- Oct 29, 2013
- 206
- 185
- Funster No
- 28,801
- MH
- Coachbuilt
- Exp
- 1 year motorhomer after 21 years caravanning
I am about to embark on a mission to finish off fully winterising our bessaccarr e765p in order to get it ready for ski-ing in a couple of months.
This is being carried out with the very helpful advice from CAK tanks whom I had quite a long conversation with at the NEC last week.
Firstly, let me say that last year in temps as low as -27 the van held out quite well from a warmth point of view. The van remained warm inside, infact toastie warm. It is clasified as "fully winterised" but sadly our British manufacturers don't seem to understand the Alpine winter.
Last year in extreme temps we managed to lose the water, despite the tank being between two floors. Also our waste water froze not allowing for any use of sinks or showers. However, the loo continued to work as it is on a seperate water system that is essentially inside the van.
Prior to going away last year I carried out a number of modifications to prevent cold air coming in to the van. Mainly this was around the pod area of the van and required the pods to be filled, I used some loft lagging stuffed in to bags to do this.
I also re-routed one of the heater pipes as there had been a previous case of the fresh water inlet freezing at the intake preventing any fresh water being able to get in, this resolved that issue.
So onwards and upwards to this year.
I will be removing the double floor surrounding the water tank and wrapping the actual fresh water tank with some extra special space shuttle thermal jacket. Then I will be drilling in to the water tank to place a new Water heater in to the Fresh water tank. I have purchased this from CAK tanks at a cost of £73-00. It uses 2.5 amps when on and is simply a defrost element. It works automaticaly by coming on when the water reaches -5 and sitches off when the water warms. It's placed at the water pump pick up area to ensure that area is defrosted first if required. My pump is pretty much inside the van so there are/were no issues with that freexing, unlike some rather more expensive european vans I might add. It will have its own independent switch and also its own independent fuse.
Once done I shall line the false floor with more space shuttle elements and then replace it to its position.
Pipe work-
Nearly all my waste pipe work from the sink is inside the van, however, you only need a tiny exposed bit and that's the end of that. I have a tiny exposed bit there that will be re routed using the inside of the van and will be running alongside the heater pipes in order to ensure that the pipe work has some heat before dropping in to the waste water tank via the heated garage/bed locker.
The Pipe work from the bathroom and the route that this takes to the waste tank is a little more difficult. However in discussion with the guys at CAK there seems no reason why my previous adria waste never froze but this one did. Both are external and looking at my adria, it would appear that the only additional consideration would of been in the level of the insulation on the small pipes that are exposed under the van.
Therefore, back under the van I go and this time I will again insulate all pipe work more thouroughly. I will pay special attention the bits that are exposed even though they are so small. If I could move them inside the van and re-route them I would, but it would not appear I have the neccassary level of drop to do this, certainly with the shower. Another possibility may be to remove the trap as this is outside and obviously means that water is "in there" when in use and possibly leading to it freezing.
Finally when this is done, I will add a heater to the waste tank of the cheaper variety, a simple switch on switch off one can be sourced for £41 from CAK, I will then simply turn it on a few hours before emtying the waste.
So all in all, I think Im in for a busy few days. I will try and upload some pictures if I can of any modifcations. Unfortunately the success of all of this can never be truly seen untill you are 2300m up a mountain with howling iced winds.
It may seem a lot of work, but in all honesty, I spent 7 hours at the NEC last week looking at vans. Other than a 90k rapido over 8.5 meters long, nothing I saw turned me on more than our own van which we own. If it could just be a little better up the mountain things would be hunkey dorey. :thumb:
This is really useful thanks and maybe worth a repost given the time of year just to give other newbies an idea of what can (maybe) done .
Sorry to be an annoying newbie but can you please tell me what the 'pods' are you refer to. :Confused:
