Anyone who has used their motorhome during the winter months will know that they are often not as well insulated as they would wish - or as efficiently as the makers might have us believe.
Like us, you probably remember when you bought your van: those brochure photos of 'your' motorhome parked next to an idyllic fjord, surrounded by snowy mountain peaks and azure skies… It certainly swayed our decision.
The reality of our lives, though, is more likely to be a prayed-for sunny holiday in Scotland. Even more to the point, in many cases, the plain-old delivery van on which our motorhomes are based was designed with different standards in mind. Take, for instance, the standard cab heater. It was designed to do no more than heat only the cabin space of your average Fiat/Peugeot/Citroën cab. And certainly, in our Swift Kon-Tiki, the cab heater struggled during the depths of winter to provide more than background warmth. And it's not surprising when you consider that behind the driving cab is a space probably ten times as big. All the heat shoots out the back leaving us cooler than we would want.
So, what can you do to make things more bearable? Read on, dear reader, for we have ways to tuck you up warm and cosy – yes, even in the depths of a cruel winter.
Stage 1 Cosy cabs
First, remember that the cab heater's output is designed for the volume of your cab, so let it get on with it – you cannot make it put out any more heat.
What you can do is stop it losing heat unnecessarily. We found that hanging a blanket from the Luton, down behind the cab seats while we travelled made a staggering difference while on the move. Once on site, feeling warm and comfortable, you can turn on the heating in the living area.
Now, let's deal with draughts. The standard Fiat cab, for instance, has been designed so that there is a flow of air while the vehicle is moving. Without that flow the heater won't work so well: try driving with the heater on and then wind down the window a little; notice how much more hot air comes in through the heater vents? That's because the air is being sucked through the cab much faster. The reverse happens if the air cannot get out, so Fiat designs outlets to help the heater move air through the cab faster. That's fine until you attach a motorhome body to the back of your Fiat cab because then all the air outlets in the cab become air inlets.
So, we have to block off those outlets. But what about all that cleverly designed airflow,
I hear you say? No problem
– the average motorhome has more holes in it than you would believe.
Some holes, such as those where wires and pipes enter the floor, can be draught-proofed. Others such as 'designed' holes for gas-drop vents, and cooker vents, should be kept clear at all times. We need to deal with the outlets-turned-inlets.
Stage 2 Dealing with draughts
Open the cab doors and look at the rear edge below the lock: see that serrated grille? That's one of the air outlets, and we need to block it, and its neighbour on the other door.
There are two ways of doing this: the easiest is simply to stick some heavy-duty gaffer tape over the outside of the grille and it will make a heck of a difference. But if you want to do the job properly, you will want to stop the other draughts coming through the door, and to do that you have to take off the door panel:
• Remove the door pulls by unscrewing them and any plastic mouldings on the door.
• Prise off the inner panels (held in place by plastic 'mushrooms' which push-fit into holes in the door frame).
• Wiggle the panel over the door handle levers and peel back the inner self-adhesive layer of plastic sheet beneath.
• Once you have the panels off, stick some more gaffer tape over the grille from the inside. 5. Pay particular attention to the self-adhesive sheet in the area of the door handles: it is often roughly cut away where the handles protrude; if yours is like this, use more gaffer tape around the area to seal the plastic sheet to the metal of the inner door panel.
This last step may appear trivial but on our Fiat-based van the draught around the door handles was phenomenal.
Owners of older vans may also find a series of holes stamped through the lower area of the inner door panel, to aid ventilation. Again, these need to be covered with gaffer tape: stick the tape over the cab side face. And, while you have the door panel off you may as well do it properly: use more tape to stick a layer of thickish plastic sheet on the inside.
• Finally, replace the panel
by offering it up to the door and gently pressing the 'mushrooms' back into place.
Stage 3 Shut that door!
If, your cab doors have areas which seem particularly draughty, it is likely that the door edges need to be bent to maintain a better contact with the rubber seal. We found that one side of our cab was far draughtier than the other.
If you suspect a poor contact in your motorhome, have your passenger place their hand at various points around the door frame as you motor along. Once you've found a suspect area, note it for attention.
The cure is easy: bend the edge of the door outwards to move the rubber into a closer contact with the door frame and make a better seal. Don't overdo it – moving the lip just three or 5mm should make all the difference. And do it gently, otherwise you risk flaking the paint, which could allow rust to set in. This will make a surprising difference to your comfort levels:
• Open the door and remove the rubber press-on strip
from the door aperture by prising it away.
• Using a rubber hammer, or a block of wood with a normal hammer, gently bend the protruding lip slightly outwards, towards the door.
Stage 4 All warm inside
How can you keep your living area warm as you drive along? One way is to install a heat exchanger, such as those fitted to some Rapido and Benimar motorhomes. They are simple arrangements with a fan, to distribute hot air around the living area. Practical Motorhome contributor Jack Bancroft suggests you obtain the unit from your base vehicle manufacturer, which in any case fits them to minibuses and the like. And, being original equipment, this should get around any warranty issues.
Another way would be to obtain a spare heater matrix and fan from a breaker's yard, and fit it yourself. This would help keep costs low.
