This week the insulation continues…. But first let me take you on a detour!

Layout

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During the early part of the week, I came across a really neat idea for the bulkhead/ cab access situation. It left me intrigued as to how it could work for us so I had a little mock-up in SketchUp and found that it really helped free up some storage space for us, something we are lacking a little under the current design.

We’ve currently left our existing bulkhead in. Initially we planned to replace it and create a new one with two walls made from ply and some insulation sandwiched in-between. We then considered replacing it with one that already had a sliding door, however, we would not be able to insulate that door. This has left us both wondering if the little idea I saw, which actually can be done by leaving the existing bulkhead in, is worth a second thought.

Cab access is important to us for emergencies or if we didn’t particularly fancy getting out in the cold to drive off. However we are more than likely going to need to exit the vehicle and have a look around, clean solar panels, scrape snow and unplug any hook-up before we could drive off anyway. So whilst good for those boon-docking midnight run situations it shouldn’t be as important to us as it has become. Watch this space we may have an updated layout on the way!

Hiding from the rain

Insulating the walls

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Insulating a van is a long tough job, when you watch the videos online people seem to do a whole van in a day or at least get a good way through in a couple of hours, in reality it takes about two weeks to fully insulate a LWB van properly. We had a smashing day last week getting the ceiling and a section of wall done in a day. This week progress has slowed somewhat with us both being tired and carrying various aches and pains. We did, however manage to complete the insulation along one full side of the van and made a start on one section of the other side. Well done to us for pushing through!

We have only had three shorter days out on the van so far this week, and two of those were spent working in the van by torchlight with the doors closed because it rained so much. We’ve also had a couple of social nights out that have left us pretty tired the next day. The insulation stage is physically hard with all the manual cutting and the scrabbling around, and because of the tiredness it has somewhat lost its appeal and we’ve slowed down a bit. I’m sure with some rest over the weekend we’ll be back with a spring in our step next week and hopefully get the other side of the van finished.

More progess on the insulation

Ouchies

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As mentioned, we will take the weekend to rest and try and get past the various aches and pains.

Ben has had some back and chest pain and is finding it hard to work in the van now that the ceiling is lower, he is cramped and having a lot of muscle pain later in the evening when he finally gets to stretch out. We don’t think this will be a problem once we get going with the travelling as he’ll be able to sit down properly and pop outside for some air and a stretch if necessary

As for me I’ll be keeping my knee raised, it swelled up sometime last week and I’ve not really payed it much attention. It’s becoming a little annoying and hard to ignore now and it’s still really puffy, the black bruising has gone a red colour. I am also hoping that my shoulder settles and I can get some sleep, as I’ve felt quite fatigued this week.

Don’t worry though, we are both OK! Don’t panic Mum’s! 😉