small busbars to tidy everything up. 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories OK, I'll have to do something similar as I have these switches too lol I need them to match 😂 bit of a blue theme in mine lol
Important to get the theme right 😛👍
Great as usual but my first criticism ever on this channel. I think you will regret not having routed the fresh water tank fill to the outside. Mind you, it should last quite a while, so I'm sure you've already weighed this up?
Cheers! And yeah we thought about it but figured we'd rather not drill another hole in the side of the van for it and seeing as the tank is right there in the back it was a nice easy run. Doing it like this first means we can always change it down the road and put it in the side if we want to. Out of curiosity what part of it do you reckon we might regret? We've filled it up quite a few times now and have found it pretty convenient 😛
Do you have the John guest C clips?
Hiya, if you mean the locking C clips then no we decided not to use them in the end. You could do for extra peace of mind, but we found the pipes are pretty secure without them once the inserts are in 👍
When's the next video guys?❤
Hey! Hmm not sure, we haven't had any free time to edit recently so there's a bit of a backlog! Hopefully we'll find some time soon 🙂
Do you have a link to the magnets? That is such a smart idea!
Cheers! Yeah they work surprisingly well, even through our fairly thick floor which is 25mm foam board, 12mm ply and then vinyl on top. Makes it so easy and a lot easier than trying to measure the same on both sides of the van. We don't have a link to any in particular as we've had these a while, but if you search on Amazon for 'fishing magnets' you'll find some very similar 😛
Thanks!
No problem 🙂👍
Could you send a link for the sink pleasseee 🙏
Hiya, it's this one: www.thismovinghouse.co.uk/product/camper-van-belfast-sink/ 👍
Nice video but Iʼm a bit confused.... You say itʼs a recirculating shower but there isnʼt any micron filter or UV filter...? Also you diagram and the way you show it doesnʼt look at all like recirculating...? Am I to tired?
Hiya yep that part is a separate system, the one in this video is just for the cold water side of things 🙂👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Ah so you don't do straight up the full configuration! So you'll use a Pearlaqua UV filter? You actually showed up on my search for UV filters that's why I'm even more confused without seing anything about it😅 Maybe you added some keywords about it 🤷♂️
@@matino717 yeah we mention it at times and in other videos so maybe that's why. We have an ongoing 4 part mini series on building the recirculating shower, the final 4th part is still to come but will be the one with all the filter kit 🙂
@@SelfBuiltStories Cool will follow 😉
@@matino717 😊👍
8:25 Hold on, I've just got to pee!😬
😅 sorry!💧
9:26 No no NO. It snap the straps and say "that's not going anywhere!" Not the tank! 😹
Ha sorry 😛
Hey, where are those magnets from? 21:24
Hiya, we've had them for a while and not sure where they're from. But they're just a pair of fishing magnets and ours are rated for 250kg. That seems to be a good sweet spot as we can feel the magnetic force through the van even through our composite floor with all the insulation in, but not so strong so that we can remove them from the underside easily. So would imagine any pair around that sort of strength would work nicely, something like this: www.magnosphere.co.uk/neodymium-fishing-magnet-threaded-eyelet-32-90mm/a-2201. There's some on Amazon too. HTH! 👍
Great work! I've been following your progress since day one.
Awesome, and thank you! 😊
Shouldn’t there be a back flow valve on the line
Whereabouts are you thinking? We have one before the shower tap 👍
That should work, must have missed it. Love watching you both
@@steveg2509 Thank you! 🙂
:)
🙂
Please tell me you have a flow diagram for sexytime ;-)
Can never have too many diagrams 🙃