Unimogadventures - Our build and travel thread
- Thread starter Iain_U1250
- Start date
non-operational
New member
Hello Iain,
I saw in another post that you purchased a load of UniMog parts from a company that used to service the Aust Army U1700.
I've just purchased a 'non-operational' Ex-Army U1700 that is missing some of the things you noted in that post - front indicators, complete gun turret lid.... pulleys for radiator fan - you'll probably have these now that you've gone to electric? (although I will probably go to electric eventually)
Do you still have many of these parts?
I'd love to take a first hand look at your Mog to give me some ideas and pick your brain a bit
I'm not sure which way I will go with it yet in terms of modifications/conversion. First goal is to get it drivable and registered. My original plan was to buy a RHD Mog in the UK and then drive it back to Australia.
I'm up on the Sunshine Coast Qld... oh and I drive a Landrover 110 too
I saw in another post that you purchased a load of UniMog parts from a company that used to service the Aust Army U1700.
I've just purchased a 'non-operational' Ex-Army U1700 that is missing some of the things you noted in that post - front indicators, complete gun turret lid.... pulleys for radiator fan - you'll probably have these now that you've gone to electric? (although I will probably go to electric eventually)
Do you still have many of these parts?
I'd love to take a first hand look at your Mog to give me some ideas and pick your brain a bit
I'm not sure which way I will go with it yet in terms of modifications/conversion. First goal is to get it drivable and registered. My original plan was to buy a RHD Mog in the UK and then drive it back to Australia.
I'm up on the Sunshine Coast Qld... oh and I drive a Landrover 110 too
Iain_U1250
Explorer
Hi, I have some parts left. I have a new gun turret lid, and some indicator lenses I think. The pulley and fan were sold already. I am away on our trip - will be back in Brisbane in October or November. I'll let you know when I get back.
Iain
Iain
Iain_U1250
Explorer
No progress on the truck, but we have seen a few interesting Mogs on our travels:
Cable Beach - Broome, WA
Cape Tribulation, Queensland
More info on our trip to date here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115798-Around-Australia-in-a-Land-Rover?p=1419608#post1419608
or our blog
http://landroverroundtrip.blogspot.com.au/
We are halfway through our trip, back in another 6 weeks and then full time work on the Mog until it's finished.
We have learnt a whole load of things that we will incorporate into the mog, especially food storage and making sure we can access everything easily, as we have found that if it is difficult to get to, we just don't use it, but make do without.
Cable Beach - Broome, WA
Cape Tribulation, Queensland
More info on our trip to date here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115798-Around-Australia-in-a-Land-Rover?p=1419608#post1419608
or our blog
http://landroverroundtrip.blogspot.com.au/
We are halfway through our trip, back in another 6 weeks and then full time work on the Mog until it's finished.
We have learnt a whole load of things that we will incorporate into the mog, especially food storage and making sure we can access everything easily, as we have found that if it is difficult to get to, we just don't use it, but make do without.
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
Hi Iain,
This time I read the entire thread, great stuff.
I also plan to use the X100 cooker in my new build but am getting conflicting stories from different places, you say
This is indeed how the documentation reads and also has been confirmed by a mate of mine who has just built a MAN motorhome (he's in Geebung if you'd like to compare vehicles, don't know if that's near you or not).
BUT
I rang the Eberspatcher people and was told by their engineer that the cooker actually sucks air in through the outside pipe, this is at odds with you, my mate and the documentation.
Both scenarios make sense for different reasons but so far two people and the official install document say that cooling air is blown out the outside pipe. Maybe I just found someone at Eber... that didn't know what he was talking about, it wouldn't be the first time I've encountered that when phoning suppliers.
So assuming that the outside pipe is indeed "cooling" air from inside the house via the aluminium box, where does the furnace get it's combustion air from. It must come from the inside house as well. In which case we had better not have a house that's hermetically sealed or it will implode
This time I read the entire thread, great stuff.
I also plan to use the X100 cooker in my new build but am getting conflicting stories from different places, you say
This is indeed how the documentation reads and also has been confirmed by a mate of mine who has just built a MAN motorhome (he's in Geebung if you'd like to compare vehicles, don't know if that's near you or not).
BUT
I rang the Eberspatcher people and was told by their engineer that the cooker actually sucks air in through the outside pipe, this is at odds with you, my mate and the documentation.
