Really enjoying reading the blog. Bed looks very impressive. I might have missed it but any chance you could give the overall size of made up bed (length and width). Cheers!
Looks great.
We have a mitsubishi delica L300 and have ordered one of rustys standard 3/4 beds.
What foam are you going with? you going for a memory/reflex laminated foam?
Really enjoying the Nissan NV200 conversion!
I haven’t been brave enough to start my own yet but I plan to and keeping a look out for suitable second hand base vehicle. thanks for all the detail 🙂
As this is a small van – I would, as I did with mine, cover every possible metal surface with sound deadening, either flashing tape or specialist variants, in addition to the vapour barrier. Apart from that and the disappointment that the carpet is grey, it is looking really good.
Its all grey. Its the 50 shades of grey van 🙂 All metal will be insulated and/or lined with thick lining carpet, so virtually nothing will be bare.
The fresh water tank that arrived today bright blue – but as that will be underslung, you are stuck with greys!
No – it was deliberate – it was taped back, and also the seat has nothing to connect it to! So its not like its not plugged in. My Transit had driver and pax airbags, and it didn’t have any seat sensors either. Is strange though….
the impact sensors were mounted at the front bumper, perhaps..
otherwise, that was a great job well done and I kinda like the way you thought that even if you had to do it yourself, you try to stick with specific engineered parts which is awesome..
I was looking for a safe way to mount a swivel seat for my car, fortunately stumbled upon your site, and to be honest, I’m intrigued to have me a small campervan as well now! =)
lol. My hands still cut from trying to get the electrics fitted without removing the bumper. So much easier 2nd time! Just wish someone was a month ahead of me lol
Hi,
Sorry to hear that Ryan’s parents did not manage the full Cambodia tour as planned. Hope they enjoyed what they did see (I’m sure that it was better than sitting at home wishing they had gone) and that the rest of your trip is excellent.
See you soon – it has stopped raining here (briefly) and daffodils are out
Hello, I’m interested in the PIV but am wondering how it might work for me. I have a Dormer Bungalow with two bedrooms upstairs at the same height as the loft. Would these bedrooms benefit from PIV as the unit would be at the floor level of the first floor pushing air downwards. I am not really able to install it any higher as there is nothing between the ceilings and roof.
We live in a detached 3 bed house near the coast and get a lot of condensation and black mould. I am considering the nuaire system but have 2 questions…..
1, Should I get the heater? Some comments make me think it will be very expensive to run as we live in a cold area (wild Northern Ireland coast!) though it is seldom cold enough for snow to settle.
2, My landing is very small, basically just as wide as the stairs (800mm) with all three bedroom doors leading direct off the top step, so just a small 800mm sq space. Will the vent work there as the installation says leave at least 400mm around the vent for setting 3.
Hi for dave and chell, it was great to meet you at the greenleaf tour restaurant ?? We enjoyed our evening with people so like minded, and thanks for the advice an heading to loas.
I hope you complete your new van conversion later this year, maybe we will see you on the road.
We are currently in sukhothai and have just cooked ourselves cycling around the historical park.
We will keep an eye on your blog.
Cheers.
Thank you for taking the time to write up this guide.. found it extremely helpful changing my water pump.. a lot easier to follow than the Haynes manual!
Hi
I have just had a nuaire drimaster Heat fitted this week. The heater has been connected seperately to the fan so I can switch it on or off when I like. My question is is there anyway you can tell the heater bit is working when I switch it on, I cannot feel any heat.
I am a landlady , it’s a 4 bed semi detached house , we bought it about 6 months ago , it was a total rack and we done full refurbished , and rented the house , this was the first proper winter for a tenant , condensation appeared on one of the bedroom , and tenant moaning about the mould , she also said she is out most of the time and when she is back , heating they put it on for a full speed , which obviously cause more condensation , we have fitted extractor fan in kitchen – which I doubt that it’s being used , and have a small mould growth in pantry. And in one of the big bedroom there is a lot of condensation on window My question is , do you think this product will help me to sort out this issue and most importantly as tenants don’t like to pay big electricity bill to pay – and she switched that off than condensation problem would be still there ? Or can we adjust the settings that she can’t manipulate it ,( I assume that it will go in loft and the ceiling in landings are quite high anyways) thanks ,
Yes it will help! We have installed an enviro vent system in one of our rentals. Tenants were drying clothes and not using the fan as it was always switched off. This unit has dried out the bungalow completely. Been installed for 2 years. I will be fitting the nuaire unit above in our holiday home shortly, same idea but lots cheaper than envirovent system.
