Pre birth of a camper - No laughing!

[Anton2k3]

I had a look through the thread, you mentioned you used a 200a alternator, but not where you got the idler from, assume MB. I'll go down the same route I think; cheaper than replacing the broken 24-12v battery to battery charger, and will put out a much higher current.

On a personal note, i'm finally getting to move back to the UK at the end of December. so I can start implementing the ideas I've conjured up over the last 3 years on our van...and I can attend some overland meeting to meet some of you guys hopefully.

 

[part time nomad]

Anton,

How did you get on with the extra pulley? I would like to fit one to my Vario!

Although I am not 100% sure if its the best way to go

Pros: 1) Easy stand alone system
2) Easy and cheap to replace


Cons: 1) Alternators do not make good battery chargers! B2B controllers have step charging
2) Extra load on engine
3) You loose the ability to fit cab air con

Can you let me have any info on the pulley?

 

[Sitec]

It's always good when a thread I've not seen gets brought to the top of the list with a new comment. Just had a few good hours reading!! Very nice build.. I'm a fan of keeping the original duals on mine, and think yours looks good back on its original wheels. Just want the house and shed to be built so I can make a start on mine!! Re the roof and the ongoing leaks... Always a problem with flat roofs with edge capping. They're water traps.. But there is a solution.. When I was involved in building truck based horse boxes, we used to use a roof sealing strip. It was about 100mm wide, and 2 mm thick. One side was silver foil (but thick), and the other side was a stable type of tar. The sealing strip was unrolled and a thin plastic protecting strip pealed off the tar. The strip was placed centrally over the join and worked into place by hand. Once positioned and all joints covered, (overlaps to suit direction of travel), a heat gun was used and the strip warmed. This softened the tar and sealed it to either face but still allowed the joint to flex a little if needed. I'm sure it was a house building product, not a body building product, but it worked well. Very well! Every truck we built had it! If I can find the stuff I'll post a link here!

 

[ianc]

Anton,

How did you get on with the extra pulley? I would like to fit one to my Vario!

Although I am not 100% sure if its the best way to go

Pros: 1) Easy stand alone system
2) Easy and cheap to replace


Cons: 1) Alternators do not make good battery chargers! B2B controllers have step charging
2) Extra load on engine
3) You loose the ability to fit cab air con

Can you let me have any info on the pulley?

Alternators with the standard controller are not great at charging batteries efficiently. I added a piggyback regulator from Sterling similar to this
http://sterling-power.com/collectio...d-digital-alternator-regulator-pro-reg-d-pdar
These also soft start the Alternator so that it limits the spike load on the belt.

There are enough mounting points and and belt options on the Vario to support a second alternator plus an aircon pump.

"Extra load on engine" - If you are charging then you are applying load on the engine irrespective of how it gets from the crank to the house batteries. Generally the more direct the route the more efficient

 

[ianc]

It's always good when a thread I've not seen gets brought to the top of the list with a new comment. Just had a few good hours reading!! Very nice build.. I'm a fan of keeping the original duals on mine, and think yours looks good back on its original wheels. Just want the house and shed to be built so I can make a start on mine!! Re the roof and the ongoing leaks... Always a problem with flat roofs with edge capping. They're water traps.. But there is a solution.. When I was involved in building truck based horse boxes, we used to use a roof sealing strip. It was about 100mm wide, and 2 mm thick. One side was silver foil (but thick), and the other side was a stable type of tar. The sealing strip was unrolled and a thin plastic protecting strip pealed off the tar. The strip was placed centrally over the join and worked into place by hand. Once positioned and all joints covered, (overlaps to suit direction of travel), a heat gun was used and the strip warmed. This softened the tar and sealed it to either face but still allowed the joint to flex a little if needed. I'm sure it was a house building product, not a body building product, but it worked well. Very well! Every truck we built had it! If I can find the stuff I'll post a link here!

Sitec - Thanks for the compliment. I would be very interested in that tape if you can locate the info.

Ian

 

[nick disjunkt]

Sounds like flashband to me. It's good stuff although I've never seen it on a truck. I sealed my roof with acrypol, using their fabric strip at all seams. It's ugly and takes a long time to dry but it stopped all leaks.

 

[part time nomad]

Yes, that tape sounds like flashband! available from builders merchants, it comes in various widths, but you could cut it down to about 50mm and I recon that you could paint it, so it blends in a bit better.

I used it on my workshop, it is good stuff!

Are you still suffering with leaks Ian?

 

[ianc]

I did have - I think solved now but this solution looks to be more robust

 

[Sitec]

Sitec - Thanks for the compliment. I would be very interested in that tape if you can locate the info.

Ian

Hi Ian. Yup, it was Flashband! it worked wonders on a rough edged roof. I spoke to Wayne over in the UK where we used to use the Flashband on the Horsebox roofs, and he said that they also use Sikaflex 521UV. Said it was awesome stuff and simple to apply!

 

[crawler07]

Fantastic build thread Sir it is no doubt an inspirational read and a testament to your determination and skill. As for the leaking problems with the box have you ever hear of ultra black? It is a type of sealant made by Loctite I believe? I worked as a mechanic at a Seadoo (jet skis and jet boats) dealership when we would need to replace a ride shoe an aluminum plate just below the jet pump nozzle that was attached to the fiberglass hull we would have to heat the ride shoe up for around an hour or more and install a bottle jack between the deck at the rear of the watercraft and the rideshoe and apply a lot of pressure to get it to release. The only thing holding this rideshoe on was Ultrablack sealant maybe you could look into this product and see if it would suit your needs. Thanks for posting all your progress and taking us along for the ride! Good luck!!

 

[ianc]

Thanks for the info Crawler. I'll look that up.

 

[ianc]

Finally got to do some proper driving in the camper in Pyrenees this Summer. Unfortunately the most spectacular roads were also the scariest and so I didn't get to take so many photos.






This is one of our wild camp locations about 2.2Km altitude about 3 Km south of a small village called Tor.




In the pic below you can just about make the truck out. Walking up there was more exercise than I normally get in a week!





Below - some of the trails needed to be scouted before driving down them


And often cleared. I only had to resort to the pole chain saw a couple of times. I could have driven over it but I reckoned the kids could do with a little exercise as well.

 

[Ullie]

Nice!
It always looks so easy on film. But we also have the experience that an easy looking passage on film can be very scary while driving it for the first time.

 

[ianc]

Nice!
It always looks so easy on film. But we also have the experience that an easy looking passage on film can be very scary while driving it for the first time.

********! it weren't easy. I was crapin me pants multiple times. But it was fun

A friend did some of the same trails in a new Pajero aout a month before us and inserted notes in the trail book along the lines of: "Low box required", "3 point turn on switchback"
And these were the "Ok" bits....

It was Brill! fun. Although my boss and younger daughter did abandon ship at one point and walked/cycled down the most questionable sections.

 

[cuska101@gmail.com]

Contact on box builder

Hi Ianc, do you mind sending contacts on builder of that box? I m doing build myself, in Dublin, but I ran to some issues and will need few things done by experts.

Thnx, Peter