Putting The Stove In............

Feeling much better. back still a wee bit twingy, time to get on with getting the burner installed.
For the base of the fireplace I've used some 25mm ply screwed to some 50 x 50 battoning with insulation behind. To give the tiles a good base, and also to absorb the heat, I've fixed plasterboard to the ply.
Then framed it with some battoning just to keep it tidy...

The tiles are 4 inch Chinese slate which despite being of various thickness I found quite easy to lay.

Most pleased I is with the finished result.........

Going to get my mate 'arry to help out with the grouting as I ain't got a clue.

Cutting the hole for the chimney was a wee bit daunting. But having Mr Julian on the roof with his angle grinder I was not worried at all, honest guv.....
Julian, as I have said before is the creator of this wonderful stove, and I am forever most grateful for his help installing it into Betty giving her a heart......

Oh yea he even made the witches hat for the chimney.......

The stove in place.....

As warm as it was that night I just had to fire it up......

I had to leave the truck door open all night and when I got up in the morning the burner was still hot to the touch.

And I had'nt banked it up very much at all as I've still to tile the back..

Thanks again Julian

The Triffid Stove

Well here it is, the "Triffid Stove" Due to me putting me back out I never got up to it's maker to get it fitted in.........

...............so here are a few fotos from a little while back when we tested it out

A fine piece of work indeed.........

And here is the man his self Mr Julian Metalbasher Extraordinaire

So hopefully this time next week I will have much more

to show you as my back feels a lot better for the rest

See y'all soon xxx

Start of the build

As I said before the horsey juice had rotted the planks on the near side so off they came and were replaced with some treated garden planks and a couple of tubes of sealant...

Screwed straight onto the metal frame with self tappers.............

Next thing was to take out the window where the shower room was going. But I left the window in and just blocked it with a piece of 25mm ply

Just had to put something in the window

A Gentle Giant album cover

Next I planned on putting the floor down, tongue and groove planks, but as that would reduce the headroom by nearly 3 inches I thought it would be better to build the shower room first.

And before I done that I had to put the ceiling and insulation up in that area

I used 8mm tongue and groove cladding and 150 space blanket insulation, on special offer from B&Q, for the ceiling

The shower room is made up with 18mm ply with a 50x50 frame and is fixed solid in the corner

I've been thinking how to waterproof it, I know some have tiled theirs but I'm not sure about that. What with the movement and the weight I have decided against tiles and am going to use vinyl flooring like used on bathroom floors. The idea is to put it round in one piece so that there is only one join.....

Next on the agender was a cupboard cum wardrobe and a seat with storage underneath...

Framework of 25x35 battoning

..........and the covered with 12mm ply

I was quite chuffed with meself getting all this done in a couple of days....

And ready to carry on the next day,

I had planned on getting the area for the wood burner ready as it is getting fitted next week.

I've got some more of that heavy duty 25mm ply to put down under and behind it.

But as things were going so well sods law pops up and everything is on hold cos I put me back out.

Hopfully if I take it easy for a couple of days it'll sort itself out......

Out with the old pt2

Here are a few more fotos of the removal of the old interior ie the rotten planks and the recyclable ply and metal.

Out with the old......

So after a lot of careful thought and very little planing I set to work ripping everything out down to the bear bones, till there was just a shell.

It was surprising just how much excess plywood and metal there was to come out of what seemed to be an empty vehicle.

Some of the ply and all of the metal can be reused in the conversion, but a lot of ply and timber had rotted due to horsey juice.

Most notably down the near side where their rear ends had traveled. As can be seen seen in the foto I will have to replace the bottom three or four planks of the box.

Meet Betty

Hi ya and welcome to my rambling account of the transformation of Betty Bedford from Horsebox to House on Wheels.

The lady I got her from had named her Betty and I don't see why that should change,

but hey anything can change we'll just have to see as we go along.

Betty is a 1976 Bedford TK with a 6 cylinder engine and a 5 speed gearbox.

She's 24 foot long 11 foot high and 7 foot 6 wide.

The back box was partitioned, living area with a bed in the luton, loads of space 7'x5'6'',

and stalled for 3 horses behind that