Mercedes 1222A.. The beginning!

[Darkrider]

So after a lot of measuring, head scratching and costing, I made a purchase today... There has been a mine spec truck/bus body for sale for over a year now locally to me... I have visited it, photographed it, measured it and pondered it 3 times over the past year, as it is beautifully built, and comes with a full engine driven AC system and 18 leather seats! The original reason I decided against it was because it was too long, and not wide enough for my truck. Since then, we have redesigned our layout, and added 500mm (19.75") to our original plan, making the body length 6m (236"). This eliminated one 'cut' on the body in question as it is exactly 6m (236") long. The next prob is the fact that it is only 2.15m (84.5") wide, whereas our truck is the standard 2.5 m (98.5") wide. I thought widening it would be a daft plan, but on my last visit I had a closer look with that in mind. The roof has a central sheet running up the length of the body which is rivited. This could be duplicated but wider. The floor has to come out and be lowered as there's not quite enough standing room inside, and I have to make a new floor with 3 point mounting to suit my chassis so this would be coming out anyway. With this in mind, today I made the current owner a low blow offer expecting to laughed out of the water. He added $1000 AU on and said 'what do you think'? I replied 'give me a week to think about it' at which point he deducted $500 and a deal was done! I now own the body pictured, and have the job of getting it home... oh, and breaking the news to Wifetec! View attachment 432735View attachment 432736

Up till the point of seeing this i was about to ask why didn't you consider the idea of just building on the existing tray and keeping the crane intact to make tire change over easier. But now i am looking forward to seeing this truck evolve with this body.

 

[Sitec]

Up till the point of seeing this i was about to ask why didn't you consider the idea of just building on the existing tray and keeping the crane intact to make tire change over easier....

Hi Darkrider. A few have asked why I'm not keeping the crane and tray. I have 3 reasons. The first is purely weight... 2 tonnes of crane and approx 1 tonne of over engineered tray that is bolted hard to the flexible chassis (not suitable for building a rigid body on). When removed and sold, hopefully these will cover the cost of the body. The second reason is space.... The crane takes up approx 1.5m/5' of chassis space, all of which I need for a decent living space. The third reason is registration/on road cost. There is quite a difference between a 'goods carrying truck' and a 'motorhome', and if it is set up as a permanent motor home, then the tendency to still use it as a truck won't be there. I have access to trucks and tractors at work, and also now my house is built and the retaining rocks done, I no longer have the use for the crane. Having the truck set up as a Motorhome readily stocked with food and clothes makes it all the more tempting to jump in on a Friday avo and take off for a few days.

 

[Sitec]

Collection!



So, after some slightly hairy crane work involving 2 cranes (one in control of each side) we managed to lift the body from its spot and onto the back of my truck. After a steady journey home and some more slightly ambitious unloading, the body is now sat safely at home awaiting it's place in the shed I'm building! We removed all the seats over the weekend, and there's now plenty of room in there!!!

 

[Sitec]

So I thought I'd give a quick update on my antics... Truck progress has been slow as I have had to finish the house amongst other things! With that done, I've been able to get on with my shed. Concrete poured, retaining all but done and roof trusses up. The body has had to go in before the middle truss and roof go on. I hope to have the roof sheeted over the next few weeks, and the workshop complete in the next few months..

 

[Sitec]

But... now I have a shed forming, and a body I can get to/start to think about, I have sketched out what I plan to do. The sketch above (in it's original form) is a scale 1/10 drawing of the layout I'm aiming for. I'm also working on a side elevation to show body profile, bed positioning, under floor lockers etc, but this top elevation gives you all an idea. The body is 6 meters (19.7 feet) long, 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) wide (or soon will be!) and 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) tall. Walls are 70mm (just under 3") thick.

 

[Fugly]

Sitec,

Good to see the shed coming together ...
Also the sketch / plan of the layout looks good.....

