Time for another project

[doublechevron]

Well finally after .... 5months ??  of spending every spare second I could find on the bloody thing..........



The caravan finally turned a wheel.....  5months of work ....................   and it looks like the exact same caravan I parked in the shed 5months agao ...      .......  Do you like the line down the middle of the caravan that I've washed 'n' clay bar'd it up too.  What a staggering difference it's made the the original paint on it.



No weight distribution bars ... No nothing other than it dropped onto the towball.  Note: the modified handle on the jockey wheel so it doesn't catch on the hitch when you try to turn the handle.  I spent a crazy amount of time on that jockey wheel.  I whipped it off, stripped it down, stuck some new bearings in the head of it.  Modified the handle so it was usable.... and after it sitting in the corner for several months found I'd lost the shim that allows you to "lock" it down into it's housing.  I found a 50mm round axle mount ground down to fit perfectly though.

Anyway, I thought a test tow was in order.  I headed out to Lal Lal, which includes that steep climb up the side of Mount Buningyong (where your forced to come to a standstill at the bottom).  I would have been happy if she held 60km/h up the climb..........  I'll be damned if half way up I didn't have to lift right off 'cos that little V8 was hauling ass .... She was singing out  to close to 4000rpm ......  Which is getting way out of the torque band of the motor... and 80km/h.  I had to keep backing off 'cos the bloody thing wanted to sit on 100km/h.  I'm not exagerating when I say you really couldn't tell it was there unless you new the car really well.  It sits rock steady behind it.  Doesn't rattle the hitch, the brakes are absolutely seemless (that primus IQ controller is brilliant).  Even trucks passing at 100km/h didn't make it move.  I'm absolutely tickled pink with the way it tows.  There was no wind today, the real test will be a windy day (as it's a bloody huge sail area).  This is a very smartly designed caravan, the independent coil spring suspension means you can mount the water tank where the axles usually reside.  The fridgy, stove, and everything heavy inside is mounted over the axles.



The POS rangie sure does look little hooked up to it.  No I haven't cleaned that side of the 'van yet either.  Were hoping to go away for a week in it in a couple of weeks time... to try it out.  



I'll need to brace the entire length of this side of the cover .... look at that it's blown out in the one bit I *didn't* put a brace on .... grrrr....



I reckon I can put a split system in above that front window.  I can run the pipes up in cupboard the bed is stored in and make a really tidy install.... Just need to save up and find a nice inverter split system for there.  There were on special at aldi last week for $500 too ....  Damn it, I was only $499.50 short of buying one




Of course the best thing about a bunk room in a caravan is ........................................







































BED TIME CHILDREN

seeya
Shane L.

[snoops]

Great work Shane, good to see its ready to be used again. Now if you can make that bunk room sound proof....

[Deleted]

Looks super!! now it is time to enjoy it

[tasmillard]

fantastic work, you deserve a good break. love the rangie too, very capable to tow it.

[Mustang]

Well done Shane, the strip looks like new paint in the photo.
Great layout for a family van.

[atefooterz]

Awesome to see her back in use.

[doublechevron]

  (rofl)Well the old caravan sure is a bloody ripper. I thought that fold down bed would just be made and left setup ................... Nope, straight up each morning. The living space is brilliant (why don't all caravans have a lift away bed ?). The couches are so big, we can both lay down the long one reading books and there is still plenty of seating for the kids to sit around the sides.

The only issues had .... was leaking .... Yes all the sealing I did and it leaked..................... The plug in the sink weeped down into the cupboards. I'll need to unscrew it and refit the plug with a new seal now were home The kids absolutely love the bunks in the back.

It did move around quite a lot when we first left. The full water tank and luggage overwhelmed the boge leveler on the back of the rangie causing the tail to sink (the internal leakage int he unit must be to great, I'll whip it off and rebuild it before we go away again). I'll also keep an eye out for a Weigh distrubution hitch.



10minutes after we stopped for lunch. It does lift a small amount while moving, but not enough. Nose down means the front axle carries to much weight on the caravan so it'll move around. We'd used most of the water tank by the time we left healesville, so it towed way nicer ( some of the climbs we so steep we were back to 1st gear ( I just told the boss women, there were another 4gears if I grabbed low range    



I carried the bloody huge annex all over with us too....  Never did put it up, with so much living space in the 'van, it's not really needed (that's why it looks brand new and un-used even though it's 30years old I guess).  We cruised over to healesville for a few days, then down to Malden for a couple of days, then down to halls gap for a few days.  What a bloody ripper of a way to travel

seeya,
Shane L.

