Been a bit of a wait since the earlier article, but hey it's the summer so you won't have needed the burner? Well perhaps this summer it would have been nice to have it, it's been a shocker hasn't it?

Now we've got the burner in place inside, a hole needs to be cut in the roof for the flue - this is the most nerve racking part of the operation - there's no going back as the van will be permanently altered!

I used a yogurt container lid just bigger than the size of the flue to draw a circle on the inside of the roof as a template. When choosing the position, I made sure that the flue didn't come out right on the corner of roof as the silicon collar wouldn't have produced a good seal if it had to bend around the edge - it needs to be set back onto the flat part of the roof. I was unsure of how to measure the correct position of the hole in the roof, so that it lined up with the hole in the top of the burner. In the end, after a bit of head scratching, I relied on my instincts and did it all by eye.

I used a power drill to go through the roof following the circle that was drawn. It was surprisingly thick and took longer than expected. I then smacked it out with an old chisel and a hammer and used a grinder to tidy up the hole. Grinding tends to be a pig of a job, with dust everywhere - really important to wear safety goggles doing this.

The flue can now be dropped through the hole in the roof. I made a collar from an old bit of hessian sacking to stop the flue from being scratched, as it is made from thick enamelled iron. It is heavy and within a couple of minutes of the burner being lit it gets very hot and radiates the heat effectively. Hang up damp clothing next to it and it soon dries - though not too close or it scorches!

A bit of fire proof rope supplied to us by the smithy was then pushed into the gap where the burner meets the flue to properly seal it so that no gases get out. The final job is to attach the flashing with the silicon collar to the roof which water proofs the van.

The flashing is made from thin tin which can be cut to the desired shape with some cheap tin snips. Then it needs to be bent to fit the roof of the van as closely as possible - you can see from the picture that I had to bend it round the edge of the van - if there are any grooves in the roof try to push and stretch the tin into the grooves, minimises areas where the water can sit.

The flashing is secured using pop rivets. Once you are happy with the way the tin is fitted into the groves and whatnot, use a drill bit the same diameter as the rivet to drill a series of holes through the flashing and the van roof. Then apply standard multi-purpose silicon sealant - doesn't have to be heat resistant - using a silicon gun. Stick the gun between the flashing and the roof and squeeze in the silicon, try not to get it closer than 5cm to the chimney though, as it will be pretty useless next to the heat. Then fit the pop rivets. Plug any gaps with silicon sealer to make sure that everything is water tight and there's no leaks.

The key reason to having a burner in the van is that it delivers a dry heat. I went on a van trip to Ireland a few years back with a couple of mates in an old transit, it was December and cold. In the evenings we put the gas burner on for short bursts to raise the temperature inside, the warm air condensed on the cold metal roof producing water droplets, after three or four days living like this the van became very damp - so we had to go to the pub each night instead.

It was a great trip and we scored good waves but after a week all three of us were stinking feral surfers and we had to head home. Regularly using a wood burner drys the van out and lets you survive in places like the West Coast of Ireland that gets up to 200 days of rain a year.

Another bonus is that you can usually scavenge/buy wood almost any where, if you have a little bow saw in the van there is plenty of fallen wood or drift wood about that will dry out quickly if stacked beside the burner. A small axe is handy for making kindling too.

Finally it's fun to get the burner going, when it's raining and howling outside and you're on a remote beach or mountain top

Have a look here to see the rest of the build.

www.windysmithy.co.uk