Hello all, this continues my earlier thread started some months ago which got deleted by mods due to me mentioning the B word…
In October we (myself and my French wife Beatrice) completed the sale of our UK property and set out in our 20yr old B544 to find a project in France. Having been into campers since my early 20s (some near 30 years ago) I/we want to buy a campsite to develop.
In earlier threads I mentioned how I spent a couple of months prepping the old bus to be completely self sufficient - it had to get through a continental winter with us full timing. We’d be in France, so overnighting would be super easy in their system of aires-de-camping car, however, often there’d be no hook up options and water points would be off to protect from frost damage. To preserve funds, campsites would be avoided.
Hence the two 18kg Gaslow LPG tanks, 200Ah of lithium and 600W solar (covering pretty much every spare square foot of the roof)
and 25/50A B2B to keep the batteries nicely charged. Systems to collect rainwater and even purify river water were all plumbed in. Adamant that she needed a full oven and microwave (installing a microwave in there is an excellent way to repurpose the big old CRT TV cabinet ), and to be able to run hairdryer and hair straighteners, a high end 2kW inverter was also integrated into all the existing electrics, with me in the process discovering that there is definitely such things as ‘low end’ invertors. When the 1st so-called 2kw rated inverter (ebay, c£120) failed under just 1300W of microwave load. I took it apart to find it had an internal, hard soldered, 80A fuse. Here was something advertised as a 2kW (4KW peak!), that was guaranteed to fail if run with more than a 1kW load. I then spent twice a much on something of the same nominal capacity but somehow twice the size.
Already running out of load capacity with safari tent, roof AC (for summer) and sat dish, when I decided I needed an on board alternative mode of transport other than the Mrs’s old push bike (a 110kg 250cc motorbike, itself necessitating a 25kg chassis carrier for my elderly non-garage equipped camper) - I had to uprate. Going to the max 3700kg kept us (just about) the right side of UK law. Some Dunlop air assistance on the Alko torsion bar took care of the ‘soggy bottom’, and uprated springs and new dampers at the front took care of the ‘soggy front’ (?)
Loads of stuff goes wrong with old campers - since prepping it and doing a trial run in summer, in addition to routine servicing, I have sorted all manner of stuff
- fridge sparking constantly (serviced, burner cleaned, water ingress (from hob drain) issue resolved
- drop down bed gas struts failed (replaced easily and cheaply enough with pattern 1.7kN units).
- water pump failed (again replaced easy enough. I now carry a spare pump as it is really inconvenient to have no water at all)
- water pump non return valve then failed (fixed with a second in line non return valve)
- boiler purge valve failed (again easy enough replacement)
with all these watery things fixed, for the first time I had pressure remaining in all taps at any time (instead of gurgles and spluttering when opening if left for more than 10min..). This then caused the shower tap to fail internally (drip drip heard in the cubicle at night) so I replaced that after 3 attempts to fix it.
Finally, some element of the various failed valves must have made its way into a pipe as all cold water pressure was lost and cold tap (kitchen) output reduced to a trickle. Fixed by disconnecting all cold pipes from boiler, routing the pipes temporarily outside and connecting mains pressure water direct to the kitchen tap to back flush. It worked, though I never found the offending component.
- bathroom roof vent failed. Just age and fatigue. replaced with something from ebay which required me to spend a day chopping it to pieces to make it fit…
- kitchen turbo vent failed - in addition to the usual banging when retracting, bearings then went on motor producing terrible noises. After some oiling I gave up and bought something cheap on ebay (I by now should have known better). what garbage, a remote control thing which lasted a month before failing.
- roof AC failed on the summer - just age, it was same age as the camper. A Telair Silent whose manufacturer was obviously having a joke with the name..Replaced with a Truma Aventa compact (so I could run it off the solar panels, at least in theory ) - this then failed within a month but Truma sent a new sensor under warranty which I fitted myself, after pretending to be a service agent to get them to send it in the first place…..
- light bar electrics all failed when someone in UK bashed into it (and helpfully drove off) - I just made up a new bar
- ‘mood lighting’ as demanded by the mrs if she were to spend loads of time in there. I experimented with all sorts of lights - fitting and then removing all sorts of LED as the light colour was just nasty. I eventually just fitted halogens back in the light units, and recessed LED strip lights in various places for a subtle lighting option, one of which is on the front of the drop down bed, making it look from the front like one of those crazy over illuminated trucks when on!
Guess what we found to be the best lighting solution? - A normal 240V bedside table lamp with an LED bulb. Just runs off the invertor and produces nice lighting.
- then the worst job of all, noticing sometimes awful smells when driving if ‘someone’ had used the loo and it hadnt been emptied, and noticing effluent collecting in the cassette recess, I diagnosed (eventually ) a leaky cassette seal. It was limescale, same thing as knackers kettles and shower heads, causing it to fail to fully seal when closed, then driving would allow splashes to make it outside the tank and into the van - an unpleasant job, but very simply fixed by removing the silicone seal in the tank and thoroughly cleaning it with a vinegar solution.
