Collected Doris Duetto Yesterday

Very pleased so far. Have started finding my way around all the nooks crannies and gizmos. I thought I would get busy with the waxoil but when I whipped off one of the front door trim panels I found someone had been there before me. Very chuffed about that. It seems it must have had a caring owner in the past or were they all treated this way when new?
Regards.

One word......

Enjoy!

hello

hope you enjoy your van.

we bought our 1998 Duetto in 2003.

as yours, it had been waxoyled, so i assume it was done by As when new.

Janet

Hi Blossom,

Enjoy your new Van , will keep a look-out for you, ‘The Kent Triangle’ (1B449, Orian & deckie) is now ‘The Kent Rectangle’

Brian & Chris

Thanks deckie. Pleased to be a part of your "rectangle"

Blossom wrote:Thanks deckie. Pleased to be a part of your "rectangle"

B & C

Blossom wrote:I thought I would get busy with the waxoil but when I whipped off one of the front door trim panels I found someone had been there before me. Very chuffed about that. It seems it must have had a caring owner in the past or were they all treated this way when new?
Regards.

Hi Blossom... think Auto-Sleepers do treat the vans with waxoyl... or at least they seemed to do on the older models. Some seem to think the later models are not treated but I'm certain the underneath of ours has been done, as I've been under our van a few times now and there is definitely a rust proofing coating of some kind that's been applied to the cross member and chassis which is soft and waxy as it comes off on your knuckles.

Enjoy your Duetto and keep us all updated

CC

Hi Blossom,

Belated welcome from the other corner of the rectangle.

Whoopee! The suns just come out.

M & C D

We are also new Duetto owners. We have had ours nearly a month now and cant wait to try a night out. We have done lunch at Hunstanton to try some of the things like the cooker ect. I am taking mine to be re-rust proofed next weekend. It has had some rust proofing under the wheel arches but what looks like the origional stuff is coming off in large sheets so I think we will start again. I used to do my own rust proofing at work in the bus garage but the new boss decided no outside work to be done on the premises. We looked at quite a few vans before finding this one at Meridian Motorhomes. A lot of the Transits we saw were rusty to terible so I think it was worth the long search for the best we could afford. I keep finding silly litle things wrong with ours but for its age 1996 it has been looked after. The next little job is the reading lights next to the interior mirror. Should they work with the lights on as ours have only worked once. Not a major issue but I like things to work.

Dave 418 wrote: The next little job is the reading lights next to the interior mirror. Should they work with the lights on as ours have only worked once. Not a major issue but I like things to work.

Great choice!

There is a combination of three rocker switches (two x two-way and one x three-way) next to the mirror lights in "Petal" and they give a wide variety of possibilities.

I suggest you try them all to find out what they do.

Best regards,

I will have to go out and play some more with my lights. It took me a while to sus out how to make the reading lights in the cab roof work, They are powered by the leasure battery as it says in the big book that came with the van. Early days yet and many happy days out all be it cold ones so far.

All lights now working. A bit of susing and bogling and a quike spray of contact cleaner and we have lights. Oh and the water heater now works first go every time. The fuses in the pannel were a bit coroded. Changes all the fuses and now we are all fully functioning. I hope this is the way things are to be with our Duetto.

Glad it's all coming together. By the time the warmer weather comes (if ever) you'll have everything sussed and be able to enjoy your new toy

JUst got my LED,s for my reading lights. I got the 6 LED ones and I can realy recomend them. They seem realy bright but not harsh and dont get hot. The lights above the front seats were so hot they were painfull on the top of my head. This is an easy mod to do and will save youre battery. I feel our Duetto is starting to get a personal feel to it now, cant wait to get out and play. Trying to think of a nice name for our van next.

Hi Blossom and Dave ,
Do you really have to wait untill the weather warms up try it now so long as you pick somewhere where where you can get electric (not to far from home) and use a heater, a small oil filled electric radiator is recomended, not a fan heater put this in the cab. Unfortunatly in most vans his will mean running a lead from the front to back of the van as very few converters including AS do not fit electric sockets 240 or 12 volt in the cab area, these are 2 mods that I have installed myself, so that I can run electrical eqptment in the normally disused cab area of the van without resorting to long leads.

