What did you do to your van today?

[AlyJay]

Yesterday I went and bought a 204,000 mile Sprinter for £1500 partly converted to a campervan. It had been stood for 4 years since the guy got bored and eventually put it on eBay. It has nearly all the characteristics of someone who wants a camper but no experience of campering. But it came with at least £1000 worth of new parts including truma heater, water tank and all the plumbing and electrics, inverter, all the wiring and a cassette toilet.Today I started to discover that it is white underneath. It will need stripping inside and re-starting with insulation on walls and roof. View attachment 78063View attachment 78064View attachment 78065View attachment 78066

Chassis and floor looks solid, potentially a great buy if mechanical stuffs all ok?

 

[AlyJay]

Well, it had been looking iffy for a few years.
When it was on the floor of the workshop, it looked more like damp weetabix than steel.
It should be good for many years to come now it is fixed.

Any photos of your old chassis?
Is your new one galvanised?

 

[AlyJay]

I'm not clear about the purpose of this. Is it to kill bacteria, or to remove limescale?
Our water is really, really soft, so I try to fill anywhere else whenever possible (obviously on a trip longer than two weeks, this is unavoidable) and as a result there is almost zero scale in the system.
I've never really bothered too much about bacteria. I never put non-potable water in, and I assume that my body is used to dealing with the bacteria already in there. After all, people with cats and dogs have better health as a result of higher bacteria levels.
I'd have assumed that heating water would be bad for resident bacteria but would make limescale worse.

It's legionnaires disease I'm slightly concerned about, it's a big thing with stored water and pipework not used ie, for me it would be the shower as this in the moho is never used, motorhomes especially older ones the water changes temp all the time which legionnaires bacteria really like. On saying that I've never heard of legionnaires poisoning from a moho water supply but technically it is possible. I agree a bit of bacteria is probably beneficial but I just avoid drinking water from moho tanks even though I do flush it twice yearly with purification powder and drain water after a trip or if its been in and not used more than 3 days.

 

[marchie]

Resumption of flushing the boiler and fresh water tank after descaling and sterilising respectively. Washed the M/Home yesterday, including the roof, and a misted, very gentle, spray of water onto the solar panels to remove the dust and grime. Of course, it rained straight away after cleaning, so might need to repeat the washing ...

Today will be wheel washing and tyre pressure checking then repacking kit for Barnoldswick, though I won't know until Tuesday whether the upholstery in the hab area will be ready -fingers crossed ...

Steve

 

[Vanterrier]

Busy morning...

2008 Autosleeper Symbol on Boxer chassis

Got fed up with toilet flush blister switch working only when it wanted to so removed the pcb off the back of the panel and wired in "momentary" waterproof switch instead. Works a treat.

Replaced rear offside sidelight bulb. Not an easy task, but managed to remove the trim and locate the two securing nuts and loosen with 17mm ratchet spanner, removal of cluster and replacing bulb straight forward after that. Job done
Hopefully my grazed knuckles will heal in time
K

 

[marchie]

Boiler and freshwater tank flushed through for the final time after descaling and sterilising respectively; tyre pressures checked + fluid levels and wheels cleaned of the remaining mud [need another cleaning tomorrow] after the Satnav sent me up a farm track on the last trip. Updated the 2 x Satnavs with new maps - should have been straightforward, but the new laptop didn't copy Garmin Express across with the bulk data transfer and the Garmin website is not that wonderful ...

Just the packing of clothes/meds etc for Barnoldswick and the collection of the hab area upholstery on Tuesday

Steve

 

[gasgas]

I washed (I.e. scrubbed hard) Usain The Sprinter’s roof. Apparently it was white originally Now if you viewed it from a satellite you would think it was white.

 

[Vanterrier]

Momentary switch as mentioned on post above.

