Mercedes Overland Building/Tuning

[Geo.Lander]

LN2 is not a Unimog. (Thank the Lord! ) No dash lever.

Do have the floor button - operates the exhaust brake and serves as engine kill through the throttle linkage.

I am a bit curious about this whole engine/exhaust brake brake thing. I read on LN2 forum the exhaust brake is engaged with the foot button but also it engages automatically when the throttle is disengaged..
I dont have many kms behind the wheel yet to understand the concepts..

 

[VerMonsterRV]

I am a bit curious about this whole engine/exhaust brake brake thing. I read on LN2 forum the exhaust brake is engaged with the foot button but also it engages automatically when the throttle is disengaged..
I dont have many kms behind the wheel yet to understand the concepts..

Pretty sure ours doesn't engage automatically when I lift off the throttle. There is an air hose to a small cylinder near the injector pump. I am assuming it is what is pressurized (along with the exhaust brake cylinder which is just below the turbo dump pipe) to cut the fuel when the button on the floor is pressed. Thinking a bit now I can't see how it would automatically engage when lifting off the throttle, it would make idling a bit difficult.

@RoamIt , if we ever meet up on the road it would be great to get a ride in your truck. Would like to see how the auto box works in this truck. I am not sure which box @jaleel_da_sheik has, guessing he will jump in when he checks the board. I mentioned the hard shifting only because if you did happen to notice it (and it bothered you) you would know that some have resolved it.

I don't have the energy or technical knowledge to ever swap but I do think that our 5 speed is the weak point in our driveline (which is why I don't think they used it in the 240hp trucks). Would love to upgrade to the split gear 6 speed, but the energy/knowledge/time bit is the issue.

 

[RoamIt]

@RoamIt , if we ever meet up on the road it would be great to get a ride in your truck. Would like to see how the auto box works in this truck. I am not sure which box @jaleel_da_sheik has, guessing he will jump in when he checks the board. I mentioned the hard shifting only because if you did happen to notice it (and it bothered you) you would know that some have resolved it.

I would love to meet up and see your rig in person! I'll be attending more of the Overland Expo's in the future, so perhaps that is an opportunity. If you ever get over to the Midwest part of the country, I have a plenty of space (couple acres) for you to park your rig

 

[RoamIt]

I posted in the GPS/Computers forum, but I thought I would also reach out to my fellow MB'ers here. I want, of course, to add navigation tools to the build. Current plan is a IPad/Garmen Overlander/InReach set up, but I would also like to have a dash cam with additional cameras on both sides and in the rear of the truck. Camera's that can be observed remotely, trigger a notice if there's an incident.

Any recommendations or experience with a such a set up? Preferably without having too many screens/dash clutter? Any systems out there that combine the above features? Should I try to build in some redundancy in case of a failure with one system or another? As in overlapping capabilities?

Help me spend more money....

 

[DiploStrat]

I would love to meet up and see your rig in person! I'll be attending more of the Overland Expo's in the future, so perhaps that is an opportunity. If you ever get over to the Midwest part of the country, I have a plenty of space (couple acres) for you to park your rig

FWIW I am always jealous of the beautiful work that Jon and Heather did - a cut above the work on my truck.

 

[Geo.Lander]

I posted in the GPS/Computers forum, but I thought I would also reach out to my fellow MB'ers here. I want, of course, to add navigation tools to the build. Current plan is a IPad/Garmen Overlander/InReach set up, but I would also like to have a dash cam with additional cameras on both sides and in the rear of the truck. Camera's that can be observed remotely, trigger a notice if there's an incident.

Any recommendations or experience with a such a set up? Preferably without having too many screens/dash clutter? Any systems out there that combine the above features? Should I try to build in some redundancy in case of a failure with one system or another? As in overlapping capabilities?

Help me spend more money....

I think you might be trying to integrate too many specific requirements into a single system, you want a dashcam with automatic traffic notifications and warnings/detection, you will need a proper dashcam like a Garmin. Remote viewing and widwangle nightvison? The best suited is a commercial IP camera. Motion detection with remote backup? Arlo or similar.

I have been on the lookout for a 360 style reverse observability camera setup, there really isn't a market leader, Blackeye360 is a close as it comes but it seems people who have it are really not satisfied and their customer service is a joke. I will go with a reputable IP security camera and fixed monitor mounted in the drivers cab, a separate dashcam and GPS. The truck systems will not be internet connected (not even Victron VRM) so IP will operate on isolated LAN.

 

[RoamIt]

Thanks for the input. I was hoping for a system like on my Volvo SUV, it has camera's on all sides and stiches them together for a 360 overhead view. It would be great to activate such a system when maneuvering the beast in tight spaces.

The Blackeye system looks to be a great choice.

EDIT- in my search I found that Gamin, in the MARINE section has a 360 birdseye view system for boats. A nice feature was that you can have a distance parameters. So not only can you see all sides, but it gives you approx. distance from obstacles as well.

 

[Joe917]

I mounted our rear camera so it pointed straight down. That covers the real blind spot and makes parallel parking way easier.
For navigation we started with a Garmin sat nav and a Samsung 10" tablet on a RAM mount. We used maps.me and ioverlander on the tablet. We gave up on the Garmin pretty quickly, the routing was terrible and a lot of the map data was out of date . We also used an InReach for contacting back home when we were very remote. The In Reach worked well but we had to keep it away from the Tablet or the two GPS interfered with each other.

