If similar to the one I got for the spa... Works a treat. Might have to keep it in the van!
Crusty's 20.63.1OB
- Thread starter Crusty181
- Start date
I discovered on our previous 16.49 HL that whilst the lid closes on a back sloping angle, the catch strike plates were attached to a slightly forward sloping body moulding resulting in the strike plates angled against the lid rubber seal. To accentuate that issue the strike plates as also mounted proud of the body moulding sealing surface. The rubber seal was completely sliced through where the strike plate contacts the seal made worse by the increased pressure of the plate being mounted forward. The lid seal is not so much being held and sealed against the body moulding, and is more just being compressed onto the two small areas of the forward mounted strike plates, proud of the sealing face f the boy moulding. The effective sealing of the rest of the rubber seal would be more be more luck than design.
On the 16.49 I had the seal replaced at the Jayco factory, with the assertion they had never seen that before. Impossible me thinks, and when I collected the van to their credit they'd checked every van that came in, and found every van affected. They replaced my seal, but did nothing to fix the issues, which have virtually immediately repeated itself. That was 2009. 5 years, and many model updates later, nothings changed. A simple fix is to bend the strike plate to the lid slope, and mount the plates in the correct position in line with the body moulding, both of which was beyond Jaycos care level, or brain function. Another free, ridiculously simple and arrogant dismissal that plagues Jayco's reputation of quality control (or complete lack of). Its difficult to have quality control, when your design is $hit, and you know its $hit, you dont fix it and you dont care. Whoops, Im digressing
Our 2014 was a similar casualty of Lid Seal Spydietous early on. Being an "Expanda forum" Id suspect the majority of the members who have a few km's on their vans will similarly be unsuspecting carriers of Lid Seal Spydietous, finding the front lid rubber rubber seal sliced through. I suspect this is unique to the first incarnation of the hard lid, and wont be relevant to the newer variants of the lids.
I removed stike plates, bent them to match the lid slope, increased the seating face with 25mm angle similarly bent and placed under the bent original plate, sealed and screwed them in line with the body moulding and adjusted the catches to suit. Pretty simple remedy, but not according to Jayco who've been churning out this design fault that they've been aware of for 8 years
(I'd already bent the strike plates when documented it dawned on me. Oops. So Ive just propped it up in its original position for the pic)
On the 16.49 I had the seal replaced at the Jayco factory, with the assertion they had never seen that before. Impossible me thinks, and when I collected the van to their credit they'd checked every van that came in, and found every van affected. They replaced my seal, but did nothing to fix the issues, which have virtually immediately repeated itself. That was 2009. 5 years, and many model updates later, nothings changed. A simple fix is to bend the strike plate to the lid slope, and mount the plates in the correct position in line with the body moulding, both of which was beyond Jaycos care level, or brain function. Another free, ridiculously simple and arrogant dismissal that plagues Jayco's reputation of quality control (or complete lack of). Its difficult to have quality control, when your design is $hit, and you know its $hit, you dont fix it and you dont care. Whoops, Im digressing
Our 2014 was a similar casualty of Lid Seal Spydietous early on. Being an "Expanda forum" Id suspect the majority of the members who have a few km's on their vans will similarly be unsuspecting carriers of Lid Seal Spydietous, finding the front lid rubber rubber seal sliced through. I suspect this is unique to the first incarnation of the hard lid, and wont be relevant to the newer variants of the lids.
I removed stike plates, bent them to match the lid slope, increased the seating face with 25mm angle similarly bent and placed under the bent original plate, sealed and screwed them in line with the body moulding and adjusted the catches to suit. Pretty simple remedy, but not according to Jayco who've been churning out this design fault that they've been aware of for 8 years
(I'd already bent the strike plates when documented it dawned on me. Oops. So Ive just propped it up in its original position for the pic)
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Exclusive feature of the sloped front lid. The rear end on our 16.49 was fine. Generally when the front lid is opened its to grab the bed base and pull it down. No-one would ever have the need or desire to look backwards ... and up. I made my own flies otherwise Id be blissfully unaware
Being a Coffee addict (which cost me a small fortune visiting cafes) i needed a travel solution. That solution has to be "off grid friendly" and can't require a generator just to have a coffee.
Enter the Bialetti Mukka. A slightly modified version of the classic standard stove top coffee pot aka Bialetti Moka ... The fundamental operation is much the same as a Moka, the twist is the Mukka has a pressure valve and milk goes in the top chamber. Chuck it on the stove, it brews the coffee, pressurises the chamber, heats the milk and at the right moment pops the valve and fires freshly brewed hot coffee into the now warm milk, and out pops a hot cappuccino or flat white with no further input from me.
