When its p'ing down

Do you don your waterproofs, and get out and about as usual?

Or do you stay in your warm cosy place: no wet clothing cluttering your home whilst it dries?

Waterproofs ena.They're the future.No weather stops me from doing what i want to

The dog pushes me out of the door no matter what the weather.

I usually get out. This last deluge, I seem to have persuaded myself to stay in (Except for car journeys).

Now, I am beginning to question my choice: surely it is not the healthy option.

I just look through the window and watch the dog walkers get wet makes my day knowing I don't have to join them

This is England and if you're frightened of getting wet, You're in the wrong Country , Cold winter rainy days, I just go out to do errands , shopping etc and I do my Winter activities, mogling, cycle maintenance , jobs round the house and Plan this upcoming Winter project, Building a campervan,

Summer rain, I can still bear getting wet and complaining but , It does keep me in, as of yet,,,,

What van did you decide to get for your conversion, tom?

I go out every day except if a threat of thunder is on its way

Nana thunder will not hurt you its that flash of lightening before it you have to worry about

Yeh I meant that as well Peterp,been terrified of it all my life,I turn everything off,draw the curtains & put the lights on so I don't see the flash,but my family can stand at the window & watch it all

I used to stand at the door and watch the lightening. Nearest I have been to lightening was when I lived at Downall Green and lightening came over the house breaking some roof tiled and shaking the house then hitting the field across the road and killed some cows.

As long as you are well wrapped up...walking..biking...riding...enjoy it....there are plenty who would gladly swap places with you...

Ena. I went for the Belingo, Its a small van with plenty head room but, not too much than it can't get on car parks with head room restrictions, So I can 'stealth park' if the need arises, There will only be me using it and my aim is to tour Scotland's coast lines and ' wild camp' ,Its still allowed in Scotland where you can camp anywhere that is not private land and the remoter it is, Thats where I'm aiming to go. I'm making the back into a sitting area for dining and lounging which will convert into a sleeping area for nights, cooking will be under the back door which opens, upward with a canvas wrap round for privacy when washing,

look out for Toms 2024 off grid adventures in the Highlands

Tom

If you put 'citroen berlingo camper van conversion' into google it comes back with quite a few ideas, and then if you click on just 'images' in google, it can show a lot more ideas, but without the text.

Google is for no nowts TTS

Is it 'pick on Tom time'

I take it wooden yed n Legs is having a pop , no change there then,

I've had a look around Utube Tommy Tee and some of my own idea's, I'm going 100% off grid with some Tonkerton solar panels and twin leisure batteries using inverters to power the essentials, beer fridge and ebike charging. gas for cooking and that's all I'll need, I'll get fresh water and toilet facilities in pubs and for emergencies, I've spent many years camping and know how to get rid of waste environmentally friendly and how to live like bear grills , Yum yum I can taste those tree worms as I type,

Tom

It's no wonder that you want to go and live 'off grid'

Yoo could take Kevin with you and leave him in Scotland, in a native environment, living with the wild men from the north

I think what you said about him having milk of magnesia is probably true TTS, After seeing him that day, I've not seen him since, All his favourite haunts from before he doest not go to, Even his home for 13 years is overgrown and no signs of him or his daft writings, Kevin the westwood cowboy, and drawings of Alien ships and burned out tyres he used to light in the woods, I think the drink and drugs have finally took him over the edge,

That hole in his head won't have helped either.

Tom, no good for stealth, but I have got one of these:



they come in a whole range of sizes:



I can as a last resort use my car as micro stealth camper.

Its an estate, not good for headroom, but it will take my full length campbed in the rear, and I top it with an air mattress and a Finish down camping quilt: better than a sleeping bag and good for range from warm summer night to around minus 8 deg C.

I have also made a set of heavily insulated blackout covers for all the glass.

So far, I have relied on having rear windows open a crack to provide a crossflow ventilation to stop condensation. I am concerned that this could attract attention of villains, so currently working on a plan to have louvered vent strips occupying the gap, which can have the window securely abbutting both glass and window channel.

Have not yet used it 'in anger', just to very it as feasible and practical. I thought it would come in for dark sky visits to locations were tent or tarp might prove difficult.

However the last two opportunities when I may have tried this, I called off as it was p'ing down, and no obs would have been possible.

Ena, I'd like to know how you made the blackout covers for the windows, I was thinking of using, window tint film, Its relatively cheap and easy to apply on flat glass but, no insulation value,

A neighbour gave me some quilted sheet material (I think you can get it on Amazon: I'll check that out for you). It looks just like the stuff I see in campervan windows.

I made a paper pattern for each of the car glass windows to cut to exact size and shape.

It is coloured white, and therefore conspicuous, so I glued it to conventional blackout fabric on the side adjacent to the glass. Glued some carper to the inner side.

