Additional garage door

[Hairsy]

Hi,

 

I have a Burstner A647 with a large garage - which is great. One downside though is that the garage only has a door on one side of the van. Given that we can get lots of stuff in there, it can be a right pain trying to get something from the back of it.

 

A friend has a Hymer with a similar sized garage but a door on each side - this is a much more practical way to use the space.

 

I was wondering whether it might be an option to have a door 'cut-out' and fitted on the other side of the van to give us access on both sides.

 

Does anyone know whether this is possible, who might be able to do it, and an idea of the potential cost?

 

Thanks very much

 

Dave

[yrocker]

Self builders do this type of thing all the time, fitting widows and lockers in panel vans.

 

If we can do it through steel bodywork it should be reasonably easy through aluminium and insulation sandwich walls, which are also usually flat.

 

Have a look at http://www.leisurevehiclewindows.co.uk/ for various locker doors.

[Brian Kirby]

You should check first with Burstner, because the side walls may contain strengthening members that should not be cut.  Many of these vans could have an additional garage door specified when ordered, and if yours is one such, the strengthening for the door surrounds may already be there.  If that case suitable door frames could be obtained from Burstner and fitted.  The cut out needs to be done carefully, because the off-cut material is re-used to infill the opening frame portion to form the door.  That way all the decals etc carry through, and it looks a proper job.  If it is not done correctly, apart from looking a mess, it could seriously weaken the side of the van.

[Hairsy]

Thank you very much for the advice.

 

Brian, you're relatively local (I'm West Sussex) - do you know anyone local(ish) who might be suitably skilled to do this if Burstner gave me the OK?

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Brian Kirby]

Dave

If the van is still within the Burstner water ingress warranty, I think you'll have to get the job done by a Burstner dealer, to avoid voiding the warranty. 

If it isn't, you could try STJ Motors Ltd, Octimum Business park, Albert Drive, Sheerwater, Woking, Surrey.  Tel 01483 722793.  They have a large vehicle body shop and are Hobby dealers.  They do motorhome body repairs.  They also fix the local ambulance fleet as necessary, so I assume are fairly reliable.  I have no experience of the body works, but they seemed to our water ingress tests OK last year!  

Eddie O'Callaghan (Judgemental) was going to take his van to them for a bit of work, but I don't know if he ever did.  Maybe a PM?