Simply brilliant camping/off grid coffee bliss. A possible issue for Neanderthals is you need to grind your own coffee because the pre-ground supermarket offerings are espresso grind, and we need stovetop grind. But that, Sir, is a bonus that true coffee connoisseurs will applaud
Enter the Bialetti Mukka. A slightly modified version of the classic standard stove top coffee pot aka Bialetti Moka ... The fundamental operation is much the same as a Moka, the twist is the Mukka has a pressure valve and milk goes in the top chamber. Chuck it on the stove, it brews the coffee, pressurises the chamber, heats the milk and at the right moment pops the valve and fires freshly brewed hot coffee into the now warm milk, and out pops a hot cappuccino or flat white with no further input from me.
Simply brilliant camping/off grid coffee bliss. A possible issue for Neanderthals is you need to grind your own coffee because the pre-ground supermarket offerings are espresso grind, and we need stovetop grind. But that, Sir, is a bonus that true coffee connoisseurs will applaud
Pffftttt - I just put an invertor in the back of the car hooked to the Aux battery - Breville Milk frother and pod machine for me...
Ill raise your Pfffttt, I have a 5kW peak inverter in the van so i could run a restaurant sized coffee machine i suppose.
Real Coffee is naked, no need for P*#@fy milk to ruin a decent brew............................................................you City Slickers......Latte, Mocha, Geez.......................................................... ...Coffee black, hot in a mug and don't forget the Donuts..............................
Its nice to sip coffee and watch the rain
Did you get it from Kogan ???
Did you get it from Kogan ???
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I ripped the top of my upper bunk in the 20.63.1, the lower decorative ply is glued on with construction adhesive, the upper sheet only held on with very small useless staples. Drilling a finger hole in the top sheet will allow easy removal of the sheet.
Bunk framing is 40x19 finger jointed Meranti and the frame is screwed into the surrounding perimeter to fix it in place. If anyone needs to see whats in there, remove one or repair one this is what it looks like
Bunk framing is 40x19 finger jointed Meranti and the frame is screwed into the surrounding perimeter to fix it in place. If anyone needs to see whats in there, remove one or repair one this is what it looks like
I wanted to be able to minimise the 12v power consumption of the van lighting when we free camp, the brief was to be able easily and simply modify the lighting output when we're off the grid. The internal ceiling lighting is pretty good, but its un-necessarily bright for us free camping. Consumption is not such a huge impact when we have capacity to charge, but certainly adds to our overall comsumption and could have a significant impact when the solar panels arent producing. I would prefer to modify the lighting, than to modify our (more the Cruskets) behaviour not to to use certain lights etc
So .... I pulled all the ceiling lights off, re-wired them and put in a switch that can isolate one side of the dual LED's. The blue lights still work as normal (I thought Id leave them just in case someone actually works out what they are supposed to do)
So .... I pulled all the ceiling lights off, re-wired them and put in a switch that can isolate one side of the dual LED's. The blue lights still work as normal (I thought Id leave them just in case someone actually works out what they are supposed to do)
The LEDs on the roof in ours go from soft blue night light then a gentle white glow to blinding white in about 4 stages but to turn the blue off you have go thru the whole illuminate the world first.......
Also have a heating element between fridge and freezer which runs on 12v to stop ice build up in fridge case on our Domestic, have no idea how much it chews.
Also have a heating element between fridge and freezer which runs on 12v to stop ice build up in fridge case on our Domestic, have no idea how much it chews.
The outside rail of the bunk is bowed. Its been bowed for a long time, and I cant be sure if it didnt came like that or that the frame may be broken. We dont use the upper bunk as a bed because with only the one Crusket at home we dont need to and we discovered early on, as you would well know, it gets stuffy up there in the penthouse.
Ive had it in the back of my mind for a long time to one day pull it apart and check it. For about the 35th time Ive trashed the inside of the van doing some mods and adjustments so it was as good a time as any to rip the bunk apart.
I have 5 grand kids, number 6 on back order and plenty of chitter chatter of it not stopping there. My eldest has a tent, and my daughters family tends to get cabins, or flop in our annex. Despite camouflaging the upper bunk as sundry storage, its only a matter of time before one of the the kids (or parents) works out that there is a ladder hanging on the bathrom wall, and that "storage area" is actually a fully functioning bed that theyll likely want to stay in, inside the relative luxury of the van
Lol,lol,lol when we got Big Mal they said but there's no bunks ?????????? 
Hmmm, yes. Grasshopper is not yet as wise as you, Master Po.
Oh, the shame .... the shameHave you cleaned up underneath yet ?????? .....had to be the slickest undercarriage around once..............
