Dandy Modifications

Hi
I was just wondering what modifications people have carried out on there dandys.
I am interested in the possibility of fitting a toilet to a dandy 6 / destiny .
I know riva did this on very late models has anyone retro fitted one?

Hi
I posted this on the wrong area initally.
I was just wondering what modifications people have carried out on there dandys.
I am interested in the possibility of fitting a toilet to a dandy 6 / destiny .
I know riva did this on very late models has anyone retro fitted on?

manchestercamper wrote:Hi
I posted this on the wrong area initally.
I was just wondering what modifications people have carried out on there dandys.
I am interested in the possibility of fitting a toilet to a dandy 6 / destiny .
I know riva did this on very late models has anyone retro fitted on?

This conversion is not something i have seen it was only the high sided destiny that had a toilet built in, whilst possibly not impossible i would have though not easy as the cooker area would need moving the benches possibly shortening and folding walls on the loo room,will need pictures if you do it

Mike

manchestercamper wrote:Hi
I was just wondering what modifications people have carried out on there dandys.
I am interested in the possibility of fitting a toilet to a dandy 6 / destiny .
I know riva did this on very late models has anyone retro fitted one?

Not just the latest. There was a transition all alloy shelled Highside Destiny that had a toilet. The body length was extended. There are not many of these.
Other than that what were you considering something in the area of the wardrobe?
If you look at my avatar you will see shower curtains in the corner of the awning.
The awning tends to be the popular solution.

Mike and room for a magazine rack.

Interesting. You could do a bit of internal reorganisation of the furniture to make room.
1 Swap the kitchen and adjacent internal settee
2 Convert the opposite internal settee into a washroom with washbasin & basin, perhaps with the wardrobe just in front of it.

That should leave room for a low cupboard/chest of drawers where the wardrobe was.

The moved settee and front bed settee would form an L shaped lounge area next to the door and the rear bed/settee could become a permanent double bed. With the washroom door hinged at the front, it would form a door to the bedroom with the washroom now en-suite.

You would lose the double bed that was the table but many 6/destiny users probably don't use it any way.

Water could cross from the new kitchen position in a small duct running along the side of the rear bed at floor level.

Moving the kitchen away from the wheel arch creates more room in the kitchen and could allow a small water heater to be fitted.

I guess this would have to be a high side destiny in order to get the height.
Not thought what the toilet sink would cot but these must be available second hand out of caravans

Sorry posted this in the other thread.
Interesting. You could do a bit of internal reorganisation of the furniture to make room.
Probably easier with a high side destiny as there will be less wall to fold down and more room to accomodate it folded.

1 Swap the kitchen and adjacent internal settee
2 Convert the opposite internal settee into a washroom with washbasin & basin, perhaps with the wardrobe just in front of it.

That should leave room for a low cupboard/chest of drawers where the wardrobe was.

The moved settee and front bed settee would form an L shaped lounge area next to the door and the rear bed/settee could become a permanent double bed. With the washroom door hinged at the front, it would form a door to the bedroom with the washroom now en-suite.

You would lose the double bed that was the table but many 6/destiny users probably don't use it any way.

Water could cross from the new kitchen position in a small duct running along the side of the rear bed at floor level.

Moving the kitchen away from the wheel arch creates more room in the kitchen and could allow a small water heater to be fitted.

manchestercamper wrote:I guess this would have to be a high side destiny in order to get the height.
Not thought what the toilet sink would cot but these must be available second hand out of caravans

The parts i would think could be cheap from caravan salvage,would you need a casset toilet or just a room to pee in private with a porta poty

The problem with putting it by the door is the wheel arch gets in the way. A porta potti would have to stand away from the wall.

Another possibility would be to put a porta-potti in a cupboard. Front door opens and top hinges up with a curtain to go round from the roof, mounted on a shower rail. When not in use, you have a useful top to put the telly or vase of flowers on.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Tip up basins should be readily available on ebay. This is a new one but I'm sure many are available 2nd hand as they were used in so many caravans. However, you don't have to have a basin, just a loo.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

navver wrote:Sorry posted this in the other thread.
Interesting. You could do a bit of internal reorganisation of the furniture to make room.
Probably easier with a high side destiny as there will be less wall to fold down and more room to accomodate it folded.

1 Swap the kitchen and adjacent internal settee
2 Convert the opposite internal settee into a washroom with washbasin & basin, perhaps with the wardrobe just in front of it.

That should leave room for a low cupboard/chest of drawers where the wardrobe was.

