Power sliding door
Author
Discussion

ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Sunday 2nd March
quotequote all
Old age is creeping up on us!
Whilst I can, mostly, get the side door on our Boxer camper to close first time 'er indoors does find it far more difficult.

I have seen a few other similar vans with a power door, anyone have one, and is it a DiY fitment?

Seen some kits advertised but with a huge price range, is it worth paying more, or will the cira £300 kit be good enough?

TIA

ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
This is the cheap and cheerful one....

https://www.modifero.com/en/electric-automatic-doo...

Scrump

23,557 posts

176 months

Thursday 6th March
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I put a larger internal handle on the sliding door in my parent's boxer van. Mum found it easier with the larger handle, might be worth trying that.

ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Friday 7th March
quotequote all
Scrump said:
I put a larger internal handle on the sliding door in my parent's boxer van. Mum found it easier with the larger handle, might be worth trying that.
It's not the sliding part that 'er indoors finds difficult, it's getting the latch at the rear of the door to engage cleanly, each time!
There's a double link hinge to pull the rear of the door in, unlike on a Ford van where the centre track curves into the frame.

The kit I have seen on other vans and the one I am considering has an internal rack driven by a fixed motor, that then pulls the rear of the door onto the latch, pretty much silently, as apposed to yanking the door at speed to force the latch home!

However, Scrump, thanks for the suggestion, as a longer internal handle would make opening from the inside significantly easier.

Alicat

247 posts

248 months

Thursday 17th April
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I have just purchased a van with a fully powered side door. It is a revelation, it opens and closes at the push of a button. No more yanking the door hoping to get enough momentum to get it to latch.

I did find with my last van that it was hard to latch due to air pressure in the van. Of I opened the drivers door and then closed the sliding door it was a lot easier.


ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Thursday 17th April
quotequote all
Alicat said:
I have just purchased a van with a fully powered side door. It is a revelation, it opens and closes at the push of a button. No more yanking the door hoping to get enough momentum to get it to latch.

I did find with my last van that it was hard to latch due to air pressure in the van. Of I opened the drivers door and then closed the sliding door it was a lot easier.
This is what I am hoping to achieve!

I've ordered the kit from Turkey, price has risen, of course, but I'll try to keep the thread updated.

















ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Sunday 4th May
quotequote all
Box of bits arrived last week and has been fitted. We had the fridge fitted in the rear half of the door opening so this has been removed to give access to install and I will need to modify the cabinet before it goes back in place.



Door closed.



Control unit at base of the C pillar, spare wiring from the kit is coiled down and tucked in rather than shortening the harness, Power is taken from my main electrical panel mounted inside the n/s rear door.



Door open, yes that is as far as it goes.

The internal operating switch is posirioned above the curtain rail and I seem to have it out of shot!



This is the only slightly naff bit... the motor unit acts as the latch at the rear of the door and that self tapper through the internal handle and it's mount is to keep the stock latch open.

Two ways to open/close, externally via a remote fob and internally via a red pushbutton. Unit seems to be well made and is very much easier to use.

JulianPH

10,084 posts

132 months

Saturday 10th May
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The "bionic van" - excellent work mate!


Allmyown

21 posts

14 months

Friday 10th October
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ferret50 said:
Box of bits arrived last week and has been fitted. We had the fridge fitted in the rear half of the door opening so this has been removed to give access to install and I will need to modify the cabinet before it goes back in place.



Door closed.



Control unit at base of the C pillar, spare wiring from the kit is coiled down and tucked in rather than shortening the harness, Power is taken from my main electrical panel mounted inside the n/s rear door.



Door open, yes that is as far as it goes.

The internal operating switch is posirioned above the curtain rail and I seem to have it out of shot!



This is the only slightly naff bit... the motor unit acts as the latch at the rear of the door and that self tapper through the internal handle and it's mount is to keep the stock latch open.

Two ways to open/close, externally via a remote fob and internally via a red pushbutton. Unit seems to be well made and is very much easier to use.
That's a good write up.

I have also seen them door closers from Turkey, and I am quite tempted.
I have the Boxer L4 x H2
Would you recommend it, or now you have it, would you buy something different ?
How much was the price rise ?

ferret50

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

27 months

Friday 10th October
quotequote all
Allmyown said:
That's a good write up.

I have also seen them door closers from Turkey, and I am quite tempted.
I have the Boxer L4 x H2
Would you recommend it, or now you have it, would you buy something different ?
How much was the price rise ?
I think that I paid about £550 all in, currently on the Algarve and it's the best thing I have added to the camper. No longer do I have to re-close the door when 'er indoors failed, again, to latch it properly.

If I were to do the job again I would position the track a little higher, perhaps at the upper part of the handle as apposed to the lower part as shown in my images. My fitting placed the hinge lever directly over a hole in the C pillar which meant that I needed to re-enforce with a steel plate within the pillar.
The , very good, instructions deal with a LHD installation, suggesting that power should be taken from the relay board at the base of what is, on proper side drive, the driver's side.....but careful examination of the kit shows that just two electrical connections are needed, a live feed into the supplied harness and an earth, hence my running a feed from my habitation fusebox.

Two methods of opening, a fob that clips to the ignition key with 'lock/unlock' buttons and a button mounted above the inside of the door frame. I 'think' you can buy an extra gismo that allows the ign fob rear door open/lock buttons to open/ close but I felt that was beyond my ability level!