New member needs help with Apollo revamp

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Rocket_man
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Joined: June 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13686Post Rocket_man
June 15th, 2016, 8:31 pm

Hi All,

I am brand new to this group and brand new to motorhomes and especially demountables.

Yesterday we bought a used Apollo which needs a bit of TLC and replacing bits here and there. I will hopefully add some photos and ask questions, which I hope you guys can help. This is the Apollo we have bought. We would like to be able to take it off the truck it came and put it on our Nissan Navara Double cab. Does anyone know how this straps/fixes on to an Navara. I have seen a few photos, but none showing the fixings.

ok how do I add photos from my iPad? If I click Img it just brings up 2x img symbols!

Thank you in advance

Tim

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zildjian
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Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13693Post zildjian
June 15th, 2016, 8:57 pm

Hello Tim, email your images for now; slowdown.Zildjian@gmail.com
and I'll pop them up here, now if you take a read through here that might be helpful,
essentially an eyebolt
Image



bolted down through each corner of the load bed connects up to camper's four corner points with either cargo straps (not the cheapo luggage Halford's version) or turnbuckles

Image




from local boating shop

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zildjian
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Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13695Post zildjian
June 15th, 2016, 9:27 pm

Don't know where you live Tim but a bunch of us will be in Devon weekend after next

you're welcome to visit/stop

Rocket_man
Posts: 42
Joined: June 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13696Post Rocket_man
June 15th, 2016, 10:06 pm

Hi Zildjan,

Thank you for the responses. We live in Cambridge, Devon sounds good, but might be a bit too far at the moment.

The bolt idea for the Navara sound good, although from reading the link you put it Sounds like I need to have some big welding done. Maybe a little to permanent for the present. I would like to see how we get on with the demountable and how the Navara handles with it on the back. Can I not use the ratchet straps which are currently being used on the Mazda it came with?

As I said I am very new to this, so bare with me if I sound a twonk!

I will email you the pictures soon.

Other questions I have a regarding :

1: a broken window blind... It does not seem to revolve round.
2: the legs for the rear of the Apollo do not wind down or up! The front ones work fine. This I do not to fix, as the Apollo will be a bit unstable with out them.

Thank again

Tim

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zildjian
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Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13697Post zildjian
June 16th, 2016, 5:57 am

Just install some eyebolts then, they'll be fine go and buy four from a chandlery store drill four holes in tub and bolt them through.
straps are fine as well, the roller probably needs taking apart and cleaning up to make it work, same with leg but Apollo are still in business so call them and ask for advice on how best to tackle that
the motor is either a windscreen motor or possibly a convertible roof model, members here have replaced them before successfully

Que
Posts: 45
Joined: January 26th, 2015, 9:57 pm

Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13698Post Que
June 16th, 2016, 10:04 am

Hi Tim.
We own an Apollo and a Navara, have done now for 7 years so plenty of experience. There are many things to consider.

First off, let me say that we love our Apollo/Navara combination but there are pitfalls.

Clamping the camper to the truck bed - I can only recommend strapping or clamping down to the chassis so if you use eye bolts they need to be fixed through the truck bed to the chassis. The reason is that the tub is only fixed down by 4 bolts and is designed for vertical loads whereas the rocking motion of the camper will subject the tub to vertical loads due to the seesaw action.

An important point to mention with the Apollo is that the strap down points (it was designed for straps) are outboard of the tub and therefore the routing of the straps is problematic as you need to take them over the top of the tub if your tie down points are somewhere inside the truck bed, at least that has been our experience with our particular Apollo and Kingcab combo, this didn't really allow a secure strap down because of the strain on the sides of the tub and the fact that ratchet on the straps tended to fowl the top of the tub. After having the camper shift in the bed a couple of times we looked to an American solution.

Check out the Torklift website for tie-downs and the Fastgun turnbuckles, this is what we have, pricey but rock solid. see http://www.torklift.com. This system clamps the camper down to the chassis and no drilling required as the brackets use existing chassis holes. Yes they do make them for the Navara, it's called the Frontier in the states. You will need a tow hitch fitted as the rear tie downs attach to that, whereas the front ones are directly bolted to the chassis.I can let you have model numbers as a guide but ✖ check with Torklift as it's been 6 years since we bought ours. The Torklift tiedown chooser page is here http://www.torklift.com/fitguide5.php

You can see a picture of our Tiedowns and Fastguns here.

