DIY motorhome repair

Vacation with friends. Our events

Genych »27 Jan 2011, 23:44

Dimitrij "22 Feb 2011, 23:55

You are completely right, without "ventilation", let's call it so, the body, especially steel, especially made of the iron used by our car factories.

But everything is not so scary at all, everything has long been developed in construction on the topic of ventilated facades. The topic, to put it mildly, is not a secret, you can look it up on the net yourself, or any competent civil engineer will help you, the key word is literate. There is nothing particularly complicated there, the cost price rises very insignificantly, and it cannot be an obstacle to the creation of a motorhome.

I liked the questions you asked, apparently you are a solid and thinking person, and therefore, if you have a real need to resolve this issue in practice, I will help you.

Heroes are needed where there are no professionals.

Brotherhood of Mobile Bathrooms - BMS

Wanderer »23 Feb 2011, 00:23

Donbass »23 Feb 2011, 11:02

for more than two years I have been studying this topic in detail.
In any case, I will.
while I am slowly buying everything - a toilet, water tanks, Trumas 2002, a boiler, all technical hatches, etc. etc.
I can say that the French and, in general, the British have made great progress in this direction.
By the way, they don't really bother with condensation.
here are the main materials
cork and plywood on the floor

walls

then foil air bubbles

another common way
mineral wool

penofol

and plywood

Donbass »23 Feb 2011, 11:07

Dimitrij »24 Feb 2011, 01:36

I never planned beads, but apartments and houses at one time - pretty much, so I dare to give advice - not to neglect the released developments. For example, having the experience described above, I did not imagine the most optimal layout of my carriage for me, but having figured it out on live samples I changed my mind. This I mean - there will be a specific chassis and real dimensions, and then draw. The most important thing is that now there is something (caravan, bus). What is convenient, what is not, you can already imagine, right? Well, the multivariance still needs to be taken into account for the placement of large masses - tanks, battery, etc.

And you are doing absolutely right - so that later you can draw the salon and the expenses on components do not spoil the whole venture - they need to be collected in a heap before there will be many surprises. Well, you can already draw an electrical circuit.

Well, here's a little so, think about it. The photos posted above, I think, you will now comment on yourself, right?

If this is interesting and someone needs these pearls of mine, write, I will continue. The next topic is how to deal with this and what sacrifices will have to be made, what options exist.

Heroes are needed where there are no professionals.

Brotherhood of Mobile Bathrooms - BMS

Donbass Feb 24, 2011 10:45 am

Goofy »24 Feb 2011, 11:21

Dimitrij »25 Feb 2011, 00:20

Topics appeared interesting for me, that's it. And although I do not plan to create beads, I just want to help people where I can, hoping that others, and I appeal, first of all, to the engineering staff of our community, will not consider it hard to help people who are doing such useful work ( we will agree right away - for those who do not understand what this work is useful in - personally I will not explain anything, it means the radio is on the tank and go ahead)
To date, a situation has arisen when all of us, each specialist in his field, indignantly read pseudo-special articles, of which an incredibly large number has proliferated. This is annoying. Moreover, militant ignorance has become really dangerous. I understand all this, but let's separate the seeds from the chaff and learn not only not to be indignant at the somewhat naive questions of those who are engaged in some big project that requires knowledge in various fields of science and technology, but also learn to donate some of our "priceless" time to help people, I believe everything will be rewarded to you.

So, stop flooding, let's go!

In the previous post, I tried as best I could to explain that:
1. to make a wall that will not be cold with a simple insulation is practically impossible due to the thickness - about 25 cm. thickness.
2. It is practically difficult to make a wall with a simple insulation that will not sweat in extreme cold - about 15 cm. thickness
3. it is impossible to use insulation capable of absorbing moisture - such a compress will rot any body.

To this I will add what I forgot to write yesterday - that soft, in the form of cotton wool, insulation cannot be used because of the wear, very soon everything will be below, and the top will remain bare.

