AnswerID: 278365 Submitted: Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007 at 10:14
disco1942
replied:
Here is another bit I posted in another
forum. The subject was importing your own but a lot of this applies to one you purchase through some of the importers.
Who are you purchasing it from? Is it a model specially built for
Australia? If it is one you have seen in a yard have you had someone with the
technical knowledge check the electrical and gas conversions?
American models have the entrance door on the RHS and to be able to register them in Oz you have to cut a door in the rear or the LHS. This generally stuffs up the layout a little.
The chassis on the American built
motorhomes is generally too light for the Australian conditions. Typical ones I have looked under only have what looks to be 4x2 inch 'I' beams in their longitudinal sections and not much in the way of cross members. There are generally no cross members between where the springs mount onto the chassis. Most of their strength comes from the construction of the body. I was parked next to one of these a couple of years ago had done 18,000 km on Australian roads. As he was departing
Geraldton the
suspension collapsed. The van had to be carted back to
Geraldton and have the
suspension upgraded and chassis strengthened. After having this done the owner started hearing of others that had similar experiences (these always come out of the woodwork after you have suffered the experience.)
Make sure that the undercart has been strengthened for Australian conditions with cross members added between the spring mounting points. The American models built for
Australia include chassis upgrading.
For other pit falls check out these links.
Imported RV Electrics
Importing 5th Wheelers
PeterD
Reply 2 of 3
