So it was always part of the plan and the plan just came around. Looking online the price of camper cookers seem to be all over the place I have always loved the look and compactness of the Smev cookers so decided that was the route I was taking and liking how the Smev 8862-VS would look and fit that was my decision made.
I ended up finding a good price at Grasshopper Leisure and actually ordered a drivers side Fasp swivel at the the same time. Thats for a future post to look forward to. One thing I would say is no fitting kits came with these so I did have a bit of a chase around looking for bits I needed so I would recommend you to factor that in when looking to buy one yourself.
There isn’t much to explain with the installation of the Smev that the pictures wont explain for you so here they are:
The only interesting point I will bring up was to fix the cooker to the worktop you need to mark the holes for the screws and used an over sized drill bit to counter sink the hole so the countersunk washers will drop in and pull the stove down when tightening these are so that a rubber cap can sit in the hole once done.
I won’t really go into installing the gas but give you a link to the 8mm compression nozzle fitting that I had a nightmare finding in any shops.
And with that done I fired up the stove and had a Hot Chocolate. So with getting out and about in the van I was now seeing how it was working and what was not working as always it came mainly down to lack of storage.
The first task for more storage was to move the Rock n Roll bed forward in the van and add a small rear cushion to give you some boot space between the rear of the seat and the tailgate. Due to not needing much fabric I made a trip into Autotrim Solutions to pick up some fabric so I could match the rest of the Rock n Roll bed.
This also allowed more room underneath in the rear, I had previously had a drawer but was just not happy with the amount of usable space it gave me so leaving it as just an open space made cramming things in a much better use of the space. I will come back to this in a later post for a few more rear storage additions.
One more space that also took a hit from the storage stick was above the worktop to make an overhead locker this has worked out great and is where the kettle and plates are now stored within easy reach instead of previously being in the cupboards below.
Great blog!
Id be very interested to know how you fitted the sunroof and where you bought it from, have you done a post on that?
best regards tim
Sadly Have not got a specific post about fitting the sunroof, But they can be found in Peugeot 205’s and I am sure a few other cars from that era, They are a simple flat aftermarket sunroof that sandwiches in the roof skin when bolting down.
I just made a cardboard template drew around and jigsawed out the hole, with a little extra sealant underneath when bolting together
Awesome post – thank you so much!