The moved settee and front bed settee would form an L shaped lounge area next to the door and the rear bed/settee could become a permanent double bed. With the washroom door hinged at the front, it would form a door to the bedroom with the washroom now en-suite.

You would lose the double bed that was the table but many 6/destiny users probably don't use it any way.

Water could cross from the new kitchen position in a small duct running along the side of the rear bed at floor level.

Moving the kitchen away from the wheel arch creates more room in the kitchen and could allow a small water heater to be fitted.

I presume that your referring to a Highside. The vents for the fridge wouldn't align with a hole cut for a cassette toilet.

See here [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

If you were choosing to remove the seats why would you not put the toilet/washroom where the far seat was? Why remove seat move kitchen add toilet washroom? Why not remove seat add toilet washroom. The seat is far wider than the 80cm added for the toilet in the late Destinys.
Though motor homes can be very corridor like I tend to think you have destroyed the communal area by either method? How wide is the space where the wardrobe is? Water could be plumbed under the floor if a combined toilet vanity sink was fitted.

Though I'd watch amazed and agog at the work if a toilet compartment was fitted. If one was so necessary given the effort and expense I'd probably be trying to negotiate with. Tim [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Manchestercamper. We have run away with this, are you just in the position where you need somewhere for a chemical loo and dont want to put up the awning?
If the space was large enough would a curtained area where the wardrobe is suffice or do you want something more enclosed.


Sorry navver though the bit about the ports in the side stands I'm sorry as the kitchen and bathroom are opposite you still have a communal area.

Mike.

I can't touch anything in the general area can you drag the modification thread from there to here please?

Hi
I was just chewing this over. I think I would prefer a a cassette toilet but a fixed portapoti might do.
Before we will go out into Europe this year we will have a fitted toilet in a unit - last year we used a dandy 4-5 but it was too small and we have sold it. We do have an old dandy 6 which we are also selling as I do not think we can convert it so we will be starting from scratch.
We have time to buy and if necessary alter. The other alternatives is try a buy one already fitted but dandys seem expensive.
We could try a another maker but I like dandys having said this Pennine Artemis - Folding Caravan has has a fantastic layout if you want to spend £15000. Some of the suggestions would produce a layout not too difrent from it.

manchestercamper wrote:Hi
I was just chewing this over. I think I would prefer a a cassette toilet but a fixed portapoti might do.
Before we will go out into Europe this year we will have a fitted toilet in a unit - last year we used a dandy 4-5 but it was too small and we have sold it. We do have an old dandy 6 which we are also selling as I do not think we can convert it so we will be starting from scratch.
We have time to buy and if necessary alter. The other alternatives is try a buy one already fitted but dandys seem expensive.
We could try a another maker but I like dandys having said this Pennine Artemis - Folding Caravan has has a fantastic layout if you want to spend £15000. Some of the suggestions would produce a layout not too difrent from it.

It depends on what you want or need on a 6 possibly a boxed in porta poti a la a commode. a fold up fold flat box like the kitchen situated on the rear wall between the seats. A modesty curtain to draw off that side of the camper. Not permanent though, not enough height on the wall when folded.
I realised that there is not enough space where the wardrobe is only about 9" to the wheel arch.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

An early Hghside Destiny would give the height but the same issues with floor space unless you adopted navver's idea. There is a very early Highside I saw last year that would allow a cassette toilet between the seats but it was a one off. I'm thinking the flat rear side would allow a port for the cassette but could you do that on the more common threepenny bit end?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

No photos unfortunately of the rare all alloy Highside with loo only got the fact that the body was 346cm long.

I'm not the best person for bodywork ideas Phoenix has done more body adjustments than most and John normally has some cracking ideas.

Looked for folding campers with bathrooms and they are no cheaper. How mant Dandy owners want to go back to canvas as well.

The notionally cheap option would be the "Tin tent" but while a cheap caravan may be found you can be buying into so much grief even before we get into the standard issues of towing.

The reason we would want it inside is we do not use the dandy awning as we think it is heavy. There are only 2 of us know but we fancy a bit of space. As far as a tin tent goes we towed the dandy over 5000 miles last year down as far as pompi we ave 48 miles per gallon
with a 1.4 tdi Skoda fabia estate. And we could travel faster down German motorways given lower motorway toils etc.
Instead of awning we used popup gazebo

What is starting to make me think about this - if no one has done this
it must not be very easy over the 30 years I have owned dandys I have seen that people do tend to modify them to fullfill there needs.