A more complicated, but nevertheless efficient method would be to fit a Webasto or Eberspächer diesel-fired heater. Either will heat your living area effectively, and either can be used safely while on the move. As for cost, an Eberspächer Airtronic D2 blown-air heater, for example, will set you back about £805.
You could also fit an air conditioning unit with 12V power supply which will run the heating while you're on the move. They are expensive but versatile. One example is a Waeco Easy Cool EC1500 AC/DC (£1468) which provides 800W of heating and, because it's roof mounted it can blow warm air through vectored vents to wherever you need it in your living area when travelling.
Stage 5 Fix frosty vents
The fridge in your van takes in air from outside, through its intake vents. Trouble is, our motorhome's vents allow a gale to blow in around the edges in a high wind.
If so much air is blowing in from outside, we thought,
what about the toxic fumes
that were being created at
the back of the fridge when it was working on gas? Can't they get in too? The answer is yes, they do – and that's dangerous. So, if your fridge admits a draught, get a qualified gas engineer to inspect it immediately.
You will find that the grilles are held in place by plastic turnbuckles. Use a large screwdriver to remove these and then lift out the grilles top and bottom. Now have a look inside the void behind the back of the fridge. Your van's manufacturer should have sealed the edges of the fridge against the wooden cabinet. To do this they use a sticky, black coloured, expanding foam strip. This is done after the fridge has been installed and carried out from outside the van, through the grille holes. It's not an easy job and one that is hard to check after the grilles have been installed. It is also a job that is easily overlooked in the quality check process and the result of a poor installation is not evident for a long time after the van has left the works.
So, if your van, like ours, is not fully sealed around the inside of the fridge void, the easiest way to make a good seal is to ignore the back of the fridge – there are just too many odd-shaped corners and bits that stick out to make any semblance of a good seal.
The answer is to go inside the van and have a good look at the seal around the fridge
and the cabinet into which it is fitted. On our Kon-Tiki there was a 3mm gap almost all
the way around the edge of the fridge/cabinet join and a 12mm gap at floor level – we are not kidding when we say that on a bad day the draught would almost cut your legs off!
To seal the gaps, we inserted a strip of wood between the floor and the fridge and then ran a bead of polyurethane sealant around the entire edge of the fridge/cabinet join.
It's an easy-to-break seal which allows the fridge to be removed, if required. Also, it doesn't show up against the interior furniture.
Don't use silicone sealant because it may pull the veneer off if you ever have to remove the fridge again, and it cannot be overpainted if you chip the veneer and need to touch it up.
By the time we had finished, the improvement was astonishing and furthermore we had no more fears about toxic gases coming into the van while we slept.
Stage 6 Through the roof
Until recently, most modern roof lights incorporated hidden vents around the edges. The in-built vent is not that visible, and many motorhome owners don't even realise they are there.
The vent works all the time
– even when the roof light is closed, and especially when the motorhome is in motion on the road. A good idea? Maybe, because the vent allows a 'trickle ventilation' at all times and keeps your motorhome's interior well aired. However, they are also very draughty and it is interesting to see that newer vehicles don't use them. The logic appears to follow the path that if you need ventilation you will open a window – but why, we wonder, should you pay to heat your van and then let most of it out of the roof?
So, have a look at your roof lights – if they look like the one pictured here they have vents around the edges. The easiest way to save yourself from sitting in a draught and having to turn the heater up is to block them. And the easiest way to do that is to run some gaffer tape around the inside edges and across the vents at the top. You can leave it in place all year round and it will do no harm.
And, here's a tip for winter: close the blinds on your roof lights to save even more heat from escaping.
Stage 7 Trouble glazing
We find that the biggest source of draughts in our current motorhome is the window-surround rubbers. But that's not surprising when you consider the donor vehicle of your motorcaravan is probably a standard delivery van. So, the niceties of window sealing and draught proofing are
not (yet) up to the levels of a car built in the same year – or even in the same factory!
And, more often than not,
that cold wind blows in around them.
To remedy the situation you are going to have to replace the window surround rubbers. It's not a big job but one that takes a certain amount of research to be able to source the appropriate replacement items. Pick up a copy of the Yellow Pages, look under 'motor factors' and 'car trimmers' and get phoning. You will be trying to source lengths of window rubber – the sort that has additional 'fluffy' felt along the side against which the window glass slides.
Once you have found a local supplier we suggest you remove one of the existing rubbers as a template. To do this, wind the window all the way down and, using a
broad-bladed screwdriver, gently prise off the existing rubber from around the door window aperture. Protect the door paint from scratches by using a cloth.
The window surround is a pre-formed moulded rubber extrusion which merely sits in place around the window frame. It can be easily replaced with a differently shaped extrusion, and there are plenty from which to choose. You
will need one that has a greater degree of resilience than the standard Peugeot, Fiat, Citroën, Mercedes or
Ford version.
The easiest way to choose one is to take your template rubber seal along to your chosen motor factor's premises and pick one off the shelf. Buy enough to go around the frame of both windows, plus a little bit extra.
At home, when you fit it to your van, push it onto the lip of the window surround and finish off in the corner where there is a right angle.
Snug as a bug in a rug
You should now have a cosy, draught-free motorhome. All you need now is some snow and blue sky to tempt you out this winter to enjoy the fruits of your labour.
Mike Richards |