 

[gasgas]

I remember fitting a push-to-make switch like that for the very same reason. I wonder why the makers think it needs a microprocessor? Next they will make it work from an app so you can flush it remotely. But then of course you will need a phone, a signal, charged battery and a good WiFi connection with the toilet. And a teenager to show you how to do it

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Bluetooth

 

[The laird]

Well got the van back to home this evening ,running nice a few niggles ,door step has stopped working lack of use and it's mocket,a few lights needing attended to and brakes to lack of useage,tank full,of diesel interior badly requires cleaning as does the fridge
Dash reassembled
Mot tomorrow

 

[marchie]

Hab area upholstery ready for collection tomorrow, but Captain's seats, headrest on rear passenger seats and the overhead shelf still to be reupholstered as Phase 2 of the work, so a bit of a colour clash between the new grey leather and the old beige upholstery ... Getting there [slowly]

Steve

 

[AlyJay]

Bluetooth

Lootooth you mean.

 

[Geek]

Any photos of your old chassis?
Is your new one galvanised?

The new one isn't galvanised but its not rusty and has been waxoiled. It will last a few decades - rather longer than me, I suspect.

 

[Geek]

You mean £8/10s. Or half a weeks pay for a qualified worker.
What I do is to divide current prices by ten, I.e that would be 19p, which is about right for diesel. I remember five star petrol costing 3/11 per gallon and thinking well I suppose Rolls Royce owners can afford that.
The contrary thing is my cost-of-living standard. A Mars bar should be 6d. Or, in today’s prices multiply it by ten making it 60d. 60d /12 = 5s = 25p. Since when could you buy a Mars bar for 25p? They are typically £1.25 AND smaller than they used to be. Like Club so-called chocolate biscuits which are thin and not even chocolate, just a thin brown sugar coating.

When I worked at a garage some time ago, petrol was around 6/8d per gallon. That would work out at 7.3p per litre.

 

[Geek]

Until I posted that photo, I hadn't noticed the garage boss' old Bentley in the background.
Having a good, local and well-equipped garage with an owner who appreciates that some things are worth looking after is a huge benefit.

 

[The laird]

Just dropped van off for mot tomorrow sweaty bum time also getting chassis wash
GOOD NEWS JUST HAD A EMAIL FROM FORD SURCHARGE FOR OLD ENGINE APPROVED SO £800 coming home

 

[Geek]

It's legionnaires disease I'm slightly concerned about, it's a big thing with stored water and pipework not used

As far as I know, it only grows in warm but not hot water, and only infects you if you ingest it in vapour form.
That really means from a shower head in a motorhome environment, and they tend to be cold or hot most of the time.
We rarely use the shower, so the shower head won't have any water in it anyway.
An all-over wash uses far less water and is just as good.
I'd not tell you not to worry about Legionnaires in the motorhome water tank, but it's not something that would concern me.

 

[gasgas]

As far as I know, it only grows in warm but not hot water, and only infects you if you ingest it in vapour form.
That really means from a shower head in a motorhome environment, and they tend to be cold or hot most of the time.
We rarely use the shower, so the shower head won't have any water in it anyway.
An all-over wash uses far less water and is just as good.
I'd not tell you not to worry about Legionnaires in the motorhome water tank, but it's not something that would concern me.

When I woz a Plummer we woz tort that Legionnaires germs are dead at 60 degrees C which is what your hot water tank is heated to. Also it can’t get into a sealed tank, ie with a lid on. Yes you have to breathe in the vapour. I think swimming pool showers are a bit suspect but I am pretty sure they put some steriliser in the water like in the pool. Personally we have always drunk the water from our on board tanks in caravans and Motorhomes. I do dose mine with some tablets in the spring, having emptied them I the autumn of course. Thee specific deadly example of Legionaires we were told about was from some water storage tanks on the roof of a hotel. They were open to the air meaning a large area of water was open to the sky. This is how the bugs got in. Having said we drink ours, it’s no big deal, bottled water is so cheap in supermarkets you wonder how they can make and transport and sell a 5 litre bottle for less than a pound.

 

[Geek]

I'd not drink water from a bottle. The plasticity in new bottles leaches out into the water between it being filled and you drinking from it.
If you must buy a bottle of water, tip it out and refill from the tap. The plasticiser will mostly be gone.