Half Way

End of Week 5

At the half-way point the big news is that THE SLIDING DOOR OPENS AGAIN!

Well, it is the first day of summer time and I’m feeling the pressure this week-end!

After five weeks of what feels like non-stop work, The van is still empty, and spring is upon us. All around us the birds are beginning to nest and I feel very driven to get out there watching and photographing. Since it’s dry and sunny I decided to take most of the week-end off to catch up on the garden and the birds. I went down to my favourite spot under the old bridge over the Towy and spent an hour quietly watching – nothing much: dipper where I expected and grey wagtail where I expected. Then this morning I went to see if I could set up a better hide to watch the kites. That looks like a runner, but the bird flew off the nest when I arrived and there was a nasty cold wind so I didn’t stay long. Instead I tramped up the steep slope to investigate two big potential goshawk nests – wind even worse, belly ache and neck ache both bad. No sign of occupancy and I feel exhausted and tense. I can’t keep all these balls in the air.

The van is just back from Castle Garage in Newcastle Emlyn for warranty jobs. The previous owners used it for some sort of agricultural delivery and did not treat it well. Consequently there were problems with the doors not fitting properly, there was only one key, the manual was missing and the roof was leaking. They’ve had to send away for the key so I don’t know when that will appear, but the rest looks OK.

Meanwhile I have started building the furniture. As always with learning something new like this, there are issues I hadn't anticipated.

One of the things I found most difficult to decide was the actual finish I wanted for the woodwork. As far as I can tell, all the big caravan and campervan manufacturers and converters use a product called "furniture board". This is lightweight plywood made with poplar. Poplar is a fast-growing hard wood that is pradoxically very soft. It's matchwood - literally. It's the wood matches are made from. It has a very boring grain pattern and is generally not considered suitable for a finished surface. Furniture board uses a hard plastic laminate bonded to the poplar core. There is a choice of plain colours or photographic imitations of real wood - usually oak, walnut, cherry, and some exotic concoctions such as "driftwood". It's tempting to use this stuff because it comes ready finished, there are various trims made to go with it, and it is much lighter than normal plywood, so saves on fuel consumption.

However, it's expensive and it's plastic.

In the end I decided to use the bare plywood and veneer it myself. Yes, it's more work, but I save a few hundred pounds and I end up with something which does not look mass produced. I'm using cherry veneer because I have some solid cherry which I can use for any curved elements and to trim the exposed edges. This cherry comes from a tree grown in Cilycwm by John Milner. He gave me the tree when he decided to cut it down, and I paid a mobile sawyer £60 to cut it into planks - it was a small tree - about 450mm across but only 2 metres tall. It's been stacked to dry in our woodshed for well over a year and is now well seasoned.

I’m no stranger to veneering, but this was the first time I had used pre-glued iron-on veneer, and the big problem is joining two sheets neatly. When you heat it with the iron the two sheets pull apart. With traditional veneering using hot rabbit-skin glue you overlap two pieces, slice through both, heat up the edges and remove the two offcuts. The join then meets up neatly. This does not work with the thick layer of glue bonded to the sheets. In the end I had to do something unheard of in the male world of “learning by doing”, namely READING THE INSTRUCTIONS. You get some gummed paper tape (from a little odds and ends shop in Lampeter), stick down one sheet, butt the next sheet up to it and join them with the paper tape. You then iron the two edges with the tape on and instead of working from the join outwards, start at the other side of the new piece and work back towards the join. You then have to leave it for a day before soaking off the tape and ironing down any unstuck bits.

I was also uncertain what to do about the inside surfaces. They would have to be sealed and would need to look OK. I thought I would need to stain them, but today had a brainwave - linseed oil darkens and seals wood. Perfect! It will save lots of money and time and actually looks good.

Tomorrow I must find an upholsterer to do the sofa cushions, get some more jointing biscuits and linseed oil, order some softwood to make drawers from and assemble my two half-finished pieces – the sofa (basically a box which will contain all the electrical equipment and batteries) and the kitchen. This will be the most complicated piece with 5 drawers, the hob, the sink, the fridge and a grill. It will have one rounded corner and a flip-up extension to the worktop. Each drawer will be finished with a thin strip of solid cherry round the exposed edges.

