Well the weather has not been kind for any outdoor work the last few weeks so I have been concentrating on some inside work.

You may remember my original list –

• Fit TV mount and TV – we have bought an AVTEX 22″ L218DRS.

Well that’s done and tested on the roof aerial.

• Fit Satellite system onto roof – we have gone for a SNIPE 2 auto seeker. Up on the roof for that – and a big hole for the wires to go through. Bit scary cutting holes in the roof.

I’ve been up on the roof and fitted the mounting plate with screws and Sikaflex adhesive. I decided to wait until the weather improves before fitting the ‘dish’- although I did test it works OK sat on my Workmate. I was very pleased to see it scanning for Satellites and then homing in on Astra 2. FreeSat worked on the TV too so no need for a Sky Box until we venture abroad.

• Remove front most seatbelt mounting hardware and adapt seat support to spring slats. There are some really big bolts that will need removing – might need to see Joe to get them loosened.

I’ve had a go and managed to turn a couple of the bolts – but it looks like they have non captive nuts below so it will be a 2 man job to get that done.

• Fit rear view camera – there is already a reversing camera looking down at the back but we need to be able to see Black Betty and what’s going on behind her. Luckily the display (mounted over the rear view mirror) has a spare V2 option available so won’t need to replace that.

I found that the data cable to the rear camera had a spare lead so was able to use that for the 2^nd video feed which made things easier. The original camera turned out to be a bit too large (vintage 2008) so I replaced it with a small one pointing down at the tow bar and a new one to look back over Betty.

• Transfer Radios between Voyager and Lilly. The current one is only FM/AM with CD player – Lilly’s additionally has DAB & USB support. Also need to fit external DAB aerial (another bit to fit on the roof).

I fitted the aerial to a waterproof box stuck and screwed to the roof. It was the best place that allowed the wiring to be routed through cupboards and within existing cable runs. The radio swap was pretty simple – with just a bit of adjustment to cope with the different fixings.

• Make changes to the FIAT cab wiring to enable Radio and Power sockets to be turned on without the ignition.
• Wire up the Satnav with Switch to power on – again independent of ignition.

This is all done – for details see December 2016 post.

 

In addition to this I have fitted out the cupboard above the cooker as the below pics show. I put the shelf above purely so it can hold the wine glasses and espresso cups. I also lined the bottom with ‘Shurtape Stay Put Shelf Liner’ so nothing should move around too much. The toaster is held down by Velcro Tabs.