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camper van tale
Topic Started: Dec 13 2015, 07:33 PM (3,100 Views)
johnr
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ok, quick update on this van. i got my new tyres fitted last week, booked online using blackcircles.com and they were all right, booked and paid online, selected a garage near me, then drove down when my appointment was due, they changed the tyres and i came home. easy and reasonably cheap, i didnt get my hands dirty, and they got rid of the old ones. interestingly, whilst all the old tyres were still legal, they all had some cracking on the treads and the mot man told me they were ok, but wouldnt last too much longer, so i got a fresh set, but whilst swapping them, i had a look at the date stamps on the old tyres, some were reasonably recent, the newest being a 2009 year stamp, then we found a 2003, a 2000 and a 1999. which we thought would be the oldest, it being a 16 year old tyre. that was until we took the last tyre off to see a date stamp of week 26 1989, making it not only 27 years old, which is positively prehistoricfor a tyre, but also, oddly, it was 4 years older than the van itself which is a 1993 model!! scary stuff!!
anyhow, to add expense on top of expense, the bloody thing didnt want to start after the tyres were fitted, not the first time its done this. i figure the battery must be on its last legs as its an indeterminable age, so i ordered a fresh one. the old battery was a 140ah with only 730 cranking amps of power, the new one was smaller at only 100ah but it has 900 cranking amps. i think the old one is a leisure battery that someone in the past has pressed into use as a van battery. whilst i had it off, i removed the cover over the wiper motor and unplugged all the electrical connections one by one, sprayed them with contact cleaner and then cleaned them, sprayed them with acf 50 and plugged them back in. what a difference it made. ok, the new battery saw to the starting problem, but the old problem of the cab heater fan running slowly and the lights slightly dimming when the fan was turned on have now both gone. the connections were pretty grubby, so now im going to do the other connections behind the fuse box, just so i know that theyre all clean and making good contacts.
the throttle peddle is still pretty awful though, really jerky and a terrible action, requiring a lot of pressure to push and the movement is jerky. the cable moves freely enough as does the linkage under the floor. the problem seems to be with the actual throttle pedal assembly itself, i think it needs a new one as age seems to have taken its toll on the current one.
but, its starting better, and seems to run a little sweeter although that could be my imagination. it does however drive quieter, im assuming the pliability of the new tyres makes less road noise as it rolls along.
lets see whats going to go wrong next!!
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johnr
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serves me right , i spoke too soon, bloody alternator has died now, 12.8v with the engine off, 12.9v with it running, just enough to put out the bulb on the dash! talk about it never rains but it pours!
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johnr
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phew!! quick edit. it wasnt the alternator. the power lead from the alternator to the starter is not transmitting the power to the starter and thus the battery. so im getting just a tenth of a volt increase between engine off and engine on, enough to put the light out but not enough to charge the battery properly. so, because its so tricky to get at the starter motor, particularly on a freezing february sunday afternoon, so i left it in situ and added a new lead from the alternator to the battery pos terminal. its obviously worked because as soon as i crack the engine up the fan belt starts squeeling, a quick adjust quietens it down, check with the multimeter and we are now getting a steady 14v at the battery, another small step forwards, but most of the day wasted finding it, and i was perilously close to buying a new alternator! when i do the cambelt in the summer (longer evenings and the possibility that it might not be raining and sleeting) i am going to change the bloody awful front light and radiator grille panel (previous owner has 'customised' it by cutting the grille out and putting a steel mesh in it, it looks bloody awful!) so i will drain the coolant, whip out the rad, and with better access, i will change the offending lead, but for now my heath robinson version will suffice.
tomorrows task is to wire in the connection for the rear view camera, dash cam and sat nav, as well as connect a small solar panel to the dash to charge the battery.
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johnr
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latest update, went away in the camper the other week, its got a few issues, but went largely well. in a right result, i managed to score a new bonnet for it. the previous owner for reasons known only to him, fabricated an air scoop for the bonnet, obviously he had been watching too many american car customising shows, its truly horrible, and to make matters worse has been moulded using what feels like 20 kilos of body filler. its the heaviest bonnet ive ever felt, and i once had a land rover with its spare wheel on there! to compliment this, he also cut a hole in the front grille and added a mesh cover to it. the whole thing looks like it was done with a claw hammer and a rasp file. truly revolting. anyhow, i looked on ebay and spotted a brand new bonnet for the van, brand spanking new wrapped in cardboard. and it cost me 35 quid! stunning deal. i also got a new front panel too, albeit in yellow. . im going to hold off fitting them until i do the cambelt in the spring, that way i make the belt swap easier for myself and get to fit the goodies when im done.
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Attachments: camper_front.jpg (31.05 KB)
Edited by johnr, Mar 13 2016, 09:56 PM.
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johnr
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ok, this is the old front of the camper i bought, at a guess id say there is 20lbs of filler in the bonnet air scoop, its truly hiddeous and the filler has all cracked from the stresses caused by both slamming the bonnet but also the support struts from underneath that have been removed to fit it, as for the front panel, well, its equally as bad. but i scored a brand new still in its box bonnet for 40 quid and a rust and damage free front panel for another 25
and this is how it looks now. much neater and as a bonus the bloody heater fan works properly again. i can only assume that the direct airflow through the stupid scoop (which only fed the heater, not the engine) was stalling the fans rotation, cos it now blows up a storm! win-win!
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Attachments: camper_front.jpg (31.05 KB)
Attachments: 13417674_10153793252103471_5322362765132276512_n.jpg (52.92 KB)
Edited by johnr, Jul 5 2016, 02:24 AM.
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Spooky_b329
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Enjoying the updates John :)

