Solo Stove Ranger 2.0 Review

On By MashleyIn camping, Review, Sprinter Camper Van, travelLeave a comment

If you camp out regularly as we do there is nothing like sitting round a campfire having a beer, a good yarn, cremating marshmallows and ensuring your kids don’t get to close and go up in flames.

I’ve had a few fire pits in my time, the last being one of those fold up mesh ones which for a portable fire pit is surprisingly good. The main gripe with all of them is the smoke, I don’t mind smelling like a bonfire but when the wind changes and you get an eyeful of smoke it kind of ruins the moment and you are forever shifting about the fire to stay out of it’s path.

Whilst perusing social media, adverts started coming up for the Solo Stove smokeless fire pit.

I’ve had my eye on one for a while and this Easter which tied in with my birthday I decided to treat myself and find out if the hype about being smokeless is for real. The advertising campaign is very slick and features happy people without smoke in their eyes sitting around the fire pit having a very nice time.

I read a good number of reviews and all sung the praises of this amazing fire pit, I bought the Ranger 2.0 which for a limited time came with a Mesa table top fire pit.

It arrived and I tested it on two separate occasions.

It was always going to smoke when you first light it and this is stated in the manual, they advise using hardwood and I used well seasoned Oak which is about as hard a wood as you can get, not massive logs either, split logs as recommended.

If like in the picture you have flames coming out the top of the fire pit it is indeed mostly smokeless although you still get invisible smoke in the eye quite a lot, being invisible makes it harder to dodge, as the fire burns down the visible smoke returns and as oak is a slow burning low flame wood there was a lot of smoke again fairly quickly, what I think you need is wood that has a high flame output and a lot of it as you’ll be going through it pretty fast.

Never did I see flames like this which is a picture from their campaign.

It does generate a decent amount of heat in all directions which is a great improvement over traditional fire pits and as the flames are mostly contained there is a lot less chance of setting you or something else on fire

You’ll also note from my first picture of the stove that it is sitting on bricks as it doesn’t come with a stand to keep it off the ground, that’s another £49.99 in addition to the £184.99 the fire pit cost, it’s my opinion for that kind of money the stand should be included or if you are going to throw in a free item, a stand for the fire pit instead of an additional tabletop fire pit would be more suitable.

Cleaning wise there is an ash pan that catches most of the ash but you’ll still need to turn the whole thing upside down to get rid of the rest of it.

If you are not satisfied there is a money back guarantee.

For now I’m going to hold on to it, maybe I have a bit more to learn about it so I’ll have a few more fires with different fuel and see how I get on, if it was down to Lolly she wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.

In summary the unit is very well built and with proper care should last a lifetime, however getting the fire to burn at it’s optimum rate for a smokeless experience takes a bit of practice and it’s price point isn’t attractive for the odd weekend aways use.

The Fiamma Privacy Room From EBay

On By MashleyIn awning, Fiamma, Self build camper van, Volksweald2 Comments

There have been a number of occasions when we’ve been away that it has chucked it down with rain. I used to have a Coleman event shelter that we could all shelter and cook under however attached to the van is an awning, if I added a privacy room to it then I wouldn’t have to run from the van to the event shelter, I could just step out the door into my rain free space.

Fiamma privacy rooms are not cheap, usually upwards of £1000 new, looking on eBay there were a good few available all for F45 awnings, ours is an F65s.

The difference between the two is the F45 awnings mount directly to the side wall of a motorhome whereas the F65 awnings are designed to mount on a roof using brackets, in our van these sit in the roof rail so the awning casing sits back from the side of the van.

I figured this wouldn’t matter too much and was delighted when I picked up a whole privacy room for £150, bargain !

It came with the fast clip 2.0 system which costs more than £150.00 on it’s own.

You have to buy a couple of brackets which fix to your awning casing which were abut £20.00 so the fast clip rafters have something to attach to on the awning, I put those on and offered them up, they fitted, result.

That was in 2022 and I’d not had a chance to put the side and front panels on until the weekend of Volksweald when the good old British weather promised to belt down with rain.