Brian2

Please forgive this digression, but why not a fan heater?
Steve

We have a bit of a block on nights away untill after new year, Ausy relative that wont go home . We had thought of the nighstop pub car park idea listed in Practical Motorhome. Some of these offer hook up and its free to stay if you have a meal from them. Sounds good to me, couple of pints and a pub supper. The heater in our Duetto seems to realy belt out some heat and its on a thermostat so it should be fairly toasty at night. My only slight nigle being the water heater freezing. I supose it could be drained last thing at night and only leave a small amount of water in the tank. Any one want to correct me on this I am all ears being new to this hobby. I have slept the floor of a hut on the side of the Baltic in Kiel, it was minus 30 in the wind. LIfe was easy when we were young and stupid.

Hi Steve and everyone,
Fan heaters are fine when you are awake, but when you are asleep, should the fan go faulty and the heater stay on this could cause a fire, when I said a fan heater maybe I should have said any heater with an open element including halogen heaters etc because of the fire risk in the close confines of a motorhome or awning. and I was suggesting something that could be left on in safety when everyone is asleep.
In most places you pay a fixed fee for electric whether you use a lot or a little.

Brian2

Hi Dave,
Another possibility for a pub stopover is motorhome stopover.co.uk Kevin Bird who runs it used to run a pub but has now retired one pub I know in Lincolnshire which does have hookup available is the Marrowbone and Cleaver in Kirmington, I dont know whether this is any where near you.

Brian2

Thanks, Brian2, some food for thought there. Good luck with your vans, Blossom and Dave.
Steve

Thanks for that,yes we know the Marobone and Cleaver in Kirmington. Its on the flight path for Humberside International Airport. Former RAF Kirmington were the actor Donald Pleasence served as a navigator during the war, so I have been told. Thats the sort of thing we were looking at but maybe a bit farther away from home so we wont be too tempted to pack up and come home. Thought of Norfolk area maybe.

Dave 418 wrote:Its on the flight path for Humberside International Airport.

Well you wouldn't be disturbed much at this time of year. Only 2 destinations from there at this time of year - Aberdeen and Amsterdam. I've seen bigger post offices than the terminal at Humberside and the queue system was the same, rope barrier.

Like all old RAF bases it has its past residents. Not that I am a great beliver in spookys but I have worked around most of Lincolnshires airfailds in the dark and I do belive what people say about funny feelings.
You will notice they dont do night flights from Humberside.

murph wrote: Hi Steve and everyone,
Fan heaters are fine when you are awake, but when you are asleep, should the fan go faulty and the heater stay on this could cause a fire, when I said a fan heater maybe I should have said any heater with an open element including halogen heaters etc because of the fire risk in the close confines of a motorhome or awning. and I was suggesting something that could be left on in safety when everyone is asleep.
In most places you pay a fixed fee for electric whether you use a lot or a little.

Brian2

Hi, my experience with many fan heaters, and not expensive ones, are that they trip off if the air is restricted or they get too hot.
So do not have any clothing etc close by and switch off before finally turning in. Take a blanket or two for bed heat.
Switch on when waking and while the wife makes a cuppa wait till it is warm enough for you to get out of bed.
I am assuming you are old and disabled.
regards

Mike

One of the products that I've been looking at with interest is this:

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It's just a simple featureless panel which spreads a relatively low heat output over a large area, and it only reaches a max temp of 75 degrees, which is too low to pose a fire risk under any normal circumstances. Hoping to fit at least one of them in the new van for silent, safe background heating when on hookup.

The ideal setup for me would be to design it so that one of them could hinge out horizontally to put soggy footwear on (with a suitable air gap), and wet clothing above, to dry overnight - but sadly I don't think I will be able to find anywhere to fit it where it would not constantly be in the way...