Moving on to your favorite question - what to do ?! My answer is to choose an option from those that I will describe below.

Well, that's all for today, do not be silent, if you are interested, ask questions.

Beck 13 Nov 2013, 07:32

Beck 13 Nov 2013, 07:46

In the summer, a client approached the service of the Rudikom caravan center with a request to repair the back wall of his caravan caravan, the Solifer caravan.

The wall of the cottage trailer did not need to be repaired, but to be altered, or rather restored after an unsuccessful, I’m not even afraid to say, a hack repair of another service. I will not name which service, let the owner name this service himself. I can only say that this service, in which the hack service was performed, is called a club service.
Here is a photo of the “repaired wall” that I saw when the trailer was brought to my service.

This type of rest and travel option is used by lovers of freedom and independence from tickets and flights. It is a good solution to have both a car and a home on a vacation trip. Thanks to the presence of a mobile home, a family can travel in comfortable conditions and stop wherever and whenever they want, without reference to time. Camping sites gained their popularity at the beginning of the 20th century.

Through such an independent vacation, you can see those places on the way to your destination that not accessible from plane or train... In addition, camping during renovation of an apartment or construction of a house on the site can serve as temporary housing. Can also be rented when no travel plans are in place.

The cost of such a pleasure is rather big, some options reach the price of an ordinary apartment, but to save money, you can create a camping with your own hands.

The options for large campsites are being converted from buses and oversized vans, but this is too expensive for those who do not mind spending a lot of money on such mega-comfort.

There are three budget options for self-taught people:

1. "Gazelle"
2. RV from the bus.
3. A bulky and heavy trailer is desirable.

To build a motorhome with your own hands, you need:

1. Have wheels.
2. Draw a plan of the campsite visually.

When drawing up a plan, you need to think through all those comfort details that are in an ordinary apartment.

As in any regular campsite house too need communications - This is electricity, water, gas, toilet and possibly a shower. Without these amenities, mobile housing will not be comfortable. In order to have light in the camp, it is advisable to purchase a battery with a battery and a device for recharging. It is worthwhile to think over the internal wiring well in advance. It is necessary to take into account the external connectors when charging and the fact that they have different capacities.

It is easier to use a conventional bucket to drain waste through a hose hidden in the floor, by placing it under the body of your RV. Kitchen water can be stored in large containers by immersing pumps in them to supply it to the tap. To drain the used water, a reservoir is also used inside or outside the room. A small shower can be set up as a mixer tap, for example, above the sink.

Unfortunately, it will not work to build a usual toilet in a mobile home, since there is no place and it is difficult to drain waste constantly. A dry closet is perfect here.

The camping lighting system will require :

What is needed to heat your motorhome?.

At the ready of an autonomous heater, you can purchase a battery and a gas cylinder, because it will also come in handy in the kitchen and the operation of the refrigerator. You should not use a lot of electrical appliances and equipment for two reasons - this is an additional power consumption and a load on the wiring, since this is a small room compared to a house. The services of an electrician should be used when working with gas, since it is extremely risky to do it yourself if you are not an electrician.

Ventilation system.

It is also important to deal with ventilation so as not to clog the room with odors.

The location of the holes is important as it is best not to expose them in plain sight for reasons of beauty. It is best to place them at the bottom of the walls above the floor, you can also put a gas cylinder there.

Practicality and compactness when arranging furniture is a guarantee of comfort in a camping, given the small space. Folding or pull-out berths, tables with attached stools and everything in this spirit will create the necessary comfort and the desire to relax in a self-made motorhome. There are special compact headsets on sale, but if there is a desire and time, it is quite possible to make furniture on your own using old boards, tabletops, and for a sofa and chairs, you can take seats from the same car or old wheels can also be converted into chairs or stools.

Carpenter at the campsite.

