Pretty Ugly... 1835, The Build Begins

[Sitec]

Either way, you have a lot of work... Realistically the height is a no go...You ideally don't want to be much above 3.5m total height. I also think that if you have rust to repair in the red cab as well as cutting the floor out and trying to make that work, the work involved is overtaking the gains to be had with the red cab... The other way of looking at it is that you are building a camper with a huge living space, so do you really need a sleeper cab? I originally wanted a bigger cab, but now I have the day cab it looks like it will work well with our 6m body. I'd be going for the easiest option. Also, don't forget, there's a lot to be said for keeping stuff standard... (says he who is making everything body related). With a standard cab chassis, parts will be available.

 

[Madoxen]

I agree but just coz i have just had the final kick. .
With out the spacer plate the lifting rams for the cab tilt are at too much or a shallow angle and will not work. This is a no go i think but it has just made my life alot easier.
Big reds steep angle for rams


Pretty ugly shallow ram angle



Well at least i know my way forward now.

 

[pairospam]

Hey, you have done the homework, and all the old and new efforts of swapping the cabins would surely not pay off, especially if you needed someone else to do the funny parts. Maybe I would have still go on with some more thinking, but I am used to do a lot of the bodywork myself.

Pretty ugly will keep his original shape and allure... good for him.

Keep the news coming.


Pairoa

 

[Madoxen]

Hi Pairospam. Thanks for the comments. Like you all work would have been done by me which i was happy to do. But like i said the amount of things that needed to be swapped and then altered or fabricated to make it work were building up pretty quick.i am feeling a lottle sad that i will not be swapping the cabs but i have probably saved my self a month or 3 of working after work to get it done. You never know maybe i will wake up one morning and decide to attack it and make it happen.

 

[Madoxen]

Composit Floor, roof, and 1 side wall complete


And some internal panels and cupboard panels

 

[Sitec]

Sides being built already! You are not mucking about! So are these to suit the height of the blue cab or the red cab?

 

[Madoxen]

Sides being built already! You are not mucking about! So are these to suit the height of the blue cab or the red cab?

Hehe yes well a good deal came along and it was very well priced, have ordered the body for the largest out come but planned it so if needs be i can trim it by up to 150 mm off the bottom.
Blue cab sizes, bet on largest but with built in plan to reduce height if needs be

 

[Madoxen]

Over the weekend i decided to do a little more work on pretty ugly,so continued to remove all the dash ect to get to the electrics and give it a check over and clean











This uper fine powder is under and over and blocking everything. I think it must be lime from one of its past lifes. The problem is it seems to set like concrete in places where it has got wet or damp and also turns acidic and starts to rust metal .

This led me to checking the air con pump which i discovered this hole where metal on metal had worn huge holes in the pipe and started to cut through the nut as well.

 

[Madoxen]

I had some queries but thought it best to put them in the 12/24v section if anyone has any comments

24v-lifepo4-solar-set-up

 

[Madoxen]

Well have swapped out all the air con pipes and the pump & wiring just the radiator to put back on from other truck and all shiney and working once i get it gassed up




I even have a spare working aircon pump now

 

[joeblack5]

nice batteries.. I am ready to get 32 as well. seems that the 280Ah is the best form factor for my application.

Did you get them thru alibaba? Did you have to be involved in the import of the cells.
32 to the USA would be $3300 but then there is the import and duties and maybe transport in the USA.
How did that go for you?
thanks

 

[Madoxen]

nice batteries.. I am ready to get 32 as well. seems that the 280Ah is the best form factor for my application.

Did you get them thru alibaba? Did you have to be involved in the import of the cells.
32 to the USA would be $3300 but then there is the import and duties and maybe transport in the USA.
How did that go for you?
thanks

Hi Joeblack5, yes I got them through Alibaba and used sea freight. for customs I used a clearing house that charges a small amount to do the paper work but I have done this my self in the past. tax yes I paid GST on the cost of the batteries but in NZ we have a deal that we dont pay duty or import Taxes on purchases from China.

I have put the link below for the batteries I got, also if u mention to Amy that you came from the forum or Expedition portal she will include the busbars and screws for the battries free.

I do not get anything for mentioning this only help others to get a similar deal to what I got.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...ml?spm=a2700.icbuShop.41413.18.7327d547186zWK

 

[Madoxen]

Just had a chat with Amy and she has informed me that there is a Sale on and will be a discount on September 1st to 30th the prices in this month will be the lowest of the year. Just a heads up if u looking at batteries

 

[Madoxen]

I must appologies things have been very quiet on the update front but have been busy stripping the cab of pretty ugly out to remove rust and all the lyme powder that seems to be through everything either rusting or turning to cement lol









I have also been playing with the batteries and trying to figure out my electrics set up. And looks like i have gone full circle with my thinking going back to 48v system and a 48v alternater powered from the live PTO so always on. But still ironing all this out.

One thing that has happened is that i have had a complete change of plan for the habitat body, which has filtered down and now causing other things to change. Lol what a snow ball this is.
After haveing the plans for the 4 point torsion free subframe given the ok by the nz transport engineers. I am now having to change it all. The reason behind this is that we originally were going to use a 20 foot container for its frame and put composit panels in it instead of the metal walls and roof etc. Then changed to a full composit build but still with the twistlocs so we could swap the camper body for a real 20foot container for use in work. As this is no longer needed due to purchaseing a new curtainsider i can now dedicate the actros to the expedition build which meabs rather than building a subframe able to hold 18 tonns it now only needs to be build and designed to hold one third or even a quater of that weight.

A longer story short to save my friends sanity who did the original design for the frame i am redoing it all with a bit of phone support and will hand it back to him for final checks before it has to go back to the transport engineer for another ok .
Here is where we are at lol.



It may not look like much but owch too many hours to get it here with the chassis etc measured out and drive shaft etc. I am a little worriried about the drive shaft clearence on the botom of the front pivot. It has 32mm clear befor contact do u guys tgink this is enough?

Originally it was 78mm o to the center of the pin from the top of the chassis.( this was so high due to the drive shaft and the extra heavy duty construction to stop flex in the subframe from the load.


It is now 5mm over the top of chassis rail and like i said this only give me 32mm clearence

 

[Sitec]

View attachment 612924

This is an interesting topic... I'm no expert, but when I was twisting my chassis as I too have deployed the 'use the chassis as a subframe' method, I found the twist axis to be pretty central between the rails. With the pivot line above the chassis rails it puts the chassis and pivots under a lot of shear force... Steve's book explains it a lot better than I can, but here's the pic in question....