People who are watching this but not converting a van themselves have no idea how much research has go into each and every part. I'm about to fit my new celing and just that has had hours of planning! Keep up the great videos
Yep there is definitely a lot of research! Easy to get lost down the rabbit hole too... and as soon as you finish one project you start again from square one for the next one 😂 Very satisfying when it all starts to come together and you pick up all the skills along the way though 🙂 Thanks!
another good video you two really do take your time and think it through, to get the nice end results, love the shots with the lambs being feed that you drop in, your all most finished the build now ready to enjoy 😊
My admiration and respect for this couple, they could make a living making campers, I have seen thousands of videos but no one made them with such delicacy and professionalism, greetings from a Spaniard from Australia ,😃👍🏽
Yet another fabulous video guys. Your attention to detail goes above & beyond. By far, two of the most lovable, infectious campervan conversionistas on the interweb! 👍
Love ya work. The results were worth the effort. Nice to know I'm not the only one who can make basic mistakes on a van build! Can't help but think that the filter on the drain may become the bane of your existence. Thank you for sharing your process, warts and all.
Cheers! And yeah it was a bit of work, and one of the less glamorous jobs but has to be done! We try to show the mistakes along the way as every project always takes longer than planned and has it's quirks 😛 We've had it in for a few months now and find we have to clean it out every 3 weeks or so which we're okay with, as it keeps our grey water to be almost entirely water which we like. We are super careful about what we put down the sink though so it might not work for everyone, but for us for the small compromise of a bit of maintenance every now and then when we do our other chores we're quite happy with it at the moment 🙂
Hoping it will last for many adventures to come! Yeah he seemed to enjoy our company a lot on this project, was always around 😺 We're having a great time on the road, thank you 😊
Tim & Abi, you have no idea how helpful and inspirational your videos are! We’re in the early stages of our Crafter conversion and your videos give me the motivation to crack on through the cold and rain! I read in the comments you’ve added a non return valve to your shower, please could you let me know which one you went with? I’ve been in a water system rabbit hole and trust your choice of products! Cheers guys and happy travels 😊
Awesome, great to hear! At least if you build it in the cold and rain, you'll hopefully be able to enjoy it in the warm and sun! Yeah sure, we put in this one between our shower and our grey tank: www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-t28m-nrv-non-return-valve-white-40mm/61561. We had a temporary U bend out of some flexible pipe originally, but because of our recirculating shower we wanted to remove any chance for standing water in the pipes that would cool down the loop, so we put in the NRV instead and it's been working great so far 👍
Lovely and informative video as always. Thank you. Just to warn you that I installed the same plastic wate tap (in the same manner with couple of angled metal supports) about 18 months ago. Late last night, I came back from a 500 mile weekend round trip to find the tap has been trailing along the ground. The plastic bracket support failed - I can only assume it became brittle with the recent cold weather together with normal road vibrations. As you know, the plastic support bracket does not hold the tap anywhere near 360 degrees . Anyway, now looking on google for a better solution with at least a 28mm outlet. Its not an easy find! I can see myself installing the same tap again but carrying a spare.
Cheers 🙂 And that's interesting, thanks for the heads up! We haven't had any problems with ours like that yet down to about -7C, but we are planning on taking the van quite a bit colder in Norway... We might add a couple of cable ties or something as an extra reinforcement 😛👍
@@alisterleith so we added some cable ties around the tap recently after your comment. Glad we did! Literally a few days later we had some work done on the van and the garage must have broken the support bracket when they jacked it up, so the ties were the only thing holding it on. So thanks! Saved us having it trailing along the ground :)
For drilling into metal I can recommend using a stepper drill bit. Then you just have to drill a small pilot hole and the stepper drill bit will make the rest a. lot easier!
Haha yeah we had a few situations where a stepper bit would have been useful but never got round to getting one 😛 Although we did have to get some new tougher bits for drilling the bolt holes, which was night and day compared to the old ones we had lying around!
Just an idea I've seen in other camper vans. Use push button to power both sensor and backlight and put it next to gauges. So You will save power and won't need to flip switch every time if that is in some other location.
Yeah a push button would work well 👍 We've got it mounted in our switch panel now so they're both in the same place and we just flip it on when we want to look at the levels 🙂
Been waiting for the next instalment, I am just starting my conversation of an IVECO daily and watch all of your vids to help me decide what and where to put things can’t wait till you get on the road. 😘🇦🇺🐾🐾
Awesome! And we've actually finished the van and have been on the road for a while but are a bit behind on the videos, catching up slowly though! We're more up to date on Instagram. Good luck with the build! 😊
You guys aren't stalking me are you? Lol. I've been doing the same job right now and we have the same water tank, grey tank, gauges (almost) and senders. Mind blown😊I'm also fitting a switch to remotely empty the grey tank using a ball valve. Great to see this and it'll be very useful. Hope you're enjoying your travels.
Haha, well if it helps we did it a lot earlier in the year but have only just got round to editing the video 😛 Good luck with yours! And very much enjoying our travels, cheers 😊
Tim. Watching you explain your plumbing.. so reminded me of the Movie Apolo 13. Where they are trying to fit the round thingy in the square thingahmajig. Great video once again. As long as we can get you home safely...we're all good.
Haha yeah, it often feels like that building things for the van! Have thought the same before 😄 Everything is always so custom and often mind melting but you get there in the end 😛
Yeah true but we like to keep an eye on it filling up so we can get to a service area in good time 🙂 And cheers, we've built the whole van together and have a rule that we each have to work on every project equally 👍
Great to see the next video installment of the van build! I've been following on Instagram and the van looks brilliant. I can't wait to see the video showing the cool switch board install!
