05/07/2026
✅️ Second-hand Van Work ✅️
I had this awesome customer contact me, regarding reattaching a broken off stabiliser leg and a general service in a storage yard in Wingham
What i thought would take me half a day, blew out to an entire day...😅
Baller Haulers - Mobile Caravan Servicing and Welding
I got the van up in the mud with the all mighty TITAN Terrain jack and got to work
Once i got the drums off, I was shocked to see someone had fitted boat seals to this van in the past 🤯
If you know about seals, you would know that this style of seal doesn't cope well with the heat from the electric brakes. They obviously failed and covered the magnets and drum in grease, making the brakes very weak when applied.
I got them cleaned up and fitted with new KOYO bearings and appropriate seals for future adventures.
After testing the system with my magic black box, the brakes were better but still seemed weak.....
So I dug a bit deeper....
I noticed the factory had used "cable nuts" to connect the brakes to the caravan wiring....
These things not only fail, they aren't water tight.
This allows the wires to corrode and cause a bad connection, not what you want on a pretty big safety feature of caravans...
I cut them out and threw them in the bin where they belong. I stripped wires back to fresh clean copper and soldered them, heatshrink and then split conduit over them, making the connections all 💯
Tested the system again....
And they worked properly as they should now for future adventures 👌😎
I then went ahead and got the stabiliser leg prepped and welded back into its home
When i was underneath the van doing the leg, I noticed missing sealer around the shower drain.
I got that sealed up, to avoid water splashing up from the road and getting into the timber flooring
Then got to changing over some broken rafter slides on the awning....
This led to me noticing a major point of water ingress on the exterior grab handle light 🤦♂️
The factory "foam damming tape" wasn't doing what it's meant to do anymore after years in the sun...
So i removed it, cleaned it up and resealed it to avoid further damage to the wooden frame of the van.
If you're buying a second hand van, you can't always take the sellers word that "it's a great van, and never had any issues"
Get it inspected by someone who knows the ins and outs of these things, its a big purchase for people and I dont like it when people throw money down the drain on the "good will" of the sellers comments
We got to this one in time before it caused an accident and someone got unnecessarily hurt
Its now ready for years of safe adventures to come
If you made it this far reading this post, thank you 🤝
If you need anything fixed or inspected on your van or one you're looking at purchasing, give me a call and I'll get it sorted for you 😎
Cheers Legends 🍻
Josh - 0499 182 360 🫡
