My 66 Unimog 404 Cartography Truck

[Nick02]

Some cows in the road at the exit of Box Canyon.

This poor guy was covered in cholla, but would not let me approach him.

There is re-purposed mining equipment being used for ranching all over the place.

I drove around, saw a few sights, went to the now closed down Martinez Canyon entrance then did this obstacle called "the crossover".
It is pretty gnarly with no spotter but the Unimog made it up like it was nothing!

After I got through the crossover, it got dark and I found a hill to camp out for the night at.
But I did not see the cow carcass nearby, got freaked out and drove for another hr to find another spot LOL!

This is where the Unimog shines, no need to get set up for camp just jump in the back, open the vents and fire up the heater.
For my first time camping by myself it wasn't all that scary when you have a giant steel box protecting you from critters.

The night was freezing but the morning was beautiful.

Time to head back home, I love driving through the open desert!

Back to asphalt, overall a fun trip, no breakdowns and I was extremely impressed with the capability of the mog.

Got a few little kinks to work out, carb, electrical and ignition issues to fix. I also purchased a large transmission cooler and gear driven oil pump and plan to use it to spray cooled oil at the transmission input bearing internally, the side of the road shutdowns suck!

I recently went to a car-show and randomly met up with some pinzgauer guys from the southwest pinzgauer asscoiaion, so sounds like I will have a crew to go out with!

 

[Iain_U1250]

Hi Nick, ever considered fitting something like this to your transmission?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electric...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43cebfa7ce

 

[R Thomas]

Thanks for the updates. I always like seeing update notifications from your two builds.

 

[Xodius]

Awesome rig! I partially hate you...no offense. Lol.

 

[flyboyaviator]

Unimog rebirth

Keep us posted, it is a fun-read.

 

[cruiser812]

Looks like it was a good trip. I wish I could find a unimog with radio box in the SE.

 

[Tennmogger]

Nice tools you made! A 404 radio truck really is a great camping rig. My wife and I used one for 10 years until she decided she was too old to climb in and out, ha ha.

You could probably slow down just slightly more and never have to stop. An overall lube temp of 210F is not a problem with synthetics. As you know, it's those inter-shaft bushings that can cause spot heating at high speed. You should be able to cruise at 80 kph all day long. Faster than that and the temps raise exponentially with speed.

A 404 Unimog is a great vehicle for the right people.

Bob

 

[Nick02]

So alot of folks convert the 24V generator system to 12V, but I figure it would be good to have both.
I chose to mount the alternator in the old air compressor location, the alternator is a 64amp chevy 10si alternator, very common and very cheap at $29. The air compressor location is great, but the alternator would spin the reverse direction as intended, reverse fans are expensive so I made my own.

Then welded it to the pulley

and there you have it!

The bracket takes the place of the old air pump, it allows for adjustment of the alternator and the old compressor adjuster nut.

This is what everything looks like buried in there.

Here is the fix for the transmission cooling issue, a good quality oberdorfer gear pump and cheap cooler, this is the return side.

Inside the transmission

Here is the cooler and fan, tucked in so you cant see it.

I made a bracket for a generator to run AC inside.

"testing the bracket"

 

[Nick02]

The alternator also charges a deep cycle RV battery that runs the pump, box lights and a small power inverter. I strapped the battery down in an unused sidepanel.

Here is the setup, still needs to be fixed up, a work in progress but it works great! I cut the wall mount for the TV on a waterjet with the Unimog logo.

Here is the futon, it is isolated and held into the floor with UHMW spacers. It is an Ikea Futon cut down to fit the inside of the Unimog with a nice microfiber Amazon mattress atop it. I thought the woodland camo beedsheets would be pushing it, but I think it came out nice.

So I took it on another roadtrip to Florence for a music festival, the trans cooler works but did not meet expectation. Unfortunately, he transmission still gets to 230-240 degrees after one hr of driving but cool-down to 190 takes 10 minutes on the side of the road verses one hr! I am going to install a better supplemental cooler in front of the radiator.

Gotta bring the snowcones!

All set up! 1000X better then sleeping in a tent!

Needless to say, the Unimog attracts good attention!

 

[DirtRoads]

Well this last post just confirms what I was thinking when reading your thread. You win at Expedition Portal:sombrero:.

Mods - Time to shut this place down.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

you can not knock that ...snowcones look like they are a hit

 

[guidolyons]

Very nice! Looks like the snow cone machine is the best mod yet. :sombrero:

 

[paroxysym]

glad to see this thread still running... was curious if this was still up and running

 

[cruiser812]

Nick,

What does your fuel consumption run on your trips? Did you plump the fuel lines from the generator to the mogs fuel tanks or did you keep it separate?

 

[Nick02]

Nick,

What does your fuel consumption run on your trips? Did you plump the fuel lines from the generator to the mogs fuel tanks or did you keep it separate?

Last fill up I did 180 miles of in town, highway and offroad and used 22 gallons of fuel from fuel up to fuel up so I am getting ~8.18 MPG with the mog, it is thirsty but worth it! I ditched the 4000 W honda generator that ran off the fuel tank (off the old swingfier heater line) and now using a Honda EU2000i. The inverter generator is much quieter, lighter and uses way less fuel, I just refill it every 5 hrs or so when using the A/C, otherwise I don't need to run it and can leave it at home when I know I do not need A/C.. or snowcones.