Great video. Unfortunatly I have to do my water tanks in December and after fitting my diesel heater last week and spending 4 hours under the van I’m not looking foward to this job! Great video as always! 💪🏻💪🏻
Cheers! Ah yeah, we feel your pain! We always seemed to end up doing the outside and under van jobs in the cold and rain (or wind!). At least you'll be able to whack the heater on to warm up afterwards 🥶😄
Loving these build videos as just starting my project... What did you connect to you metal outlet from the shower? I think I am going to do something similar..
Cheers :) And we originally used a McAlpine Flexcon 9 from the shower drain to 40mm waste fittings, but we've since redone it a bit differently and now have the drain going into a T5M. Essentially and 1.5" BSP fitting should screw straight onto the style of drain we have 👍
@@NigelDanson we made a few other changes as we upgraded our setup for our recirculating shower (but for the standard shower drainage it's pretty much the same just routed slightly differently) 👍
Going to have tanks custom made for the spaces under my bus and the grey water will be pumped out through the toilet for flushing - using the water twice!
Always good to find ways to conserve the limited van resources! Make sure you have some good filters! Our shower water is pretty clean by the time it gets into the tank, we wouldn't want to use the sink water again for anything though 😛
I am so glad to see the continuing saga! I have enjoyed your build videos and the detail with which you share your experiences has been really helpful as I get going on my own conversion. I know you've been using your van for awhile now, but I was surprised you went with rigid domestic plastic drains under the van. Have the seals or other parts not suffered from the shocks and temperature changes of road travel and/or weather? Thanks again for your really valuable work!
No problem, glad it's been helpful 🙂 And nope, no issues like that. We did change all of the push fit connectors for compression ones very early on as we found them a lot more secure being able to tighten the nut and washer onto the pipe, which eliminated a couple of tiny drips we had with the push fit tees. We've since driven many hundreds of miles over the last few months and it's all held up completely fine and with no leaks. The pipes don't really move around as the ends are fixed, and then at the front they're cable tied tight against the bottom of the van. Happy with the choice as the 40mm pipe is nice and large and cheap, only a few quid for 3M of it 👍
Hi ya, been watching your conversion from the start, someone has probably mentioned this but with the waste water going into the black tank you really need a u bend to stop the bad smells from coming back up. The way l sorted it was to use a flexiable pipe with a vertical loop in it.
Hey 👋 Yeah we didn't really mention it in this video but we have the U bend for the sink in the kitchen cabinet, and we did have a temporary one for the shower under the van just using some flexible pipe like that. But we've since removed it in favour of a NRV instead as for our recirculating shower we didn't want any standing water in the pipes to super cool the loop, or freeze, as we want to be able to use the van in all seasons and in cold climates. No smells coming from the grey tank, and with the filter as well it keeps the tank nice and clean too 🙂👍
One quick thought … I see you didn’t put in any traps - like P traps. You might get smells up from the grey tank through the pipework to the sink / shower if there’s no residual water in the pipes.
Yeah we have a U bend under the sink in the kitchen and made a temporary one for the shower drain too with the flexible pipe under the van. That worked fine until we've also now redone the shower plumbing for our recirculating shower and now have a non return valve before the tank too. No smells! 🙂
Hi, you are going to have to wrap and insulate that pipe and fittings as its meant for mainly internal use when it cold and freezes the pipe will become brittle and just keep cracking
Hey, yeah we have pipe wrap in the back but haven't got round to putting it on yet, hopefully one day soon when it's a nice dry day. It's been fine the last few months but want to add it as well to retain as much heat as possible for the recirculating shower loop 😛
Cheers! And yes we will be, once we finish editing all the leftover ones from the build first 😄 We ended up finishing the recirculating shower on the road, but there will be a video about that too at some point!
Yeah we have a U bend under the sink in the kitchen cabinet, and for this project we just made a temporary one under the shower drain too with the flexible pipe. That worked okay but have since redone that part for our recirculating shower, and now have a NRV there. Happy to say there are no smells! 😀
Yeah we've been driving around with the pipe wrap for it for a while actually but haven't got round to getting under the van to do it yet 😛 If we're somewhere really cold and below freezing we likely won't use the grey tank though if we can help it 👍
Great video but as previously said you should add traps to stop smells. Also please secure the waste pipe with actual clips and not zip ties. They will break at some point and the plumbing will end up all over the road.
Cheers :) And yep we put a U bend under the sink in a previous video. For the shower we initially had the temporary U bend we made under the van here with the flexible pipe but have done away with that now in favour of a NRV which works much better with our recirculating shower as no water left is left in the pipe to freeze and cool down the loop. No smells at all! Clips wouldn't work so easily for us as the pipe needs to be suspended under the van to give the right drop to the tank. Even 2.5mm nylon ties have a tensile strength of 8kg though which should be more than enough. The pipe is also pretty secure even without them to be honest as each end is rigid, the ties mostly just keep it in the right placement 🙂👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Potatoes, potatoes. Tomatoes, tomatoes. I have a wicked sense of humour. On a serious note. For a couple of greenhorns, you are doing a great job. I always found persistence to be the key. Best of luck to you both. 👍
Great video! I’m just wondering about winter. I’m thinking about insulating the tank, or maby heating the tank to prevent it from freezing. Haven’t you thought about this?