In the next post I will outline how the first 2 months went for us mooching around darkest France, not a single night on site or on hook up, if anyone interested
Happy new year - Graham and Beatrice
In October we (myself and my French wife Beatrice) completed the sale of our UK property and set out in our 20yr old B544 to find a project in France. Having been into campers since my early 20s (some near 30 years ago) I/we want to buy a campsite to develop.
In earlier threads I mentioned how I spent a couple of months prepping the old bus to be completely self sufficient - it had to get through a continental winter with us full timing. We’d be in France, so overnighting would be super easy in their system of aires-de-camping car, however, often there’d be no hook up options and water points would be off to protect from frost damage. To preserve funds, campsites would be avoided.
Hence the two 18kg Gaslow LPG tanks, 200Ah of lithium and 600W solar (covering pretty much every spare square foot of the roof)
and 25/50A B2B to keep the batteries nicely charged. Systems to collect rainwater and even purify river water were all plumbed in. Adamant that she needed a full oven and microwave (installing a microwave in there is an excellent way to repurpose the big old CRT TV cabinet ), and to be able to run hairdryer and hair straighteners, a high end 2kW inverter was also integrated into all the existing electrics, with me in the process discovering that there is definitely such things as ‘low end’ invertors. When the 1st so-called 2kw rated inverter (ebay, c£120) failed under just 1300W of microwave load. I took it apart to find it had an internal, hard soldered, 80A fuse. Here was something advertised as a 2kW (4KW peak!), that was guaranteed to fail if run with more than a 1kW load. I then spent twice a much on something of the same nominal capacity but somehow twice the size.Already running out of load capacity with safari tent, roof AC (for summer) and sat dish, when I decided I needed an on board alternative mode of transport other than the Mrs’s old push bike (a 110kg 250cc motorbike, itself necessitating a 25kg chassis carrier for my elderly non-garage equipped camper
) - I had to uprate. Going to the max 3700kg kept us (just about) the right side of UK law. Some Dunlop air assistance on the Alko torsion bar took care of the ‘soggy bottom’, and uprated springs and new dampers at the front took care of the ‘soggy front’ (?)Loads of stuff goes wrong with old campers - since prepping it and doing a trial run in summer, in addition to routine servicing, I have sorted all manner of stuff
- fridge sparking constantly (serviced, burner cleaned, water ingress (from hob drain) issue resolved
- drop down bed gas struts failed (replaced easily and cheaply enough with pattern 1.7kN units).
- water pump failed (again replaced easy enough. I now carry a spare pump as it is really inconvenient to have no water at all)
- water pump non return valve then failed (fixed with a second in line non return valve)
- boiler purge valve failed (again easy enough replacement)
with all these watery things fixed, for the first time I had pressure remaining in all taps at any time (instead of gurgles and spluttering when opening if left for more than 10min..). This then caused the shower tap to fail internally (drip drip heard in the cubicle at night) so I replaced that after 3 attempts to fix it.
Finally, some element of the various failed valves must have made its way into a pipe as all cold water pressure was lost and cold tap (kitchen) output reduced to a trickle. Fixed by disconnecting all cold pipes from boiler, routing the pipes temporarily outside and connecting mains pressure water direct to the kitchen tap to back flush. It worked, though I never found the offending component.
- bathroom roof vent failed. Just age and fatigue. replaced with something from ebay which required me to spend a day chopping it to pieces to make it fit…
- kitchen turbo vent failed - in addition to the usual banging when retracting, bearings then went on motor producing terrible noises. After some oiling I gave up and bought something cheap on ebay (I by now should have known better). what garbage, a remote control thing which lasted a month before failing.
- roof AC failed on the summer - just age, it was same age as the camper. A Telair Silent whose manufacturer was obviously having a joke with the name..Replaced with a Truma Aventa compact (so I could run it off the solar panels, at least in theory
) - this then failed within a month but Truma sent a new sensor under warranty which I fitted myself, after pretending to be a service agent to get them to send it in the first place…..- light bar electrics all failed when someone in UK bashed into it (and helpfully drove off) - I just made up a new bar
- ‘mood lighting’ as demanded by the mrs if she were to spend loads of time in there. I experimented with all sorts of lights - fitting and then removing all sorts of LED as the light colour was just nasty. I eventually just fitted halogens back in the light units, and recessed LED strip lights in various places for a subtle lighting option, one of which is on the front of the drop down bed, making it look from the front like one of those crazy over illuminated trucks when on!
Guess what we found to be the best lighting solution? - A normal 240V bedside table lamp with an LED bulb. Just runs off the invertor and produces nice lighting.
- then the worst job of all, noticing sometimes awful smells when driving if ‘someone’ had used the loo and it hadnt been emptied, and noticing effluent collecting in the cassette recess, I diagnosed (eventually
) a leaky cassette seal. It was limescale, same thing as knackers kettles and shower heads, causing it to fail to fully seal when closed, then driving would allow splashes to make it outside the tank and into the van - an unpleasant job, but very simply fixed by removing the silicone seal in the tank and thoroughly cleaning it with a vinegar solution.In the next post I will outline how the first 2 months went for us mooching around darkest France, not a single night on site or on hook up, if anyone interested
Happy new year - Graham and Beatrice
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