so disheartened :(

happy campers

Guest
we've just bought our first motorhome and are beginning to think the guy who sold us it ripped us off, as we're slowly finding so much wrong with it

we thought it was too good a bargain :rolleyes:

firstly the fridge doesnt work...he said it might need fuses, but its not even wired up!

the cold water tap in the kitchen sink doesnt work...the hot tap does, as do both taps in the bathroom, but only cold is coming out of both of them....we can see the blue and red hoses coming from the watertank, going to the taps, but dnt know why water won't come out of the cold tap in the kitchen....any ideas??

now this is probably a REALLY stupid question (excuse me having a blonde moment!) but we have only one fresh water tank with a blue and red hose coming out of it.....how does it heat the water, and still allow cold water to come out of the tank? does it get heated as it passes thru something to do with the carver water heater? ie an element?

and is this the only way to heat the water (apart from boiling a kettle...i'm not that dense...just female!.....thru the carver heater using 240V or can water be heated by gas bottle or 12V if you're not near a hook-up?

oh there's no flippin waste tank, but we've figured out how to solve that one!

there's bloody mice been living under the seats, so the traps have gone down!!

oh but at least the roof's sound and it doesnt leak :D

sorry for such a long post, but we have to learn somewhere, and you guys have probably been there and done that already!

thanks in advance x
 
HI

HI
Happy campers
I think first off all you need to tell us what you have got ie what type off van or motorhome then some one can help you .
all the best Terry
 
mmm ....not so happy campers at the moment then ! ...when you give us details on the make and model , age etc it will give us more to go on ! ......first port of call may be the guy that sold you it in the first place.
I have an old swift royal 1993 and being a novice didnt realy know what i was buying .turned out it was leaking like a seive , but i sorted it myself for a couple of 100 quid and learned a lot as well . Dont be disheartend as a lot of faults can be fixed easily if you know how ......and a lot of people will help if they can
 
I'm sorry you're struggling - it's a steep learning curve if you've had no instruction.

If you tell us whereabouts in the country you live, maybe somebody can drop by and advise :)

Regards

Chris
 
I would think your water heater should be powered by gas (i've never had one, just an educated guess based on the ones in static caravans), so find your gas bottle and open the tap. Then obviously look for your pilot light. You're right in saying the water tank only supplies cold water, then the hot feed passes through the heater.

If the fridge isnt wired to the the 12v system or zig unit (mains hook-up gizmo thingy) it may be connected for gas operation. Again, once the gas supply is turned on you need a pilot light. Please dont ask me how gas+flame=cold, as i have been wondering that myself forever!

Whereabouts are you? Maybe there's an experienced member nearby who could look it over, figure it out and give you some pointers.
 
Your Carver would normally work on gas. Some modern heaters have a 240V option when on hook up eg Truma, but an older one is likely to be just gas. 12 V is hardly ever used for heating, it would take too much power out of the battery.

Absorption fridges work by using heat to turn ammonia from a gas to liquid. The process is more complicated than a compressor, but it is explained here:

Absorption refrigerator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The fact that fridge wires are disconnected means they may just have disconnected the 12v and it will still work on gas and 240v. But you will still need some 12v connection to light the gas. So first thing to to do is make sure you have gas in your bottle, it is connected to your appliances and there is some way of lighting the fridge and water heater pilots eg Ignition 12V connection. Very difficult to say exactly without knowing the type and models of your appliances. They should be stamped on the back.

BTW, don't say you are blonde or female :D I think we are pretty open minded here and everybody can learn the same regardless of whatever. There are no stupid questions either, only stupid answers so ask away ;)

(Edit to say you may have a compressor fridge which works only on electric. But have a look at your fridge very carefully and post the model number here. Also see if you can discover any connections for gas hook up on the fridge. The type of fridge is very important as to finding the right solution to make it work).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
thanks guys :) even tho i havent really solved any problems yet, i DO feel loads better knowing there's so much help on here

the campers been custom built....sounds strange when i say it loud lol cos i didnt know people could do this....but its a transit van conversion....its got the front of a transit, and its had a caravan attached to it....if i can put a pic on here i will.its 27 foot long

gonna get hubby to read thru the answers you've given so far, and see if he can see if he can sort it. oh we live in sunny redcar on the north east coast bytheway :D

nope...cant figure out how to put a photo on here :p
 
Yes quite a few of us here build our own vans :) I think it goes hand in hand with the thrifty wild camping mindset. But we'd still use standard parts like fridges and heaters so there should be a model number and type on your appliances somewhere.

To upload a pic, there is a "manage attachments" button under your box when you post but I'm not sure if that works for free members. The other way is to put your picture onto a free hosting image server like ImageShack® - Online Media Hosting and then when they give you the URL of your pic after uploading, copy and paste the address betwwen the image tags which you get by clicking on the yellow icon with the mountains above your posting box.
 
Don't be disheartened. All problems can be solved. It's just that when you're hit by a lot of problems all at once then they look like they're too much to cope with. You're already getting lots of help so I won't add anything to make things any more complicated.