Cheers :) And yeah we insulated the tank in the video, and also have some wrap for the pipes too. That'll help slow down any water freezing in there but if it's cold enough it still will eventually, so if it's well below freezing outside we'll also limit how much we use the waste tank (if at all). We're tentatively planning to head up to Norway in the Winter so it probably won't see much use up there... 😛
Yeah we did wonder about that but after experimenting with it in there for the last few months we find we only have to clean it every 3-4 weeks or so (we are quite careful about what we wash down the sink too though). We reckon that's a pretty good compromise as it means when we drain out our waste water it's almost entirely just water. We didn't really want all the particles to find their way into the tank as we figured they would then just sit in the bottom of it, below the outlet pipe for the tap. No smells as there is a U bend under the sink 👍🙂
Great Video thanks for sharing would love to see the compression fittings I wondered about the plumbing underneath if this would be durable. Did you thought about insulating the pipes too? But the water is only coming when it’s running I think it would not freeze then ?
Cheers 👍 Yeah we swapped out from the pushfit to the the compression fittings pretty quickly as the pushfit ones aren't as secure with vibration. We've had the setup with the compression fittings under the van for over a year now and haven't had any issues with it, even after driving over 1000 miles to Norway. They hold nice and rigid which is great, and are a lot easier to undo if necessary for any maintenance too. We have insulated the pipes now as well with some thermal wrap. The water won't freeze in the pipes if it's running and can flow direct into the tank but it will freeze anywhere it's stationary like in a U bend, or if we just park the wrong way around on a slope 😛 The insulation won't stop it freezing in those cases just delay it, but the main reason we did it was to reduce the thermal loss of the water that goes briefly under the van in our recirculating shower loop. We might also add some 12v pipe heaters as well for when we go to really cold places. HTH
@@SelfBuiltStories thanks for the full insight do you got any product links maybe to the compression pipes, heating and insulation? Would be very nice. I probably have to do the same setup as I’m living in the Arctic polar circle ⭕️ I bet I will need some pipe heating in case it will freeze
@@ArcticNorthAdventures We just used standard McAlpine/FloPlast 40mm compression fittings, mostly just the elbows and tees like: www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-wc23-universal-compression-waste-equal-tee-white-40mm/73315 . Insulation is just standard pipe wrap: www.screwfix.com/p/thermawrap-spiral-pipe-insulation-52mm-x-4mm-x-7-5m/62194 . And pipe heating we don't have yet, but we might source some 12v heating wire from Amazon for that. HTH 👍
Hi both, your channel has become a ‘go to’ for info and ideas, I have bought the same float sensors and the analog gauges, white for fresh and black for waste. However, I set up a test on a bench and can’t get the gauge to work, I can get the back light to come on, but thats it 🤷♂️ Does the float need to be in water, or would you know how to wire it?
Hiya, nope they don't need to be in water, they're just a float that moves up and down that changes the resistance down the wire, so you should be able to set it up and test it on the bench like we did in the video. One thing that was a bit odd was the wiring colours. So on our gauge red is positive, blue is negative/ground. Then black should be wired to the sensor wire from the actual float sensor. The yellow and orange wires are optional and you can just also wire one or the other to the positive feed to have either a yellow or red backlight. HTH 👍
Hello, are you still planning on fitting the recirculating shower? Was interested in trying to fit one in my boxer but thinking might be too space consuming and not worth the additional trouble/cost - would be interested to how it’s done though 👍
Hey, yep we have done it now actually, we did the upgrade on the road in a mix of campsites and parkups which made it an interesting challenge 😛 We filmed a video for it which we'll get round to putting it at some point but probably won't be for a while. We have a few pictures/video of it working on our Instagram though 👍
Hi, love the videos. You guys are doing a great job on the conversion. I’m about to start installing a grey tank on my van and I’m stuck on how everyone routes the sensor wires into the van. Do you have to drill a separate hole just for the wires and if so, go do you seal/protect it?
Haha no worries, yeah we spent quite a lot of time thinking about that as we didn't want to drill another hole just for the wires if we could help it. We have several wires passing through the toilet vent pipe now and it works well for us and means we can easily add more in future. There are wire glands you can get as well, but with the thickness of our floor through all the insulation we prefer it this way 👍
We have a ball valve for our recirculating shower setup but didn't see the need to put one at the waste outlet to be honest, whenever we drain it we're always outside the van doing all the other bits like refilling the fresh water anyway so a manual tap works perfect for us 👍
That's a good question, we've not tried it. The inlet side to the tap takes standard 28mm campervan pipe, but I think the outlet side is 25mm. Would imagine it would be simple to get a piece of hose the right diameter or with an adapter to do that though. We just have a small 10L tank that we keep in the garage and decant it into that before pouring it down the waste point. That's been really useful as we rarely find drive over points, maybe only 10-20% of the time 😛
Hey, we used a McAlpine flexcon 9 in the video, but have since changed the plumbing slightly under the van so now use a T5M there. Anything that's got a 1.5" BSP coupling nut on one end should screw directly onto the 1.5" drain. Have added links to both in the description 👍
Hiya, we just used 4 small 90 degree angle brackets bolted together. The tap comes with a grey clip that goes around each side of it with hole through it. We just secured two of the brackets either side of it with a bolt, then another two on each of those and then bolted the whole lot into the metal of the van. You can see it here: ruclips.net/video/P40c7bjEan8/видео.htmlsi=iVAYl-7CcMWglRkQ&t=1631 👍
