Hello From NZ and help with a Big decision to make

[grizzlyj]

Thank you for replying

Will your seatbelts for the swivel seats be fixed to walls and floor? I know you can have seats with the seatbelt built in but I wonder if there are swivels strong enough to carry their loading to the floor?

I can't quite see how you have the headroom to have both bunk beds in use and clear above your double to be separate?

If you removed the 600x600 wardrobe, slid the bathroom and bunks forward, and put that wardrobe in the rear corner now empty and sized to suit, each bunk becomes accessable from outside the double bed area, and the wardrobe can be split level to be accessed from each bunk? When you remove the bunks in the future then the wardrobe gets recreated between bathroom and bed/garage?

 

[sg1]

I used the same system for retaining the main kitchen drawers.
Pics were taken 10 years ago.
View attachment 558470View attachment 558471View attachment 558472View attachment 558473

Plenty for the good days but not enough for the bad days.
There are also benefits to getting rid of LPG all together and going electric induction cook top. For that you need over 1kW plus a back up direct charging capability from the alternator.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

I have used all sorts of latches and locks to keep the doors of my cabinets closed even on bad or very bad tracks or off road. The only ones that worked reliably were the southco latches https://www.southco.com/en-us/c2 .

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

I have used all sorts of latches and locks to keep the doors of my cabinets closed even on bad or very bad tracks or off road. The only ones that worked reliably were the southco latches https://www.southco.com/en-us/c2 .

The spring catches that I pictured earlier work very effectively on the "short" doors in all off road conditions, but are no good on conventional full doors where I use compression latches similar to those you link to. With all but smaller doors I have usually used two per door. The doors are all sandwich panel.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[Sitec]

Another small tip for drawers and storage boxes...
Don't make the runners exactly horizontal..... If you make them slope backwards slightly, the drawer will tend to want to stay closed as the vehicle rattles over the corrugations, instead of tending to want to slide open.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

That little snippet of info is gold in it's own right! Something so simple but I wouldnt have thought of it! Thanks!!

 

[Madoxen]

I have got back from the North island and truck ran and drove really well Just a few points that were not mentioned prior ( there is always something isnt there ), I will post pics once i have uploaded them tomorrow .
2 oil leaks one from either one of the heads or port I could not get in closes enough to see and the other from the gear box bell housing dripping both down onto the engine sump and also onto the front diff.
the dash has a warning light up saying power take off fault and is on limited power , the owner says it is on full power and they are unable to get rid of the fault but everything works fine. It did drive as if it had full power but a fault is a fault.

and last the flat deck is mostly steel construction except the cross beams that are all wood. . bugger I was hoping that it was going to be easier.

I am speaking with the owner tomorrow and need to work out these undisclosed faults or cancel the offer with refund of deposit any thoughts or suggestions ?
other than the mentioned above it was very tidy clean and drove very well.

Will your seatbelts for the swivel seats be fixed to walls and floor? I know you can have seats with the seatbelt built in but I wonder if there are swivels strong enough to carry their loading to the floor?

A very good point and one that I will have to reaserch , I was planning on seats to include the seat belts and have seen swivel seats with them on on a German camper. I will need to see where and if i can get any iff not back to the drawing board.

I can't quite see how you have the headroom to have both bunk beds in use and clear above your double to be separate?

On the left side running north to south is the double leaving 850 for bunks or work shp on the right. the upper bunk will be low profile lift into roof bed and the lower one will be a murphy sty bed that turns into the wall for storage under the main bed . I will post a drawing of it when it is not so late

If you removed the 600x600 wardrobe, slid the bathroom and bunks forward, and put that wardrobe in the rear corner now empty and sized to suit, each bunk becomes accessable from outside the double bed area, and the wardrobe can be split level to be accessed from each bunk? When you remove the bunks in the future then the wardrobe gets recreated between bathroom and bed/garage?

this took me a little while to get my head around but then it clicked lol yes i see what you mean and it would create a little work later but at that stage we would probably have a big list of things to change and do a refit so to speak , I will run it by the missus and see what her thoughts are on the idea, Thanks

 

[Iain_U1250]

We had no luck with those C2 compression locks on the bigger drawers, ended up replacing them all with these.

62 Compression Latches

ovesco services the industrial and transportation manufacturing and repair industries with Australia’s best products, solutions and service.

www.ovesco.com.au

There is a zinc metal part that wears on corrugations, and then they just let go. The ones we replaced them with are an exact fit, but with a positive quarter turn latch

 

[Sitec]

Oil leaks one from either one of the heads or port I could not get in closes enough to see and the other from the gear box bell housing dripping both down onto the engine sump and also onto the front diff.

The dash has a warning light up saying power take off fault and is on limited power , the owner says it is on full power and they are unable to get rid of the fault but everything works fine. It did drive as if it had full power but a fault is a fault.

The flat deck is mostly steel construction except the cross beams that are all wood. . bugger I was hoping that it was going to be easier.

If the oil is running out that fast, from the top of the engine, I'd be thinking it's rocker cover gaskets or an oil return line as opposed to heads leaking... The garage should be able to find that easily so ask them to rectify it..

