Unimogadventures - Our build and travel thread

[Iain_U1250]

My clever wife has finished the padded bag for the portable solar panels.





I've added another two Optima 31A batteries, bringing the total up to 6 Optima 31A for the house battery bank giving a total of 450AH. The battery tray and the brackets are all pretty heavy duty, necessary to hold the batteries. It was hard work getting the two 27kg batteries into the left storage pod, as there is only space for one arm at a time. Fitting the heavy cable also proved to be a bit of a challenge especially getting the wire routed up through the chassis. I had to also connect the negative terminals to the NASA BM2 battery monitor shunt, which is in the main battery box in the middle of the truck. In total, another 4m of 50mm2 cable.



With the ground sheets that used to be in this pod now in the canvas bag, I've got the extra space to fit the batteries. I will use the rest of the space for the recovery gear, in particularly the big 10m sling, the 8 ton shackles and a pair of tyre chains.



I also replaced the locks on the food drawer as well, as the old ones were not capable of holding the drawer closed. I got these ones, they work on a twist principal, so should be a lot stronger than the old latches.

 

[Iain_U1250]

We are moving out of our industrial unit at the end of the month. I have quite a few bits and pieces that may be of interest to anyone. Things like the front outrigger bumpers, a roof hatch, steel rear mudguards, I have a few 6 bolt wheel hubs, and some used but good brake discs and a lot of scrap metal / aluminium that would be useful to someone build a truck. All free to anyone who turns up this week or it is all going in the bin.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

Sorry can't make it lol good deal for someone closer to you

 

[Iain_U1250]

Just doing the last bits and pieces on the truck before we move out in a few days. Our custom awnings arrived, I fitted the rear one. Pretty happy with the end result, although I had to make some modifications to the awning as I didn't take into account the extra width from the sides of the bag it comes in when building the rear luggage rack. Throughout the build I have always waited until I had the things in hand before making brackets or support, as there is always some thing that makes you re-think what you were planning, this is a prime example of what happens when don't do that.






I had to drill out the all the pop rivets cut 25mm off the backing plates and then re-assembling the awning with the backing plate higher up made it fit a lot better. The awnings are pretty simple things, and the Gordigear ones we have are better quality than the other Chinese made awnings on the market, all the fitting are stainless steel, and very hard - drilling some extra holes in them was not easy

We were going to fit a second awning on the side over the table, but after seeing what the trees can to the side of the truck, I decided having something sticking out 100mm from the side of the truck would be pretty risky, and the awnings are quite strong, so the weakest part would most likely be the cladding on the truck itself, just not worth the risk of damaging the truck for the sake of some shade. Instead I will mount a strip of sail track to both sides of the truck and use the awning extensions we have to give us some quick shade/rain shelter without putting out our large awnings.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Time for a bit of an update. The truck has been going grreat, and we had no problems at all until this Sunday, when one of the sidewalls on our rear tyre cracked on the Karunjie Track. There was no evidence of any damage for rocks or anything, just a neat split. We tried to plug the hole as we were only 1 km from the Gibb River Road. We got about 100m before the sidewall split completely. We put the spare on, and continued back to the main road.

Since we could not get any tyres anywhere local. We are running Continental MPT81, and to our surprise, there are none in Australia at all. We contacted a lot of tyre dealers with the same story - no tyres available. Our only choice was Michelin XZLs. Contacting all the tyre dealers in Port Hedland, Kununarra and Broome. The closest town - Kununarra said they did not exist. Port Hedland and Broome said they could get them in 3-4 days. So we decided to drive the 1000km to Broome, by which time should be able to a new tyre from Perth would arrive.

We got about 400km before the other rear tyre blew - same problem, small crack in the sidewall with no sign of any damage. This time I took the tyre off the rim and did a proper internal patch hoping to be able limp back to the nearest town being Halls Creek. When I put the weight back on the tyre, I watched the split open up slightly. A helpful truck driver stopped and suggested we flag down a drop deck truck, and ask him to take us to Broome, for a bit of cash of course. I tried the local tyre shop, to get a tube, or for them to come out and get the tyre, put in a tube and get it back to us. They were not interested, said they would get a tow truck out of Kununarra for us. Then another local stopped and gave us the phone number of the local mechanic who was much more helpful. He said he had a tube that would work, and dropped it off to us the next day on the way to another job. I took the tyre off again, fitted the tube and we limped back to Halls Creek.