Image

The Apollos that were designed to fit the long bed King Cab are I believe longer to take advantage of the extra bed length of that truck, the Double cab model bed is a foot shorter, so is the old truck a double cab also? If not you will probably have too much weight over the rear axle as you will end up with excessive overhang at the back.

The Navara springs are a bit of a compromise between load carrying and comfort, we found that with the camper on and loaded we had a only 1 inch of clearance between the bump stops and the axle so we were constantly riding on the rubber stops at the slightest bump. Fitting air suspension vastly improved the comfort and handling and ride height, an extra leaf spring can be fitted as an alternative.

Leg problems - It's possible but unlikely that both rear motors have packed up, you can easily connect the motors to a 12 volt battery to test them or swap the motors from front to back to test them, earlier designs used three counter sunk screw to hold the motors on, later designs are removable without the use of tools and yes you can take them off whilst the leg is in use, remove the screws and lift out the assembly, it just plugs into the top of the leg using a keyed adapter to locate it. I will have some spare motors in the near future as I have bought 5 new ones from China, but have yet to fit them, when I do I'll have 5 spares. The older style motors are BMW folding hard top motors, at least the ones on our legs are.

Check out the wiring to the non working motors, if they are like ours were originally the connectors were not very good and the leads were also connected using crimps which can corrode and part company over the years.

Roller blind - The windows Apollo use are generally industry standard parts such as Seitz and Fiamma. Our windows are Seitz with integrated blind and flyscreen. Window spares are readily available on line - they are not cheap. The worst case scenario would be a complete new window. If this is the case it might be worthwhile checking out the caravan breakers on line for a second hand window, just take the window make and measurements and search online on the manufacturers website for the correct model so that you can track down the correct replacement.

Seek advice from Apollo by all means but I can't and won't recommend that you let them to do any work. We left our camper with them last October to do some repairs and they didn't get it finished until two weeks before Christmas. The quality of work they did on our camper and the cost of it was -- unprintable, we are still stunned by the experience!

One other thing, what age is your Navara? Check out The Navara snapped chassis page on Facebook I'm not being alarmist but you need to know. We have spent around £1500 reinforcing our Navara chassis only to find now that Nissan are offering some people new chassis's or a buyback scheme!

If you need more info or pictures I can post some for you.
Nissan D40 KingCab
Apollo Demountable
Weston-Super-Mare

Rocket_man
Posts: 42
Joined: June 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13710Post Rocket_man
June 16th, 2016, 9:00 pm

Hi Que,

Thank you very much for all the information. There is a lot for me to absorb.

Our Navara is a double cab, not a king cab. It is a 2010 model. Sounds a bit worry that is might over hang too much.

I contacted Apollo today and they was sort of helpful but have also put the sense of doom in! They say our unit is at least 20years old and the legs ( which are manual wind up ) are not used by them anymore. They also said we could take it there and they could add electric legs at a cost and over bits. We are not interested in electric legs, I am happy winding them manually, just need to fix the rear ones. I do not know how much the motorhome bodies have changed in the last 20 years, but looking at their new ones they look just about the same. I have seen photos on their website showing Apollos on a Navara double cab with the straps going into the cargo area.

Que where abouts are you? We are in Cambridge.

Rocket_man
Posts: 42
Joined: June 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13711Post Rocket_man
June 16th, 2016, 9:12 pm

Que, have a look at the front home page of Apollos website. You will see a black Navara double cab with the straps going into the cargo area.


Image


That Navara is the same as mine, same shape...well part from mine is blue :-)

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zildjian
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Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13712Post zildjian
June 16th, 2016, 10:00 pm

Keep the manual legs (less weight, less to fail)
on the front straps you can either do as picture and drop the tail of strap down to eyebolts in load bed, or drop tails of straps down between rear of cab and front of tub onto chassis rail itself
(usually there's a pre-drilled hole in chassis handy you can pop the clip on end of cargo strap into)

you might need to have a look though and make sure the strap doesn't rub on paintwork anywhere and either protect it in someway, or not do it like that

Rocket_man
Posts: 42
Joined: June 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: New member needs help with Apollo revamp

Post: # 13713Post Rocket_man
June 16th, 2016, 10:06 pm

Thanks Zildjian,

I will have to take my snug top off the Navara to have a look. Thanks for adding the photo also :-)

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