Rick Hurst Web Developer in Bristol, UK

Menu

Month: May 2013

Braindump May 2013

Not for the first time i’ve found myself stepping back from Twitter most of this month, and when I got drawn in, I got very frustrated with scatter-gun discussions – found myself trying to explain stuff I just can’t get over in a few characters, resulting in multiple replies especially when there are several people in the discussion, so even less room for content. As someone once said – having a discussion on twitter is like trying to have a conversation through a car window as you repeatedly fly past them.

One such discussion was about recommended Content Management Systems (CMS) – I was trying to explain what my holy grail would be – a dynamic CMS (as opposed to a static site generator such as Jekll), which allows editing of content as text or markdown files or via the web, where content can be synced and versioned using GIT, but also has a “throwaway” database for search e.g. it indexes content in the background but no need to keep restoring it when content is added to live but not dev/ vice versa. I struggled to get that out in a reasonable paragraph and i’m not really started yet!

Another area to deal with is comments – comments should really be counted as valuable content on a blog, so this content should also be stored as static files under version control (to allow it to be synced with other copies of the site, rather than the comments themselves needing versioning). The problem is that 90% of any comment system is anti-spam measures and moderation. Having spam comments committed to my GIT repository is downright dirty!

In other news, I’ve finished my current stint as a JavaScript contractor, and am going to be working full-time for the next month or so on the next phase of my company Olivewood Technology, which will be evolving this year.

Another sunny North Devon weekend (well, mostly..)

Rocky the T25 in a sunny devon field

We lucked out again with a sunny bank holiday weekend in North Devon, chilling out with friends in a field and on the beach for a couple of days, before they had to head off on the Sunday.

We got to try out the new funky leisure canopy, and it worked really well, although I have since noticed (from looking at the pictures on that web page) that we forgot to add the pole extensions which would have made it a bit higher. We also managed to burn a couple of small holes in it, with sparks from our nearby fire – something worth bearing in mind!

Despite rain being forecast for the monday, we decided to sit it out rather than head home – setting up the van for a day of film watching, tea drinking and board game playing. It was worth it for the sunny tuesday morning parked up at putsborough beach for some skim-boarding and more tea drinking!

The 1Y engine is still going really well, though i’m a bit concerned about the amount of oil it is using – there’s no smoke or leaks, but there are drips from the top of the dipstick when running which end up splatting up on the tailgate. This could be from overfilling – the short dipstick means that i’m constantly topping it up so that I can get an idea of the level, which only just appears on the end of the dipstick when full. I can’t always check it on level ground, so am potentially overfilling it each time. A custom dipstick is on the cards – when the level is low I need to know exactly how low, so I can properly monitor it.

Instructions for fitting a T25 swivel seat plate from Just Kampers

Seat swivel base from Just Kampers, being fitted to a t25 camper

First a disclaimer – I am probably one of the worst amateur mechanics out there, follow my advice at your own risk! These are not official instructions, just the method I used through trial and error…

I ordered a T25 Seat swivel plate from Just Kampers, and was confused to find it came with no instructions whatsoever. I wanted to have some idea of how long the job would take, and what work would be involved so started searching the forums. I found some fairly contradictory advice, but was pleased to read that it is a fairly simple job. Basically the plate has seat runners on the top, which the seat attaches to. The bottom of the plate bolts to the top of the existing fixed runners in the van. No welding required. Here are the steps I took to fit it to the passenger side of my T25:-

  1. Remove the seat
    Slide the seat forward as far as it will go, then locate a little lever that stops the seat running all the way off the tracks – with the lever disengaged, it can be slid straight off the front – I had a bit of a fight with the glove box at this point – it might be better to remove the glove box before doing this?
  2. Sit the plate on top of the runners and locate the holes
    The lever used to lock/ unlock the swivel goes at the front. Unlock the plate and swivel it round so you can access the holes at the back. This confused me at first, I was convinced that i’d need to separate the top and bottom plate to allow access to the holes at the rear, but by rotating it to about 45% (as shown in the photo you can clear one set of the rear holes at a time.
  3. Time to get out the drill?
    The T25 only has one set of holes at the rear, but the plate has two – apparently this is because the T2, which this plate also fits, has four holes at the rear?. Some people on the forums suggested just using two rear bolts, others suggested drilling out the second hole so you can fit four rear bolts. I went with the latter, the more bolts the better. I found I needed to widen the existing rear hole slightly (in the runner, not the plate) to allow the bolt through. The rear four bolts are larger than the front – don’t widen the holes at the front of the runners
  4. Slide the provided nut + plate under the runner at the rear
    Line up the nuts (which come attached to a steel plate) with the holes, the rear bolts can then be tightened up.
  5. Slide nuts under the front of the runner, and put the front bolts in
    It looks like it is is possible to get four bolts in the front. I’m tempted to add the other two, but as the front nuts do not come attached to a plate like the rear, I think it might require improvising to get the second front nut back to where the hole is – maybe gluing a nut to a small strip of cardboard so it can be pushed under and lined up with the rear of the front holes?
  6. What to do with the under-seat compartment door?

    Seat swivel base stops the battery/ under seat compartment door from opening and closing
    Once the plate is bolted in place, it isn’t possible to open or close the battery/under-seat compartment door. You could have it permanently closed, or half open. Having it permanently closed would obscure a very handy storage compartment, so I chose to remove mine, which required drilling out a few rivets.

