Kemerton aerial connections/heater problems

In the last week I have been installing a tv in our new to us Kemerton . It fits in a dedicated cupboard next to the wardrobe. There had never been one installed before as it requires a swing bracket to mount the tv  bolted through the wardrobe wall. On connecting everything up I got no signal from tv. Faulting the aerial cable runs revealed a short cct in aerial cable between core and screen so started removing the aerial cables in cupboards and at booster. Found very poor workmanship with stray strands of screen shorting to centre core at various plugs on the cable runs. The av module in the upper cupboard does not even have a cable connected at rear for the aerial socket! ( perhaps wireless!!) 
               For what is a £ 50000 + purchase new , the factory obviously need someone who knows how to make off an aerial coax connector or at least test the system once completed.
              Last week I called the factory regarding the poor output from whale heater in the shower/bathroom area . Chap agreed it is very poor but basically admitted that because heater is now under the step up to cab area the duct runs are very long to the shower area . I suggested fitting open close vents to the living area that could be partially closed off in living area to force heat to the rear as was suggested previously on this forum and he said that may work .  Ten pounds lighter , 2 manufacturer original vents delivered that open, close and now we have a good flow of air to the bathroom! Why we must modify our own vans to cure poor design by the factory puzzles/ amuses me...  I could understand it in a starter, beginners van where a certain amount of fettling/improvement is part and parcel but these vans are marketed as a high end van. Perhaps the management need a shake up where quality control means just that ?

I don't know how many heater output vents the Kemerton has, but be careful about putting closable vents on all the outputs.

It is definitely frowned upon by heater manufacturers as there is a high risk of overheating the heating unit if all outputs are restricted.

G

You are correct gram but I had already factored in for that and  the shower outlet is now perm. open type . As I said it makes a great difference if only the designers had put a little more thought into the design of the van at the outset...

HI Kaspian,
                   Had a similar problem with my late 2014 Symbol. Last weekend took it away for the first time and lined up my brand new Avtex TV.... Zilch!!
Tried with the roof mounted Ariel, and also with the caravan club hook up into the external TV point.....once again not a sausage.
Co axial direct into TV from hook up, fantastic. I too believe that the connections internally between outside TV point , roof mounted ariel and the connectors do not exist.Looks as if I need to get a multi meter thingy  along with someone who knows how to use it to tell me that the connections are dead!!

phil1855 wrote:HI Kaspian,
                   Had a similar problem with my late 2014 Symbol. Last weekend took it away for the first time and lined up my brand new Avtex TV.... Zilch!!
Tried with the roof mounted Ariel, and also with the caravan club hook up into the external TV point.....once again not a sausage.
Co axial direct into TV from hook up, fantastic. I too believe that the connections internally between outside TV point , roof mounted ariel and the connectors do not exist.Looks as if I need to get a multi meter thingy  along with someone who knows how to use it to tell me that the connections are dead!!

If your location is correct it will be quicker to pop round to the service centre at the factory and ask them.

Hi, I had similar problems with the strange way A/S wires its tv connections, the lead from the outside connection goes from tv in the exterior socket to sat connection in the interior! So you would need a sat to coax lead to be able to use it , but the signal strength was minimal for some unknown reason so basically usesless!.The other lead from the ext  box disappears , and doesn't seem to be connected to anything! I ended up fitting a new socket below where the tv is mounted [logically the shortest and easiest run of cable!] all is now good, but in my case the roof aeriel was in fact wired correctly. Best of luck  Regards      Paul

Hi All,
            Just back from AS at Willersey, well seems that this issue of wiring for the TV and satellite is a bit of a nonsense.
From the service dept and I, paraphrase "sometimes the ext RF in, is wired into the Satellite out which is situated in the van". !!!  er WHY ?  this was met with an almost Gallic shrug of the shoulders and no explanation.
You know when asking any more questions is going to get you nowhere, so I didn't even discuss why the omni directional Ariel was US as well. 
Surely life just shouldn't be this complicated 

At least mine wasn't the only one! I did wonder!       regards  Paul

Told yer so.... Great van but we the buying customer have the finishing off to do ! Well worth it in the end though. 

Could you tell us more about those vents ? How they fit ? Part numbers ? Pictures please ? 

Thanks !

phil1855 wrote:sometimes the ext RF in, is wired into the Satellite out which is situated in the van". !!!  er WHY ?

Because a lot of people, particularly ones with smaller vans, use an external satellite dish on a tripod - that's what I used my external socket for. In any event its just a bit of cable with a socket at each end so you can use it for any tv/satellite function. I do admit it would help if there was clear labelling on all sockets.

rgermain wrote:Having just used our brand new Warwick duo over the weekend, I noticed that the sink/ drawer unit was getting rather warm, well it is next to the Truma heater, but strange I thought and the outlet vent into the area between the beds had no air flow.

On arriving home I found that the large flexi air tube was not connected where is goes round at 90 degrees behind the heater, thus blowing air straight into the units.

I have now managed to fit the elbow in place and all is well.

I also question QA and PDI inspections. BEWARE the metal heat shield which is above the heater has very very sharp edges, I spent 3hrs in the local walk in at the Hospital having my thumb stitched up. I have now placed some edging which is available on ebay to protect against further injury.

Richard

Its an unfortunate fact that many faults don't show themselves until the van is driven about a bit flexing all the components and joints. I did put this to AS a few years ago but they quite rightly pointed out that buyers would not be happy to take delivery of a new van that had a couple of hundred miles on the clock to allow them to 'snag' the installation.

