Motorhome removed from chassis photo

ambulancekidd

ambulancekidd

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Joined
Sep 23, 2014
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Ayrshire Scotland
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33,478
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Swift Kon-Tiki 640
Exp
Since 1964 Gosh that makes me feel old.
Only 12 bolts hold the cab on
Those 12 bolts are apparently at the bottom.
How its built.jpg
 
Thats incredible…
No wonder they disintegrate in a smash, how do caravans even survive our roads?
 
It's the same for all the motorhomes, 12 bolts on the chassis plates. Then multiple fixtures around the cab, hidden behind panels and also bonded together using polyurethane adhesive. In effect Sikaflexed together, but an industrial version which is super strong and needs to be cut through to remove. The wiring on many vans can be nearly all be unplugged at the joint behind the driver's seat. That just leaves the charging cables for the leisure battery and in some cases the fridge and stereo and any other extra circuits. It takes many man hours to detach correctly and with minimal damage. Grafting on the new cab then takes nearly as log again. Certainly not a cheap job in terms of man hours, but can and has been done many times
 
Maybe it answers the reasons they get pinched, cab removed and a nearly new body fitted.

I would also think, but no evidence, that you could bolt both the older and new shaped cabs to it, as the Alko chassis is most probably the same.
 
Is this one of those future non polluting motorhomes that they keep talking about?

At least it will satisfy the clean air zones I suppose.

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GAVLAD said:
Is this one of those future non polluting motorhomes that they keep talking about?

At least it will satisfy the clean air zones I suppose.
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Yes, just needs a harness and a couple of heavy dray horses and heypresto, zero emissions. Apart from flatulence :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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It’s seems I’m in a minority 🤣. I am amazed it is that many bolts. 12 sounds well over the top! Surely four would be fine?
 
One has to wonder If that would have got past the final delivery inspection at Autotrail given their reputation for attention to detail.:giggle:

Tired Wake Up GIF by The Delivery Guys
:unsure:
 
My uncle (Oxley Coachcraft), in the 60s and later, used to build the shed, sorry, accommodation part, nip down to the auctions and buy a suitable builders pick up truck who'd gone bust, whip the back off and replace with the new build. Result, sparkling used low mileage motorhome. I would imagine those were the ones he would use for hire.
 
Dorwyn said:
My uncle (Oxley Coachcraft), in the 60s and later, used to build the shed, sorry, accommodation part, nip down to the auctions and buy a suitable builders pick up truck who'd gone bust, whip the back off and replace with the new build. Result, sparkling used low mileage motorhome. I would imagine those were the ones he would use for hire.
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We used to re-cab older good quality motorhomes that had been in a crash or the cab rotted. It took so long to do it right that it was not economical at the prices at the time. But a few times, customers asked us to graft their motorhome onto a much newer base vehicle. Old bedford ones would have a much newer transit cab and chassis installed. Every time it took 2 or 3 of us several days, but the finished product was worth more than the sum of both vehicle values. The best to do were the autosleepers with the one piece fibreglass body and overcab as they self supported when detached from the cab. Others with aluminium overcabs had to have temporary structures inside to stop them collapsing. All the strength was in the cab

We actually sourced 4 nearly new milk lorries/floats based on transits. Those made a profit as we converted the rear body into drop side bodies for other transits. One we converted to a recovery lorry bed by extending it with a long beaver tail. I know that worked extremely hard and was well built as I used it many times and again made an excellent profit when sold on, when we sourced a special order van with a lowered chassis, which we again converted

You might be surprised that many vans used to be rebuilt and repurposed after already being used for something else. The way they get built now limits the ability for them to be as easily converted, but chassis cabs still make it possible

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Is this a potential solution for those want to hold on to a diesel to the last moment before we are all forced to electric?
 
To be fair the 12 bolts are a decent size and other than a chassis leg being damaged in an accident I have never seen them fail. The 2 chassis sections that bolt together are extremely strong and the shape of them makes them pretty rigid and are also supported to a lesser extent by the bodywork bolted to the top of the chassis. Remember that this same chassis connection is there on other types of Fiat Ducato, like tipper body lorries that carry tonnes of gravel etc with no extra support. These rarely fail unless somebody tries to massively overload them
 
gus-lopez said:
No

still similar if on an alko just that it would have no 'cab' steelwork either. If a normal chassis the same.

it is only 6 per side.
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Yes the chassis joint would be the same if the chassis was the same but at least the body would be all one construction without the sikaflex joint to the cab metalwork, rear wheel drive IVECO and possibly Sprinter chassis would have full ladder frame so no joint.
 
slowcoach65 said:
Is this a potential solution for those want to hold on to a diesel to the last moment before we are all forced to electric?
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unlikely as even with a different cab, the battery would have to be bolted under the chassis and be way to heavy for the current capability of the suspension and would necessitate removal of water tanks etc. Far easier and cheaper to convert to use LPG or hydrogen though but massively expensive still

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My uncles company also would attack brand new vdub vans or pickups with tin openers, tin cutters, and bond on coachwork hab units. They claimed at the time they were the only company to buy direct from the makers. Early days for that sort of thing, I wonder how they fared.
 
When I removed the prison van body from the IVECO daily I purchased a couple of years ago there were only five of six chassis mounting bolts from the body to the chassis. The Prison van body alone weighed about 3.5 tons. I had a six legged crane to lift it off. I then bolted a Car Transporter body on to the Daily , same spec of course using just the same number of bolts! I also tow a 3.5 ton trailer with it!
When I registered the truck as a transporter it had a « first MOT “at the HGV Test centre . passed ok , now reclassified at the DVLA as Cat Transporter.
 
Carpmart said:
It’s seems I’m in a minority 🤣. I am amazed it is that many bolts. 12 sounds well over the top! Surely four would be fine?
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Complimented with gaffer tape...can't go wrong!

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