Motorhome Modifications

When we travelled through the Americas we hadn’t really spent any time in The Beast before shipping it to Canada and then living in it for 2 years. This gave us no time to make any changes to the set up before heading off.

We didn’t want to make the same mistake this time, so before heading to France for 6 months we spent some time in the UK making a few modifications.

The two main things we want when we travel are:

Autonomy: The ability to park up on a remote beach for extended periods without having to worry about any of the consumables e.g. running out of gas/ electricity.

Security: Motorhomes are often targeted by thieves so we wanted to try and make it as secure as possible for our own piece of mind (which also helps to reduce the insurance premiums). Ultimately if a thief really wants to get into your vehicle they will, all we can do is to try and make it a little more difficult for them.

With these things in mind we set out to make some changes.

Autonomy

Power

The Beast was very constrained by its amount of battery power and we could really only last 2 days without running the engine to charge the batteries even with good solar input.

When we bought the Beastlet she had 1 lead acid leisure battery of 100 amps and a solar panel of 150 Watts but with a very basic charger module. There was a charger from the alternator that would work while driving but not very effectively.

We wanted to completely upgrade this system so we went to a company in Somerset called Van Bitz who have a great reputation and had the following installed:

• 2 x 110 Amp Lithium Batteries
• Victron MPPT 75/15 Solar Regulator
• Sterling 70 Amp Battery to Battery Charger
• Victron Smartshunt Battery monitor
• Victron Phoenix Smart 30 A Mains Battery Charger
• Battery Master Charger for Vehicle Battery

This is quite a lot but is a complete game changer on the power front. We should have significant power reserves to last us for a week without any charging. On days with sun, the solar panel can increase our time without charging indefinitely.

The Battery Master is a useful addition as it ensures that the vehicle battery stays charged by trickle charging from the leisure batteries, so we should never be unable to start because of a flat battery.

All of this equipment can be monitored by a Bluetooth connection and app on your mobile phone.

The dual lithium batteries have about 4 times the usable power as the original lead acid battery as they can be used down to 10% of their capacity without causing any damage unlike the lead acid which is 50%.

The original alternator charger was not specifically designed for a smart alternator found in modern vehicles so only charges at a very slow rate. To get around this the better way of charging is to use a battery to battery charger that takes a feed from the vehicle battery which in turn will be charged by the alternator. This means that the charging when the engine is running will be very rapid.

Our experience of this system so far has been that it is working so well we really don’t need to worry about our power requirements.  An immediate benefit of this is that if we stay at a campsite we no longer need an electric hook-up which can save quite a bit of money but also increases our flexibility enormously.

Toilet Time

One of the most limiting things in a motorhome is the size of the toilet cassette. To combat this we have purchased a second cassette, which is stored in the garage, to double our capacity. (For those not familiar with motorhomes the cassette sits under the toilet and collects the output. The cassette can then be removed from the motorhome and carried to a “Dump” station and poured away. Not a super pleasant task and it somehow always seems to fall to the man in every motorhoming couple)

Motorhome toilets usually rely on adding chemicals to the cassette to minimise any odours, however this makes the end product more toxic and is an ongoing cost.  The chemicals also prevent you being able to dump the toilet in septic tanks and domestic drains. The solution to this is to install a SOG. This is a small fan that attaches by hose to the toilet cassette and vents the air via a carbon filter to the outside. It is very effective at minimising any untoward smells inside the camper.  After studying a few YouTube clips I managed to install this myself (although my heart was in my mouth drilling a hole through the outside of the camper!)

Gas Low

Out of the factory the standard gas system is based on calor gas exchangeable tanks. These are not only expensive but cannot be obtained outside the UK.

Fortunately, the Motorhome that we bought had already been modified by its previous owners to include Gaslow cylinders. These are removable tanks that can be filled through an outside filler port. Gas refills are available at petrol stations throughout Europe.

The gas runs the heating, cooking and the fridge when not on an external electric hook-up.

What I have done is add Bluetooth tank sensors which enables us to remotely monitor how full the tanks are.

Security

When you are travelling, there are two ways of securing a motorhome from anyone up to no good. You can add additional locks and you can add electronic security. We decided to do both.

Vanbitz (www.vanbitz.com/) (who were fantastic and we highly recommend), sell and install probably the most well regarded security package available for motorhomes. We had them install their Growler alarm and immobiliser to ensure that if anyone breaks in it’s a really noisy affair and if they do they can’t steal the vehicle itself. The alarm has blue LEDs on each side of the van and signs for the doors and windows to alert the potential miscreant that there is an alarm in operation.  Deterrence being the best protection.

Vanbitz also put us up in their campsite for a couple of nights as part of the works. We would highly recommend getting any work done by them as they were very knowledgeable with a high level of quality.

In addition we have added after market locks on all of the doors and windows to make it just that little bit more difficult to get in with the hope that any thief looks elsewhere.

Internet

Not an essential but pretty important to us is access to the internet.

The last thing that we had done was to have an aerial and mobile router for Internet access installed. The aerial sits on the roof just behind the TV aerial and is higher gain than a mobile phone aerial , but more importantly sits outside the box of the motorhome. The mobile router then gives us a WIFI signal that we can use in the camper.

We decided to install a 4G router as 5G is really only available in cities and we don’t intend to be in those much. The price of 5G routers is currently very high but I am sure will come down in time and we can replace it in the future as the aerial is future proofed.

We have paired this with a 200GB Global data plan from RWG Mobile (rwgmobile.wales) which unsurprisingly from the name gives us 200GB of data anywhere in Europe. This is based on the EE network in the UK but roams to the best network in the area you are in when overseas.