Autosleeper Duetto 1999 Gas vent problem

[StuartIOM]

I have recently purchased the above vehicle.

I have slowly been servicing the vehicle and to my amazement I have found five 'plug holes' in the floor of the vehicle with only one having a pipe on the exterior.

Accordingly water has been blasted into floor of the vehicle creating rust and rot under the sink unit etc.

Surely this is not a standard way of fitting these escape holes?

I would presume the converters have omitted to put exterior pipes on the other four?

Could someone confirm if this is the case?

Thanks

Stuartiom

[spospe]

StuartIOM

 

We used to have a 1999 Duetto and I can confirm that the gas vent holes in the various cupboard floors only had a white plastic coa**e mesh type of vent covering them and no pipe at all. No one ever directed a water jet up against the vents from under the vehicle and we never experienced any problems such as you have outlined.

 

EDIT: the word above "coa**e" was typed as "c o a r s e", which seemingly the swear filter does not like!

[StuartIOM]

Thanks for that info.

It wasnt immediately apprarent but when I took the carpet up around a number of the holes the carpet was sodden the metal rusy and wood damaged.

The worst damage has occurred where the holes are adjacent to the wheel arches.

I can well imagine water being blasted through the mesh when passing through deepish puddles.

Strange thing is that one of the holes has a short pipe extension which obviously has proven successful as there is no damp and rust in the vicinity.

[Derek Uzzell]

StuartIOM - 2009-05-03 1:24 PM

Surely this is not a standard way of fitting these escape holes?

/QUOTE]

 

UK motorhome manufacturers have historically delighted in cutting gas drop-vents (ranging from little-finger size to Wookey Hole dimensions) in vehicle floors in the hope that leaking LPG will act like a heavy liquid and drain cooperatively to the outside air through those apertures.

 

If the motorhome is a coachbuilt design, built on a traditional ladder chassis, the drop-vents (if you are lucky) may have some reasonable shielding from road spray and muck. But, if the motorhome is a panel-van conversion, with a tin floor, then adding genuinely effective shielding is more difficult and the easy option is just to not bother.