Kitchen unit questions

[jkhackney]

Hello,

Since I’m re-installing the kitchen in another vehicle, I can fix some ill-fitting features, or leave things as they are in my “original” vehicle. For one, my left rear seat rubbed on the sink lid while being reclined and was being badly chafed. For another, the gas line is outside the cabinet, not inside like in photos I’ve seen.

I’d like to know specifics about how the unit is installed in other Dormobiles.

1) Could someone please measure/photograph where the gas line comes in through the floor? How large is the hole and where is it relative to the kitchen mounting hardware and/or the underfloor brace?

2) Do others have a circa 1.5″ wide U-channel along the bottom of the rear window, adjacent to the kitchen unit, of thin steel? Is it flush with the unit or is there a gap between them? (Where are the rearmost mounting brackets, the ones toward the rear door?)

3) There is a vertical dihedral (angle) piece about halfway along the side that faces the rear window: in my shadow in the picture. It’s like an extra support bracket, and it’s cut at an angle (like a triangle sticking out the side of the kitchen unit). Mine has a circa 7mm hole in it. Does this bracket screw into the door latch somehow? Does this angle piece go over the door latch, or behind it? As I recall, it only just touched the tub in my “original” vehicle.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Bea]

I will attempt to take some photos tonight if enough light remains.

Phil

[marc78]

@jkhackney wrote:

Hello,

I’d like to know specifics about how the unit is installed in other Dormobiles.

3) There is a vertical dihedral (angle) piece about halfway along the side that faces the rear window: in my shadow in the picture. It’s like an extra support bracket, and it’s cut at an angle (like a triangle sticking out the side of the kitchen unit). Mine has a circa 7mm hole in it. Does this bracket screw into the door latch somehow? Does this angle piece go over the door latch, or behind it? As I recall, it only just touched the tub in my “original” vehicle.

Thanks,
Jeremy

Is this what you are talking about, does this help?
Kind regards,
Marc

[jkhackney]

Thanks, Marc

That helps. It means that mine was installed in the correct place, as close to the rear of the tub as possible, and I can use the old position in the new vehicle.

This is the part I was unsure about, above the rear door latch. This is a picture of mine before I removed it. I wasn’t sure if it was installed correctly. I think Michel’s has a screw in this hole, but it is at the very edge of the photo he sent, and I can’t see it well. So I’m not sure? I don’t know what it would screw into.

-Jeremy

[Bea]

Here is a few photos of mine as promised……..

Hope that may be of some help.

phil

[jkhackney]

Hello Phil,

Thanks! It all fits as close to the rear of the tub as possible. In the third and the second-to-last picture you see the triangle-shaped tab I was wondering about. This tab is actually in the way, such that the bottom of my stove doesn’t want to sit evenly on the vertical face of the wheel well. The resulting tension pulled the original mount out of the wheel well when the rivets got corroded enough. I see you’ve used the other style mount to provide a spacer; I may also opt for a spacer.

Good place for the fridge. Does it share the stove’s gas line?

I didn’t know you had a tailgate/catflap until I saw the Africa pictures. Now I can see how that modification worked.

-Jeremy

[Bea]

Hello Jeremy,

I am not aware that I have used another style mount to provide a spacer, I remounted the cooker unit on my rebuild using all the original fittings, it slots into position very exactly and has lips etc that fit into all the nooks and crannies of the tub particularly regarding the rear 1/4 window and the back lip which all fits perfectly ensuring no gaps for anything to fall through. Your comment regarding the wheel well leads me to suspect that you are trying to fit your kitchen unit to a ‘standard’ tub not a Dormobile modified one with the larger seat box cut outs that the genuine conversions had. I will try and get an internal shot this evening to show you what I mean, but in essence inside my cooker unit the seat box is completly cut away and a locker extends down into the resulting space creating a very large storage space. I have seen two versions of this on Dormobiles one (like mine) utilising all available underseat space and the other just extending the wheel well/tool box out towards the centre of the vehicle.
The other difference over the standard tub is their is extra metalwork around the lower door frame where the triangle shaped tab that you refer to bolts, you can see on mine it lies naturally against the frame at that point though looking at my photo now I notice that the bolt appears to have vibrated out as it is missing!

The cat flap was to my knowledge never fitted to Dormobiles as standard and I had to modify both the kitchen unit and the wardrobe unit to enable the slider stays to work and the cooker lid to lift without fouling. However a later cat flap unt with the manual stays should fit with no modifications IMHO. My sin was to wish to use the correct period tailgate slider stays which are even rarer than Dormobile kitchen units!

For camping I find the ‘cat flap’ lifting tailgate far superior to the rear door particularly when allied to a side opening tailgate. In use the top awning of my Oz Tent lays across the opened cat flap providing a totally watertight solution. Without the tent you cancook etc in the back with the cat flap open in inclement weather and still have ventilation without the rain coming in.

The fridge does not have a gas line, it is a modern Wabsco exped compressor fridge/freezer, not cheap but incredibly good, its power consumption on 12v once down to temperature is minimal it ensured we had ice cool beer and fresh milk even at 42 degrees in the shade in the desert. I run it off my domestic Yellow Top Optima Gel Battery, the fridge has automatic voltage sensing that will shut it down or go into a reduced mode before it drags the battery down to a level that would prevent it starting a vehicle. In practical use we have found that it is cabable of keeping it at temperature for at least 3 days without needing recharging and as I keep the domestic and charging batteries isolated from each other and charged seperately then there is no chance of the dreaded flat starting battery, not that it would be a problem as we carry a starting handle (and regularly practice with it!) Bottom line is I see no necessity for a gas option with modern exped quality compressor fridges.
The beauty of it being 12v is also that it is easy to unclamp from its mounts which then fold away and to move the fridge onto the floor or out into the tent allowing the full use of the downstairs bed.

I forgot to mention about the gas line as per your original question, my original line was a rubber pipe of undeterminable age which was laid along the centre cross member then up the left chassis rail. I have replaced this with a proper copper gas pipe that is securly mounted at both ends and along its route along the top of the centre chassis cross member then down the top of the left chassis rail before looping out and into the cooker unit just below the original cutoff tap. At the cooker end there is then a rubber gas pipe to the cooker. At the bottle end the copper culminates in a secure mounting on the body from whence a rubber pipe connects it to the regulator. I have used modern gas fittings and had the local Corgi gas fitter test it all. However with an original 1961 cooker it is impossible to meet current caravan safety regulations as the early cookers have no flame failure device fitted. Additionally the early cookers were designed to operate at lower pressures than modern Calor Propane regulators will supply, but standard butane will work fine.

Phil

[jkhackney]

Thanks for going out of your way, Phil!

My Dormobile’s rear storage locker only has one modification: the bottom was completely cut out of it, and was replaced with wood 🙄 Otherwise it is standard. And yes, I’m now using a standard SW tub which I may or may not modify like the original Martin Walter one.

-Jeremy

[jkhackney]

@jkhackney wrote:

Hello,

1) Could someone please measure/photograph where the gas line comes in through the floor? How large is the hole and where is it relative to the kitchen mounting hardware and/or the underfloor brace?

anyone?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Author]

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