MB 1120 Coming to America! Purchase, Build and Now Travel!

[VerMonsterRV]

We have friends in Germany that we can have it shipped to, and ship to us. Could arrange that for you. We’ve done it for parts for our rig.

Thanks for the offer and I might take you up on that. I have a few inquires out right now to European resellers and Dometic in Australia. I have had luck in the past with UK based retailers shipping at a reasonable cost. They really seem to understand international business, I'll report back what comes in.

 

[jostalli]

Thanks. I had started to think about that. I actually did the reverse when we were in New Zealand, had a US based consolidator package up a pallet and ocean freight it to Auckland. Something like $300 for the complete pallet and as we were on a visiting boat all duty free. Made working on the boat way cheaper though we had to plan ahead.

I just sent an email to Kingtec asking about their K20D1 24v DC rooftop unit. The details on the website are a bit thin so hoping to get more info.

We are a Kingtec dealer. Send me a PM with what you need.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well a bit of an update, since we have been back I have been at the computer a lot trying to get the needed ordering of stuff done. We live in a small town so pretty much everything needs to be mailed in. I have been able to get some things done though

MaxxFan installed, the interior bit is not done as I was waiting on the MaxxShade Plus than just arrived yesterday. Now I need to order a bunch of wiring so I can get it finished. The wiring will run through the roof, I ended up sharpening a 20" piece of metal electrical conduit and boring a hole through the foam. Worked great.


Also put in the gravity water fill and shore power outlet (marine grade stainless). The power is now hooked to the Aims 2000 watt inverter/charger.


And lastly, finally bolted together out LifePO4 battery pack in a 4P4S configuration, waiting on the battery cable (and other electrical bits) and a couple Sea-Dog buss bars. You can also see in habitat corners remain unfinished. These have stumped me a bit but I think I now have a plan, just need to spend some time putting things into motion.

I have also worked a bit on more cabinet work, in the seating area. Will post those pics when complete.

 

[giantiger]

$159.00 only, buy a window air conditioner 5000BTU, Arctic or TCL, put it onto the top of driver's cab, hookup by a 12v-110v 8000W inverter, pretty good solutions, this is what I am going to do on my Unimog. check it up, it is even shorter than the regular Dometic rooftop unit.

 

[Victorian]

Hey Jon,

For the corners: I would recommend fiberglass bondo filler. Sand and wrap with a vinyl or spray paint. We did this on ours and it's working very well.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Hey Jon,

For the corners: I would recommend fiberglass bondo filler. Sand and wrap with a vinyl or spray paint. We did this on ours and it's working very well.

Hey Andreas, I started down this path but small cracks appeared along the seam between the Bondo and Aluminum plates. My current plan is to do this same process but then wrap a single layer of fiberglass cloth over the whole thing, fair and paint with Sem Satin Black Chip Guard paint. An extra step but I think it will take care of the problem.

Another update, pretty much finished building the rail that will contain the top of the seating area cushions. The drivers side will have a small wall parallel with exterior wall. This moved the seating area over a bit to make getting in and out easier past the counter top. It also gives a little storage and space for the water hose fill and vent. There will be a 45 degree vertical board in the corner above to provide a wire chase and mounting point for the led reading lights.


Next to the heat exchanger in the foot well I will put in an AC outlet with dual USB chargers.


This photo is a bit fuzzy (camera phone) but tries to show the maple laminated bathroom door frame. I removed some of the honeycomb coring all around the opening then Sika 252'd in strips of wood flush. Then bonded/glued thin strips of maple, bending around the corners. I plan on using the door cutout as the door with cast stainless hinges. This is fussy slow work but I think will look good when finished.


This is the LifePO4 400ah battery bank in a 4P4S configuration. I have ordered the cell balancers, bus bars, cables etc, once that stuff appears I will use it for filler work. It is getting pretty hot here, pushing 100 with high humidity, so dragging a bit by the end of the day.


