Unimog U1300L 435 1986 - Restore to former glory & add custom camper

[Simon dix]

Great Iain. I will be doing the same. Cheers

 

[Simon dix]

I was going through past pics with Jess (my wife) and thought I would share. For those that are on a relatively low budget refer to the pics for ideas. I bought the Canter 2007 in Perth and later bought the camper box on Gumtree in Melbourne. It had so much space, very comfortable and very practical for adhoc camping trips. Not something I would suggest for long travels day in and day out. I purchased all for about $35,000 including the upgrade to super singles to track the front wheels. The dual wheels at the rear were terrible on the beach however I never ever got the Canter bogged. The super singles was the best thing I did for that rig. I had loads of fun with this unit but we were never ever ever in a rush. Never ever got wet even in the biggest down pours.
Now that I own a Unimog there is no comparison between a Canter and a Unimog........but not to let the Canter team down, I did tow a Toyota landcuiser out of trouble whilst the engine could not work back to the ferry to go back to Rainbow Beach (the sand was very loose and we did it in low range Canter style).

 

[Simon dix]

75mm x 40mm welded on TOP horizontal and verticals and 40mm x 40mm lower horizontal.

 

[DzlToy]

I've seen lots of trucks with a living access door above a wheel! No room for fold out steps, or a sunken foot well.

It's actually quite a brilliant strategy. The "sunken floor" space is wasted when you consider the time you are passing through or standing there. The same goes for folding/retracting steps. If they are under-mounted, ground clearance can drastically be reduced.

The step solution is simply a matter of installing a step like this:

No switches, cables, motors, sensors, blah, blah, blah.

Easy and cheap to replace or could be knocked up in a fab shop with some scrap tubing for peanuts.

 

[Sitec]

It's actually quite a brilliant strategy. The "sunken floor" space is wasted when you consider the time you are passing through or standing there. The same goes for folding/retracting steps. If they are under-mounted, ground clearance can drastically be reduced.

The step solution is simply a matter of installing a step like this:

No switches, cables, motors, sensors, blah, blah, blah.

Easy and cheap to replace or could be knocked up in a fab shop with some scrap tubing for peanuts.

I've gone for the sunken floor option, as several people have made the point that having the lower area is a good place for kicking boots off when it's raining outside etc. A good mud collection point that can be rinsed out instead of walkinging it into the living area. Add to that, my wife is vertically challenged. I've watched people come out of one particular truck with a floor height of 1.2m from floor and over a wheel... It's clumsey and looks lethal. The step pictured would be just below waist height on her! One of her stipulations for a trucking life on the road is easy access... Our internal fold out steps with sunken footwell give us just that. A step every 225mm. Great when carrying the shopping in etc etc.

 

[Wazak]

I've gone for the sunken floor option, as several people have made the point that having the lower area is a good place for kicking boots off when it's raining outside etc. A good mud collection point that can be rinsed out instead of walkinging it into the living area. Add to that, my wife is vertically challenged. I've watched people come out of one particular truck with a floor height of 1.2m from floor and over a wheel... It's clumsey and looks lethal. The step pictured would be just below waist height on her! One of her stipulations for a trucking life on the road is easy access... Our internal fold out steps with sunken footwell give us just that. A step every 225mm. Great when carrying the shopping in etc etc.

I'm in full agreement there Sitec, My wife also has short legs and she'd never manage to get into or out of anything using that step.

 

[Iain_U1250]

The drop down section of our camper works great, it has multiple functions, it is the shower cubicle, having a grate, drainage etc. Directly under the drop down section is a 50lt grey water tank. It takes very little usable space, being between two cabinets. It is very useful for taking off sandy or muddy shoes, wet costumes, and anything we don't want spread around the truck. The drop down section allows for a full height door. Ours is 1.8m high, which means I seldom bump my head going in, but have to be careful going out. A door over the wheel would not be practical for us, and way to high for access.

I made an electric step, as the rules here to be a "motorhome" mean you have to be able to exit the truck without any external additions. This means you can't add an external step from outside, it has to be activated from inside. The lower step is the same height as the front door step. I added handles both on the door and inside the door so we can grab onto it when getting in or getting out. My wife is also not tall, and but can get in and out of the stairs easily. Having the drop down section means anything that falls on the floor whilst driving quickly ends up in the drop down section, and stops rolling around.

 

[Simon dix]

Decided to put additional 75mm x 40mm to allow for the roll bar. The roll bar still has many weld points awaiting but I just had to post because I don't know what challenges await tomorrow with work.
At work today we were stripping the hydraulic cooling system etc off the Bell B40D - ADT which we use as a water truck (water tank is about 35-40k litre). The rust on the bolts etc were so bad..........hence the decision to remove rust and maintain. I have had a couple of ops on my right shoulder so had to call in on my loyal and awesome Bangla worker for extra power.
Ill get any extra power where I can especially for MOGONE!! Think I just need to spend the coin to make her a 200Hp working camper. This will have to wait until she is painted and working. I can only imagine there will be paint touch up's required post installation another item or an impatient post installed bracket and/or the like?

 

[Simon dix]

Progress going quite quickly. Will update roof raise etc later this week. Cab will probably be ready for painting early to mid next week but we all know how things can change especially how I have changed things last minute and ended up doing the cab.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Interesting wheels on the Singapore trucks, some form of split rim system?

 

[Simon dix]

Interesting wheels on the Singapore trucks, some form of split rim system?

They are made in Switzerland and interchangeable to inner piece 6 stud or 8 stud configurations for Unimog’s, Fiat/Iveco’s etc. The spares are lighter as they don’t consist of all the components that make up the complete wheel. If you break an inner.........well you in the crap and were driving incorrectly to break this piece of engineering of a wheel/rim? I reckon if you break the wheel you will break more than that and are in bigger shite? In saying all this I have no experience with these wheels and rims but if you see in person you may like them or not ?‍♂️. Update for the crazy roof raise will come very soon ?

 

[Simon dix]

Once again, a bit of inspiration came from Iain for the roof raise (but I did not go as high tho, only 150mm) and sun visor but I have not utilized the sun visor portion for usable space but designed in a way that the 100mm top portion (sides and rear) can be used without compromising strength. In fact I went over board with the strength of the raised roof considering I could almost launch a rocket off the roof! Have contradicted myself on a few things since inception but I am very happy with the out come thus far. The guys at Cheng Auto have been amazing to work with. I think the final outcome should work out well.

 

[Simon dix]

The cab is now complete. Plenty of putty, sanding, painting and polishing etc to come. Hoping it all comes out as I have envisaged. So far so good. The Cab will have more nut rivets in it than screws on a bunnings warehouse roof. Now I have to concentrate on keeping weight down and do my best as not to over engineer as I have done on this cab project ?. I will carry 2 spares on the roof now which will free up space on the camper portion.

 

[Sitec]

Coming along nicely. How are you planning on getting the wheels up and down from the roof? Quite a bit of weight to have up there..

 

[Simon dix]

Coming along nicely. How are you planning on getting the wheels up and down from the roof? Quite a bit of weight to have up there..

Cheers, I integrated the standard unimog wheel hoist onto a custom frame using rectangular hollow section. I posted a pic earlier. The great thing about my wheels is that they will only consist of the rim and tyre and not the inner part which is quite a good weight saving. The roof has more than adequate strength now (totally over Engineered in which I have broken my own rules already). I am happy with the outcome thus far.