Then with sewing machine I enclosed all the outer edges with a wide binding tape.

Cut holes in outer skin to flush mount rubber suckers for attachment to glass. These are secured by Gorilla tape and stitching on the carpet side, but I need to improve on this aspect.

ps a lot of thickness for sewing machine, had to use leather needle.

I use Gorilla Tape, and in any surface I am using it on, I first clean with methylated spirits, and then I attach the tape, avoiding getting any kinks in it, or air bubbles, and then I heat it up to a highish temperature using an hair drier, and when it is hot I press the tape down hard on whatever surfaces the tape is bonding too, and that makes it into a really strong bond

Yes, it might be easier to use gorilla tape for the edging to avoid that difficult sewing.

tom,
this is a youtube vid from which I more or less copied the method

Stuff that I used is quilted thermal blind material which my neighbour had left over, but if you are buying the stuff, perhaps better to use ali, as in the vid.

Tonker will probably know all about the options with respect to thermal blind material.

Good un Ena. I'll use that plan, Thank you

Tom,

Do keep us up to date with how you get on with the conversion.

Been keeping an eye out for a VW California or Merc Sprinter camper for ages. Not found exactly what I want. Got too many other jobs on the go than take on a conversion currently. That could change though.

Will do, I've now acquired the berlingo and its a 'multispace (MPV) and the conversions starts tomorrow,

Wishing you good luck with it, Tom.

I do love a good downpour, but not in it. If it hammers down whilst I'm a-bed it sends me off to be-bo's. Even better still if it's thundering and leetning.

I know a few people who are afraid of the latter and it's a shame because it can't harm you or, at the very least, it's highly unlikely. The nearest thing lightning will strike will be anywhere where there's an SPD (surge protective device) like a church steeple would act as one, or a tree, so never stand under one if caught in that weather.

My friend in Canada runs down into her basement when it's lightning and switches everything off, but their power runs on only 120 volts, whereas here it's 240 volts.

Mollie in Canada its particularly fricknin' because the main electrical wires are on posts above the street and, A lightning strike can take out a whole area with live wires dangling down to the ground, I witnessed one on one of my trips there and, the ' crack' could be heard from a long distance away,

Higher current in Canada too then.

Tom

Have yoo seen Nomadland LINK it is about a land where there are no mad people, and they all live off-grid

It is available on Amazon Prime Video, and it uses very few actors, most of the people play themselves.

I’m just watching a film The Snow of 1982, we don’t know what bad weather is.

We don't know were born

I love a good thunderstorm.

As I have described in past posts, I like to fully open the window (If I can bowt rain entering) switch the lights off, and pull up an armchair to settler back to watch the greatest show on earth. Sometimes, for added value, I play Bob Dylan's 'Chimes of Freedom' at full volume. (Wagner, 'Die Walküre' also works)

Once, I did have a close shave. This time, I was not watching, I was working.

I saw the flash just outside my small study window. I knew it was close, as there is another building not far, and this spark was between us.

Accompanying was not a peal of thunder, but a loud bang. Best comparison: have you ever heard the bang of a high speed vehicle crash?

Anyway, it blew the double glazed window to smithereens: shards of glass were propelled across the room with a force leaving them embedded in the opposite wall! Fortunately none of them hit me.

Lights and power went, but returned after a second or two. The power outlet socket on same wall as the window was black and smoking. The two items plugged in: computer and cordless phone's base station ceased working.

Fuse had not blown: I guess the current was taken by the 'Earth' conductor, sparing the live and hence the fuse. I examined the cable, but I only had to replace the actual socket outlet.

The telephone: I had to replace the wall plug-in PSU and the rechargeable battery both in handset and cradle. Actual phone element had survived, and then worked OK.

So, checked out the computer. PSU was really fried! I was surprised that had not blown a fuse, but it didn't!

So, I had to replace PSU, Hard Disk Drive, Optical Disk Drive, and a memory module. Just a single memory location had been spoiled, and even though I admitted the cause of the failure, the Chinese manufacturer (GEIL) honoured the lifetime guarantee and sent me a free replacement.

Now for the fly in the ointment. This was back in 'XP' days, so I knew that a new disk drive was not going to pass Microsoft's activation criteria. I thought this would not be a problem as I could explain and get telephone activation to pass me.

No such luck. One of THE MOST FRUSTRATING experiences I have ever had dealing with a company!

Conversation went something like this:

Them: You cannot activate because that serial number has been used!

Me: Of course it has been used. I am the one who used it, haven't you heard how I just explained to you why.....

Them: but you cannot use it again on a different.....

The person on the other end very obtuse and we spent half an hour going around in a circle. I decided it was just not worth any more of my time.

So I decided to get my own back. I have installed, for free, more than a thousand Linux systems for people who would have otherwise bought a Microsoft Operating System, And I am not done yet.