Installing a Gas-It Refillable System on a 6m Ducato (1 Viewer)

Garratt

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Nov 9, 2016
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Rapido Dreamer D55+
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I've recently installed the GasIt system from my previous Autotrail into my new Dreamer D55 panel van conversion and thought that some may find it interesting/ useful to see how I went about it. I'm sure that there are other and probably better ways to do it, but this is what worked for me.

The picture below was the inspiration and is @Blue Knight 's Globecar. The reason I liked this rather than the filler used by @Minxy Girl and others is that I already had it and just needed to buy the recessed housing!

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So after a bit of prevarication, I got stuck in. The first step was to remove the bumper under the rear doors and expose the corner bumper fixings, or at least some of them. With the bumper off, I could see that there was a fixing hidden under the light cluster and at least one behind the side trim panel on the rear quarter. The photo below shows the screw hole on top and the side fixings with the trim panel removed, but before this stage the light cluster and side trim have to be removed.

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The side trim panel is tricky to remove. There are a number of fixing along the wheel arch and the bottom that are the expanding pin type - remove the pin carefully and then the outer fixing with two little legs can be pulled out. Then I popped the panel carefully off the retaining clips that are fixed to the van. When I did it I popped them all, but having a look afterwards, most of them are oriented in one direction apart from the one on the middle right which goes the other way. I suspect popping this one would allow the panel to be slid off the clips.

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Removing the light cluster was "interesting" as the Dreamer doesn't exactly have a large aperture to access the fasteners. The top one is doable with a socket, but the bottom one needs a ratchet spanner to undo. Fortunately I'm blessed with small hands and good dexterity - it would be a challenge for someone with sausage fingers. The opening is approx 100mm wide x 200mm tall.

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Once the light cluster and the side trim panel are removed, all of the quarter bumper fixings are visible and it can be removed. With the rear quarter bumper removed, I could drill it and fix the gas filler. The filler hose is 1500mm long with one angled end connector and one straight connector.

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The next step was to prepare the route for the filler hose into the gas locker. As others have done, the easiest way is through the bottom vent in the locker. Underneath the grille in the vent, there is a protector plate that needs to be drilled to allow the hose to pass through. I drilled the hole with a hole saw and smoothed the edges with files and emery cloth.

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Once this was done, I opened up a hole in the grille for the hose.

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Everything could then be installed. Here is the exterior showing the filler point. The filler hose runs from here, under the rear valence and through the prepared holes in the dropout vent into the gas locker.

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And here is the finished installation in the gas locker. I reused the Truma high pressure hoses as they form part of the crash-safe regulator system. The filler hose can be seen coming through the vent and up to the rear of the front bottle.

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mikebeaches

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Feb 22, 2010
5,346
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Rapido V68 Van Conversion
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Wow, looks an impressive installation! And quite a bit of work involved.

We had a local fitter install a single 11kg gas-it cylinder in our van, very similar to Minxy's set up. And we've retained a 6kg Calorlite.

But there was no dismantling necessary - still ended up a neat job.
 

Blue Knight

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Aug 7, 2017
5,232
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Durham
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Globecar Summit 640
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2016
What a fantatsic write-up; love it (y)

........and some nice work too :cool:

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Minxy

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Aug 22, 2007
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Carthago Compactline
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Since 1996, had Elddis/Swift/Rapido/Rimor/Chausson MHs. Autocruise/Globecar PVCs/Compactline i-138
@Garratt - nice job, glad I decided to buy a little filler and use that though instead of the large one I already had! Hubby would have had a fit if I'd started to remove the panels etc on his 'pride and joy'! :D

Am I right to assume that the silver insulation showing behind your light cluster panel was already there?

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Garratt

Garratt

Free Member
Nov 9, 2016
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Rapido Dreamer D55+
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Since 2017
@Minxy Girl Yes, the van is insulated with self adhesive aluminised foam sheet as one of the first stages in construction. When I removed the trim panel I was confronted with a silver sheet that I cut a slit in so that I could access the light cluster retaining nuts. Here is a screen grab from the Rapido factory video:

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Blue Knight

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Aug 7, 2017
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Globecar Summit 640
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2016
@Garratt I'm rely impressed with what Rapido has done to help insulate their vans. That looks to be one of the best insulated vans in the marketplace today (possibly the best) due to the fact that Rapido has covered all of the body cavities and the main structural points too.(y)

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