Renovating older German Motorhomes - Mines an RMB

[Terry]

Terry, I really don't think there will be a problem with puddles around the skylights,the actual height of the skylights and a layer of non setting mastic puts them well clear of the 2 mm checker plate. When the inside is full up like a swimming pool I will admit I was wrong !!!!, I will get pictures later in the week showing the finished work, as the pictures posted so far are far from finished.

I was talking with Dave before I went to Palma an he explained to me that he bet, the RMB would have all the owners manuals the instruction manuals and all the receipts because the Germans were very particular concerning this. Guess what?

Dave was right, 2 lever arch files full !!!!

By taking out the old AC roof system, Oyster Sat dish, one leisure battery, 2 very heavy old solar panels, and a lot of other clutter in the van, as my van came with everything in it as well !!!! Some of it was great, like a brand new CADAC gas barbecue, all plumbed in to the on board gas system, however there was lots of old junk as well, I took out well over 100 kg of weight, the checker plate added probably in the region of 20 kg, so no problems there.

The RMB as Dave said is built on the 4600kg Mercedes Chassis, and according to my details is 3870 kg empty so a payload of just over 700kg, like the 660 Hymer

Hi Sheepskin if the van fills with water it's too late oh:you will need a snorkel I will watch for your thread in a couple of years
Terry

 

[Sheepskin]

OK, some more pictures as more work completed.

Somebody asked for a picture of the interior, i have not really done any work on the interior yet, as it is all original and in good condition, the only plan is to replace the carpet at some stage, but it is not a priority.

Looking Forward

Looking aft, the big cupboard on the right at the rear will swallow a house, it is absolutely huge

I arrived at Viable Logistics Workshop this morning to start work, and this brand new Lamborgini was parked outside, it is being exported to Malaysia, what a car, and what a sound !!!

The roof is now finished, just a tiny bit more mastic/sealant on Friday, a lot of work, but worth it, should be good for quite a few years now. You can see the new hatch i fitted, it is the one directly behind the one at the very front

If you buy a van from Germany make certain to check what non standard extras it has, the Germans do not hesitate to fit very expensive extras, many of which are really worth having. On my van i have Air Suspension about £1000, it is turbocharged about £2500. it has a quality reversing camera, Factory fitted 1500 Watt pure sine wave inverter, and this refillable gas bottle system which is very new and which works perfectly, i have all the adaptors as well including a British one !! as it is a German system !!! and i filled up at a Shell garage on the way home from Newhaven. The tap in the upper left of the picture is for the CADAC gas barebecue

The last few days, i have been working on the engine, which seems to be really good, no problems spotted at all, i also gave it all a big clean, you could eat your dinner of it now

Finally a huge clean, T Cut and wax for the exterior, the Quality of the RMB paintwork really shines through after a bit of elbow grease

 

[wivvy's dad]

Mmmmm.......very nice

:thumb:

 

[Snowbird]

A good job Ceri. Looks really well now, and I don't think they look dated at all. You know the old saying...Quality never goes out of fashion..:thumb:.
Do you think it was worth the trouble, and would you do it again ?.

 

[Theonlysue]

rmb

Is the lambo the toad?

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[joner8888]

I like threads as this, it`s interesting to see how others do their repairs .
Repairing my MH is great and in the new year i shall start doing some more improvements.
Think i prefer to fiddle with a older one, than spend a fortune on a younger model

 

[Sheepskin]

Hello Dave

I would definitely do it again, it has been a great project, i treated the pick up from Palma as a holiday, the work on the van totalling 80 hours has been great fun, BUT you need an indoor and preferably heated and dry workshop, i cannot even imagine doing this work outside, this time of year, maybe in the summer, but frankly it would still be a pain.

I like tinkering with things, my Father was very good at making us work, and sort out problems and think for ourselves. I remember having a big problem with my first car a Triumph Vitesse, my Father was practical and i thought he would help me. His response was i will lend you the money to buy a Haynes Workshop Manual ( notice Lend not Give) you can use my tools, he then explained that i was the one with the problem, not him, so fix the problem.

It was two burned out valves, i stripped the head, lapped in new valves, and sorted the problem, HE WAS 100% RIGHT, I LEARNED LOTS and GAINED MASSIVELY IN CONFIDENCE. 1 year later i built a Westfield Lotus +7 Kit Car, i was 19 !!!

I loved Funkyronsters story about having new springs fitted to his Hymer S700 in Turkey, turned up at a workshop, the owners young boys got the Hymer jacked up and springs removed, the father then made new springs, and the boys then fitted the new springs, job done.

We have lost all that too much molly codling, too much ridiculous health and safety and political correctness, we are becoming like sheep.

I now have a van that will easily last me the next 10 years and give good service, as well as being a talking point as it is different, i also face minimal depreciation.

