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

[Victorian]

Found our electrical issue. Ended up the negative battery post nut had loosened. It is an aircraft style lock nut, the ones with the plastic insert. Going to work on strapping the batteries down tighter. Glad to get that fixed, it was causing a lot of issues. Off to Arches National Park for a bit of touring today.

Love LOVE Arches! Have fun.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Forums like this one are a great place to share ideas with other like minded people. Not all of us are experts (or even amateurs) in all parts of building/maintaining these trucks. So you end up getting to "know" various members online persona over the years. Way back at the Virginia Overland Expo we got to meet Fredrick aka "Diplostrat" and got to share a few stories. Well a couple of days ago we had the pleasure to meet up with Jonathon aka "LuthJ" and Jennifer as they are traveling in their Sprinter 4WD (they converted it to 4WD themselves!, another thread here on the forum). So we are getting to share a bit of Capital Reef NP with them. Although our lifestyle means we are pretty isolated from the masses (and Covid) we are still trying to minimize our risks for each other. A bit of a drag but still worth it.

Camp spot on BLM land just outside of Capital Reef


"Golden Throne" trail's end


Before these guys showed up here is a drone shot while camped right near the Horseshoe Canyon District of Canyon Lands NP. Since the parking area for the trailhead is actually on BLM land they allow overnight camping. This is a very small separated district and is known for the pictographs left thousands of years ago by Native Americans.




And lastly, Heather got bitten from a small spider a few days ago. Thought nothing of it until I turned back to check her progress in a slot canyon and saw this...

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Now the not so goods
2. I would not get the Tern roof hatches again. They are still ok, but I would seek out a more robust option, though they would likely be way more expensive. These we will probably change out down the road.

Curious as to some more details regarding your feedback on Tern's roof hatches. I'm in the middle of designing my habitat, desire a roof hatch and am having a hard time finding anyone besides Tern. Are you experiencing leaks? Any additional info would be great. Any leads on what hatch you would use in place of?

- Sheik

 

[Joe917]

We used a marine hatch for roof access. Check out Defender Marine.`

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Curious as to some more details regarding your feedback on Tern's roof hatches. I'm in the middle of designing my habitat, desire a roof hatch and am having a hard time finding anyone besides Tern. Are you experiencing leaks? Any additional info would be great. Any leads on what hatch you would use in place of?

- Sheik

The Term hatches just don't seem robust enough for full time use (though no problems yet). They are all plastic and even when fully closed you can lift them up by hand a bit. We do not have a pass thru but I can imagine they bounce around on rougher roads. What would I choose? Either a marine grade hatch with screen or a KCT/Outbound hatch out of Europe. All more expensive but I think money well spent. Down the road I will look into replacements for ours.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Just thought of this, when I started our build GXV only sold completed trucks. They are now offering panels, I would look into those and see if they sell their windows/doors. I also have a contact in N.C. that may be willing to build the panels. They are a high end power cat boat builder with a large heated vacuum floor for laying up panels. Became friends with the owner, great guy. They could also easily assemble the panels and paint. Nearby is a truck body builder who may be able to do the subframe (though I never inquired and have no info other than seeing the shop).

 

[Sitec]

Another vote here for Marine Hatches here. Though not fitted yet, we purchased two Vetus Maxwell Boat deck hatches. We looked at the motorhome and RV hatches, and nothing seemed that well made. We then briefly looked at the European stuff, and though the quality is great, the price is very steep. Several suggested marine stuff, and I ordered two up. They are solid, look good and are secure too.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Been a bit "internet challenged" lately but have sorta decent service now so here are a few pics. These are all in Utah, which has some really amazing places all within a short distance from each other.

Pairia Town (long ago abandoned)


Bryce National Park


Kodachrome State Park


Peek A Boo slot canyon


Peek A Boo again with our close friends and their 6 month old puppy


Devils Garden (I think, starting to all blend together)


Calf Creek Falls


And just so you don't think it is all just fun and games I patched a rattling turbo heat shield (will fix properly when I upgrade the turbo as it will be way easier to fix then) and tightened the air pump belts (these seem to want to squeak). I also contacted a commercial/military Fox shock supplied, Fox really is having a few issues getting shocks built. Not sure I will wait on them.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Curious as to some more details regarding your feedback on Tern's roof hatches. I'm in the middle of designing my habitat, desire a roof hatch and am having a hard time finding anyone besides Tern. Are you experiencing leaks? Any additional info would be great. Any leads on what hatch you would use in place of?

- Sheik

Although way more expensive I would seriously look into Outbound roof windows. We do not have leaks now but have had to pull both hatches up due to the Sika 252 not bonding to the plastic, and the sun causing the plastic to distort a bit. When we pulled them up we abraded the underside of the plastic, used the Sika primer and so far they are not leaking. But, the feel flimsy and I doubt they will last. They do not latch at all in the down position, just the crank mechanism holding them down. Just not robust, with any luck I can find a size to fit the Tern cutouts (down the road).

