The OutFit - Unimog U1700L

[The OutFit]

Hi everyone,
My partner Chris and I just wanted to formally introduce ourselves on here

I'm French and Chris is a Kiwi. We just finished a year-long trip around Australia full-time. We did the tour in a built-up Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and have decided that we want to continue our life on the road indefinitely. We also want to have a child in the next couple years so that lead us to wanting to create an expedition truck. We have recently purchased a 1983 ex Australian army Unimog which will be our build platform Our goal is to hopefully ship it to Europe for 2022 if Covid and our funds allow it.

This is all new territory for us but we are determined to do what we can ourselves, and build a comfortable, yet capable home-on-wheels over the course of this year.
We are both putting our house-deposits into this build and that won't stretch very far, so taking a hands on DIY approach to most things is the ideal approach for us.

We are both putting a lot of work into our YouTube channel and hoping that it will financially support our travels in the long run.
Here's the first episode of our build series :

Well that's literally our life story in a nutshell.
We will both be on here quite a bit asking lots of questions and generally just having a nosey. It's going to be very beneficial to us having such a knowledgeable group so thank you!

Chris & Ange

 

[Geo.Lander]

Welcome! Great video, you will find a great deal of knowledge and competence here for your built, I. suggest sharing your plans before implementation here, we have changed a lot of our design and direction because of feedback from the knowledge base within the community here.

 

[Madoxen]

Welcome to the forum ?, i have not had a chance to watch your vid yet but will do soon. There is no such thing as a daft question so fire away and some one here will usually have some good replies. Where are you basing your selfs for the build?

 

[Sitec]

Hi guys! Glad you found us here. There's lots of info here, and as said above, share plans and ideas, as you'll get lots of feedback by those who have done it.

 

[roving1]

Been watching on YT since the beginning. Nice to have you here.

I remember the first episode I watched and I was like oh c'mon are they seriously just going to work out in the bush somewhere every video? Then in short time you became one of my favorite travel video channels!

Was nervous about the Unimog switch but you seem to be acknowledging the challenges with the good. The thought of your content style moving on to new countries is really really exciting.

Keep up the good work.

 

[The OutFit]

Thank you all for your warm welcome

Welcome to the forum ?, i have not had a chance to watch your vid yet but will do soon. There is no such thing as a daft question so fire away and some one here will usually have some good replies. Where are you basing your selfs for the build?

We are based in Perth (Western Australia)

Been watching on YT since the beginning. Nice to have you here.

I remember the first episode I watched and I was like oh c'mon are they seriously just going to work out in the bush somewhere every video? Then in short time you became one of my favorite travel video channels!

Was nervous about the Unimog switch but you seem to be acknowledging the challenges with the good. The thought of your content style moving on to new countries is really really exciting.

Keep up the good work.

Ahah that is so funny! Thank you for following since day 1 and sticking around for the Mog series

Hi guys! Glad you found us here. There's lots of info here, and as said above, share plans and ideas, as you'll get lots of feedback by those who have done it.

Thanks again for the recommendation Simon!

Welcome! Great video, you will find a great deal of knowledge and competence here for your built, I. suggest sharing your plans before implementation here, we have changed a lot of our design and direction because of feedback from the knowledge base within the community here.

So we are currently designing our box which is looking like this :



Our dimensions are 4520mm long x 2400mm wide x 2100mm high with internal height of 2020mm.
45 degrees angle at the top/front and rear/bottom.
Our overall height is around 3.6m without solar panel - hopefully won't get much higher.

We are meeting our fiberglass panel supplier tomorrow and getting a quote for it.

We are still struggling to find a suitable roof hatch so I need to do more research in this regards today.

 

[nathane]

Exciting project, well done. It will be amazing fun doing it and living in after!

Can I ask though what's the wheelbase of your 1700?

I ask just because the 4.5m box doesn't look quite right to me on your drawing. I am mid build on a u1550 L37 wheelbase 3700mm. My box is 4200mm long. The mid point of my box is pretty much right on the rear axle with a 200mm gap between the rear of cab and front of the box. I am also pretty much spot on rear overhang of 60% of wheelbase. Are you sure there is space for a 4520mm box on there? I might have missed something obvious, sorry if so.

All the best

 

[The OutFit]

Exciting project, well done. It will be amazing fun doing it and living in after!

Can I ask though what's the wheelbase of your 1700?

I ask just because the 4.5m box doesn't look quite right to me on your drawing. I am mid build on a u1550 L37 wheelbase 3700mm. My box is 4200mm long. The mid point of my box is pretty much right on the rear axle with a 200mm gap between the rear of cab and front of the box. I am also pretty much spot on rear overhang of 60% of wheelbase. Are you sure there is space for a 4520mm box on there? I might have missed something obvious, sorry if so.

