camper van servicing

ford jedi

hi all we have a garage that specilaise in ford transit servicing and after a few weekends away in the vans and talking to people with them we were thinkin about going in to servicing them .we done a good few over the years and were wondering would there be much demand for that sort of thing in dublin or do most of you do the work yourselfs?
jonathan.

peasant

Mechanicallly, there is no difference between servicing a van and a campervan, some "normal" garages shy away from it though (for whatever reason) but you'll always find someone willing to do normal servicing in the end.

What would make it a campervan service is if you could also service the appliances, the plumbing and electrics and possibly do some minor reapairs on the structure or offer moisture tests and sealing services.
Would you?

ford jedi

we wanted to go in to all aspects of the work ,electrical work plumbing ,fridges the lot not just the servicing.

peasant

Good, then I'd say ...prepare for the onslaught

(except for the fact that the majority of campervans seems to be Fiat based)

dudara

My father sells and services campervans in Cork (geographically you should be no threat to him ) and business in that line of work is good. As long as you're au fait with the electricals, heating, plumbing etc, then you should have business.

Aidan_M_M

I run the workshop for my Dad (PAt Horan Motors) , where we sell and maintain new and used Motorhomes and Campervans . I agree with the guys that the basic mechanical servicing is rarely any different to "normal" van servicing , apart from the models with the likes of Al-ko chassis , which don't use the original rear chassis assembly .

The main thing that differentiates any of us from "normal" garages is the maintaining of the interior components , ie the fridges , cooking appliances , air/water heaters , Gas fittings and charging systems . If you are going into this line of work , I would suggest you need a good high , airy and bright workshop , that you can leave a camper stripped in for a week or more and still have room for repairing others , a fair grasp of Electrics and wiring , and infinite patience....

Even after having been trained in the UK and abroad on the likes of the Truma heaters , Thetford and Electrolux/Dometic fridges , I still find there is every sort of an oddball problem appearing every few weeks... plus you'll have to be ready to fix a lot of other peoples "bodges" .

Last suggestion is to invest in a good Moisture sensor/meter.... ours has saved us from trading in leaky ones from time to time...

Aidan_M_M

peasant wrote: »

Good, then I'd say ...prepare for the onslaught

(except for the fact that the majority of campervans seems to be Fiat based)

What do you mean , Peasant? Don't you like Ducatos? I grew up with Fiats , so I'm Biased...and had too many Transits and Sprinters giving me silly problems!

paddyb

there are definitely alot of campers around so you have a big target audience.
Id say it would depend on the cost and your experience of dealing with campervans / ability to get parts (camper specific).
One thing to bear in mind is that owners generally chat to other owners, whether it be through a club or at events/campsites - obviously this will be good for you if you provide a good service

ford jedi

cheers for the replies lads another project to start thinking about,

jonathan,

lank

Well, Jonathan,
Any update, are you servicing yet? Need some work done on my Transit Frontier, leisure side - i.e. the mechanics are fine... having lot o'bother finding anyone who does servicing in the south...

Aidan_M_M

lank wrote: »

.. having lot o'bother finding anyone who does servicing in the south...

really? Whom did you ask?