PTO fault will be an earth issue... They either work or they don't.. Have you seen the crane working? Re 'limited power'.. Do you mean it's in limp mode and is the engine light? This would need to be plugged in at a main dealer or somewhere that has a Mercedes reader. Ring a dealer, and ask the cost to plug the truck in and check/clear codes. This could then be factored into the final buy price.

Re the flat deck... I wouldnt worry about this, as a truck deck/tray mounted to the chassis is not ideal to build on as they twist with the chassis... You need to build your box 'rail on rail' (Look up Cloud 9 - Neil and Pat's build), as the tray is now, but with long bolts and springs, allowing the box and chassis to move independently or... Utilize a 4 point system allowing the chassis to properly flex under the body. Lots of people have lots of ideas on how to do this (myself included, but my build thread will give you a rough idea). It is something you'd have to look into to suit your chassis/box setup.

Finally, trust your gut feeling. If you love that truck, it drives nicely and you have looked at it with a reasonable mechanical knowledge on what's going to cost what to fix, then barter the price down to suit and own it (reminding the seller that a heavy older 4x4 truck is a niche market and buyers are not as abundant!! ). If you are having any doubt and are not 100% with your mechanical side, then step back. There will be others. Hard decisions, but fun times! Good luck!

 

[Madoxen]

Pictures of the fault messages and of the oil leaks







oil sump very wet with oil

Side of gear box dripping slowly on to dif and down to sump




rear right cylinder head with black oil

 

[Madoxen]

PTO fault will be an earth issue... They either work or they don't.. Have you seen the crane working?

Hi Sitec , yes I had a good play with the crane and it all worked well.

Re the flat deck... I wouldnt worry about this, as a truck deck/tray mounted to the chassis is not ideal to build on as they twist with the chassis... You need to build your box 'rail on rail' (Look up Cloud 9 - Neil and Pat's build), as the tray is now, but with long bolts and springs, allowing the box and chassis to move independently or... Utilize a 4 point system allowing the chassis to properly flex under the body. Lots of people have lots of ideas on how to do this (myself included, but my build thread will give you a rough idea). It is something you'd have to look into to suit your chassis/box setup.

Yeah I am going with a 4 point system a little like the unimog but not quite . the flat deck i wanted to use to modify and intergrate the 4 point system with a bit of tweeking , rather than starting from scratch with the entire frame. but it is 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other 1 takes longer but will be exactly what i want , the other saves time and money but might be a little out on my wants. ( well the tray on there atm is almost exact dimentions i wanted to use .

Happy with my mech skills and feelings and yes i will be negotiation with owner over this , and as a fall back the owner of the 2013 has dropped price and agreed to fix all faults on truck if i go with that option . only down side is its computer driven will need ecu re wright etc and has a 3.6 wheel base rather than 5 meter haha cant win here one too long one too short.

here in NZ almost all 4x4 will be between 3.3 and 3.8 wheel base so the 5 mtr one which once upon a time was 3.8 has already had the 10k spent on it to stretch the wheel base.

 

[Sitec]

So, looking at the leaks, I wouldn't be too worried... Yes they'll need fixing, but it's all part of the build. This however is just my perspective as I seem to like making work for myself!! The heads are separate units so removing one head is not as bad as it sounds... Is your truck an 1834 (V6 OM441) or 1835 (V8 OM442)? Id love a V8!!! Either way, the Mechanical OM V series engines are great and fixable on the road side... Use them as bartering ammo.

The error codes will be trivial, as the crane works and the V series is mechanical. Re the tray... start a fresh is my view. I looked at the Atego earlier in your thread.. It's a nice tidy compact truck, but I'm not a fan of of fly by wire in remote places, unless you have a code reader and sensor stock on board. That 1834/5 is big, long and smart! It does have that tall 'get out of my way' stance.... That's not a valid enough reason to own it though... well... maybe! .

If you can get $3000 - $4000 off the deal then you have the cash sat to pay someone to rectify the leaks! Keep posting the pics, and good luck!

 

[Madoxen]

The truck is the V6 Engine, The more i think of the diffrence between the atego and the 1835 the more i like the 1835 which i gues is why i paid the deposit on it but it is the same price as the 2013 atego well with in 4k of it but i do get the option of selling the crane and flat deck on the actros.
I will keep you all informed .

 

[Sitec]

The truck is the V6 Engine...

Cool. In theory it should be an 1834 truck then, as the OM441LA V6 was only available from 220 to 340hp. 18(tonnes)34(hp). Cheers.

 

[Madoxen]

Cool. In theory it should be an 1834 truck then, as the OM441LA V6 was only available from 220 to 340hp. 18(tonnes)34(hp). Cheers.

The OM 501 LA-541. The OM 501 is a 12-litre V6, and has outputs ranging from 310 HP to 480 HP.

 

[Madoxen]

Engine designation	OM501 LA	OM502 LA
Engine type	V6	V8
Displacement (l)	11,946	15,928
KW	260	350
Horsepower	354	476
Max torque (Nm)	1,730	2,300
Emission class	Euro 2	Euro 2

The V8 would be nice but I will not complain at the V6 specs

 

[Sitec]

Oh, I've learned something! Didn't know there was a bigger V6. Wonder what the dimensions are in relation to the smaller V6!? So, is that larger V6 an electronic engine then?