As always with projects such as this it is inevitable that there will always be mistakes in the design or the construction, or indeed both especially when it is your first motor home ever made or owned, mistakes that with hindsight would have been changed to improve the finished project. However because of the meticulous research and helpful advice given from several sources prior to starting the build, in general we are very happy with the result and the vehicle makes a very comfortable home to both live and travel in, and most importantly performs well.
What would we change if doing it all again? A big question, but in short not a lot. If I could reduce the overall height of the bulkhead by 4-5 inches then this I think would be good. Also the Zanussi washing machine proved to be a bit of a lemon. It failed big style within 6 months, apparently they suffer with motor and brain problems, but as it was fitted into a ‘mobile home’ the manufacturer did not want to know. So we have now purchased a new plastic twin tub washing machine for £70 from Ebay, made in China, runs from our 400w inverter and I have to say is a little belter. It is light also and has saved us around 40 Kg by removing the Zanussi. Hindsight is truly a wonderful thing.
As a consequence off not having the Zanussi we have also now removed the diesel generator as our petrol unit can run the remaining equipment such as air-con and battery charging. This removal has saved 100 Kg in weight as well as freeing up space in the garage.
Without doubt the biggest mistake of the whole project was my decision to use a ‘professional vehicle builder’ for the construction of the cabin and fitting out of the cabin to our specification. A decision that was driven by our shortage of time and our need to have the vehicle finished within a 6-month time frame. ‘Eventhomes Ltd’ located at Flixborough near Hull, portray them selves as a long established family firm with an excellent reputation for quality workmanship. Sadly this was not our experience, far from it, for us the whole sad episode of the build was one big frustration, massive disappointment and a finished product that was handed over months late and in a terrible and uncompleted condition. We were lied to almost weekly as to why the project was not proceeding toward the time scale agreed, the original supplied specification was not followed and the general standard of build quality was appalling to say the least. To add to this misery, on hand over of the vehicle which was already months late, Event homes had the cheek to try and charge for ‘extras’ above the original agreed price to the tune of well over £10,000.The phrase “sharp practice” comes to mind.
We prepared a list of snagging work following handover that filled 7 sheets of A4 paper, well over 50 jobs in total ranging from the shower extractor fan not being fitted, scratches on surfaces, hot and cold water taps plumbed the wrong way, to a shower base that leaked into the sub floor. The chassis was painted grey not black as specified and remains that way today. In the first 6 months of ownership we have suffered with many frustrating problems ranging from a leaking plastic ‘black water’ tank that filled our under floor storage space with sewage (now replaced with an aluminium unit at our cost) rain water leaking in through the roof seams, locker doors that cannot keep out rain water, battery connections that came apart due to them not being fastened down and creating a potential fire hazard, cupboard doors falling off and numerous electrical connection problems.
The list of problems just goes on and on, I have mentioned just a few and it has taken me a lot of time and effort to address them all to arrive at a vehicle that I can now say we are happy with. Goodness knows what a less mechanically able person would have done with such a vehicle, especially when “Eventhomes” market themselves at the physically incapacitated market.
The lesson has to be that if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself, as others appear not to care as long as they get their money. Needless to say there is absolutely no way I would ever recommend this company to anyone looking to have a vehicle converted. Had we not committed our self to world travel plans and still had a house to live in in the UK, this would probable have ended up in court as the vehicle conversion was in my opinion not fit for the purpose intended.