Buy a Hymer, they said...

[craigthecoupe]

just re read this from the begining, exciting times!
we have just accepted an offer on our house, and have a (much older/smaller) hymer parked up outside ready for a year away starting in april/ may!

i wanted to ask if you knew anything of the wiring side of things? ours has a retro fit solar panel charging the leisure battery, which the previous owners said, kept them off grid for 9 months in spain and morocco. i'm interested to replace the bulbs with led, add a strip of rope lighting, and possibly fit an inverter (only to be used for a slow cooker, and occasional macbook charging) any ideas on where to start? (obviously the bulbs are a simple swap)
also, we had a couple of nights away a couple of weeks back, and it was baltic over night. is it normal/acceptable practice to leave gas heating on overnight or no? we have a carbon monoxide detector fitted, but wouldn't dream of it at this stage based on not having had a gas service, and having a little one sleeping at the heater end of the van.

i dont want to upset your thread, so please say and i'll gladly start my own if you'd prefer.

best

craig

[agent006]

We run the heating overnight, with CO detector and don't worry about it. The truma units are meant to be maintenance free so servicing shouldn't be a worry especially. If your gas system is shot then it'll leak regardless of whether the heating's on.
Ours was LED lit when we bought it, but I've added some rope light around the place. The crappy thin cable they come with on the joints makes life hard wiring it into a supply. Bear in mind the 12v is the reverse colour of the 240v wiring.

We don't have an inverter, I'm going to get a 12v car charger for the laptop instead.

[agent006]

Moved in on Thursday, house completed on Friday. Then this happened last night:


Still lovely and warm inside. Really impressed with this Hymer, we've got more storage than we know what to do with and still half a tonne under weight (although the front axle is only 20kg off maximum). Heating seems to be hardly having to work at all.

[Nine-Eighty-Six]

agent006 said:

We don't have an inverter, I'm going to get a 12v car charger for the laptop instead.

One thing I've learned from a year with a camper van is to get 12v chargers for anything you can get them for. Inverters just burn charge for fun.

[Rewe]

agent006 said:

Rewe said:

Wow, good job on the satellite dish!

Mine's the white one.
.

Ah, not quite as impressed as before!

[Rewe]

agent006 said:

Rewe said:

Wow, good job on the satellite dish!

Mine's the white one.
.

Ah, not quite as impressed as before!

[croyde]

Whats with the taking a driving test thing?

I drive 7.5 tonne vans for work on my normal licence, is this sort of Hymer considered an HGV?

Passed test in 1982.

Ta.

[Kev_Mk3]

hope you blog your trips it would be a enjoyable read

[Escort3500]

Great read, and I'm very impressed with Hymers. I've never met an owner that has anything negative to say about them (other than the odd niggle). Tempted to upgrade to one when ours gets a bit tired.

[chasingracecars]

croyde said:

Whats with the taking a driving test thing?

I drive 7.5 tonne vans for work on my normal licence, is this sort of Hymer considered an HGV?

Passed test in 1982.

Ta.

If you passed after March 1997 you are restricted to 3.5 tonne maximum gross vehicle weight. A B+E license is required if you want to tow a larger trailer car combo, A C license if you want to drive a vehicle over 3.5 tonne.

Basically if you passed after 1997 you need to do another test.

[craigthecoupe]

Nine-Eighty-Six said:

agent006 said:

We don't have an inverter, I'm going to get a 12v car charger for the laptop instead.

One thing I've learned from a year with a camper van is to get 12v chargers for anything you can get them for. Inverters just burn charge for fun.

will look to find 12v then, thanks.
looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?

craig

[Nine-Eighty-Six]

craigthecoupe said:

will look to find 12v then, thanks.
looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?

craig

We only have a small camper, so run an oil filled radiator from a 13A socket when on hook-up. We won't stay anywhere without hookup when it's cold!

[craigthecoupe]

Nine-Eighty-Six said:

craigthecoupe said:

will look to find 12v then, thanks.
looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?

craig

We only have a small camper, so run an oil filled radiator from a 13A socket when on hook-up. We won't stay anywhere without hookup when it's cold!

ok thanks, sorry, but really meant that question for the OP!

craig

[croyde]

chasingracecars said:

If you passed after March 1997 you are restricted to 3.5 tonne maximum gross vehicle weight. A B+E license is required if you want to tow a larger trailer car combo, A C license if you want to drive a vehicle over 3.5 tonne.

Basically if you passed after 1997 you need to do another test.

Thanks.