[tasmillard]

Fantastic to hear (and see the photos) Shane, the family enjoyed the 'van! Funny with the water leak, must admit had a bit of a chuckle reading that. Poor Rangie, she does sag a bit and I really dont know how much weight the leveler can handle. Did you take measurements of the ball weight?

Another thing, when I did the bed in the back of the Millard, I did originally have the idea of setting it up as a 'lounge' area, so basically a U shape and then at night set it up as the bed. But the other half said we would never use it as a lounge, so I made it a solid bed. With what you said, I am now thinking perhaps I should of stuck to my guns and made the lounge/bed setup, so I shall see how we go when travelling as it would be fairly easy to mod

[doublechevron]

There is some threads over the forum of what else I've needed to do to the caravan.  One thing my wife was less than keen on, is how difficult it is to get into the storage areas around the caravan.

Our caravan has about 10 under seat storage boxes. ( one under each set of bunks at the back), a huge "L" shaped lounge with 6 cushions and about 6 lift out panels and the main fold up bed has a huge box under it).

To get to the storage area under the couch, you need to strip the cushions from the seats and lift out all of the fragile chipboard panels.



This is the big "L" shaped couch.




With the bunks, you need to remove the bottom bunks mattress and lift out the two chipboard lift out sections.

See how small the "hole" to extract the mattresses.  



the lift out panels aren't really readily accessible with the mattresses in place.



With the main bed, you have to fold the bed down, unmake the bed, remove the mattress and lift the two lift out sections out from the base.



Ideal would be 1/2 dozen "doors" that allow access to these areas. I'm thinking... 


seeya,
Shane L.

[doublechevron]

So i bravely hacked holes into the caravan with a stanley knife. 







I traced around the existing frame with the knife so I didn't need to frame it.









under the bed had chipboard re-enforcing, so I had to use the jigsaw ... So I'll need to put a couple of uprights in the opening to make sure it's strong enough (i'm sure it'll be fine, but why not be careful).







The panels just look roughly hacked out bits of ply ............  because they are!













I found this timber at bunnings.... as you can see it's already rebated at the back. It's about $9.00 for 3meters. Typical bunnings nuts. You'll need 10 lengths on the shelf to find one even remotely straight. IT's also all crappy 10cm lengths glued together to form a long length. It should look ok though.







My brother saw what I was trying to do, and told me I need to make a 90 degree angle to sit the edge bits in to assemble. He also lent me his nice slide saw and staple gun.







I just used his stapler to throw some staples through the thickest part after gluing it with wood glue.  However I found the tension of the staples pulled the joints apart slightly.







So I weighted it down and gave it overnight to dry.







I stained them with some stain i had floating around...  'cos they were looking very grubby very quickly.







Then I glued the panels in ... and weighted htem so they'd stay clamped overnight.

[doublechevron]

I just fitted the doors with some magnetic catches.  The big door under the bed just has some rotating tags.












The main reason for that big door under the bed, is I initially thought I'd put a reverse cycle split system head behind this door.  I just ended up thinking it wouldn't work out though.


This should be a lot easier than pulling the couch to bits.

seeya,
Shane L.

[doublechevron]

I picked up a couple of exterior access doors on ebay that were very cheap.






I traced them out and used a nibbler to cut away the cladding.  Of course there was wiring behind one of them ( sigh ).  12volts and 240volts!

Note: the double uprights.  This isn't about strength in the frame... Wherever the ply overlaps inside the caravan, they run these double uprights to keep the ply evenly locked together.









I cut away the inner ply with a stanley knife again ...  and cut away the uprights.

Then After framing the openings to carry the weight of the cut uprights ....  wow the tutorials online for fitting these doors just hack the uprights out and leave it at that   ....  Why would anyone cut through the frame and not support it ? I just stuck the doors in using Selleys Flexiseal (very cheap if you buy it by the sausage at bunnings)

seeya
Shane L.

