Sankey Widetrack Camper Conversion

1300kg or 1500kg beam axles X 2, we have used Meredith & Eyre on the 6-wheel drawbar turntable, but Indespension do a compatible beam axle as well, plus Indespension used to do chassis pre-built for home assembly, but I think they have exited that market now due to the change in regulations about Type Approval.

Peter

With conventional flourescent lighting inside trailers, the power consumption is quite high in relation to the light output, so we have converted most of ours to LED lighting.

Rather than buy new, we have put LED lights inside the old housings. Our trailer luminaires and the big ones in the Mercedes bus were fitted with G4 LED clusters:



...but the LED strips now on the market are really good:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151563603317

5 metres of LEDs for £8 and free postage, and they are much better than those I looked at when we built the trailer.

Here is a 10-minute conversion of an old flourescent light:













Current draw is about 530mA with three strips, easy to switch 1, 2 or 3 strips as needed.

Peter

Really grotty outside yesterday, but Philip got on with the Sankey and finished the side rave fitting, screwed the floor down and got ready for the two new sheets of panel material arriving by truck today:











All the fasteners are stainless steel, no plated steel used anywhere.

Peter

Coming on nicely, some skill outing this together - the attention to details is nice

Philip has got to get the side panels cut today as we have nowhere to store them.

When we built the big trailer we had 8metre sheets of GRP ply which were a struggle to handle, but we sat them on pallets in next door's yard and cut them up there. The weather was better too!







We will do the same again today.

Peter

great thread, looking forward to seeing the end result

nice old merc tucked away in the yard

honolulujoe said:

nice old merc tucked away in the yard

Click to expand...

Long gone I'm afraid, we built the trailer in 2011, when those pictures were taken.

Peter

Sheets turned up at about 07.40 as I was getting into the shower (being past retirement age has a few benefits!)

I popped round as soon as I could but next door had already unloaded the sheets, so Philip made a start after lunch on cutting them up.

Pictures:













That's the first sheet trimmed off and notched for the wheelarch, offcuts laid by the roller shutter for interior use.

Peter

We had a delivery from Aalco yesterday, top hat section for the roof beams and the CCR14 cant rail that is the top extrusion that joins the side panel to the roof beams.

Also, we saw this on another forum, might be useful to those needing a battery retainer:



Peter

A bit windy outside but mild for the time of year.

Philip is out there looking at getting the back panel made up out of the offcuts and getting the corner posts fixed in place, then the side panels can go up.

The stack of extrusion is building up, although three of those lengths are for the Mercedes.









Hope to have more pictures later.







Peter

Despite the high winds last night the back stayed up without any damage.

We did a trial fit of a side panel this morning, then Philip decided to go for it and got the glue gun out...









More pictures later.

Peter

How you going to seal those exposed edges of the board so they don't get wet from the wheel etc?

Edging strip stuck on with Sikaflex or similar.

We've just got the first side in place and stuck down, plus there are bolts through the side rave.. Philip drilled and countersunk those holes after I took the pictures.



The bottom edge of the side panel and the rear vertical edge are set in sealant.

Peter

Oh okay cool

Just come back inside, bl**dy freezing out there!

Second side fitted and in place.
Peter

taking shape nicely

Couple of shots in daylight this morning:




Got to sort out the bevelled front now, plus the roof.

Peter

Well, the weather didn't co-operate today, we had wind and rain on and off most of the day, so nothing done on the trailer.

Another load of stuff ordered from Aalco plus special carrier charge to get another sheet of CPR here before Xmas. Also ordered a part-roll of 1.3mm translucent roof fibreglass material and a couple of lengths of 1" moulding, this goes above the roofing sheet and then the whole lot is pop riveted down to the top of the cant rail and over the roof sticks (top hat extrusion)

We have enough to get on with the roof and front bay, and the doorway will have to be located and cut out soon otherwise we won't be able to get in it!

The piece that we cut out of the doorway will make the door, we will need the flanged edge extrusion for the doorway perimeter, we already have the door capping extrusion here.

Philip wants to widen the track a bit by fitting wheels with a larger offset, although by the time he has got the batteries, cooker, fridge etc etc in place it should be quite stable.

Peter

Got the cant rail and roof sticks cut:







Hope to get it all stuck down before finish today, rain tomorrow so probably won't get much done then.

Peter