In a few days time the van will look very different.

Goodbye Demountable

It was a fantasy: with this combination I would be able to travel to the real “outback”, the places that can’t be reached in an “ordinary” vehicle. I would take it to Iceland and treck through the inhospitable interior where 2 wheel drive vehicles are banned. It would take me to the most inaccessible places where I could photograph the most elusive birds and revel in the solitude.

A fatal combination of factors lured me in. The young man selling it had a naïve enthusiasm for his creation. He reminded me of myself when young. We shared a fascination with the technicalities of living a relatively comfortable life off-grid. He had recently been to Iceland (not as it turned out with the camper) and inspired me to undertake a great “bucket list” adventure – a trip through Belgium and Germany to Denmark, thence by sea to the Faroe Islands and then to Iceland where I would spend 3 weeks exploring the wildlife and wilderness.

The price he was asking was comparable with other demountable campers. I knew nothing about pick-up trucks but could see it was clean and well looked after. How then did I manage to ignore the general shabbiness of the camper? It had one big thing going for it – it was not white. I hated white campers. It was not  even silver, but a kind of battleship grey which suited its tough looking profile - the “don’t mess with me” tyres, the beefed up suspension and the big black snorkel. It would make a perfect bird hide. I drove it slowly round the field in four wheel drive – nice and smooth, no swaying from side to side. The young man lived only 15 miles away. We had friends in common. After several visits I was still quite tempted but the price was far too high. In the end I decided to make what I thought was a very low offer and see what happened. The offer was immediately accepted! Wow! I went through all the procedure of getting a large chunk of cash together, met up with the man’s sister, handed it over, got the keys, the documents and a receipt and drove off.

Immediately I got onto the road I knew something was wrong. It simply bounced up and down at every little bump. I drove home in the dark, battered all the way, convinced I had made a very expensive mistake.

At first it seemed so, but then I got some advice from the man who sold us our previous demountable ten years ago. The truck had air-bag suspension which can be raised and lowered, and for this much weight it should be at a pressure which was much higher than the vendor had suggested. I now know he had little understanding of the air-bag technology which he had installed. Intuitively you would think that harder suspension and stiffer tyres would make for a rougher ride. Not so: with both tyres and air bags at 40psi the whole thing was much smoother. I was back in business.

During the next few weeks, as autumn gave way to winter, I worked on the camper. The biggest job was re-siting the batteries, a job for which I had been quoted £700. I bought all the necessary wire and connectors from a specialist in motor electrics, bought a crimper, photographed and labelled everything and carefully began to dismantle and reassemble the two heavy 80 amp/hour sealed batteries. The space they were in was a small cube at the front end of the floor-space where, in the original spec, a toilet had been sited. I needed a toilet – even if it was the smallest one still made by Thetford.

That done and working, I did a thorough clean of all the plastic surfaces in and out, installed a less battered sink, made space at floor level and covered it with carpet tiles, made a new leg for the table from copper pipe, and finally, after many attempts to repair the cracked window, I bought and installed a new one for £300; ouch!

The trip to Iceland was booked and I was trawling through all sorts of websites about Iceland. One showed that my truck might be worth 4 times its UK value in Iceland, so the plan then was to sell the whole rig at the end of my trip for a substantial profit and fly home in triumph.

Then an Icelandic friend pointed out that it would be very difficult to sell a right-hand drive vehicle there. Hm.

Christmas came and went and I was still not comfortable with the rig. It was much better but still rather bleak inside and uncomfortable to drive, and the fuel consumption was at least as bad as I feared – 22mpg average.