Lots of phone calls and after speaking to the Michelin State Manager, we managed to arrange 3 tyres to be sent to Kununarra. We then swapped the damaged tyre to the front, and drove back to Kununarra through the night at 50-60kph to keep the tyre cool.

We will get three XZLs fitted in Kununarra, then head up the Gibb River Road with the Continental on the front, and two spare tubes, and when the two extra XZL arrive in Port Hedland in three weeks time, we will get the fitted.

Looking at the date of manufacture, the tyres are 8 1/2 years old, and according to the tyre people, basically past their used by date. The tyres were already more than 2 years old when we bought them and it took us 6 years to build the truck.

So, if you are building a a truck, buy your tyres last, and try we something that is a bit more common than a 365/80R20.

We are going to look into getting some 22.5" wheel made, as that is a pretty common size now.

 

[Sitec]

Hi Ian.

I'd keep and wear out the XZL's before buying 22.5's. They are a brilliant tyre, and if they were not soooo expensive I would have gone for them on my truck. From the past experience in Africa, I will always carry two complete spares. I have had a lucky score of Gumtree and recently bought 8 Goodyear Omnitrack 315/80 R22.5 tyres on Euro steel rims so have grippy tyres and 2 spares! There's a Mog floating around somewhere in Europe on some nice 22.5" trailer alloys.. Will try and find a pic for you. He's made up adaptors to fit 10 stud euro rims to the Mog hubs.

 

[Sitec]

Found it! Here's a vid of 22.5" rims adapted to suit a Unimog. I like the look!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHn81khLBg

 

[piratexpress1369a]

That sucks about the tires

 

[charlieaarons]

I would stick with the XZLs. I've had good luck with them so far.
Charlie

 

[charlieaarons]

But I carry 1 mounted spare plus 2 unmounted (on the roof).
Charlie

 

[Iain_U1250]

Two spare are great if you have a big truck, but very difficult to do on a small truck. The problem is the tyres have gotten brittle with age, even with two spares I would be still sitting waiting for tyres. If it was just damage then an internal patch would be fine, and adding a tube would be extra insurance. However, when I took the tyres off the rim, I was breaking off chunks of rubber, the side walls were very brittle. I have always run the tyres at the pressures in the Continental technical brochure for the MPT81. After talking to various tyre experts, they all say that the this is a very typical failure mode of old tyres, the sidewalks are not long flexible enough and they crack. they all said that after 6 years, you should rep lace then regardless of how much tread you have left or how they were stored. I will see how they go, but 22.5 look like the way to go in the future, having to reply on only one supplier is crazy, I have looked at another alternative, a 12.00 -20, but they are for split rims only. The Westlake Franna crane tyres are easy to find, very tough, pretty good traction but with more of a road bias than the XZLs. Best of all, only $450 each. I've seen a couple of the 4x4 tour buses here with then, and talking to the drivers, they say they are pretty tough, and the split rims means I don't have to carry a spare wheel, just the tyre and tubes but they will be a lot heavier than what I have now, and weight is always an issue on a small expedition truck.

I am going to buy a set of proper Michelin tyre irons, my standard 28" ones are now banana shaped after two uses. I thought they would be OK, I used the to fit the XM47 I had to wheels with no hassle, but they were pretty new tyres, old a brittle ones are a completely different story. I'm also getting a couple of tubes with the valve stem in the proper place for these rims. We made it over 400km with the patch, dodgy as it was. I was thinking about "sewing" the slip with some stainless still tracer fishing line like I have done in the past when desperate in Kenya, but the sidewalls were so brittle I thought it would make it worse. In hindsight I should have had a couple of tubes with me, I was reminded of that solution by a friend. I had everything else to do a roadside repair.

 

[Iain_U1250]

But I carry 1 mounted spare plus 2 unmounted (on the roof).
Charlie

I think you carry more in spare that my whole truck weights Charlie, the advantage of having a big truck. In saying that, you would not fit down the roads I had just driven down, ��

It was fun watching all the jaws drop when we came over the rise to a "tag a long" tour out of ElQuestro, we heard the tour leader say " how the hell did that make it here" over the radio. I've got a fair bit of it on the GoPro, will edit out the boring bits and post it on my blog.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

Iain can you post a link to your blog again
Split rim are deadly

 

[Iain_U1250]

Found it! Here's a vid of 22.5" rims adapted to suit a Unimog. I like the look!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHn81khLBg

That's what I need��

 

[Iain_U1250]

Iain can you post a link to your blog again

http://unimog-adventure.blogspot.com.au/