Sliding door and flyscreen

We have a Broadway but would love to downsize to a van conversion. We nearly committed to a new Symbol Plus at last year’s NEC but my wife finds the sliding door too heavy to operate and the omission of a fly screen is a problem in hot weather. The ventilation on van conversions is inferior to coachbuilt although air conditioning is a possibility.

After a lot of discussion it seemed that it might be possible to retrofit a flyscreen and also a “mid point” door stop but all a bit clumsy.

I am interested in other people’s views but also a comment that AS are behind the competition (e.g. Adria) in not offering  these options.

There are a couple of threads (from myself and Kingham) about making a fly screen for a PVC on here if you search. 

We use a cork slotted in to the track to stop the door at the halfway point.

Both easy, non-intrusive solutions.

Not sure what you mean by ventillation is inferior, the sliding windows and roof vents are fine in our Symbol, and opening the entire side door gets more ventilation than you can ever get in a coachbuilt, but maybe I've misunderstood - I presume you mean with the door shut you only have the smaller sliding windows.

It's not that bad as the modern conversions have the thermal glass which stops the interior cooking too much and I find works ok and I find flies are not much of a problem if I'm honest.  They tend not to want to fly into dark area's, which the confines of a van conversion tend to appear to them.  I guess if you were in Scotland in peak midge season it might be a big issue though ;)

There are quite a few flyscreens for the Boxer conversions though, for both the side and rear doors:

Search for Dometic Flytex FT200 or the Reimo sliding door screen are a couple.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A squash ball can be pushed into the side sliding door bottom track to effectively stop the door closing beyond a chosen point

The sliding door is heavy and doesn’t have a half stop as standard, although it seems that there are ways to wedge it. The flyscreens are not ideal, having looked closely at the door and interior fitments it seems that there is insufficient space to provide a decent purpose built sliding screen.

I like Autosleepers but I was hoping that redesigns might be on the cards so that they can catch up with Adria and others. Looks like I may have to wait a few years.

I fitted this to my Kemerton XL and it worked perfectly. Basically a bit of bent metal to create a bump stop on the door track, held in place with sealant. Simple and effective.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I fitted one of those, the noise of the roller going over it was worse than the slamming noise so removed it the very next day.

Thanks Paulmold, I’m in the process of changing my van and will fit another Topsy - it worked for me. If you still have the old one sculling about and want rid of it PM me with a price pse.
Many thanks.

justlooking wrote:Thanks Paulmold, I’m in the process of changing my van and will fit another Topsy - it worked for me. If you still have the old one sculling about and want rid of it PM me with a price pse.
Many thanks.

Had to remove with chisel so destroyed it.

Oh well. I suppose that’s the magic of Loctite 5980 that they supply.

justlooking wrote:Oh well. I suppose that’s the magic of Loctite 5980 that they supply.

Mine was supplied with a Werth sealant/adhesive, set like concrete.

Van comfort do a fixed flyscreen for the boxer. Zipped entrance door. We had one on our Fairford. For what it's worth, we got the Fairford after having a few coachbuilts of various lengths. Kept it for about eighteen months and got fed up with the limited space for access. i.e. knees hitting toilet door when using the facilities. Bent in two trying to access wardrobe. It was great to drive but in the end we bought a Broadway and love it.