Not a Self-build, but a Tweaker

[wildebus]

I took delivery today of a very nice Autotrail Cheyenne 635SE

The Cheyenne is in superb condition so not a fixer-upper in the slightest, which is great, but I plan to make a few improvements still to make her even nicer

A few pics just before we took ownership ...

Kitchen

Part of Bathroom

Plan to log the changes and possibly even do a youtube video series!

 

[Chris Evans001]

Congratulations!

Lovely looking van.

 

[wildebus]

I don't know about others, but I do actually LOVE Manuals! (the reading type, not the Gearbox type ).
And another thing I love is when someone keeps all the manuals and literature for their stuff to pass on

So along with the Motorhome came a bunch of MOT certs, Receipts for work done AND the following collection ....
The main manuals for the vehicle and entertainment stuff (including the 3 (yes, THREE!) TVs)

IMG_20200914_085839_8 by David, on Flickr

And Manuals for the fitted "Habitation" stuff - Fridge, heating, toilet, etc.
IMG_20200914_085845_8 by David, on Flickr

Should keep me busy for a while!

 

[Millie Master]

Looks like your new "flimsy" has enjoyed a cossetted, loved, life Dave, mind you I'm a bit worried about you going down the "flimsy" route as the next thing we will all be seeing are details about some kind of 'A' frame and a small car to tow behind

Phil

 

[wildebus]

Looks like your new "flimsy" has enjoyed a cossetted, loved, life Dave, mind you I'm a bit worried about you going down the "flimsy" route as the next thing we will all be seeing are details about some kind of 'A' frame and a small car to tow behind

Phil

She has been all around Europe in all seasons over the years, occasionally towing a trailer with motorbikes and the like, so a cossetted but very full life

I got a very comprehensive handover, with the previous owner then asking questions to make sure I was listening so I could look after his baby properly!

 

[mark61]

She has been all around Europe in all seasons over the years, occasionally towing a trailer with motorbikes and the like, so a cossetted but very full life
View attachment 2930
I got a very comprehensive handover, with the previous owner then asking questions to make sure I was listening so I could look after his baby probably!

I can just see that trailer behind my van now.
Just need to get some toys to put in it.

Good looking van there, enjoy.

 

[trevskoda]

Looks fab and health to wear.

 

[wildebus]

Been in the Motorhome this morning tripping breakers and removing fuses (I like to know up front what sockets/devices are powered by what circuits).
Something which seems strange is that there is a grand total of TWO 12V sockets! - one for the Lounge TV, and one for the Bedroom TV.
And to go along with the pair of 12V sockets there are a total of ZERO USB Sockets! Quite remarkable.
It is the kind of thing I would add to anyway, but I was intending to leave the van pretty well as it is for a while to get used to it before making any changes but can't live without a couple of USBs for charging until then!

 

[SquirrellCook]

USB sockets, never really thought of having them. Not got any 12 volt ones either. Very good lighting in Murky, so I’m not motorhoming in the dark ages.

 

[wildebus]

USB sockets, never really thought of having them. Not got any 12 volt ones either. Very good lighting in Murky, so I’m not motorhoming in the dark ages.

so charging phones and tablets and the like?

 

[SquirrellCook]

Just use the mains chargers that came with the devices, we always have mains for the fridge.

 

[Nabsim]

Glad you got it as quick as you did Dave, looks a great buy and just what you were after

 

[Sprinter 1 cup]

Vantastic try a little run out and take more notes. We just came back from 2 wildcamping / motorhomes weekends. While out found out beds to high and I don't want a step, that's it, Lowering the bed now, not for getting in bed but getting out...! Lol

 

[Brian c]

Nice one David. Looking forward to what happens next. Maybe a preview of what I need lol. Brian

 

[wildebus]

First trip away is a mega 5 miles to go to the Motorhomer Kelso meet LIttle shakedown test (and @Millie Master - we will be taking the car as well as the Motorhome ).
Then next week another trip down to the Yorkshire Dales for an overnighter at a campsite - free stay while I do some work on a VW Motorhome

 

[wildebus]

Something I am doing right now is checking power consumptions of the multi-fuel devices in the Motorhome to check the feasibility of what could run on a battery system to cut down on gas use.

Because of the way I setup up Clarence, my Campervan conversion, I can plug the new Motorhome into the Campervan and monitor its use
Firstly monitoring the 3-way Fridge when running on 240V.
Looks like it is a fairly constant 240W (which is around 5 x the electrical consumption of my 240V Compressor Fridge in Clarence).