They're just 90 degree hose barb elbows that we had leftover from our bobil kit (www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-page/new-bobil-air-xchange ) so we repurposed them for the breather tube in the tank. You can get similar ones here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491956773 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Around 20:55 for the level gauge... Sorry! I didn't know what I was thinking just saying 'what screws are they?' like you'd know hahaha. I must have been tired. The issue I'm having is that I've drilled a 5mm pilot hole by accident, for what it looks like, an m5 bolt. Unless they bite into the plastic like a self tapper and I use a m6 screw, otherwise I'm going to need to use a nut
@@WildNomadicFilms haha no worries! Yeah the level gauge came with some bolts to use and we just drilled a slightly smaller hole and then they self tapped into the plastic, no nuts or anything 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories It's ok I take it you haven't done it Keep up with the vids, helped me out loads Still watching and a good few weeks behind you on my Transit L4 H3 conversion Thanks again Just look under dip switches invertor
@@madforit9661 Ah ok I see what you mean now, yeah we don't have any DIP switches to program. We went for the Phoenix not the Multiplus which integrates with Victron Connect via Bluetooth, so we can configure everything in the app. Perhaps this is helpful? shop.pkys.com/Multiplus-dipswitches.html. Cheers and and glad they're helpful 🙂
hey guys! thanks a lot for your videos, top quality. could you please tell what are these black push fittings you install @ 13:39? ruclips.net/video/P40c7bjEan8/видео.htmlfeature=shared&t=819
No problem, cheers :) And they're just 90 degree hose barb elbows that we had leftover from our bobil kit (www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-page/new-bobil-air-xchange ) so we repurposed them for the breather tube in the tank. You can get similar ones here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491956773 👍
Yeah they're very cool, glad we went for analogue ones! We've driven many hundreds of miles with it over the last few months without any issues so far so not too worried. They don't really move around as each end is fixed, both at the sink side and at the tank. The cable ties just add a bit more support and keep it pressed as tightly as possible against the van metal at the front to get the most decline to the tank. And ha sorry, wouldn't have been the most interesting one this time 😅
@@BruhnThomas Cheers! Glad you're enjoying them! 🙂And yep we're using standard white nylon ones here, but no issue with UV under the van really. You can get UV resistant white cable ties with added carbon but none of these are exposed to sunlight so shouldn't be an issue. We used the black ones on the roof but ran out for this one 😛
People who are watching this but not converting a van themselves have no idea how much research has go into each and every part. I'm about to fit my new celing and just that has had hours of planning! Keep up the great videos
Yep there is definitely a lot of research! Easy to get lost down the rabbit hole too... and as soon as you finish one project you start again from square one for the next one 😂 Very satisfying when it all starts to come together and you pick up all the skills along the way though 🙂 Thanks!
another good video you two really do take your time and think it through, to get the nice end results, love the shots with the lambs being feed that you drop in, your all most finished the build now ready to enjoy 😊
@@geraldgooding7430 Thank you! Glad you like those shots, we enjoy putting them in 🙂Breaks it up from a video being all about a waste water tank 😂
Great video, thank you 🤘
Cheers, and no problem 👍🙂
Waste has never been so much fun. You two are awesome!
Haha, cheers! 😄
My favorite van build couple. 😊
Me too❤
Ah thank you 😊
Amazing videos, your both amazing.
Cheers! 🙂
I think the phrase that comes to mind is "perfect in every way".
Thank you 🙏🏻😊
My admiration and respect for this couple, they could make a living making campers, I have seen thousands of videos but no one made them with such delicacy and professionalism, greetings from a Spaniard from Australia ,😃👍🏽
Thank you very much! 😊
How nice to have a car hoist 😊. Good job.
Cheers! Yeah working under the van is always knackering, glad to have it all done 😀
Your so lucky to have a wife who will do this with you and be so pretty at the same time.
Thank you very much 🙂 We decided from the beginning that everything would be a joint effort 😊
I like that you don't edit out your mistakes. That is very helpful! Thank you.
Glad to hear, we like to include the mistakes as it keeps it real and it's all a learning process 🙂👍
DEAR TIM AND ABI 💑 ... KEEP IT UP ALWAYS IN SUPPORT WITH YOUR PROJECT. ..❤
Thank you! 😊
good to see you guys back.... keep going!
Thanks! We're slowly catching up with all the videos! 😊
Yet another fabulous video guys. Your attention to detail goes above & beyond. By far, two of the most lovable, infectious campervan conversionistas on the interweb! 👍
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it 😊👍
Love ya work. The results were worth the effort. Nice to know I'm not the only one who can make basic mistakes on a van build! Can't help but think that the filter on the drain may become the bane of your existence. Thank you for sharing your process, warts and all.
Cheers! And yeah it was a bit of work, and one of the less glamorous jobs but has to be done! We try to show the mistakes along the way as every project always takes longer than planned and has it's quirks 😛 We've had it in for a few months now and find we have to clean it out every 3 weeks or so which we're okay with, as it keeps our grey water to be almost entirely water which we like. We are super careful about what we put down the sink though so it might not work for everyone, but for us for the small compromise of a bit of maintenance every now and then when we do our other chores we're quite happy with it at the moment 🙂
It is built to last, and not just threw together - I think Jackson is impressed too. 😸. I hope you are enjoying the travels. 🙂
Hoping it will last for many adventures to come! Yeah he seemed to enjoy our company a lot on this project, was always around 😺 We're having a great time on the road, thank you 😊
Oh I LOVE those guages and the sensor, they look excellent thank you.
