Another Canter Conversion with Frameless Fibreglass Box

[gait]

thanks for all the posts in this forum. Most useful.

My build was completed last June after about 6 months hard work. After that 5 months through the center of Aus to test it (and us). Last 3 months has been preparation for SE Asia, China, Mongolia, Russia, Europe etc. interrupted by having to recover from floods.

Its a "drop top" which will fit in a HiTop container for shipping on Monday.

Just finished describing the build. Basically a frameless fibreglass sandwich box on a sub-frame on the cab/chassis. Its kindly been christened Tardis by others 'cos of the internal layout. Usual wheels and suspension seats from AllTerrainWarriors (I live in Brisbane, about 2 hours drive from the workshop).
http://www.epicycles.com/Truck Blog/2010-01-01/2010-01-01.htm

The important bits (like diy fridge, diesel cooker, diesel heater, electronics, solar, wiring and plumbing schematics, etc. were all transferred from a previous project (Coaster Bus conversion). That made this project easier than otherwise.

 

[Chuckles!]

Mate, that is about the best damn camper I have ever seen! If only because I am currently looking at a Fuso (Canter) and contemplating the exact same things regarding the living spaces. I was thinking, "hmmm let's work on some designs for a permanent-but-stowable bed, diesel appliances, big solar, and retracting roof for container transport". Then within 24 hours, you drop this thread and pictures!!

:friday: Here are some internet beers, until our paths cross someday and I can get you the real ones. CHEERS!

 

[whatcharterboat]

Mate, that is about the best damn camper I have ever seen!

Can I say that is the lightest camper I've ever seen. I bet you did it all on a tight budget too. It's a credit to you Julian. Talk about a lateral thinker......cool ideas everywhere you look. Loved your fridge and the lifting bed platform.

All the best on your trip..... It's going in the container this coming Tuesday isn't it. Remember what I said >>>> Watch out you don't end up with splinters stuck in your back like me from sliding around under the diffs on the timber container floor. Ouch.

 

[alan]

Yes a very nice job congradulations!
All the best on the trip, the envy of many people.

Keep an eye on the chassis, allowing it to flex it will eventually crack, but only my view.

 

[Lynn]

I've been fascinated by containerizable truck builds for years, and I have to admire your approach.

Thanks for sharing, and I wish you great times.

Pardon the hijack of sorts, but I've been unable to find an answer to a container shipping question I have (though I admit I haven't really tried very hard). I've read about shipping being based on 'container units' with one CU being 20'. Does that mean that a fourty-footer is twice the price of a twenty-footer, regardless of weight? Or is the shipping cost a factor of weight and length?

Thanks,

 

[dtruzinski]

google sketchup - mounting system

Great build...very impressive. I am keenly interested in how the mounting system performed and was wondering if you could share the google sketchup and any other pics you may have of the torsion free mount.

 

[haven]

Thanks for sharing the details of your ingenious construction project. Good luck on your upcoming journey in the Tardis. Please share details as often as you can through your web page at http://www.epicycles.com

While perusing your web pages describing your travels in Australia, I noticed that many photos show you driving with the camper top in the raised position. I would imagine that this could increase the stress on the lower walls of the camper where they attach to the floor, as well as expose the sides of the camper to contact with objects like tree trunks along the sides of the track. Did you notice any issues while driving with the top raised?

 

[haven]

Regarding containerized shipping, you will pay roughly double for a 40 ft container than for a 20 ft. That's because the ship has lots of capacity to carry weight, but a limited ability to fit containers on board. The height of a container varies quite a bit, so frequently a "high cube" container will be shipped at the same price as a standard container even though the "high cube" model has greater volume.

The allowed weight for the cargo in a 20 ft container of all sizes is about 48,000 lb. / 21,500 kg. So unless you're smuggling gold bars, you'll have plenty of weight allowance for a vehicle.

 

[Lynn]

Regarding containerized shipping,

Thanks, Haven. That confirms my suspicions.

I got the impression from gait's write-up that dropping the top is only done for container shipping. I think he mentioned it takes about two hours to assemble. Driving with it up, and the upper walls in place, was the design plan. Also I think he mentioned that they spent several months around the corrugations of Australia without problems, other than adding the cable tensioners. Very unusual and interesting approach.

 

[gait]

thanks all. We'll keep the website updated as we travel - its a simple site to keep uploads easy.

On container shipping cost. We've found that the actual ship cost is small (to Malaysia from Brisbane about US$600). The killer is the port and agent charges, at both ends. Pushes it up to about US$5,000. I looked at ro-ro but actual ship cost was much higher and different agent was higher cost.

Haven - its always driven with the top up. Its best described as a "drop top". The only time the top is down is for container packing. I scraped the exhaust cap along the underside of a low bridge and tried to demolish a service station canopy early on. Height is about 3.3m (I have to make up a dashboard notice). When we got stuck in the first week it was because of swinging wide to avoid a tree angled over the road - our extra height made us take a different path to lower 4wds. Other than that just a case of being aware. No doubt we'll meet places we can't go because of the height but that's just another compromise. Windows were always going to be a problem. The acrylic of the side windows is scratched, not yet badly enough to go through the effort of polishing but we will have to some time. We also have to be careful that low branches don't get stuck between the cab and the body. The lip on the roof (to facilitate collecting water and make assembly easy) partly protects the solar panels - branches we touch run along the corner, the extrusion capping has no joins on that bit.

