Eight years of A'vannng

EIGHT YEARS OF A'VANNING

Having spent many years travelling and camping in outback Australia it was time to have a little creature comfort at night so in '99 we invested in our first van, an Aliner 1B Off Road with a custom made inner spring mattress and full annex. Even with the increased ride height and stronger suspension we very quickly found that it severely limited our ability to travel the washed out station tracks we normally took for granted (formerly in a LWB diesel Nissan Patrol, 11R15 tyres, 8,000 lb winch and 75 mm lift kit).

No problem, with my engineering/electronics background so began a series of changes to modify or add features to better suit the type of use “Jack and Jan's cubby house” is being put to. You know its funny how almost every time you change something on a well balanced design it then necessitates changing something else (the cascade effect).

Bush camping naturally has no facilities so what you take is what you've got.

The standard 40 litre water tank normally lasts about 3 days so we usually carry a heap of 20 litre plastic water containers (still do, but not so many now). I fitted a 70 litre stainless steel second water tank underneath and behind the axle. The standard water pump was not much better than a windscreen washer (I suppose the low flow helps to conserve water) so a higher capacity pump (12 volt) with a suction line filter was next. At the same time to protect the contacts in the sink tap from the higher current draw a slave relay went in. The piping was modified with the new tank filling via a common (12 mm) suction line with an isolation valve on each tank to control which one is active (turn them both on and the original tank drains down into the new tank), the new tank breather is commoned into the existing breather so on the outside nothing is changed and filling both is through the original fitting (although it takes a while to run down to the bottom tank).

Unfortunately the tank was about 15 mm below the bottom of the axle tube and vulnerable to rock strike so a 50 mm lift was next. This was achieved by inserting a length of 50 mm thick wall RHS each side between the axle mount and chassis and bolting it to both the side plate and the axle assembly. This also gave an improved departure angle.

The gas stove was pretty insipid especially in very cold weather and as I had a set of jet needles left over from when I was a petrol head I re-jetted the inner burner to give a more vigorous flame, now the pot stand above the burner glows red hot on full burn. I didn't do the outer one as I thought there was a chance of damaging the glass stove cover with too big a flame. The flame should be a nice stable blue, if it has a yellow end or worse, is all yellow there is not enough oxygen mixing with the gas and there is a good chance it is giving off carbon monoxide (a colourless, odourless toxic gas) this is usually caused by a moth getting in and partially blocking the air vent, it can also be caused by the local area not being vented enough and all available oxygen being depleted (gas heaters in closed tents are the worst offenders). If it's a bug just shut off the flame and take the burner head off (careful you don't burn your fingers) and clean out anything that should not be in there and put it back together, fire it up again and check the colour of the flame.

After hearing horror stories of the two roof halves being ripped apart and damaged while trying to open or close them in heavy wind conditions I made a calibrated length retainer rope with mounting clips and guides that will catch and safely limit the movement of both halves. It can be put on when the roof is up or down and allows normal articulation but prevents the two halves separating excessively.

The (optional) inner spring mattress is a lot heavier than the standard foam plastic unit. As well the gas struts did not allow the bed to go all the way up to the roof which limited access to the storage area below and due to the weight of the bed assembly it was difficult to lift. The fixed mounting (bottom) points were moved down and the moving (top) towards the front (away from the hinge). Moving them down increased the thrust assisting the initial lift and away from the hinge also increased the lifting power and total movement of the bed.

With the ever increasing weight of the van, chassis flexing was causing the door to not latch properly occasionally. I thought the problem was on the left side as the doorway is a weakness in the side panel so I put a hydraulic jack under the end of the LH chassis, lifted it and welded additional gussets to the existing ones (using 5 mm S1045 steel). Imagine my disappointment when I dropped it back down and found only minimal improvement; however when I put the jack under the right rear chassis, the gap at the top of the door on the other side disappeared (should have checked it first) so I did the same to the RH chassis.