Just a further point when did dandy start fitting gas struts to the destiny and when were plastic windows fitted
we need to have a dandy which is easier to put up.
thanks

We haven't done so much body improvements as replacing body parts.

If we were to go down the route of fitting a loo in our 6 we think we would be looking at putting it where the seat for the table is on the awning side, behind the wardrobe. We would need to put it up and do a bit of measuring and a lot of head scratching to work out how. For now we will stick to leaving it in the awning with a privacy curtain round it.

I think the easiest way is with a 6 or lowside and simple wardrobe.

Build a simple plynth (flat bit of floor) where the wardrobe is to cover the wheel arch and form a base big enough for the small porta-potti. This will then be a comfotable height to sit on and the potti will travel in the 6 when folded down.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Use the wardrobe as an enclosure, perhaps by moving it out slightly by lengthening the sides with extra lengths of plywood fixed with piano hinges. This will then fold so will lay on the floor.

Inside the wardrobe door, add a second piece of plywood, approximately the same size as the door. Fit this on one side with piano hinge so it will fold out wehen the door is open to form a Vee shaped space in front of the potti. Hopefully this should create enough room to use the Potti.

This means no holes in the side and not too much space taken up when potti not in use. A cassette toilet really is no different in use to a porta-potti. The only difference is, you can empty it from outside.

You can buy faced marine ply, probably 3,4 or 5mm thick which is very strong and has a finished wood fac which can be varnished etc.

Probably best not to have a basin as that complicates things.

Tow Itch wrote:

navver wrote:Sorry posted this in the other thread.
Interesting. You could do a bit of internal reorganisation of the furniture to make room.
Probably easier with a high side destiny as there will be less wall to fold down and more room to accomodate it folded.

1 Swap the kitchen and adjacent internal settee
2 Convert the opposite internal settee into a washroom with washbasin & basin, perhaps with the wardrobe just in front of it.

That should leave room for a low cupboard/chest of drawers where the wardrobe was.

The moved settee and front bed settee would form an L shaped lounge area next to the door and the rear bed/settee could become a permanent double bed. With the washroom door hinged at the front, it would form a door to the bedroom with the washroom now en-suite.

You would lose the double bed that was the table but many 6/destiny users probably don't use it any way.

Water could cross from the new kitchen position in a small duct running along the side of the rear bed at floor level.

Moving the kitchen away from the wheel arch creates more room in the kitchen and could allow a small water heater to be fitted.

I presume that your referring to a Highside. The vents for the fridge wouldn't align with a hole cut for a cassette toilet.

If you were choosing to remove the seats why would you not put the toilet/washroom where the far seat was? Why remove seat move kitchen add toilet washroom? Why not remove seat add toilet washroom. The seat is far wider than the 80cm added for the toilet in the late Destinys.
Though motor homes can be very corridor like I tend to think you have destroyed the communal area by either method? How wide is the space where the wardrobe is? Water could be plumbed under the floor if a combined toilet vanity sink was fitted.

Though I'd watch amazed and agog at the work if a toilet compartment was fitted. If one was so necessary given the effort and expense I'd probably be trying to negotiate with. Tim [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Manchestercamper. We have run away with this, are you just in the position where you need somewhere for a chemical loo and dont want to put up the awning?
If the space was large enough would a curtained area where the wardrobe is suffice or do you want something more enclosed.


Sorry navver though the bit about the ports in the side stands I'm sorry as the kitchen and bathroom are opposite you still have a communal area.

Yes, hadn't thought about the fridge vents. Yes I suggested moving the kitchen & settee to make a really good internal layout for 2 to 4 people.

manchestercamper wrote:Just a further point when did dandy start fitting gas struts to the destiny and when were plastic windows fitted
we need to have a dandy which is easier to put up.
thanks

Gas struts from some time during the 80's at a guess. I see so few earlier 6's.
They were missed out from some (economy?) removed from others. I take it your 6 has no witness marks from previously fitted struts?
Polycarbonate double glazing from 95. The weight of glass isn't an issue when the sides are strutted. Though how you replace a cracked polycarb window might be.
Mike always insists his 6 is easier to raise than a Designer.
If you end up looking at a Highside bed struts get even more important as the beds are that bit higher up.

Hole in floor bucket underneath problem solved sorry i am not helpful

BUCKET! what a whole Bucket luxury

Luxury is a lid for said bucket.

cardboard box and a plastic bag, fill it and chuck it, the bag that is keep the box for next time

we have holes in our bags

You will get a damp box then Caz nos.