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MODIFICATIONS and SUPPLETIONS
temperature measurements
Several temperatures which are of interest were not measured as a standard option. Therefore a system has been installed which can measure the temperature at 4 location. The signals of the sensors are transmitted wireless, so that no cable network is required to make the information visible on a central display. The system consists of a simple, so called weather station, which is positioned at a good accessible place near the door of the camper. One temp sensor (for indoor measurement) is on board, and 3 external sensors can be read. The three additional sensors are used to measure the outdoor temperature and in the deep-freeze and the refrigerator, respectively. At the display the external temps are given one by one, with a cycle of a few seconds. The outdoor sensor can also be read when laying on the bed.
Additional information given by the control unit is: DFC time; history atmospheric pressure; sun(moon)rise and sun(moon)set.
additional heater
Although the camper is equipped with a gas heating system it is convenient in some cases to be able to
use an electrical heater. In summer time mostly little heat is required, so that switching on of an electrical
heater for a while is more simple than starting the gas system. But in particular in the winter period
when the camper is parked in the open air it will be better for the interior if the air is heated up
now and then. In order to avoid dragging with heaters a simple ventilator heater has been build-in
in the camper. The heater can be set on 1000 or 2000 Watt and is controlled by an adjustable thermostat. For
safety it contains a reversible overheating switch and a non reversible melting element.
It was found
that there was enough space underneath the refrigerator to contain the van heater and control unit. In order to
operate the refrigerator a 220V power line was already there. Fortunately the capacity of the power line is
strongly oversized.
Some holes were made in the cover sheet for passing the warm air and giving access to the control panel. Since
the space already contains an additional heater using the cooling water of the motor, no extra provisions had
to be made to guarantee sufficient air circulation. However, originally the air was suctioned via gaps from the
wet room. Since this not always smells nicely the gaps to the wetroom could be closed now.
A special option of the home made control system is that the operation of the heater can be made dependent
on the temperature difference between inside and outside of the camper. The idea is
to keep the temperature into the camper always a few degrees higher the the outside temperature, in order to prevent
condensation of moist. In order to have an indication about the costs an hour counter device has been added.
In the normal mode the build in thermostat of the van heater is used to control the
temperature. Of course the electrical heater works only if a 220v power supply is available. When the power is
disconnected the control unit always goes in the off mode. Human action is required to switch the heater on
when power is connected again.
forced cooling heat exchanging element of the refrigerator
The cooling of the heat exchanging element is originally based on natural convection. Since it is planned to visit warm countries it is not sure that the natural convection is strong enough to keep the temperature sufficiently low all the time. The heat exchanging element consist of a tube with sliced metal sheets in order to increase the cooling surface. It was easy to mount three fans (canibalised from old computers) with some metal aids on the slices. A forced air flow can now be generated. A temperature controlled switch has been implemented, so that the fans are only spinning when the exchanging element is warm. At normal temperatures the fans can be switched of, so that no additional noise is generated. However, it has been found that the fans are also improving the operation at normal temperatures.
combustion gasses gas oven
The camper is equiped with a gas oven. Although this is a nice tool, it was not used very often up to now. The main reason is that the combustion gasses are feeded to the interior of the camper. In particular in the colder seasons when the windows are closed the smell is quite strong. Actually it would be difficult to make an outlet in the roof of the camper, but apparently there was some reason not to do this. I am not happy with an additional hole in the roof, also. However, recently I discovered that is was easy to direct the combustion gasses to the open air. The back side of the oven is covered with a plastic cover, in order prevent that combustion gasses of cooling systen enters the interior. This cover is close to the vetilation opening for cooling the heat exchanging element of the refrigerator. By making a hole in the cover and mounting a ventilator the combustion gasses of the oven is directed to the open air. The ventilator is so close to the cover of the ventilation opening that it is hard for the combustion gasses of the cooling systen to enter the interior of the camper.
power supply navigator and mobile telephone
The navigation system and the mobile telephone are connected to the screen by a sucker. As a result the cables with adapters has to go down to the connector in the dash board. This is disorderly and looks not very fine. A better solution has been made by placing the adapters in a space behind the cabin light. A continuous 12V power supply during driving was available in the cabin light unit. Since the devices are placed at the upper side of the screen, almost no cable is visible now.
making the bed more rigid
Although the bed looks fine it is not rigid enough for our convenience. Therefore a simple solution is
applied to make the bed more rigid. A beam (aluminum pipe or wooden beam) was fixed to the bed segments
by means of cable ties.
some minor electrical suppletions
In the standard camper actually only one 220V plug connections was available (in the kitchen area). This appeared
not to be a convenient location in many cases. Therefore some additional connections have been made. One of them in the basement underneath the bed (eventually for heating the bed when using the camper in winter time), one close to the camper door and one in the front area. The second location is convenient when using electric light when sitting outsite in summer time.