Both scenarios make sense for different reasons but so far two people and the official install document say that cooling air is blown out the outside pipe. Maybe I just found someone at Eber... that didn't know what he was talking about, it wouldn't be the first time I've encountered that when phoning suppliers.
So assuming that the outside pipe is indeed "cooling" air from inside the house via the aluminium box, where does the furnace get it's combustion air from. It must come from the inside house as well. In which case we had better not have a house that's hermetically sealed or it will implode
gait
Explorer
the cooling air fan situated vertically in the front of the Aluminium box pushes air into the box which then exits through the outer pipe surrounding the exhaust. The Al box is under pressure.
Only yesterday did I observe the fan turning in the right direction to pressurise the box after I forgot to connect the wires after stove maintenance. Well ... after I reconnected the plug actually. I should have lengthened the wires long ago. Its a standard "about" 70mm "computer cooling fan".
It wouldn't make sense to me to have air flow the other way, it would probably cook the electronics. I've started the cooker a couple of times without the Al box in place while testing - it gets hot.
My interpretation is the stove is made by Wallas in Finland and badged Webasto X100. Not sure why one would expect Eberspacher to know how it worked. Maybe a typo?
The Wallas part numbers have Webasto part numbers but no cross reference, or reference to original supplier part numbers. I'm slowly working that out. I'm guessing its a low volume product for Webasto, always very helpful but I seem to have more success for parts with the marine distributors for Wallas.
I carry electronic copies of install, operating, maintenance manuals from Webasto plus parts diagrams for Webasto and Wallas.
The combustion fan is centrifugal, according to label made by EBMPapst
RL48 - 19/12 12v DC 0.42A 5w (8-13.5v DC) rd: + bu:-
draws its air from within the Al box. Reasonably readily available.
Both the cooling fan and combustion fan blades needed cleaning of dust after three years continuous use. We don't get much dust into our vehicle.
My recent maintenance was a small leak in the diesel line where it joined the pump. Diesel flowed out of pipe overnight and pump wouldn't prime in morning. PTFE tape to fix. Hacked off I started looking at joints from the wrong end.
While fixing that I inspected burner and observed tip of outer sheath on temperature sensor had hole. After failing to acquire a replacement in reasonable time and cost (I'm traveling in Nepal) I drilled out a stainless bolt and fitted it over the tip. Working well for start up and cool down cycles despite extra thermal mass.
I expected some carbon build up after 3+ years continuous use but the burner and heat exchanger were fairly clean and didn't require maintenance. Just in case I carry a tube of the glue used to attach ceramic plate to rest of cooker.
Recently replaced the 15A blade fuse on the cooker circuit board. The plastic was melted. I had a few failed starts when battery volts were 12.1v but low volts in cooker according to yellow flashing light.
"Only" other maintenance was glow plug failure after about 2+ years. Easy diagnosis from fault light. After various mixups and delivery failures over 5 weeks in Norway/Finland I found a Bosch substitute for original BERU glow plug. What cost me about $1,000 in messing around could have been a $10 eBay purchase given the right information early enough. Webasto donated another spare glow plug and the mat for the base of the burner when I told them the story. The old mat had disintegrated.
Cleaning the ceramic is every couple of months with Cerapol. It would probably be easier if we cleaned more frequently. Elbow grease is free.
Now I know what insurance spares I should have carried from outset! Glow plug, temperature sensor, burner mat, possibly combustion and coling fans. I would also add a push button switch to disconnect pump from cooker electrics and pulse it directly for priming (but be very, very, careful not to flood the burner).
Basically we are used to the cooker. It worked up to 5,000m until the diesel line leak. We control cooking temperature by moving pots around rather than changing cooker temperature. We successfully cook toast, bread, all sorts of things, etc. We have a shuttle chef slow cooker, a cast iron frying pan, a couple of normal sauce pans, and a kettle.
We've failed in attempts to make Yorkshire Pudding. Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps.
Only yesterday did I observe the fan turning in the right direction to pressurise the box after I forgot to connect the wires after stove maintenance. Well ... after I reconnected the plug actually. I should have lengthened the wires long ago. Its a standard "about" 70mm "computer cooling fan".
It wouldn't make sense to me to have air flow the other way, it would probably cook the electronics. I've started the cooker a couple of times without the Al box in place while testing - it gets hot.
