Overdrive
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My blanket box (under middle seat) is original and is clashing with the Overdrive, how have folks got around this?? I fear I am going to have to modify it with a grinder and a welder??? Apparently (and it is not me who has fitted it) it is about an inch to deep for the overdrive so sits up……
Hi Dan,
got a photo? I’d like to know what a blanket box is!! I never heard of that.My Dormobile had nothing in that slot when I got it, just the overdrive and a sheet metal cover. I’m pretty sure it was the original seatbox because it hadn’t been drilled for standard seats. But I know that the gas bottle cage and the table had been sourced by a previous owner … indicating that a few pieces of my original Dormobile had gone astray at some point and were later replaced. It could be that the “blanket box” was just plain lost, like the Elsan toilet.
Currently I have a standard Land Rover tool tray there with some spares in it. The cover’s hasp clashes with the seat mounts once the Land Rover is converted to LHD, so there’s no cover on it.
-Jeremy
Will post a photo on the weekend Jeremy… The blanket box is like the tool tray only wider and deeper and it doesn’t have a lid, just open under the passenger seat (RHD). I am going to have to modify it as it is about 1″ too deep for the overdrive to fit in place. This is definitely original to my Dormi and the literature makes reference to it as well.
Hmm, passenger seat RHD, does this mean the blanket box is waaaay over on the left? Or in the middle? All your documentation and original fittings that you got with the truck, I envy you Dan!
On the left I’ve got my battery (2.6L). I’ve always wished I had more underseat storage and that the battery was under the bonnet instead. I suppose I can’t see where a tray on the far left would interfere with the overdrive. But my seatbox is out, now, so I can’t go look!
I think in your position I’d make up a modified blanket tray that fits with the overdrive in place, and carefully remove the original and preserve it somewhere, and use the modified one as long as the overdrive is in.
For example, I have my original Martin Walter rear door stored in my basement. I use a Britpart Defender one for carrying a bike rack, so I don’t dent up the original one. Then I also have no qualms about drilling into it to make the bike rack stay more solidly.
As I said in my Built Two Last article: a white elephant!
Looking forward to a pic if you have time,
-JeremyI’m intrigued by this as well. My 1969 2A 6 cylinder Dormobile (also LHD) had a black metal tray in the centre. I removed this temporarily, fitted an original Fairey overdrive, and replaced it with no problem. What make of overdrive are you trying to fit?
Incidentally, I’ve not heard of this tray called a “blanket box” before.
I think I am going to mothball the blanket box and put my standard tool tray in instead. Right, photo’s will be available on Saturday. On the RHD Dormi it goes under the passenger seat in the centre like a standard tool box. To the left of that is another storage box, the one for the battery on diesel 2A’s (Diesels had 2no 6v batteries), petrols had the battery under the bonnet (hood jeremy ;). Traditionally I have kept tools etc in that box, but I will be fitting a leisure battery instead. In truth the ‘blanket’ box is useless! It is awkward to access and literally would only take a couple of blankets, I suggest we are a lot softer than they were in the 60’s.
I will scan the original Dormobile instructions for all of you to get a copy, they are hand typed and must have been issued with each conversion. The wording is available on Terriannes site, but there is nothing like the original…Anyway, I will do a comparison between blanket box and tool box so you can see the difference.
Dan
DanC wrote:Diesels had 2no 6v batteries), petrols had the battery under the bonnet (hood jeremy ;).Dan – I know Jeremy very well, and he speaks perfectly good International English! I presume your British dialect “2no 6v batteries” means: twin six-volt batteries? Both Jeremy and I were speaking of Swiss-market six-cylinder PETROL Dormobiles, which had 12 volt 110 Amp/h batteries installed under the left-hand seat. In this country, diesel engines are used in tractors!
You still haven’t answered the question as to which overdrive you are trying to install.
Yes, twin six volt batteries, apologies to my international friends! My point was that for British home market vehicles, only the diesel had batteries under the seat, I was aware that Jeremy’s was petrol. My 62′ export specification (Right Hand Drive) 2.25 petrol Dormobile, has space for a battery under the seat but only has one under the bonnet.
Anyway, I am fitting or rather have fitted a fairey overdrive to my Dormobile. Primarily as I had a good one kicking around that was previously on my 88″ diesel tractor 😉 The extra depth of the ‘blanket box’ clashes with the top of the overdrive whereas a standard centre seat toolbox does not. Now, I wonder if Martin Walters altered the ‘blanket box’ to suit the introduction of the fairey overdrive (introduced in the early 70’s), when mine was built there was no such thing…..
It would be most interesting to catalogue the subtle differences between the years of production of our Dormobiles.
Dan’s just ribbing me because I contribute to the Series 2 Club magazine in my native gibberish, which he has to correct as the editor!
English isn’t completely foreign to me: I used to watch the Young Ones in the early 80’s!
Yes we’re softer than the original Martin Walter customers. Forget underseat storage, our 4 sleeping bags and the foam pads fill my wardrobe!! There’s not enough room under the front seat for the pillows we seem to think are necessary to take on wild adventure safaris. I should just strap all our IKEA comforts on the outside in lieu of a hi-lift jack, axe and shovel. After all, we’re not exactly doing Camel Trophies!
Blankets under the seatbox probably served to make the ride quieter, anyway.
Be careful with that overdrive, 30% higher gears mean 30% higher speeds!! 😉
-Jeremy
@jkhackney wrote:
Dan’s just ribbing me because I contribute to the Series 2 Club magazine in my native gibberish, which he has to correct as the editor!
That is the case – however I fear that if you did not know that we communicate otherwise, folk may think I was having a pop at your Americanisms…
There you go gents, bigger and deeper and original!!!
Now can someone help me by posting pics of the drivers seat runners, I don’t have them and can’t fit my seat….. Anyone got any going spare???
That is the smaller toolbox Loic, I have one of those, the blanket box is considerably bigger and deeper! I will put the two side by side next week so you can compare the difference.
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