Is this a Unimog failure or a GXV failure? (Pic included)

[rblackwell]

Great tips Rob,

I understand the thing about screws and agree 100% - avoid if possible. It has been a pain, but I have injected epoxy glue to each screw hole on my cabinets - and have limited the use of screws to the hinges ( s/steel piano hinge to spread the load), the drawer catches and to only two drawer runners. The cabinets are made from a Laminex/ply/foam composite - the doors are only 12mm thick and weight very little . On the two main "kitchen" drawers, I have the normal draw runners I which have screws with epoxy which the foam absorbs to make a solid block, then added another runner underneath to take the weight of the drawer.

I have a Webasto ST90 system very similar to your for heating and hot water - I first saw in Ron's GXV http://gxvmoghvn.webs.com/ when he visited us in Australia and was kind enough to take us through all the things in his truck in detail. We also decided that diesel power would be the way to go, similar Webasto X100 cooktop, also thanks to our time with Ron but we will make something to protect it. We don't have the same battery banks you do, only 400AH but may pack a little Honda genset for our round the world trip.

Safe travels and enjoy your trip.

We rarely draw our battery bank below 80% SOC.
An item that I have found very useful is a Sterling Power battery-2-battery charger for charging the house AGM batteries from the truck battery pack and alternator.
The Honda gen is a very good idea - for cold weather you can store it inside so to avoid cold start problems that we have with our Onan diesel. Do you have an electric block heater in your truck as well as the Webast ST90? You could also run that from the Honda.
I did not like the diesel cooktop initially but have come to like it - unfortunately I also managed to smash the ceramic top on ours earlier in the trip and so now we don't have it. Wife is really ticked off with me about that as I was the idiot that smashed it.

I know Ron a little - talked to him before we committed to our truck.

 

[Iain_U1250]

I don't have a block heater yet - just not available over here. Our plan was to be in Siberia / Mongolia in spring/summer, then be in Europe in autumn, fit some cold weather gear like fuel tank heaters, block heater, fuel line heater, battery heater etc, then up to Norway, Denmark or Sweden for northern lights and midnight sun.

All of our water stuff is inside the truck, and the water pumps are right next to the calorifier/hot water tank. Hot air from the water cabinet/heater cabinet is blown into the boot area where the water tanks are. If that is not enough, I can run a loop of copper pipe into the boot as well. The return line from the internal heaters will run through the bottom of the grey water tank which should stop it from freezing, and the drain pipe from the sink will be strapped next to the heater pipes to try and keep them warm and still draining. The only one I'm worried about is the drain from the shower, as the special low profile trap goes directly into the grey water tank, might need to get some form of heating pad to wrap around it ( or pour some hot water down the drain first up. Since it is not a normal U bend, but a piece of pipe with a rubber tube in it, there should not be any water inside it to freeze in the first place.

One question Rob, did GXV run steel or copper pipe for the heating system, or rubber or silicon hose. What about insulation /. lagging? How do you keep the heat inside the pipe, especially when it hot and run the calorifier on the engine heat only. My water cabinet is in two parts so I can insulate the calorifier side to minimise heat transfer to the rest of the truck and venting it to the boot area and out the truck. I have a drawing of my water system somewhere, just need to find it

Do you have any drawings of how your works?

 

[PeterM]

The UGN series of Unimog is more rigid (torsionally) than the UHN, but at a certain level you would need a real 3-point or 4-point (diamond shape) frame to compensate flex from the vehicle frame with a rigid shell. Most cab manufactures try to avoid (for cost, height, on-road stability), but if you run into roads the system is not capable of, that's a "classic" result. HAd a simila experience onan old, low-volume Austrian army truck 20 years ago: Even with the flex bridge from an Unimog, some of two dozen of screws to the NATO shelter were gone after Tanezrouft..

Regards
Peter

 

[rblackwell]

I don't have a block heater yet - just not available over here. Our plan was to be in Siberia / Mongolia in spring/summer, then be in Europe in autumn, fit some cold weather gear like fuel tank heaters, block heater, fuel line heater, battery heater etc, then up to Norway, Denmark or Sweden for northern lights and midnight sun.

All of our water stuff is inside the truck, and the water pumps are right next to the calorifier/hot water tank. Hot air from the water cabinet/heater cabinet is blown into the boot area where the water tanks are. If that is not enough, I can run a loop of copper pipe into the boot as well. The return line from the internal heaters will run through the bottom of the grey water tank which should stop it from freezing, and the drain pipe from the sink will be strapped next to the heater pipes to try and keep them warm and still draining. The only one I'm worried about is the drain from the shower, as the special low profile trap goes directly into the grey water tank, might need to get some form of heating pad to wrap around it ( or pour some hot water down the drain first up. Since it is not a normal U bend, but a piece of pipe with a rubber tube in it, there should not be any water inside it to freeze in the first place.

One question Rob, did GXV run steel or copper pipe for the heating system, or rubber or silicon hose. What about insulation /. lagging? How do you keep the heat inside the pipe, especially when it hot and run the calorifier on the engine heat only. My water cabinet is in two parts so I can insulate the calorifier side to minimise heat transfer to the rest of the truck and venting it to the boot area and out the truck. I have a drawing of my water system somewhere, just need to find it

Do you have any drawings of how your works?

I am sorry for delaying so long in answering this question - internet is scarce and I often forget to lookup EP.
The coolant is run from the engine to the heat exchanger using high temp rubber hose. It taps into the cooling system where the OEM block heater should mount.
The resulting useable hot water is passed around the inside of the camper using PEX tube.
The heat exchanger and hot water tank is under the sink and is not sufficiently insulated, the plates and cutlery get hot. The hot water system, electrical cabinet
and refrigerator all pump heat into the camper. Next time around I would want to think about better ways to get rid of the heat. Current arrangement is great in cold
weather but not the best in central asian summer