Upgrades to Motor Home 2022
Upgrades/Repairs to Motor Home 2022
Maintenance
We came back to Auckland in December 2021 to help out family and get the yearly checks done on the Motorhome. These include a water ingress check and a check on the air suspension. Simple right (wrong) on the way up the North Island from the South Island, we had the wing mirror glass fall out after hitting a pothole on the state highway. (We won't get into the state of our roads in NZ).
Anyway, we parked up at the kid's farm they manage in Pokeno and booked in with Zion Motorhomes.
Yeah, we passed both tests and they tried their best to fix the wing mirror using parts that they had in stock. It's not as simple as that as it is a right pain in the butt trying to get the glass back in this wing mirror. To cut a long story short we are booked in to get a full replacement thank goodness we have a great insurance company, shout out to Covi Insurance AAA+ recommendation.
Toad
That organized we had a visit from Jacque and Robin at the farm, while they were getting their annual check-up done with Zion Motorhomes.
I had been thinking for a while about a Suzuki Jimny but didn't think we needed it yet. I Looked at Motorhome Friends that night and there was the ideal Jimny for us.
Towbar
Now we have a Toad, but no towbar. We got lots of quotes and decided to go with Best Bars in Auckland. They are recommended by Zion Motorhomes and have fitted plenty of COF towbars to our make and model, so we have confidence that the job will be a breeze at the cheapest price.
We are booked in with Best Bars and looking forward to updating the process.
Solar Upgrade
In the meantime, and probably before we got side-tracked with the Toad, we decided to upgrade our solar system.
Once again, we researched and decided on Motorhome Solar in Hamilton. Friends we have met on the road have used them, and we have seen plenty of positive feedback. Wayne Hunt is very dedicated and knowledgeable about all things solar.
We upgraded from 400w solar to 700w Solar and switched our batteries from 3 x AGM to 3 x 105Ah Lithium batteries.
Great team to communicate with, job well done coming in under estimate quote.
Thanks, guys, no hesitation in recommending Motorhome Solar for all Motorhome Electrical Work.
700W solar made up of 2 ×195w new panel's wired series/parallel though a new Victron Smart Solar MPPT 100/30 controller, wired series-parallel to keep the solar voltage at safe levels and keeping 300w of the original panels and their controller.
Great team to communicate with, job well done coming in under estimate quote.
Thanks, guys, no hesitation in recommending Motorhome Solar for all Motorhome Electrical Work.
700W solar made up of 2 ×195w new panel's wired series/parallel though a new Victron Smart Solar MPPT 100/30 controller, wired series-parallel to keep the solar voltage at safe levels and keeping 300w of the original panels and their controller.
Battery Monitor Victron BMV-712 smart with a shunt.
3 × new Allion LiFeP04 (lithium), 105Ah 100% usable batteries, total 315Ah
Inside Alterations
While Frog had the use of his old tools on the farm. He made a new much smaller tabletop, matching shelf dividing the lounge from the kitchen giving us more bench space. Plus, two benchtop working boards give an even working space while preparing meals
Windscreen Replacement
We have had two chip repairs done and don't think they were very successful but got through a couple of years without a full replacement.
While we were parked up at Rays Rest one of the repairs turned into a big crack, bad enough we will fail our up-and-coming COF we are waiting for a date to get it repaired through Zions windscreen person.
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Change of Tenant
After 2&1/2 years we have had our tenant move their family to the South Island.
Good timing for us as we have been fulling in time waiting to get the windscreen replaced and towbar fitted.
We spent a few days sprucing the place up making it look new again. The tenants left it spotless so we were happy with our first experience of being a landlord.
Suburbia
So here we are in the middle of a maintenance storm until we get everything sorted, we a stuck in Auckland.
Update:
The windscreen replacement is done and the repairer Zion used did a first-class job.
We stayed the night at Heavens Rest B & B and we can recommend here as an excellent place to stay close to Zion when the Motorhome has to sleep over.
Mount Maunganui
We got a bit of bling put on the Motorhome yesterday.
Thanks, Shellie Evans for supplying the photo and Wrap-it for the print and install, really happy with the way it turned out.
The detail is great from the ripples on the water to the details in the mountains.
https://m.facebook.com/shellieevansphotography/
https://www.wrapitsigns.co.nz/page-contact/
We got a bit of bling put on the Motorhome yesterday.
Thanks, Shellie Evans for supplying the photo and Wrap-it for the print and install, really happy with the way it turned out.
The detail is great from the ripples on the water to the details in the mountains.
https://m.facebook.com/shellieevansphotography/
https://www.wrapitsigns.co.nz/page-contact/
Photo Lake Matheson
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