Not a lot has been happening, i'm really waiting for the Peterborough show to start at the weekend, and i will be going down there to talk over the plans with Nu-Venture, and also see a few other converters and try and get a price out of them, and maybe ask why they didn't reply to my e-mails, but to be honest i'm 99% decided that Nu-Venture will be doing the body, i hope to see a few more conversions they have done when i'm at the show, and that will probably make me the other 1% sure they are the right firm.

I've been thinking about things i want in the new van, i've altered the layout to include a bigger bathroom, giving a corner sink, wardrobe with drawers under in the bathroom, still a shower cubicle and room for changing etc, this will make the kitchen area a little smaller, but the wardrobe will be moved from the kitchen to the bathroom, giving more space,

I'd like to add a full cooker unit like most modern vans have, but being realistic this will not be feasible, i never would use the oven anyway, a microwave is a must in the new van, and probably a small generator too, i've seen cheap little genny's for about £120 at an auto jumble last weekend, only 750 watt units, so I'll have to see if they do a 1000 watt unit for a little more, they are not Honda EU series generators by any means, but i will fix it permanently to the van under the floor, and add a soundproofed enclosure, proper silencer on the exhaust and air intake, and hopefully convert it to electric start, that way i can use the microwave off site, and re-charge the batteries properly using the sterling mains charger i intend to buy soon.

I've also decided i want a nice looking light in the ceiling of the living area, it has to be 12 volts, and fluorescent, and that's the trouble, most fluorescent lights are standard strip lights, i have plenty of those which look fine in a kitchen or bathroom area, but not in a living area, i want a fancy round dome light type fixture, all i could find were ones sold for boats, that cost upwards of £60, unless you like something that looks like a brass porthole in the roof for £40, so i had an idea to make my own using a mains light for the fixture, and a 12 volt light for the insides.

You can get 12 volt fluorescent lights that take a 2D tube.. this is a square shaped tube, about 7 by 7 inches wide, they are usually mains but nowadays you can get them in 12 volt versions, cheapest i found was £24, this is for the complete lamp.. base, diffuser, 12 volt lamp inverter (ballast) and fluorescent tube, so i plan to get one of these, and a mains dome light i have seen in B&Q for £20, rip the internals out of the mains light, and fit the 12 volt fluorescent lamp in its place, I'll let prolly cover the conversion on one of the tech pages when it's done.

I've already got the TV for the new van, a 15 inch TFT screen, a damn good unit it is too, it's a PC monitor, a 99 preset channel TV, 2 AV channels from inputs on scart plug and phono connections, nicam stereo sound, remote control, runs on 12 volts and has a good mounting system allowing me to fix it to the vans ceiling so it won't come off with out breaking it :), it's made by Goodman's, and you can see them in motorhome accessory shops for £599, i didn't pay that tho', they were £299 plus vat at makro a week ago, so i shot down there and got myself one, i'm very impressed with it so far, i'm using it on my computer for now, as it'll be a while until it's fixed in a van.

I've also found out a little bit more about iveco turbo daily's, someone on the SBMCC forum got me the measurements of his XLWB van, so i now have accurate plans on the coachbuilt plans page, and i found out that chassis cab iveco vans are practically impossible to get second hand, most are short wheelbase ones with tipper bodies, no good to me, but they don't sell long wheelbase ones as tippers as people overload them enough with the short wheel base ones, imagine what they'd do if they had double the length to fill with rubble, so it's a panel van I'll have to buy, not sure how i'm going to sort out getting it to the coachbuilders, mainly the legalities of driving a vehicle registered and insured as a panel van, up the M62 with no rear body on it, and no roof over the cab as they are all hi tops, yet another complication.

And to top that all of, i've only ever seen one single rear wheel XLWB iveco van for sale, most firms got dual rear wheels for extra load carrying ability, body knows why as it's still a 3.5 tons van, but i really don't want dual rear wheels, i have no need for them, and they just reduce the amount of floor space between the arches, but even finding a decent van is not that easy, looks like I'll have to go over my budget to get a decent van, most seem to be heavier vans too, and that's not something i can have, must be a 3.5 tonner, and have a turbo diesel engine, i didn't think i was asking for much, but it seems i am :)