Charging your campervan's batteries, cleaning and fixing lights

We have started charging the batteries of the motorhome, cleaning and fixing the lights. Project FREEDOM 2.0 is finally up and running, and we are working hard to fix the campervan. Things are progressing at full speed, but we have also encountered some setbacks.

Charge your campervan's batteries

We take the fix with the campervan and project FREEDOM 2.0 step by step. Our campervan has been stationary since last summer without access to electricity, so all the batteries had been discharged. So Peters immediately started to plug in the generator and start recharging the motorhome's batteries. However, this proved not to be easy.

In the beginning it was difficult to recharge the batteries, but after a while we realised that our (broken) underlights was on and drawing power... We cleared away all the lights under the motorhome including all the cables. Peter tried again and again to start the car, but it was only on the third day (yipeee!) that he succeeded.

However, the success is not complete. We managed to charge the camper's batteries with the generator every day to almost 100 per cent, but the next day we were down to zero again. We can't see that anything has been running and drawing power. No lights, no fridge, nothing... What could be wrong?

Cleaning the motorhome

While the generator has been on to charge the campervan's batteries, Peter has been cleaning. "We used it all last summer and parked it without properly cleaning it, so it was very dirty. We have also been collecting stuff for ten years to make it suitable for a family with children. Now new times are coming ...

Now Peter has taken the time to clean the car thoroughly. He has washed the outside of the car and gone through every drawer and cabinet. He has thrown away, vacuumed and scrubbed. Things that had to go to the rubbish room or tip included our broken outdoor furniture, a more than ten-year-old bed mattress, and duvets and pillows. Let's face 2020!

"When you lift everything out, you can clean better. Peter also unscrewed the panelling around the back bed, so he could access the vacuum cleaner. everywhere. What a lot of dust there was there ...

Fixing lights in your campervan

While the electricity company was charging the batteries of the motorhome, Peter also took the opportunity to fix the LED lighting. We have had a lot of cables that have been crossed, and now he made sure to sort out the mess. The cable tangle that you see in the picture below is gone, and instead you just switch on and off all the lighting on the buttons inside the front door.

Peter had a piece of string light (LED lighting) left over and decided to put it around the skylight over the dining table to get more light on the ceiling. Amazingly, the string light had exactly the right length (to the millimetre!). It turned out fine too!

New duvets and towels

A bed mattress and several duvets and pillows had really seen their best days. We had to buy a lot of new things (some pillows etc were ok, and we saved these), and at the same time we took the opportunity to buy new sheets. We bought everything at Jysk, and decided to get some blue in the motorhome.

There were also new blue blankets, blue towels for the bathroom and blue towels for the kitchen. In addition to feeling clean and fresh, it also smells it new. Great!

Washing the kitchen equipment

On Friday and Saturday I (Helena) was able to help. I set about cleaning the kitchen and washing out all the drawers. I also took in all the cutlery, plates and other kitchen equipment and washed the dishes in the dishwasher in the boat. Nice to feel that everything is really clean!

As I went through the kitchen equipment, I couldn't help but laugh a little. We almost have a more complete equipment in the motorhome than in the boat. For example, we have a blender, nutcracker, garlic press, egg slicer, knife sharpener and crab stick. If you have a motorhome, caravan, boat or holiday home ... do you have this in your holiday kitchen?

What happens next?

We take care of the renovation and the fixing of the motorhome. step by step. The next step is to take it to a FIAT workshop. We will do a major service on the motorhome, which includes, among other things:

• replacement of the cam belt
• replacement of the water pump
• oil change with filter
• changing the fuel filter

"We will do the service at Kihlströms in Spånga in Stockholm and have been given a price of just over SEK 18,000. They will also check a number of faults for us, and depending on the measure, the price may vary.

• checking the brakes
• check for faults with the clutch (clutch pedal sticking to the bottom)
• find out what's causing us to fail to charge our campervan batteries.
• new wiring for the fog lights (which was not done in Kristinehamn when the motorhome had a short circuit two years ago).

We've also decided to change the gas hose, fix all the stone chips on the windscreen (or replace the window), buy three new 40×40 sunroofs and a 50×70 sunroof without a crank. We plan to look for windows, shutters and maybe chairs and tables at the Elmia fair. We will also plastic convert the whole motorhome again and that will happen after Elmia, but info will come in a few weeks before Elmia.

In the last post we got lots of great tips (thank you very much!!!) but no one answered the question of how to order blackout curtains. Is it because it is difficult? How to think about it? How to measure? Which windows do I have? Is the information provided online too little and I don't understand? Is it interesting if we find out more?

We're grateful for all the cheers and tips, and we'll be back soon with more reports! Then we will also report on our expenses.