If and when you have it fitted don’t tell the tenants how to turn it off though!
Hi l live in a rented house and have a drimaster heat installed by the landlord when it first went in it was freezing only when heating was on full was it bearable, he then had the setting changed lowered fan setting and lowered the heating setting to come on it is now winter and its like having a window open constantly, the hallway struggles to get upto 18oc and when my heatings off falls to 15oc and bellow so cold. Electric its costing £1.50 a day add that to heating costs its so expensive yes its sorted the condensation, but its costing me a fortune in heating and electric and making the house cold its like chucking money down a drain trying to keep the house warm!
hi
thanks for your comment. I think the fan speed may be too high still. ours is cool but not freezing and don’t think it has effected the heating costs at all. Though yes with the heater on it costs to run. its 500w so can be 12kwh per day so depends what you pay. Our heater isn’t on 24×7 and is set it, I think, 14’….
From our elec usage it only runs the heater constantly in the cold months. If your fan is too fast….
Though even at 1.50/day over winter, its cheaper than fixing mould everywhere… A price we are happy to pay
See link at top of page as I have a better list of info to reduce moisture/condensation. If those addressed maybe your landlord could turn speed down a notch?
Ours feels nothing like an open window. And an open window didn’t work either! In fact our bedroom windows stay closed now whereas before we had to have them open and still got condensation. Our bedroom deffo warmer now!
Good luck!
Hi there. After reading this blog I have also decided to install a nuaire Drimaster, but as my property is rented out I’ve decided to save myself £150 and have the standard drimaster (unheated version). We live in cornwall which doesnt suffer so much from the cold as it does rain and dampness. I too have a 100+ year old cottage with no cavity and mold appears EVERY winter behind sofa’s and in corners of the bedrooms (outside walls) The installer who is fitting it next week said it should be fine as long as they have central heating on you will not feel draft from the fan? Has anyone else opted for the standard unheated version and have any comments on how it make the house feel? As last thing I want is phone calls from tennants saying house is colder!!!
Hi Ryan/Mel, Just a quick question…and many thanks for all your hard work in putting all this info together. If the unit is basically sited in the upstairs loft, is the flow of air just as effectiuve downstairs as upstairs? My problems are mainly downstairs but also a bit upstairs. Many thanks! Pete
hi
in theory yes they cover the whole house.
bt condensation is caused by moisture in air so bedrooms usually suffer. so why do you get in downstairs? where is the moisture coming from? cooking, washing, drying clothes, leaky pipe, damp etc…? if so sort that – piv is not a miracle fix all you need o address the cause if you can – then piv will help
see my site dedicated to this rather than my travel blog lol see http://www.drimaster-piv-condensation-system.co.uk/
more info and hints there on addressing getting rid of moisture
remember I AM NO EXPERT
Ryan
Hi Ryan and Mel. Thanks for the detail on the drimaster. I’ve just moved into a 1930’s bungalow which has a condensation problem. Having researched the Nuaire products, I think that this would definitely solve the problem for us. I have one question which I hope you can help with. Our house has an upstairs extension, so very little loft space remains (and certainly not enough for the drimaster). We have a large cupboard in one of the eaves, which I thought could be used, but it would mean that the kit would have to be installed with the output vent and diffuser being aligned horizontally to the machine rather than vertically as is shown in all the photographs I’ve seen. Do you think that this would be ok? I’ve looked at the flatmaster as an alternative but would prefer to avoid the trouble of putting a hole through an external wall. Thanks for your help.
Best, Frank
Remember I am an owner/user – not an expert.
But if I read you right, you want the outlet vent horizontally? Personally, I see no issue with that as long as the air comes out it should work. Depends where it is and ensure the room has airflow. Make sure the cupboard has a large volume of air that would otherwise be isolated from the house (e.g. drawing air through eves from outside).
So in other words, if it is the equivalent of in a loft, vented externally, I don’t see why a horizontal outlet would differ from a vertical one.
Good luck
Hi Frank, not sure if this is still relevant, but if you look on the Nuaire site, they do a flatmaster version of the PIV which would suit you better than the drimaster. The Flatmaster is designed for properties without loft space.
http://www.nuaire.co.uk/our-products/catalogue/residential/positive-input-ventilation-piv/flatmaster/
Am certainly looking at getting a Drimaster, as got a similar mould / condensation problem.
