Mercedes 1222A.. The beginning!

[Sitec]

great stuff on the hidden ladder, got any pics of how you fabbed it up, especially the lock?

Sure. It's just 2mm Alli sheet with a small fold in it to match the body. I have 3 shaped pieces of Alli that hold it to a few of the ladder rounds and a flat piece of 25 x 3 flat at the top of the ladder. The latch is a Southco C5 Compression Latch. They are available with the latch arm in different lengths to suit panel thickness. The one I'm using is a temporary latch as it's one of the rear locker latches to suit 30mm thick material +/-. I'll grab the correct one when I'm next at the supplier.

 

[Sitec]

Another wet, windy and cold day here mad for another unmotivating day. I did manage to fit another two spotlights sourced from Faceplant for $80 AUD, and finish off the snorkel. Tomorrow will be spent refitting the rear cab springs and adjusting them to suit the roof rack weight and two people, so it hopefully looks level in its relaxed position.

 

[Larrylandcruiser]

Sure. It's just 2mm Alli sheet with a small fold in it to match the body. I have 3 shaped pieces of Alli that hold it to a few of the ladder rounds and a flat piece of 25 x 3 flat at the top of the ladder. The latch is a Southco C5 Compression Latch. They are available with the latch arm in different lengths to suit panel thickness. The one I'm using is a temporary latch as it's one of the rear locker latches to suit 30mm thick material +/-. I'll grab the correct one when I'm next at the supplier.

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thanks for that

 

[Sitec]

Well, after a bit of a lull due to a few things going on in our lives, I have finally got back into the truck build. With the roof rack fabrication done and dusted, I turned my attentions to the doors between the cab and body. We were not a fan of a door swinging around and forever being in the way when open, so i have a different take on it. Our doors open upwards. Pictured are three pics of the process. The cab has an identical setup. Once clad and the latch is fitted, it should work quite well.







With this system, we can run with both doors open if we choose to.

 

[Sitec]

More about the doors once I have the body off and get into cladding the whole thing again! Before I remove the body for cladding and painting, there are still a few things to do.. One thing that I had been putting off for a while was the additional support for the body at the rear to assist with support when we are on the good roads, but still allow the chassis to twist when we are off road... I'd looked at assisted rams, stumpy coil springs etc etc, but wasn't really happy with the options I'd considered. While stripping down our donor truck, the answer was staring me in the face... I had a complete anti roll bar setup off the front axle that suits the chassis width on our truck. After a bit of sizing up and hanging in place with straps and blocks, I think it should work. Here's the two mounting plates after fabrication, and then in place at the rear of the truck. Of course this meant I had to take the real lockers off again! Once the anti roll bar is in place I'll post some pics of how it'll attach to the body.

 

[pairospam]

Hello, Sitec:

Good ideas and nice work, as usual. Congratulations.

I am a little curious, though, about your intention to limit the movement of the body using the front sway bar. You have already built a system that supposedly will take charge of the torsional forces and keep your box and your frame safe, whether on the highway or climbing the mount Fuji. Are you afraid that the body will swing a lot?

If it swings much then there is another problem, related to the weight of the body and the stiffness of the frame. I have seen this before, in a 4x4 Atego, which frame was very flexible and caused a pretty annoying swinging that caused seasickness even when the truck was parked. The owner reinforced the central pivots and limited the movement with a similar solution. The swinging stopped, but the supports cracked, twice.

Greetings.

Pairoa

 

[Madoxen]

With this system, we can run with both doors open if we choose to.

Nice I had the same intentions with my pass through but i had not yet thought of the hinge 1/3 up to save height and space, I like it

 

[Sitec]

Hello, Sitec:

Good ideas and nice work, as usual. Congratulations.

I am a little curious, though, about your intention to limit the movement of the body using the front sway bar. You have already built a system that supposedly will take charge of the torsional forces and keep your box and your frame safe, whether on the highway or climbing the mount Fuji. Are you afraid that the body will swing a lot?

If it swings much then there is another problem, related to the weight of the body and the stiffness of the frame. I have seen this before, in a 4x4 Atego, which frame was very flexible and caused a pretty annoying swinging that caused seasickness even when the truck was parked. The owner reinforced the central pivots and limited the movement with a similar solution. The swinging stopped, but the supports cracked, twice.