No problem! Yeah they're really cool, we like having analogue ones so we can see the level changing all the way, very handy! 😀
Tim & Abi, you have no idea how helpful and inspirational your videos are! We’re in the early stages of our Crafter conversion and your videos give me the motivation to crack on through the cold and rain!
I read in the comments you’ve added a non return valve to your shower, please could you let me know which one you went with? I’ve been in a water system rabbit hole and trust your choice of products! Cheers guys and happy travels 😊
Awesome, great to hear! At least if you build it in the cold and rain, you'll hopefully be able to enjoy it in the warm and sun! Yeah sure, we put in this one between our shower and our grey tank: www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-t28m-nrv-non-return-valve-white-40mm/61561. We had a temporary U bend out of some flexible pipe originally, but because of our recirculating shower we wanted to remove any chance for standing water in the pipes that would cool down the loop, so we put in the NRV instead and it's been working great so far 👍
Good to see you again! 😊
Thank you! 😊
Lovely and informative video as always. Thank you.
Just to warn you that I installed the same plastic wate tap (in the same manner with couple of angled metal supports) about 18 months ago. Late last night, I came back from a 500 mile weekend round trip to find the tap has been trailing along the ground. The plastic bracket support failed - I can only assume it became brittle with the recent cold weather together with normal road vibrations. As you know, the plastic support bracket does not hold the tap anywhere near 360 degrees . Anyway, now looking on google for a better solution with at least a 28mm outlet. Its not an easy find! I can see myself installing the same tap again but carrying a spare.
Cheers 🙂 And that's interesting, thanks for the heads up! We haven't had any problems with ours like that yet down to about -7C, but we are planning on taking the van quite a bit colder in Norway... We might add a couple of cable ties or something as an extra reinforcement 😛👍
Have a lovely trip, always wanted to do that one !
@@SelfBuiltStories
@@alisterleith Thank you, looking forward to it! 😀
@@alisterleith so we added some cable ties around the tap recently after your comment. Glad we did! Literally a few days later we had some work done on the van and the garage must have broken the support bracket when they jacked it up, so the ties were the only thing holding it on. So thanks! Saved us having it trailing along the ground :)
What a great video as usual, I look forward too your next installment. Congrats on the C1 pass.
Cheers! Yeah glad we both passed too, or one of us would have had a lot of driving to to 😀
For drilling into metal I can recommend using a stepper drill bit. Then you just have to drill a small pilot hole and the stepper drill bit will make the rest a. lot easier!
Haha yeah we had a few situations where a stepper bit would have been useful but never got round to getting one 😛 Although we did have to get some new tougher bits for drilling the bolt holes, which was night and day compared to the old ones we had lying around!
Just an idea I've seen in other camper vans. Use push button to power both sensor and backlight and put it next to gauges. So You will save power and won't need to flip switch every time if that is in some other location.
Yeah a push button would work well 👍 We've got it mounted in our switch panel now so they're both in the same place and we just flip it on when we want to look at the levels 🙂
So much effort goes into these videos. Really informative and saves me a ton of research. Thanks for doing them. All the best in your adventures.
No worries, thanks for watching them! 😃 Cheers!
Been waiting for the next instalment, I am just starting my conversation of an IVECO daily and watch all of your vids to help me decide what and where to put things can’t wait till you get on the road. 😘🇦🇺🐾🐾
Awesome! And we've actually finished the van and have been on the road for a while but are a bit behind on the videos, catching up slowly though! We're more up to date on Instagram. Good luck with the build! 😊
Nice video guys. A lot of work there. Looking forward to the next instalment.
Thank you, yeah one of the less glamorous jobs but glad to have it done! 😀
You guys aren't stalking me are you? Lol. I've been doing the same job right now and we have the same water tank, grey tank, gauges (almost) and senders. Mind blown😊I'm also fitting a switch to remotely empty the grey tank using a ball valve. Great to see this and it'll be very useful. Hope you're enjoying your travels.
Haha, well if it helps we did it a lot earlier in the year but have only just got round to editing the video 😛 Good luck with yours! And very much enjoying our travels, cheers 😊
Tim. Watching you explain your plumbing.. so reminded me of the Movie Apolo 13. Where they are trying to fit the round thingy in the square thingahmajig.
Great video once again. As long as we can get you home safely...we're all good.
Haha yeah, it often feels like that building things for the van! Have thought the same before 😄 Everything is always so custom and often mind melting but you get there in the end 😛
@@SelfBuiltStories effort shows. And especially both your patience.
Enjoy your travels and hard work.
@@timothydavis3703 Cheers, we will! 🙂
Another great installment- love what you 2 have done with the van x
Thank you very much 🙂
Great video the van is looking fantastic you both should be very proud of yourselves with what you have achieved
Thank you! We are and are really enjoying using it after all the time building it 😊
Hi there u will know when ur tank is full, as water will come out of ur vent pipe .
Good job BTW .
Great how ur wife helps you , I think she is fab.
Yeah true but we like to keep an eye on it filling up so we can get to a service area in good time 🙂 And cheers, we've built the whole van together and have a rule that we each have to work on every project equally 👍
Great to see the next video installment of the van build! I've been following on Instagram and the van looks brilliant. I can't wait to see the video showing the cool switch board install!
Cheers! That will be in a video at some point, but probably not for a while. Slowly catching up 😅
I appreciate how much effort and detail you guys put in your build, definitely taking inspiration when I start mine!
Cool, thanks and good luck with yours! 🙂
great job! i do enjoy watching your videos.