Surely things should be fixed so a bit of flexing or driving over rough roads does not cause problems ? Classic example.. We when touring the lakes went along a rough road. Not terrible but not great. On joining the main road a horrible rattle was present from the rear of the van. It's amazing how noise travels ! After an afternoon messing around I traced it the the window behind the sliding door . It took an hour and a half to strip it all out only to find the cruse self tapping screws were way to short. If they had used longer ones the problem would not have occurred . 

Since then I have taken every window kit apart and re fixed the whole lot. 

With respect I do not want to spend my time away in our van taking the thing apart . 

As above. It's worth sorting these things out but with just a bit more care at the factory I would not have had to do it myself.

Charlie if you search whale directional vent black you will see they are available in black beige and white part dx6531 I think. Mine cost £9 on the Bay for 2. They are threaded and just screw into the end of the duct  hose after unscrewing the open vents .I change both in the living area and changed the bathroom to a perm. Open vent in white (like the current ones in living area) performs well with a decent output at the rear where before the output was very poor. I would not leave it on full for hours in this configuration but it helps balance the heat more effectively.Took 15 mins tops to do.
           The answer received from the factory by phil is shocking but I'm beginning to wonder if I bought into the perceived superiority of the Auto sleeper product that it does not deserve. Simply put,  in my opinion  it is not the poor pdi at fault , or any third party manufacturer of accessories used, to me it is the manufacturer who chooses the parts used, assembles them into a motorhome and should ensure that it leaves the factory 100% fault free and working as intended without the need of a retailer to pdi and rectify obvious faults. To me if you have pride in your work and product such problems do not occur.  Our previous motorhome was classed as a starter van but in 7years of ownership only the pump in the toilet flush failed within the 3 year warranty. Everything worked 100% as intended.I did not have to rewire av connections, fix heating , waste pipes that split through poor choice of materials etc that could be put down to poor workmanship/ bad design. 
           Charlie was right about the weight of the microwave being too much for the fixings of the shelf .On picking up our van the shelf had already dropped  a few mm and was loose. Used his fix to reinforce. Funnily enough one of the videos on youtube of a test of the van shows a drooping shelf behind the speaker while giving his review!
        We paid a premium price as Charlie keeps saying  but I'm beginning to wonder if we did receive a premium product or one trading on past glory.Still love the layout of the van but there are cheaper vans out there every bit as well made if not better and selling for less money.( I spent a long time at the NECC show digging in every corner of rival vans !) Yes ,sad I know but it is a serious amount of money to invest in a van and it was the layout that sold it to us in the end.

Gerard you will love the van when you get out and use it. We love ours and it is a far superior product to so many of the Van Conversion. IMO all the AS PVCs are fabulous. It really is a shame we have to do the finishing off but then I would have tried to improve a van of any type style or description. 

Thanks for the info on the vents. I will be checking what we have and swapping them out shortly 

Everyone loves a good moan and yes I would still do lots to improve / mould the van to our needs but you should not need to repair things that are common faults obviously happening to others by reading some posts on this forum. Cant wait to use , the smell of the 2 gallons of waxoyl applied by compressor to every orifice underneath has just about gone now so should beable to breathe inside with the doors shut !

Who did your waxoyl? Cost?

Hi Ron , I did it myself as I own a compressor and I am very fussy and thorough!   £9 bought a gun and lance to inject into small spaces through the grommets along sills etc. £40 got the waxoyl from local motor factors and I have got a sheen on my remaining hair that would blind you at 100m and reckon I'll be waterproof till Christmas! Some say there are better products on the market but I've used waxoyl for nearly 40 years and it works for me.

We have drifted of topic here and I have just had one of our cars waxoyled but I wonder with so many inlets, outlets and vents under the van and a wooden floor - is it the right thing to do to a coachbuilt motorhome?

Hi Peter , our van is of course a pvc but our previous coachbuilt van built by Eldiss had the same treatment and I did give the wooden floor a dusting as the manufacturer seemed to think that plywood covered with a thin coat of  blackboard type black paint was sufficient to stop rot/ ingress from water being constantly being thrown at the underside while driving ( it wasn't ) You just need to be careful not to fire waxoyl at 70 psi through vents otherwise be prepared to spend a long time cleaning up. I remember after a long journey in monsoon conditions the area behind the rear wheels was drenched but the water was visibly  beading and dripping off the underfloor area.No damp in any of the treated areas and still looking like new after 7 years of ownership.

kaspian wrote:Hi Ron , I did it myself as I own a compressor and I am very fussy and thorough!   £9 bought a gun and lance to inject into small spaces through the grommets along sills etc. £40 got the waxoyl from local motor factors and I have got a sheen on my remaining hair that would blind you at 100m and reckon I'll be waterproof till Christmas! Some say there are better products on the market but I've used waxoyl for nearly 40 years and it works for me.

What type of gun/lance did you buy, I'll be considering doing our 2005 van sometime this year, and our next door neighbour has a compressor that I might hijack for the job.

Did you use a specific size jet/nozzle?

Thanks

I use a standard paraffin wash gun which has a 1 litre can and an adjustable nozzle that once adjusted gives a wide even fan or a more focussed  jet. Usually they come as part of an air tool starter kit , cheap to buy .  I bought an underseal/ wax applicator gun £9 from local motor factors which has a small bore hose attachment around 3 ft. Long that can be fed into door cavities and through sill grommets to give good access and coverage inside box sections. Unfortunately most do not come with a container as they are made to screw onto an underseal/shutz can direct but with a bit of ingenuity you can adapt a milk carton, bottle etc  to hold the wax in while spraying .search underseal/wax applicator gun to see what I mean. I do as recommended, thin approx with 10% white spirit and heat can in a bucket of hot water before use to get it good and runny before use..At around 40 to 50 psi when spraying into box section at rear of van I coild see heavy mist coming out the front grommet!

Great tips, thanks.