In such a dwelling, if it is one-story, it is recommended to make two windows so that you do not have to consume electrics during the day. It is better to make the door double-winged so that it does not sag and the wind does not blow into the room.

Minibus or caravan, let's look at the principle of transforming each one.

To start transforming a Gazelle minibus into a camping, you need to clear the body, remove the seats and upholstery, make holes for windows and a valve for gas supply:

To process the body you need:

• against corrosion, a primer is applied inside, and then you need to insulate the walls, floor and ceiling with thermal insulation;
• cover with plywood or carpet;
• what glue and plywood need to be of good quality so that the insulation will serve you for a long time;
• after the stage of warming, you can proceed to electricity and gas, then go to the kitchen, think over a place for the sink and oven, install water tanks, a bathroom and at the end arrange the rest of the furniture for rest, beds, chairs or stools, cabinets and shelves, depending on what is available space.

A house from a trailer is different in that there are only wheels and you need to do everything from scratch, like on a plot, first build a box - the future room.

Lodging from a trailer is done as follows:

1. The trailer has a chassis that needs to be cleaned from corrosion, then treated with special impregnations and paint.
2. When installing the foundation, you need to cover the chassis with thick plywood, surround the edges of the trailer with a bar around the entire perimeter, make holes in the frame, plywood and timber to connect everything with bolts.
3. Glass wool, which will serve as thermal insulation, must be placed between the beams previously laid down, and plywood will again go from above, and then the floor in the road house will be very warm.
4. It is better to make walls from timber or lining. In this case, the side walls should be thinner than the back and front.
5. You can also put additional wheels, because after the alteration, the load will go 1.5 - 2 times more.

To make a roof for a motorhome, you need :

• assemble a frame from supporting structures - beams, if you want a triangular roof;
• further, we sheathe it with plywood;
• you need to cover it with a water-repellent material.

After that, a rain gutter can be made and attached to the back wall from the outside and from the inside to drain waste. You also need to veneer the outer walls. Internal wiring and thermal insulation must be covered with fiberboard and then the stage of manufacturing one or two doors.

To protect the tree from drying out, and pests, you need to cover the outside and inside of the wall with a primer, apply a layer of paint on top. For an aesthetic look, you need to close the threaded holes and also paint. All these procedures will reliably protect the house from the influence of external harmful factors. At the end of the work, since this is a trailer, you need to install the headlights and fenders.

This kind of mobile homes fall into three categories:

• C - small-sized for short trips, made on the basis of SUVs, in which the seats are lowered and transformed into a bed;
• B - not much different from the previous class, only in them the berth is located in the tail of the car;
• And - these are large-sized cars or, more often, large buses, which are very comfortable, there is a lot of space and, accordingly, they are more expensive than everyone else.

Travel in your homemade RV, of course nice and comfortable... However, you need to decide for yourself whether you can independently master all the work on the construction of a motorhome.

So I finished repairing the house, I sit in it and write in the BZ.
I got the camper in a deplorable state, the frame was cracked and boiled overcooked in several places, I restored almost everything with my own hands except for the chassis and the frame. Ivan Galkin did the frame and the chassis for me well, now the house is on a new frame, and instead of a rigid torsion bar on which the whole house can be broken on our roads (and it was so), the house was placed on springs with shock absorbers and stabilizers., It goes softly without rolls.

Nissan Elgrand 2000, petrol engine 3.3 l., 170 hp sec., four-wheel drive, automatic transmission - DIY repair

Yeah. The condition is really deplorable. Patience for you when recovering. Do not forget to brag later.)))

so restored already, about this and the record)

Why did you throw out the gas heater?