The deciding factor was my test run up onto the mountain which I wrote about here:

In the end I decided that I’s spent enough time and money compromising – buying, selling and altering campers. I’d learnt enough about how they worked, and I knew what I wanted and what Thelma would tolerate. Despite the fact that we now had two campers – this one and the Movano, I decided to sell both and start again from scratch. The Movano sold quickly and for the asking price. At one point I thought the demountable had done the same but that was too good to be true and in the end I had to take a hefty loss. They buyer had come all the way from Doncaster to view. He’d left a small deposit and I had offered to take it to Shrewsbury from where I could get back by train. We would meet at an out-of-town shopping centre and he would give me a lift to the station.

And that’s what happened yesterday. I’m relieved, pleased and disappointed, but can now press ahead with the conversion without distraction.

End of Week Four

It’s been a week of brain-ache getting all the infrastructure in place. That sounds like a very grand word for something as mundane as a camper van, but the motorhome business has responded to the availability of relatively cheap smart technology to extend the off-grid capability of the once humble campervan.

What’s the difference between a campervan and a motorhome? First note that both compound names can now be written as one word, which indicates the level of popularity of the concept. At a basic level a campervan is a converted van and a motorhome is “coachbuilt” onto a van chassis. The distinction is blurred when it comes to the high spec long wheelbase van conversions which aim to match piece for piece all the comforts of home – the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and lounge.

If the aim of the motorhome is to take your home comforts with you wherever you are, why the pressure to survive for days without mains electricity? There are plenty of good campsites everywhere in the developed world and hook-up power, though expensive per day, is relatively cheap compared to the cost of living in a house.

For me it is simple – I crave the solitude of the wilderness, but as we age, environmental discomforts increase. We feel the cold and the heat more. Our temperature comfort zone has narrowed. The van is a haven of warmth and comfort – or cool and comfort if the weather is hot.

And, let me confess it, I love the boys-toys challenge of getting technology to do my bidding. I haven’t enjoyed this week – too much of it spent working at floor level, taking things in and out, working out how to route this cable and that gas line and where the water pipes are going. Many hours have been spent carefully siting and then cutting holes in the steel shell of the van – a very anxious undertaking. However, I do know I will feel a great sense of achievement when everything is working:

·         I now have hook-up power and one mains socket. The second circuit which will power the other 240 volt sockets and the battery charger are still a concept, as is the 240 volt power from the batteries via the inverter. I could use the same circuit with a smart switch to route the power, or I could have a single 240v socket from the inverter on its own circuit.

·         The gas water heater is in with its flue cut into the side of the van and its three electrical connections routed – 2 at 12v and one for the mains back-up heater.

·         The gas air heater is in position with two large holes cut in the floor of the van for the exhaust and air intake. The 12v lines are in place as is the ducting to take the hot air out at foot level.

·         The two AGM 100Amp-hour batteries are in place and linked.

·         The split-charge relay from the van battery is wired

·         All the lights are wired on three circuits, but not yet connected

·         The position of the under-floor gas tank is determined and a hole cut in the floor to bring the gas line in at the right position.

I’ve also made an important decision about the final look of the living space. I decided to use poplar-core plywood for the internal partition and the furniture because it is much lighter than conventional ply.  I bought three sheets, and have cut and fitted the main divisions, most of which won’t show in the living area. For the bits that do show I had almost decided to use what nearly all the main industry converters use: a hard laminate veneer on poplar core. This is a plastic finish, usually a photographic imitation of wood grain, but also in a narrow range of plain finishes.

The grain pattern on poplar is very bland, but I wondered if I could do something really original – use wood dye to stain it blue or green or even red. I experimented with a dusky green and polyurethane varnish but it didn’t look good enough so I bought a sample sheet of iron-on cherry veneer. This looks great and I already have some seasoned solid cherry wood from a local source to make edgings with. Decision: the furniture will be a blend of solid and veneered cherry.

All told I ended up this evening (Saturday 18 March) feeling pretty pleased with progress so far.

A sex- mad squirrel and new born lambs

Yesterday I took half a day off from my labours to have a walk round  my favourite farm for birds. The pair of kites I watched last  year are beginning to work on their nest, but not with any great urgency, and I only saw one bird doing a slow, flapping overpass to see what I was up to.