[doublechevron]

So the outside access doors provide access to under one of the bunks.... I also noticed one of the couch cushions was quite small, and you could get to it without moving the table.



So the only readily accessible cushion is the one beside the table.  The cushions around the table that are awkward to get to I've stored the annex under (this also moves the very heavy annex back near the axles).



this is the small cushion.



there is two lift out panels under it.  I cut these down to be slightly smaller than the cushion (so they wouldn't catch on the two cushions beside the small one)....  Then used a length of scrap metal to join the crappy chipboardlift out panels together, and cut them down and used a piano hinge across the back (the hinges are about $13 at bunnings).



The gas strut is about $20 with with end bits at caravansplus.



This works really well.



I did the same trick with the bunk at the back.



The bunks are much stronger layered plywood.  I had to pry/break the middle section between the two lift up panels out.



Once again a piano hinge across the back.... and a length of scrap metal holding all three panels together.



And another caravans plus gas strut.  This works REALLY well.  The mattress is lightweight foam, so it lifts it easily.

seeya,
Shane L.

[Mustang]

Good sense there Shane, what a great van this one has become!!

[snoops]

Nice work Shane - good ideas and nicely executed.

You bringing it to Wombat this year to show up mine and Johns vans?

Promise we'll hang around to get you out again if it's raining.

[doublechevron]

Thanks Guys,

like everything it will probably never be quite finished .... The potatoe patch this year ? We are going to be off caravaning through June and July, so will probably miss it! ( I must say, the boss women shows absolutely zero interest in going away to a muddy field in the middle of winter LOL ).

Oh, there was one other thing I did recently (also scattered across the forum)....  Air conditioning, my wife wasn't really interested in this.  But I spotted the reverse cycle split systems at Bunnings for $399.00 ................. And I already had the copper here .... so could easily fit it up for nothing.  So I figured ... why not



I chopped the gas bottle mount off and welded a new cross bar on.  I refuse to weld to a structural member like the drawbar for no reason ( as you risk introducing brittle areas around the welds that can crack).  If you check the cross bar is welded to the existing cross bar, and down to the bracing below the drawbar.




The new crossbar to hold the A/C and gas bottle.  I;m sure there is laws that say an A/C system cannot be mounted this close to a gas bottle.  Just as well I don't care about this right  ( I could put a shield between the two of them... but I'm not concerned, leaking gas will drop to the lowest point.  And I always keep the gas bottle firmly OFF.  We have a 4 year old and the old stove in this caravan doesn't have thermo switches on the hotplates... so gas will always flow, even without flame if they are bumped or switched on (very dangerous if your not careful).





The pipes and wiring run across the front wall, down the bed cupboard, through the storage box beneath and trhough the floor



The biggest problem is the way I've hidden the pipes looked shithouse..  I thought it would be ok... but now it's in ... It looks like someone has just smashed the curtain pelmet ..... groan .... It doesnt' actually have pelmets!   I have modified this since, it now looks a lot better, but not perfect (I'll get a picture later).  This is the ONLY place the air conditioner head could go.  It took a LOT of messing around to get it in this exact spot.  You see the bed swings through this area as it comes down.  Even the angled cut-away on the bit of plywood JUST clears the bed by about 1mm as it swings past the A/C unit.

The A/C is VERY effective though.  It's doesn't keep the caravan refrigerator cold if you have the long side wall in the direct sun on a hot day (the whole wall turns into a radiant heater ... no insulation at all in these old 'vans).  But it's still very comfortable.  It also works very nicely at heating the 'van.  It's very quiet compared to a rooftop rattler.

So there you go, a very usable, efficient quiet air conditioner that takes not internal space ...  for only $399.00  ....  It's the best thing I've done.  I now don't need to worry about having things like fan heaters running in the caravan with kids around that smother them ... and knock them over etc...

seeya
Shane L.

[snoops]

Nice. I've thought about doing something similar in mine, but I think it would be too heavy for my little van, but Imlike the idea. We don't always free camp and some of the parks we go to in Winter (like in Daylesford) our little oil column heater I take with us doesn't quite cut it, and up north in Summer gets a bit warm at times, but I've found it needs to be more than about 32 for me to really notice it.

