Hatching The Cowl
Having been lucky enough to be offered a couple of days of help on the van from John (Ben’s dad). We jumped at the opportunity to try to get some of the ever growing list of tasks ticked off the list before Christmas. It’s really helpful when others are interested in the project and keen to get involved. It’s such a long journey to the finish line you sometimes feel you need some fresh outside positivity to help you along the way.
The Preparation
Pleased to get back outside working on the van, we decided to take this cheeky weekend opportunity to tackle one of the bigger jobs on the list: the install of the diesel heater/ hot water unit. As you know from an earlier post we choose to go with the Truma Combi D6E hot water/heating system, as we felt overall that this was the most complete and robust option.
The install, as you can imagine is fairly complicated, the heater has a seemingly endless list of install criteria to follow and is decidedly more complicated to install than most other diesel heaters. In most cases you only need to cut a couple of holes out through the van floor for the exhaust and fuel line. Unluckily for us the Truma requires four holes, one through the side of the van and the remaining three holes through the floor. Annoyingly the exhaust on this unit will be located on the side wall of the van. Having read the instructions we knew we were in for a challenging time. The exhaust hole will be difficult to place now that we have insulated, vapour barried and ply lined the walls.
Taking these four holes into account we had a lot of measuring to do to ensure that the space that we had in mind for the heater was suitable. We’ve tried to keep the cupboard that would house the heater located centrally within the van, so that we’ll easily be able to access it if we have any problems and to allow for better heat distribution. As it turned out this was also a requirement.
First we checked the outside wall of the van, ensuring that the hole for the exhaust cowl (which is quite large) would miss the bumper strips at the side of the van. I’ve seen many installation videos where these ‘strips’ are not accounted for and the installation is compromised by having to cut through the plastic. After giving the all clear from the outside it was now time to head under the van to check that it would be possible to cut holes for the frost control valve, aeration tube and fuel line.
The Install
With everything looking good underneath we dived in, making a start by cutting the hole for the exhaust cowl. After carefully cutting out the paper template for the cowl we placed it on the plywood wall of the van and drew around it. Now it was time to make a start on the cutting, we proceeded to drill four large pilot holes into each corner of the rectangular shape. To complete the cut-out the only thing left was to join up the pilot holes using the jigsaw, this stage unfortunately turned out to be exceedingly problematic. The struts that form the cupboard are really in the way, making the space so tight that it was impossible to get the jigsaw to lay flat on the wall because of the cutting guard. Ben also found laying down on the floor between the struts very cramped, leaving him with very limited movement. It was very awkward for him to cut the hole from this position.
Never-the-less, persisting through the discomfort Ben did a great job on the plywood. Unfortunately, after managing to cut the top layer of plywood away and remove the vapour barrier we realised that we’d positioned the cowl right over one of the ribs of the van. As you can see from the picture there really is no room to move the installation any further to the right so as not to foul the rib, so we will have to cut through it.
After some careful surgery to remove the Celotex, Ben still in his cramped position, carefully drilled two of the corner pilot holes out through the skin of the van. John then took the template outside and lined it up with the pilot holes that Ben had drilled and masked off the cutting area. Our speedy progress slowed somewhat at this point, after cutting what we could of the hole with the jigsaw both Ben and John took it in turns, using a junior hacksaw to cut through the rib. This part of the process was really hard going and took quite some time! I think this was Ben’s least favourite of all the holes he has had to cut into the van so far. Despite the struggle we did finally break through to the other side, revealing the now dark sky. Rushing around in the cold we packed up and tapped a bag over the hole before heading in for some much deserved dinner.
Day two
After a difficult first day we hoped today would be easier, however, the day brought fresh challenges! Raring to go and ready to finish up, we started with the un-bagging of the hole. After a quick bit of vapour barrier repair we proceed to test fit and secure the cowl to the outside of the van. It felt great to finish up this particularly difficult task.
A spring in our step and with the heater in position inside the van, we proceeded to carefully attach the exhaust and muffler tube to their respective connections within the cowl. After bending the tubes around somewhat we realised that they were far to long for the installation. We took some careful measurements and decided on a length and took the tubes outside for cutting. Once at the right length we brought the tubes back inside for another test fit. It was during this test fit that we noticed that the O-ring, that protects us from breathing in any dangerous gases from the diesel, was broken; this was a huge problem!
I frantically searched online to try to find a replacement, but none could be delivered in time for us to finish the installation this weekend. Deciding it would be better to wait before doing any more with the heater we carefully packed the Truma away and stepped back to admire the work so far
Fairly Discreet 
Up close!
Re-wiring the solar
Not wanting to let the rest of the day go without cracking on with some of the other tasks, we decided that now might be a good time to rewire the larger solar panels. Although none of us particularly relished the idea of removing and rewiring the panels, we had found during our research that it would be better to have the large panels in parallel rather than series. Due to minimum voltage restrictions of our second solar controller the smaller ones have stayed wired up in series.
It was lucky that I had ordered more solar cable during the week! John set about doing a quick bit of soldering, making up four extra cables. I headed out and took off the rear ceiling panels in preparation for the big re-wire. After removing the ceiling and carefully detaching the vapour barrier I noticed that the van, Celeotex and vapour barrier seemed to be a bit damp in this area. I headed up the ladder to investigate, having a look around our previous solar junction box I couldn’t find any signs of a leak, I then realised that one of the entry glands had not been tightened and was therefore not water tight. Ben joined me outside and we began threading the solar cables back through the box.
The guys hastily got up on the roof, ready to remove the solar panels and attach the new wires. After the wiring was replaced the solar panels were re-attached to the van and the cables taped in a bag to the top of the van for now.