My interpretation is the stove is made by Wallas in Finland and badged Webasto X100. Not sure why one would expect Eberspacher to know how it worked.
Maybe a typo? The Wallas part numbers have Webasto part numbers but no cross reference, or reference to original supplier part numbers. I'm slowly working that out. I'm guessing its a low volume product for Webasto, always very helpful but I seem to have more success for parts with the marine distributors for Wallas.
I carry electronic copies of install, operating, maintenance manuals from Webasto plus parts diagrams for Webasto and Wallas.
The combustion fan is centrifugal, according to label made by EBMPapst
RL48 - 19/12 12v DC 0.42A 5w (8-13.5v DC) rd: + bu:-
draws its air from within the Al box. Reasonably readily available.
Both the cooling fan and combustion fan blades needed cleaning of dust after three years continuous use. We don't get much dust into our vehicle.
My recent maintenance was a small leak in the diesel line where it joined the pump. Diesel flowed out of pipe overnight and pump wouldn't prime in morning. PTFE tape to fix. Hacked off I started looking at joints from the wrong end.
While fixing that I inspected burner and observed tip of outer sheath on temperature sensor had hole. After failing to acquire a replacement in reasonable time and cost (I'm traveling in Nepal) I drilled out a stainless bolt and fitted it over the tip. Working well for start up and cool down cycles despite extra thermal mass.
I expected some carbon build up after 3+ years continuous use but the burner and heat exchanger were fairly clean and didn't require maintenance. Just in case I carry a tube of the glue used to attach ceramic plate to rest of cooker.
Recently replaced the 15A blade fuse on the cooker circuit board. The plastic was melted. I had a few failed starts when battery volts were 12.1v but low volts in cooker according to yellow flashing light.
"Only" other maintenance was glow plug failure after about 2+ years. Easy diagnosis from fault light. After various mixups and delivery failures over 5 weeks in Norway/Finland I found a Bosch substitute for original BERU glow plug. What cost me about $1,000 in messing around could have been a $10 eBay purchase given the right information early enough. Webasto donated another spare glow plug and the mat for the base of the burner when I told them the story. The old mat had disintegrated.
Cleaning the ceramic is every couple of months with Cerapol. It would probably be easier if we cleaned more frequently. Elbow grease is free.
Now I know what insurance spares I should have carried from outset!
Glow plug, temperature sensor, burner mat, possibly combustion and coling fans. I would also add a push button switch to disconnect pump from cooker electrics and pulse it directly for priming (but be very, very, careful not to flood the burner).Basically we are used to the cooker. It worked up to 5,000m until the diesel line leak. We control cooking temperature by moving pots around rather than changing cooker temperature. We successfully cook toast, bread, all sorts of things, etc. We have a shuttle chef slow cooker, a cast iron frying pan, a couple of normal sauce pans, and a kettle.
We've failed in attempts to make Yorkshire Pudding.
Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps.
Last edited:
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
Oops, I was thinking of my heater
Ok, so that's what everyone says so far, you, Iain, my mate with the MAN, and the documentation. The Eberspacher, sorry Webasto, guy is full of you know what.
That does leave the question "where does the air come from?", but I guess no motorhome is that well sealed.
Even I can handle that amount of maintenance.
Yes I saw that on the other thread, you mean you don't carry a few K-type thermocouples just in case ?
Good tip.
gait
Explorer
Iain_U1250
Explorer
Not much happening on my thread, so happy to get more info on the X100. Sounds like you have it all sorted Julian. We have been reading your blog with great interest as you have been following a similar route to what we will be going when I eventually finish my truck.
Over the past three months we have been travelling around Australia in our Land Rover ( more details here http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115798-Around-Australia-in-a-Land-Rover)
We have learnt quite a few things and wrote them down in a book as we thought of them, so in no particular order:
1. I you can't easily access something, you tend to do without it. We had a small table that required us to take out our drinking water bottles to be able to get it out. We ended up onky using it when we were camped for more than just overnight.
2. Things leak - especially things like toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo etc. Everything in the shower bag ended up in plastic zip lock bags. We put our egg cartons into zip locks as occasional one break, and it saves a lot of cleaning up.
3. Don't waste money on "Camping" stuff, we bought a set of knives,forks, spoons etc They are generally cheap rubbish, but the holders are pretty useful.
4. Make sure you put things back in the same place each time, we "lost: things in the car for a few days when my wife re-packed the back when I was off taking photos, she put stuff back in different place and I could not find a thing until we unpacked the whole car and repacked it again.