Furthermore an additional 12V light spot has been supplied. A lack in the design was that there was no good light
for reading a book when sitting in one of the turned pilot chairs.
Finally an ampere meter has been inserted in the 220V power supply cable. Actually the 12V power circuit was equiped with an ampere indication, but not the 220V supply. On several campings the 220V power supplies have a limited
capacity, so that it is good to know how much ampere the different devices will need.
storage of the mat
Sometimes it is convenient to have a mat in front of the camper door. However, this mat becomes dirty
and the question is where to store the mat during driving. A solution was found at the back of the camper.
In contradiction with the actual trend this camper is equipped with a spare wheel. Actually this appeared to
be so unusual to day that a self made structure has to be made to store the wheel. This structure
is also used to make a place where two mats can be stored. Eventually the mats can be used, also, to prevent
slipping wheels if parked on a slippy surface.
water level
In order to have a convenient night it is preferred that the bed is horizontal. This can be checked by a water level.
Water levels are commercial available which measures the level in two directions. The point is where to install this
device, so that it is visible when sitting on the drivers chair. The best place found was on the rail of the
passenger chair. A bold was there already, so that the water level could be fixed easily after it was mounted on
an additional rigid platform.
fly certain
The fly certain consist of a number of strings which covers the opening of the camper when the door is open.
Since the door is rather thick a problem appears when the door has to be closed. This was solved by using two
short chains, so that the certain could follow the contours of the door. However, there was still the
problem that the strings are jammed in the locking mechanism. This was solved by using a strong magnet.
When the door is open a good sealing can be obtained by clicking the rail of the certain to the magnet. On the
other hand more space can easily be made by disconnecting the magnet (strong magnets can be cannibalized from
hard disk drive units).
The certain can be removed easily, but it is also possible to wind it up by means of an additional chain.
paper role
In the kitchen a device was wanted which keeps the paper role. Commercial devices are often rather robust and
has additional functions, which are not required. Therefore a simple device has been made. Be aware that a brake is required,
because without a brake the paper is winded off during riding.
improvement of some structures
In a first view the interior of the camper looks quite well. However, my first step on the embankment in
the basement underneath the bed results in a crack, and when I was sitting down a little bit hard on
the bank after a biking tour I hear a crack also. In order to keep the weight of the camper as low
as possible the factory uses rather thin wooden sheets in the construction. To increase the loading
resistance some improvements have been made. A detailed example of the improvement of the bank is shown, but
also in the basement underneath the bed some extra support has been implemented. Now it is possible
to put my wait (still carefully) on the embankment.
Water system
filling
The camper has a 120 l water tank, which can be filled via an opening at
the outside of the camper. A problem is that at home the camper is parked
very close to a hedge, so that the filling opening is not good accessible. Therefore
an additional opening has been made at the roof of the tank, which can be closed by
a screw cap. The water hose can be connected to this opening by valves and it is also possible
to fill the tank with a water can. The opening can also be use to discharge the water
in the tank using a siphon. This is faster than using the original tap, and the water
can be directed to the sink hole.
A question could be; why not using the large opening. The problem is that the large cap is
sealed by a rubber ring, which has to be tighten rather heavy in order to guarantee
no leakage. Due to this it is rather hard to open this cap again.
A special tool
was made for this. However, recently it was found that the cap
turns much easier when the rubber ring is covered with teflon tape.
drying the tank
If the camper is not used for a long term it is recommended to dry the water tank.
Even when the large cap is removed this will take a long time. In order to shorten the
drying process a ventilator connected to a short pipe can be used to force the air flow
in the tank. If the water is discharged as good as possible the tank can be dried
in a few hours.
cleaning water system
If the camper is used again after a term of rest it is required to clean the
tubes to the taps. In order to flush the system without using the internal pump an additional
connection is made after the pump. The water hose can now be connected to the water
system so that water system can be flushed simply. A cheap timer has been purchased, so that the time of the water flow can be adjusted in advance. The timer can also be
used when filling the water tank.
It is now also possible to clean tubes and boiler with additives without using the water storage tank. For this work a simple additional pump is used. The clean water tank is always discharged and dryed with a cloth and air flow, when not used for a while.
