Tag Archives: Motorhome

Motorhome fit out

Prep work for the new fridge.

23/06/2018 Bernie Cross

Just need some vents

To date we have used our fridge on 240v & 12v, as it was not vented it also keep the bus warm.

But now it’s time to make up the waterproof ducting for the vents for it’s final resting place.

Sheet metal Time

After marking out for the vents, I’ll make a cardboard template to see if I’ve got my measurements right. Well the cardboard one worked perfectly so time to mark it out on some sheetmetal and cut it out.

Where is a folder when you need one

It would be nice to have a folder, but there is no room on the bus for one of those. Lucky I’m only using 0.6mm alum sheet, so I can bend it by hand over some timber.

Just have to bend the flange on one end now.

Time to cut more holes in the bus

Well I’ve made the ducting, now it’s time to fit them. Out with the grinder again, let’s hope I’ve marked it out right.

Just making sure that the outside hole will be in the right place before I go crazy with the grinder on the outside of the bus.

Drilled and countersunk ready to screw into the timber around vent ducted.

Timber support so I can screw from the outside panel and seal with some sikaflex.

Well it won’t leak now, just a bit messy.

Looking from inside with vent cover + fly screen on.

So that was the hard one, the top one will be a lot easier as I only have to cut through the fiberglass panel.

As I’ve only one set of hands I screwed the top vent into place, otherwise there was no way I could have done this vent by myself. Both top and bottom ducting are screwed from the outside of the bus.

Braced in place so I can screw it in place from outside.

Top ducted screwed and glued into place, not so messy this time.

Both these vents can be unscrewed so I can clean the fly screen and also have access to the back of the fridge when I need to fix things. So next part of the project will be the kitchen walls, as well as some sparky stuff.

Motorhome fit out

Time for new fuses

14/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Replacing the old fuse with new one’s

With all the obsolete wires and fuses the old fuse board is looking a bit crapy. I needed to upgrade to new fuses as well as fix some of the wiring. I had already had the new fuse blocks in storage somewhere under the bus so it was time to dig them out.

Out with the old & in with the new

When I was fixing the engine brakes, I thought it was mechanical to start with, but after some tested it turned out to be electrical. I had to trace the wiring from the back of the bus to the front which took days, as the fuze board was a mess. In the end it ended up being a 24v relay in the spot that needed to be a 12v relay, the only one in a 24v system.

So now to fix the board, after finding the new fuze box’s under the coach in the bins and labelling then. It was time to remove all the old fuze holders one at a time, then wiring in the new ones so I didn’t lose track of were the wire’s went.

You can see why I am not cutting all the wires at once and only cutting one at a time, then fitting then to the new fuze box’s. Other wise I wouldn’t know which wire went where.

Top row in place after a lot of soldering.

Even have some spare’s for latter if I need them.

There are still some fuze’s that will be not needed latter on, but for now I still need them. When we fit the sola power system in there will be 10 of these fuze’s that wont be needed, but till then we do.

Motorhome fit out

The bedroom need some wardrobes

25/09/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

New bedroom wardrobes

We bought new wardrobes just to cut them up just because nothing ever fits when your making a motorhome. This will definitely be a custom motorhome with lot’s of storage space, Charmaine’s very happy.

First off we had to make some room to build them as most of the supplies are in the coach as well as being a work place.

Wardrobe time

Making up more boxes again, screwing and gluing them together after cutting them down to size. We had to cut 35mm off the bottom and around 250mm off the top to make them fit the place as well as some where to put the speakers. The off cuts will be used to make up some more cupboards that will sit on top of the wardrobes, the more storage space the better.

One more box on top made up of off cut’s.

The trim around the wardrobe take’s time.

Utility cupboard

Behind the passenger side wardrobe there will be a narrow utility cupboard wide enough to fit the cordless vacuum, the deck ladder for the back hatch roof top deck access and other cleaning things. This one has to be made from scratch as it’s such an odd shape, it will have three to four deep shelves, for laundry washing bottles ect .

Power to charge the cordless vacuum in the utility cupboard.

At this stage I’m just making it up as I go along, but I think its enough for what Charmaine needs for the use of this space. Now it’s time to cut the rest of the pieces up that I need so to finish screwing and gluing it all together. The top of the walls actually lean in around 85mm and by not going all the way to the ceiling I don’t have to worry about the curve for now.