Good luck
Jeremy
FIXED.
I’ve finally found the problem with my transit minibus.
I was having the exact same problem as the person who wrote this article and after several tries and tests it’s worked out to be a faulty turbo vacuum Solenoid.
The fault code was the same as on hear P0235.
Nice one!
The vacuum test kit listed here may have helped – but without knowing the behaviour of the solenoid its hard to prove either way. You need a working van next to you to test. I think this is what was the root cause of my issue – the garage used mine to test for someone elses van and just put it back wrong. Bastards.
Well either way I am very grateful for your rights up it has been my bible to my problem.
Do you know of any way of getting just that little more power out of the engine tho.
It’s running great I just wish it had a little more sometimes.
Hi I’ve been following your steps for curing the low power problem with the transit because I have a 2004 mk6 2.0 TDCI Minibus with exactly the same problem.
Taking for granted and assuming my vacuum pipes were in the correct place and the skipping first part of your article I proceeded to test further steps in the article.
I have since found out the problem seems to lie with my vacuum pipes but after correcting them I still had the same problem I.e low power going in to limp mode glow plug light flashing etc etc.
I have done all basic checks i.e. checking the pipes for splits but when I came to check the voltage on the green plug on the solenoid I found one of the wires had no voltage.
One of the wires had 12 to 14 V but the other had no voltage at all.
So my question is should there definitely be a reading from both and do you or anyone know where these two wires go to as I have followed the wire with no voltage chasing it back to the right hand side looking at the engine behind the water coolant bottle but then loose where it goes.
I have strong vacuum coming from the vacuum pipe but once connected to to solenoids and to the turbo the vacuum isn’t as strong and is as if there not enough suction for the turbo actuator to work correctly.
Any help regarding the wires would be appreciative of any further help regarding vacuum.
Hi.
You may want to pick up a cheap vacuum test kit to see if there is sufficient vacuum at the turbo. Check all pipes for leaks.
The solenoids will only get voltage when the ECU wants a vacuum (or not, don’t know which way it goes).
On startup, my EGR vacuum was “sucked” then eased off after a few seconds (10-20)
On startup/idle, my turbo vacuum was sucked and stayed sucking till the van wanted to change its position.
So, on my van, after say 20 seconds, as EGR vacuum request is “off” and Turbo vacuum request was “on”, I’d expect different voltages at the solenoid as they are doing opposite things. Its all from the ECU. Easier to test with vacuum kit.
(I’m no expert!)
Can you move the turbo actuator by hand? Also – with a cheap vacuum test kit you can test how much suction is required to move it – (figures above).
Hi yes I’ve go a vacuum test kit and all pipes are good.
My turbo has constant vacuum on start-up/idol but still not as I would expect but if I bypass the solenoid and put the pipe straight from the vacuum to turbo it pulls the actuator fully.
It’s only when connected to the solenoid that it doesn’t fully pull actuator complete.
I appreciate your no expert neither am I just a DIY mechanic hoping I’m looking for a bit of help so I am very appreciative of your time
Where does the vacum hoses go to I am having the same problem with my van and it’s got me baffled everything’s working as it should just slow and I can’t find a vacume diagram gurrrr
IIRC – from brake vacuum pump to solenoids. One goes to turbo actuator, one goes to EGR. Pipes run up from OS side of the engine under air filter, up, through plastic sheath behind injectors, and go off to EGR/Turbo.
Hi, we have condensation on our bedroom windows. We sleep with the door closed. Would we have to have the vent in our bedroom or would a landing vent still be effective.
Many thanks,
Tony
The way these things work, is *slight* extra pressure and that causes air movement. A single unit, vented on landing, is good enough for 4 bed house. On most doors, closed or not, there are big gaps where air naturally flows. So no, you do not need an outlet in the bedroom – just a single outlet on landing.
However, if you have an air-tight door then well, that isn’t going to work 🙂
Also remember I am a single happy customer/user and not an “expert” contact supplier with any questions – but hope the above is useful
Did you ever make it to Devon, I see that your van has gone. It is a stunning part of the country and we live in north Devon, if you ever make it down here, bring your boards and a barbecue in the summer! The only thing that is annoying the locals are the car parking charges at the beaches though, they are becoming extortionate! Great blog by the way!
Can you help I have installed a drimaster about 12 years ago and it has stopped going the transformer box with the green light seems to be flashing and all the red lights are flashing as well nothing seems to be going has the motor gone and do I need to replace the unit
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