Rusty Crossmember?

I recently made the rookie mistake of peeling another layer of ‘the onion’, our beloved 1999 Hymer B544 (as our patron-saint AvE would say – ‘you just keep peeling back layer after stinking layer until you’re left with nothing but tears….’)

It started when I noticed some rusty looking bubbling on the rear crossmember, a gentle investigative poke later and a large chunk had fallen out and landed on the floor, leaving a nice patch of daylight in the crossmember!:-

The rear crossmember is just bolted in place by two bolts on either side, so after supporting the surrounding structure with a couple of stands the crossmember could be taken out so I could see what I was dealing with:-

Once it was out I could see the top section has rusted through as well as the rear section (as shown in the photo above, so it was clear the repair was going to be a bit bigger than first thought…….

Once I had cut out the rusty metal and got back to decent steel this was the size of the hole that needed to be repaired!:-

The same process was carried out for the smaller hole on the top, then it was just a case of cutting some new steel sections (or in this case old steel sections scavenged from an old oil tank!), welding them in and spraying the whole cross member with underbody schutz to protect it and hide my less-than-perfect welding!:-

You would never know I’d been here 🙂

Step a bit clunky?

Recently while I was investigating a faulty step warning buzzer I discovered a number of the teeth on the gear that actuates the step were very worn, which explains the rattly operation and occasional jumping of the step as it goes up and down. Here’s how I repaired the gear for free with a mig welder and an angle grinder…..

For reference this is the type of electric step we have on our 1999 Hymer B544 mechanism, it is a simple unit that folds out from the trim under the habitation door:-

This is the worn gear, you can see the section where the teeth have almost completely worn away:-

First step was to build up the worn area with the mig welder (I am by no means an expert welder, so please forgive the state of the weld!):-

Next it is just a case of re-cutting the teeth with a plasma disc in an angle grinder. The step is not a precision piece of equipment so it doesn’t need to be especially accurate!

Then just a case of putting the step back together, as a Haynes manual would say ‘reassembly is the reverse of removal’ – good as new 🙂

UPDATE – Ron Bentham who runs the ‘Classic Hymers Technical’ Facebook group has been in touch to let us know that the Motor used on these steps is a part used on Land Rovers, if your motor fails and needs replacing you should be able to find a new one by searching for part number RTC 6640 – You can find Ron’s facebook group here:- https://www.facebook.com/groups/297054424534823/