5. If you rely on something, make sure you have a back-up. We relied on our inverter, and when it failed, we had not back-up for camera batteries and lap tops (the 12v lap top charger also died) Luckily I had 6 camera batteries, but took a lot less "ad hoc' photos than normal because I was worried we would run our of batteries. We had two decent cameras, and when we dropped on into a river, there was panic, but at least we could still take photos.
6. Memory cards a small and easily lost, (very difficult to find in sand without a metal detector). They are also pretty cheap now, so get lots. We had 4 x 32gb SD, 3 x 32gb Sony MS, 2 x 16Gb Sony MS, 2 x 8GB Sony MS ( We had two Sony cameras, and A99 and an A900) 4 x 32GB Micro SD. I lost one 32GB Sd early on, might still be in the car somewhere though, I remember putting it somewhere for "safe keeping"
7. Back up daily. We religiously downloaded the days photos, and then put them onto a portable hard drive as well. That's for both the camera and the Go-Pro. We had over 10,000 photos and 200GB of GoPro footage. (Just have to figure our how to make Yo Tube videos now )
8. Carpet is not a good liner for a food drawer, a can of Carnation milk leaked, and it took a lot of cleaning and washing ( and Lavender) to get rid of the smell.
9. Shoes take up a lot of room, and do smell a bit. We had hiking boots, running shoes, sandals, "nice shoes" ofr going to fancy restaurants (Trish had four pairs of "nice shoes" and I had one.) surf shoes (for walking in rock pools and rivers and our boat)
10. Paper maps, they are the best for looking at long distance routes, and IPad just does not work for us.
11. Research the area you are heading for, we found some of the best places by talking to other people, a few select guide books and the local information centres.
12. You need a fuel range of 1000-1500km, we did have to make a few route compromises because our fuel range was around 800km.
13. The "Life Saver" water bottle and jerry can are fantastic, so get a proper water filteration system and save all the money and hassle of bottled water/
14. You can buy food almost anywhere, but it is the "luxury" items that really make a difference. We would keep some ice cream in the bottom of the fridge, and when things were tough and we needed a lift, or just a "reward" for something, it was great.
15. Carry a spare set of car keys, we could have been really screwed if we had not had a spare set of key when I dropped them in the river a Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary, I'm not sure what we would have done.
16. Test all you gear properly before you leave. Our Sat phone docking station, which is supposed to send an email home of our GPS coordinates whenever we turn off the ignition when in "trace mode" didn't work. I tested most things, the PC link worked, the lights all showed green, the Sat phone showed "Ready for Service" and everything seemed to work, then the computer said I needed to upgrade the firmware the night before we left and I let it. After that, the PC link did not work so I could not go back to the old firmware, and it not would receive calls, emails or text when plugged in to the docking station. Sending emails from Sat phone keyboard is pretty frustrating. We had to remember to manually send your location regularly either with the "Spot" (where you get no confirmation you message was sent), or the Sat Phone so as to keep the family happy back home, especially in very remote sections of the trip.
17. Unpacking and then packing up again gets to be tedious, especially for quick overnight stops. I don't think we will have this problem in our truck though.
18. Solid walls are the way to go - in high winds, we could not sleep because of the tent flapping.
19. Corrugations are brutal, all of our "failures" happened on long stretches of bad corrugations.
20. Build in your air compressor for easy access, it is a pain to have to unpack to just change air pressure, so a couple of time we just ran low pressures instead of doing the right thing.
21. Tire Pressure montioring systems are worth every cent - we had three punctures, and the Tire Dog TPMS alarms went off long before I could feel anything was wrong.
22. R&R Bead breakers work l but are a real pain to use, so get a "Tyre Pliers" - the tyre fixer on the Gibb River Road showed us how great they work.
I'll be incorporating all these things into our truck ( this is my list, my wife has her own and I'll add that later.)
Over the past three months we have been travelling around Australia in our Land Rover ( more details here http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115798-Around-Australia-in-a-Land-Rover)
We have learnt quite a few things and wrote them down in a book as we thought of them, so in no particular order:
1. I you can't easily access something, you tend to do without it. We had a small table that required us to take out our drinking water bottles to be able to get it out. We ended up onky using it when we were camped for more than just overnight.
