Expedition No1 Disaster

I got off to a good start everything loaded and we where off to Ardnamurchan at 10.30, after Ash had a good run in the forest. A nice uneventful journey with a good audio book to keep me company all the way to Loch Lomond where I found a nice lay-by just north of Luss to spend the night in. No alcohol just in case I got moved on by the boys in blue although I doubt anybody would care I was parked there this time of year but just to be on the safe side

A good sleep and I was up, feed and watered, Ash given a walk the full length of the lay-by so we were ready to roll by 9ish the snow line was getting lower but all well, until the bump into a deep pothole broke the back window!!!!(No I haven't heard of it happening to anybody before either). I thought at first it had frozen over it wasn't until just outside Tyndrum that bits started falling out and then another bump finished the job. The RAC were not a lot of help glass is not something they do, but they did put me in touch with Autoglass they could not do anything there and then, it would be Friday (this is Sunday btw) before they could fix it if I stayed where I was. I couldn't, there was glass all over the back of the car and no way could I sleep in it, I was parked at The Green Welly shop and by this time there was a blizzard going on so I decided the best thing, was too ever so reluctantly, abandon the trip and go home. the glass fitter got a smiley at that and said that was fine they could replace it Christmas eve if I was at home. I used one of the covers I use in the roof and warpped it around the back door and started back down country with the night heater going to keep the car warm.


Hay Ho that's the way it goes but I was not a happy camper. I have been working my way towards this trip for months and even with the gales that where forecast I was going to risk it, but for it all to get screwed up by a pothole!ӣ$%^&*().





But I will be having another go, but this time I am going to work with the weather I will keep my eye on the forecast and if I see a window of good frosty weather without the gales coming up I will be off to try that again (that is the nice thing about being self-employed! yes I can) so hang around otters, as Arnie would say "I will be back"

Shake down run No 4

Well I am definitely mad!!!!I am sitting in XOX at 5 in the evening on my last shakedown run, at a campsite approximately 6 miles from home and it is blowing a gale so hard that I haven’t dared put up the roof.  XOX just has a shudder now and again when the gusts catch us even in this sheltered location, but Ash and I are as warm as toast with the night heater just on tick over keeping everything nice and warm.  Unfortunately I need to do this bit of madness so I know what I am in for next weekend as the forecast for Ardnamurchan (yes!!! that’s where we are off too next Sunday. Glasgow turn northwest and keep on going until you run out of road) is for very strong winds for the 5 days I will be there so I am just getting used to it and with the lid down it is not too bad at all, The gusts are running at 30+ mph just now at a guess (I must get an anemometer just to see what the wind speeds I am experiencing actually are).I think it will be sleeping plan “B” tonight this is where the lid stays down and the mattress and my sooooo warm sleeping bag go on the floor. the forecast is for it to improve overnight but just now at 7 o’clock there is no way I am putting the lid up to get at the bunks in this wind.

All sorts of things have been happening to XOX since out last trip out.

The curtains are fitted now and they are great, Sue has made a grand job of them and the double thickness is helping to insulate us from the cold.

A huge improvement in the driving lights has been achieved by fitting a second hand “A” bar with 2 driving lights fitted to it and the head lights now have tarmac burner bulbs in (80/100) so dip is wonderful and main beam has to be seen to be believed. What a difference it has made, all of these lights are switched through relays and that itself will have helped a lot. We also have 2 new 18 watt LED work lights fitted to the rear cross member running off the leisure battery. I use these as reversing lights as well and it is just like having head lights at the back, just so I can see what I am backing into very clearly.

New lockers are made and fitted (with a folding table DVLA requirement, a "fixed table" and this is the best I could do), not enough storage space of course, in the new year I think I will have another go at them and incorporate a high locker to use as a wardrobe  but for now  clothes will have to just stay in a bag

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The new back step has been made and fitted that has made a big difference to getting in and out of the back door.

Due to delivery problems the silver screen for the windscreen and front side windows has been delayed so I will not have it for this trip but it will be ready in the New Year and I will put it to good use on our 1^st outing of 2014. For this trip I have bought a re-usable space blanket and with a few well placed magnets and clips to hold it in place and it is working fine.

