1120 AF Build in Norway

[Grenadiers]

It cost us around $6000 for the addition. The aluminum box has 2" of polyurethane foam for insulation.

 

[Geo.Lander]

It cost us around $6000 for the addition. The aluminum box has 2" of polyurethane foam for insulation.

its really cool! do you know any sources in the EU?

 

[Geo.Lander]

I am talking to box suppliers in Germany, Alu-star and Füss-Mobile so far, but I plan on getting prices from Ormocar too. The idea of an Aluminium box is very appealing to me thou and working out the details with Alu-star yesterday was very pleasant (whereas Frank from Füs seems to be just irritated with my lack of knowledge).

Taking notes from Cloud9 I can see some of the advantages of both GFK and Alu, can anyone chime in a give me a solid understanding of what i should choose?

 

[Grenadiers]

its really cool! do you know any sources in the EU?

No I don’t, sorry. Our Saurer was in the US when we bought it. The Swiss owners previously built-out the box, we just extended it and remodeled it. Added a cassette toilet and Splendide washer/dryer. And a bunch of other stuff of course!

 

[grizzlyj]

Hiya, lovely truck and good luck!
The Ulrich book details his build and subsequent problems he had then overcame on using such a box. Plus two body builders are interviewed who use different approaches why they prefer what they do. Ally on the inside certainly makes it easy to fix things to.
Visiting a few builders even if it needs a few days away will be well worth it when seeing how they may be set up. Ask about current lead times!
Regarding boxes, Aigners website says they are sold out but their stock will vary depending on what the auctions produce. Ring, don't email! I'm sure there are more dealers too. https://www.aignertrucks.com/en/vehicles/vehicle-bodies

Ulrichs book also discusses things such as heating source choices, interior layout, window and door sources etc etc, all of which may alter where you want the holes which may want to be sorted before you start a build? If you can resolve 90% of that before you start you won't be kicking yourself wishing you had another 200mm for the dinette or shower, or you didn't really need a sloping top front corner because the interior storage room it eats would have been more useful than theoretical mpg gains. He had to move one hole to suit the internal frame on the box he didn't know was there. You can download it from his site, it will save you time and money

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Congratulations on getting a great truck for your build (I am a bit biased )! We ended up trading our firebox for the labor to remove it, seemed like a good deal for us as we wanted to get on with the build. As you may know we went with FRP skins, coming from a sailing background it was familiar to me. A couple of +'s with frp. No thermal bridging, easily repairable with limited tools and if foam cored high insulation value. Negatives, well the bond between the FRP and foam core is only as strong as foam. So you need to build with that in mind.

The books mentioned above are good, but at times lack detail. One thing I would recommend is using a tool like Google Sketchup to mock up your interior before ordering. Doing 3D models is not that difficult and really help.

Now building in Europe you will have way better access to aftermarket parts for your truck. We have imported rims, leaf springs, 24v DC air conditioner plus other smaller parts. If you want any info on these things just let me know.

 

[DiploStrat]

Did you make a mistake? Probably not - lots of us with old MB trucks.

They are horribly underpowered for hills and motorways and can get noisy, but these are less of an issue for extended third world travel. The good news is that unlike those who build on smaller trucks, you are not likely to end up with a camper that is too heavy for your truck.

The books you are reading is good, but do be warned that when it comes to climate control, it is VERY northern Europe focused. It does not even consider air conditioning, for example. Remember that much of the world hits 30-40C for extended periods and thus airflow and ventilation can be HUGE comfort issues. And, at the same time, in much of the US at least, -15C and colder is common, so keep all of your water lines inside the heated area. (Batteries too, if you are thinking lithium iron, and you should be.)

These folks are very helpful: https://ln2-forum.de/ The moderators will help non-German speakers through the sign up process and most browsers do an amazing job of translation.

Back in 1972 I hosted two Norse overlanders in Douala, Cameroun. Assuming that the virus every passes, do come visit in DC - you will be most welcome! (And you don't have to offer fish balls as a bribe.)

 

[Geo.Lander]

Hiya, lovely truck and good luck!
The Ulrich book details his build and subsequent problems he had then overcame on using such a box. Plus two body builders are interviewed who use different approaches why they prefer what they do. Ally on the inside certainly makes it easy to fix things to.
Visiting a few builders even if it needs a few days away will be well worth it when seeing how they may be set up. Ask about current lead times!
Regarding boxes, Aigners website says they are sold out but their stock will vary depending on what the auctions produce. Ring, don't email! I'm sure there are more dealers too. https://www.aignertrucks.com/en/vehicles/vehicle-bodies

Ulrichs book also discusses things such as heating source choices, interior layout, window and door sources etc etc, all of which may alter where you want the holes which may want to be sorted before you start a build? If you can resolve 90% of that before you start you won't be kicking yourself wishing you had another 200mm for the dinette or shower, or you didn't really need a sloping top front corner because the interior storage room it eats would have been more useful than theoretical mpg gains. He had to move one hole to suit the internal frame on the box he didn't know was there. You can download it from his site, it will save you time and money

Ahh yes, i was looking on the Aigners for a while, never got around to calling thou. I just felt the dimensions of those boxes was a little limiting for me, the idea of a garage and ample standing height (194cm) really appeals to me as well as at least 60mm insulation for ski season

I am going to download and read the book this winter before the cabin is ordered. First task is to prep the chassis so im told

 

[Geo.Lander]

Congratulations on getting a great truck for your build (I am a bit biased )! We ended up trading our firebox for the labor to remove it, seemed like a good deal for us as we wanted to get on with the build. As you may know we went with FRP skins, coming from a sailing background it was familiar to me. A couple of +'s with frp. No thermal bridging, easily repairable with limited tools and if foam cored high insulation value. Negatives, well the bond between the FRP and foam core is only as strong as foam. So you need to build with that in mind.