Alternator should really be putting out 14.3 or 14.4v, at least when the engine is held at a fast idle. Worth checking the earth strap connections from battery to engine block, or use a jump lead to create a temporary earth. Doesn't sound much but that extra 0.4v will make quite a difference in how quickly the battery charges, and its maximum capacity. More important on a camper, especially if the alternator charges your leisure battery.

Your new positive cable needs to be fairly beefy, alternator is probably putting out max 100amps or so, you don't want it overheating and catching fire!
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johnr
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new positive to alternator is bigger than the existing one so no probs there, as for the 14v, it may well be that its 14v+ but it was certainly putting a much bigger charge into the battery, so i wasnt too concerned.
next jobs, ive two leather bucket style seats from an mr2 toyota that im going to fit to the seat swivels, theyre better seats than stock and as theyre from a sporty little car, theyve a bit better support in a big wallowy camper van. after that, ive some stuff to swap round in the back, bed wants altering to raise it up and im removing the electic powered flushing chemical loo and replacing it with an identical toilet thats non electric manual flush, (another nod towards practicality) finally theres a couple of jobs that will need doing before the autumn, one is to fix the terrible throttle operation, and the other is to fit a small motorcycle carrier onto the towbar frame so that when we go off into the sticks, we dont need to drag the whole setup back out of the woods to go off to town shopping or down to the beach. and after that, its bodywork and rust, which im not looking forwards to one little bit.
Spooky_b329
Jul 6 2016, 05:12 AM
Enjoying the updates John :)

Alternator should really be putting out 14.3 or 14.4v, at least when the engine is held at a fast idle. Worth checking the earth strap connections from battery to engine block, or use a jump lead to create a temporary earth. Doesn't sound much but that extra 0.4v will make quite a difference in how quickly the battery charges, and its maximum capacity. More important on a camper, especially if the alternator charges your leisure battery.

