StuartP Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 Hi, i'm hoping someone can help. A friend is looking to buy a motorhome. They have asked me for some help on one that they have seen, however there are a couple of things that i am not sure about. The van is LPG/Petrol powered. When on LPG the seller claims that the van has a tendency to 'bang' under heavy braking. I have not heard this myself and wondered if it was possibly a backfire of some kind. Does it sound sinister? Any ideas what it could be? Is this common on LPG? The second thing is that the van only has 2 lap belts in the rear. My friend has 2 small children aged 5 and 2, and although they are forward facing is concerned about not having 3 point belts. Does anyone know how simple, and more importantly - how expensive, it is to have lap belts converted to 3 point. If this is not a real possibility does anyone have any experience of using a lap belt with child booster seats. The 2 year old has a seat suitable for use with a lap belt. The 5 year old is on a booster. All help is greatly appreciated. I have attempted to attach a photo of the lap belts. However previous attempts have ended in failure, so i am not particularly hopeful it will appear. Cheers Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 Basically you can forget any hopes of having the two point lap belts converted to three point lap and diagonal. Even if you could find a company willing to undertake such work the cost is likely to be prohibitive, both in terms of money and the loss of payload because of the heavy steel framework that would be required. Sorry I can't help regarding using a lap belt only with a child seat or booster but I wouldn't want to do it. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I have read that backfire with LPG conversions is a characteristic of some, rather Heath Robinson conversions. In view of the unsuitability of the seatbelts, I'd say stay clear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 A friend of mine bought a big Range Rover with LPG conversion to tow his caravan, not only did it back fire going down hills in low gear, it also over heated towing up long hills. He did not keep it for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartP Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 Thanks very much for the advice. My friend has declined the van and is still on a search fo a tidy 4 berth coachbuilt up to 8K. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olley Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Ranger - 2008-02-27 11:38 PM A friend of mine bought a big Range Rover with LPG conversion to tow his caravan, not only did it back fire going down hills in low gear, it also over heated towing up long hills. He did not keep it for long. Was this an older rover? as they did suffer from this on the first LPG conversions. Wasn't unknown for them to blow the inlet manifold to bits. :-D Olley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Yes Olley it was one of the older ones, he had it about 10 years ago and it was quite old when he bought it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GertieDriver Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 I've had two dual fuel (LPG/petrol) vehicles, a 1.8 Vauxhall Vectra and a Talbot 2 litre motorhome. The blowback referred to usually occurs when the mixture runs too lean on LPG and was something I experienced with the Vectra at some inconvenience. It blew the air filter and it's box to bits. I carry gaffer tape (which would have done a temporary repair) in the motorhome but not in the car. I had no such problems with the more basic Talbot engine although being underpowered already the loss of a further 10% power on LPG didn't help with drivability. The gain was in economy, I achieved petrol equivalents cost-wise in the car of around 70mpg and the Talbot of 38mpg. Set against the cost of installation it was good value for the high mileage I did in the car but was loss-making for the motorhome. I did get a little added to the trade in price but not enough to break-even. I'm all diesel nowadays Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donna miller Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Most of the problems with blow back on lpg systems occured on single point injections, i.e. 1 inlet injector fitted into the air filter. There should have been a flash arrestor or blow back valve fitted to stop destruction of the air filter and other bits. Larger engines, such as the V8 on my Range Rover are advised to use a multi point system such as the Romano, this involves fitting 8 injectors into the inlet manifold, you still use the anti blow back valve. If fitted properly LPG should be trouble free, although I used to find that it ran a bit warmer on gas than petrol, it didn't overheat even when towing. Because of the fact you have to tap into your vehicle water system for the vapouriser, means the added possibility of water loss. As for the seat bealts, the same as everybody else says, might be worth seeing if Halfords do a child seat fitting kit for lap belts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartP Posted March 2, 2008 Author Share Posted March 2, 2008 Thank you for all your replies, but just another quick question. We are looking for a coachbuilt, 4 berth, preferably diesel, up to £8k - but it must have 2 forward facing rear 3 point belts. Does such a van exist? It appears that the age of van we are looking at to meet the budget did not have 3 point belts as standard. What is the likelihood that i will find this van? Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 You could try an Elddis Autoquest 320, we had one with the traditional layout of double dinette offside, settee opposite on the nearside, rear toilet compartment and kitchen, from what I can remember it had two 3 point belts on the rear forward facing dinette seat. These should be in your price bracket, if you can, get a 1.9 turbo diesel verson as the normal diesels of the age you are looking for could be quite slow. You should find there are quite a few models of motorhome with this layout, have a good shuftie around them though and make sure they have a proper 3 point belt installation that is strong enough to restrain in an accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Keep things simple and safe. Buy a diesel! Generally running hot suggests a weak mixture Bangs in the exhaust suggest a mixture of unburnt fuel and air are present. My inclination is to keep gas for cooking and heating. Engines designed to run from LPG from the outset don,t suffer from any of the problems highlighted above but are generally fitted to industrial vehicled that sometimes have to work inside buildings where there are people. Big forklifts and the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donna miller Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Our last Hymer was a perfect layout for what you are looking for, it had the centre dinette with 4 belts (all 3 point.) Trouble is I cant remember the model. :$ Yes I can, it's a B564. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Hi Clive, while on the subject of forklifts working inside buildings with people around. It always puzzles me as to why the bottle is on it's side? I'm sure if I turned my gas bottles on their sides liquid gas would come through to the cooker??? Obviously the exhaust from LPG will not poison the workers, which I assume is why it is used instead of petrol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donna miller Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 The bottle on a forklift is laid on its side because the pick up tube is at right angles to the gas valve. If you look on the bottom of the bottle, you will see an arrow telling you which way to have the bottle. You could lay your bottle on it's side, but your gas flow would stop when the bottle got about half way down, as it's in a liquid state until released under pressure. And you're right about the emissions from LPG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Thanks Donna, thought they may have been special bottles but did not know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Alexander Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I had an RV with only lap belts fitted. I contacted police and road safety orgs etc. I found out that you can carry children in seats with only lap belts fitted, and if they are young enough to require child seats, Britax do a seat which is ok with only a lap belt. Hope this helps. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benimar Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Hello, not sure about the LPG query, sorry. But I fitted seat belts in my dads Bedford autosleeper. Simular layout to yours. We drilled and bolted through the floor with metal plates between the chassis for the lower fittings and braced up the bathroom wall for the top fitting with metal plates etc. Two big men then gave it abuse and it worked fine. Problem, it cannot be tested properly and although it would definatly be much better than lap belts, we could never be sure what would happen if the worst happened. Good luck with it, fit them, try them and just assume they are not to regulation but are better than lap belts. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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