2. Things leak - especially things like toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo etc. Everything in the shower bag ended up in plastic zip lock bags. We put our egg cartons into zip locks as occasional one break, and it saves a lot of cleaning up.
3. Don't waste money on "Camping" stuff, we bought a set of knives,forks, spoons etc They are generally cheap rubbish, but the holders are pretty useful.
4. Make sure you put things back in the same place each time, we "lost: things in the car for a few days when my wife re-packed the back when I was off taking photos, she put stuff back in different place and I could not find a thing until we unpacked the whole car and repacked it again.
5. If you rely on something, make sure you have a back-up. We relied on our inverter, and when it failed, we had not back-up for camera batteries and lap tops (the 12v lap top charger also died) Luckily I had 6 camera batteries, but took a lot less "ad hoc' photos than normal because I was worried we would run our of batteries. We had two decent cameras, and when we dropped on into a river, there was panic, but at least we could still take photos.
6. Memory cards a small and easily lost, (very difficult to find in sand without a metal detector). They are also pretty cheap now, so get lots. We had 4 x 32gb SD, 3 x 32gb Sony MS, 2 x 16Gb Sony MS, 2 x 8GB Sony MS ( We had two Sony cameras, and A99 and an A900) 4 x 32GB Micro SD. I lost one 32GB Sd early on, might still be in the car somewhere though, I remember putting it somewhere for "safe keeping"
7. Back up daily. We religiously downloaded the days photos, and then put them onto a portable hard drive as well. That's for both the camera and the Go-Pro. We had over 10,000 photos and 200GB of GoPro footage. (Just have to figure our how to make Yo Tube videos now
)8. Carpet is not a good liner for a food drawer, a can of Carnation milk leaked, and it took a lot of cleaning and washing ( and Lavender) to get rid of the smell.
9. Shoes take up a lot of room, and do smell a bit. We had hiking boots, running shoes, sandals, "nice shoes" ofr going to fancy restaurants (Trish had four pairs of "nice shoes" and I had one.) surf shoes (for walking in rock pools and rivers and our boat)
10. Paper maps, they are the best for looking at long distance routes, and IPad just does not work for us.
11. Research the area you are heading for, we found some of the best places by talking to other people, a few select guide books and the local information centres.
12. You need a fuel range of 1000-1500km, we did have to make a few route compromises because our fuel range was around 800km.
13. The "Life Saver" water bottle and jerry can are fantastic, so get a proper water filteration system and save all the money and hassle of bottled water/
14. You can buy food almost anywhere, but it is the "luxury" items that really make a difference. We would keep some ice cream in the bottom of the fridge, and when things were tough and we needed a lift, or just a "reward" for something, it was great.
15. Carry a spare set of car keys, we could have been really screwed if we had not had a spare set of key when I dropped them in the river a Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary, I'm not sure what we would have done.
16. Test all you gear properly before you leave. Our Sat phone docking station, which is supposed to send an email home of our GPS coordinates whenever we turn off the ignition when in "trace mode" didn't work. I tested most things, the PC link worked, the lights all showed green, the Sat phone showed "Ready for Service" and everything seemed to work, then the computer said I needed to upgrade the firmware the night before we left and I let it. After that, the PC link did not work so I could not go back to the old firmware, and it not would receive calls, emails or text when plugged in to the docking station. Sending emails from Sat phone keyboard is pretty frustrating. We had to remember to manually send your location regularly either with the "Spot" (where you get no confirmation you message was sent), or the Sat Phone so as to keep the family happy back home, especially in very remote sections of the trip.
17. Unpacking and then packing up again gets to be tedious, especially for quick overnight stops. I don't think we will have this problem in our truck though.
18. Solid walls are the way to go - in high winds, we could not sleep because of the tent flapping.
19. Corrugations are brutal, all of our "failures" happened on long stretches of bad corrugations.
20. Build in your air compressor for easy access, it is a pain to have to unpack to just change air pressure, so a couple of time we just ran low pressures instead of doing the right thing.
21. Tire Pressure montioring systems are worth every cent - we had three punctures, and the Tire Dog TPMS alarms went off long before I could feel anything was wrong.
22. R&R Bead breakers work l but are a real pain to use, so get a "Tyre Pliers" - the tyre fixer on the Gibb River Road showed us how great they work.
I'll be incorporating all these things into our truck ( this is my list, my wife has her own and I'll add that later.)
