Unimogadventures - Our build and travel thread

[Iain_U1250]

The ceiling has worked out great - just gives that extra bit of headroom and looks good.



I had to clean out the back completely, and sand the floor in preparation for the real Jarrah floor panel



The floor arrived today, along with a whole load of panels for the cabinets etc. We did a trial fit of the cabinets - figured our how to have proper access to the diesel stove once everything is fitted - it won't be easy, so I hope I don't need to be fiddling with it on a regular basis.

This is what it looks like with the cabinets in.



View from the other side



We have nowhere near the amount of storage that I've seen on some trucks - and that is on purpose as the amount of stuff you carry will always be such that it fills every possible area. We are used to traveling for weeks living out of a Land Rover Defender, with a very limited amount of storage and it is easy to adapt.

We don't have a full height wardrobe, things like jackets etc will be hung on the door when being used, or packed away in the boot when not in use. We have one large drawer for clothes - we test fitted them loading my clothes ( about 1/4 of the drawer) and my wife's clothes ( 3/4 of the drawer) and there was enough for a fresh change of clothes for 14 days. There is a drawer for shoes - 3 pairs for me and 8 pairs for wifey.
The locker over the bed and at the end of the bed will easily hold underwear, swimming costumes, socks etc .

The drawer under the seat will hold all the food and other supplies - it holds enough groceries for about 4 weeks and with a 35lt freezer, and 65lt fridge, we should be OK. The only full height cupboard and the front overhead locker will hold things like camera lenses, flashes, batteries etc. There is another storage box behind the chairs, much more difficult to access as you have to winds the seats forward but it will hold the more valuable goods like backup disk drives, etc, and we even have two safes for the real valuables (hidden somewhere in the truck )

The idea on this layout was to have very little about waist height, so that we can create a nice open feeling, rather than the effect of living in a wardrobe. I think we have succeeded, we have plenty of light with the three large windows and skylights, and it never felt claustrophobic, even when there was three of us moving around in the back today, plenty of space to pass each other and with one person sitting on the bed, and the other two on the chairs it was fine. If we get more than one visitor, then it will be outside entertaining only - after all this is our bedroom.

We have an outside hatch for tools - limited to one large toolbox which will hold all the spanners, sockets, air-tools I have been using to work on the truck and have space for filters, hoses, fan belts and other small things. The rear storage boxes behind the wheels will hold oils and other service fluids, gas bottles and gas stoves, groundsheets, campfire equipment, recovery gear etc. and maybe even my little welder. The two long tubes under the camper sub-frame hold all the long things like tent poles, fishing rods etc, spare air lines, brake lines, hoses etc (up to 3.6m long).

The side hatch compartment holds all our water related stuff - hoses, pumps, filters etc.

The boot area under the bed is the mains storage area - this is where all the camping gear goes, chairs and tables etc (we have two of these chairs)
)
and we will get a decent table to match, maybe this one

- got to have style whilst camping

The boot is where all the clothes that we will not be using will be packed away - in our Wolfpack storage boxes - all the winter gear - all vacuum bagged It also holds our "washing machines" - two 25lt sealed drums and a 12v spin dryer if we can find one like I've seen people in Europe can get. It will also house the outside shower, a table that folds out of the back hatch cover, and various other things. I look at people who drive around the world in Land Rovers and Land Cruisers, they have less space than we do so I know it is possible to make do with a lot less stuff than we will be carrying.


Back to the progress - the floor is in - and it looks great, a really good finish and super smooth, we will need some no-slip polish on it.



It needed a lot of weight and straight edges to ensure it was flat whilst the glue cured

 

[HumphreyBear]

Great choice on the jarrah flooring, it looks verrrry nice! Is it made of standard/normal flooring tongue and groove boards? Such a beautiful wood, and it will be a nice reminder of home when you are in far-off lands. It is really coming together, I love the roof design, the ceiling design, and how much light you are going to get in there. Oh, and very fancy chairs. Are the arms leather?

Humphrey

 

[Iain_U1250]

To keep down the weight, the Jarrah floor consists of a 4mm thick strip of Jarrah glued onto 4mm lightweight hoop pine ply. The section of floor weights around 7kg only.

The arms are leather straps, the overall quality of the chairs is fantastic, we bought them direct from a manufacturer in India, about twice the cost of decent aluminium and cloth fold up chairs, but I think they will last a lot longer.

