Category Archives: Modifications

The Glazing Caper…

10 Thursday May 2012

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One of the things we both liked about our Sterling Celebration 550 was the drop down TV storage compartment. It ment we could just simply drop the TV down when we needed it and push it up out of the way when we didn’t. It could be safely transported in its stowed position, so no need for  a bag to put it in or a place to store it when travelling. Best of both worlds, or so it would seem.

We did notice a drawback, to improve the sound quality, Avtex had installed bi-directional speakers, that is they face forward but to improve the sound, they also have a grill at the rear and use whatever surface is behind the TV to reflect some of the sound. Now this is absolutely fantastic if your TV is mounted against a wall. Ours was mounted in front of a hole. The other thing that was also slightly annoying was the fact that if you had the blind down during the night, it tended to get rattled a lot as the quilt would get caught in it so it was always pulled up at night. This then required who ever was up first, if they wanted to open the front blinds and not disturb the person sleeping had first to drop the blind with the same silent skill as a Ninja.   Continue reading →

Bike Rack update…

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Maintenance, Modifications, Projects, Uncategorized

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After coming up with the Bicycle Conveyance Contrivance, I needed to do a bit of angle measuring. Andy Ingham had posted asking if I had enough clearance for a steep incline… and I posted back I thought I’d have 35 to 40 degrees. After I’d posted that I started thinking…. and then the doubt set in. So, a few days later as the rain had stopped, I dragged Sue back to the storage compound, this time armed with some straight edges and a combination angle set.

We hooked up the caravan and using my modified jockey wheel handle raised up the jockey wheel to its fully wound in position and then raised it in the clamp to its highest position. The next step was to determine the maximum angle the vehicle could be at before the jockey wheel touched the bike rack.

WARNING: this post contains maths! Continue reading →

Jockey Wheel Mod…. Update

19 Thursday Apr 2012

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You know when you have built, modified or ‘tweaked’ something and it works as you planned, but there is always this feeling that it’s not quite right… well I had the same feeling last night. Although the mod to the jockey wheel did everything I wanted, I’d lost some of the functionality, namely the original Al-Ko handle.

I don’t like having bits left over and the handle was no exception. I needed a way of attaching it so it could be used as intended. Continue reading →

Jockey Wheel Mod….

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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After my Bicycle Conveyance Contrivance posting a couple of days ago, I have been thinking about the modification needed to make sure the jockey wheel cleared the bike rack. My original Idea was to simply remove the roll pin holding the handle onto the inner threaded rod and replace it with a “R” type clip. However, on removing the roll pin, it was obvious that the cranked handle was designed to hold the threaded rod in the upper shaft of the jockey wheel. Right, plan B then.

The top of the Al-Ko jockey wheel

I have always thought that if you can slow someone down that is going to try to deprive you permanently of something, then they will look somewhere else. With that in mind I thought if there wasn’t a handle on the jockey wheel, it would be an inconvenience to someone who thought they deserved our caravan more than us. As the steadies require the use of a 19mm socket attachment in the power driver or the cranked winding handle… and as it happens, the Al-Ko wheel lock also required a 19mm socket, by a bit of logical thinking, I thought “A-ha a nut that uses the same size 19mm socket could be a way forward.”  Well, if the truth be told, I opened my big divided tray of assorted nuts… looked at one and thought “that looks about right,” then thought “I’ll bet that is the same size as the steady nuts.” Continue reading →

Bicycle Conveyance Contrivance….

16 Monday Apr 2012

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The Prologue…

One of the big debates in the caravan world is how to carry your bikes. Our continental cousins have the advantage that their caravans come with a longer ‘A’ frame allowing a bike rack to be installed on it. Fiamma have an excellent range dedicated to just that. In the UK though, caravan manufacturers seem to prefer the stubby ‘A’ frame and basically because of this and the fact that UK vans seem to come pre loaded with the weight of a small elephant already on the hitch, we have to come up with alternatives.

The old bike rack, even on its highest setting, it would not clear the caravan 'A' frame and it was unstable too.

Somehow carrying the bikes on the roof is a bit of an aerodynamic disaster as far as I’m concerned and Sue was adamant that they were not going inside her shiny new caravan so the only place left  was to hang them off the back of the Freelander. We had a bike rack from a well-known car spares shop that fitted on the spare wheel and up to now had worked fine. The problem was it carried the bikes too low to allow us to tow the caravan. I’d adjusted the frame to lift the bikes as high as I could get them, but it wasn’t right and it seemed unstable. Time to look at alternatives. Fiamma was a logical place to start. They are well-known for producing equipment for caravans and motorhomes and have a range of bike racks that are designed with this in mind. Continue reading →