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	CHELTENHAM OWNER'S CLUB  Maintenance Tips

submitted by  Jack Salter 

http://www.faultfinder.freeserve.co.uk/ This site answers the questions on how to mend generic caravan components.

Repair and Maintenance Instructions 
The repair and maintenance of caravans of our era were well covered in the caravan section of an illustrated book published in 1973 "Readers Digest Repair Manual". Items of direct interest to Cheltenham owners include hitch overhaul, brake shoe replacement, gas light overhaul, replacement of rubber seals on opening windows and hand and foot water pump reconditioning. This 2" thick A4 landscape book seems widely available in second hand book shops for a few pounds. 

Corner Steady Nuts
Rounded nuts on corner steadies appear to be a common problem. As the steadies are welded in place and riveted together on Cheltenhams, replacement of the entire steady or leadscrew are not easy jobs, even if spares were available.

My solution, which works well, and does not look out of place was to weld another nut in front of the originals, I used a 19mm nut (12mm-thread size). 

I ground the dome on front of original nut flat, leaving enough chamfer for weld penetration and then clamped nut in front of the existing and arc welded in place.

A piece of cardboard protects the paintwork on the fibreglass panel above from damage by sparks from the angle grinder or welding.

To fill the hole in on the new nut and to retain original looks, I took a piece of threaded rod hacksawed it nearly through at a length equivalent to the thickness of the nut, tightened into the nut and then snapped off.

A bead of weld around the thread secures in place.

A tidy up with an angle grinder and a coat of paint (White Smoothrite) leave it looking like new. 

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Front Transverse Bunk Bed
My Springbok came fitted with an extra removable bunk bed across the front of the van. The woodwork and screws appear to be original Cheltenham, perhaps this rather neat solution, which would appear to apply equally to other models, might be of interest to other members.

Two pieces of solid oak 3 1/2” x7/8” x 25” are fitted immediately above and resting on the support for the hinged seat backrests, set back 1” measured on the lower edge from the front of the caravan. These are each secured with 2 off No 10 x 1 ¾ “ raised countersunk chrome screws going into each main front upright where the fibreglass front joins the aluminium sides.

Remarkably a bunk bead kit of the same dimensions as the original is still available from Burdens, the main caravan spares and accessory wholesaler, your local caravan dealer will be able to order under part number 350570. The aluminium poles may need trimming to length to suit the interior width of your van.

An L shaped cut out to fit the dimensions of the poles in the kit is cut into the front top corner of each piece of wood to accept the front pole and a U shaped cut out is made to accept the second pole towards the rear of each piece, this dimension is determined but putting the poles in the canvas and stretching in place.

On my caravan a small piece of aluminium is fitted behind the U shaped cut out to prevent the pole sliding and damaging the nearside glass window.

If you wish to store the rolled up bunk under the long front bed locker it will be necessary to cut an oval shaped hole to put the ends of the poles through into the next cupboard.

I am at most Cheltenham Rallies if any member wishes to examine this arrangement in my Springbok.

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Trim around front & rear opening windows

The white plastic trim that covers the join between plywood and fibreglass appears to be no longer available.

I have successfully used the trim from the door aperture surround of a Volvo 240 motorcar.

This has a larger gap and kinder (nylon) teeth compared with the Titanfast type trim sometimes used for this application, and fits straight on to Cheltenhams without any modification.

This trim always appears to be in good condition on old Volvos in scrap yards and should be inexpensive from this source.

You need 3 door apertures trims for 2 window openings (the third trim cut in 2 provides the separate piece across the top of the opening.

By co-incidence the Springbok parked next to us at Bibury this year (towed by a Volvo 240qqv) had the same trim around its windows. 

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Toilet Light
A strange omission in most Cheltenhams is a light in the toilet compartment. I resolved this by fitting a white plastic Britax awning light with integral switch, on the side if the compartment, so that the screws and wires run into the rear upper locker above the cooker.

Being designed for exterior use this unit is waterproof, if you are one of the fortunate few with a shower!

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Corner Steady Winder Handle
An improvement in comfort out of all proportion to the work involved is achieved by painting the corner steady winder in a glossy paint.

I have successfully used Humbrol enamel, yacht enamel and Smoothrite.

The legs seem to move much easier when the winder glides through your hands!

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Suspension Brushes
Our Oribi had been used as a static van for many years prior to our purchase, at first it towed well, but soon became a 'handful' hopping over bumps and snaking when passed by large vehicles.  The rubber bushes at either end of the shock absorber had broken up.  Inexpensive replacements from Bradleys transformed the towing qualities.
These are straight forward to fit but require as a minimum a 1 ¹/₈ inch combination spanner and ideally this size in a ³/₄ inch drive socket set.  If you do not have the tools to replace these yourself I suggest you approach your local agricultural engineers (difficult in a city!) or commercial vehicle maintenance depot as they will be equipped to deal with rusty nuts of this size. 

