Red Dwarf
Forum Member
I shouldn’t be smug really, just can’t help it...
My bro bought a brand new pv motorhome last month. It cost him pennies short of £60k. It’s a British built conversion on a Ducato base. He’s been promising himself a van for a long time and certainly doesn’t have the skills to build. I was genuinely pleased that he’d taken the step at last joining the ranks of all those who enjoy the road and van life.
The little touch screen electronic panel that controls everything in the hab packed up, meaning no hot water, no fridge, no bog flush, no cooker ignighter, no water pump, no lights...you get the idea. This got replaced after much phaffing around, he’s now so confident in its reliability he’s carrying battery lights, matches, jerrycans of water etc.
The whale water heater is mounted under a couch/sliding bed frame. The unit has been mounted just too high, so, when you slide out the steel bed frame it whacks the push fit hot outlet pipe union on the top of the water heater. After a few few whacks it all came apart, now no hot water...
Interestingly the 5hing that most annoys him about the van is that the reversing camera has been mounted directly above the high mount stop lamp. As it’s an automatic van, his foot is generally on the brake pedal when creeping backwards, the stop lamp blinds the camera....
There are a handful of other smaller problems too.
I have to say the quality of the build is crap, stretched pipes and cables, many not properly secured etc. My thrown together self bodge £6.5k van is so much better. As he was showing me around his new toy he was telling me of all the problems, but at the same time extolling all its virtues as a way of compensating. So, for £60k you can be proud of your LED reading lights on tracks and the, er, um, nothing else.
Am I being a bit of a git, or am I allowed a bit of self build smugness?
My bro bought a brand new pv motorhome last month. It cost him pennies short of £60k. It’s a British built conversion on a Ducato base. He’s been promising himself a van for a long time and certainly doesn’t have the skills to build. I was genuinely pleased that he’d taken the step at last joining the ranks of all those who enjoy the road and van life.
The little touch screen electronic panel that controls everything in the hab packed up, meaning no hot water, no fridge, no bog flush, no cooker ignighter, no water pump, no lights...you get the idea. This got replaced after much phaffing around, he’s now so confident in its reliability he’s carrying battery lights, matches, jerrycans of water etc.
The whale water heater is mounted under a couch/sliding bed frame. The unit has been mounted just too high, so, when you slide out the steel bed frame it whacks the push fit hot outlet pipe union on the top of the water heater. After a few few whacks it all came apart, now no hot water...
Interestingly the 5hing that most annoys him about the van is that the reversing camera has been mounted directly above the high mount stop lamp. As it’s an automatic van, his foot is generally on the brake pedal when creeping backwards, the stop lamp blinds the camera....
There are a handful of other smaller problems too.
I have to say the quality of the build is crap, stretched pipes and cables, many not properly secured etc. My thrown together self bodge £6.5k van is so much better. As he was showing me around his new toy he was telling me of all the problems, but at the same time extolling all its virtues as a way of compensating. So, for £60k you can be proud of your LED reading lights on tracks and the, er, um, nothing else.
Am I being a bit of a git, or am I allowed a bit of self build smugness?