A case for my special caravan tools

I was finding it a bit annoying having all the accessories for my Powrtouch mover and Al-Ko security clattering around the boot, even if some were in the bag that Al-Ko provide.  I had been looking for some time for a suitable box to make a fitted case for them, and found one by chance.  I've no idea what it was originally, but it was, uniquely, long enough to accommodate the two long-ish socket spanners, as well as the mover remote control and battery key, a spare 9v battery, the bolt, lock and bolt tool for the Al-Ko lock and the special adapter for the alloy wheel nuts..

After a quick measure-up, I ordered three pieces of foam from eFoam.  All were cut to fit the box exactly, one main slab 36mm thick and two 7mm thick.

I stuck one of the thin bits into the bottom of the box and one into the lid, using some spray adhesive that was left behind by a carpet fitter.  I then put the tools and things one by one onto the middle slab and cut round them with a sharp serrated knife.  Some of the cuts (the remote control, the spare battery etc) went right through, some only part way (the two spanners).  Finally I glued the rather shredded main slab into the box.  It is now much more convenient to store and easier to find everything.

Some notes on caravan journey times and stopping places

Towing the caravan from Sheepcote Valley to Warwick Racecourse with no holdups took 3 hours Easter 2014. Aug 2014 reverse journey with delays at Oxford and M25 took 3.5 hours. April 2016 just over 2.5 hours.
From Warwick to Knutsford services 97 miles 2 hours.  There is limited caravan parking but, like most, not convenient to get to the fuel.
Knutsford services to Forton services 54 miles
Forton to home 55 miles
Total journey Warwick to home near Penrith 4hrs 20 including the Costa break at Knutsford.
Knutsford southbound has no caravan parking.  110 miles from home.
Sandbach south has an easy lorry area and reasonable filling station access about 122 miles.
A clear run from home to Chapel Lane 194 miles, exactly 4 hours including coffee at Sandbach.

Installing the Whale Watermaster IC pump controller

This amazing little yellow box of electronics takes over the running of your water pump from the always-dodgy pressure switch.  No more pulsing, and no more pump running dry!

The instructions make installation look simple - as they would be but for the way Baileys plumbed the original inlet.  In fact access, through a hole in a wardrobe shelf, was always going to be tricky.

Extract from the Whale installation instructions

The elbow that they used to connect the internal pipework ran tightly across the back of the inlet, so none of the bits and pieces could readily be accessed.  This was resolved after discussions with Whale's tech support by removing the elbow and putting a straight connector and a short length of rigid pipe (supplied by Whale, thanks guys) between the inlet and the elbow.

The IC wired and ready to install

The pressure adjusting screw and fixing screw, and the connections, were then easy to remove.  NOTE don't make the mistake I made and remove the fixing screw before pulling the spade connectors off - I somehow managed to dislodge one of the contact springs in the external pump connector housing that power the pump motor.

The complete assembly

After that, it is easy to reassemble the whole thing, and the clearance behind the unit makes getting to the calibrate button and seeing the LED a doddle.

In use, the water flow is much smoother, but I haven't tried the "run dry" feature yet.

A few cupboard improvements

The cupboard under the sink has a useful cutlery tray and two additional shelves.  It looked like the place to store kitchen utensils, but what in?

The Really Useful Box was the answer - 6.5 litre boxes are a good fit on the shelves, provided you are prepared to vandalise them by removing the locking handles and sawing off the protrusion the handles clip round.

The cupboard door, like several others in the 'van, was prone to rattling, but these were easily fixed by sticking on a few of the little self-adhesive plastic bumps that are used by kitchen fitters.  One is visible on the edge just next to the top shelf.

Payload - the final figure

Having done all the messing about, we come to the crunch figure.  By having the upgrade, carrying some things in the car and just removing others, we come up with a usable payload of 179kg

Basic payload	127.0
Uprate	14.0
Don't carry water	10.0
Remove microwave	12.2
Wheel lock in car	5.0
Replace carpet	6.3
Mains lead in car	4.5
TOTAL	179.0

From the previous list of items totalling 52.5kg we can remove the Aquaroll and waste carrier to the car saving 7.5kg.  So the payload available for clothes and food is now 179-45 (for stuff) - 30 (mover) -28 (battery) leaving a much improved 76kg.

Subject to a weighbridge test, of course.

Storing the crockery

 Another of the slight design faults in our Pegasus GT65 Genoa is the crockery storage.  If you look back at the layout diagram in the first entry on this blog, you can see that the kitchen sink sticks out into the van (the gas locker is behind it).  The plate and mug racks are in the locker above this point, and are very difficult to reach if you are not very tall (I am 5'7"½, wife even shorter).

There was a nice wide upper shelf in one of the other kitchen cupboards that we had not found a use for, so I looked round for ways we could store our (melamine) crockery on it.  A useful idea came from this Australian website, though I haven't the skills or facilities to work in plastic like he does.
I turned once again to my trusty pack of Correx board, and cut a piece to fit the shelf exactly.  I then marked on it the positions of the large plates, small plates and cereal bowls.  I made little stand-ups to go behind the smaller items and cut 6 four-inch lengths of dowel, which are just screwed to the Correx from below with 5/8" woodscrews.
It looks OK, and it seems to work, but only time will tell if it is the answer.

Solar battery charger

The Bailey Pegasus GT65 caravans come with a socket in the battery box to plug in a solar panel.  We are not great users of sites without mains, so we didn't feel we particularly needed to use a solar panel on site.

However, it would be very useful to be able to keep the battery topped up while in storage, so that the mover stands a chance of working.  Obviously it would be better to keep the panel inside the 'van so it is less likely to get nicked.  So I pulled the spade connectors off the back of the built-in socket, and plugged them into some insulated spade sockets wired to a car lighter socket.  The picture shows the socket and the wiring with the in-line fuse before tidying up.
I bought a 10W panel and adapted its wiring by removing the rather cheap croc clips and fitting a length of Halfords twin speaker cable (we're only talking about a max current of a few hundred mA) and a car lighter plug.  I had to snip the LED out of the plug, as it would have wasted too much battery charge.
The panel just fits in the mini-Heki rooflight over the kitchen area, where it sits comfortably on the bars at the end of the flyscreen and blind, which have to be pulled out an inch or so.
It went into operation today, so we won't know how successful it is until we go to collect!

Update 3 July - the battery was charging at 13.3V on a cloudy bright afternoon.