On the way back I stopped at the edge of a building and saw a squirrel running around. Grey Squirrels are easy to photograph and I would not normally have bothered. They are the enemy after all: the colonisers wiping out our native reds. This one however, was in a frenzy of activity, running up and down branches, hanging upside down, rolling round on the ground, tail flashing to and fro; I froze and slowly raised the camera, shooting in motor drive every few seconds.

I was mystified by this behaviour until I saw the second squirrel but then guessed that this was some sort of display behaviour designed to impress what was presumably a female sitting on the wall, watching intently.

The antics of the supposed male brought him closer to me until within a few metres he stopped and gazed at me.
 "Is this object a person? It doesn't move so perhaps not, but I'll just wait and see."
We faced each other, neither moving a muscle for a minute or two. Then I decided to move on and he quickly scurried off.

A few fields from the house is a nursery field for the pregnant ewes, and there were lots of new-born lambs. Once they've get used to this great wide, cold grey world, they begin to explore a little, and one goes over to a different family group to say hello.

The mother sniffs at him and then sends him packing, her twins watching intently. A little further on is a lamb only a few hours old, the umbilical chord still wet and the  back legs messy. She comes towards me but then totters off back to mum, probing  for the reassurement and comfort of the nipple.

I can't do this!

End of week 3

Scroll down for the text.

I had one of those moments of total brain ache yesterday. The van conversion is progressing slowly. Having got the insulation and lining done, put in a lot of the 12v wiring, built a curved raised section for the seating, made endless templates to fit big chunks of plywood against the horribly complicated shape of the side walls, built the fixed double bed area, cut holes and fitted the roof light and the back door window , fitted a swivel to the drivers seat . . .  having done all that, I then unpacked the water heater, the space heater and the 240 volt hook-up kit, and stood there scratching my head. Bits of wire were threaded through the hollow metal structural ribs of the van and trailing across the floor. Nothing seemed to be in the right place, and a horrible depressing fog overcame me.

“I can’t do this!” Well, there’s only one answer to that:

“Oh Yes you can . . . but not now.”

How to overcome that “I can’t go on” moment?  Tidy up! Just say to yourself:

“I’m not doing any more until I get some space and order around me.”

So that’s what I did this morning. I spent an hour sorting things out, sweeping up dust and shavings, dismantling cardboard boxes, collecting plastic packing into re-cycling bags, hanging up my tools, and generally persuading myself that I am a skilled and tidy worker, perfectly capable of mastering a complicated wiring diagram. The tidy bit took a lot of self-deception, but I managed to half believe it.

And it worked. With only one or two glitches I managed to get the wiring for the lights in place and most important of all, see a way through the maze.

In the afternoon I spent some “quality time” on my much neglected garden. Tomorrow will be fine so I plan to go walking and checking out bird sites at a nearby farm and up on the mountain. That’s what all this is for in the long run, and the busiest time of the year for birds and those of us who follow them is Spring, and it’s happening now, all around us.

Analysis of a scam

End of Week 2

The work on the van has proceeded steadily, but was interrupted by a drawn-out email conversation with a man called Jans Millerson.

Jans saw my advertisement for the demountable camper on AutoTrader and sent this: 

Sent: 26 February 2017 00:32

 To: twynog@gmail.com

 Subject: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500  £11,200)

 From: janns61s@gmail.com

Name: Mr Jans Millerson

Telephone 07748006895

Hello,viewed your listing and hope it is still up for sale?

To which I replied:

On 2/25/17, twynog@gmail.com <twynog@gmail.com> wrote:

 Yes it is – would you like to see it?

