Modding my Stanway (and PVCs in general)

What I noticed first of all (based on personal experience) is how the roof box shades the solar panel. You will have to park facing due south to get any day-long real output from it.

This is one of the unintended consequences of modifications and may be of no matter to you if you are normally on EHU, but it would have a big effect on us, living as we do as much as possible 'off grid'; especially in the winter months when the sun is lower.

It might just be the angle of the photos but the roof box doesn't overhang the solar panel.

With the lid open (as per pics) it will definitely cast a shadow though!

No issues as yet, never run out of power so far   

But definitely something for others to consider if doing something similar 

Just a note of thanks for your interesting and highly entertaining series of recent posts. 

The clarity of your photographs and descriptions is an example to us all. I was intrigued.

Although I don’t have a PVC I am sure that a lot of your ideas will always be useful.

My only concern is how do you find the time to do it all and does it leave any periods left over to actually go out in the van!

More power to your elbow.

Regards Graham

Another really useful mod, especially for the dog owners, that of an outside shower point

Prior to this mod, I'd been using one of those pump-up weed sprayers filled with water, to try and rinse down muddy dog legs. It was ok, not brilliant.

This now offers me better pressure and I can give my dog a rinse using warm water! It's also ideal for rinsing muddy boots off too.

I bought the Bullfinch in grey, to match the other outlets on the side of the van.

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It's trigger operation too, so the pump kicks in when you pull the trigger.

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I also extended the hose.

Due to the location of the outlet being quite high up (this location was chosen to make the installation easier) the supplied hose wasn't really long enough, so I added a simple extension to make life easier all round.

Security.

You can never have enough of it...

This was purchased after being recommended by another ASOF member.

The thing that really sold me on this was the simple fact that it fits in the lower drivers door pocket! I can't imagine where I'd store it otherwise

So being able to simply remove it and slip it in to the door panel is an absolute winner

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RogerThat wrote:Security.

You can never have enough of it...

My take on the whole security thing...

You'll never stop the pros. Ever.  It's a sad fact of life, if a pro wants your vehicle, no matter what it is, they'll get.  And if that means them breaking in to your house to take the keys, or worse, threaten you, there's pretty much nothing any of us can do about it :/

So my aim is to simply put off the chancers.

Does it take me five minutes longer to get going?

Yup

Can I live with that, knowing that the chancers won't try to nick my pride and joy?

Yup

One of the easier mods, yet also one of the most convenient!

Umbrella and walking stick mounts.

This uses a simple roll of double-sided velcro which I think was about £2 on eBay for a massive roll.

A single self-tapper though the middle of it, not too long mind, you don't want to come out the front of the cupboard door!

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The internet.

Where would we be without it?  

This is my "MiFi".

It's a Huawei E5377, unlocked to any network, running a simple Giffgaff PAYG sim card.

Great gadget, powers up when the hab power comes on (like Alexa) so it's install-and-forget.

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Phones, iPads, etc, all connect seamlessly.

This model also has the added benefit of being able to act as a WiFi-repeater.

That means I can connect it to a campsite WiFi point, and it can then relay that campsite wifi to all devices in our van, therefore not using any 3G PAYG credit at all

GrahamF wrote:Just a note of thanks for your interesting and highly entertaining series of recent posts. 

The clarity of your photographs and descriptions is an example to us all. I was intrigued.

Although I don’t have a PVC I am sure that a lot of your ideas will always be useful.

My only concern is how do you find the time to do it all and does it leave any periods left over to actually go out in the van!

More power to your elbow.

Regards Graham

Hi Graham,

These mods have been done over the course of the last 18 months of ownership - which has thankfully allowed me some gaps to actually go away and use the van too

Some very nice changes to your van. I would have a hard time justifying spending £5000 on leveling  though. Even the concord vans I have seen only have it on the rear.

My van came "iNet ready".  I was ready too!

I bought an iNet box from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - arrived the very next day.

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Dead easy to install too.

The iNet box literally just sits in-line between the heater and the control panel.  Add a permanent +12v, a cheap/free SIM card and you're good to go.

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I mounted mine high up in the wardrobe, rather than next to the heater (low down), to aid GSM signal.

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So what does it do?

It allows me to control my heating and hot water remotely, from anywhere in the world (and aircon unit too, if I had one).

You install a Truma app on your phone and it connects locally via Bluetooth if in range, which is surprisingly far (for bluetooth), I can adjust the van heating from my living room while it's parked on the drive.

When out of bluetooth range, the app still performs in the same way, except it sends the "command" via SMS. And the van replies back to your SMS letting you know the command was received successfully.

Pointless gadget?  For some / most, probably  

For me, a self confessed gadget addict, it was a no brainer  

I use my van for work a lot, so last winter this came in to it's own as getting up at 5AM meant I could turn on the heating in the van when I got up, and the van was not only warm by the time I came to leave, but the windscreen was also fully defrosted too

While camping, it's great waking up on a cold morning and turning up the heating without having to get out of bed   Or, as you're leaving the pub after a decent meal you can ensure you're heading back to a toasty van.