All the best

The wheelbase is 3850mm. We are allowed 2310mm overhang from centre of rear axle which is roughly 700mm from the end of the tray (4065mm).

So we still have some margin, we didn't want to go to max length

 

[nathane]

That's cool, I think yours is a super long L! Over here in the UK I think they are usually 3250.

 

[Neil]

Welcome, looks like a great project.

Welcome to the world where you can think of nothing else .

Luckily you have some fantastic Unimog enthusiast on here that will be able to help you with the base vehicle and loads of others who have built their trucks.

Good luck.

Neil

 

[Geo.Lander]

Thank you all for your warm welcome



We are based in Perth (Western Australia)



Ahah that is so funny! Thank you for following since day 1 and sticking around for the Mog series



Thanks again for the recommendation Simon!



So we are currently designing our box which is looking like this :

View attachment 641171

Our dimensions are 4520mm long x 2400mm wide x 2100mm high with internal height of 2020mm.
45 degrees angle at the top/front and rear/bottom.
Our overall height is around 3.6m without solar panel - hopefully won't get much higher.

We are meeting our fiberglass panel supplier tomorrow and getting a quote for it.

We are still struggling to find a suitable roof hatch so I need to do more research in this regards today.

Nice drawings, one thing i noticed is that your rear cutout won't actually increase departure angle unless you plan a cutout in the rear boxes as well? In general you will be losing a lot of storage areas with both cutouts.

Nicely done vids btw! Have you decided what colour the vehicle will be, it is worth noting that military colours are not optimal in a lot of regions of the EU and Africa, something I learned from Ulrich Dolde's book.

Great progress so far, envious of the weather!

 

[Sitec]

We are still struggling to find a suitable roof hatch so I need to do more research in this regards today.

Hi again. So, it might be worth a call to these guys... Ask for David. Before you call him, look up Vetus Hatches. They do boat deck hatches etc. I recently bought a pair of the 'MAG6363SL' Magnus Escape Hatches, with trim surround and mozzi screens. The guys were helpful, and the product seems good.

_____________________________________________

( (07) 5529 2544 | (07) 5529 3676

* info@KeoghsMarine.com.au

8 www.KeoghsMarine.com.au

8 www.KeoghsRV.com.au

SHOWROOM: 8/227a Brisbane Rd, Biggera Waters QLD 4216

Map Reference: https://goo.gl/maps/yyZa2CTRxhm

 

[The OutFit]

Nice drawings, one thing i noticed is that your rear cutout won't actually increase departure angle unless you plan a cutout in the rear boxes as well? In general you will be losing a lot of storage areas with both cutouts.

Nicely done vids btw! Have you decided what colour the vehicle will be, it is worth noting that military colours are not optimal in a lot of regions of the EU and Africa, something I learned from Ulrich Dolde's book.

Great progress so far, envious of the weather!

Oh I forgot to mention that, the rear box was just a temporary drawing, we are not at that stage yet

We will definitely paint the cab as we don't want to keep it army/camo look for overseas! It will probably be one of the last things we do though, at this stage we are fine to keep it like this in Australia.

Yes we are very lucky here, it's been very dry weather, ideal to work on the Mog

Hi again. So, it might be worth a call to these guys... Ask for David. Before you call him, look up Vetus Hatches. They do boat deck hatches etc. I recently bought a pair of the 'MAG6363SL' Magnus Escape Hatches, with trim surround and mozzi screens. The guys were helpful, and the product seems good.

_____________________________________________

( (07) 5529 2544 | (07) 5529 3676

* info@KeoghsMarine.com.au

8 www.KeoghsMarine.com.au

8 www.KeoghsRV.com.au

SHOWROOM: 8/227a Brisbane Rd, Biggera Waters QLD 4216

Map Reference: https://goo.gl/maps/yyZa2CTRxhm

Thanks a lot Simon I actually started to research marine hatches but a lot of them were sold out so I'll have a look now!

 

[Geo.Lander]

We are going for Outbound windows, door, hatches and roof windows. We felt like there was a good balance there with price and guarantees of function. However, there is currently a 4 month lead time on all Outbound products. The demand for expedition vehicles and associated supplies in the EU is massive at the moment.

 

[Neil]

We are going for Outbound windows, door, hatches and roof windows. We felt like there was a good balance there with price and guarantees of function. However, there is currently a 4 month lead time on all Outbound products. The demand for expedition vehicles and associated supplies in the EU is massive at the moment.

I have seen several Overland trucks with Outbound Windows.

They are Superb, wonderfully made and in my view slightly better than KCT.

Neil