Yes, I didn’t want to mess with him, he was all overwhelmed. I'll go to the salary because I'm not the only one on the planar to warm up and the salary is free from the organization, and with gas there are problems with refueling

I’m thinking about how to warm up ... on board the trailer I have a 40-liter gas cylinder ... a gas-powered tractor too ...
Planar option, of course, but I think about gas ... and everything was fatally broken there, or was it just too lazy to figure it out?
I can refuel my cylinder at any gas station, where the refueling will be like a car

I have such a job that I have to live in a camper at -30 or even -40 in winter, we have only 3 camper in the place with mine and everything on the planar, 3 trucks with animals that cannot stand frost, such as monkeys of different species, in general, a circus the zoo and gas have already passed, it either freezes or I do not know what is going on there, but the heating system does not start in frost, therefore, we switched to Planar; it is more adapted to harsh weather

I’m thinking about how to warm up ... on board the trailer I have a 40-liter gas cylinder ... a gas-powered tractor too ...
Planar option, of course, but I think about gas ... and everything was fatally broken there, or was it just too lazy to figure it out?
I can fill my cylinder at any gas station - there it will be like a car

If in the warm season, then gas is a good thing, but in winter there can be problems, we have large and frequent crossings, a tank of 100 liters of water and do not want to constantly fill and drain, and in winter it freezes on the move, then the planar saves it, launched it on the road and go, come and you are warm and the water is not frozen)

Is it difficult to build a mobile home on the basis of a conventional car trailer? What materials can this trailer-house-cottage be built from? What are its minimum dimensions? What interior layout will allow the most efficient use of the interior space? Let's try to find answers to this list of questions.

A small country cottage is probably the most widespread hobby in the post-Soviet space over the past half century. The area of ​​cities is growing every year, and areas are naturally moving away from the center of settlements.Distances are sometimes measured in tens of kilometers; the most comfortable way to overcome them is to drive your own car.

At the same time, not all summer residents are ready to turn a small plot into a place of permanent residence. The maximum that an average city family can decide on is to spend the night on their site once a week. Building for the sake of this overnight stay is a capital house - a dubious undertaking; sleeping in a car is very uncomfortable ...

For summer residents who have basic skills in working with a power tool, homemade caravan trailers are often the way out.

Miniature homemade mobile home.

We have to study one of these structures, having become acquainted with the materials used and design solutions.

Acknowledgments: The photographs used in this article were kindly uploaded by one of the regulars on the League of Caravaners.
The author's work was reduced only to clarifying some technical subtleties.

In most cases, a single-axle trailer with a maximum load of no more than a ton becomes the basis on which a compact caravan-caravan is built. Taking into account the weight of household items and a couple of people, our choice is a dacha trailer weighing up to 750 kg.

The weight limitation affects the choice of material.

• We will make the frame of the building from a pine bar with a cross section of 50 mm.
• The walls are made of 10 mm plywood (moisture resistant or impregnated to reduce the hygroscopicity of the material and prevent it from rotting); the floor is 12 mm. It is also used for the construction of country tables and beds inside.
• Outer cladding - galvanized steel. Sheets are hemmed to the frame bar with self-tapping screws; the overlaps are additionally sealed with silicone sealant. The outer corners are reinforced with an aluminum corner - again sealed with silicone.

After painting, the galvanized steel will look quite decent.

• What to choose as a heater, laid between the inner and outer layers of plywood - we leave it to the reader to decide. Here is the comparative thermal conductivity of popular heaters:

Nuance: glass wool will inevitably cake over time.
Better to use tough insulation.

A reasonable minimum of the size of the trailer required for our purposes is 2300x1600 mm. Such dimensions will allow you to build a fairly comfortable sleeping place for two people inside and leave some space for a table under the washbasin and / or a gas stove.

A two-axle caravan trailer will provide much more comfort; however, the price of such a trailer will be twice or three times more. Its dimensions (up to 4.5 meters in length) make it possible to build a full-fledged country house with a washbasin, a kitchen and a toilet room.

A reasonable minimum building height is generally 2 meters. The height can be adjusted depending on the size of the owners: it is clear that a very tall person does not want to constantly cling to the ceiling with the crown of his head.