We arrived and I hastily put together the privacy room in about 30 mins before the downpour.

As you can see it’s not the greatest fit!, part of this was due to my hasty assembly.

For starters the front panel should only require the addition of a door panel to fit the length of the awning, it doesn’t, you have put an extra infill panel in which then makes it 10cms too long.

Moving inside you can see why this is designed for an awning that mounts directly to the side of a motorhome and not an awning that is set back from the side of the van.

Moving to the sliding door side, if you have the supporting side bar installed vertically not only does it leave a gap as above, it also fouls the sliding door so you have to put the pole at an angle which then leaves a gap at the top and the bottom.

Despite these gaps when the rain did come it actually kept most of our stuff dry but it’s clearly not a good fit overall.

Fiamma do make a privacy room specifically for a sprinter, from what I can see there is extra material on the side panels to fill that gap at the top and guess what, its over a grand and there aren’t any second hand ones, you don’t seem to be able to buy the side panels on their own either.

I’m still undecided as to whether I’m going to keep it or not, I’ll use it again at Bug Jam and hopefully have a bit more time to play about with it and make it fit, it’s going to rain when we get to BugJam so I’ll need to use it, then make a decision about it’s future when we get home.

Fiamma Awning Rafter

On By MashleyIn awning, Fiamma, Self build camper vanLeave a comment

If you have a wind out awning like we do you might find at night when you are trying to sleep it flaps about.

Not only can the noise keep you awake if you are a light sleeper but it can also have you worrying the whole thing is going to blow away when it probably isn’t.

Instead of supplying one as standard, as an optional extra you can buy a Fiamma awning rafter. If you have a Fiamma awning like our F65s then the hooks this thing attaches to are already installed.

Basically you wind out your awning, stretch the bar across, wind the awning back in to tension the awning fabric and then do up the rafter bar hand screw.

Once this is done the awning fabric flaps no more!

As I mentioned earlier, I think this should come as standard as it really makes a world of difference!

Butane Canister Gas Transfer Adaptor

On By MashleyIn Butane, camping, travelLeave a comment

If you are out and about and use gas canisters for your stove or kettle you’ll most likely have a bunch of half filled canisters kicking about.

Most of the time that’s exactly how the stay, a full one is preferential as you know you’re not going to run out but then you end up with another half full canister…

I can’t remember what I was looking at but a post about this came up.

This marvellous little device lets you transfer gas from one canister to another to make a full cylinder, amazing!

This particular one works for Lindal Valve canisters, the ones I have are Coleman C500’s.

All you do is look up the total canister weight, then transfer gas from one to another till it weighs the same as you when you first bought it.

The instructions are a bit more in depth than that and this device came with a clear guide of the process, I gave it a go and it worked like a charm 🙂

This particular one is made by Campingmoon and was about 18 quid from Amazon., there are others out there, I bought this one as it featured in the guide I watched on YouTube.

So happy days, no more half empty canisters for me and I can safely dispose of my used ones as they are 100% empty.

Le Beach

On By MashleyIn beach, Europe, france, holiday, travelLeave a comment

After a few days at Lac Du Parloup it was time to pack up and head south. Before we came out here I fitted a bike rack so we could bring out bikes and a trailer for Arielle, the idea being that when we got down near the beach we could use the bikes to venture out if we wanted to. Clearly I am not used to how long this additional item makes the van and I managed to snag my rear wheel on a tree.

I’m not going to lie, I did swear and was really annoyed at myself. It transpires that 26” MTB wheels are extremely difficult to come by so that was my bike and the trailer out of action for the rest of the trip.

The drive to where we were staying next, Dunes Et Soleil Marseillan plage took a couple of hours, the kids were well behaved even when we stopped at Lidl, the temperature was noticeably warmer.

Check in was easy and we’d initially booked for a few nights, within no time at all we were setup.