Finally i would definitely recommend LED Lights, i have had mine on for 2 whole days now, without solar charging and the battery is still fine, remarkable.

 

[Terry]

Love the pics, :thumb: the van looks great :thumb: it will last you another 10 yrs easily :thumb:
Terry

 

[Snowbird]

You are so right regarding loss of skills and the will to tackle jobs here in the UK. Here are 3 photos of how its done in Morocco. Photos 1 and 2 are of my FFB having a towbar made and paintwork touched up, and photo 3 is of another FFB with a collapsed rear Alco axle. Here in the UK you would have to buy a complete new axle, the Moroccans have found a way of opening them up and repairing them. They took the axle off and repaired it in the street as thats were almost all the work is done. Cost around £40 materials and labour.

 

[Sheepskin]

Dave

My wife is Ukranian and owns a very nice flat in Odessa, she wanted Air Conditioning fitted, believe me you really need it there in the Summer 45 to 48 degrees.

So she bought the unit, and booked for it to be fitted, the 2 guys turned up with a large electric drill, and a large piece of rope and a bosuns chair THATS IT. One guy put the chair on, and connected up the rope, the other end of the rope went into the next door room and round a very large radiator, the other guy and me had this end of the rope.

He got out of the window, with the drill WE ARE 4 STORIES UP, and he drilled and rawplugged the fixing brackets, he then came back in and took the exterior AC unit and fitted it, we were still hanging onto the rope. He connected it all up, and it still works perfectly that was 10 years ago now.

Can you imagine Health and Safety here? they would be having a fit, we would need stage scaffolding to do that.

Same in Turkey, if you have got a problem, then think it through and SORT IT OUT. amazing what they can do, with the most basic of tools. When they build a Gulet yacht, a pile of rough wood is delivered, they only have hand tools, working outside in the sun, and a few months later after a lot of work they produce what can only be described as a work of art, a beautiful hand made yacht.

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[15edward]

It hasnt bothered us - we only go away the 2 of us- our RMB layout is like yours, Sheepskin, but I've never worked out how the other 2 berth is actually made up from the table - should it be obvious?!!! quick description?
We have just had to reseal one of the rooflights - we'll need to get to do the others when the weathers better or look to rent some space!
We put some chequerplate down when we had some delamination seems a good idea to finish the job when we reseal
Many thanks for this post- really interesting

 

[Sheepskin]

15Edward

your post was like a call from the other side YOU ARE NOT ALONE !!! can you post some pics of your RMB, i would love to see pics of the interior/exterior of your RMB.

As regards the lower 2 berth, i have not set it up yet, but the German guy did, you lower the table so that it is the same height as the surrounding bases, then pull the cushions out over the now collapsed table, the single berth on the other side also pulls out to make it larger.

i found with the de lamination that the fibreglass was simply lifting from the foam below, when i cut out the AC Unit and fitted the new hatch you could quite clearly see that this was the problem.

By putting the checker plate down, all you are effectively doing is squeezing the fiberglass back down onto the closed cell foam, you are remaking the sandwich, it actually wants to go back down, by using Sikaflex 512 on the checker plate, you are creating a very strong sandwich, when you walk around on my roof now, it is like walking on the pavement, no movement at all, it feels very strong. Also by putting the sikaflex in concentric circles on the checker plate, you stop any ingress of water under the checker plate, it would not really matter that much as you still have the original fiberglass roof, but better to keep it all dry under the checker plate. When i cut the hole for the hatch it was bone dry under the already fitted checker plate.

Dave was saying that fitted into the closed cell foam is also an aluminum frame. Very strong construction.

On Mobile.De you often see vcans advertised with hail damage, will have to be football size hail to damage my roof now !!!!

 

[Snowbird]

You are right re the second/third bed Ceri. My FFB had a similar layout. You pull a handle or lift a handle at the end of the table and it drops down to the size of a coffee table. This is then level with the couch base and the couch base has a wooden backing which gives support. The couch back then drops down to form the double bed base.
The opposing couch base pulls out on a runner under the couch back to give a single width bed on the other side.

 

[15edward]

Thats what I mean by obvious!! But I cant get the table lowered to that height- only lower. I think it must be a non original table. And the other single side has had the support removed - you can see where. Easy to replace should we wish but the double has potentially more use. When I take pics to post I'll put a couple of the table and you can say if it looks like yours. We'll meet up one of these days and compare RMB notes!!

 

[Sheepskin]

Phew, Dave, i was right !!! i was not very certain about that, how the double bed was made up !!!!. I used the single bed on the way back from Spain, and it was very good, really comfortable.

