Dry Fitting The Fridge

The fridge I got of ebay arrived yesterday. A saving nearly £400 on the equivalent Dometic model. (Dometic took over Electrolux) I am so pleased with it, its almost as new!  It even came with a new and un-fitted flue system.  So far I have only been able to test it on 240v but it works   a treat.

To make a cabinet for it to fit in I have used what would normally be decorative end panels from B&Q's IT kitchen range.

The cut out is for the bottom hinge.

A plinth will be added later

Dry fitted into its designated place.

It will be set back a bit further on the final fit.  Hopefully you will notice its a big fridge so more room for beer.  Hmmmm! beer ;-)

Dry Fitting The Kitchen Area

At the weekend I clad the walls and parts of the ceiling in the bed area with MDF.  I have made the bed area 4'6'' where our tops will be, and 4' at the feet.  I would like to have had 4'6" all over but the shower area needed 6" of space that I could not get from anywhere else.

Today I built the kitchen units.  The units are from the B&Q IT range.  The tall unit needed to be cut down to fit in the motorhome headroom.  Doing this was straight forward of course but once it had been chopped the factory holes at the top for construction fittings were gone, also I am modifying its use to fit 2 standard base unit doors, not the tall line doors it was designed for.  I used the top off cuts as a drill template to make new fitting holes where I needed them.  This was method was also adopted with the short decorative end panel as this for some reason has no holes what so ever.

So here is the kitchen dry fitted.

From outside

From passenger seat

How Difficult Can It Be??

Generally I am not the moaning sort.

However this week I am amazed that despite ordering new light clusters for the motorhome that were clearly shown as the version for motorhomes both companies sent the version for caravans.

The difference is in the reflector.  Caravans have a triangle because its a trailer.  The motorhome version has a square reflector to comply with the law.

The difference is obvious

The first company just said tuff! send it back.  The second were very apologetic and say I will have the right ones early this week.  I hope so as I need to go to an LPG fitters to see about an external tank that can be filled at a petrol station.

Then another company failed to collect an ebay purchase despite texting the collection person with a time etc.  So far they have not bothered to reply to my email about the cock up.

I should be dry fitting the kitchen area this week, and I have just won a large 3 way fridge on ebay which should arrive this week.

Steps

I have been busy with steps.

The first step was to remove the old rear step that was for the back doors.  This is where I want to put the water tanks. The recess the step provides is ideal to enable me to put the tanks under where the fixed bed will be.

The old GRP step fascia was removed to reveal the nice strong steel supports underneath.  The floor then needed to be cut away to the size of the tank.

GRP removed and floor cut out

The whole then needed to be filled to make up the new lower floor and seal up the rest of the whole.

18mm shuttering ply glued and screwed

All fitted with screws through the steel supports

and through the floor.

160l water capacity.

The tanks I am using were industrial food containers each 80l.  I will be plumbing these up in due course.  These 2 water tanks cost me £22 delivered!

The next step was to create a step.

I think when the ambulance was commissioned there was never any intention of using the side door as it was obstructed by a rack, also there was no step.  I needed to put a step in here for 3 reasons.  1 is headroom through the door. 2 my knees aren't getting any younger. 3 now only need a single step up so less to carry.

Carefully considered and marked out.
(Measure twice, cut once!)

All cut out

Nice new step

Update

So its finally come time to do some "construction".

First thing to sort out was the wiring.  Jerry at the body shop did a temporary job just to be legal to get me home.  A bit tiding up and feeding each side with its correct wire saw that job off.  Jerry also gave me some marker lights for the top of the caravan back.  I needed to cut the holes to fit them and run the wires.  I have also ordered new rear lights of the motorhome version,  The difference with them and the caravan version is the motorhome ones have square reflectors not triangles as in the caravan version.  I have also put the towbar wiring in.  Photo to come.

The next job was to to seal off the underneath of the new back .  This went surprisingly easily with the aid of a cardboard template.  In true home converter style I used the GRP faced ply that formed the bulkheads I removed back in week one.  Top tip, never throw anything away!

Finally I have made a start on putting something back in instead of ripping out.

As the back has been modified I needed to put a new rear wall in the motorhome.

Stiffening timbers in place

Insulation

Job done

3500kg Magic weight why?

Thanks to Sue, one of my blog readers, for asking and making me realise that not everyone that reads my blog will have all the tech. knowledge.

There are a few significant reasons why it is desirable to stay under 3500kg.

Firstly there is liecencing considerations, If you passed yout driving test  pre '97 license you will have C1 category to legally drive it.  After that you need to take another test to drive over 3500kg

Then there are  downsides that limit speeds on dual carriage ways and single lane roads, and if you go to into Europe you will be barred from quite a lot of towns and villages who operate a strict max. 3500 Kg access limit.

Also when you reach the age of 70 you will need a medical by your doctor which will allow you to continue driving anything over 3500kg.

Another consideration is specialist recovery also comes into play, RAC & AA etc. won't be able to recover anything over 3500kg with their standard vehicles.  This requires specialist (expensive) recovery should you breakdown.

Its Weight Day

I thought it prudent to get the motorhome weighed.  A trip to the local weighbridge revealed its 2830kg in its stocking feet. 

I have to admit this is a lot more than I would have guessed so I am glad I did it,  The fuel tank was very low as well so to stay within 3500kg I am going to have to be very careful with what goes in!

Allowing for myself & wife, dogs and fuel I have about 400kg left of which up to 160kg  will be water.

It is true the the chassis is a 4600kg variant so if the worst comes to the worst I can go over but it would be nice to stay below the magic 3500kg

The Ambulance has gone.

The motorhome is back from the bodyshop for now.  Jerry has transformed an ambulance to a motorhome. Henceforth it will no longed be called an ambulance :-)

Before with light bar removed

I need to get some new rear lights as the back was from an

accident damaged caravan

This back could almost have been made to fit the ambulance body.  Look at the detail line on the lower back where it lines up with the line on the original body.  Having said that an enormous amount of sculpting has been done with GRP and filler to make it look and fit like this.

 Before

 

Lights and sign all sculpted it to one continuous piece.
Now our very own C class motorhome :-)

In reality there's still a lot of work to be done before its a real motorhome, but the outside no longer looks like an ambulance.  The keen eyed of you will see the white is a different colour.  This is a protective coat until it has its final paint job.  There's no point at this stage in doing the paint as there a quite a few holes to be cut in the body for various windows and access doors.

Another Photo Update

Jerry has been busy! Its ready to pick up tomorrow :-)

The paint on the job so far is just a holding coat as my workspace is outside.  Once all the  outside is done I will see about getting a complete respray.

Quick Photo Update

I received another photo from Jerry today.

Looking good