The value of a Habitation Service

[StuartO]

Our neighbours bought a 23 year old Autosleeper Clubman GL recently; their first venture into motorhoming, so we’ve been among the experienced motorhomers they’ve been getting ideas from.  They were the ones who got scammed but eventually got their money back, as I reported in another thread.  Happily they then fell on their feet and found an affordable Autosleeper with an automatic gearbox, which was necessary because of a driver handicap.

 

Very sensibly they got this one inspected before buying and then mechanically serviced before driving it 150 miles back home.  By the time I first saw it they at least had a safe and reliable vehicle.   It looked really very good to me as a motorhome too, nice and clean and unworn inside and no smell of damp inside – and of course these Autosleepers were well built and are known to last very well. 

 

But this motorhome had been out of use for some time so would all the motorhome installed services work, that was the next question.

I was able to check the habitation electrics for them and it looked like the “new” leisure battery which the car dealer who sold them this MH was said to have installed was at least safe enough to continue using, to see if it would do the job.  The voltage at this leisure battery whilst on EHU suggested that the Zig Unit was charging as advertised, so that was a good start.

 

But I wasn’t up to doing much more in the way of testing so I suggested they get a habitation service done as the next step, which was done this morning.  I’d established that the Carver water heater worked on mains but it wouldn’t start up on gas and there was also a leak from the water heater on the outside – suggesting the unit might have suffered frost damage.  Nor would the habitation gas heater light properly. And I hadn’t got as far as trying to test the fridge.

 

The mobile habitation servicing technician turned out to be a nice chap and he quickly discovered an old wasps nest in the flue of the gas heater and that the leak from the carver water heater just needed a new safety plug and he got that going on gas too, so a good result already.  The fridge lit up on gas (eventually, patience was required until the butane gas came through on this cold day) so another result and eventually, as he left some four or five hours after starting, all the habitation stuff was working properly.

 

He did however discover a big damp patch in the ceiling liner board, above the plastic surface covering, below where a solar panel had been fitted – so possibly a DIY installation with water ingress where the mounting bolts penetrate the roof moulding.  This needs drying out and the bolts holding the solar panel need resealing properly but because Autosleepers have glass fibre roofs and this dampness is probably not too far gone internally, a satisfactory repair should be entirely achievable.

 

The going rate for a habitation service seems to be about £150 but this local chap charged less than that and did a very thorough job.  He had all the necessary tools and instruments too, so very worthwhile.

 

The lesson for me has been that these guys know what they are doing and the scope and thoroughness of a habitation check is very well worth paying for, if not every year when everything is still working, then at least every couple of years, especially with an older motorhome.  I’m going to book him in to do mine before we go to Peterborough.