Jim the Truck - a mercedes 1823

[nick disjunkt]

We've been racking up the miles since our slow meander through the US deep south. We've been to Zacatecas and Guanajuato, and drove a few hundred miles through the beautiful Sierra Gorda mountains on the 120 and 105. We spent several days averaging 30 km/h, crawling up the mountains at 2000rpm in 3rd gear and crawling down on the engine brake. We're now in Teotihuacan, relaxing before a few days climbing La Malinche to the east.

The only mechanical issue has been replacing the valve stem which has been leaking since the brake problem in the everglades many thousands of miles ago.

http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/03/zacatecas.html

http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/03/guanajuato.html

 

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for the updates!

 

[nick disjunkt]

During a relaxing stop at Teotihuacan we met several European travellers and some interesting vehicle. The owners of the old MAN truck were back in Europe so we could not speak and I could not see the inside. The unimog was awe inspiring in every way, a true masterpiece, and the bimobil landcruiser was nice too.

http://jimthetruck.blogspot.com/2014/04/teotihuacan.html

 

[Ullie]

I've read on an other forum that the old Belgian MAN is abandonned by its owners because it was to expensive to ship it back to Belgium. But apperently, its now property of the camping owner.

 

[Ron Bones]

I love this truck, thread and your blog! Inspirational stuff! I'm building an old 407D to do pretty much the same in as you are, taking Ralph the dog along too. Your blog has already helped and will continue to do so.

 

[nick disjunkt]

I've read on an other forum that the old Belgian MAN is abandonned by its owners because it was to expensive to ship it back to Belgium. But apperently, its now property of the camping owner.

The campsite owner seemed to think that they might be returning soon but perhaps not. It's a shame because the vehicle would be useful to someone. I reckon if they drove it back up to the US they could register it and get decent money for it. It's obviously had a fair bit of money spent on it. The chassis has been refurbished and extended at some point and the bumper and lighting at the front is all good quality. I was actually surprised at how small the chassis section is on these trucks compared to a modern truck.

I love this truck, thread and your blog! Inspirational stuff! I'm building an old 407D to do pretty much the same in as you are, taking Ralph the dog along too. Your blog has already helped and will continue to do so.

Thanks Ron! Is the 407 one of the old 508/608 rounded types, or the later T1/T2 type like the 308/310/814?

 

[TRDPaul]

The unimog was awe inspiring in every way, a true masterpiece, and the bimobil landcruiser was nice too.

This Unimog made an appearance on Expedition Overland www.xoverland.com (They are all Ex Po members) when they were in Chicken, Alaska in 2013 on their expedition of Alaska. It is interesting that another Expeditioner/Overlander finds posts about it again in under a year, small world.

P.s.
I love your Unimog and am a huge fan of the rear gate you have integrated.

 

[nick disjunkt]

This Unimog made an appearance on Expedition Overland www.xoverland.com (They are all Ex Po members) when they were in Chicken, Alaska in 2013 on their expedition of Alaska. It is interesting that another Expeditioner/Overlander finds posts about it again in under a year, small world.

P.s.
I love your Unimog and am a huge fan of the rear gate you have integrated.

Thanks Paul, the tail-lift probably weighs more than a tonne but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. The modification to carry the spare wheel has been great and it's useful every time that I need to get something heavy out of the back. I reckon that I could modify it to carry a quad bike in the future if I wanted to.

My truck isn't actually a unimog, it's a simple 2wd heavy atego (now called axor). I could add the transfer box and front axle off of the 4x4 version if I wanted to but it'd never be a unimog as it's got conventional axles on leaf springs.

 

[johnbrooks]

Hi Nick
I recognize your truck from a photo Calvin from Overland Oasis sent us. How are you going? Have you found it a problem being 2x4, we seem to get stuck a fair bit. Might see you in South America. If you are shipping, we can send you some info if needed.
John

 

[nick disjunkt]

Hi John,

Great blog! I'm going to save it offline and try to read through it when I get a chance.

unfortunately we do not have the budget to ship from panama to Columbia and then back from Argentina, so we are now heading back up the west coast of Mexico to the US. Shipping back from Baltimore is less than half the price of Buenos Aeries.

We've not had any major problems with the 4x2 driveline, most problems have been with the 6-speed gearbox. The ratio of first gear is too high and so when I'm at working revs to climb a steep grade, I'm going too fast if the track is rutted or very winding. Also the gear spacing is too wide for the mountains and so once I've dropped down a gear, it's difficult to climb back up without reving the tits off the engine. The 4x4 version of the 1823 has a 2:1 ratio on the transfer box so I guess in that sense the 4x4 would have been useful, but the lower ratio 1st gear and closer gear spacing of the 9-speed box Mercedes also offered on my truck would have sufficed.

We have a diff-lock on the drive axle which has got us out of all stuck situations so far, although I suppose I'm more cautious than most, because finding someone to drag out a bogged truck weighing 14 tonnes is a lot harder than something smaller. I know from experience that mud and soft sand are the hardest things for a 4x2 truck and so when we drive on the beach we stick to the compacted sand far from the sea. I reckon if I was further into the tropics, where more of the roads are unsurfaced there's a good chance I'd have problems in the rainy season.

