Sitec
Adventurer
150kg... I recon had I built mine out of Alli I'd have saved about 1500kg! My fault tho as I over engineer everything even tho I don't need to!! Watch this space re my truck weight!!
Pulled the trigger
- Thread starter nathane
- Start date
150kg... I recon had I built mine out of Alli I'd have saved about 1500kg! My fault tho as I over engineer everything even tho I don't need to!! Watch this space re my truck weight!!
Iain_U1250
Explorer
150kg... I recon had I built mine out of Alli I'd have saved about 1500kg! My fault tho as I over engineer everything even tho I don't need to!! Watch this space re my truck weight!!
Like life, keeping weight down requires constant attention
Nothing like a bit of Heavy Metal.
Sitec
Adventurer
Like life, keeping weight down requires constant attention
Soooo true!
OK time for another installment - catching up a bit!
With the roof done it was time to start assembling the box. I had decided to buy in the wall panels. The cosmetic finish I achieved on the roof and floor was not fantastic - the roof will be lined and the floor will be covered so that's not an issue, but I want the walls to look nice inside and out so I sourced the panels.
I approached Victorian's partner firm in Europe but they only do panels for their own builds so I ended up sourcing panels from a company in Manchester that makes refrigerated delivery vans. They are 64mm thick, glassfibre/foam sandwich.
I've looked enviously at the garages people have built in - I borrowed a tent! At least the UK is not so cold, a diesel heater brings it to a high enough temperature for the glue to work (Sikaflex 552).
Slackline comes in handy to hold everything together whilst the glue sets!
With the roof done it was time to start assembling the box. I had decided to buy in the wall panels. The cosmetic finish I achieved on the roof and floor was not fantastic - the roof will be lined and the floor will be covered so that's not an issue, but I want the walls to look nice inside and out so I sourced the panels.
I approached Victorian's partner firm in Europe but they only do panels for their own builds so I ended up sourcing panels from a company in Manchester that makes refrigerated delivery vans. They are 64mm thick, glassfibre/foam sandwich.
I've looked enviously at the garages people have built in - I borrowed a tent! At least the UK is not so cold, a diesel heater brings it to a high enough temperature for the glue to work (Sikaflex 552).
Slackline comes in handy to hold everything together whilst the glue sets!
I haven't put up any truck photos to date as it's been worked on gradually at Atkinson Vos in North Yorkshire. AV are the UK's used Mog specialist and broker most of the used sales over here as well as importing all sorts of cool ex miltary and utility vehicles and reconditioning them.
Anyway, we've had a few things tinkered with over the last year. First thing to show is the cab roof lift. I'm 1.96m tall and wanted a bit more headroom in the cab so the AV folks chopped the roof and lifted 20cm.
Top chopped:
Working on the lift:
The upper "walls" are double skinned and include holes that will be used to mount a detachable roof-rack. We want it detachable so we can still get the truck into a hi-cube container if we ever need to. You can see the columns that will make the holes at each corner including the drain holes to prevent water building up.
Anyway, we've had a few things tinkered with over the last year. First thing to show is the cab roof lift. I'm 1.96m tall and wanted a bit more headroom in the cab so the AV folks chopped the roof and lifted 20cm.
Top chopped:
Working on the lift:
The upper "walls" are double skinned and include holes that will be used to mount a detachable roof-rack. We want it detachable so we can still get the truck into a hi-cube container if we ever need to. You can see the columns that will make the holes at each corner including the drain holes to prevent water building up.
Whilst this was all going on we had an uprated fuel pump and injectors installed and an upgraded 100A alternator fitted.
On the back we shifted all the air between the chassis members to free up space for extended fuel tank and storage lockers to be fitted and swapped the flatbed sub-frame that the truck came with for a new bespoke frame to lighten and fit the living box perfectly:
The subframe includes an extendible "pull out" section that you can see at the back that will work as a bike or kayak rack. When not in use it will just slide back into place.
Subframe obviously retaining the 3 point mounting:
On the back we shifted all the air between the chassis members to free up space for extended fuel tank and storage lockers to be fitted and swapped the flatbed sub-frame that the truck came with for a new bespoke frame to lighten and fit the living box perfectly:
The subframe includes an extendible "pull out" section that you can see at the back that will work as a bike or kayak rack. When not in use it will just slide back into place.
Subframe obviously retaining the 3 point mounting:
If you look at the top view of the subframe you can also see the aircon heat exchanger that Mark at AV has magically fitted at the rear of the chassis:
This aircon unit was stripped off a German Military mog where it had been roof mounted on the cab - looked pretty messy and gave us a problem with overall height for shipping and also loses the ability to put a cab roof rack on.
The blower almost fits in the old glove compartment, which frankly is so small that it is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Given we will have storage along the front of the lifted roof section we were willing to swap this for aircon!
This aircon unit was stripped off a German Military mog where it had been roof mounted on the cab - looked pretty messy and gave us a problem with overall height for shipping and also loses the ability to put a cab roof rack on.
The blower almost fits in the old glove compartment, which frankly is so small that it is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Given we will have storage along the front of the lifted roof section we were willing to swap this for aircon!