In its standard trim when going through the sharper ditches and creek crossings the rear stabiliser legs tended to bottom out and dig into the dirt. This created a ratchet effect and if I lost traction going up the other side and couldn't go forward, that's it, I was stuck (I no longer had a vehicle with a winch, at that stage a Subaru Forrester). Naturally this gave an opportunity for our travelling companions to give some rather disparaging assessments on our choice of vehicle and equipment (and point out how good their stuff was!) while they dragged us out. The first change was to strip the rear legs and re-assemble them facing forward which then transferred the problem to the bumper bar. The final addition was a large roller under the rear between the chassis rails so that when it does bottom out there is minimal drag forward or backwards.

The electric braking system while being more than adequate for normal blacktop road travelling was less than satisfactory in loose conditions. As the 2000 Kg over-ride coupling was a bit strong for a van of less than 1000 Kg, the spring was modified (shortened) to soften it and allow the over ride brakes to function. The electric brake controller was adjusted to prevent the inertia (pendulum) control operating (wound back as far as it would go) and the gain control set to just below lockup in the gravel with the over-ride making up the difference on the blacktop. This controls the tendency of the inertia mechanism to over compensate on steep descents (into creeks etc), locking up the vans wheels and sometimes starting to jack knife (not good for the nerves). Eventually due to the controller randomly activating the brake lights by itself (without energising the brakes) and causing the cruise control to drop out, it was replaced with a locally produced Redarc unit which does not have the inertia variable gain function.

The tiny three way fridge was not real flash for an extended stay away from the shops so a bigger one was next. As I had a modified bar fridge (converted with a DC 24 volt Danfoss compressor) from when we had a diesel 24 volt MQ Patrol sitting around in the shed that could be (only just) levered into the existing space (after all the excess wood was removed and the fridge cabinet shortened) this was the next project. It was equipped with an axial flow fan on the compressor and condenser to improve efficiency in hot weather coupled with an isolation switch to stop the noise at night.

This then created a new problem, how to feed the fridge. The original vented battery and box was replaced with a bigger box and two 12 volt 105 amp hour deep cycle flooded cell batteries in series to give 24 volts (darn, even more weight) and, as it was the main power supply for the rest of the van I changed (almost) all the globes to 24 volts (forgot the outside one next to the door and blew it). The 12 volt water pump was wired to a centre tap (jumper lead between the two batteries) to give the correct operating voltage, the out of balance load on the battery set is very minimal.

The problem then continued to cascade, how to feed the batteries. Rather than replace the original 12 volt smart charger with a 24 volt unit I built a second 12 volt charger to supply the second battery and a second LED bar graph voltmeter (Jaycar Electronics kit) display which went in alongside the original display to keep track of the relative state of charge of both batteries.

To feed them while travelling a 12 volt DC to 240 volt AC inverter is connected to the aux feed from the car supplying AC to both smart chargers. This isolates (electrically) the batteries from the car electrics and also balances up the state of charge in each battery.

Originally I had a 60 watt, 12 volt panel which was OK until I changed the fridge and operating voltage. To start with I manually changed it over from one battery to the other as required but it could not cope with the load over extended periods particularly in cloudy conditions so I always ended up with one battery half flat and the other one dead. In the end it gave me the sh**s, well lets say that it was very frustrating, it had to go, so I replaced the solar panel with a new 160 watt, 24 volt unit and switch mode controller; this supplies enough power to both batteries for indefinite running. It also made the roof harder to lift (the extra weight on the back section).

By this stage all the stuff going behind the axle was beginning to make the ball weight a little light so the next addition was a locker at the front to take a lot of gear from under the bed (using 2 mm aluminium for the top and sides and a 20 mm ply floor). This did not allow enough clearance to the car so I made an extended A frame (grade 450 RHS, the same section as the original chassis and welded with low hydrogen electrodes) this was added while keeping the original one. At the same time I welded a clamp to the right side of the new A frame to allow a ratchet jockey wheel to be attached to manoeuvre the van around without a car.

To protect the rear of the car from stones bouncing off the locker while travelling on gravel roads I made a `rock catcher' on the front of the locker from closed cell polyurethane foam standoffs and shade cloth with shock cord threaded through eyelets and spacer tubes to keep it taunt.