[doublechevron]

May 13, 2017 9:42:43 GMT 10 snoops said:

Nice. I've thought about doing something similar in mine, but I think it would be too heavy for my little van, but Imlike the idea. We don't always free camp and some of the parks we go to in Winter (like in Daylesford) our little oil column heater I take with us doesn't quite cut it, and up north in Summer gets a bit warm at times, but I've found it needs to be more than about 32 for me to really notice it.

Your caravan is a franklin though ... A foam sandwich .... ie: it's basically a coolroom with windows.  It's design is about a million times better than these 'vans made with crappy frail matchstick sized wooden frames.  This caravan is like a tin shed sitting in the sun.  Without kids, you want a fan heater.  They use a huge amount of power but will heat your caravan in seconds ( you need one with a thermostat otherwise you'l end up with all the windows open).

I think the condenser unit is about 30kgs.  I moved the annex poles and canvas inside back to the axles ... so moved about 100kgs off the front of the caravan ... but added 30kg of condenser to the nose.  The main bit is it's quiet'ish.  And takes no interior living space. your running current is only about 3amps from memory (versus the 10amps of a fan heater).  So you could run it from a battery system or generator (it will not have a soft start being such a cheap a/c unit, so you startup current maybe to much for a small generator)

seeya,
Shane L.

[doublechevron]

Hi Guys,

well that was great   The block of flats just spent nearly 3 months wobbling up the coast behind the POS Rangie ...  



We carried this huge massive  ( HEAVY ) fully framed annex with us everywhere.   We never put it up once.  Should have left it at home (this is warnanbool fun for kids last year).  No wonder the annex is like new... you don't really need it with the lving space inside the caravan.



we headed across melbourne... staying a small places.  The little caravan park was great at Nowa Nowa.  We took the $800 rangie towing the block of flats through every mountain range we could find.  I found   (on the very first day obviously) we had no  caravan brakes...  The brake pedal switch had broken apart driving through Melbourne



I finally managed to get a universal replacement so the caravan brakes would work in Eden ...  Right through the mountains with no brakes, that sure was fun ( I could use the controller to mannually apply the caravan brakes)   Don't rely on a reverse cycle air conditoner through the victorian mountains....  Once you get towards zero degrees they just don't work.





Merimbula was fantastic.  This is the Big 4  ... it's backs onto the ocean.  It has brilliant facilities for kids.




My parents were at tweed heads on holidays.  So we stopped there for a week.  This is the view sitting in the caravans doorway.



It's weird to see the block of flats parked in among those rainforest trees.  All the popular places everyone goes .... I wasn't really fond of.  Just people and bloody traffic.  But what amazed me was Maryborough in QLD.  We really enjoyed that place.  We sadly missed the Mary Poppins festival by 2 days  The kids loved  the mary poppins stuff there though. 



We didn't go much higher than bundaburg.  The Bundy museum was surprisingly interesting.  As was the gingerbeer barrel".  The poor old Rangie sure did get weighed down with to much brewed softdrink   The cola available only from there factory was great.




We must have stopped at every playground on the eastern coast .   Oh yes, I we did get bogged, Easts Beach Caravan park, to get the caravan onto the site I had to put the center diff lock in to get moving LOL.  They had huge amounts of rain just before we got there (what a climb out of that place too ... 1st gear the entire way to get onto the freeway onramp ....  When I saw the hill through the windscreen I was considering grabbing low range!).

Not just that .... The holiday hasn't finished.  We have been home for a week or so .... And living in the caravan is so much fun, we are still there  ( a hose burst in the house roof while we were away, so we will be in the caravan while the house is repaired for at least 2 months I'd say ).  Just as well I fitted that reverse cycle A/C !!   It's bloody cold in a caravan in a Ballarat Winter.  At least it's nice and dry though, just as well I put so much effort into sealing this caravan up.  I didn't intend to spend any time in it when the weather is wet and shithouse like this.

seeya,
Shane L.

[doublechevron]

Wow ... its been nearly 9 years ..... The old bunk 'van. I think after enjoying it for 9 years we are going to have to sell it. You see, the kids have grown up. 18 and 20 this year ( and 11 ). How the hell did that happen in a mere blink of an eye ... any suggestions on an ensuite caravan that would interest someone as crazy as me

[Mustang]

Hi doublechevron,
Thoroughly enjoyed your journey mate.
Best of luck with the sale.
Cheers
Brent