  7. Grease the runners, before putting the seat back on

    Seat swivel base with seat fittedThe handy thing about it being a swivel is that the plate can be rotated to a more convenient angle for putting the seat back on,so you don’t have to squeeze it in against the glove box. Remember the little lever that stops the seat flying off the front also stops it going back on again, so disengage that when the seat stops.

A windswept Vanwest 2013

camping in our T25 at vanwest 2013

Last weekend we went to our second Vanwest event at Brean sands. Unfortunately we didn’t get the previous weekends amazing weather and it was ridiculously windy, with frequent rainstorms. I didn’t get a chance to try out our new canopy/ awning as it nearly blew away while I was trying. Our Quechua base seconds also nearly flew away when the pegs worked their way loose – before we got the van, we managed to camp in many a wind storm without that happening, so it’s safe to say it was definitely very windy!

The gale force winds were a good test of how feasible it is to use the Devon side elevating pop-top in strong wind – at one point I shut it, worried at how much the canvas side was bending in. I wondered if i’d have to test out the contingency plan of making a bed across the front seats for our 9-year old son. However after turning the van round so that the back was facing the wind, it was much less of an issue, so with a couple of pieces of wood wedged in and cable-tied in place, the upstairs bed was fine to use.

We spent a lot of time hiding away in the van watching films, listening to music and drinking tea – pretty much the same as we would have ended up doing at home in Bristol on a rainy weekend. Between rain storms we headed down to the arena and had a nose round the “show and shine” vehicles and stalls, picking up a vintage deckchair and LED reading lamp, amongst other things.

A good fun event – just a shame that the bad weather dampened the BBQ/ socialising vibe!

Idyllic bank holiday weekend

Rocky the VW T25 parked up looking over Putsborough Sands

This is exactly what I had in mind when we decided to buy a camper van. A rare coincidence of fantastic weather and bank holiday weekend in the UK. Camping at our favourite “secret” Devon camping spot with friends, the first time there in Rocky, our T25 camper, surfing and lazing around in the sun.

We left on friday night, fully aware that we may get snarled up in bank-holiday traffic, but it actually turned out to be not too bad. This was the first proper road test for the new engine – fully laden camper and a motorway run before taking on some of North Devon’s finest A-road hills. The 1Y engine handled it all with no complaints, with no sign of overheating or (excessive!) smoke.

We arrived at the camping spot before it got dark. We made some new friends, who kindly shared their fire and wine, as we weren’t really prepared with these necessities!

The next day we got some time to work out what other kit we think we need for longer camping trips, what works and what doesn’t work. I got the 3-way fridge working on gas, which is ideal for spots like these where there is no electric hookup. I think for longer trips where there is hook-up, we’ll also take our powered coolbox, as there isn’t exactly much room in the fridge.

On the last day, we took Rocky down to the beach car park at Putsborough and were lucky enough to grab a spot overlooking the beach. It might be a bit of a cliche, but being able to sit in the van having a coffee, with the music on watching the sunset, really is living the camper van dream. If only overnight camping was allowed in that spot! There are a few camper van overnight spots at the back of the car park, which we might try another time.

One thing we did decide that Rocky would benefit from is window tints in the rear – although we have curtains and thermal blinds, it takes quite a lot of effort to make the van private enough to quickly get changed at the beach. I’ve also had that “being in a goldfish bowl” feeling when I use the van as a mobile office – it would be good to make it so people have to make more of an effort to be nosey.

The run back saw us caught in the predictable bank holiday traffic jam. Looking on the bright side this was a good chance to see if the engine cooling system works properly – which, i’m happy to say, it did. Being stuck in traffic is always a pain, but so much more bearable if you aren’t worrying about the engine overheating, have some decent tunes on the stereo and cold drinks in the fridge!

VW T25 Mobile Office

office with a view - my VW T25 mobile office!

After years of working from tents and the passenger seat of a VW Beetle, I finally have a luxury mobile office! Before you get excited wondering what technical wizardry i’ve added to Rocky, so far all i’ve needed is my laptop and the table. The picture above is a bit of a “lie” – the spot is in a car park just across the road from one of my clients. I had a decent wifi signal so could do work on the office network without needing a VPN. Although I have a couple of solutions – a mains inverter and a DC-DC transformer – for keeping my macbook air charged from a 12 volt socket, I hadn’t got either with me, and had somehow managed to start with only a 50% charge. When it got too low after a couple of hours, I scurried back into the office and plugged back into the mains.

While it lasted I had an office with a beautiful view over Blagdon lake, a coffee pot on the stove, decent sound system (i’ve wired in a couple of old hi-fi speakers under the back seat as an experiment) and comfy seat to work from in my new T25 mobile office. Predictably, i’m now researching solar panels, leisure batteries (Rocky already has one, but a second one would be good) and other tech such as wifi antennae and 3G signal boosters to kit Rocky out for some more off-grid mobile working adventures.

Later the same day, I got to use Rocky as a mobile office again – with an hour and a half “downtime” to use while my son was at gymnastics, I sat and got some work done in the sunny car park. It turned out to be very productive, stopping only to fit the new Fiamma bike rack that arrived yesterday, and a well-deserved cup of tea or two of course…