Blog 1.7: T'Van. Part Two

Or, the back end and exterior...

Just the bedroom to cover inside then. It has what is often described as the German layout, which is appropriate I suppose. This means that it has two very comfy somewhat raised fixed single beds oriented 'north-south', in automotive parlance. These can be augmented by pulling out a central infill, and adding a filler cushion, thus creating a rather large double. However, being raised, and with the infill covering the stepped floor which facilitates easy access to the twin beds, an additional (supplied) ladder is required. No, we've not used it yet as it'd be a bit of a faff I reckon.

Under each of the beds there are large storage spaces with sliding 'tambour' doors, and the top centre step also affords access to the garage/boot/rear storage area, but in our case acts as a handy laundry basket. There's a fair bit of storage above the beds too, with cupboards across the rear wall, and shelving cubbies, with elasticated retainers, either side.

Swivel spotlights, plus usb sockets, and a 13 amp outlet are also provided.

Finally, centrally in the roof, there's a Maxxfan, remotely operated to blow air in or out at varying speeds, and with inbuilt lamps.

That's the interior dealt with, I think.

Moving to the exterior, or the roof, things get quite cluttered. From the front, there's the earlier-mentioned sunroof, and immediately behind that, the wifi antenna and the wire-entry glands for the solar panel and the satellite dish cable. To the right of these, there's the solar panel. This is a 400w Perlight Smart Black panel, said to be one of the most efficient size-for-size on the market. Behind the glands, there's a small opening roof vent over the bathroom, and a much larger 'Heki' opening light in front of the solar panel.

Behind the bathroom vent sits the satellite dish, which travels in its retracted position, but deploys in a kind of ballet dance, searching out the desired satellite, when the TV is switched on. It's probably best not to switch the telly on while doing 70mph on the motorway, although I'd hope there's a lock-out preventing this when in motion, although I've never tried it!

The final item is the aforementioned Maxxfan above the bedroom. This is quite clever, and definitely can be left open while the vehicle is in motion, and can even be left switched on. Very useful, especially in the recent very hot weather, and certainly one of our better choices when specifying the van.

Back down to ground level, the van has a large rear 'garage'/boot/trunk/ call it what you will. This has entry doors either side of the rear of the van, and occupies much of the space under the beds. The photo shows just how much can be crammed in, with bikes (in bags), chairs, leg rests, levelling chocks (and much more on the other side) currently rammed in. And at the top RH corner you can see part of the Thule roll-out awning.

Just in front of this door sits the gas locker with two Gaslow 11kg refillable bottles and associated filler point above it. All you have to do is find a garage that actually sells LPG from a pump, and that doesn't get any easier.

You can see how much space is still available in the garage in this shot from the other side.

There's a table, a windbreak, rolled up exterior floor mats for use under the roll-out awning, the Ecoflow powerbank, rucksacks, outdoor showers, folding laundry basket, fresh and waste water hoses, 25m hookup cable, and boxes of various oddments and other nonsense.

Also on the nearside of the van are the hatches for accessing the Dometic toilet cassette, and the fresh/waste water tanks and drain cocks, and the hook-up power inlet, oh, and the water filter cartridge.

That's about it for the exterior features.

Next blog: tech stuff, and so on.