Following the specifications of the boiler the pressure of the water tap is somewhat too large. Therefore also a
pressure reducer is inserted in the supply system. The pressure is set to less than 1 bar, so that it is also not
possible that the water tank is oveloaded during filling.
In order to remove water from the tubes (in case of freezing) the additional connection can be used to blow air in the system. Up to now rather good results are obtained by a simple aquarium pump.
Finally a connection has be made outside the camper, so that it becomes possible to connect permanetly to the tap at home or to taps which are sometimes available at camping sites.
parking place
We are lucky that the camper can be parked at our own area. This appeared to be very convenient. The camper
is accessible at each moment, so that maintainance, modifications and repair are easy to perform. The camper
can be made ready very quickly for departure, so that there is a low treshold to use the camper. Ofcourse it
means that the camper is in the open air for the whole year. However, after one year no signs are visible that
this should be bad for the plastic protection sheets. Probably most sensitive is the roof, in particular
because at one location some water is accumulated. For that reason the roof is cleaned regularly. Eventually
the roof can be covered in winter time by a waterproof cloth.
In order to be able to place the camper next our home some modifications had to me made in the
garden. In the first instance a small hedge had to be removed in order to create an entrance. Then a path was
made with tiles. Finally two doors were installed to be able to close the entrance. Since we are situated in a
so called "living district" there are no special walking ways for pedestrains. Therefore no special permisssion
was required to drive from the street into the garden.
sink hole for water discharge
In order to discharge the water of the dirt water tanks a sink hole has
been made at the parking place. The discharge tube is connected to the sewer pipe
underneath the floor of the house. When the camper is parked on its place in the garden
a tube segment has to be placed in order to discharge the water of the dirt tank.
An unsatisfied situation was that there are two more significant water outlets (the outlets to empty the water tank and the boiler). This water was not collected so that it was dropped on the tile path. This was not improving the stability. Therefore a tube system has been mounted underneath the camper so that the discharged water from boiler and tank outlet is led to the outlet pipe of the dirt water tank. Now al water can be drained away at one location.
additional burglary prevention
In order to improve the resistance again burglary an additional tie belt is available to make it somewhat more difficult to open the cabin doors. Actually also the standard safety belts could be used. However, the door can be opened just enough in this case to cut the belt with a sharp knife. Unfortunately still some other weak point are there, such as the camper door and windows. Therefore also an alarm can be activated which detects movements inside the camper. Question is in how far people are still impressed by an alarm of a car.
clock for at night vision
When I awake at midnight I like to see what time it is, without doing all kind of actions. For that reason a clock has been installed above the head end of the french bed. The digital radio controlled clock has been mounted underneath one of the storage cases. Because in a battery powered device no permanent light is available an additional led has been mounted to illuminate the display. The power for the led comes from the 12 volt system of the camper, a connection point was available in the double floor of the cabin. Since the power consumption is only 20 mA the light is kept on permanently. It feels good to see that the you can sleep on for a while when you awake in the middle of the night.
testing the gas system
In order to be sure that the gas system is save it has to be periodically investigated on leakage. Several methods are available for the investigation. One of them is to measure the pressure drop in time after pressurizing the system. In this method the valves of the gas cylinders are closed. The required test pressure is about 150 mbar. It was found that this pressure could achieved approximately by means of an aquarium air pump. After pressurizing the system and closing the tube to the air pump the pressure is monitored by a digital precision manometer. Since the absolute pressure is measured a correction has to be made for the atmospheric pressure. The air pump and manometer are conected by means of a T-bar to the outlet of an unsused valve. Next the pressure is followed in time. Depending on the volume of the gas systen some pressure drop is allowed. This is in the order of 5 to 10 mbar per hour. Beside leakage, visual inspection of rubber tubes, rubber rings and the colour of the flames is required. Finally the date of some components have to be watched in order to decide if the have to be replaced.
How to feed the cat
When leaving home for a few days it is convenient when the cat can get his food.
Therefore a feeding machine has been developed, which can supply 7 meals.
The machine is controled by a clock, in order to supplies two times per day the food.
