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

[Ozrockrat]

You buy the springs by a rating. Different spring steel has different levels of elasticity.

What I recommend you do is find some type of spring that is easily bought it the areas you are likely to travel (that meets your requirements). For example exhaust valve springs off a small block Chevy or a 5.9 Cummins. (I have no idea if they will meet your requirements they are just examples).

 

[DzlToy]

Properly sized springs should last a hell of a long time. I would be more concerned with getting the correct spring for the application and constructing a proper mounting system, than with ease of replaceability in the field. If you are breaking mounting springs, something is terribly wrong.

You may also wish to PM a Mod and ask that the title be corrected, as Amercia, is not a country, as far as I know

MB 1120 Coming to Amercia!

 

[VerMonsterRV]

You may also wish to PM a Mod and ask that the title be corrected, as Amercia, is not a country, as far as I know

Yup, unfortunately most of my computer time is at night and I am usually half asleep. I mean, I even make mistakes using Firefox auto spell check

I am pretty sure the mounting system is good. At this point I was just trying to figure out the amount of down force needed. I mean, the way I see it the entire habitat is pressing down, not even sure what the springs are trying to accomplish. The springs I have found are stainless steel so should be good resistance to corrosion. I also doubt they would ever break as they will only come under load when the subframe leaves the chassis. And there is a 3/4" bolt through the middle of them.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Just a quick update and will try and post a few pictures tonight. We did receive our habitat kit last Thursday and have spent the last week making panel and extrusion cuts, match drilling the floor hard point for our subframe and boding on the lower side extrusions to the floor panel (which is a bit of a bear to move around due to the weight as it is a 5 layer composite with steel inserts). We are having a pretty cold October (building in Vermont) and have built a plastic shed within the unheated shed we are building in so that we can use propane space heaters to keep the temp up so the adhesive cures, so far this is working ok. Today we have plans to install both sidewalls and if we can get this done it will start looking a bit like a camper. Luckily the shed is pretty large which is fortunate as our design caused a bit more work and separate panels (because of angled front/rear panels the front wall is made up of 3 panels, the rear 2), plus I ordered the major interior bulkheads in a 30mm 3 part composite of fiberglass and honeycomb so lots of panels kicking around. Plus the extra space makes moving around the panels much easier.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Off in a bit to build the front wall and lower rear. Really a good feeling to see it starting to come together.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well all was going well until Heather said "It does not look like there is enough extrusions". I stopped, thought a minute and realized we were missing the top rear extrusion. Best case scenario is getting it in 2 weeks, worst case (and I really hope not as this build is our full time job) is shipping from China which would likely mean getting it in a month. I had been so preoccupied cutting the panels and extrusions, and making sure I did not mess up, that the missing one slipped by. So, we can put on the roof panel (which was to be tomorrow), but not the rear wall. We still have a bit of work for about a week installing doors and windows and the 45 degree profiles.

 

[jappie]

Hi Jon
How far away are you from Montreal ?

JP in Montreal with a Fuso 4x4, thinking getting a total composites box....

 

[VerMonsterRV]

How far away are you from Montreal ?

Google Maps says just over 3 hours. Check your inbox, I pm'd you.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Oh, and got word from Andreas today. He has the extrusion in Canada and is shipping out tomorrow! So you better hurry as once this baby is on we are heading south to N.C. to continue the build in slightly warmer temps .

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well all is setup for jappie to come south for the day on Saturday to check out the habitat. Andreas mentioned yesterday that he would ship the missing extrusion today and might be around 3-4 days for shipping via FedEx. With any luck it would be the 3 days and jappie would not only get to see the box but help put in the last panel . Now he has made me think about Montreal, been a lot of time since we have been there, maybe next summer we need to head there for a few days.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Had 2 good bits of news today. First, Andreas shipped our extrusion out 2nd day air so we should get it on Thursday, thanks Andreas! Second the crane company called and said they were going to be in our area on the 15th. If we could be ready by then for lifting the box onto the truck is would save us a few hundred dollars as we would not be paying for travel time (plus it gives us a date to shoot for which I think should be doable including a few days for adhesive curing).

 

[Fugly]

Sounds like it is all starting to come together .....
Got to be happy with that,.......

 

[VerMonsterRV]

We installed that last habitat wall panel yesterday! We still have some corner caps to do and install a roof hatch (which we will be working on today) and we are getting closer to mounting the habitat on the truck. Once the adhesives cure a bit the bubble (for heat as it is getting colder by the day here) will come down and I will post some pics.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well we got the habitat set on the subframe today. I have to say I really love the look and can't wait to get the cab roof rack, under body storage boxes and rear spare tire rack built to finish off the look. You can see in the photo that the 45 degree corners are not finished, they are water tight and have the aluminum plates bonded on, just need the final fairing and painting. Problem is the temps as you can see, just keeps getting colder and colder here (was 16 Fahrenheit this morning and is snowing as I type), so we need to move this build south.


This was unfortunately when I realized my measuring skills were a bit off (I made the habitat order when the subframe was off the truck, making the measuring difficult, just needed to make the order because of the timing of getting the habitat fabricated and shipped from China). To make things match up nicely I will need to have the box taken off and some small changes made to the subframe. I really want to do this right and although a delay, it is the right thing to do. I guess after roughly 6 months of work to get to this stage with no real major misses something had to happen given this is our first project this size. Luckily there is a small family run shop that specializes in welding and truck bodies that can likely do this work for me (I need to call them this morning once they open). They have a can do attitude and have also said they can modify the engine cradle for the A/C (I'll have them confirm but will probably wait till spring due to timing), so I am guessing that all will be right in about a week.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Quick update, the welder can start when we get the truck to them on Monday. So back on track.