Your new positive cable needs to be fairly beefy, alternator is probably putting out max 100amps or so, you don't want it overheating and catching fire!
another couple of jobs ive remembered, im going to fit a cambelt to it too, so when ive got the front off, i will replace the earths and the feeds to the alternator via the starter motor pole. and ive just recieved a new set of stalk switches, (new old stock no less) which im going to fit to hopefully sort out the strange issues i have with the indicators and wipers detailed in my other thread.
im going to put all the updates for this van into this thread from now on so as to keep it all in the one place.
Edited by johnr, Jul 6 2016, 09:40 PM.
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johnr
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swapped the seats in my camper today, out came the awful vinyl seats that were threeadbare and pretty uncomfortable, and in went a pair of leather bucket style seats from a toyota mr2, they took some fitting to make them work properly on the sliders, but now theyre in theyre comfy, they have head rests, and you dont slide off the side in a corner, which is much better cos being a big old van, its a bit wallowy in bends, so anything that plants you in your seat is better. next job is to swap the stalk switches on the steering column and then change the strange electrical flushing toilet.
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johnr
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first one in place, theyre so much bigger than the old ones and thus much more comfy.
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johnr
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ok, this has moved on a little since the last post. we had a fortnight in cornwall pretty much wilding it every night, and its been fine, with a few alterations required. ok, a lot of alterations required!
ok, first off, the bed. the old bed was at the back of the van, it was the dining area in the day and then the table turned into the bed at night. now there were a couple of problems with this. mainly because almost all of it was crap. the bed was flimsy and the panels didnt fit tightly together, meaning that it often just collapsed for no reason at all secondly it was over the water heater so there obviously is an issue with heat rising but also with the fact that there is a gas fired heater containing about 3 gallons of water at 80 degrees just under our heads. finally at the foot of the bed (drivers side) externally is a hatch that leads to an underbed stowage area for keeping bits and pieces in, but the compartment was actually quite low and the height of the hatch was actually taller than the bed base, meaning that when you opened the hatch, the top 6 inches of the opening were covered with a panel that was essentially the end of the bed. added into this is the discomfort of a bed made from cushions slotted together. so, i tore the lot out (all made from nailed together 2x1 and 2x2 timber, and i replaced it all with a sturdy frame built of 3x2 timbers supported on 12 3x2 legs and split into 3 sections each of which was then divided in 2 with more 3x2. then i trimmed all 6 segments with 1/2 inch square beading to support 6 panels to infill the frame. on top of this i them stapled twin layered foil backed bubble wrapped material. over the whole top of the frame i paneled it in 1/2 inch facing plywood. it was absolutely solid, like a timber framed building! no movement at all. then, underneath i lined out the section with the gas heater in it, sealed tight and vented through the floor but seperate from the rest of the area.
then i paneled the rest of the underbed area so that its accessed only from the hatch on the side of the van, this leaves us with a bed thats over 2 feet high above the floor, a huge storage area under it and once cleaned up, a flat bed for the new memory foam mattress i ordered. so at least we had a solid comfy bed to sleep in, although we had little else working.
frame built up. all the wall decorations will be going when ive sorted everything else and the woodwork will be getting a coat of paint when its completed.
as you can see, the mrs always goes over the top with the soft furnishings....
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Attachments: 1_van.jpg (65.68 KB)
Attachments: van2.jpg (81.87 KB)
Attachments: van3.jpg (87.13 KB)
Attachments: van4.jpg (72.86 KB)
Attachments: van5.jpg (52.82 KB)
Attachments: van6.jpg (75.03 KB)
Edited by johnr, Sep 25 2016, 08:10 PM.
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autocruise
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Hi. I've enjoyed reading about your adventures!

LG.
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johnr
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thanks. ive decided to do some other mods in the winter, ive a new cooker with a small oven, an instantanious water heater and im going to move the sink and fridge all into one single run of units, this should leave us a load more space in the van for seating and a table. ive also got new door handles and a lockset so they all open with a single key.
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johnr
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ok, quick update. ive still got the camper, just failed its mot on a number of small things, bulbs, non functioning fog lights and some welding, both sills under the steps have rotted away and theres some corrosion near the offside upper shock mount. sent today frustratingly chasing wiring problems, fog lights arent working, theres no power at the lights, but power at the switch in the cab, looks like its going to be somewhere in the rats nest behind the dash.
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