The operation can be monitored at distance with the mobile telephone by means of a
webcam. If in operation the feeding times are at 8:00 and 18:00.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
battery connection
Since in the showroom the camper was all the time connected to 220 power supply it was found at home that the
domestic battery was not working well. After a lot of measurements it was discovered that there was a bad contact
in the connection of the cable with the battery. The problem was that the shrink tube to protect the connection
between cable and ring runs for a rather large part over the ring. Because the wing nut is completely made of plastic
only the under site of the metal ring can make electrical contact. Due to the isolation material the ring will be wiped
up after getting some pressure of the swing nut. This problem could be solved easily by removing the isolation
from the ring. Difficult to find, but easy to solve.
door not open
After a few days during the first holiday it appeared not longer be possible to open the camper door. The
lowest one of the two locks could not be unlocked. This problem was solved as soon as possible by un-screwing
a part of the lock at the inside and by bending a part. Once at home the problem was investigated in more detail.
After removing the cover the control system of the locks was good visible. It was soon clear that a bold
was un-screwed by itself (see arrow right figure), so that the lock could not be controlled by the bar. The
bold was still there so that this could be repaired easily. Most of the work was to bring the bended part back
in its original shape.
water leakage in the motor compartment
A problem of the latest models of Fiat is that there is not a good sealing of the front screen. Water which is
running from the screen is infiltrating in the motor area. This causes that several parts of the motor
becomes wet during raining. Perhaps this is not a big problem if this happens now and than. However, in the case
the camper is always parked in the open air it is not a nice view to see that al parts in the motor compartment
are wet after each raining period. Up to now the most effective way to prevent leakage was using tape to close
the gap between the sheet and the sealing. It looks not nice, but it is very effective. Another problem were two small
compartments (left and right) to catch raining water. The outlet are spraying water over components in the motor
compartment. Furthermore the outlet holes were so small that they blocked very soon so that the bearing of the
wipers are under water all the time and overflow causes also wetted components. This problem has been
improved by significantly increasing the diameter of the outlets. Also additional tubes has been installed
so that the outlet is not longer wetting motor parts.
The center compartment for catching water is equiped with a sufficient large tube. However, that tube was ending
at such a place that still water was spraying over several part. Therefore the big tube have been redirected, so
that the water is discharged directly to the street.
Finally a solution is found to prevent water leakage of the air inlet. In particular when the motor cap
is opened after a raining period water is spread over the engine, but probably there is also some leakage in closed position. This problem is solved by mounting a spout underneath the air inlet. The water is now drained away so that it is not wetting the engine.
The plan is to protect the front with a cover in winter time. However, the smooth shape of the
front of the camper roof causes that water is running around the profile. In this situation the water will
infiltrate underneath the cover. As a test draught strip with an appropriate profile was used to prevent the water
following the profile. However, this profile seems to be just too small. So I am still looking for a better solution.
sticking of a door
The door to the wet cell was sticking. Dependent on the flatness of the parking area it could be
rather difficult to close the door. Attempts to increase the space by pre-stressing the rabbet temporarily did not help.
A more effective method was found by pre-stressing the rabbet continuously by means of a wood screw. In this case
the wooden sheet which supports the bed was used as anchor sheet. Now the space between door and rabbet can be
adjusted easily by tighten the wood screw. If the anchor sheet is bending after a while some additional
reinforcement can be added. As additional support the bed has been equiped with a snatch, so that the anchor sheet
is prevented from bending too much.
protection safety switches
After be surprised for two times by a 220V power cut off a solution has been made to prevent this problem.
The origin of the problem were three safety switches for the 220V power supply, which are located in the basement
underneath the bed. When putting some matter into the basement it can easily happen that it touches the switches,
so that they are moved into the off position. A simple solution has been made by covering the panel with a
transparent head. A hinge makes it possible to lift up the cover in order to have a good access to the switches.
missing part
The bed can be lifted up to get access to the storage basement. To make the uplift easier two gas cylinders
were installed, in order to decrease the weight of the bed. The mounting of the cylinder to the construction rail,
however, was not very well. They are moving along the rail, making that the effect of the cylinders was not
very reliable. After some investigation it was found that a metal plate was missing, so that it was impossible to
fix the cylinders sufficiently well to the rail. This could be solved easily.
cold air flow
During one of the last trips with the camper a cold air flow was detected coming from the perforated cover of the speakers, located in the cabin doors. It feels unpleasant, because the cold wind stikes against the leg of the driver. Actually it was not detected so strong before. But during this trip there was a strong wind perpendicular to the driving direction. The origine of the air flow is a perforated location in the door.
Since the door is only sealed at the cabin side air can flow free through the perforated area. Probably a precaution to prevent accumulation of condence moist into the door compartment. Therefore it looks not wise to cover the perforation.