You WILL get things sorted out and by the time you've finished you'll love your van and you'll be the experts WE have to come to for advice.

Like everybody else, we want to see pictures.

And remember this: The worse it is at the time, the better the story later.
 
if i've done this right, here are some before shots of the camper...ie how it looks now

http://s361.photobucket.com/home/mandy_moo_1_photos/recentuploads

this is how it looked when we bought it a couple of weeks ago.have just bought a berry red fabric to re-upholster the seats, new cream material to make curtains....plus there's all the other stuff that needs doing to it!

its in storage at the mo...we're going up to it 2 or 3 times a week to work on it, so i'll check the exact model of the fridge, but i know its an electrolux

oh shoot!! ignore my doggy pics lol!! it was meant to be just the camper on there...duh!!
 
Last edited:
That's huge!

It's almost certain to be a 3 way fridge so if you've got power at your storage, try plugging in the 240 v hook up and seeing if you can get any lights or action. I know you said electric was disconnected but that might just be the 12 v supply. There should be a mains cable, 3 core, coming out to permanently wired in or even with a 3 pin plug on the end, to go to a 240v socket.

If you can can confirm it is 3-way, ie has gas connection as well, then if it is definitely not cooling and you have got power to it there are ways you can try fixing that by turning it upside down if it has been standing around, but best confirm it is 3 way first.

Also, check your gas. Try the stove. Take the bottle out feel the weight or weigh it. With the regulator off briefly turn on and off at the valve. Does it hiss? If OK then reconnect and try to trace the lines from the bottle to the fridge.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
wow! :eek: that thing IS huge ...
Ive never seen a tag (or dead) axle rwd transit (there are some new Merc Sprinters and Iveco dailys with this configuration) before. Can it be raised to increase traction on wet grass etc? or are all 4 rear wheels driven? ... sorry that's off topic ... But before I bought what is such an unusual (unique?) house on wheels I would have have had an independent "Survey" of the base vehicle mechanicals and caravan bits and ESPECIALLY how (well) they are joined together ... and I would certainly do it before I spent more money and time refurbishing it.

EDIT to add ... actually I wouldn't drive it further than the nearest MOT station to satisfy myself and the Inspector that is WAS safe(ish) to be driven.
 
Last edited:
I agree with MrRob, it is a very unusual van.

It looks like a Tranny with an Al-Ko chassis fitted. Possibly it came originally from a specialist coachworks as a one off. With that rear overhang, it needs a tag axle otherwise the back axle would be seriously overloaded.

If I was you, I would check your log book to make sure that it has been changed over to a `motor caravan` or similar.

Happy campers, you definitely need someone with a bit of experience to go over the vehicle. If you do not really know the person who did the conversion or how good they were, you might have a problem if pulled over by VOSA.

The faults you are having might be just down to the vehicle not being used for a while. I would not get too upset by it all. Plenty of us have had some of the same problems ourselves.
 
thanks guys....we've just had it MOT'd and the company that converted it is recognised by the insurance company....so hopefully that means all the mechanical side of it is sound :)

its just the inside that needs work!
 
Looks like a nice van.....But just watch the back end when turning...that is a hell of a big overhang.
 
That is one hell of a MH!

Where do you keep it? can't work out where the photos were taken in Redcar (I'm from Marske) . Coming up this weekend (well plan to but waiting to see what the vet has to say about our collie this afternoon-he made need a op? looks like he has an abcess on a tooth-still eating and playing ball), we have finally sold my dad's house so going back home for one last time, then onto the Tall Ships at Hartlepool.

Hope you can work all the problems out-you have come to the right place.

Px
 
Tigatigatiger said:
That is one hell of a MH!

Where do you keep it? can't work out where the photos were taken in Redcar (I'm from Marske) . Coming up this weekend (well plan to but waiting to see what the vet has to say about our collie this afternoon-he made need a op? looks like he has an abcess on a tooth-still eating and playing ball), we have finally sold my dad's house so going back home for one last time, then onto the Tall Ships at Hartlepool.

Hope you can work all the problems out-you have come to the right place.

Px
Click to expand...

the pics were the ones from ebay, where we got it from :)

its been put into storage cos theres nowhere to keep it outside our house, and we just keep going thru to do work on it before we go away in it

hope your dog is feeling better soon, and enjoy your trip up to the sunny (NOT!!) north east!!!
 
Sorry Happy Campers for your troubles.....:eek: it just shows the need to test everything prior to parting with money.....
 
From a cursory look at your photos it seems like you have all pretty standard caravan / motorhome stuff fitted, ie:- Kramer four burner hob with grill under, Carver Cascade water heater, Thetford cassette toilet ( probably bench type ), Electrolux RM42** series fridge, also looks like a Rose or Optimus 6070 model type oven. I can't see the space heater if there's one fitted, but would guess it to be a Carver Trumatic type, again all standard caravan stuff.

The good news is that there is plenty of information available for all these units so diagrams, instructions etc are easy to get hold of.

That body looks to me like a twin axle caravan grafted on to a tag axle Transit chassis, was the original vehicle a breakdown truck??

Love that pod on the cab, I bet you could almost stand up in there!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top