Now back to truck projects, after about a month of traveling with long time and new friends we decided to slow down and knock a few projects of our growing (how is that happening) TODO lists. So yesterday the coolant was drained from the engine and the hosing installed for the engine pre-heat system. I take no credit for how I connected the coolant lines to the engine, it was a suggestion from Stefan off the LN2 forum. Seemed like a very neat and tidy way to tap into the system. Time will tell how well it works.

This connection was a legacy temp sensor. I pulled the sensor out, re-drilled the hole and tapped it for the new fitting. It is at the aft end of the cylinder head. This also shows our rusty exhaust manifold. Every time l look at it I think of pulling it to have it Jey Hot coated, of course then I would need to repaint the engine... Maybe when I eventually get around to my much talked about turbo upgrade.


This one is the aft end of the block and replaces the engine coolant drain plug. I did after this picture was taken rotate the fitting a wee bit more to get it so the hose does not contact the engine.


So today's project will be to start assembling our portable water sterilizer/filter/pump. Will park in a Home Depot to try and collect all the hardware needed to put it all together.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

All I want for Christmas is a new coolant pump (which in fact I was able to get a factory original shipped overnight and picked it up today!). Why you ask? Well while driving down a remote corrugated dirt road many miles away from anything (including cell service) we heard a racket coming from our engine. My first thought was a crank bearing... But in fact the coolant pump decided to play grenade and the front shaft bearing blew apart, resulting in the coolant gushing from the front of the engine. Luckily there was a pull out close by so we are now "camped" waiting for me to pull things apart which will likely be the day after tomorrow. We used to joke that cruising sailing was all about "fixing the boat in exotic locations", starting to think overlanding is much the same . I have to say we are glad we have the motorbike, we have literally put hundreds of miles on it tracking down this pump, arranging shipping and picking it up. So with any luck I should have the truck all fixed and rolling by the New Year!

So on the topic of the motorbike (little 250cc dual sport), anyone have a good solution for a carburated bike at elevation with 2 people on it? Apparently the full throttle going uphill with the 2 of us on it was enough to have fuel wash into the crankcase (noticed the site glass higher than normal). So tomorrow the first Christmas project will be to change the oil.

 

[luthj]

What's the year/make? There may be an adjustment table for altitude.

It may be a good idea to replace all the wear parts on the belt drive, or have spares.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

What's the year/make? There may be an adjustment table for altitude.

It may be a good idea to replace all the wear parts on the belt drive, or have spares.

Hey Jonathan, hopefully you are back home and enjoying Christmas with the family (Merry Christmas, hopefully some new truck toys showed up). It is a 2008 Kawasaki Super Sherpa. This is definitely the most distance/speed/weight we have tortured the bike with. Yesterday was about 200 miles up and down passes with both of us onboard. Probably asking too much for the single cylinder 250cc engine. Gotta get 75 miles back to the truck today, up and over another pass. Guess I will downshift and try higher revs to get us up and over, now we are even heavier with the large chunk of iron they call a coolant pump.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

 

[luthj]

? Sounds like an adventure. I'll look around for carb adjustments. You probably will end up needing to adjust your main jet for altitude. It should be a pretty easy job if memory serves.

Keeping the revs up is a good idea, Especially if it's cold where you are.

Almost all of these air cooled carbureted engines put a bit of fuel into the oil. Off the top of my head I think it's okay up to three or 4%.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well we finally made it out of Death Valley, but just barely. When the bearing on the water pump shattered the pulley slid forward. What arrested the forward movement was the aluminum hydraulic lines for the power steering. Well the pulley chewed into both the pressure and return. I looked at them and they did not look perforated (and I was in no position to get new ones) so I did a little reinforcing with JB Weld. Well, soon after we started to drive down Racetrack road the high pressure line ruptured. Not catastrophically but enough to cause issues. We were able to get out of the park and into a town about 45 miles away from Las Vegas. We are once again "camped" and am now trying to look into how to get some new ones fabricated. For some odd reason the EPC is not showing the same pipes that we have, they are not formed the same way, plus I have not been able to find a supplier online for them. They look to be anodized aluminum with compression fittings on 3 out of the 4 ends (2 pipes). Guessing those compression fittings are also metric. Anyone have any ideas? Other than that the coolant pump seemed to work well though my 4 new v-belts are now saturated with ATF so got to redo that project.

 

[Joe917]

Pull them off and head to a hydraulic shop. You should be able to get them fabricated. I have had hydraulic lines fabbed for our 917, as long as you have the part in hand they can measure threads etc and match it up.