One of our favourite quotes we found on their website basically sums up our attitude to travelling:

The first axiom for camp is not to do without comfort.... do not make yourself uncomfortable for want of things to which you're accustomed. That's the great secret of camp life. -Annie Steele.

-The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook
1890

 

[VictorB]

Awesome project!

 

[Iain_U1250]

Quick up date for this month. Most of the time has been spent on the heavy duty cabling between the battery banks and the rest of the truck. This is one of the main battery bank - two 75AH Optima 31A batteries. I have 200A fuses on the + terminals of each battery. The thing at the back of the box with all the wires going to it is the 200A shunt for the NASA Marine BM2 battery monitor.



The batteries are held in place with M10 threaded rod and to stop them from moving around I made these inserts.



I changed my mine in using the single 200A continuous switches to isolate each battery bank, and decided to change a Blue Sea Marine heavy duty dual battery switch - Model # 9001e

Cranking Rating: 10 sec. 2,000 Amps
Cranking Rating: 1 min. 1,000 Amps
Intermittent Rating: 5 min. 600 Amps
Continuous Rating 350 Amps

The winch wiring was tricky. The winches are powered off the cranking battery, so during operation the alternator would provide 50-100A, and the cranking battery the rest. This would cause the VSR to isolate the house batteries which is what I want to protect all the house stuff from the large current spikes of winching. I used 16mm2 cable between the house battery banks and the VSR as it will only see about 100A max. I will be able to "jump start" the truck from the house batteries bypassing the VSR and the 16mm2 cable.

The reduction gear starter motor has 50mm2 cable, both + and - wires. The 140A alternator has 16mm cable for the connection to the battery, and another one to the main truck positive bus.

The winches used 70mm2 cable, since the winch is supposed to be rated at 450A maximum - I think that both the wiring, the switches and the battery should be enough. This is the battery box and fuel tank in place - if you look above the tank on the right hand side you can see the battery isolator switch. There will be another one attached to a bracket behind the battery box for the winches.



Since I have started the wiring, I decided to get a proper wire crimping tool - this one was expensive, $90USD but the crimps are perfect. Since I have about 300 of these to make for the relays, fuse boxes, connectors and switches, I think it will be money well spent - hopefully limiting connection problems. The first things to wire up was the overhead lights in the camper - this way I have decent light to work in without resorting to lead lights etc. The two flat lights give off a great light - pull about 2amps though so not something that we will have running all the time. I have lots of smaller lights - 6 reading lights and three "ambient" lights.

As "Murphy's Law" has it, I have just discovered that there is now a new and improved version these light that came out last month - with "warm" LEDs, two power settings and a built in switch. I have just ordered two new ones and will use one of these in the cab, and the other in the Land Rover.



I also fitted the drawer runners for drawers under the bed - the drawers are being made this week, so by next weekend I should have them fitted. I had to space them out by 10mm to clear the cabinets. I added a lot of sound deadening to reduce the resonance - the aluminium box has a very drum like effect, amplifying the noise of water pumps. Photos when I get them installed. I have some combination lock catches for the drawers, that look great, and I can also lock them.

Most of the work the past two weekends has been on the roof rack/solar panel protection. This has been quite a tricky thing to sort out. It involves a lot of climbing up and down ladders. I used a lot of masking tape and spacers to set the bars up.Once the height and length is sorted, I made up all the little stand off brackets - there will be 26 of them eventually. I used the heavy masking tape to hold them in position and at the right angle. At first I had a 90 degree bend on the end, but I changed that to great a bit of a loop - it just looks better. I will finish of the ends with a plate when I get it all sorted.
Getting the right distance above the solar panel was tricky - I have to make sure they are above the panels to be able to protect them, but not cast any shadows on the solar cells.



Them make all the cross links to protect the edges of the panels. I have to make sure I can still remove the solar panels. Once this is all finished, I will use my trusty Sikaflex 252 to glue the roof rack onto the roof. The steel base plates are 65mm x 100mm - and with the Sikaflex tear strength of 7N/mm2 - or tensile strength of 3Mpa each plate is supposedly good for between 1.5ton and 4.5ton each depending on how the load is applied - and there are 26 of them.



From here I took the welder up onto the roof and made enough tack welds to remove the whole side frame off the roof, and welded it up properly on the floor. It does not weigh much, but is too cumbersome to fit on one piece, so I will make the other half the same, and then bolt it together on the roof. I will also add all the lighting - I have 8 sets of these on the roof, attached to the roof rack


Two at the back, two on each side, and two on the front - each pair will be independently switched, but I will have a master switch that switches them all on at one. The draw around 1A each, and give off a great light. The two at the front will double up as a daytime running light and clearance light.

