New Project and it's M.A.N sized.

[Projectblue]

Hello all,
It's been a while and that's because I've been busy!
TLDR - Gave up looking to buy a ready made truck and bought a used army chassis cab. That's because just before I dropped $60-80k on a truck, the UK military cast off a hundred plus MAN 18t 4x4 support vehicles (SV).
I picked one up with a massive 44000km (27,300 miles) on the odo.

The rest...
The trucks now at a builders having the torsion free subframe fitted with some nifty features that I can't tell you about just yet. Then it's having a 5.4m box installed before coming back to me to be fitted out, wired and plumbed.
For those not familiar with the truck (Canadians may have seen these in and around BATUS near Calgary) they are essentially a MAN TGM 18.330 chassis/engine/axles with a ZF 12 speed auto box and a custom build steel lowline cab over built by German military contractor Rheinmettall.
Spec is;
9t empty
12t with box
18t GVW
330PS (325bhp) Euro4
1250nm torque (920lb/ft)
Drivetrain is 2wd, AWD and front and rear electric air operated diff locks.
Around 15mpg empty on tarmac in 2wd giving 600 mile range stock.
3 Seat cab
Hatch in roof
Aircon cab and air suspended seats.

Finally thank you for all your inspirational stories and threads. Support and advice. I haven't posted much here but eventually Rosie (for that's her name) and I will be coming to visit you all at some point in the future. Co bloody vid allowing.
More info in my signature.

 

[vintageracer]

M.A.N. that will be NICE when you are done!

 

[Projectblue]

I see what you did there. Also realised I put this in the wrong section. I wondered why everyone elses stuff was much smaller :doh

 

[Projectblue]

Quick update, new vlog out: Vlog 3 - Tales from the Cab

My 25,000lb winch arrived from Australia, smashed and in 12v form - so that wasn't the excitement I had hoped for.

 

[Fugly]

Bugger that’s not good.....

 

[TheBlueBus]

How do the FX compare to a KAT?

 

[Projectblue]

Quick update. The company who do Sherpa in Oz were good as gold and have shipped me the replacement parts. That's the good news. The bad news is that they went to America first and the same shipping agent (TNT) kicked seven shades of ******t out of that box AS WELL. Seriously, it's having to be reboxed before onward ship to UK. Luckily the parts were wrapped in the box, so this time they survived.

@TheBlueBus - ref the HX and the KAT1.
3 main differences are engine, chassis and suspension with the engine being a more economical, water cooled and smaller displacement. However it is Euro4 for cleaner emmissions, which introduces ECU's.

If you notice, there are two ranges in the 2007MY on MAN/Rheinmettal truck;
The HX which are essentially civvy MAN TGA with some of the refinement and complexity taken out.
The SX which is the high mobility version.
The latter has a box chassis with coil sprung suspension (among a few other things) and the former a C section chassis and leaf springs.

So the HX (Support Vehicle in UK Military parlance) is designated for general duties. It can still do off road, and do it quite well, but it's tyres, chassis and suspension are designed for your basic military tasks and at a budget that makes it competitive, where the ManKat wasn't. Whereas the SX is more complex and expensive, but is very comparable to the ManKat.

 

[Projectblue]

Vlog 4 - Tales from the Shed is out : VLog 4 on YouTube

 

[Projectblue]

Hello everyone, some updates so I was able to make a new Vlog find it here: [youtube]

 

[Projectblue]

Part 2 of that update is out. You can find it here:

 

[Projectblue]

Hello everyone. New Vlog out and the box is being built. Check it out here : [youtube]

 

[Projectblue]

New Vlog 7 out. Getting painted and the finished box is glimsped going in to paint.

 

[wfv56]

Nice work keep it coming.

 

[Wazak]

Well done David.

 

[Projectblue]

Thanks for the support folks. Here with Vlog9 and you can finally see some progress. Big reveal of the Chassis cab mated to the box.