If you own a Carado Banff you know what we’re talking about: the annoying door that covers the black water tank access. The one that doesn’t open all the way up and you have to reach in there blindly and grope gross things without actually knowing what it is that you are touching. You emerge with your gloves torn and your wife on the verge of hysteria, and that’s even before you started dealing with the hose or the stuff that flows through it.
That door.
We finally had enough and took a chainsaw to it. well, not exactly a chainsaw, but we cut it a bit.
There is another reason to modify this door. The pressure that we were putting on it in futile attempts to keep it open started to take it’s toll on the material and it started to crack; we wanted to do something before it will be too broken to fix.
We started off by clamping on a rigid guide along the future cut. The cut needs to be measured so that the hinge can be mounted on the flat part.
We started the cut with a few passes with a utility knife.
and finished the cut with a hand saw.
We clamp the hinge on
and drilled holes for the screws.
We used these screws and the same size nuts.
We made sure to tighten the nuts form both sides with a screw gun on one side and a hex bit on the other so that it doesn’t become loose with vibrations.
We now clamped the cut part to the remaining flap
drilled holes on the other side of the piano hinge, and tighten the nuts well.
Our door can now open about 180 degrees, while before it was about 90.
We have a bungee cord handy to keep it open flush with the van.
We finished it off with black tremclad spray paint
and we’re good to go!
BY THE NUMBERS:
- cost of hinge, screws, and nuts about C$12
- time to manufacture: about an hour
- a glass of wine for hysterical wife: C$2.00 (cheap wine will do)
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Nice job as always. Are you using stainless?
“Now you have an official Tarzan butt-flap for your black water spout.”
p.s. ever think of using a compost toilet? have a look at Airhead, not Natures Head.
Yes, stainless and yes, we bought this model because it would have been very easy to convert to compost. Also, the black and grey are combined, so we wouldn’t have to figure out what to do with the black tank. We may still do it. What is the issue with nature head?
Both are good—as fancy plastic poop buckets go. Natures Head is about $150 cheaper. Airhead, for us seemed as a better product…and, it’s perfect for us. No complaints after 2 years. I wrote a small piece about the Airhead a while ago: http://roadtrip.love/oh-crap-composting-toilets/
What we love, is that there is no smell, easy to clean (no more “stinky slinky”) the Airhead has a small window to indicate how much tea you have in the kettle before emptying. We did consider using cassette system…you look like a tourist carting your luggage into rest rooms to empty…then, you still have a fun time with the splish-splash chugging sound next to someone trying to read a book in the next stall. But the regular composting is more natural–humane for me (yep, me) to clean.
Haha, yeah, I don’t think I would consider the cassette 🙂 We will look more closely at the different types to see which one will be easiest to install in our van (mostly in terms of connecting the vent and fan). I think that it is most suitable for us as well as it lasts so much longer than the regular system and is not subject to freezing…
And great article! Thanks for pointing me there!
is the flap door metallic? or the van body in that area metallic for a magnet to be used to keep the flap door open using something like this from Amazon?
https://goo.gl/6LdcGc
The body is metallic and you may be able to use magnets if you double or triple them There is a gap between the door and the body that is a little hard to see in the picture.
Hi, you did an awesome repair! Great idea!!
Well, this very flap broke and blew off driving down the highway in a windstorm…I need to replace but can’t find the name of the part to buy one online. Would you happen to know what the heck it’s actual name is besides what I’m calling the rigid black plastic hinged flap? I have searched the owners manual and they don’t give it a better name..or part number.
Jasmine
Yikes! I’ve seen this part referred to as the plastic skirting. I believe that it was manufactured in house by Roadtrek and is not available anywhere else. I heard that some people were able to get them from the new owner of Roadtrek, so you might want to try and contact their support department and see if they have any. Are you a member of the Facebook page Carado and Sunlight Owners Group? You can post the question there and some of the members may be able to help. Good luck!
Thanks for your quick reply; I called the Ontario Roadtrek parts dept. and a guy told me they don’t sell to Hymer owners, only Roadtrek (Zion, Slumber, which are Promasters). He was kinda abrupt and said that all Hymer’s stock was intentionally destroyed when they went bankrupt in Canada. Wow! He must have had a really bad situation with Hymer. So does he have some of what I need squirrelled away but just won’t sell it to me because I own a Hymer Promaster 2500?
I’m thinking of ways to get panels of molded, black ABS or other durable material for all the “skirting” on the van. if I am successful I will share my project.
Thanks again for sharing your very successful repair! Now if I could just find that broken piece along the highway!! LOL
Jasmine
Wow! That’s really nasty! Interesting that they choose to punish the Hymer customers…
Good luck with getting something instead, you may be able to do so. I also heard that some owners chose to remove all of the skirting altogether.
On our recent trip we also lost part of the skirting but were able to find it on the side of the road 🙂
I really appreciate your suggestions and understand why people remove all the skirting; just not used to seeing the propane tank..hope to figure it out..
Thanks again,
Jasmine