I just automatically assume everyone on PH is my age or older so was surprised that the poster had to take the test.

Cheers

[chopper602]

craigthecoupe said:

will look to find 12v then, thanks.
looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?

craig

I find a combination of gas & electric to warm the place up quickly, works well, then knock it down to electric only once warm (obviously only when on hook-up, otherwise it's gas only).

[agent006]

craigthecoupe said:

looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?

We've got both. We're running the built in gas heating and topping up with an electric radiator running off the hookup. Was in full sun this afternoon so turned the whole lot off and it dropped 20c to 17.5 in just under four hours. None of the snow had melted off the roof or skylights until we got in the sun today.

We're on refillable LPG so if we run out of gas we have to pack up and drive to a petrol station, so I'm trying to get the gas to last a week at a time. I filled up on Saturday and the first bottle is just under half used on Monday afternoon, so I think that should work fine.

Ironically as it gets warmer we can use the gas less and the electric more as we won't have to worry about keeping the tanks warm. When we're on the road properly we'll leave the radiator behind and just use the gas whenever we need heat (which hopefully won't be often).

[sir humphrey appleby]

craigthecoupe said:

just re read this from the begining, exciting times!
we have just accepted an offer on our house, and have a (much older/smaller) hymer parked up outside ready for a year away starting in april/ may!

i wanted to ask if you knew anything of the wiring side of things? ours has a retro fit solar panel charging the leisure battery, which the previous owners said, kept them off grid for 9 months in spain and morocco. i'm interested to replace the bulbs with led, add a strip of rope lighting, and possibly fit an inverter (only to be used for a slow cooker, and occasional macbook charging) any ideas on where to start? (obviously the bulbs are a simple swap)
also, we had a couple of nights away a couple of weeks back, and it was baltic over night. is it normal/acceptable practice to leave gas heating on overnight or no? we have a carbon monoxide detector fitted, but wouldn't dream of it at this stage based on not having had a gas service, and having a little one sleeping at the heater end of the van.

i dont want to upset your thread, so please say and i'll gladly start my own if you'd prefer.

best

craig

Hi , Congrats on the Hymer, I have a 95 B544, I love it. If you have a Facebook account then join classic Hymers group, really knowledgeable people who are willing to help with anything.

[Spuffington]

It's interesting to read your experiences with the heating and dealing with the cold weather - many of which I know very well myself having moved into my Hymer in the depths of winter. You have the bonus over my "Harry" of the double-floor, which really does help with the insulation (as I'm now finding out in the Concorde).

I'm also on a learning curve with the Concorde as to how to best manage resources and heat.

But as far as the Hymer went, I reckoned on using about 12quid of LPG per week running heating, fridge and cooking during the depths of the winter.

My tank is so enormous in the Concorde (100l), I have no idea at the moment what my usage is but I'm also mixing it up between gas and electric currently.

Fulltiming is full of experiences and it takes a while to find out what works and what doesn't. But sounds like you're on a good path and wish you well with it.

[agent006]

We've got two 11kg LPG which I think should take between 40 and 50 litres based on the fillup at the weekend. I checked two days later and we'd used 40% of one bottle, while not really making much of an effort to save on gas.
I think when we're back in the UK after our trip, as we'll be staying for a few months before buying a house, I'll get an external fill adapter for the LPG and hook up a big calor tank outside to save having to drive to the petrol station every weekend.

Does your Concord have any sort of water filter setup? I'm looking for something for ours as teh tank water tastes funny but can't really find much info, and filling bottles from the site supply is getting old already.

[Spuffington]

agent006 said:

Does your Concord have any sort of water filter setup? I'm looking for something for ours as teh tank water tastes funny but can't really find much info, and filling bottles from the site supply is getting old already.

Yes, I have a Nature Pure filter installed. Concordes come with them as standard but I've fitted one to both previous vans and I wouldn't be without them. They effectively make all water potable and means you don't have to worry about filling or being too diligent about tank cleaning.

IIRC they are around 200quid for the tap and filter and install very easily into the existing water system, plus then drill a hole through for the tap on the worktop.

I use water from the Nature Pure for drinking, washing fruit & veg, Nespresso machine, but for all other cooking or washing up, I just use the normal water. Given I haven't had a chance to clean & flush the water tank on the Concorde yet, I do also add a tiny bit of Elsan purifier to each tank just to make sure there's no nasties which might come alive when I'm showering in hot water etc. but otherwise the Nature Pure keeps me without dicky tummy and particularly good when you're travelling on the continent IMO.