He replied:

From: Jans 08s

 Sent: 26 February 2017 07:45

 To: twynog@gmail.com

 Subject: Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)

 Thank you for the Response,I am okay with the condition Likewise your asking price is quite reasonable and affordable considering others I've seen lately , I'll have it for your firm price and kindly consider it sold as seen am buying it as a surprise gift for my Son who is schooling Abroad .Are you assuring me i will not be disappointed? I work with the military air-force and presently in camp serving the nation which is strictly no calls. My Mode of payment is PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online cause am out of town on job duties, but i have it attached to my PayPal account. Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, I will be responsible for all the PayPal fees/charges on this transaction, if you don't have an account with PayPal, it's pretty easy, safe an secure to open one. Just log on to www.paypal.co.uk I hope we can complete this transaction as soon as possible. Less I forgot, I have a Mover that will come for pickup once payment is cleared in your PayPal account and they will be handling the title for me, as I look forward to hearing from you with your PayPal information as requested below.

 Your PayPal e-Mail Address :

 Full name:

 Firm Price:

 Address for Pick Up:

 Phone Number:

 Awaiting your response asap

To which I replied:

On 2/26/17, twynog@gmail.com <twynog@gmail.com> wrote:

 Hello Jans

 I'm sure you will appreciate that this is an unusual offer. Although I am keen to proceed as quickly as we can, I need to be sure that the offer is genuine. Could you send me more details about you? Do you have an online profile - eg facebook, twitter etc?

 If the deal goes through, the person who comes to collect the vehicle will need to fill in your full name and address (or that of your son) as the new keeper, so it would be helpful if I had that information in advance. Assuming all is in order I would send a PayPal request for payment to your email address. When the funds arrive in PayPal I will transfer them to my bank account. Once the payment is cleared in my account then I will get you to arrange the transport. This can all happen quite quickly.

 I hope this sounds fair.

 Richard

He then wrote back:

From: Jans 08s

 Sent: 26 February 2017 09:20

 To: twynog@gmail.com

 Subject: Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)

Got a facebook account under the name Janssen Millerson. I am okay with everything you said and if we are good to go, kindly send a payment request to my email on here for payment.

At this stage I thought I should get some advice so wrote an email to AutoTrader. The reply came quickly:

DearCustomer,

Thank you for reporting this to us. Auto Trader are committed to protecting our customer’s privacy and I would strongly suggest that you block the email address to stop any further communication with this person. Also you can report the email address to Gmail there is a short form to report the user here: https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?rd=1   Please take note that sellers who refuse to speak over the phone and refuse to meet in person to view or show the vehicle are extremely likely to be scammers as well as those who request you to email them on a private email address. Also, anyone claiming to be abroad and with no phone access or wanting to pay with any 3rd party, EBay, PayPal or Google Wallet should be treated with a huge amount of suspicion.

Auto Trader takes this matter very seriously and we constantly review the content of our safety and security pages on our website. We have a dedicated customer security team who police the website day and night, 7 days a week and any adverts that raise concerns are removed. We also report fraudulent activity to the police. You can contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 and provide them with these details. Action Fraud is run by the police and they work alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

Unfortunately scammers are professional criminals who will go to great lengths to attempt to abuse the good nature of people buying or selling cars using our website. For this reason Auto trader regularly updates the advice on our website to inform customers how to avoid these scams.

We advise our customers about safety and security on our website, please view the following links for information:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/advice/2014/02/safety-and-security/email-and-text-scams

We have the ‘Report This Ad’ button on each advert page which customers can use to report any fraudulent adverts.

If you have any more questions or queries, please get in touch.

Kind Regards,

James Hibbert

Customer Security Executive

Auto Trader 

That seemed clear enough but I was still puzzled. I could not see how I could risk being defrauded if I did not part with the goods until the money was in my back account?  Pay Pal may be a rip-off, but I’ve never felt unsafe using their services. I replied

Hello James 

Thank you for your reply. It’s good to know you are working for your customers on Sunday.  

For obvious reasons I don’t want give up on this man just yet. I asked him for more information and he replied to the effect that he has a facebook profile and is willing to wait until the money is in my bank account before the sale is completed. On Facebook he is Janssen Millerson, a US Marine. I have asked him to provide a permanent address and the address of where he is stationed, and where his son is located. Is there anything else I could do to find out if he is genuine?  

