Robbie's road to glory Rapido 7090F 3 litre auto

First topic message reminder :

OK yes we got a new to us van and very nice too but he needs a bit of love and money lavishing on his 31k miles and four point five years usage
I'm itching to get to work on the tasks to do but my job is getting in the way
First job when I get home at the weekend is to send off the V5C and V5C/2 that the previous owner has forwarded up to me. This will be accompanied by my transfer of private number t33 cno
I'll be updating this thread every step of the way of Robbie's transformation and there will be many many steps including photos

Replacement for a completely shite one made by who I don't know?

Just got a duff instrument cluster with UK dials to convert Robbie
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Miles/Kms all the same for me 100kmh= 62mph

2000 rpm

3000 rpm been there had that 2000rpm but buffy don't get stuck on a little wet grass

Robbie don't either hes got ESP

Had that as well but never used it, we will see Andy, at the northern show this year even the tractor got bogged down, I didn't

Extra Sensory Perception ???

"ESP, the electronic stability control system, secures extra safety and enhances the well known handling of your Ducato."

Bread trays do it for me now! :V%$:

Diff lock does it for me

Dumper does it for me 8)

Had a good day today
Batteries in place for extra battery bank in the garage
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Shelf fitted
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Storage sorted and room for millenco's
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Mostly wired now, solars to do and a couple of bits
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Remote fitted for inverter
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Redundant Duo Comfort stripped out and extra Berker 230 volt socket fitted
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Baraldi hood duct replaced and is remarkably less noisy
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Nice job so far Andy.

Front battery bank etc rewired
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How many batteries are you running Andy?

2 x 115 ah elecsols on battery selector 1 and charged by 50 amp battery to battery
and supplemented with surplus solar via CSB2 connected to battery bank 2

3 x 125 ah sealed on battery selector 2 charged by 300 watt solar only. Used for back up if required for bank 1 but primarily to feed 1800 watt sterling inverter when required.

What does 5 no batteries weigh ?

A LOT

Tell, a Alphaline 110ah/120ah battery weighs approx 24kg

How does that affect your carrying capacity ?

I have loads spare 2400kg rear axle

Surely all of the equipment you are putting on must weigh around 300kg e.g. solar panels, controllers, wiring, 5 batteries,extra weight from better mattresses how is it going to affect your weight carrying capacity overall, what is the weight carrying capacity of the 7090F ?

That depends on the model and chassis. Mine is Maxi 4250kg and most of the weight is on the front hence the recommended tyre pressure being front 65 rear 60 Obtained by previous owner from Michelin after being weighed fully loaded.
Adding to the rear will only improve the balance.
I will of course weigh it in the near future. I'm only adding 1 solar panel but replacing 2 older ones.
From memory there was a good 400kg spare at the back when he weighed it loaded. I have it written down back at the van

Hi, Be very interested in the results of your weigh-in, albeit at 4250kg I would suspect you have a healthy carrying capacity, do you know what it is ?

see above

Hi, I can't see any mention above, the bit I'm referring to is the free bit of the 4250kg that you can use for passengers, cloths and anything else extra to the original finished build, can't remember what they call it ?

Mine has a capacity of 4000kg and I get around 700kg of that for myself ?

I don't know like I said it had 400kg spare when LOADED already

Hi, Let us know how you get on at the weighbridge,

I was shocked when I took ours a few years ago I had well exceeded the 700kg and that was with only me in the van, the amount of stuff I had to check in the garage at home was unbelievable and its still piled up there LoL

This is exactly why the previous owners specified the heavy chassis and they tell me that despite much searching they have not found another Rapido to this spec on the road as they looked hard to find a comparable price when selling. I still have a bike rack and two bikes to fit.

When we took Helga in the weighbridge when we first got her, with both of us onboard we weighed 40Kg over the 3500. We had an empty fridge and no onboard water, fresh or waste, at the time.

We keep thinking about having the plate upgraded but if Europe will be introducing tolls for vehicles over 3500 kgs, we will just have to travel light.

Looking good Andy... very neat.

Cheers Mac
Solar panel fitting Wed/Thu forecast is 9 degrees daytime 6 degrees night time

Nice one... have you still got that panel & controller? Are you still going to Valentines Meet?

Yes and Yes?

We always travel light even though our gross weight capacity is 4700kg.We have found over the 9 years we have been motorhoming we seem to carry less and less equipment freeing up extra valuable weight.
And of course when returning from Europe means more wine & beer

got to ask this why do you need all this power we only went on elh 3 .4 times last year wild camp or cl or rallys 100 w solar pannal 2-110 amp baterys no ptroblens all way had power to run van that lot would power north vietnanes misile .nice job thow

Simple INVERTER

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Not sure what those figures mean Andy in regard to the payload as it does not show the curb weight, to find out the payload you need the GVWR and subtract the curb weight from that, and that gives you the payload but not the permissible axle weights.

Gross train weight is the gross vehicle weight plus the allowed towing weight.

Doesn't matter that is fully loaded and 460kg spare

That's great Andy, so you are Legal ? and can bring back quiet a few bottles of Plonk.

Obviously I'm adding 3 batteries and a solar panel to that, That weigh was done by Duncan before going off touring. Everything heavy is up front, 3litre engine and auto box, 60 litre LPG tank, fresh water tank, fridge and diesel

Hi Andy... does engine run on LPG?

No it's diesel

Hi, I think I may have misunderstood, is that the weights now, or is that with someone else's stuff on-board, only if its the latter then it really doesn't mean anything,

I certainly wouldn't take someone else's weighbridge data and then do a subtraction from that as the basis for your fitting out, as no 2 couples etc. have the same items,

I would certainly pack it with all the things you would expect to take and fill the tanks Gas, Water and Fuel, then the 2 of you and weigh it, before you commit to fitting or adding a substantial extra weigh

Yes they did all that, the weight is by design all at the front which is why 460kg of spare at the back when they were loaded is a massive margin that I won't get anywhere near.
I am NOT going to add nearly half a ton

Andy I am not having a go just confused, is the 460kg on rear axle included in the gross train weight ?

Yes it is the surplus fully loaded of the max gross weight of 4250 The van being recorded as 3790

The back axle was actually 520kg below it's capacity of 2400kg

I dont tow I have no towbar the max train weight will be massive