However, after removing the perforated speaker covers it was good visible that gaps where available through which air could pass to the cabin. This problem could easily be solved by closing the gaps with tape. It is not such a nice view, but when the cover is placed back it is not longer visible.
damaged water tap by freezing
Although the water system was dewatered and the (cold/hot water) taps were set open in neutral position still some damage has happened in the tap of the kitchen. A ceramic disk with holes appeared to be broken, so that leakage occurs when the tap is opened.
Fortunately the broken part concerns the hole of the outlet, so that there is no leakage in closed position. It also means that the pressure is low in this area. And so the stresses, so that the part could be repaired by glueing.
Because a small amount of residual water causes damage, the tap looks not very resistance agains freezing.
It seems therefore necessary to remove the interior of the tap in a next cold period. Since this is not a very convenient action the tap will be replaced in the near future by a tap with a conventional closing system (rubber disk).
protection button
A conflict was observed between the button of a door of a case in the kitchen and a drawer. When the button was not in the lock position the drawer could be hitched by the button. This has happened very often so that the button was damaged some what.
Two modification have been made. In the first instance the hings of the door were made to rotate more smoothly, so that the door is not remaining always in a slight open position. Secondly a small wooden blok is mounted underneath the button, so that the drawer can not longer be hooked by the button.
turning table leg
The table of the camper has a lot of freedom in orientation. The table-flap can be fold out, rotate and shifted. Also the height can be adjusted. However, the handle to fix the vertical motion was located at the same site as the bench. So you knees are hitting the handle when sitting there. Furthermore the handle remains an obstruction in the case the table-flap was moved in such a way that the space between flap and bench was at largest. This was in particular annoying when working on the water system, which is located underneath the bench. It was found that this could easily be improved by rotating the table leg over 180 degrees. The leg was fixed on the floor by six screws. Now the handle is directed to the drivers chair. Even when the drivers chair is rotated the handle is much less an obstruction than it was in the original position.
Cap clear water tank
The cap which closes the outside filling input of the clear water tank was extremely difficult to remove. In particular when the cap was not removed for a longer time your fingers were almost broken to turn the cap. A study of this problem shows that the rubber ring causes a lot of friction. This friction has been elimineted by greasing the back of the ring with some butter. Actually the friction became now so low that the lock did not work. Therefore also some sliding planes of the locking system were greased.
dead engine
On a Sunday morning, when ready for departure the engine should be started. However, surprisingly nothing happened when turning the key. The lights of the instrumets were on, but were going off when attempting to start the engine. Since the camper is always connected to 220 power when parked at home, and the battery was not older than 2 years, it was believed in the first instance that the battery charger was out of order. Therefore an attemp was made to start the engine with an additional battery via starting cables. The additional battery, however, was not in such a good condition so that the attemp fails. Before taken further action it was decided to measure the voltage of the system. It was found that this was more that 13V, which indicates that the battery must be well charged. However, when activating the starting engine the voltage drops to zero. Finally the idea comes up to measure directly at the electrodes of the battery. It shows that the voltage was still more than 13V, even during starting.
The problem was the conduction between the ground electrode and cable was not good. It appeared that the (quick fix) terminal was not be connected tight enough, so that slight erosion hampers the conduction. Some jerking of the terminal was sufficient to improve the conduction sufficiently in order to start the engine. However, the quick fix terminal has been replaced by a conventional terminal, which can be fixed by a bolt and nut.
Warning light on
At the third day of our 4 weeks holiday to Italy a warning light keeps burning. At that moment we were close to Briancon. Following the manual the symbol refers to a disturbance in the injection system. It was described, however, that the warning was not fatal, so that it was allowed to continue driving. Possibly the power could be decreased and more fuel could be consumed according to the manual. Since there could not be observed any change in the behaviour of the engine I had the idea that it was a disturbance of the warning system itself. However, to have such a warning light in the beginning of a holliday did not feel fine. Therefore I called the Fiat support number to ask what to do. They advice us to go to a sevice station (the most close they could find was in Gap) to examine the problem. At the service station they were willing to elaborate the problem at same day. Visually the cable to the injectors and the injectors themselves were treated with some compound. Furthermore a computer was during quite a long time connected to the engine in order to reset the warning system and to update the software.
When after 2 hours the repair was finished they give us the key and we could drive away without paying any costs. It appeared that they had carried out a factory recommended mofication, which is costless for the owner. The question remains why Fiat has not offered earlier to carry out this modification. Apperently the user needs to ask for it.
Last edited November 2009
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