In the first (tentative) trips we noticed that the side walls "walked" a few mm horizontally. The corners were'nt enough to constrain the movement. There are four "legs" which serve to both lift the top but also to compress the top to the bottom. I added two wire ropes with turnbuckles at the middle of each side with plates above the roof and below the floor. The "post tensioning" of legs and ropes holds the whole box quite rigid. I spent a few happy evenings just twisting shoe boxes with and without lids. Given the precision of the router the compressive load on the rebated sides is spread relatively well along the length of the floor. The seats and shower partitions help keep the sides vertical. Conceptually it all works with small loads on large areas, as with the glue. The fibreglass in the box weighs about 250kg. As well as being bend resistant the fibreglass is strong in lengthways compression (enough to bend the steel bed frame when I drove the bed down onto some during construction - don't ask!).

I'll put the Sketchup drawings on the website for download.

On the subframe and pivot. Hindsight is wonderful. In retrospect I'd make the sub-frame lighter. I'd also add some flexibility to the fixed mounts (either lighter steel, a bush of some sort, or probably spring clamp with sideways support). Similarly the bottom of the pivot where it attaches to the chassis. One-off engineering is always interesting. The first trip was relatively (for me) harsh. Apart from the spare wheel carrier that failed after 5 months the straps on the second fuel tank broke, the battery strap fell off, the fridge door fell off.

There was an interesting couple of days a couple of months into the trip where we noticed the steps were squeaking a bit as we moved around inside. The telescope legs of the steps were slowly pushed in, there seemed to be more movement in the body, drinking water stopped flowing as the pipe had been crimped by one of those extra support springs (needed 30mm of compression), and a couple of other symptoms I can't quite recall. Little signs that led to the discovery that the pin for the pivot had walked halfway out and the bolts on one of the fixed mounts were loose. The bad news is that it happened, the good news is that it didn't cause complete failure. A couple of jacks between chassis and sub-frame, either side of the pivot took the load sufficiently to allow the pin to be pushed back home with the help of a hammer. The loose bolts were easily tightened as the load was nicely spread across other load points when stationary. I suspect that the loose bolts allowed a bit of extra movement and I hadn't tightened the locking bolt for the pin. I can't quite decide if the problems were connected or coincidence. Neither problem has occurred since but as part of the daily check I rock the body and eyeball the pin - and I drilled that important hole to allow better access to the pin.

Important take away was to reinforce the need for acute listening and observing. Any strange noise or movement or out of alignment needs investigating. I do that anyway but it could have been worse!

As part of the recent service all suspension bushes were replaced. The rear spring mounts (to the chassis) were also replaced as holes had become oval. The previous owner had bolted 10mm steel plate to the side of each chassis rail, full length. He'd had the chassis on a previous Canter crack. It took me a few minutes to decide and three weeks to remove. It had been inserted between spring mounts and chassis rail, the springs hadn't been repositioned on the axle. The slight twisting of the springs would have changed the load on the bushes. I mention it because the change in ride is noticeable, the vehicle feels a bit more solid. The new bushes probably subtly shift all the stresses through the rest of the structure.

The vehicle is (only) just under the 4.5 tonne that makes it free of annual inspections in Queensland. The light weight will lessen the likelihood of chassis cracking. The sort of driving and the weight distribution will probably increase the likelihood. The use of 7 load points (not just 3) will probably reduce the likelihood. My background is metallurgy which hopefully helps with a sense of where to look for chassis cracks. Haven't found any so far but will keep looking.

I think we blew the budget John. The blowout was in all the little finishing off bits. For example, I'd totally underestimated the cost of what I saw simply as four bits of foam for the seats. Well worth doing that bit properly though for the comfort. Still a relatively cheap build and allows a lowish value on the carnet - important as the personal financial risk is 4x the value of the vehicle in India plus loss of the vehicle. Its very easy to over capitalise what is basically a 6 year old vehicle with 100,000km on the clock.

 

[Thespoon]

Julian
Happy and safe journey from me too......hope all will go as planed......I'm sure you won't have any problems you couldn't handle....I remember when you came down to have a look at my camper, you asked if you could take some pictures underneath and when I offered you the garage creeper to lie on, you declined as you where not used to such luxuries!!!!!:victory::victory:
Safe travels
Adrian

 

[gait]

thanks Adrian,

yes, I remember it well - doesn't time fly! I think I could use the garage creeper to avoid the splinters in the container ....

 

[PKDreamers]

Julian,

Wow unreal blog you guys have .
How did you know about that boulder in the middle of nowhere???
Are you two going to keep everyone updated on your travels?

We love your camper very well done and great work.

Travel safe and take care.

 

[gait]

Julian,

Wow unreal blog you guys have .
How did you know about that boulder in the middle of nowhere???
Are you two going to keep everyone updated on your travels?

We love your camper very well done and great work.

Travel safe and take care.

thanks P&K. I set off on that trip with a notion of learning more about why the landscape, vegetation and widlife are the way they are. Visions of being an "Ozologist". I've seen erratics (drop-stones) previously and that boulder wasn't difficult to spot (large, a different colour, in a previously glaciated area). I didn't get to the site (needs SA Museum help) but Aus has its own geological time period - Ediacaran, named after the Ediacara Hills at the top end of the Flinders. Something else we didn't find were tectites (australites).

 

[PKDreamers]

You are welcome.

Rocks and all that type of stuff we find very interesting even though we no nothing about them.
I did have to goolge tectites to find out what you where talking about and now know what they are we will keep our eyes open for them and then one of the guys at work say his dad has found a few.