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
Often these lists tend to be skewed to the person, and that's probably the case here as well but with one exception I think I would have made the exact same list.
The exception is tyre pliers, I have split rims and don't need them.
Interesting about the GoPro footage. I'm on the verge of swapping to video from stills as I have been many times over the years. But the question has always been "what to do with the results?" In the past there weren't any real options but now we have Youtube/Vimeo et al so I think video is worth revisiting. Just last night I was researching editing programs and found Direct Suite 2
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/director-suite/features_en_AU.html
It seems to be the ducks guts (for a non professional package) and has been around a long time, prices range from $80 to $270 depending on options, even I can afford that.
Of course taking gigabytes of footage is one thing, turning that into something worth watching is another thing entirely. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and hearing about any techniques you use.
The exception is tyre pliers, I have split rims and don't need them.
Interesting about the GoPro footage. I'm on the verge of swapping to video from stills as I have been many times over the years. But the question has always been "what to do with the results?" In the past there weren't any real options but now we have Youtube/Vimeo et al so I think video is worth revisiting. Just last night I was researching editing programs and found Direct Suite 2
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/director-suite/features_en_AU.html
It seems to be the ducks guts (for a non professional package) and has been around a long time, prices range from $80 to $270 depending on options, even I can afford that.
Of course taking gigabytes of footage is one thing, turning that into something worth watching is another thing entirely. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and hearing about any techniques you use.
gait
Explorer
Nice list Iain.
I know of someone who transfers anything from glass jars into plastic ones, in the supermarket car park. We've had a couple of screw lids come off. Nothing worse than end of a tiring day faced with curry paste all over the show.
A place for everything, everything in its place! We fail and its a pain.
Thanks for "tyre pliers", I'll get some on return. At worst the weight of the vehicle can be used for bead breaking. Don't forget the tyre soap.
We have two valves on each wheel. The inner stem on the front has been broken off when removing wheel on two occasions (once during spring repair, once during tyre replacement). Now I carry a few spares. When we started I was concerned about insurance spares for things like springs and bearings. Experience has been they are relatively easy though may involve waiting a bit. Its the little things like tyre valves and cooker glow plug that have been frustrating to source.
Redundant and backup systems for critical items. We've used them.
We've had a string of rainy, hazy, cloudy, hot days recently. We have 600w of solar and usually low demand is a bit higher from fridge. Fortunately somewhere with electricity. Our old simple 240v charger is providing about 1A at 13v. First time we've used it. 24Ah/day is the difference between battery being a bit more drained or a bit more charged than yesterday. Otherwise we'd run the engine. Big is not better!
Don't expect elegant engineering solutions for failures in out of the way places.
External hard drives with USB connections can be "temperamental". Both the connectors and the file system. FAT may be more reliable than NTFS and easier to recover. I'll find a wireless hub to plug them into permanently so they appear as network storage. Hopefully more reliable and less things to connect/disconnect. We have backup of backup after a file system failure.
A pouch hung on the wall for cables would be nice.
Battery chargers for AA cells and camera battery permanently wired attached to wall. New camera charges through USB socket, just one more thing I resent connecting/disconnecting.
I hate setup time!
Paper maps are good for planning.
Something I've been meaning to do for a long time is provide hooks for shoe storage. Keep them off the floor, someone will trip over them.
Gauges get glanced at normally. Essential when things go wrong. Electronic manuals for everything on computer. Information is gold.
I'll test the standard powder fire extinguisher on return. I am doubtful it will work but would like to be surprised!
We haven't found a good place for the rubbish bin.
I know of someone who transfers anything from glass jars into plastic ones, in the supermarket car park. We've had a couple of screw lids come off. Nothing worse than end of a tiring day faced with curry paste all over the show.
A place for everything, everything in its place! We fail and its a pain.
Thanks for "tyre pliers", I'll get some on return. At worst the weight of the vehicle can be used for bead breaking. Don't forget the tyre soap.
We have two valves on each wheel. The inner stem on the front has been broken off when removing wheel on two occasions (once during spring repair, once during tyre replacement). Now I carry a few spares. When we started I was concerned about insurance spares for things like springs and bearings. Experience has been they are relatively easy though may involve waiting a bit. Its the little things like tyre valves and cooker glow plug that have been frustrating to source.
Redundant and backup systems for critical items. We've used them.