Still waiting on hearing from the welder, starting to get the feeling I might have to press ahead and try a bit of DIY welding. We will see in about 3 weeks when the interior build out (minus the wiring/plumbing) starts to slow a bit. Really would like to get the solar panels mounted, but the mount needs fabrication as I want to add rails along the edge to protect the panels.

 

[Kurben]

Hi there. What a great project and blog. I am in the planning fase of a similar project. Base truck will be either a MB 1120//24 or a Unimog. What wheelbase is yours ? Is it a Swiss firetruck ? Where did you buy it ? How did you import it ? Did you have to pay the 25% import duty ? Any problems with the title ? Rolf

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Hi there. What a great project and blog. I am in the planning fase of a similar project. Base truck will be either a MB 1120//24 or a Unimog. What wheelbase is yours ? Is it a Swiss firetruck ? Where did you buy it ? How did you import it ? Did you have to pay the 25% import duty ? Any problems with the title ? Rolf

Our wheelbase is 144" (or close to that). It was a firetruck from Sweden and I bought it site unseen while sailing across the Atlantic. The company I bought it from was a used firetruck dealer and I was looking for a reasonably priced LN2 (917, 1120, 1124, 1128, 1224, might be others). The seller provided a lot of info and pictures about the truck and even delivered it to the shipping port. At the time I was looking they were pretty uncommon and commanded a premium over a similar 1017 (I wanted a single cab for a larger habitat). I was drawn to the slightly more modern engine with a bit more power. All guess work as this is the first truck like this I have driven/owned. No problems registering it in Vermont as it is over 25 years old and the requirements are just a bill of sale. I used Allways International Shipping to arrange the shipping and handle the import. Dan there was great. I searched using https://www.mobile.de/?lang=en and https://www.machinio.com/, usually they will list the trucks as AF for the firetrucks. For some reason the guy we bought ours from just listed it as a 4x4, which may have been the reason we were able to get it. I had been trolling the for sale sites for months looking for a truck, this one popped up just when we needed to sail. Could have been a disaster but really worked out great.

So, although you did not ask, would I buy and import another truck. Well it really was painless, between the seller and Allways Shipping, so yup. Do I have enough energy and drive to build another? Well maybe one will be enough.

 

[Kurben]

Thank you very much for your quick answer. One of the ideas I am playing around with is to buy an empty habitat with KCT windows and Outbound door/roof hatch from a known builder in Germany. That would limit my contribution to the more interesting part of building out the interior.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Thank you very much for your quick answer. One of the ideas I am playing around with is to buy an empty habitat with KCT windows and Outbound door/roof hatch from a known builder in Germany. That would limit my contribution to the more interesting part of building out the interior.

And that would be a good option, though likely more a bit more expensive than the path I have taken (Neil here on the board did that, EAB here got a complete Bliss Mobile habitat and truck prepared in Europe). I did look into that option though, some of the builders are at least a year out to start something new. Depending on how much you farm out the box is not all that difficult or time consuming to put together. A Total Composites kit is pretty easy to put together and if you stick with a box is also pretty fast (our 45 degree angles probably doubled the labor). Heck, I just met a guy that owns a composites company that would likely build you a resin infused foam cored box of the highest quality. Would just need to get the subframe built. I have to say the box/subframe has not been the time consuming bit. The restore of the chassis, cab interior, and interior of the habitat has probably been about 80% of our time so far.

 

[Kurben]

My only concerns with Total composites are the corners. I don’t see enough overlap and fear condensation. I do see the advantage of using them for wirings. Do you plan to fill them with some kind of foam at the end ?

Time is not a big issue for me. I have 5 more years until I will retire. Enough to find and build-out a camper. 12 months waiting time for a box fits easily into this timeframe.

 

[Victorian]

My only concerns with Total composites are the corners. I don’t see enough overlap and fear condensation. I do see the advantage of using them for wirings. Do you plan to fill them with some kind of foam at the end ?

