Last weekend was the truck's MoT test - it sailed through. Because it's now a "motorhome" it only needs a car MoT - only problem is finding a garage with large enough equipment to test it! Sorted by Royton Motors in Codicote - good and friendly guys.
This weekend the gas was finally sorted - and certified!
Over the last couple of weeks I've been helped by an old friend - Rocket who's an ace welder and seems to be able to make anything from apparently nothing. He's made the brackets to hold the waste water tank to the chassis behind the rear axle and then tackled the escape hatch tunnel by welding a steel structure to a plate that replicates the truck cab rear window. Once fitted to the truck this allowed me to fit a special rubber bellows between the tunnel and the rear of the cab which allows the box and cab to move independently whilst still allowing us to get into the cab from the box without having to go outside - just in case we need to! Rocket has really contributed to the progress - a great guy.
Other things that have been happening have centred on getting ready for the first test - we've ordered a mattress - we bit the bullet and ordered it from John Lewis - the people in the bedding dept at Welwyn are the only people we've spoken with who talked sense - they didn't try to sell us the most expensive, instead they listened to what we are doing and made sensible suggestions. Top marks to them.
I've fitted a nice new "Isri" drivers seat - it's got full suspension with adjustment for the driver's weight - only thing is that as it's slightly taller than the original I'm now going to have to fix the cab headlining which has sagged slightly over the drivers head and now gets in the way. BUT the seat is COMFY!
I'm now looking at how to carry the second spare tyre on the cab roof - I've been on the lookout for an old roofrack that I can modify - not having found anything I posted a request on Freecycle - and within a day Eric from Letchworth offered me one he had in his garage - it's now waiting for me to work out how I'm going to modify it. Thanks Eric.
Loads of other minor jobs have been completed - tidying up of wiring, sorting out switches, improvements to the plumbing etc. Almost time to test - we're going to Chippenham next weekend - Sue is dancing at a festival there, so the Mog is going to be used at last (fingers crossed please!).
Sue's job with the Census has just finished - it seems to have been good for her, but time-consuming. She's going to try and get round to see various friends scattered around Engla
In between all this and work, the situation in Syria has been of obvious interest to us - it's difficult to judge how it's going to pan out and when things might change - but currently getting visas is out of the question - we're just going to have to monitor it - we have a backup plan - there is a ferry from Venice to Alexandria which can take the Mog at a price - this would mean missing out on the highlights of Turkey, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, but at least we wouldn't have to cancel - it's just one of the risks of such a trip. We'll make a final decision a bit later in the year.....
Ian
This weekend the gas was finally sorted - and certified!
Over the last couple of weeks I've been helped by an old friend - Rocket who's an ace welder and seems to be able to make anything from apparently nothing. He's made the brackets to hold the waste water tank to the chassis behind the rear axle and then tackled the escape hatch tunnel by welding a steel structure to a plate that replicates the truck cab rear window. Once fitted to the truck this allowed me to fit a special rubber bellows between the tunnel and the rear of the cab which allows the box and cab to move independently whilst still allowing us to get into the cab from the box without having to go outside - just in case we need to! Rocket has really contributed to the progress - a great guy.
Other things that have been happening have centred on getting ready for the first test - we've ordered a mattress - we bit the bullet and ordered it from John Lewis - the people in the bedding dept at Welwyn are the only people we've spoken with who talked sense - they didn't try to sell us the most expensive, instead they listened to what we are doing and made sensible suggestions. Top marks to them.
I've fitted a nice new "Isri" drivers seat - it's got full suspension with adjustment for the driver's weight - only thing is that as it's slightly taller than the original I'm now going to have to fix the cab headlining which has sagged slightly over the drivers head and now gets in the way. BUT the seat is COMFY!
I'm now looking at how to carry the second spare tyre on the cab roof - I've been on the lookout for an old roofrack that I can modify - not having found anything I posted a request on Freecycle - and within a day Eric from Letchworth offered me one he had in his garage - it's now waiting for me to work out how I'm going to modify it. Thanks Eric.
Loads of other minor jobs have been completed - tidying up of wiring, sorting out switches, improvements to the plumbing etc. Almost time to test - we're going to Chippenham next weekend - Sue is dancing at a festival there, so the Mog is going to be used at last (fingers crossed please!).
Sue's job with the Census has just finished - it seems to have been good for her, but time-consuming. She's going to try and get round to see various friends scattered around Engla
In between all this and work, the situation in Syria has been of obvious interest to us - it's difficult to judge how it's going to pan out and when things might change - but currently getting visas is out of the question - we're just going to have to monitor it - we have a backup plan - there is a ferry from Venice to Alexandria which can take the Mog at a price - this would mean missing out on the highlights of Turkey, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, but at least we wouldn't have to cancel - it's just one of the risks of such a trip. We'll make a final decision a bit later in the year.....
Ian