 

[Landroverholic]

Fantastic build Iain. I have been charting your progress for a while.

I a planning to import a Unimog from the UK later in the year when I get back from my trip.

Just a quick slightly off topic question. Did you get those chairs from Jandrguram in India? I have emailed them a few times to try to order some but to no avail. Could you PM me a link, address etc? Would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Callum

 

[Iain_U1250]

This is where we bought the chairs from:

http://www.jandrguram.com/

We had great service from them.

 

[canals1164]

chairs

Iain
its looking good you must be pleased. I have tried emailing the chair company but er had no luck either.
keep up thr good work
regards

ian

 

[Overland Hadley]

I have tried emailing the chair company but er had no luck either.

I also tried emailing them and never received a response.

 

[Iain_U1250]

That's strange - my wife just bought another two chairs today from them, they emailed back in an hour.

PM your email address to me, and I'll send you Raj's gmail address.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Unimog Sound Systems

Just started playing around with various bits of the sound system for the cab of my truck. I have an Eclipse 8200 12" subwoofer which works with a relatively small enclosure. I chopped up the old box I had in my Jaguar XJ-S for a trial fit. On the Unimog forum, guys from Russia put up a video of their Unimog, and that's where the idea for the subwoofer placement came from.



This is a "substantial" subwoofer - weighs in at 18kg so it will need a substantial support to live in the truck.




The rest of the sound system consists of two 6x9s behind the seats, two 6.5" coaxials in the doors, and four 4" coaxials in the overhead roof console. I have two amplifiers - one to power the subwoofer, and the other the speakers. All this to drown out the OM352.


Here is a link to the Russian Build up:

http://avtotravel.com/Forums/Brands-Motorhomes-Caravans-Sales-Comparison/Offroad-Motorhomes/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82-%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B6%D 0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE-%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D1%88%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8-%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B3-1300l/

and their video of the finished truck.

 

[Iain_U1250]

We trial fitted most of the internal cabinetry this weekend. The there are a few minor "adjustments" but nothing serious and all going well, the basic cabinets will be fitted in a week or two. The lockers around the bed need to be installed before the others can be fitted - one of the problems of the sloping rear wall means that the angles etc are quite complicated, and making sure you can get things into the truck a bit more difficult.



Everything fits and it all looks great.

I also got the wood plinths for the lights - we have three of these around the truck - two either side of the bed, and another one above the seats.




I spent last weekend working on the roof rack - quite a complicated bit of fabrication, due to all the angles on the roof etc but it's close to being ready, just a general clean up and a few "adjustments" to a couple of the legs and it is ready for painting. That is today's job.



Yesterday I had a visitor - Tony brought his U1250 DOKA around for a visit - this gives a sense of scale to a Land Rover 110.



Finally, since we were so impressed by the Roorkhee chair, we decided to order another two chairs from J & R Guram for our Mog - this time we went with the Martin chairs. These fold out and can be assemble in a few seconds, whilst the Roorkhee chair take a minute or two to assemble. The Martin chairs are smaller - and only weight 6kgs. They arrived from India in less than a week, and the quality was on par with the Roorkhee chairs we have - in other words, very good. Next thing is to get a matching table made up - we will get our interior cabinet maker to build a table that fits into the back storage compartment, using the same composite method as our cabinets, it will be fairly light as well.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Roof rack almost ready

Just about ready to install the roof rack/solar panel guards.




This has been quite a fabrication exercise, lots of little components, lots of bending, lots of welding, and due to lack of proper fitting and welding, lots of grinding as well 28 legs, ( 12 of them are curved ) 30m of pipe, and 2.8m of flat bar.



I sanded down the roof, then vacuumed all the dust away - tomorrow the roof rack gets glued on. Then I can paint the roof with the heat reflective paint at last.



The interior fit out continues at a snail's pace - the lower part of the toilet cabinet has been installed. It now needs the top part of the cabinet - which goes to the roof, the doors, latches etc - then I can start to install the toilet. The front overhead locker has not been started, neither has the rear. The frames around the windows, step through, and door have been started but are a long way from being fitted, and the fronts of all the drawers and cabinets are not where close to being started. All of this will be finished before my builder goes away on holiday.



The front for the bed has been installed, along with part of the Stove/Fridge cabinet.