Time is not a big issue for me. I have 5 more years until I will retire. Enough to find and build-out a camper. 12 months waiting time for a box fits easily into this timeframe.

Hi,

Please allow me to jump into this conversation to answer the TC questions. Our camper bodies (and commercial bodies) are designed to be most thermal efficient. That means, we have zero cold bridging and condesation resulting from it. The extrusions we use on the camper bodies are made of fiberglass and 100% non conducting. They also expand and contract at the same rate as the panels. Aluminum ones will not. Our current turn around time till it arrives at your door is ~8 weeks.
If you are looking for an assembled box we can also arrange that to be done in Canada or the USA for a very attractive price.

Cheers

 

[VerMonsterRV]

My only concerns with Total composites are the corners. I don’t see enough overlap and fear condensation. I do see the advantage of using them for wirings. Do you plan to fill them with some kind of foam at the end ?

Time is not a big issue for me. I have 5 more years until I will retire. Enough to find and build-out a camper. 12 months waiting time for a box fits easily into this timeframe.

Hi Kurben, I can say this. We are currently doing the build in N.C. and over the winter we had days just above freezing with some below. We would heat the box with a single ceramic electric heater and it would warm up quickly. The change in temp did cause condensation, but on all surfaces which is to be expected until the interior FRP warms up. Now if I was to have kept it heated 24/7 I doubt there would have been much condensation anywhere, including the extrusions. Overall coming from living aboard a sailboat in Boston year round and dealing with condensation I am pretty pleased. Likely the biggest condensation points will be the metal frames of the doors/windows and the key will be to keep air flow even in the colder temps.

Now back to the build. We have finished the seating area cabinets (still have the doors). You can see I have installed a few of the led lights and stereo speakers. Still need to install the Hella fans. You can see there is a shallow vertical storage locker and a smaller door. The small door is access to the water tank fill hose. The angle on the shelf was how I decided to merge the seating area into the kitchen. The seat back cushion will follow this angle. The vertical pieces of maple in the corners provide a chase way for wiring and a place to mount the reading lights. You can also see in the lower foot well I installed an ac outlet with built in dual USB charging ports. I was also able to get a universal ac plug as we have electronics from various countries which will take wither 110 or 220, just need the right plug. This makes it built in.


The MaxxAir fan with the Maxx Shade are now installed the wiring runs through the roof panel to the centrally place A/C unit. Then it goes through the roof again with the ac wire into the pantry cupbord. I am waiting for more of the electrical equipment before I start running to wires so I can try and keep them organized.


And the shower pan is in. It is raised up on a platform to allow space for the drain. You can also see we finally decided on a bathroom sink. We needed a compact one as a dry bath takes up a bit of space and we are trying to keep it as compact as possible while still usable. I will build a very shallow vanity with maple/and some of the FPR cutouts like what is in the bedroom. We also received our AirHead composting toilet. The plan with the shower pan is to surround the edges with the same solid surface that we used in the kitchen. Lots of little pieces glued together, but I think it will look good when finished. The bathroom will also get the wood flooring like what is under the dinette table. Tomorrow I should finish the laminated wood doorframe. I am waiting on some epoxy to build the door from the original cutout panel.

 

[Wyuna]

Ive been following your build, its coming along and looking good.

I just noticed that Maxx Shade, i think im going to have to grab one of those, hopefully it reduces the noise from the Maxx fan unit while driving.

Keep up the good work

Edit: i ordered one of those Maxx Shades from the Amazon in the States after 30 minutes off seeing this, hopefully should see it by the end of next week, as i couldn't order one here in Aussie

 

[ekibike]

Thanks for the offer and I might take you up on that. I have a few inquires out right now to European resellers and Dometic in Australia. I have had luck in the past with UK based retailers shipping at a reasonable cost. They really seem to understand international business, I'll report back what comes in.

Have you looked at http://www.cruisencomfortusa.com/hd-series for A/C? We anticipate adding this to our Mercedes 1017 based on positive recommendations from a friend that put one into an LMTV.