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What else have I been buying to fit out XOX for our expeditions? Well Halfords provided a snow shovel and I have found a home for it behind the front passenger seat.  I also got a tyre pressure gauge just in case I need to reduce the tyre pressures if I need more grip (I already have a foot pump to put them back up again). A tow strap was also on my shopping list and after a lot of Google/YouTube time and thinking about what to get, I bought a 4 meter long 3 tonne strap and 2 bow shackles both the strap and the shackles are rated and certificated and they are almost the only bits of kit that I hope I never need to use, the other one is a bottle jack. I decided I wanted to see how difficult it was to change the gas bottle, not too much of a problem disconnecting it (although gloves are needed as it is very dirty from the spray off the rear ty

re) but I could not get the gas bottle between the wheel arch and the tyre without jacking up XOX a little bit, that is when I discovered the jack I had was useless, so a new bottle jack was needed and the replacement will lift 4 tonnes almost 2 feet so I should be OK for tyre changing as well as gas bottle changing.

One of the other things that I have been up to is taking photos of  XOX inside and out for DVLA to get them to re-register XOX as a Dormobile/camper, this is important as I want my insurance company to recognize it as a camper so they will insure it for a value that reflects the work and investment that has gone into XOX and not just the value of the base vehicle. All the photos and forms have been sent off now so I hope in the New Year I will have a result.

So that is about it for the test runs the next one will be for real, 5 1/2 hours from home. Otters here I come just be there for me.

Shake down run No 3

Shake down run No 3

I was out again last Saturday night as the forecast was for temperatures in the minuses and I wanted to try out the new sleeping bag under those conditions and one or two other improvements that have been going on.

My good friend Sue came up with the first handy gadget, a clip to hold back the galley top instead of my hand crafted bit of stick and it works very well indeed and it is made from copper so no rust there then.

Then there was a new way to put up the awning and again that worked great making a nice tidy job of it although in heavy rain or snow I will go back to the original way so the wet stuff slides off. I also tried disconnecting the awning and moving away leaving it standing and then reconnecting it and that worked as well. (although I did run over the "grey water" bucket but it survived)
Also the hookup cable arrived so we had mains power and I needed that for the next part of the cunning plan.

The offside wheel arch has been carpeted ready for me to make the lockers so I have somewhere to put all this mess, plus food, clothes and assorted odds and ends.

 But the big test came at bed time I put a small oil filled radiator in the cab and curtained it off so Ash would be warm but my bit would go down to the outside temperature, switched off the night heater and got into my new sleeping bag, After 5 mins it was ok nothing special, 15 mins and I was cosy, by 30 mins it was, where is that "£$%^&* zipper I was way too hot, and that is how I stayed all night long.

 And just for a change the forecast was spot on with a -2 anyway and it may have been as low as -6, I was told afterwards. It was certainly frosty enough when I woke up with the inside of the top was covered in ice as the condensation had frozen and where the sleeping bag touched it there was ice as well but the bag is water resistant so no worries there then.

This test was just to prove to myself that if anything happens to the night heater I will still be fine, what ever temperature I am faced with when I go away for X-mas. The site has been booked now BTW 5 nights over the holidays with a night wild camping on each end as I could not get an all year round site where I wanted one to break the journey.
No! not telling you yet you will have to wait and see for that bit of info, but I will say we are going otter hunting (with the camera I quickly add) still lots to do before then, curtains, new lockers, a proper back step and some better driving lights I think are in order, XOX's head lamps leave a lot to be desired and I would like some work lights on the back. I wonder if it will snow? Do I need to think about recovery gear? Where will I put a shovel? All exciting stuff, until next time dear reader.

And so we begin

First I would like to introduce the stars of the show. The big blue one is XOX my Land Rover Defender Dormobile and the smaller brown one is Ash my Belgian Shepherd and this is us on our first shake down night out away from home. This blog is going to be a scrapbook of photos and thoughts  for me to keep a record of our adventurers in XOX as we go to places and do things, although to start with, it will be the fitting out and getting ready for my first proper adventure planed for X-mas 2013.

So where did it all start? In north wales of all places that is where XOX came from. After I got the idea (thank you Malcolm) in my head that a Defender could become my mobile home and still tow the 3.5T trailer that I need for the shows we do in the summer. Some Google time soon found a choice to look at and XOX fitted the bill nicely. At 17 years old, XOX has been around the block a few times but most of the usual things that go wrong with a Defender have gone wrong and been put right,  Hoping I had not just bought a heap of junk it was straight into my local garage  to let them have a look. Big deep breath Yes!!!! all is well just a few minor things to sort out and the bottom line: "you have a good one there" was music to my ears.

