Unimogadventures - Our build and travel thread

[Iain_U1250]

The four bolt block compressor flows about as much as the air cooler belt compressor, but they are only 8 bar units. Both motors I had have engine block compressors, and I had a spare belt driven one, but decided not to fit it, went with two ARB twin motor air compressors as back-up instead, as I could use them without having to run the engine. They pull about 50A each,but put out about twice the airflow of the normal compressor. I decided to increase the air volume to almost double the OEM amount, so needed a booster so I did not have to wait to long to get the system up to pressure. The rules here say you have to be able to drive off within 5 minutes of starting with no air in the tanks. I can easily do it with the electric compressors switched on. They cut out a 7.0 bar, so won't run unless the air get really low, and I normally switch them off once the system is up to pressure. It also means I can release the park brakes without having to start the truck.

I would rebuild your old one, as you have an 18 Bar system, otherwise you have to make a lot of changes and increase the air volume as well.

 

[Iain_U1250]

The four bolt block compressor flows about as much as the air cooler belt compressor, but they are only 8 bar units. Both motors I had have engine block compressors, and I had a spare belt driven one, but decided not to fit it, went with two ARB twin motor air compressors as back-up instead, as I could use them without having to run the engine. They pull about 50A each,but put out about twice the airflow of the normal compressor. I decided to increase the air volume to almost double the OEM amount, so needed a booster so I did not have to wait to long to get the system up to pressure. The rules here say you have to be able to drive off within 5 minutes of starting with no air in the tanks. I can easily do it with the electric compressors switched on. They cut out a 7.0 bar, so won't run unless the air get really low, and I normally switch them off once the system is up to pressure. It also means I can release the park brakes without having to start the truck.

I would rebuild you old one, as you have an 18 Bar system, otherwise you have to make a lot of changes and increase the air volume as well.

 

[Jostt]

Ok, nice to know It, 8 is not enought for my Air valvles I Think, so I Will rebuild my one, the nice Think was to keep away the belt....is much better the Direct conection on cam shaft

 

[Wyuna]

It's great to see more of your recent travels Iain, since your move down to Melbourne.

I've watched the uTube videos and have Sub'd.

Now that you guys have dealt with a Melbourne winter, your ready for a Tasmaina trip in between contracts.

Keep up the videos, i enjoy seeing the Mog in action

Cheers,

Bryn

 

[Iain_U1250]

Thanks, Bryn, hoping to do more travelling now things have settled down a bit. Get away at least one trip a month

 

[Iain_U1250]

Decided to fit a new gauge to monitor the portal temperatures. Took quite a bit of wiring and securing all the sensors, but it seems pretty good. It can trigger alarms and relays, but for the moment I'll just use it as a gauge.

I used epoxy glue to stick on the sensors on each of the portals, they should be OK, they are pretty secure. If the epoxy doesn't hold, I'll try Sikaflex.

 

[Jostt]

Very nice Ian, did You test on hiway? Just to know a different reference, because I suppose my front bearings are on the limit, looking my temps, so wath I understand You paste the probes to the hub case, I allready see Big diference betwen the internal parte of the hub , and the center just on the rim, there is the Max temp, this is why Im planing to monitor the oil , changing the oil Bolt, because by the small oil capacity I can imagine no all the hub is at the same temp, In my case I found one of theme at 118c degres the center hub , bolted on the main gearing and the hub case just at 44c degres, so still not clear for me, thank You so much for the info

 

[thebigblue]

Nice temp. gauge , and expensive....

I´m in the process of doing a Ardunio version of this, it will also be able to measure voltage and other stuff, display is a 1.3" OLED from China.
All parts are very cheap... If any interest I´ll post a few pics and more. Temperature sensors will be 18b20.

 

[Iain_U1250]

I wanted to do an Ardunio version as well, but then worked out the cost of getting all the things necessary (over $250 over here for all the gear) , learning to program it, etc etc, and decided this would work out easier - I have a load of other things to do Eventual plan is to build my own system with a whole load more sensors etc, but this worked out OK in the meantime I will start once we are on the road, give me something to do when we are sitting around on a beach somewhere

 

[thebigblue]

Okay I get it, - I have ordered things directly from china via ebay, shipping is cost free worldwide, the OLED was 4 EUR, the temperature sensors was 3 EUR for 5 pcs, and a Ardunio Pro mini is 2 EUR.
So around 10 EUR for parts shipped worldwide. And programming is not to bad, things can be found fairly easy online. I can post my code and parts list here later if you want some hints I might ad a SD-card for logging data purposes. I also figures out how to have a cycle of different displays on the OLED.

The Blue Sea temperature display alone is 226 EUR here in Denmark, and on top comes tax and vat

 

[Jostt]

I Think whit a good acurate gauge is enought for this aplication, its true that good ones are expensive , but Also the time to build one is not for free, I dont like specially Arduino for this aplication , but any way this is another question , bluesea is nice Dash, I Will use this

 

[Iain_U1250]

The temperature monitor works great. This was after our first hour of driving Portal temps seemed very stable. It seems that even the direction of the wind affects the portal temperature. We had been driving at 95 Kph for about 40 mins with a strong cross wind. I could not figure out why one. portal was running hotter than the other side. I stopped and even checked the oil levels. The road then turned 90 Degrees and the temp started to drop.
This was the result 10 minutes later. Later on the road changed direction again an the temperatures evened out again. Seems like the porta temperatures change regularly.

 

[thebigblue]

Looks good, - this is what I came up with, 1 temperatur, 1 humidity, 1 water temperature (with a alarm and a red LED), 1 car battery and 1 house battery voltage... on a B/W 1.3" inch OLED... I also managed to program the Arduino to draw the symbols... You can do whatever you want on the 128 by 64 dot display

(Sorry for the crabby phone picture)

 

[Iain_U1250]

That's a great display, I think I will have to learn to program the Arduino systems. Was thinking of adding a full computer system, as the overhead console screen can take a VGA input.


Just a bit of an update on the truck. Managed to break the bearings on the portal axle - dropped it off the jack when freeing a stuck handbrake pad. I noticed one of the portal getting hot - about 75 Deg C, and pulled over to check it and found the handbrake was dragging. It turns out the handbrake pad was bent - and jammed on. However, when I had the wheel off, the wooden block under the jack split in half, and the truck fell off the jack and damaged the bearings. We had to get towed home as if we went faster thant 40kph, the portal would get hot, and I ddin't want to risk blowing the box up completely so we put it on a flat bed, luckily the insurance paid for most of the cost. I got it home and pulled off the box - bearing were pretty crunchy, luckily I have a four spare portals with new bearings and seals all ready to go.

I also decided to make a proper baseplate and something to support the jack - made from LVL it is strong enough to hold the truck, and wide enough so should stop the truck from falling off the again

I made two base plates, 2" LVL with and aluminum plate on top.

I was able to replace the portal in about 4 hours using just the tools I carry in the truck. The handbrake pads took a while to get through MB Australia - I wanted OEM rear pads this time, and they had to come out of Singapore - took three weeks to get here.

This morning was pretty cold - about 2 Deg C, and I had been asked how smooth the engine is after about 3 years and 40,000km. This morning I shot this video - started first turn and idled smoothly

 

[Roverchef]

Sorry to hear about the mishap. I had one fall years ago and I learned my lesson. Glad you are alright. How much does your Mog weight?