Travelling on bull dust roads can see surprising amounts getting into the van. While travelling up near Lightening Ridge, NSW we had a strong cross wind from the right, the negative pressure on the left side sucked in huge amounts of brown talcum powder in through the door vent. A plastic bread bag and masking tape was a temporary fix (worked pretty well too) on that trip. When we got back home I made a flip down cover over the vent on the door that seals by being held tight by the lip of the floor at the bottom, a good idea, except it flexed the door so much it wouldn't seal properly. That was fixed with a second catch on the bottom corner of the door. Additionally I made a baffled air box with a car air cleaner element on the outside over a 6 inch hole in the roof near the front of the van. This was combined with a axial flow fan inside connected to the aux 12 volt supply feed from the car which feeds filtered air into the van pressurising it when travelling so all leaks are (hopefully) outwards, preventing (usually) the ingress of dust.

Next to stop the bull dust build-up on the back of the van a full width dust deflector was made from a section of 100 mm aluminium fluming (irrigation pipe, to give the curve).

A musty smell in the van was tracked down to a water leak coming in through the left side of the rear hinge. To remove the roof to replace the vinyl hinge cover was a monumental job so I took the easy option and fitted an extruded aluminium gutter above the hinge and left the split in the hinge cover, I did the same to the front, just in case (actually the minimum purchase quantity meant I had more than I knew what to do with).

To look after creature comforts, particully in the middle of the night a Porta Pottie was built into the RH seat. As the access to it was pretty tight I cut down the RH rear corner of the table as per later models. The edging was carefully removed, the table re-shaped and re-grooved and the edging replaced. To further improve access and make a bit more room I made a new leg and hinge mounts for the table so that it would fold up and clip to the roof, the leg folding flat against the table.

Not being morning people I made some polyurethane foam inserts to fit in the top vents so we could sleep in the morning (nice and dark) in frosty weather it also gives better insulation.

The 105 amp hour batteries have just been replaced with 98 amp hour deep cycle AGM sealed batteries as topping up with distilled water was a very tedious affair as they were too heavy to pull out from the vented battery box in the rear RH corner under the bed. The method used was; undo all the screws to remove the top of the battery box and take off all the cell caps, put the distilled water container on the bench and siphon the water into each cell with a 4 mm tube while watching the level with a torch and mirror, not the easiest, and then put it all back together again.

THINGS THAT GO WRONG AND OTHER PROBLEMS

While making a rapid escape from Mount Ragged in the Cape Arid National Park (WA) on a track marked “4WD only, impassable when wet” I hit a rock shelf going a bit (lots) fast. There was a big storm brewing and we didn't want to be stuck there for a week or two. The Nissan Pathfinder came through unscathed with the gear inside getting a bit mixed up but the A' Van was not so lucky. The heavy duty 1000 kg axle has thicker trailing arms but the inner tubes are thin, the same as the normal axle assembly, so when it ran out of travel on the right side the inner tube bent causing too much toe out which then started scrubbing the tyres. The only place to have repairs done is in Victoria so we kept on going and ended up scrubbing out both (half worn out) tyres by the time we got back to SA. Repairing the axle resulted in a $750 bill for 2 new trailing arms (they did not have the early model spares and had to swap both) and rubbers; at the same time I had the maximum length rubbers inserted in to give a new capacity of 1400 kg so hopefully there will be less chance of damage from bottoming out.

Another blue I made was to leave the parking brake on for a trip to the North Flinders Ranges. The Nissan Pathfinder had plenty of horsepower and didn't mind but after 400 pretty speedy km's we arrived at the campsite and found no paint left on the brake drums and a scorched smell that was unbelievable. During the trip I thought there was something wrong with the brake controller as it didn't seem to be very effective but the red hot drums and shoes were the real problem. Anyhow the linings had been converted to carbon with heaps of cracks, original equipment shoes were quoted at $210 so I opted out to have them rebonded by ABS for $75.

The top vent winder handles split in half along the splines and fell off so I repaired them by super gluing the two halves back together. As they were then not as strong as the originals I slipped a short length of tube over the boss to increasing the diameter which allowed a spring hose clip to be fitted over it to strengthen the assembly. After fitting the clips I clipped the lugs off them so they would fit back into the vent assembly.

