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.