''Fletch'' the 7.5ton Prison lorry camper conversion.

[Sailor]

Seconded.

[Ted]

I drove one of these iveco 7.5 tonners for about 2 years and although half of its trips were heavier Than yours probably is half of them were also empty. I think 20 mpg might be a little optomistic. 12-14 is all mine was doing.

[bennyboy]

This is quite a thread!

Pointless fact #367 - About 2 minutes from where I am sitting is St Albans registry office, interesting huh? No.
OK, granted, but the front doors were used for the intro to 'Porridge'. @simonc



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEqf2X6bEaw

[lewd lude lover]

cracking benny, absolutly cracking! I couldn't resist. I very rarely name vehicles but this one is worth a nod to the classic that is Porridge

@ted. fair enough. It will be interesting to see how it works out. I am basing 20mpg on other converted prison iverco campers on forums reports and the last owners. He reckons he could get from rugby almost all the way to the alps one one tank. We shall see though. I will be happy if I get what I did out of the lude on a regular basis which is 14mpg, right on your numbers

[simonc]

@bennyboy Well who would have thought that? A registry office. It was interesting that LLL's topic came up as I was delving into my DVD's t'other night and decided on a feast (sorry!) of 'Porridge'. It's difficult to reconcile your photo with the grey damp background of the original intro along with the clanking of the keys in locks, in my naivety, I always assumed HMP Slade was a prison.
Great photo Ben and a great bit of trivia. I saw this on Google so thought it might be nice to see a like for like comparison.



BTW, Thank God LLL didn't call his lorry 'Lukewarm' eh? , especially given his water heater issues

[paul bristol uk]

Thinking for the future. If the loophole still exists if you are going to stop travelling and have a few acres of farmland. I will tell you what happened near us in Old Sodbury . A couple did what you wanted to do and stuck a Park home on it in the green belt to tend their horses and a couple of sheep. The council and the locals went potty about it but as it was classed as a agricultural building they could do sod all about it. That was a few years ago now so the loophole may be closed but its still there.
Might be worth investigating when you cease travelling.
BTW if you get a house in the future please call it "Slade!"

[lewd lude lover]

Yar,if you can prove you need to be on the land (we have rare ponies open to theft by gypsies) and you can show that one person can earn enough off the land per year in the persuit of agricultural improvement there really is very little they can do in the long run. The main idea with this is that once you have the awning out and you have a couple hundred bales wrapped in shrink wrap and made into walls for the outside room you have more space that most people have in a city. All the comfy living inside, all the utility outside. Unhook and drive away if you need to.

We dont want to break any laws and this offers us the halfway between grey areas. Reality is we can drive off site to any number of local laybys at night if it gets too hot

I know a number of people who pull this lifestyle off so it is not scary in the least. It has always sounded so much fun, if a bit cold sometimes


The reality is though if we dont get to do any of this I still have a frikin' sweet camper lorry to go to shows and horse events in See me coming!!


I have started the windows. Big job. Pics to follow.

[nucleustylzlude]

No way! How cool is that thing! I personally think your nuts for buying it but at the same time mucho respecto!

Sounds like your giving your next steps in life a long hard thought, good luck with your plans mate and can't wait to see how this thing develops - need more pics!

[lewd lude lover]

I'll hold you to that next time Im mkaing the tea at japshow

I have now found the phone>lappy cable so some pics will be incoming this eve.

[lewd lude lover]

Delivery and windows

So this is wagon on a wagon, coming home.




And back home tarped up


Not easy tarping that before the ''weather bomb'' hit.

Now, there are plenty of big jobs yet to do but none as big and obviously first as the windows in my book.

Steve, the seller, didnt know how to approach it it I think. He got half way and stopped. Carried on with everything else and kind of ignored them.
Shame really as he had all the makings.

Internal wondow surrounds powdercoated silver


All the replacement glass for the double gazed windows. 6mm hardenerd laminate like stage 1 bullet proof.
Half tinted for the outside.
This replaces the original 6mm perspex which had aged a bit.


Now, the issue I think he came up against was how to take the frames off the outside without messing u the paint and then how to fit them so they were water tight. I am not worried about the paint as its all getting a few coats of NATO white military vehicle paint soon enough.

It turns out that they were not only held in with the hardened steel rivets but also with double sided foam tape.

These are just the replacements that he found, which are not good enough for what I want. the originals took him a week to grind off

The application of Mr heat gun and a scraper sorted the the sticky foam out!


This left a lovely 13 year old sticky sticky reside which Mr Engineflush (kerosene) and Mr 25mm chisel helped me with.

Now the windows are out you can see the benefit of being inside something made to keep people in... This is a cross section of the walls..




Thats some serious insulation

The exterior frames are at the powdercoaters ad will be gloss black, as will the bump strip along the bottom of the box and the wheels etc.

All should look pretty clean when finished...