So let's get started. How is a dacha built from a trailer with your own hands?

1. The sides are completely dismantled. Only a flat area remains from the trailer. If the horizontal base is sufficiently rigid, the floor joists and harness can be attached directly to it; It is better to weld a thin flexible sheet with a frame made of a professional pipe with a section of 50x25 mm.
2. Then the lower strapping of a bar, laid along the perimeter, is fixed to the base with bolts; the side bars are connected with logs with a pitch of 20 cm (for 12 mm plywood).

Alternatively, the entire structure can be assembled at the stand and only then pulled to the base of the trailer.

1. The lags are attached to the strapping with a galvanized corner; the bar must be impregnated with hot linseed oil twice.

Tip: instead of drying oil heated in a water bath, you can use cold oil.
In this case, after applying each layer, the bar is warmed up with a building hairdryer.

1. Insulation is laid between the lags; then the floor is covered with plywood, which is attracted by self-tapping screws.

The instructions for assembling the frame are no different from the construction of the lower strapping: the bar is connected by corners with self-tapping screws. Before or after assembly, the tree is impregnated with linseed oil. Do not be afraid that the frame will not be rigid enough: the sheathing will give the structure strength.

The finished frame begins to be sheathed from the inside. The plywood is attracted by self-tapping screws 32 mm long in increments of about 25 cm. The self-tapping screws are only galvanized: in wet weather, black steel will inevitably decorate the walls with untidy rusty streaks.

1. Holes for self-tapping screws are pre-drilled and countersunk so that the hats do not cling to clothes. An alternative is the use of self-tapping screws with half-countersunk heads.

Plywood is screwed with galvanized self-tapping screws with half-countersunk heads.

1. Plywood from the inside must be sanded before varnishing and after applying the first layer. Any moisture will raise pile on the top veneer layer, which will make the surface rough.
   The volume of work will be quite large, so it is better to use a grinder - even the simplest, vibration one. If there is no electricity where you are building, there is always a way out: renting a diesel generator for a summer residence costs from 1000 rubles a day.
2. The outer side and ends of plywood also need protective impregnation. And in this case, the cheapest and most practical option is two layers of hot drying oil.
   The insulation is fixed in the grooves formed by the frame and the inner lining, after which it is sheathed on the outside with plywood rolled on both sides.

Expanded polystyrene is inserted in the fold and is foamed.

The door is assembled similarly to walls and hung on galvanized hinges; a regular door lock or a pair of latches are used as a lock - inside and outside.

The last stage is the external galvanized finish. It is fixed with self-tapping screws 25 mm long in 10 cm increments along all the frame bars; then the corners are closed with a corner. Do not forget about the sealant: it will protect the corners and joints from water leakage.

In the photo - the cladding, ready for painting.

If you want your miniature home to have light windows, no problem.

1. The opening is provided even at the stage of frame construction. It is girded with a bar with a section of the same 50x50 mm.
2. A duralumin corner is used as an outer glazing bead, flush with the outer skin with self-tapping screws. The seat for the corner is pre-coated with sealant.
3. A piece of plexiglass cut to the size of the opening sits on the sealant and is fixed from the inside with a glazing bead from the same duralumin corner.

Our choice is a convertible seat bed and a folding table. The transformation mechanism will make the pictures understandable.

In this position of the couch and table, the house turns into a miniature dining room.

And now a sleeping place has appeared in it. For greater convenience, the table can be retracted into an upright position.

• An alternative to galvanized plywood is external sheathing made of profiled sheet. In a similar scheme, country houses are often built from block containers.
• Do-it-yourself repair of a cottage trailer usually comes down to periodic painting of galvanized steel. Old paint can be removed with removers. In those few cases when the wheels, fenders or suspension of the trailer are damaged, spare parts for the caravan are bought at the nearest auto shop.

Brake lights and fenders are easy to find at a car dealership.