The books mentioned above are good, but at times lack detail. One thing I would recommend is using a tool like Google Sketchup to mock up your interior before ordering. Doing 3D models is not that difficult and really help.

Now building in Europe you will have way better access to aftermarket parts for your truck. We have imported rims, leaf springs, 24v DC air conditioner plus other smaller parts. If you want any info on these things just let me know.

Happy to hear from you VerMonsterRV! I have been reading through your build with great interest, you had such great results! Before the RV we were very close to purchasing a GS 54 from Luca Brenta but the deal fell through at the last moment, we caught our breath a bit and settled on the idea of a small mountain cabin (we bought some land) and a Expedition truck project instead Putting the sailing dream on hold for a few more years.

Yea, I for sure need some advice, i will be using single rears etc and trying to source some Nordic winter tires too, im thinking the Nokian are the best bet at this point. I will need 2 sets of wheels and tires because those will just melt away when we go south in the summer ?

I really dont know what FRP is, I sail but I charter so not much repair experience at all. I have started doing some 3D and have a basic floor plan, i like the designs of a U shaped sofa like your design and unidan's monster MB Zetros trucks. I have some basic drawings but nothing ready to share yet.. Yea, i feel a bit spoiled, i have been talking to the Unimog importer here and he basically told me they can repair anything on these trucks and he had some ideas for uprated suspension and powertrain which I cannot remember now. He says to get the cabin build out first so they know the final weight of the truck before messing with those things thou..

 

[Geo.Lander]

Did you make a mistake? Probably not - lots of us with old MB trucks.

They are horribly underpowered for hills and motorways and can get noisy, but these are less of an issue for extended third world travel. The good news is that unlike those who build on smaller trucks, you are not likely to end up with a camper that is too heavy for your truck.

The books you are reading is good, but do be warned that when it comes to climate control, it is VERY northern Europe focused. It does not even consider air conditioning, for example. Remember that much of the world hits 30-40C for extended periods and thus airflow and ventilation can be HUGE comfort issues. And, at the same time, in much of the US at least, -15C and colder is common, so keep all of your water lines inside the heated area. (Batteries too, if you are thinking lithium iron, and you should be.)

These folks are very helpful: https://ln2-forum.de/ The moderators will help non-German speakers through the sign up process and most browsers do an amazing job of translation.

Back in 1972 I hosted two Norse overlanders in Douala, Cameroun. Assuming that the virus every passes, do come visit in DC - you will be most welcome! (And you don't have to offer fish balls as a bribe.)

Thanks! It is reassuring to hear things like that! We will use the truck firstly in Norway, extended MTB and ski touring trips. Hopefully in 2022 we can set off for a Africa kiting and surf trip following to west coast, in that regard I was looking at Truma air-con unit but i so not like the dutching so i suppose a roof unit it needed. I will be installing LIB power and have made some mental plans around that and a 400aH system, which with 1000w of solar should hold up to running the air-con at least some of the time.. (i have found 500w panels here in norway and plan to use the victron controllers and avoid large inverters as much as possible).

Thank you very much for the invite! I can bring the Aquavit!

 

[Geo.Lander]

i just got the handover contract for the truck, I pickup prob around middle of November, meanwhile they take apart the blue lights and other fire truck stuff i assume. I am actually picking this up directly from the fire station so I am going to ask if they have any old service pictures of her! Would be cool to document her old life a bit too, now more pics of what i bought!
p.s. the bidding sheet was sent out today, i was bidding against someone in Netherlands called Unimog Donald and a british guy, i suppose all for export

BTW, I plan a totally honest financial reporting on this project, I paid 128 000 NOK without taxes. All in about 16500 Euro.

 

[Geo.Lander]

Question maybe for Vegard_S. Now the truck is registered as a Motorredskap (MR). Which means no EU / TUV control, no road taxes or toll. Do you know if I can keep this registration even after it is built out? Looking at similar stories on the Land Rover forums here it seems totally possible

Regler for motorredskap

Hei folkens! Det står en gammel 109 brannbil til salgs som motorredskap. Hvordan er regler for disse. Hvem kan kjøre dem, maks hastighet, persontransport, vel, jeg vil helst vite det meste om dette! Venter i spenning på svar! Hilsen amatørbrannbilfører!

www.lrforum.com

 

[Geo.Lander]

Alright guys, my girlfriend Thea has a background in fashion design and art and has made some logos for the project, what do you think? Which one do you guys like best?

 

[VerMonsterRV]

I like the first one, we are thinking of doing a round sticker for ours. For some strange reason stickers are popular in the Overlanding world. FRP is fiber reinforced plastic, guess more commonly referred to as fiberglass. Boats/Overland RV seem to appeal to the same type of people, also small planes (just went on a factory tour at KitFox...).

 

[Geo.Lander]

I like the first one, we are thinking of doing a round sticker for ours. For some strange reason stickers are popular in the Overlanding world. FRP is fiber reinforced plastic, guess more commonly referred to as fiberglass. Boats/Overland RV seem to appeal to the same type of people, also small planes (just went on a factory tour at KitFox...).

I think the first one too, i got an angry message from her because she isn't quite finished yet will need to buy her some wine for this evening i think