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying them 😊
Thank you so much for your amazing videos!! They are all so helpful! 👍😊
You're welcome! Thanks for watching them 🙂
Dude, ive been dreaming about plumbing too, so funny 😂
Haha, it's a right of passage for any van builder 🤣
Great video. Unfortunatly I have to do my water tanks in December and after fitting my diesel heater last week and spending 4 hours under the van I’m not looking foward to this job! Great video as always! 💪🏻💪🏻
Cheers! Ah yeah, we feel your pain! We always seemed to end up doing the outside and under van jobs in the cold and rain (or wind!). At least you'll be able to whack the heater on to warm up afterwards 🥶😄
Great work guys
Top tip
Get yourself a step drill bit
Cheers, yeah a step bit probably would have been handy a number of times! 😛
Loving these build videos as just starting my project... What did you connect to you metal outlet from the shower? I think I am going to do something similar..
Cheers :) And we originally used a McAlpine Flexcon 9 from the shower drain to 40mm waste fittings, but we've since redone it a bit differently and now have the drain going into a T5M. Essentially and 1.5" BSP fitting should screw straight onto the style of drain we have 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Thanks - so you just changed the flexible pipe to an elbow fitting and left the rest?
@@NigelDanson we made a few other changes as we upgraded our setup for our recirculating shower (but for the standard shower drainage it's pretty much the same just routed slightly differently) 👍
Going to have tanks custom made for the spaces under my bus and the grey water will be pumped out through the toilet for flushing - using the water twice!
Always good to find ways to conserve the limited van resources! Make sure you have some good filters! Our shower water is pretty clean by the time it gets into the tank, we wouldn't want to use the sink water again for anything though 😛
Amazing and informative as always 👌🙏🏻
Thank you 🙏🏻🙂
I am so glad to see the continuing saga! I have enjoyed your build videos and the detail with which you share your experiences has been really helpful as I get going on my own conversion. I know you've been using your van for awhile now, but I was surprised you went with rigid domestic plastic drains under the van. Have the seals or other parts not suffered from the shocks and temperature changes of road travel and/or weather? Thanks again for your really valuable work!
No problem, glad it's been helpful 🙂 And nope, no issues like that. We did change all of the push fit connectors for compression ones very early on as we found them a lot more secure being able to tighten the nut and washer onto the pipe, which eliminated a couple of tiny drips we had with the push fit tees. We've since driven many hundreds of miles over the last few months and it's all held up completely fine and with no leaks. The pipes don't really move around as the ends are fixed, and then at the front they're cable tied tight against the bottom of the van. Happy with the choice as the 40mm pipe is nice and large and cheap, only a few quid for 3M of it 👍
Hi ya, been watching your conversion from the start, someone has probably mentioned this but with the waste water going into the black tank you really need a u bend to stop the bad smells from coming back up. The way l sorted it was to use a flexiable pipe with a vertical loop in it.
Hey 👋 Yeah we didn't really mention it in this video but we have the U bend for the sink in the kitchen cabinet, and we did have a temporary one for the shower under the van just using some flexible pipe like that. But we've since removed it in favour of a NRV instead as for our recirculating shower we didn't want any standing water in the pipes to super cool the loop, or freeze, as we want to be able to use the van in all seasons and in cold climates. No smells coming from the grey tank, and with the filter as well it keeps the tank nice and clean too 🙂👍
One quick thought … I see you didn’t put in any traps - like P traps. You might get smells up from the grey tank through the pipework to the sink / shower if there’s no residual water in the pipes.
Yeah we have a U bend under the sink in the kitchen and made a temporary one for the shower drain too with the flexible pipe under the van. That worked fine until we've also now redone the shower plumbing for our recirculating shower and now have a non return valve before the tank too. No smells! 🙂
Hi, you are going to have to wrap and insulate that pipe and fittings as its meant for mainly internal use when it cold and freezes the pipe will become brittle and just keep cracking
Hey, yeah we have pipe wrap in the back but haven't got round to putting it on yet, hopefully one day soon when it's a nice dry day. It's been fine the last few months but want to add it as well to retain as much heat as possible for the recirculating shower loop 😛
You also need to underseal the botton of the van to prevent future rust, i used red oxide primary .
Yeah we plan to do that at some point but haven't got round to it yet 🙂
Great video as always - looking forward to the recirculating shower. Are you doing any travel vids too?
Cheers guys👍
Cheers! And yes we will be, once we finish editing all the leftover ones from the build first 😄 We ended up finishing the recirculating shower on the road, but there will be a video about that too at some point!
@@SelfBuiltStories brill! 👍
@@danbracebridge1582 🙂
You need to add traps to stop any nasty smells coming back from the waste tank.
Yeah we have a U bend under the sink in the kitchen cabinet, and for this project we just made a temporary one under the shower drain too with the flexible pipe. That worked okay but have since redone that part for our recirculating shower, and now have a NRV there. Happy to say there are no smells! 😀
We doing camper van too.your videos is helpful.thank you❤
No problem, glad they're helpful 😊👍
I would insolate those pipes, if they freaze its going to crack or your stuck without being able to empty the grey watter tank.
Yeah we've been driving around with the pipe wrap for it for a while actually but haven't got round to getting under the van to do it yet 😛 If we're somewhere really cold and below freezing we likely won't use the grey tank though if we can help it 👍
Great video but as previously said you should add traps to stop smells. Also please secure the waste pipe with actual clips and not zip ties. They will break at some point and the plumbing will end up all over the road.