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Rear Light Lens Repair
My Oribi had a 1 inch diameter hole in a rear light lens. As  replacement lenses are not readily available for Hella lights fitted to late Cheltenhams, I carried out the following repair which may be of use to other owners. To fill the hole I cut and shaped a piece from a scrap car light lens of similar pattern and colour to the original (mini metro). his was then held in place with sticky tape on the outside of the lens. With the lens face down on the bench. I filled the gap round the repair with a mixture of fibreglass resin (from car spares shops) tinted red with cellulose paint. result once hardened on removing the sticky tape (which gives the smooth exterior surface) an invisible repair. 

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Stainless Steel Screws
The appearance of my Oribi was marred by rusty screws breaking through the paint prior to re-spraying. I replaced all the exterior screws with stainless steel ones. These can be difficult to obtain locally but are available inexpensively by mail order from Screwfix who will send you a free catalogue on request if you ring 0500 414141. I am gradually replacing the tarnished screws inside my van with stainless steel. 

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Exterior Trim on Late Cheltenhams 

The side trims with a black stripe down the middle fitted to late Cheltenhams is from Hillman Super Imp motor cars. These are becoming rare in scrap yards, so fellow owners might consider it wise to obtain some spare lengths before it becomes extinct!

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5 Berth Cheltenham
I thought it might be useful to put on record the method I adopted to increase the number of births in the Oribi from 4 to 5, which may well be applicable to other models. this is only possible on Cheltenhams due to the strength of the hard wood frame. I made a copy of the existing bunk from galvanised water pipe; this is the same outside diameter as the electrical conduit used by Cheltenham but stronger (and heavier!). The fabric hammock was copied by a local marquee company. the wall mounted section of the hinges were made 6 inches longer than the originals so they could use the existing screw holes in the wall whilst lowering the height of the bunk by this amount. I refixed the original bunk level with the top of the window, giving a triple bunk bed that still folds away as normal. This description is only meant to describe the concept. If any member wishes to replicate the idea please feel free to ring me on 01405 785327  to discuss details. 

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Hand Brake Lever Repair
The hand-brake lever assembly fitted to Cheltenhams from approx. 1963 to 1971 uses the same components as many small cars of the period. On my 1964 Sable the pawl had worn, the spring was broken and the operating button missing. I replaced these with components from a Hillman Imp hand brake lever by drilling out the pawl pivot rivet and reassembling using a suitable sized bolt with a castleated nut and split pin.

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Late Rear Lights
The Hella rear lights fitted to late Cheltenhams (1972 - 1975) seem prone to the back plates rusting (after 25 years!). Whilst these lights appear to be no longer available the awning light version of the same lamp (clear glass) is still readily available from caravan dealers (Your local dealer can order these lights from the wholesaler Burden under reference number 070000). These lights come with a new seal and plastic chrome surround which are identical to the original Cheltenham parts, and remarkably the back plate has the holes ready drilled for the 2 additional bulb holders fitted to Cheltenhams. These bulb holders can be removed from the old back plate by drilling out the rivets and fixed to the new back plate with brass rivets.

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Brake Shoes
Caravan dealers no longer stock the brake shoes for the Lockheed brakes fitted to Cheltenhams, one local dealers assured me the Alco shoes they held fitted all caravans! The brake shoes fitted to most Cheltenhams (not Springboks) are identical to those fitted to the front of Morris Minors with 1098cc engines, these were available from my local car spares shop under reference Mintex MLR4 or EBC 5147.  
Caravan dealers no longer stock the brake shoes for the Lockheed brakes fitted to Cheltenhams, one local dealer assured me the Alco shoes they held fitted all caravans! The brake shoes fitted to most Cheltenhams (not Springboks) are identical to those fitted to the front of Morris Minors with 1098cc engines, these were available from my local car spares shop under reference Mintex MLR4 or EBC 5147

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Tyre Selection
The Caravan Club and British Rubber Manufactures Association have recently amended their guidance on tyre load ratings for caravans following widely reported tyre failures on modern caravans. Now instead of a 10% bonus load being allowed above the tyres rating for use at speeds below 62mph (never legal in France) the recommendation is that tyres on caravans should not be loaded beyond 85% of their maximum rating. Fortunately most Cheltenhams were generously tyred for high speed continental touring compared with their contemporaries, so only Springboks on 13" wheels are affected by these changes. The new recommended tyre for a fully loaded Springbok is 175R13 C 6PR at a pressure of 47psi. Cheltenham wheels should always be fitted with inner tubes even with tubeless tyres as there are no retaining humps on the wheels.

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Rubber Window Seals
A tip that may be useful to members is that the rubber seals for the fixed side front windows is identical to that on the rear side windows on a land rover and as such is readily available by the metre, the only difference being the filler strip which is black on the landrover but white on the Cheltenham but this hadn't deteriorated anyway so was reused.                                 information provided by Dave Wynn