Drovers new Rig - "Big Mal"

Drover said:

The door to the Thundercan House has been leaking when it rains, only a little bit so I thought I would get in early, its a Thetford D3 door, knew I was in for some fun as I pushed one nylon hinge pin out easily not so the 2nd one as the end snapped off, so left it alone and made something to support the door in the open position .............
Thetford in their wisdom designed the door in 3 pieces which once clicked together doesn't come apart, so the Google wisdom says, mines 13 yrs old so I thought probably due for replacement anyway so may as well do a voyage of discovery, I managed to dismantle it, the inner frame is held in by metal clips which once in place hang on to the inner and outer frame, a very sharp and thin scrapper sorted it out............ ONce in peices the outer panel, styro insulation and innner wooden panel showed that the leak had been there for a very long time, the inside panel was well sealed so the water filled up the cavity and slowly soaked the inner wooden panel. and possibly drained out the way it had entered by the outside panel ........... The outer panel frame shows a channel which would hold a large O ring type seal but none had ever been in place so the panel had to seal by pressure from the inner insulation, red dust and water stains showed it tried valiantly with a high tide mark half way up the door ....................... Cleaned up, a bead of silicon in place of O ring, fitted outer panel and held in place till it set then new insulation and inner panel fitted with the inner frame forced in place into its original metal clips with a bit of silastic and a new door seal fitted to round things off ...............................

Since its been there for a long time I may have missed the signs so contemplating pulling out the dunny and see how the floor is, all good underneath as I check the floor under wet places regularly but do I really want to go there ...??????????

Be why I have seen so many with a big bead of silicon around the door panel .....

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Drover said:

My new led lights turned up today, , it wasn't long till I discovered something amiss in my grand plan, the size of the Led's was smaller than the old fluro light fitting andsome of the screw holes were showing along with a bit of cabling, bummer but I found a cunning plan, remove the guts of the fluro light and glue in place the Led unit with it turned ON and wired up to the original switch with original light diffuser in place, looks like the old lights but far brighter and can see much better ............... All up $20, the other fluro's in the rest of the van replaced years ago and the same fittings are now $80 each so not going there ......................... new fluro tube if you can find one is about $25-30 and no led lamp with compatable socket ............

PS: I should add even the cunning plan did have one hiccup, once I had glued the led panel in place I noticed I'd covered the holes to remount the light, another slight mod required.....................


View attachment 70014.. Original light ............................ Modified to LED .. View attachment 70015


Job Done............................View attachment 70016

Click to expand...

Drover said:

My new led lights turned up today, , it wasn't long till I discovered something amiss in my grand plan, the size of the Led's was smaller than the old fluro light fitting andsome of the screw holes were showing along with a bit of cabling, bummer but I found a cunning plan, remove the guts of the fluro light and glue in place the Led unit with it turned ON and wired up to the original switch with original light diffuser in place, looks like the old lights but far brighter and can see much better ............... All up $20, the other fluro's in the rest of the van replaced years ago and the same fittings are now $80 each so not going there ......................... new fluro tube if you can find one is about $25-30 and no led lamp with compatable socket ............

PS: I should add even the cunning plan did have one hiccup, once I had glued the led panel in place I noticed I'd covered the holes to remount the light, another slight mod required.....................


View attachment 70014.. Original light ............................ Modified to LED .. View attachment 70015


Job Done............................View attachment 70016

Click to expand...