Cheers :) And yep we put a U bend under the sink in a previous video. For the shower we initially had the temporary U bend we made under the van here with the flexible pipe but have done away with that now in favour of a NRV which works much better with our recirculating shower as no water left is left in the pipe to freeze and cool down the loop. No smells at all! Clips wouldn't work so easily for us as the pipe needs to be suspended under the van to give the right drop to the tank. Even 2.5mm nylon ties have a tensile strength of 8kg though which should be more than enough. The pipe is also pretty secure even without them to be honest as each end is rigid, the ties mostly just keep it in the right placement 🙂👍
you have a trap under sink easy to clear plus trap dont let smell back up
Yep there's a U bend under the sink so no smells 👍
They are all reducers. They don’t make enlargers. 😅 Your reducing from 40mm to 32mm. 40 year veteran plumber. 😉
Haha I mean yeah we did say it was a reducer as you would buy it obviously, but we're using it to enlarge the pipe.. 😛👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Potatoes, potatoes. Tomatoes, tomatoes. I have a wicked sense of humour. On a serious note. For a couple of greenhorns, you are doing a great job. I always found persistence to be the key. Best of luck to you both. 👍
@@garypotter1746 Yeah for sure, and cheers 🙂👍
Great video! I’m just wondering about winter. I’m thinking about insulating the tank, or maby heating the tank to prevent it from freezing. Haven’t you thought about this?
Cheers :) And yeah we insulated the tank in the video, and also have some wrap for the pipes too. That'll help slow down any water freezing in there but if it's cold enough it still will eventually, so if it's well below freezing outside we'll also limit how much we use the waste tank (if at all). We're tentatively planning to head up to Norway in the Winter so it probably won't see much use up there... 😛
👍😎👍🚐!!!❤
🙂👍
I think you should allow food particles to travel and later expelled with waste water. Filter will cause bad smell and clogged on a regular basis.
Yeah we did wonder about that but after experimenting with it in there for the last few months we find we only have to clean it every 3-4 weeks or so (we are quite careful about what we wash down the sink too though). We reckon that's a pretty good compromise as it means when we drain out our waste water it's almost entirely just water. We didn't really want all the particles to find their way into the tank as we figured they would then just sit in the bottom of it, below the outlet pipe for the tap. No smells as there is a U bend under the sink 👍🙂
Great Video thanks for sharing would love to see the compression fittings I wondered about the plumbing underneath if this would be durable.
Did you thought about insulating the pipes too? But the water is only coming when it’s running I think it would not freeze then ?
Cheers 👍 Yeah we swapped out from the pushfit to the the compression fittings pretty quickly as the pushfit ones aren't as secure with vibration. We've had the setup with the compression fittings under the van for over a year now and haven't had any issues with it, even after driving over 1000 miles to Norway. They hold nice and rigid which is great, and are a lot easier to undo if necessary for any maintenance too.
We have insulated the pipes now as well with some thermal wrap. The water won't freeze in the pipes if it's running and can flow direct into the tank but it will freeze anywhere it's stationary like in a U bend, or if we just park the wrong way around on a slope 😛 The insulation won't stop it freezing in those cases just delay it, but the main reason we did it was to reduce the thermal loss of the water that goes briefly under the van in our recirculating shower loop. We might also add some 12v pipe heaters as well for when we go to really cold places. HTH
@@SelfBuiltStories thanks for the full insight do you got any product links maybe to the compression pipes, heating and insulation? Would be very nice. I probably have to do the same setup as I’m living in the Arctic polar circle ⭕️ I bet I will need some pipe heating in case it will freeze
@@ArcticNorthAdventures We just used standard McAlpine/FloPlast 40mm compression fittings, mostly just the elbows and tees like: www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-wc23-universal-compression-waste-equal-tee-white-40mm/73315 . Insulation is just standard pipe wrap: www.screwfix.com/p/thermawrap-spiral-pipe-insulation-52mm-x-4mm-x-7-5m/62194 . And pipe heating we don't have yet, but we might source some 12v heating wire from Amazon for that. HTH 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories thanks for sharing appreciate it
@@ArcticNorthAdventures no problem 👍
Hi both, your channel has become a ‘go to’ for info and ideas, I have bought the same float sensors and the analog gauges, white for fresh and black for waste. However, I set up a test on a bench and can’t get the gauge to work, I can get the back light to come on, but thats it 🤷♂️
Does the float need to be in water, or would you know how to wire it?
Hiya, nope they don't need to be in water, they're just a float that moves up and down that changes the resistance down the wire, so you should be able to set it up and test it on the bench like we did in the video. One thing that was a bit odd was the wiring colours. So on our gauge red is positive, blue is negative/ground. Then black should be wired to the sensor wire from the actual float sensor. The yellow and orange wires are optional and you can just also wire one or the other to the positive feed to have either a yellow or red backlight. HTH 👍
Hello, are you still planning on fitting the recirculating shower? Was interested in trying to fit one in my boxer but thinking might be too space consuming and not worth the additional trouble/cost - would be interested to how it’s done though 👍
Hey, yep we have done it now actually, we did the upgrade on the road in a mix of campsites and parkups which made it an interesting challenge 😛 We filmed a video for it which we'll get round to putting it at some point but probably won't be for a while. We have a few pictures/video of it working on our Instagram though 👍
Until your car is complete Humans have all gone to Mars haha.
We finished it a while ago 😀👍
Hi, love the videos. You guys are doing a great job on the conversion.
I’m about to start installing a grey tank on my van and I’m stuck on how everyone routes the sensor wires into the van. Do you have to drill a separate hole just for the wires and if so, go do you seal/protect it?