So on with THE PLAN.(LOL like I ever have a plan so long as it happens now or better still an hour ago!) So the next step was to get in touch with Dormobile and sort out how much of the conversion they would do and what would be left for me to sort out, and when could this all be arranged as Dormobile HQ is just outside Southampton and our home is on the edge of the Lake District. Not exactly next door. But as it worked out an elegant solution presented itself.

My friends have a narrowboat share and kindly invite Ash and I along when they go on holiday and as we where picking the boat up from a marina just outside Stafford (about half way to Southampton) it was the perfect time to drop everybody off at the boat, carry on down to Southampton and get the train back. Then have 2 weeks doing 4 miles an hour on the Canal while Jim and the crew at Dormobile got on with the job. Reverse the procedure, train to Southampton and drive XOX back pick up the crew and then home with my 1/2 finished Dormobile.

Now it is my turn to do some work. I have been champing at the bit wanting to get started but I couldn't even begin to plan properly until I had seen where things where and how everything worked.

Dormobile have done a good job. Roof fitted and this is a new design for them so I am getting to test it out and, after 2 shakedown one-night trips, it is working well. Bunks are good and with a 2" self-inflating mattress on top, very comfortable. I have tried 2 different sleeping bags so far the first one (my old one) was not warm enough and the second one (borrowed for a test) thought it was a snake and tried to strangle me! More Google time! It's surprising what gear carp fishermen need as that is where I found, what I hope will be, the ultimate sleeping bag on a carp fishing website.

The galley is also a new design and, again, with only a few minor things to sort, working well

The on-board gas storage is tucked away in the nearside rear wheel arch and it holds a surprisingly big cylinder.

The night heater is brilliant and very economical to run using less than a litre of diesel to keep me warm all night. I have re-positioned the heater outlet to just under the rear windows, this may have been a mistake as it takes a while for the heat to get down to flood level but it can get moved again if it is a problem.

The split charging system is working well keeping the 75 amp leisure battery topped up nicely and the mains hookup gives me power and charges both batteries. LED lighting is great, although I will fit some more when some of the more urgent things have been done. So what have I done so far!

Fitted a 1000W inverter, bit of overkill you may be thinking, just to run my laptop but I have had a 300W in the past and found it noisy as it was running hard to keep up with the laptop. The 1000W is just on tick-over with the laptop pulling 200W so not a sound from it and I can plug power tools into it if need be and a small vac for tidying up is handy.

You can also see in this shot the battery monitoring meter and the two 12V DC power outlets. There will be a small cupboard or at least shelves fitter under the table to hold cables, camera and e-cig battery chargers

A folding table made and fitted as a continuation of the galley this is to hold a dish drainer on a tray for drying the washing up and for my laptop to sit on when I am editing photos/watching a movie/doing emails, etc. I have even figured out how to tether the laptop to my mobile phone so if I have a phone signal I can stay in touch with the world.

The near side rear seat has been removed and the loo is in its place. The other rear seat has been converted into a swivel seat so it can face backwards. and This is where I sit when I am cabinned-up. Or it locks into the forward position to carry an extra passenger. The 2nd row foot well has a false floor and I have carpeted that ("with a little help from my friends" thank you Sue there is a song in there somewhere) and now has long term storage space underneath.

What about my pal Ash? well his preferred seat is the front passenger seat so I have sorted that out and made him a bed there and there is space under his bed-board for the extra gas bottle, and other odds and ends.

The rail that will carry the curtain track has been fitted to the back and both sides extending to the front doors, I am not sure what I am doing with the front side windows and windscreen yet I am still thinking about that one. At the moment I am covering all the windows with 5 bath towels for the shakedown runs so I have a many colored set up that looks very odd from the outside.

The rail is strong enough to us "S" hooks on and I find them Sooooooo handy.

 

I have also been doing some thinking about getting in and out of the back of the car when it is wet and not wanting to take wet outer cloths off inside. So I have bought a basha (a small lightweight tarpaulin), won some very good poles from a mate and, with some seriously strong external grade Velcro to attach it to the roof and some guy line,s it makes a great porch/awning. There will also be space under the awning for the generator if I am going wild camping for any length of time.

I have only had 2 nights out so it is early days yet but so far it looks like I use about 8 litres of water in 24 hours (the on-board tank holds 9 litres) and I think the leisure battery will be good for 3 days before it needs charged again but that will have to be proved.

You, dear reader will have to get used to dark moody photos, these are the sort that I like and that is one of the uses that XOX will be put to, taking me to locations where I can get this sort of shot but better.