We got stuck crossing a river out of a coffee plantation last week, on the way in the river was low, but it rained overnight and there was a about a foot of soft sediment on the crossing on the way out. My back tyres turned into slicks immediately and we stopped moving. I engaged the diff lock and after rolling back and forth a few times the tyres dug down to the river bed and we got out without any more trouble.

What kind of places are you finding you're getting stuck?

Regards,

Nick

 

[nick disjunkt]

We've travelled a long way and done a lot since my last post.

After our stay at Teotihuacan, we climbed La Malinche Volcano and parked the truck at 3,400m.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/la-malinche-volcano.html

We then visited Puebla and the ruins at Cantona on our way to the Los Tuxtlas biosphere in Veracruz state.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/puebla.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/cantona-archaeological-site.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/catemaco-and-los-tuxtlas.html

We then drove down to the north side of the Yucatan Peninsula, visiting parts of Chiapas on the way.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/agua-azul-and-friendly-local-zapatistas.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/palenque-monkeys-and-ruins_28.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/campeche.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/uxmal-and-ruta-puuc.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/04/progresso-rabies-and-why-you-should.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/valladolid.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/rio-lagartos.html

We then headed south to spend some time on the Caribbean coast.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/semana-santa-on-caribbean-coast.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/whilst-semana-santa-is-nominally-week.html

We then began the long journey back to America, first heading west towards Chiapas.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/tulum-to-palenque-and-everything.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/mex-199-and-san-cristobal.html

From San Cristobal, we continued our drive west to Oaxaca City. I did a few running repairs and got a new steer tyre fitted in the city.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/mex-190-el-aguacero-and-benito-juarez.html
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/oaxaca-and-el-tule.html

We then headed south to the beaches of Oaxaca, visiting a few places on the way, getting slightly stuck on a river crossing, and reversing into a pickup truck.
http://jimthetruck.blogspot.mx/2014/05/oaxaca-stuck-in-river-and-reversing.html

We are now all the way up in Guadalajara, but I have a bit more writing to do to catch the blog up.

 

[Kiomon]

Fantastic!

 

[johnbrooks]

Hi Nick

Great you hear how well you are doing. Much of the 4x4/diff locks/tyres/portal axle is to do with what type of journey you are in for. We meet very happy travelers with 2x4 regular road only RV's.

We like the more remote areas and in reality have the wrong vehicle. We just arrived in Guyana from (a tough but excellent) 5 weeks in Venezuela. Guyana's roads are not great in the dry season and its definitely not dry. A few days ago on a public road, to get back to the border we had to cross a number of 'creeks' - one crossing the water came in the door windows. This is when I am pleased to have 4x4 even if our tyres turn to slicks in the mud - same as yours. We have modified our sand ladders for traction in mud, they work very well and we don't often get through a month without using them.

Its quite a thing to get a truck built and make it all the way to where you are. Very disciplined to turn back to the US. Hope you are having lots of fun.

John

 

[fourstringfletch]

Welcome to Telluride! Saw you yesterday. Stick around for fireworks tonight if you can.

 

[nick disjunkt]

Hi Nick

Great you hear how well you are doing. Much of the 4x4/diff locks/tyres/portal axle is to do with what type of journey you are in for. We meet very happy travelers with 2x4 regular road only RV's.

...

Its quite a thing to get a truck built and make it all the way to where you are. Very disciplined to turn back to the US. Hope you are having lots of fun.

John

Thanks John,

We like to get out into the boonies too, but perhaps in a different way, we have never been short of traction with the huge tyres, heavy weight and diff-lock. About half of our miles through Utah were on backcountry roads, but mostly reasonably well graded, and often gravel. Before I do another trip like this in Jim, I will make sure I add a lower first gear. A few times in the last month we have had to turn around because the road was too steep, first in the Henry Mountains in Utah, then in the Manti La Sal Mountains, and lastly in the Rockies near Silverton.

Another problem that I guess I should have expected reared its head lass week. We drive 100 miles with a rock wedged between the dualies on one side of the back axle, and ruined two tyres with 25k km on them. I usually check for rocks but I guess I'll have to be more thorough and frequent. A $1200 mistake. The same thing happened two days later but thankfully I spotted it before the damage was too bad. I couldn't get the rock I spotted out and was worried about ripping a hole in the sidewalls if I tied the rock to something and drove off. I ended up taking the outer wheel off and putting it back on again, a pain of a job with 140kg mounted tyres.

It wasn't a difficult decision turning back. Central America is amazing in so many ways, but we were getting frustrated at the lack of infrastructure. In the US it is easy to properly explore the forests, mountains and deserts as there are vast networks of logging and fire roads, and hiking trails everywhere. In Mexico you' have to hack through the forest with Machetes to explore similar places.

Where are you guys now?

Welcome to Telluride! Saw you yesterday. Stick around for fireworks tonight if you can.

Great show! the dog hated it but we got a great view sat on the roof of the truck. Telluride is a cool place, I'd love to come back in winter.

We headed out to Grand Mesa after we left, and are now in Glenwood Springs, stocking up before a drive into the wildernesses south of Aspen and around Independence Pass.

Love to all travellers.

Nick