Dave, i am assuming that you have the wind down blinds for the windscreen, do you use silver screens on the windscreen for thermal insulation? also how do you make certain that the blind stays UP, i had a frightening situation in France, i started driving and the blind started to come down,i was able to stop in time, but i cannot see how it latches up to stop this happening again. Also in cold weather that windsreen has got to be the weak spot as regards insulation in the van, as it is single skin, so i was wondering about getting a thermal blind made up for this.

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[Snowbird]

Phew, Dave, i was right !!! i was not very certain about that, how the double bed was made up !!!!. I used the single bed on the way back from Spain, and it was very good, really comfortable.

Dave, i am assuming that you have the wind down blinds for the windscreen, do you use silver screens on the windscreen for thermal insulation? also how do you make certain that the blind stays UP, i had a frightening situation in France, i started driving and the blind started to come down,i was able to stop in time, but i cannot see how it latches up to stop this happening again. Also in cold weather that windsreen has got to be the weak spot as regards insulation in the van, as it is single skin, so i was wondering about getting a thermal blind made up for this.

The windown windscreen blind is thermal so it stops heat coming in and heat going out. If you look on the passenger side at the trough that it runs up and down in, there is a small hole about 6 inches from the top. This allows you to put a small peg in it so you can wind the blind down and use it as a sunshade or alternatively to stop it sliding down on its own. I have 2 small clips that the winder fits into so it cant come down. The cab side windows are double glazed so no heat loss there.

 

[Sheepskin]

Dave

You are the master of RMB motorhomes, i did not spot the holes 6 inches down, i will definitely get something to put in there. I think the grips for the handle are not strong enough to potentially stop the handle rotating and therefore coming down.

Interesting that the windcreen wind down blind is thermal, typical RMB think of everything. Where the toilet tank waste exits, is the wooden box, i had to tighten the screws here on the access flap, and i noticed that not only is there full insulation all the way down to the exit point on this waste pipe, and then there is also a blown air duct going into this fully insulated box !!! fantastic engineering.

 

[Billy23]

Sheepskin, I havnt got a RMB motorhome but may I thank you for putting a VERY interesting and well put together post, with pictures. Well done!

Great reading:thumb:

 

[jhorsf]

Very interesting post and I can see why you used a TANK workshop looking at your roof

 

[mitzimad]

Dave

My wife is Ukranian and owns a very nice flat in Odessa, she wanted Air Conditioning fitted, believe me you really need it there in the Summer 45 to 48 degrees.

So she bought the unit, and booked for it to be fitted, the 2 guys turned up with a large electric drill, and a large piece of rope and a bosuns chair THATS IT. One guy put the chair on, and connected up the rope, the other end of the rope went into the next door room and round a very large radiator, the other guy and me had this end of the rope.

He got out of the window, with the drill WE ARE 4 STORIES UP, and he drilled and rawplugged the fixing brackets, he then came back in and took the exterior AC unit and fitted it, we were still hanging onto the rope. He connected it all up, and it still works perfectly that was 10 years ago now.

Can you imagine Health and Safety here? they would be having a fit, we would need stage scaffolding to do that.

Same in Turkey, if you have got a problem, then think it through and SORT IT OUT. amazing what they can do, with the most basic of tools. When they build a Gulet yacht, a pile of rough wood is delivered, they only have hand tools, working outside in the sun, and a few months later after a lot of work they produce what can only be described as a work of art, a beautiful hand made yacht.

as an apprentice plumber here in the seventies we were still using a bosuns chair to do work all around the west end mostly in the light wells of office blocks including rigging them up our selves health and safety and officaldom has ruined it all here now most of the skills i learnt are now redundent tieing knots using rollers and lever to shift large items rigging blocks and tackles
but that is progress we have drasticly cut the number of deaths in construction

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[Sheepskin]

Billy

Thanks Very much for the kind words. My belief is that on these forums there is so much superb advice, I have benefited massively from this advice. Whenever you have a problem the forums allways have the answer.

So if I can give anything back that may help someone, I am more than happy to do this.

Talking about Tanks, I went to Stalingrad on the motorbike a few years ago,what a trip, I am just about recovering from the endless vodka nights.

Anyway they have a building in Stalingrad called Pavlovs house which is left exactly as the battle ended, it is no more than 100 metres from the Volga,that is how close the Germans came to pushing the Russians back into the river and winning the battle of Stalingrad. Sgt Pavlov and his few men held out until reinforcements arrived, hence Pavlovs House. He won the Hero Of The Soviet Union for that like our VIctoria Cross. He won another Hero of the soviet Union at the Kursk tank battle.

Then in the final push into Berlin Marshal Zhukov was doing the rounds and came across an incredibly smashed and beat up T34 tank, it was Pavlovs tank, The Marshall asked Pavlov if the tank was ok, he replied with a hammer in his hand yes Marshall definetly another battle left in the old girl.