Richard Turner

 I had this reply from James. Interesting that AutoTrader has a department called “scam enquiries”! 

From: Scam Enquiries
Sent: 26 February 2017 10:38 To: twynog@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Offer to pay via PayPal 

Dear Richard,  

Thank you for your email. I would advise not going through with this sale and waiting to hear from another enquirer. I would suggest that the likelihood of this enquirer being fraudulent dwarfs that of them being a legitimate buyer. Attempting to coerce somebody into accepting payment via PayPal is a standard scam technique and so is suggesting you’re working abroad or have recently gone through an operation. Please have a browse of security advice at the link http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security_centre.  

Kind Regards,

James Hibbert

Customer Security Executive

Auto Trader 

My response was: 

Hello again James, 

Thanks for this. I had assumed that when I asked the ‘buyer’ for his home address and didn’t hear back that he was a potential scammer. However, he has returned with a home address. What I have suggested as a way he could pay me is that I send a PayPal request for funds to his email address. I would then not release the vehicle until I had transferred those funds to my bank account. There are at present no funds in my paypal account which could be hijacked. Could you explain how my accepting payment via PayPal could be to my disadvantage? There isn’t any relevant advice on the link you sent.  

I would be very grateful for your help with this. The vehicle (a demountable camper on a specially adapted truck) is difficult to sell, and I would not like to lose this opportunity if it is genuine. 

Yours  RT

The response was negative:

Dear Richard,  

Thank you for your email. I would advise not going through with this sale and waiting to hear from another enquirer. I would suggest that the likelihood of this enquirer being fraudulent dwarfs that of them being a legitimate buyer. Attempting to coerce somebody into accepting payment via PayPal is a standard scam technique and so is suggesting you’re working abroad or have recently gone through an operation. Please have a browse of security advice at the link http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security_centre.  

Kind Regards,

 James Hibbert

Customer Security Executive

Auto Trader 

Still, I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I wrote again to Jans:

Hello again Jans.

 I have been advised by Autotrader to block your email address! I don’t intend to do that, but I need more information.

 In the picture on Facebook you look too young to have an adult son. Can you send me details of your permanent address,  where you are stationed, and where your son is at school. (I understand that in America you use ‘school’ can also mean university.) Do you have a mobile phone (cellphone) which I  can contact you on?

 Cheers

 RT

This was his response:

From: Jans 08s

 Sent: 26 February 2017 10:54

 To: twynog@gmail.com

 Subject: Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500  £11,200)

 Will do that once am back from church

Church eh? That doesn’t square with being a con-artist – or does it? What had I to lose but getting more information?

On 2/26/17, twynog@gmail.com <twynog@gmail.com> wrote:

 Are you still keen?  I need to be assured that you are genuine.

He replied:

Yes i am. Here is my home address  Name is Janssen Harper Millerson

 Address is 9 Clifford Close Sawley

 Long Eaton Nottingham NG103BT

Naturally I checked the address on Google and can see that the house is a very ordinary suburban 20^th C bit of ugliness. Not everyone who lives in an ugly house has an ugly temperament. I don’t give up easily:

On 2/27/17, twynog@gmail.com <twynog@gmail.com> wrote:

 Thanks. This is beginning to look like a deal. Before I send the Paypal request for funds, could you explain where you are stationed and why you cannot make telephone calls. I would also be glad of some information on your son. I’m sorry to be difficult but I am following advice from Auto Trader.

 RT

The reply:

I'm stationed in San Diego presently and i am in camp. Calls are

 highly restricted in camp. My son name is Josh and same home address.

 What else do you need again?

Still not enough:

What would your son use the vehicle for? Tell me more about him. Where is he studying, how old is he?

RT

Then I had a brainwave:

Second reply.

I’ve just realised there is a much easier way of doing this – simply buy through ebay. That way we will both be protected. Here’s the link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272543571025?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

RT

And that was the last I heard from him. I’m still mystified, but have no doubt it was some kind of scam.