Camper Truck Modifications You Need to See

Do you have a camper truck?

Check out the modifications we did on this camper truck in the video below.

The Truck

We got a call from a guy over here in Perth saying that he’s brought a truck over from the Eastern States. It’s like a camper truck sort of thing. He said that he tried to get it across the pits, but they had no gas compliance. So we asked him if it was a secondhand one or if someone had built it for him. He said it was a brand new truck. So we asked if the gas has been installed. He said, “Yes, it’s got bottles and internal stove. Everything’s been done. It just needs a badge on it.” We said, “Well, there must be a badge somewhere if it’s a brand new truck.” He said it was from Brisbane, where they built some serious camper stuff, so there must be guys that know what they’re doing.

Anyway, we went out to Daimler Trucks over in High Wycombe to check it out. We were just expecting to find one of the badges hidden in a cupboard somewhere. But we could find no badges. What it seemed like to us when we had a look at the gas installations was that the gas fitter nearly finished the job and went off for a smoke. And when he came back, the truck was already on the back of a tilt tray heading over to Perth. So it’s just a few bits and pieces that we need to make good on this.

The Gas Locker – Before

First of all, it was like “Pick A Door” when we tried to find the gas locker. After the third try, we found it. It’s very important that it has a sticker on the door for the firemen. It’s got to be reflective to make sure that they know that there’s LPG, if something goes bad to it.

The other thing was, inside the locker, there was no vent or anything like that. The hoses that go from the regulator down to the bottles are D Class while they have to be F class. We don’t know what D stands for, but they were all fine for years. Maybe someone has said, “Oh, D is maybe for dodgy. So we have to change those to F which is probably “fantastic.” So we changed those over. But the reason we’ve got to change over now is because there’s been some new regulations back in April 2021.

The Gas & Vent – Before

The gas isolation valve for the hot plate needs to be in an accessible location, but it’s not really. It’s behind one of those drawers that’s similar to the toolbox drawers or the filing cabinets drawers. They’re quite difficult to take out. Most people don’t know how to get them out. In an emergency, you need to be able to reach the isolation valve and turn it off. So what we’re going to do is just leave that one in place behind the drawer and everything, and just put a new one in one of the lockers below, so it’s very easy to shut off.

And at the back, they’ve just got these quick release fittings. So we’re going to change that over and put a bayonet on there, and then with the new hose to hook onto the outdoor kitchen. The outdoor kitchen’s beautifully designed. It’s a tiny little cupboard and they’ve jammed it all in there and it just fits perfectly. A little hot plate with wok burner and stuff. We’ll fix all that up.

And also it looks like there’s vent on the door, but when we’ve had a look inside, it looks like it’s been foamed up. So we got to get that cleared out because when you’re using the stove inside, the fumes will accumulate and the air won’t be replaced and you’ll end up getting sick from carbon monoxide poisoning. The vent in the roof is permanently open, so that’s all legit.

This outdoor finish on it, too. When you’re driving through the bushes, usually your car’s getting scratched by the bushes and the trees. But this thing will actually take the bark off the trees. It’s like sand paper the whole lot. So yeah, it looks brilliant.

The Gas Locker – After

The LPG storage is now clearly marked with the reflective sticker. And inside, we’ve got the new gas bottle hoses. You can see they’ve got a Class F on it, and they’re also a bit easier to put in because you can do them with a wheel now, so you can do them by hand instead of having to try and get a spanner in there as well. We’ve got the all-important, to say not to put a battery drills in here. Also, you got the all important gas badge up on the side saying that it all complies now. There’s vent down the bottom, you can see it coming out the bottom.

The Gas & Vent – After

Also it was a really difficult location to put the gas valve. So what we’ve done is we’ve stuck a gas valve inside one of the lockers outside. So now you can shut the gas off to the stove easily. It’s a much more accessible location.

At the back, we’ve taken out the quick release fittings and put in a gas bayonet. And we’ve got our hose that goes all the way over to the wok burner.

Now it’s very important, if you’ve got to hook anything up to the bayonet, you’ve just got to make sure that it’s got a flame failure device. And the way you can tell is you should see a little rod which is the thermocouple. So if your hot plate has got one of these on it, that means that it’s got a flame failure device. If it ever blows out, the whole thing just shuts down.

So it’s very easy to take off now. Just pull that off and then unplug it at the back, and then also put your all-important dust cap in and that’ll stop the dust and everything. And just roll up the gas hose and keep it somewhere safe.

The whole vent is open now. They just had some foam in there. We also put the all-important sticker on there to say that this must remain open, especially when they’re using the hot plate. Inside, we have a little cooker warning saying that you must ensure that the ventilation’s open. We have the ventilation sticker on the roof here as well. This is always open, even though it looks closed, you can see the air can still go out when they’re cooking on this.

All Done

So she’s all ready to go over the pits now. It’s all complied. And so hopefully Angelo will be off there going four-wheel driving wherever he wants now because it can just about go anywhere this baby.

Give us a call if you ever need your compliance done or anything like that, if you in Perth. Otherwise, if you’re over in the other Eastern States or something, you’d have to find your own bloke.