We've had a string of rainy, hazy, cloudy, hot days recently. We have 600w of solar and usually low demand is a bit higher from fridge. Fortunately somewhere with electricity. Our old simple 240v charger is providing about 1A at 13v. First time we've used it. 24Ah/day is the difference between battery being a bit more drained or a bit more charged than yesterday. Otherwise we'd run the engine. Big is not better!
Don't expect elegant engineering solutions for failures in out of the way places.
External hard drives with USB connections can be "temperamental". Both the connectors and the file system. FAT may be more reliable than NTFS and easier to recover. I'll find a wireless hub to plug them into permanently so they appear as network storage. Hopefully more reliable and less things to connect/disconnect. We have backup of backup after a file system failure.
A pouch hung on the wall for cables would be nice.
Battery chargers for AA cells and camera battery permanently wired attached to wall. New camera charges through USB socket, just one more thing I resent connecting/disconnecting.
I hate setup time!
Paper maps are good for planning.
Something I've been meaning to do for a long time is provide hooks for shoe storage. Keep them off the floor, someone will trip over them.
Gauges get glanced at normally. Essential when things go wrong. Electronic manuals for everything on computer. Information is gold.
I'll test the standard powder fire extinguisher on return. I am doubtful it will work but would like to be surprised!
We haven't found a good place for the rubbish bin.
Iain_U1250
Explorer
Ditto on the last one, just where can you put rubbish in a camper truck. I was thinking about something on the back down low, but then our rear kitchen would cover it. Inside the truck there is not enough space, your TARDIS is a bit bigger than our truck Julian.
We will use the lower drawer under the bed for shoe storage, and in most climates, a "no shoes" policy inside, just leave them on a hook on the door, but that won't work when it's cold.
Good tip on the tyre valves and the glow plug will get spares for both the X100 and the ST90. The Unimog uses special tyre valves as well, the ones like the old VW Beetles, a very large rubber valve, but I'm thinking of fitting a Tire Pressure Monitoring System, the have been worth it on the Land Rover. We have Staun internal bead locks on the Unimog, so I'll have to figure out how to fit them. I tried the external sensors on my Discovery, they only lasted about 5000km before they failed - shaken to pieces by hitting the wheel, you could see where the paint had worn off. Either way, if a sensor fails, then I'll need to replace it, or the valve.
I've spent a fair bit of money on redundancies already, like two alternators, two solar regulators, two water pumps, two water tanks, two fuel tanks, two electric air compressors (to assist the engine driven one on start up) - I'll be fitting another 240V inverter - a smaller one in the front for lap tops and camera batteries, and Trish wants one in the rear kitchen as well. So we will have one have three of them - the big 1600W one for the Nespresso and bread maker, and two smaller 300w ones for things like lap tops and camera batteries, and the stick mixer, which is great for smoothies and ice coffee.
We will use the lower drawer under the bed for shoe storage, and in most climates, a "no shoes" policy inside, just leave them on a hook on the door, but that won't work when it's cold.
Good tip on the tyre valves and the glow plug will get spares for both the X100 and the ST90. The Unimog uses special tyre valves as well, the ones like the old VW Beetles, a very large rubber valve, but I'm thinking of fitting a Tire Pressure Monitoring System, the have been worth it on the Land Rover. We have Staun internal bead locks on the Unimog, so I'll have to figure out how to fit them. I tried the external sensors on my Discovery, they only lasted about 5000km before they failed - shaken to pieces by hitting the wheel, you could see where the paint had worn off. Either way, if a sensor fails, then I'll need to replace it, or the valve.
I've spent a fair bit of money on redundancies already, like two alternators, two solar regulators, two water pumps, two water tanks, two fuel tanks, two electric air compressors (to assist the engine driven one on start up) - I'll be fitting another 240V inverter - a smaller one in the front for lap tops and camera batteries, and Trish wants one in the rear kitchen as well. So we will have one have three of them - the big 1600W one for the Nespresso and bread maker, and two smaller 300w ones for things like lap tops and camera batteries, and the stick mixer, which is great for smoothies and ice coffee.
graynomad
Photographer, traveller
You got windows haven't you
We're no shoes in any weather, the only difference being when it's cold the outside shoes get swapped for Ugg boots in the entrance.
You need redundancy, I say again, you need redundancy. Sounds like you're well covered in that area. Pity we can't carry a 2nd engine and drive train.