Now I just need to work out how to control the heating from my Alexa!

jennyandpeter wrote:Some very nice changes to your van

Thanks

Hopefully it'll give people some ideas!

jennyandpeter wrote:I would have a hard time justifying spending £5000 on leveling  though. Even the concord vans I have seen only have it on the rear.

I'm guessing hydraulic levelling comes as standard on a Concorde though?

I've mentioned some additional security in previous posts, here's another one.

My van came supplied with the (God-awful) HAL Locate tracker system by default. I wasn't aware how bad these things were so like a fool, I signed up for a two year deal.

In less than four months it had driven me completely insane.

The HAL system requires you to send a text message from your phone, before you drive off.

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

The first month or two, the problems were simply me forgetting to disarm the system. Then ten minutes later I'd get a call from the call centre asking me 101 questions. By this point I was usually on the motorway...

I dotted a few reminders around the van, post-it notes on the steering wheel, etc. I eventually got in to the habit.

The real problems then reared their head.

Turns out the HAL tracker comes with a standard sim which only connects to one mobile network, instead of a roaming M2M sim that connects to the network with the strongest signal.

So now I'd got in to the habit of remembering to send a text message every time I drove off, the problems I now faced were that a) either I would have no signal on my phone or b) the tracker had no signal on it's sim card

Which meant either the text message I sent never left my phone until several miles down the road, or the text did leave my phone (as I had a signal) but it didn't arrive on the tracker until several miles down the road (as IT didn't have a signal).

And again, sods law, those several miles down the road were enough for me to be on the motorway at that point and unable to pull over to answer the phone.

In the end, I just stopped bothering. And ignored every call. No police ever pulled me over either

Anyway, after just a few months I was absolutely sick to death of it and removed the fuse.

I went and bought a proper tracker instead.

One which doesn't need me to text it every time I move off.

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Sorted.

RogerThat wrote:

RogerThat wrote:Security.

You can never have enough of it...

My take on the whole security thing...

You'll never stop the pros. Ever.  It's a sad fact of life, if a pro wants your vehicle, no matter what it is, they'll get.  And if that means them breaking in to your house to take the keys, or worse, threaten you, there's pretty much nothing any of us can do about it :/

True. I remember watching a documentary about car theft and they spoke with an ex-pro car thief (since turned straight now works for - yep you guessed it, vehicle security!). He used to nick to order, all high end cars. His max time he allowed for entering and starting the engine was 90 seconds. If he hadn't got it by then he'd walk away. The cars were all London based and his job was to pinch, then drive it to Dover port and that was it....someone else took over from there on and the cars were out of the country in less than a couple of hours by which time they'd disabled the Tracker if one was fitted.

He showed how quick he could get in a car (they didn't show the detail for obvious reasons) but i remember him saying one of the best locking systems was on some cheap Korean import (can't remember the name) but the least likely you'd expect.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the mobility scooter platform and how it was quite heavy and a bit unwieldy when trying to fit and remove on your own.

I eventually sold that platform and bought an Easy-Lifter arrangement instead.

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The Easy Lifter works on what is essentially a bottle jack from a car, rigged up to a clever arrangement of arms that lower the entire platform to the floor, and jack it back up again.

The advantages to me for this system are easy assembly / disassembly, just put a few pins and the whole lot comes apart in to much easier to manage sections.

Also, we no longer need to carry a long set of ramps, as we did with the old platform, as this one lowers to the floor so you simply ride up and down directly on to the platform itself.

Another benefit, the scooter can drive on and off in either direction, so it doesn't matter which side of the road you park ok.

Again, as per the last platform, the scooter is always covered up with a waterproof bicycle cover and I attach one of those big square Fiamma red/white warning signs to the back.

Another mod I made was to the Aquaroll pump.

On occasion, the Aquaroll has been fully unloaded in to the van without me paying attention to it.

I fitted a simple on/off switch inside the pump housing itself.

This means when I fill up the Aquaroll and pump it in to the van, I simply turn off the switch when it either auto-cuts out, or when the Aquaroll is empty. So I can manage it perfectly and not worry about it emptying itself in to the van as the wife is showering while I'm out walking the dog or something (yes, speaking from experience here!).

Again, a simple but very handy mod.

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Hi Rog 

I'm interested in the shower curtain mod. Any chance of putting some pictures on with some details of how you fixed the rail and where you bought the rail and the curtain. 

Cheers mate  Peter

I don't have a shower curtain in my van Peter, are you thinking of someone else?

Hi Roger, no you don't, sorry about that.

Was reading it wrong and it looks like rgermain ( Richard ) did it and he was replying to one of your posts where you fitted the small mirrors and he said he had also fitted the shower curtain.

So if Richard is still watching this and can answer my question please do as I would appreciate that.

Another mod performed, on the advice of a fellow ASOF member, that of a non-return valve fitted to the shower tray grey waste pipe.

We often use our van to visit family in London for a weekend which means we're travelling back north with a grey tank which is at least 70% full usually.

Not a problem if you're parked up, but I'm sure other people must have this issue too... After a brief drive anywhere you'll often find the grey waste has managed to slosh its way back up the pipe and swill itself around the shower tray, before disappearing back down the grey pipe again.

Not ideal eh?

So the fitted of a simple, but highly effective, non-return valve made perfect sense.

One of the easier mods too!

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