Our Search For A Replacement Habitation Window For Our Hymer Motorhome

Back in March we had a rude awakening on a motorhome aire on the southern coast of Spain. Some kind-hearted ‘youffs’ decided they’d rock our van then thump it in the early hours. It happens, it’s not nice when it does, but we’ve experienced it before. After leaping up out of bed shouting, and them running off, we walked around our Hymer motorhome to check for damage. The culprits had left two hand prints in the dirt on the large habitation window, and a decent crack in it. The crack was only on the inside pane of the double-glazed plastic, but it was clear we were going to need a replacement habitation window, and for a motorhome that wasn’t going to be cheap!

Everything went a bit haywire from that point on. We ended up blasting across Europe over the next four days to get home as states of alarm were declared and borders closed. Covid-19 had come to Europe. We didn’t touch the window, it was closed when it cracked and we were worried that if we opened it we might not be able to close it again. Reaching the sanctuary of home, Zagan (our motorhome) was emptied and parked in his storage place, while we put ourselves into self-isolation for two weeks in case we’d brought the virus back with us.

I’ll admit, once we were home other things took priority in life. The Covid-19 pandemic put the UK into lock down a few days after we got back, and we were more concerned with looking after ourselves and our families. As lock down lifted, we knew we’d need to address Zagan’s broken window, and so our search for a replacement habitation window began.

My first port of call was the wonderful ‘Hymer Owners Group’ on Facebook, if you’ve a Hymer and aren’t a member I recommend asking to join. They came to our rescue when Zagan broke down in Morocco, and have been a source of so much information for us over the years. From there I discovered that I had three options:

1. Buy a new replacement
2. Try and source a second-hand window from a breakers
3. Have a new window made, using the existing window as a mould.

Zagan is nearly 20 years old, and while he is invaluable to us, his value is probably around £15,000, a lot less than newer vans. Anything motorhome-related seems to come at a premium price, and this was a big window so we tried the second hand route first. After a trip to visit Zagan in his storage space to measure the window’s dimensions, I Googled ‘Motorhome Breakers’ and contacted a few companies. The ones that got back to me didn’t have what we needed in stock. A thorough search of eBay also proved fruitless.

My next option was to find out about getting a replacement window made. Two companies were suggested to me, EECO Limited and Miriad. I got in contact with both, and discovered from Miriad that I would need to go through a local dealer to source a replacement part from them. EECO had a form on their website where you put in the measurements (and a guide to what you need to measure) of the window you need and answer a few questions and you get a quote back. The quote came back at £291, plus VAT (plus £30 delivery, and £30 collection) – a total of £385.80. A bit more than we thought it would be, we were unrealistically hoping to find something around £200!

Everything was looking promising, then we hit a snag. We knew we’d need to send off our window to be used as a template for the new one, and thought about driving it up to their factory in Halifax, but on the quote it stated it would be 3-4 weeks after they received the window from us before a new one would be returned to us. I don’t know if this was because they were just re-opening after lockdown, or if that is the normal lead times, but it was now late July and we really wanted to get some use out of Zagan this summer, and we didn’t fancy leaving him in storage boarded up.

Out on a run one morning I popped into our local motorhome dealership (where we bought our very first van from many moons ago). The guys at Oaktree Motorhomes were really helpful and told me if they had a Hymer with a damaged window, they would either get a new one made by EECO (boarding up the van and leaving it in secure storage) or buy a new one from Brownhills. I decided I had better see how much a new one would cost, to compare with the one from EECO.

From reading the motorhome forums, Brownhills doesn’t have the best reputation for after sales service, but maybe I got lucky as I was put through to Darren (the Hymer guy) in their parts department and he was really helpful. I gave him the serial number for Zagan and he explained that Birkholz no longer make windows, instead he would be quoting for a Dometic/Seitz equivalent. A new window would be £509.09 in total, an extra £120 compared to the one being made, but it meant we could still use Zagan and he wouldn’t be windowless.

I decided to try one other company for a comparison. If I’m honest, the price from Brownhills seemed too cheap, I was expecting something from a dealer to be around £800, so I was dubious that it was the right window. I got in touch with CaravanWindows.net who also supply motorhome windows. The discussion with them was very similar to the one with Brownhills, however the quote was £822. Jay and I sat down and looked at the options. In the end we decided to go with Brownhills and crossed our fingers that it was the right window.

I phoned Darren and ordered the window, a week or so later he called back to say it was ready to collect. The next day we jumped in the car and headed over there. We needed to wear masks to go into the showroom and accessories shop (we couldn’t resist a little nose around). As we entered the showroom we needed to lean forward and show our foreheads to a temperature sensor, we asked the member of staff next to it what our temperature should be, he said as long as it didn’t beep we were OK. Masked up we made our way to the parts counter, passing a surprising number of people looking around and buying motorhomes considering it was a weekday. As promised, our window was there waiting for us. Once we were back in the car park we opened in and checked it with a tape measure – as far as we could tell it was the right one.

The next day we were going away for a few days to Carsington Water, so we took the window with us to Zagan’s storage place. Jay unscrewed the two arms holding on the old window, and soon discovered if you lift the window up beyond 90° then it becomes unattached at the bar at the top. Surely the new one would be just as easy to fit?

My top tip for fitting a habitation window to any motorhome would be to park it by a curb, or something that makes you a bit taller! We spent ages faffing around trying to get it to go back in as easily as the old one had come out, but with no luck. Each time we lowered the window one side wasn’t locked into the window bar on the van – the window has a metal bit across the top which is hook shaped and it should hook into the profile of the window bar. Finally Jay put his thinking cap on. The window had a small notch in it on the top near one of the corners, the corner we were struggling to get to lock into the window bar on the van. Jay felt along the window bar and here was a small bump in about the same area. After a rest to let our arms recover, we tried again. This time we stuck a label on the notch and bump to help us align them, and with a little bit of wiggling it worked.

We cautiously lowered the window, expecting to need to catch it again, but it didn’t fall, it held. We checked across the top and it was all tucked into the window bar. Considering how much we had struggled for about half an hour, it actually went in really easy in the end, if only we’d realised what the notch was for sooner. Back inside Zagan, Jay attached the struts and then it was time to peel off the protective plastic and head off to our campsite for the weekend.

It’s strange because the new window is so clear. I never realised just how scratched the old windows were. The old window on the other side looks almost opaque now compared to the new one. We don’t intend to replace it, but I might have a look around and see if there is anything that will help to improve it, in the meantime we’ll park with the good window pointing to any views!

Ju x