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Hi all. So, after a long 'flat' few weeks of ignoring the truck, I finally found the gusto to finish cleaning the chassis. The amount of rubbish that we have scraped off this thing is unbelievable. Even though it looked clean, we still ended up with a decent bucket full of soil, grease, oil...

That door looks taller now than it did on the floor! :)

I'd sit your batteries on a piece of timber atop the chassis rails for now, and use the existing leads (having carefully removed them from the FD body). The earth to the chassis can be bolted temporarily to any hole on the chassis or trans, the short battery link wire should still be fine and...

Dogs seem to be so more resilient than us humans eh! Glad all were ok.

Our steps are fully mounted. There are positives and negatives to this. The negatives are that you always have to park with space in mind as the steps are attached to the truck, and if you have to make a rapid departure from somewhere that might have turned hostile, you are going to wreck the...

Both those tanks will just bolt on. However, I'd be slow to buy tanks or springs until you are well into your build. The reason I say this is because I have shifted air tanks, battery boxes, fuel tanks and re designed the muffler system all to make better use of space and to utilise every free...

I recon you'll get most places you want with that setup right there, and in much more comfort than the Mog! :)

Ok, this paints a different story.. What I said earlier still stands in that it's high and low gears. This next pic shows both output shafts and an epicyclic gear set between the two output shafts, which then does make it full time 4x4. I think 122 is the sliding dog to lock the center diff...

One gear will be low range, and the other will be high range. They are both being driven off '56' which is the intermediate gear. 20 and 41 sit on the same shaft, but are running on bearings. When low or high is selected, the dog (no 11) either engages on 20 or 41. :). Also worth noting that...

I'm not saying I'm right, but I'm tipping I'm close... The HL7 is a Hub Reduction axle (pictured) It can have a slim close ratio diff (higher speed and less torque) then allowing for final reduction in the hubs where the torque is needed. This means that everything in front of the drive wheels...

Hello! Welcome to the forum. Re your final length, I'd try and keep the vehicle total length under 8 meters. A few on here and other platforms have suggested to me that a max length of 8m, max width of 2.5m, and a max height of 3.5m seem to be the 'golden figures'... I tend to agree...

Two tests... The first was up a grassy slope with the front and rear axle locked in high and in low range. We stopped when the rear axle lost traction. Low range 2WD is really handy for reversing into tricky spots with the engine at idle. Wifey likes to use it when reversing too. The second test...

Very slow axles = 80kmh flat out... Slow axles = 95kmh flat out... Fast axles = 110kmh and beyond! (this is roughly and depends on tyre sizes...) The ratios can be different in some trucks, as some trucks have hub reduction axles... In this setup, the front axle does all its reduction in the...

3.6 should work well with a 4.5m hab box. Hot tip though... If your house has a room that's big enough, mark out a 4.4m x 2.4m rectangle (allowing for 50mm wall thickness, and then move mattress's, seating, cooker, fridge etc into it and see how it feels for size... When you see the box taped up...

I thought this and discussed it early on with Neil... Ours are not permanent 4x4. Tested recently as it's currently sat on 4 axle stands in the workshop awaiting paint. To do this you'd need a transfer case with a central diff and a diff lock (like the proper Land Rover Defenders are), which is...

Hi Tracy. The fact that you've settled on a Merc is already a good decision. Mercedes or MAN seem to be the reliable yet simple vehicles of choice. We have a Merc 1222a. Very similar in format to Cloud 9, just with a V6 diesel. It's worth knowing what body length you want and where you plan to...

I was also going to suggest a horsebox manufacturer too, as I used to work for one and am using similar body building and cladding techniques for our build, but have been told they are not suitable builders by a few in previous posts... I tend to disagree, as if you find the right builder...

Your truck has ABS!?

I'd say it's in position 'II', which is highway speed or high range. The '~' symbol I believe to be low range signifying hills and valleys, and the '0' symbol is neutral... :)

Having the locks modified so they can't be locked is fairly common fire truck practise... We had several 'interesting' moments with the Isuzu FTR 4x4 trucks when they were first rolled out with the local CFS... The doors could be easily accidentally locked from the inside on exiting the cab...