If you forget to put the cap on the sink drain pipe before you leave, the wind flaps it around so bad on its retainer strap that it eventually bails out (falls off), I lost it. The thread is American (NPT) not BSP like most Australian pipe fittings. Rather than chase around and eventually pay megabucks for an OEM cap I gently warmed up the PVC outlet with a propane gas flame until it started to go soft and wound on a plastic Philmac ¾ BSP end cap that I had laying around, the outlet took on the different thread form and pitch and as it cooled it shrunk a little to give clearance for easy removal. A PK screw joined the cap onto the existing retainer strap. The strap eventually died from UV exposure (went brittle and broke) so it was replaced with a large nylon cable tie cut to the required length and screwed on

After about 3 years the original smart charger stoped working in a cloud of smoke while the van was in storage in the garage and was not discovered for a couple of weeks. The bridge rectifier had failed and turned to charcoal while putting a dead short on the transformer, fortunately the transformer had a thermal fuse integrated in the windings which went open circuit and prevented the van catching fire and taking the garage with it so it was a fairly cheap and simple job to replace the damaged components. I was so impressed that when I built the second smart charger I put a thermal fuse in its transformer too.

The van is now so heavy I run the tyres on 36 PSI and the over ride brakes were coming on too soon and too hard so I had to put a spacer in the over ride coupling to re-tension the spring a bit (shouldn't have cut so much off it).

The plastic foam seals between the sides and roof after 8 years are starting to fall apart and letting in dust. I located adhesive backed foam strip that would fill the bill from Bunning's at a cost of $63 but then found “D” shaped foam rubber adhesive backed seal (part No X-1750BT) from UES (Int'l) Pty Ltd for $57.75 for 10 metres that I think will be a lot better (time will tell). The seal is slightly stiffer than the original foam and needs a little pressure applied to the side sections when locking them in place but this may relax with time. It is similar to the seal between the two door halves but a lot bigger.

The aluminium door hinges have worn allowing the door to drop down and drag on the floor. I removed the hinges and squared up the worn areas with a file and inserted a stack of M3 x 7 x 0.5 stainless washers (from Coventry Fasteners) in each joint to fill the gap and bring the door sections back to their original ride height. The hinges are aluminium for corrosion resistance which is fair enough but the hinge pin is aluminium as well, not very good for wear resistance (too soft). The hinges were removed from the body of the van leaving them on the two door sections and were then well lubricated with LANOX (a bit like WD40/Penetrene with lanolin) and the hinge pins were then driven out with a series of punches made from 2.5 mm high tensile fence wire cut to progressively longer lengths till it popped out the other end. The wire punches can't be too long or they will buckle sideways and not drive the hinge pin out (I used 4, the first one only 50 mm long). The hinge worn areas (every second joint) were filed square (make sure to file out all the area that will contact the washers, I used a small three corner file to get right into the corner) and then temporally assemble both halves of each hinge with the longest fencing wire punch holding the washer spacers in position. Don't try to jamb too many washers into each gap, there needs to be a little clearance. On some of them I had to file a little more out to give an optimum fit and used 4 or sometimes 5 washers in each position. The front of the original hinge pin was filed to a bullet point (to centre the washers on the way through) and then driven back in, displacing the fence wire at the same time. This was rather difficult as with the wear steps and its inherent softness it kept on trying to double up on me. If I was doing it again I would not use it but would replace it with a length of 3 mm dia. stainless rod which would then wear less, have less movement (as it is not yet worn) AND be a lot easier to tap in. Alternatively the easiest way to fix it would have been to buy (!!!!) new hinges to replace the worn ones, if you go down that path make sure the PK's (self tapping mounting screws) are offset a reasonable amount from the original ones so they have a new section to screw into, it's not real flash if they come in half way across an existing hole.

Further changes will occur as I think of them but at the moment all the mods are up to date and the wife is happy, what more could you ask for.

Jack & Jan Collins

BITS AND PIECES

For those making the exodus west to Busselton next year I have spoken to my friends Brownie and Anna who own the Ceduna Shelly Beach Caravan Park on Bosanquet Bay. If you mention membership in the A'van Club of Australia Inc. when you make your booking you will get a 10% discount on van sites and units. The phone No. is 08 8625 2012 or www.cedunacaravanpark.com.au

Jack & Jan Collins

LINKS TO OTHER PAGES