Mercedes Overland Building/Tuning

[DiploStrat]

I love the idea of a lifting roof. One of the neatest designs I ever saw was basically a roof that lifted to create a form of loft bedroom. But I know the challenges that my friend Jon has at Nimbl making his much smaller lifting roofs bulletproof and I heard the horror stories of a photographer with a lifting roof on a Unimog. Now, a lifting bed or a Murphy bed - those have potential. Especially a flat lift bed that can be lifted with all the bedding in place.

Speed is money - how fast do you want to go?

 

[RoamIt]

I love the idea of a lifting roof. One of the neatest designs I ever saw was basically a roof that lifted to create a form of loft bedroom. But I know the challenges that my friend Jon has at Nimbl making his much smaller lifting roofs bulletproof and I heard the horror stories of a photographer with a lifting roof on a Unimog. Now, a lifting bed or a Murphy bed - those have potential. Especially a flat lift bed that can be lifted with all the bedding in place.

Speed is money - how fast do you want to go?

A lifting bed is also being considered. If you guys have links about lifting roof horrors', I'd love to see them, pro or con.

Of course, the Pangea was the inspiration, but another factor is the Doka cab. Without lengthening the WB, I'm restricted to a pretty small habitat when trying to stay under 24'

 

[Geo.Lander]

A lifting bed is also being considered. If you guys have links about lifting roof horrors', I'd love to see them, pro or con.

Of course, the Pangea was the inspiration, but another factor is the Doka cab. Without lengthening the WB, I'm restricted to a pretty small habitat when trying to stay under 24'

Check the YouTube channel mentioned in previously.

Also another issue is insulation and drafts in the lifting roofs.. everyone in euroland cuts the doka to make a 1.5 cab.

 

[Sitec]

The fun of not knowing where to start! It's very dificult to make plans of any use without the truck. Personally I'd be getting your truck home, and then once you have it, you'll know how it drives/handles etc. You can then look to Hab Box design to suit your truck, and then play with engine power requirements, wheels etc later. I look back at my truck when I bought it, and how it is now and it's quite different... Different wheels, cab lifted (using genuine parts from a later truck), 40mm front axle spacer etc etc. Air tanks have moved on the chassis, as have the batteries. All to suit the layout and look I want to acheve. I have also retained the duals on the rear (which is a thread in it's own right) as I want tyres that are easily found, and like the idea of having 4 tyres holding the truck up at the rear in the event of a puncture. You have a lot to think about. If you decide to go with super singles out of Europe, you can at a later date once you know exactly what you want. You could just ship the rims you require over and then source tyres locally... I only made truck mods once the hab box was sat on the truck for the first time. The few things I bought/sourced early in our build have long gone. They were sold as they were not suited to the truck, or just didn't fit in the space available. Just my thoughts though! Enjoy the excitment of shipping, and hard though it will be, my advice is to sit on your hands until the truck is in your yard!

 

[Madoxen]

Second the sit on your hands till the truck is in the yard. But that is a very hard thing to do ;-).

Also a problem not mentioned with the lifting roof is the ingress of super fine dust that will end up covering every internal surface in certain geographic locations. It can be a problem with barn doors on the back of trucks imaging how much worse with a roof that lifts and not being Ble to seal it properly.

 

[RoamIt]

Check the YouTube channel mentioned in previously.

Also another issue is insulation and drafts in the lifting roofs.. everyone in euroland cuts the doka to make a 1.5 cab.

I've seen this, some pic's Martin sent me shows the shop floor and 4Wheel24 doing just that. All the pic's he sent came in .helic format and they won't upload here and I'm struggling to convert them. But If I figure it out I'll post the shots of what they were doing and some rigs they were working on.

 

[RoamIt]

I did think about the dust, etc. We have seals on our engine's that can contain incredible energy/pressure. Surly there's seals out there, when used in the right combination, can keep dust out? Maybe I just have to slightly pressurize the cabin? Might help with water crossings too.... OK, I'm kidding...

And many of you absolutely right, I need to sit on my hands until I have this thing home, which could take some time. Hope to find out more tomorrow.

 

[Sitec]

Maybe I just have to slightly pressurize the cabin? Might help with water crossings too.... OK, I'm kidding...

I wonder which would let go first... the screen, doors or the roof hatch!

 

[Joe917]

We traveled for a couple of months with friends with a GXV lifting roof. It was not uncommon to hear them start up in the middle of the night to move the truck because a wind shift was shaking the truck. It made for a wonderful interior but it was a PITA.

 

[RoamIt]

We traveled for a couple of months with friends with a GXV lifting roof. It was not uncommon to hear them start up in the middle of the night to move the truck because a wind shift was shaking the truck. It made for a wonderful interior but it was a PITA.

OK, first, er, close enough, hand experience is valuable. I literally have not heard of all these problems with lifting roofs! I've been googling, and still have not had any hits?

I did notice that the GX lifting roof models use 4.3" panels instead of the 2.36" panels on some of the other models.

 

[Joe917]

Another issue they had was ice on the ledge in winter weather stopping the roof from closing properly. Also with the roof down all the windows are covered so keeping the roof down in high winds is not great.

 

[RoamIt]

ice on the ledge in winter weather stopping the roof from closing properly.

Did not think of this one, I'm not planning a lot of time in winter weather. But certainly it's going to happen. Note to self, wire roof seal area with thermostatically controlled heating tape.

 

[mog]

All the pic's he sent came in .helic format and they won't upload here and I'm struggling to convert them. But If I figure it out I'll post the shots.

A simple way is to open the photo(s) on your computer and use a program like Screenpresso (free), to capture the image in a jpeg format.

 

[RoamIt]

Had to load a microsoft app. Still messing with it.

 

[RoamIt]

Painful trying to get these to post.

Has automatic chains, who knew?