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.