The beach here is lovely, entry to the sea is a very gentle slope and you can wander out a long way and still be only up to your waist which is great for the kids, finally they got an ice cream from the man who walks along the beach with an ice cream trolley, Stella remembered this from the last time we came to France and she was dead set on getting one!

We ended up extending our stay here for another 4 nights at a cost of 70 Euros which is great value. There is an onsite bar that does amazing burgers and Pizzas plus the main drag is well within walking distance as is the local fairground I suppose is the best way to describe it.

There were plenty of rides for the kids and at around 22.00 they’d spent all their tokens and we headed home to be greeted by our first storm.

I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been, the water wasn’t an issue but the wind whipped up pretty quickly, luckily Lolly saw what was going on and came out and held on to the awning while I put some straps in to stop it blowing away, that did the trick and next day everything’s was as it should be, still attached to the van!

We had a great time here and probably would have ended up staying till we went home, we had lovely neighbours from Germany, Belgium and the UK and I even found a working three way fridge someone had chucked which came in well handy for keeping my beer cold!

What we didn’t have was a pool. I don’t mind hanging at the beach but the pool is a nice thing to mix it up for the kids so after seven nights we packed up again and headed to Vias Plage.

Le Trip to The Lake

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, road trip, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

After a good few days in Argentat we set off to Lac De Parloup via a friend who we hadn’t seen for a few years. We mentioned we wouldn’t mind a stopover and he said he knew just the place for a picnic and a sleepover and that it was beautiful, he wasn’t wrong.

After meeting up we took a short drive to Najac and followed a dusty track and parked up next to the river.

It was absolutely stunning, we had a lovely picnic and there was a little beach with calm water so the girls could splash about, they loved it.

We were the only people there and had an undisturbed night, the Maxxair fan I put in the van kept us all cool as in the evening it was about 25 degrees.

The following morning I stripped off and a had a wash in the river, something I haven’t done in years! Shortly after 4 canoes came past and had they been a bit earlier they’d have had an unexpected sight!

Before we left we took the opportunity to take a family photo.

Lauren notice fairly quickly that Arielle doll she was holding looked like she’d popped out of her dress!

We hit the road again and in a few hours arrived in Lac De Parloup and setup our pitch.

The site is mainly French and Dutch, a mixture of static caravans and pitches for motor homes and tents. There is a huge play area for the kids which they love, particularly the bouncy castle.

Also there is a nice pool with a restaurant adjacent.

The following day we headed to the beach by the lake, it’s a man made beach and a bit rough but the kids enjoyed it, the temperature of the lake is bearable and as it’s proper hot a nice way to cool down.

Lind and Ian joined us for three nights and secured a pitch right next door which Stella is very happy about.

Day two was spent in the pool.

At the time of writing we are back at the van about to have lunch, we have one more night here and then we’re off to Cap D’Agde for the remainder of our holiday, the beach there is the best we’ve come across on our travels in France and I’m assured none of the sites we’re staying at are naked which is a huge relief for me!

Le Tourondel

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

Since arriving in France we’ve been staying at Lindi and Ian’s place in Le Tourondel. We haven’t got up to loads as it’s nice to just chill.

A few of Lindi and Ian’s friends have stopped by including the owner of a tractor which Arielle enjoyed.

We’ve gone for a few wanders, in the local woods and down to Argentat to check out the market and dip our feet in the river, it’s a really beautiful spot.

There is so much wildlife on your doorstep here, so far we have seen massive hornets who continually try to break into the house of an evening, an Owl, birds of prey, a dead snake, edible door mice, field mice and loads of lizards,

Today (Saturday) we visited Tour De Merle which is a settlement from about the 1300’s if memory serves me right, it looks like a castle but is in fact a load of individual dwellings.

Accidentally I found a really good spot to park the van, you could see it from literally every part of Tour De Merle

We also came across a live snake hanging about at the entrance, I chucked it over a hedge so it didn’t bite anyone.

The kids had a great time at the castle, especially when we saw some bats and one of them pooed on Lauren, Stella is sitting here in the room just before we saw the bats.

It’s a load of walking up and down and by the end of the day the kids were ruined!