Now for the other side wardrobes

I had already built it so, it’s just a matter of starting on the trim to go down the side between the wall the support under the wardrobe. Then build a small cupboard to go on top and somewhere for the other speaker with the stereo. The passenger’s side has all the wires, 12v lighting as well as the speakers on that side.

Motorhome fit out

Bathroom wall’s to go up

20/09/2017 Bernie Cross

Getting closer to having a bathroom

With the bathroom floor in place and water proofed it’s now time to start on the walls. But first we have to work out were the toilet window will go and lets hope it’s in the right place.

Passenger side marking out for toilet window.

We have a hole in the side of the motorhome.

Now to start on the wall’s

First off is to cut the insulation followed by gluing it in place, a job I love to hate. Second stage is to cut the first sheet of ply to size and making sure the window is cut out in the place. Now it’s time to start fitting it to the side of the coach.

There will be one more sheet put up on this side for the moment which will finish off the bathroom wall and part of the kitchen.

The vanity and laundry side

This side will be straight forward as there is no window to go on this wall at all. So it’s just gluing the insulation in place then cutting the ply to size. Screw some packing in place so I can glue and screw the ply to the wall.

Vanity and laundry side, with packing screwed into place.

Looking from the front of the coach at the bathroom.

Top of the toilet and shower wall finished.

240v for a power point in the vacuum cupboard and 12v for a toilet light.

Start of the wall between the bathroom and kitchen.

After running some more power cables around the top of the walls and finishing off the transition from the walls to the ceiling. Just some more painting for Charmaine to do to finish off the bathroom walls for now. Look’s like the next project will be to build some wardrobes to close off the bedroom from the bathroom.

Motorhome fit out

Bathroom floor needs some work

17/09/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Moving forward and out of the bedroom

Now into the bathroom we go, after I’d finished the under floor heating it’s time to fix the bathroom floor. The old flooring will have to be pulled up and prepped for the new floor to go down. Until I started I thought it was going to be easy, but I found rusty screws which were holding the floor down as well as it being glued very well in place. This took me a hell of a lot longer than I anticipated, unfortunately. I also had to grind the old seat rail off the wall to get the new flooring into place.

Will have to cut off the old seat rails too.

Bugger that was a lot harder than I thought.

One bit at a time or bits…. oh and found a washing machine.

New floor time

I had already cut the flooring to size using 16mm ply, the old stuff was only 12mm thick. We will also be screwing the same 16mm ply between the supports so the floor will end up being 32mm thick in most places. After letting then undercoat dry it was time to start laying the sheets into place, once again screwing and gluing as we go.

Looks good now after two coats of water proofing paint.

After sealing in between the sheet as well as down each side we put down one coat of water proof undercoat then finished it off with two topcoat’s to seal it off, no water getting through here now.

Motorhome fit out

Bedroom back walls and the fiddly bits

04/09/2017 Bernie Cross 1 Comment

The fun of filling in the gaps

As nothing is square in the bus, there is always going to be gaps somewhere and they can be put to good use. It’s more ass than class but to my surprise things are fitting into place, if only….. just. On either side of the top cabinets we are putting in some speakers for the surround sound.

This is the odd shapes you have to work with.

Looks like a good place to fit some speakers, don’t you think?

Now we have somewhere for the back speakers.

Now for the bottom half

This is a bit more tricky as there is not much room to work with and the shape has to be exact. I will be trying to put a USB charger, AUX and a USB to the stereo on either side of the bed next to the middle cabinets and the wall.

Lets hope we soldered the wires in the right place.

Phone charging points that can be switched off, AUX and USB back to the sound system.

There was no room to spare at all, but that was a painful job and one that I’m glad is now over. I sometimes have some great ideas that I end up wishing I hadn’t had, but the job is done now.

Motorhome fit out

Hatch Problems

09/08/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Just a patch up job

This hatch will be used to get up on to the roof top deck later on, but till then I’ve had to fix the struts as the old ones were falling apart. We have been using the hatch for fresh air and light and the plastic struts just were not meant to be used on a daily basis. I have had some gas struts for another job, so time for some modifications.

New fittings to the hatch for the gas struts.

That will do me till this hatch turns into the way up to the roof top deck.

How to get up there

We will be looking at setting up a ladder later on after the bathroom is finish. There has to be some more work on the hatch as it will have to open up, so I’ll have to make some hinges to fit the roof profile as well as a latch system to keep it closed, fit some bigger gas struts to hold it up in place when it’s open.