Somehow I missed that part of the video lol. Sorry.
Haha no worries, yeah we spent quite a lot of time thinking about that as we didn't want to drill another hole just for the wires if we could help it. We have several wires passing through the toilet vent pipe now and it works well for us and means we can easily add more in future. There are wire glands you can get as well, but with the thickness of our floor through all the insulation we prefer it this way 👍
Thanks for the reply. Loving the videos. I’ve copied a lot of what yous have done. 💪🏻
@@ihay22 No problem, good luck with the rest of your build 👍🙂
You just missed the auto dump valve.
Electrical Ball Valve, 9-24V AC/DC, 3 Wire Setup
We have a ball valve for our recirculating shower setup but didn't see the need to put one at the waste outlet to be honest, whenever we drain it we're always outside the van doing all the other bits like refilling the fresh water anyway so a manual tap works perfect for us 👍
Can you attach a hose to the drain-off tap in case you can't get close enough to a disposal point?
That's a good question, we've not tried it. The inlet side to the tap takes standard 28mm campervan pipe, but I think the outlet side is 25mm. Would imagine it would be simple to get a piece of hose the right diameter or with an adapter to do that though. We just have a small 10L tank that we keep in the garage and decant it into that before pouring it down the waste point. That's been really useful as we rarely find drive over points, maybe only 10-20% of the time 😛
@@SelfBuiltStories neat!
@@mrmobsi527 🙂
Hey Guys,
What connnector did you use from your shower drain to the 40mm east pipe?
Hey, we used a McAlpine flexcon 9 in the video, but have since changed the plumbing slightly under the van so now use a T5M there. Anything that's got a 1.5" BSP coupling nut on one end should screw directly onto the 1.5" drain. Have added links to both in the description 👍
Well done, you guys really do your research..great videos
Thank you very much!
What parts did you guys use to mount the outlet tap? Thanks
Hiya, we just used 4 small 90 degree angle brackets bolted together. The tap comes with a grey clip that goes around each side of it with hole through it. We just secured two of the brackets either side of it with a bolt, then another two on each of those and then bolted the whole lot into the metal of the van. You can see it here: ruclips.net/video/P40c7bjEan8/видео.htmlsi=iVAYl-7CcMWglRkQ&t=1631 👍
Can I ask where you got the overflow/vent from
They're just 90 degree hose barb elbows that we had leftover from our bobil kit (www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-page/new-bobil-air-xchange ) so we repurposed them for the breather tube in the tank. You can get similar ones here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491956773 👍
👍👍🚐😎
🙂👍
What screws are they please?
Hiya, not sure which ones you mean, which part of the video did we use them? 🙂
@@SelfBuiltStories Around 20:55 for the level gauge... Sorry! I didn't know what I was thinking just saying 'what screws are they?' like you'd know hahaha. I must have been tired. The issue I'm having is that I've drilled a 5mm pilot hole by accident, for what it looks like, an m5 bolt. Unless they bite into the plastic like a self tapper and I use a m6 screw, otherwise I'm going to need to use a nut
@@WildNomadicFilms haha no worries! Yeah the level gauge came with some bolts to use and we just drilled a slightly smaller hole and then they self tapped into the plastic, no nuts or anything 👍
@@SelfBuiltStories Fantastic, thank you very much!
@@WildNomadicFilms No problem 🙂👍
How did you program your Victron dip switches?
Hmm not sure which switches you mean?
@@SelfBuiltStories It's ok I take it you haven't done it Keep up with the vids, helped me out loads Still watching and a good few weeks behind you on my Transit L4 H3 conversion Thanks again Just look under dip switches invertor
@@madforit9661 Ah ok I see what you mean now, yeah we don't have any DIP switches to program. We went for the Phoenix not the Multiplus which integrates with Victron Connect via Bluetooth, so we can configure everything in the app. Perhaps this is helpful? shop.pkys.com/Multiplus-dipswitches.html. Cheers and and glad they're helpful 🙂
hey guys! thanks a lot for your videos, top quality.
could you please tell what are these black push fittings you install @ 13:39? ruclips.net/video/P40c7bjEan8/видео.htmlfeature=shared&t=819
No problem, cheers :) And they're just 90 degree hose barb elbows that we had leftover from our bobil kit (www.bobilvans.co.uk/product-page/new-bobil-air-xchange ) so we repurposed them for the breather tube in the tank. You can get similar ones here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491956773 👍
Did you underseal the holes you drilled for the grey water tank be fore fitting to stop the cross beams rusting.
Hi, yep with all the holes we drill in the van we file them and then paint with hammerite 👍🏻
The gauges are very nice. I am not so sure how long the waste pipe will survive held up with zip ties. Disappointed at the lack of diagrams.
Yeah they're very cool, glad we went for analogue ones! We've driven many hundreds of miles with it over the last few months without any issues so far so not too worried. They don't really move around as each end is fixed, both at the sink side and at the tank. The cable ties just add a bit more support and keep it pressed as tightly as possible against the van metal at the front to get the most decline to the tank. And ha sorry, wouldn't have been the most interesting one this time 😅
@@SelfBuiltStories you should not use white cable ties outdoors, they are not UV resistant. PS. Love your movies
@@BruhnThomas Cheers! Glad you're enjoying them! 🙂And yep we're using standard white nylon ones here, but no issue with UV under the van really. You can get UV resistant white cable ties with added carbon but none of these are exposed to sunlight so shouldn't be an issue. We used the black ones on the roof but ran out for this one 😛