Tomorrow is Ian’s birthday, we’re taking the kids to the pool, getting some supplies from Aldi and then doing something in the evening to mark Ian’s birthday. Monday we are on the road starting our journey down to Cap D’Agde and hopefully some proper sun.

Le start

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, road trip, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

After a couple of years of lock downs, travel bans and any travel made so laborious it would put you off the world has opened up again and for us that means a long overdue trip to France.

I’m driving the van and lolly and the kids leave a day later catching a flight from stanstead to Brive. As always we head to Lolly’s parents which is about 10 hours drive including stops for fuel which would be no fun for the kids, planes are much more fun.

Once I hit Calais my overnight was in a place called Chatres, there is a nice cathedral to visit however by the time I got there all I wanted was some food, a beer and to chill out. Our Aires book is well out of date and according to them there are no aires in Chatres. I have an app called park4night which lists places you can stop that’s added by its community members, it came up trumps, a nice little spot by a quiet road and free for the night, rue de launay for anyone interested.

Just round the corner is a car park with a supermarket, washing machines, car wash, gym and a pizza kiosk.

There was a slight bit of confusion with my order but ended up with two free beers, the pizza I ordered and 10 euros in cash, the universe had my back. It was pretty quiet and I got a decent nights sleep.

The following morning I was up at 6am to drive do Brive to pick up Lolly and the kids, it’s about a 4 hour drive so I left at 7am and with a few stops arrived at midday.

Once they arrive it’s an hour to Lauren’s parents place and our holiday together begins 🙂

Outwell Fallcrest Side Panel Set

On By MashleyIn Self build camper van, Sprinter Camper Van, WalesLeave a comment

Camping in the UK means at some point you will encounter rain, especially if you choose to holiday in Wales which we did for a weekend recently. Elsewhere in the UK sunshine was abundant but in Wales it chucked it down for pretty much the whole weekend, sun came out as we were leaving, standard.

The only plus point of this scenario was that I got to use the side panel set I bought. They are made specifically for wind out awnings, each side zips round the awning arms and then you tether the panel to the ground using supplied pegs and you end up with something like this.

The Fiamma equivalent is about £170.00 per side whereas this was £110.00 for both sides. They were easy to deploy and held the rain off admirably, the only downside is that they aren’t so good if one end of the awning is lower than the other to allow rain to run off and not pool in the awning fabric, you have to repel the lower end. There is also a bit of a gap between the panel and the van so a bit of rain does come through.

Once dry the pack down nicely into their own little bag along with the pegs.


They are a good alternative to the Fiamma sides and will do the job for the odd occasion I take the family camping and it rains which hopefully isn’t too often…

Fiamma 200 DJ bike rack

On By MashleyIn Self build camper van, Sprinter Camper VanLeave a comment

After initially buying the incorrect one second hand and finding the bits that would make it fit my van would cost almost as much as buying a new one and watching eBay for almost a year for a secondhand one i’ve bitten the bullet and bought one new.

Just Kampers had a deal on their eBay shop which meant I picked it up for £345.00 instead of £405.00, a considerable saving but still lumpy!

There are only a few options on the cycle rack front for Sprinters so the manufacturers can charge what they like, that being said the Fiamma ones are very well made, we had one on our T4 and was very pleased with it.

The rack arrived next day and there is a small amount of assembly before you try and get the rack attached to your van, instructions that come with it are very easy to follow. If you don’t want to scratch your rear door i would suggest two of you fit it, my door has a few bangs and marks on it so I wasn’t that worried and fitted it on my own.

Fiamma recommend you drill through your door and fit some anti theft bolts, I took the panelling off my rear door and forgot there was more panelling underneath!

You have to remove (if you have it) the lower grey panel as when you drill through that’s where the holes are!

All in all on my own the job took about 90 mins and now I can take either my bikes or electric scooters away without shoving them in the back of the van

I’ve left some bits off rack as where I live some people thing it’s OK to help themselves to your stuff, the joy of living in London!