Motorhome fit out

It’s bedroom time

21/07/2017 Bernie Cross

Time to start fitting out the bedroom

Starting from the back of the coach to the front is the only way to go. Under the bed area is where the motor is, so the floor has a raised part, this is a great place to put in bedroom cupboards. With nothing being square or plum apart from the floor I was making it up as I went along. It’s nothing like building a house!

Lots of flat pack cupboard boxes to make up from Bunnings.

The bed should fit between the two bedside draws.

One bit at a time, this cover goes on so more draws can go on top.

Time to put some support in place and insulation before I go too far.

One more box and this level will be done.

With the black timber in place it only just fitted after shaving the back edges off the side boxes.

They only just made it in after Shaving off some timber.

No turning back now time to screw it in place.

Time for some sparky stuff

At this stage it was time to run some 12 volt cables for the LED lights as well as some USB chargers on either side of the bed. We need some speaker cables put in as well for the stereo that was going to go in later on. We are not running 240 volt in the bedroom as there is nothing we can think of that we need it for down this section of the bus so 240 volt is it .

All the power cables for the lights, USB charges and the stereo speakers are in. Lets hope that is all of it.

Time to fit in the down light before I go to far.

12v cables are in place as well as the insulation.

You can turn the LED lights any colour you like.

Now the led light strip in place and all powered up.

I have some fiddle bits of trim around the cupboards, which will be done later on when we get some other work out of the way first. All we have to do now is fit the draw runners on before putting the draws.

We have not decided what we actually want the walls to look like, there has been some ideas floating around but nothing that really makes us confident to want to finish them now. So I will be tidying up the bedroom walls with more ply where all the power cables run and then painting them till we find what kind for finish we are looking for.

Motorhome fit out

Bedroom Ceiling…. Time To Prep

27/06/2017 Bernie Cross 4 Comments

Over My Head….. Just.

The bedroom ceiling is the lowest overall in the back of the coach, so it just touches the top of my head. The old ceiling carpet had already been removed by Des, so all I had to do was grind the toilet ceiling panel off then scrap back the foam underlay that was glued to the ceiling.

Old Toilet ceiling, it had a 10mm step down made out of sheetmetal.

Toilet ceiling after removing the sheetmetal panel.

Time To Remove The Underlay

With scraper in hand it was time to start scraping back all the old underlay. This might sound like an easy job, but it had been glued up there very well. I thought it wouldn’t take to long, but I was wrong again as the bedroom ceiling end up taking around 8hrs just to get the foam off.

Last of the foam off the bedroom ceiling.

Now To Get Rid Of That Glue

With the contacted glue still all over the ceiling, the only way that I could think to do was to put a sanding disc on a grinder and go for it. Well… it worked, I had been covered in glue and dust. Thank goodness for a dust mask and safety glasses as once I was finished the job there was crap all over the place.

All the old glue has gone with most of it on me…

I’ll Just Keep On Going

Now that I’ve started on the ceiling, I’ll keep on going and finish it all off inside the coach. The next project will be the bathroom then onto the kitchen ceiling area, so once I have cleaned all that up it will be ready to glue and pop rivet some white Colorbond sheet metal that came with the coach from Des. The ceiling is a good job to do when the weather is wet and raining so while its nice and fine I will go finish removing the old air-con on the roof above the bedroom, they are the wholes in the ceiling you can see on the photo.

Motorhome fit out, On the road problems

Big Bus Big Adventure Air Conditioner ???

06/06/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Is The Air Conditioner Working

The condenser unit was fitted in the front bin on the drivers side and only had an out vent so if the bin door was closed, things didn’t work that well. This should have been one of the first things that I should have fixed, but as we were not on the road much I didn’t think about it at all. Now after driving from S.A. to N.T. and now into QLD, it was defiantly time to fix it.

Time For Some Modifications

To start with we had to seal the air-con unit to the outside bin door, so off to the hardware store for some sheetmetal. Ended up getting some flashing which would mean I would not have to bend any 90 angles. So out with the tin snips and pop rivet gun to make some ducting.

Made up some ducting to get the air out.

Rubber seals in place so the hot air only go’s outside.

Time For Some Intake Vents

Now all we had to do was the intake vents, I thought three would do for a start and thats all they had at the hardware. So back to the coach I went to start fitting the intake vents. First off was to mark out the holes for the vents then cut them out.

Marked and cut out ready for the new vents

New vents in place so no more over heating while driving down the road.

One Cool Motorhome.

Now that job is done It’s so much cooler inside when driving down the road. Also when we stay somewhere I don’t have to open up the air-con’s bin door again, now that all the hot air is blown outside.