Cheers Fugly

 

[Wyuna]

Its good to see the shed frame go up, its hard work trying to build a vehicle without a shed.

As these things take a fair bit of time to complete

why did you design the shed with the two step floor, i thought i'd be easier having the all the floor on the same reference level.

As for the layout for the camper, it looks great, i like the idea of having the option to have 2 beds, the more i look at your design, the more im impressed with it, a bloody great layout

 

[Sitec]

Hi Wyuna. So, three's a couple of reasons for the stepped shed... The first is location... a shed with a 4m door for the truck has a roof point of over 5 meters... We are on an acre but are in suburbia, so I've tried to keep it as low as possible by digging the lower level into the bank, so the shed is hardly visable and causes minimal impact on neighbours... The second reason is access to the body.. Once built, the truck will live parked against the step in the lower level. This makes the living body entrance door level with the floor in the upper level. Good for access and loading etc. It also puts the rear LH locker door at floor level, allowing for ease of loading and unloading the genset. We have a large Honda EU70is generator which has its own hookup in the shed and runs the house aircon and shed when the power is out (frequent in South Australia). It is a key part to bush fire survival as the first things to go are power and water... If we have power and pumps, we have water from the rain water tanks (90000lt) to fight fires and save the house. Yes, 7kva is overkill on a truck, but I see little point in buying another 2kva Honda when 7 will more than cope!

 

[Wyuna]

I see the logic in your shed plan.

Yeah the 7kva genie us overkill for a camper, but if you have it sitting there, you might as well used it, those Telsa battery packs have seemed to help last summer down in SA.

It's good to see that you are protecting your house, those fires cause pure devastation, those fires down in Victoria a few years back really hit home.

hopefully there are no fires when you are out and about in the camper, as the genie will be with you.

 

[Sitec]

hopefully there are no fires when you are out and about in the camper, as the genie will be with you.

If there are, the things of value are with me. Wifetec,the dogs and the truck! I've just realised you are in Oz too. We'll look you up when we eventually head north east!

 

[Wyuna]

If there are, the things of value are with me. Wifetec,the dogs and the truck! I've just realised you are in Oz too. We'll look you up when we eventually head north east!

Sounds good, im looking forwards to seeing your build, looking forwards to the camper build

I'm still working on my own camper build, although its a reasonably easy fit out for me in a van and being a cabinetmaker by trade

 

[Sitec]

A quick question for the Merc users.. So, the clutch has decided to play up... Either the master cylinder or slave is now bypassing. I pump the clutch pedal and I'm able to engage a gear. If I hold the clutch down, within about 6 seconds drive is taken up.. I know one of the cylinders is bypassing... So, which one do I change first?

 

[Sitec]

Thanks Verkstad. That's the answer I needed. Hadn't thought about it dripping if it was the slave! Cheers!!

 

[Sitec]

Hi all. Little progress yet (not long now as I have a shed!), but I made what I hope will be a useful purchase today... A Joolica gas Hot water heater. It's a stand alone hot water system giving instant hot water. It just requires LPG gas and a pumped or mains water supply. It has a simple internal system where as water is drawn it ignites a pilot light and then the burner. In theory I should be able to build it into an external locker and supply it with a Sureflow pump which is pressure drop operated. Turn a tap on, the water flows, the burner starts and all being well we have hot water!!

 

[Sitec]

Clutch update... I've changed the master cylinder and that has indeed cured the problem, but it has also thrown up another slight issue... The part number on the replacement cylinder is the same as the one removed, and I used the original pedal push rod, (as it was fun enough getting to the two bolts hidden under the dash), but now when bled up (several times) the clutch take up/point of bite is very high. It used to be about 30% up from the floor, whereas it's now around 80-90% up... It works fine and is perfectly usable, but annoying. Being air over hydraulic, is there any adjustment anywhere so I can bring the pedal back down?

On a build front, the shed is now lockable, and I have light, so once I have the benches setup and power points in, the body conversion/mods can begin!
Cheers.