All going well, the locker around the bed will go in next week, and hopefully the rest of the stove/fridge cabinet, and maybe even the sink cabinet as well, but then I remember thinking that last month as well.
:26_16_2:

 

[Overland Hadley]

The rack looks beautiful! It will look very good on the roof.

Looking forward to seeing it installed.

 

[Iain_U1250]

First up the roof rack is on - lots of clamps and straps to hold it in place for the Sikaflex to dry. In order to have the maximum strength - the Sikaflex needs to be a minimum of 3mm thick. The is a small rubber spacer under each leg to keep the space.



The straps go all the way around the truck - the foam is to protect the paint, which more of less worked - but I still have a bit of damage to the paint which I will have to touch up. The hammer Finish Epoxy is very hard - once it has been allowed to set up for a week or two. The really nice part is that you can't pick the touch ups - the hammer finish blends right. Checking last night, I have a fair amount of touch-ups to do, as I only waited 48 hours before putting all the clamps and straps on it, if I had a bit more patience, I would have less re-painting, but I wanted to get it up and on the roof.



Here is the finished result - that should be capable of protecting the solar panels and the skylights from the odd branch - and will give me something to hang onto is I even fall slip on the roof rack. I tested it already - I can hang my full weight of the rack and it doesn't flex.





I also got the drawers for under the bed made - they are 1mm steel, and pretty strong. The top one is for Trish's clothes, the bottom one for mine. Which seems out of proportion to me considering I'm almost twice her size and she normally wears about half as much clothing as I do - but she insists that what is needed. Still figuring out that one.




I decided to do a load test to see if the drawers touch - I found all the full paint tins, drinks, food and stuff - it's about 25kg of stuff in it and they don't deflect more than a mm or so.



I installed the compression lock and reinforced the front with a bit more steel spot welded in place, and another folded section over the rim. The drawers get a composite panel over the front of them, which will match the rest of the cabinets. I'll fit the other lock tomorrow - that one will be upside down, and will have striker under the drawer. Not an ideal solution, as it means I have to bend down to open my drawer in hindsight I should have put the big one on the bottom, so that I could get the missus to do the bending over, a much more pleasant a sight



At last some more progress on the cabinets - this is the only full height cabinet in the truck - The section with the wires is for the control panel with the switches, circuit breakers, solar regulators, battery monitors and 12V sockets. It will also house the computer system. These are the raw composite panels - the get a covering of Laminex both sides. The shelves are supported on aluminium "T" section. The top three get doors on them the others are open. There is a full width locker across the front of the truck , and another above the bed, and around the bottom and side of the bed. There is another locker behind the two seats - access will require the seats to be wound forward, and since they are electric, it make that locker quite secure, and I can install a switch to cut power to the controls quite easily. I think I have enough storage inside the truck, and the "boot" space is pretty big - enough for the camping chairs, out 1200x800mm Jarrah top table, barbeque, extra clothes storage boxes and a fair bit of other stuff.



Final, the two skylights are in - in the end I changed my mind for a third time as to what skylights to use. I ended up with some Vetus Magnus boat hatches. The first ones I tried were the Dometic Mini Heiki hatches, which were good, all plastic but looked like they could take a bit of a knock, but would not sea - at least the Australian version does not have seals, so on dusty roads, we would have the back filling up with dust. The second ones were the Fiamma roof hatches, they would seal up air tight, but were a bit too flimsy for my liking - I dropped on from the top of a desk and it cracked. These ones are full CE classification A1 hatches - ocean going yacht hatches. A solid aluminium frame and a 10mm acrylic - that should be tough enough. The main problem was the RV style hatches were 400x400mm, and the boat hatches are 421x421mm - so I had to expand the cut out in the roof, which meant removing half the frame I had made. The hatches are not that light, and the 2mm skin deflected a bit too much for my liking. Since I could not rebuild the frame properly since the lining is in, I added another 3mm thick sheet to the outside to reinforce the roof. This is now pretty stiff and should do the job.

I decided to install them this way, so that I could have them open a bit in light rain - The risk is that I drive off with them up, and a tree takes them out. I though about putting the the direction of travel, so they would just fold down, but then I'm just a likely to reverse out of a spot as drive forwards - and I would not be able to open them if it was going to rain, or even with heavy dew. Time will tell if i got that right.



Next week the interior lining will be cut out to match, and a nice Jarrah frame with a mosquito net installed.

I'm hoping to have all the cabinets in by the end of next week. I though I said that about two months ago though.