What have you fixed on your motorhome this week?

[LostInSpace]

Been experimenting with a home made engine battery maintenace device - results encouraging so far.

Cost? - a couple of quid. - if I could easily buy the bits in ones, not a pack of ten from Amazon.

 

[PP Bear]

Fitted a new engine battery and went to fit the two new leisure batteries and noticed the live + terminal cable on one of them was a bit suspect at the clamp, so removed, brought back and repaired and went to replace it at the storage yard, only to find I couldn’t get in the van as I had the wrong keys. Went home and as it was such a gorgeous day, cleaned and blacked the convertible roof, just needs waterproofing now.

I’ll go tomorrow morning to fit the terminal, only this time with the right key

 

[Grummyb]

Sorted out split charging issue so now with the engine running and the fridge on 12v the battery charges instead of discharging

 

[ToGoldlyBo]

This week I attended to scuttlegate. Took the whole lot off and was dismayed to find just how much gunk had gathered behind the "seal" and was letting water though. It's gone back with a bead of sika 710 and a few extra beads of sika around the scuttle itself. So far so good. And my scuttle has never been so thoroughly and cleanly scuttled

 

[ToGoldlyBo]

footnote on the scuttle job

I didn't have any black 710, so I went to C.A.K Tanks - which is just down the road from me to get some. There a shelf full of it just behind the counter. "No we haven't got any" says the assistant. I point at the boxes. Ahh can't sell that it's all out of date. The manufacturer keeps sending out of date stuff so we no longer sell sika products. How out of date I ask? Checks - nearly year. Hmm. So.. how much for one of those (normal price around £15)? I can have one for a fiver, sold as seen, no returns! Took it home, warmed it up with a hair drier. Seems just fine. I figured that even if it was in date, I'd be expecting it to last a few years on the MH, so what's a few months shelf life? I got my sika at 2/3 off. Going back for another one this week!!!!

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[PP Bear]

I didn't have any black 710, so I went to C.A.K Tanks - which is just down the road from me to get some. There a shelf full of it just behind the counter. "No we haven't got any" says the assistant. I point at the boxes. Ahh can't sell that it's all out of date. The manufacturer keeps sending out of date stuff so we no longer sell sika products. How out of date I ask? Checks - nearly year. Hmm. So.. how much for one of those (normal price around £15)? I can have one for a fiver, sold as seen, no returns! Took it home, warmed it up with a hair drier. Seems just fine. I figured that even if it was in date, I'd be expecting it to last a few years on the MH, so what's a few months shelf life? I got my sika at 2/3 off. Going back for another one this week!!!!

I’d have done the same, well done on getting the job done and for getting the 710 at such a good price. It’s annoying that manufacturers send out of date stuff to companies. We used a lot of Locktite in the military and was always arriving out of date, so we’d phone the company, give them right merry stink and we’d get an official years extension for it, which means the content was fine to use

 

[fred_jb]

I have sold the motorbike and retired from biking, for now anyway, so have decided to take up cycling again, having not had a bicycle for a fair few years. That led to the current project of adding cycle carrying capability to the van.

First attempt was to go for a towbar carrier with a view to being able to carry a heavy electric bike in future, so I have been installing a towbar. However, the carrier I bought which slides back enough to allow the barn doors to open turned out to be far bigger than expected, and looked like it was going to make parking much more challenging. It also looked like it was going to be too heavy and unwieldy for my aging body when taking it on and off, so that has gone back.

I have now fitted a Thule door mounted rack instead, though not one of the very expensive latest type which can take heavier bikes as nobody seems to be stocking them yet. I got the carrier fitted today and then decided to install the electrics for the towbar just to complete that, even though I will have no immediate use for it, but it may be useful in future.

I was not looking forward to this as it involves taking the starter battery out from under the floor and cutting a big hole in the battery box to bring the towbar wiring loom into the front of the van. As some may know there is a reasonably complicated process to follow for this to avoid damage to the BCM body computer. I decided to use an alternate method instead, connecting up a power supply to the underbonnet jump starting points, to keep everything live while the main battery was out. I had a small no longer used lithium motorcycle battery and used that, which seems to have been successful.

I've just got to run the cable to the 13 pin socket at the rear now, along with a connection to my alarm for protecting bikes when they are on the rack.