The effect on the Battery voltage at that current draw is quite noticable. In this 4 hour snapshot, voltage has dropped nearly 0.2V

And the key piece of info - how is it affecting the battery State of Charge? Now bearing in mine the Motorhome is actually running on the Campervans batteries, not its own, I have a 645Ah Battery Bank available. Not starting with 100% full, but how much SoC has been taken out of this large bank?

so the above shows 15% has been taken out the batteries - and this is a 645Ah bank - if I had a maybe more typical 200Ah Bank, that would be around 45% taken out of the batteries in 4 hours. And if that 200Ah bank were Lead Acid Batteries that you don't want to take below 50%, in effect you would have all but drained the available power from the battery bank in just 4 hours if running this Thetford 3-way fridge!

If you had a big solar setup, then that could sustain the fridge in the summer through a fair bit of the day, but not overnight.

I was curious if the fridge might have a duty cycle along the same lines of a compressor fridge (I think some 3-ways do?) but it doesn't look like it, so this is going to be a 240V-only-on-hookup device I think.

The Truma Ultraheat Space Heater will definately only be a 240V-mains-only (running heating on battery will be a no-go for a long time!).
The Truma Ultrastore Water Heater could be a good candidate for a decent sized battery bank though. The Campervans 10L mains heater doesn't use much power and I would expect the Ultrastore with a similar sized tank to be similar. That is a test for another day

This general info should be very useful to know how much value there will be in any upgrades to Electrical power and systems to balance cost against effectiveness

 

[Millie Master]

As the Trigano Group are a French organisation and as throughout mainland Europe, most especially France, there are so many Mo-Ho owners who only use the truly brilliant Aires sites where the very vast majority don't have EHU facilities, wouldn't you think that as a Group they would equip all their vans with equipment which made them less reliant on 240V supplies?

OK that is a different matter in the UK, but your brilliant tests Dave prove how the equipment fitted to vans like yours can tie most owners to full services sites.

Phil

 

[wildebus]

As the Trigano Group are a French organisation and as throughout mainland Europe, most especially France, there are so many Mo-Ho owners who only use the truly brilliant Aires sites where the very vast majority don't have EHU facilities, wouldn't you think that as a Group they would equip all their vans with equipment which made them less reliant on 240V supplies?

OK that is a different matter in the UK, but your brilliant tests Dave prove how the equipment fitted to vans like yours can tie most owners to full services sites.

Phil

There is of course gas, which will "untether" you from hookup, but it does show motorhomes were - and still are in the majority of cases - still fossil-fuel dependant. And I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that when the new generation of electric-driven campers appear, they will be the same, habitation-kit wise.

As I have no plans to be changing perfectly seviceable - and expensive - kit, even just this first test is helping me evaluate the best course to tune the Cheyenne

 

[wildebus]

Now I had a look at the info this morning and actually it is a little different - although it doesn't really change my end conclusion still

The fridge in the Motorhome is a big fridge (180L I think) and it had been off for at least 2 days so there is a fair bit of initial cool-down to do and I think this is why there was so much constant power use. (It is also empty which is supposed to make the fridge have to work harder (I'm not sure it it matters but just mentioning this)).
So I noticed this morning the Fridge DOES seem to have a duty cycle of power/no power once it is down to operating temperature...

This improved the situation but it still means it uses a lot of power when on - and unlike the Compressor Fridge where it is more like 25% on/75% off, or a similar ratio, this Thetford Fridge is more on than off (maybe 2/3rds on, 1/3rd off?).
Also, I forgot the battery charger in the Motorhome was on, so I was actually recharging its leisure batteries from my Campervan Batteries - this added to the overall picture maybe 40-50W (so instead of 250W, it is more like a 200W useage) - so where the graph below dips to below the 50W line, that is really a 0W use as far as the fridge is concerned.
This shows the useage values a little better.

Around 9:30 I turned the mains charger off and the power went from just under 250W to around 210W. I then a few minutes later turned off the fridge to check if there were any other active loads I had to consider, and the power went down to around 10W, so it does confirm the fridge is around 200W when running on AC

So Power consumption is less then I initially summised, but overall still too high to really consider running off batteries

 

[Nabsim]

I am fairly sure that’s what a previous owner of my van removed the original tall fridge freezer and fitted the 110ltr Waeco compressor. All three way equipment was removed and replaced with different fuelled devices which looks to be removing reliance on gas as much as possible. It works in that we can constantly live in the van for 30/31 days on single 6kg propane bottle but brings problems charging battery’s over half the year in the U.K.
Like you Dave I wouldn’t rip out what you have while it’s working, if something packs up however I wouldn’t hesitate to change to something more efficient