Isuzu conversion

By Malcolm Street

Many people who build their own motorhome start with the body of a bus or coach, but there are some who take the more difficult path of building from the chassis up. This requires more dedication and vision, qualities clearly demonstrated by Bill and Barbara Hunt.

There’s no doubt that Bill and Barbara’s motorhome is very striking with its dolphin graphics along the side, but beauty is certainly more than skin deep and the graphics hide a well-built motorhome.

Bill started his project by purchasing an Isuzu NPR 300 truck chassis with a 4.6 litre naturally aspirated diesel motor – a retro-fitted turbocharger followed shortly after! As a first stage of construction most of the cab was removed and Bill was lucky enough to find a buyer.

About the only original Isuzu equipment left is the dashboard, which has been extended slightly on either end. The auto gear lever now sits on the right hand side of the driver.

Outside

Externally, the motorhome is all fibreglass. For the front and rear, Bill built the timber ‘plugs’ for a manufacturer to make the moulds for the fibreglass.

The walls are made from fibreglass sheet, while the roof shape was moulded from the roof of a similarly sized coach. Galvanised steel tube, used to make the frame, was cut and clamped together before a professional welder stitched the whole thing together.

Both the ceiling and walls are insulated by 32mm foam. Windows, except for driver’s cab sliding variety, are the very familiar Galaxy hopper style but the security door was designed and built by Bill himself.

The very distinctive graphics were done by a professional painter – neither Bill nor Barbara claim to be artists but Barbara likes the colour turquoise and dolphins. It sure looks different to most white motorhomes!

Plenty of underfloor bin storage space was carefully designed and, in order to maintain a smooth external finish, all liquid filler points are behind locker doors. The covers over the rear wheels even hide a couple of extra storage places in the wheel arches.

Inside

Much of the internal fit-out was done by Bill – he was a tech teacher in cabinetmaking.

With the exception of the bedroom, all the cabinet work is made from MDF board with a polyurethane finish. In the bedroom, a very nice red cedar ply has been used to great effect. Layout-wise, the motorhome has a rear bedroom, a kitchen bench that occupies most of the nearside with the bathroom on the opposite side.

Between the driver’s seat and the bathroom is a neat little dinette and behind the passenger seat is a large two-door Frostbite 220 litre fridge/freezer unit.

An east-west queen-sized bed occupies most of the bedroom area. To provide easy access around the bed, overhead lockers have only been installed above the bedhead on the offside.

Windows on three sides let in plenty of light during the day and cupboards on both sides of the bedroom ‘entry’ offer a good amount of storage. The nearside cupboard is slightly lower and has a TV atop that slides out and can be watched from either direction.

There’s one thing that the kitchen bench area is not short of: drawer and overhead locker space. Bill and Barbara wanted a reasonable amount of storage space and that’s one of the benefits of designing your own motorhome – you get what you want, but within reason.

Fitted into the kitchen bench is a two-burner Smev stove, NEC microwave oven and grey enamel sink with both fresh and drinking water taps.

All the cabinetwork in the kitchen area is finished in a grey two-pack paint finish, with laminated benchtops. For outside cooking, there’s a gas-fired barbecue hidden in one of the lockers.

As both driver and passenger seats swivel, there’s almost a separate lounge and dining area – albeit right next to each other. The swivel seats were something of a challenge to find: made by Isri and with integrated seat belts, they were imported from Europe.

The dinette has been designed traditionally, with a table that can be moved out of the way if not required.

On the bathroom wall behind the dinette is a large map of Australia that records Bill and Barbara’s travels.A little bit of care has been put into the bathroom design. With separate Thetford cassette toilet, vanity sink and shower cubicle, it doesn’t have the stark look of some motorhome bathrooms.

There are even a couple of overhead lockers as well as drawers underneath the vanity sink. As with the kitchen, a two-pack paint finish and laminated benchtop set the bathroom off very nicely. There is even a tiled floor.

Power up

Set up for independent travel, the motorhome has both generator and solar panels on board for keeping the batteries charged. Four six-volt deep-cycle batteries are set up for 24V operation for the lighting, water pump, fridge and inverter.

Water is heated by a gas-fired Suburban unit. For keeping cool in warmer climes, there’s an Aircommand Heron 3.0 air-conditioner mounted above the driver and passenger seats.

On the road

Since the completion of their motorhome, Bill and Barbara travelled for several months. From Sydney, where they live, they have been up the east coast to Cairns, across the Gulf country to Normanton and Mount Isa, north to Darwin and then south through Alice Springs to Paskeville on the Yorke Peninsula (SA), where MHG met up with them at a Campervan and Motorhome Club rally.

All their hard work in building their motorhome has paid off and they are enjoying their new life ‘on the road’.