 

[greg.potter]

On the navigation front I would strongly recommend that you take a look at Gaia on a tablet with a GPS chipset. GPS functionality is normally part of the package when you purchase a device with cellular and WIFI capability (part of the functionality built into the chipset). After having been a long time Garmin fan I find that I use Gaia on my phone more that my Garmin GPSMAP 66i, which I still bring along because of it's InReach satellite communication capability. With a paid subscription to Gaia you get an incredible number of map layers that you have access to. Again with a paid subscription you can download the map layers you want when you are connected to the internet, build and store routes, etc. Once the map layers on your device you can enable which ever ones you want and using transparency setting overlap them so that you can see details from multiple layers simultaneously. Screen size, resolution, display brightness and device durability are a function of the tablet that you purchase - certainly not hard to buy high volume hardware that is more capable than what Garmin is using, although for handheld outdoor applications I haven't found anything as good as Garmin's dedicated keypad buttons.

Once you are on a generic tablet or phone platform the number of other applications that you can add it almost limitless.

 

[RoamIt]

Based on my research so far, I think the new IPad Air with the M1 chip/264k/WiFi/Cell with Gaia is the way to go for nav.

I'll add an InReach mini for SOS purposes.

Question: Would a GPS signal booster be valuable?

On another note, any recommendations on internet access in remote area's? Any experience with Starlink?

 

[Geo.Lander]

Based on my research so far, I think the new IPad Air with the M1 chip/264k/WiFi/Cell with Gaia is the way to go for nav.

I'll add an InReach mini for SOS purposes.

Question: Would a GPS signal booster be valuable?

On another note, any recommendations on internet access in remote area's? Any experience with Starlink?

Starlink sounds like a dream, however their signal are a bit of a bother and they are not currently unidirectional i hear, plus not available here until next year I am not planning on tapping 3rd party wifi so I will be be ordering a 5G antenna and router, something like this: https://www.wifi-shop24.com/panorama-antennas-lgmdmb-6-60-24-58-5g-4g-wifi-gps-antenna-10dbi-black

 

[greg.potter]

Based on my research so far, I think the new IPad Air with the M1 chip/264k/WiFi/Cell with Gaia is the way to go for nav.

I'll add an InReach mini for SOS purposes.

Question: Would a GPS signal booster be valuable?

On another note, any recommendations on internet access in remote area's? Any experience with Starlink?

I have not heard of a GPS booster - not common if they are available at all.

I live in the Alberta Rocky Mountain foothills - there is no broadband communication other than satellite where I live. I have been on Starlink for about a year and a half now, starting with the beta release. It is SO much better that the high orbit geosynchronous systems - there is just no comparison. Because of the way the dish connects to and switches between satellites as they move overhead, the unpredictability of where mobile users might be and the potential to overload individual satellites Starlink is not currently offering mobile service for regular consumers - a great option for a cabin though. Once they get more satellites up they are planning on selling mobile services. Last I checked they had been licensed for about 12,000 satellites, had about 2,500 in orbit and either had or were planning on applying for another 30,000 satellites. When they are all done we might not be able to see the sun, but we'll be able to get Facebook anywhere on the planet!

 

[RoamIt]

I have not heard of a GPS booster - not common if they are available at all.

Perhaps I used the wrong terminology. It's also referred to as a repeater. Basically, for overlanding purposes, it consists of an external antenna mounted on your rig that receives and retransmits signals. This would 'boost' the signal to your devices in the cab, as well as in and around the rig when parked when you may be roaming about exploring.

Not unlike ham radio repeaters that allow you to reach out around the world. (another to-do on my list, I have the radio, need to take the test for the license)

This explains it better than I can:

What is a GPS / GNSS Repeater? - everything RF

A GPS/GNSS Repeater is a device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits GNSS signals to extend their coverage area or overcome signal blockages caused by natural or man

www.everythingrf.com

 

[greg.potter]

Perhaps I used the wrong terminology. It's also referred to as a repeater. Basically, for overlanding purposes, it consists of an external antenna mounted on your rig that receives and retransmits signals. This would 'boost' the signal to your devices in the cab, as well as in and around the rig when parked when you may be roaming about exploring.

Not unlike ham radio repeaters that allow you to reach out around the world. (another to-do on my list, I have the radio, need to take the test for the license)

This explains it better than I can:

What is a GPS / GNSS Repeater? - everything RF

A GPS/GNSS Repeater is a device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits GNSS signals to extend their coverage area or overcome signal blockages caused by natural or man

www.everythingrf.com

That is very interesting. My layman's understanding of GPS positioning technology is that the calculation of position is based on the signal transit time from multiple satellites to your ground location. The information received includes a timestamp of when it was sent and by looking at the transit times from multiple satellites the position of the receiver can be determined using triangulation. I would think that anything that introduced additional time delays would cause issues unless the time delays were highly predictable and/or consistent.

The link to repeaters that you included seemed to be to service multiple devices in locations where the GPS signals were completely blocked. For use in a vehicle I am wondering if an external high gain antenna attached to your device would be sufficient. I guess your device has to have an interface port that supports an external antenna, but they do seem to be out there and I have read some accounts of people using them in conjunction with tablets or computers mounted inside their vehicles.

 

[RoamIt]

"I have read some accounts of people using them in conjunction with tablets or computers mounted inside their vehicles"

Exactly.

The benefit being that you can still get a strong link even if you are inside a heavily insulated vehicle, and or without a clear sky view. Obviously YMMV.