When they launched the final attack into Berlin they had to cross an open area, Zhukov was watching and there going into battle in clouds of black diesel smoke was Pavlovs old tank. Stalin said that the first men to put the Soviet flag up on the Reichstag would be made a hero of the soviet union. It was Pavlov and his other tank men who got there first and were given the Hero Of The Soviet Union, Pavlovs third of the war!!!! After the war he was asked to talk about the war to the children as a great hero, then one day he went to a monastery checked in, and talked about the war no more.

The reason I mention this story, is that it is a great story and shows true human spirit that he got his old tank from Stalingrad all the way to Berlin through many battles. Just like our old RMB,s we keep them going, and mine is certainly like a tank now.

 

[BryanM]

Excellent article and very useful.

Over the holidays I'll try and put down some information on the improvements I have made to the 1987 Hymer 644 I bought last Easter including the dreaded full respray!

I totally agree though. Old German motorhomes take a bit of beating.

 

[Sheepskin]

Bryanm

Please add your story and any pics, the more the merrier. So if anyone else has a story concerning older German Motorhomes and work carried out, please add it to this thread

 

[Sheepskin]

I took the RMB out of storage on 21st December so she has been standing outside for the last 2 weeks, in which time it has rained quite a lot, I am pleased to report that she is as dry as a bone now, no leaks anywhere, and it has certainly rained enough !!!!!

One question, I have a new 100w solar panel fitted, which routes through a new MPPT controller, I am noticing that I am only getting 10 to 15w input and 0.6 to 1.1 amp output to the battery, the battery was on just over 12v when I took it out of storage it is a brand new 90ah varta LPD90 leisure battery, according to the instructions with the MPPT controller it states that it will keep charging up to 13.8 volts, however after being outside for 2 weeks I am still seeing just over 12v.

Is this because the panel is providing virtually no charge because it has been so dull? Or any other reason?

Put the van in for it's MOT and it sailed through first time with no advisories, I was chuffed.

If anybody has any stories and pics regarding work done on older German vans please add to this thread

 

[enery8]

Hi Ceri, Good news about the MOT. I can understand why you are chuffed.
I looked at the photos and wondered where you make up your bed. Do you use the drop down bed over the front seats? If so how high is it from floor level? Sue is worried she would not be able to get in and out. Or maybe she is worried I might not be able to get in and out

Bill

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[Philcott]

Over the holidays I'll try and put down some information on the improvements I have made to the 1987 Hymer 644 I bought last Easter including the dreaded full respray!

I totally agree though. Old German motorhomes take a bit of beating.

Would be interested in the re-spray bit - my FFB could do with one, it is so stained!

So far we found that the pump leaked - now fixed and dry as a bone, (there were so many bits of pipe with attachments, that it was ridiculous, so put in a new piece of piping and tightened all the bits up properly) but with the water under pressure, the water tap in the sink leaked - water all over the drawer and cupboard underneath it! The little diddy plastic bits that push fit into the tap are u.s., so have ordered a new tap - just hope that the new bits fit together ok.

Can't find a switch to isolate the vehicle battery from the habitation area which is why the battery keeps on going flat. Nothing at all seems to be running of the two leisure batteries. She's going into an auto electrician next weekend to have a split relay charger (I think that was what the chap said it was called) so that the vehicle battery gets a charge via the C-tek charger. Hopefully he will fit a switch so that we don't have flat battery problems any more!

Loving this thread - gives me hope that I can get 'Hexie' fixed up like she should be!!

 

[Sheepskin]

The layout is actually quite like my fathers Hymer B544 you have the pull down double bed, then the table makes up another double bed. Then opposite this you have the single bed.

We use the double in the cab it is huge, and folds down quite low, you have to fold the cab seats down for it to fully pull down.

So I actually have identical sleeping arrangements to the hymer b544 but I have the big rear garage and also lots of storage above this. As the kitchen unit is down the side you have a big shower/toilet opposite.

It is actually a damn good layout

 

[stcyr]

Hi Ceri, Good news about the MOT. I can understand why you are chuffed.
I looked at the photos and wondered where you make up your bed. Do you use the drop down bed over the front seats? If so how high is it from floor level? Sue is worried she would not be able to get in and out. Or maybe she is worried I might not be able to get in and out

Bill

Our old Globetrotter (Dethleffs) is the same interior - Caroline memsahib is 5' and has no trouble getting in or out of the pulldown bed, and we don't use a ladder either.

 

[enery8]

Ceri and Stcyr, Thank you for the info. I think we can now consider Hymer B class and others without the rear bed area.

 

[Sheepskin]

The pull down bed in the RMB comes down quite low, I don't think they even give you a ladder as it is just not neccasary, I certainly have not got any ladder.

It is the quality of these older German motorhomes that stands out, as Snowbird said if you look after and fix problems as and when they occur especially any structural problems such as leaks, they should go on forever, or close to it !!!

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