Greetings.

Pairoa

Hi Pairoa.

So, I have a 5 point system, similar to what you plan to build, but the difference is I have my two fixed points at the front of the truck. I then have 3 central pivots running up the centerline of the chassis rails. I think as the fixed pivots are not in the middle of the chassis, the body will want to tilt on corners. I had always planned to add some short coil springs or lockout rams between the chassis and body at the rear to stop the body 'rolling' on corners, but still allowing the chassis to twist when I need it too. The theory with the anti roll bar is that the chassis can still twist when off road and required, but is more stable on road when doing highway driving. I'm not looking for huge flex between the body and chassis, but I'd like the chassis to twist allowing movement, and the truck springs to work as normal allowing more axle travel when required. A 50/50 share between body and chassis, and chassis and axles...

 

[Joe917]

While an elegant solution, the open door takes up quite a bit of space inside the box. I would want it to open all the way vertical and latch to the wall. perhaps it does and the pic does not show it. We always run both doors open, if anything gets loose in the back you want to know right away.

 

[pairospam]

Oh. I had not gotten the idea of the transverse supports placed in front. Thought it was nearer to the rear axle, where the body can be anchored to both the framerails in parallel and get supported by the suspension/frame complex.

I now understand your concerns, and I agree with you. If the body is fixed transversally to the frame in the front, near the cabin, where this has no big support or at least not the support or structural strenght given by the mentioned complex, you will have a lot of twist allowed by the longitudinal aft supports, that will keep the static and dynamic fro-aft weight in order, but the dynamic force when cornering or ditch crossing will pull the frame from the front, from the armpits, for to say, and it will twist a lot.

The three-point system, front or rear two fixed transversal points, works beatifully with short bodies, but yours is long.

The body is very well constructed, pretty tough... and heavy. Long as it is, with such arrangement there will be a lot of mass and torsional stress along the body itself taking the force from the rear the middle and the front sections to the supports in the front. A diamond shaped system would distribute the weight and dynamic forces more even.

My truck is having such an arrangement, with only four points.

Just in my humble and poor opinion.

 

[Sitec]

Another day in the workshop has the rest of the rear body anti roll system finished. First up was to sleeve the RHS on the Hab Box base rails.



Next up was to fit up the anti roll bar, and fabricate some additional support plates for where the anti roll bar mounts to the Hab Box base.



While the rear side lockers were removed for anti roll bar fitment, I was able to fit the rear bumper locker doors.



With this all done, I only have a few jobs left before removing the body. Next up is to fill the only remaining space on the chassis. Now to find and fit a grey water tank between the chassis rails behind the rear axle. This will only need to be around 40-80 litres as it will rarely be used.

 

[Santa]

Try Abber tanks in QLD, he will make a strong plastic tank to your dimensions and fill and drain fittings. I’ve used them before and was happy with his work
Cheers
Nick


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Iain_U1250]

An other vote for Abber tanks, they made my custom water tanks and grey water tank as well.

 

[bobakers]

can also try Atlas tanks in Brisbane, manufactured my 280l water tank and 50l grey tank in poly. Good service and price.

Bob

 

[Sitec]

While an elegant solution, the open door takes up quite a bit of space inside the box. I would want it to open all the way vertical and latch to the wall. perhaps it does and the pic does not show it. We always run both doors open, if anything gets loose in the back you want to know right away.

Hi Joe. The access hole in the cab is reasonably close to the ceiling (in line with the roof gutter outside), so the door folds up into the void below the vent hatch, so they are up as far as they can be. The door in the Hab Box folds up to the point where its about 20mm from the face of the AC head unit that will be mounted on the Hab Box front face above the door. I've been in and out through the crawl thru a few times, and as of yet I've not hit my head on the open doors... Time will tell I guess. We will probably run with the Hab Box crawl thru door open most of the time, but the cab crawl thru door closed (due to engine noise). When we hit the dirt roads, we can then open the lower half of the cab crawl thru door, and open the front of the roof hatch.The idea being that the air being forced in through the roof hatch (now fed by a huge duct in the roof rack which houses the horns) will be enough to lightly pressurise the Hab Box through the crawl thru.... If it isn't enough, the front roof hatch can be opened at the front forcing air into the body. With that open there should be plenty of clean air coming in.