Unimogadventures - Our build and travel thread

[Iain_U1250]

Just got back from our test trip up to Teewah Beach, and the awning is great.




It went up very easy, it was up 20 minutes after had parked up on our campsite. We made a short video of us putting it up for the first time.



The weather on the first two days was great, but then last on the Tuesday, the wind came up and it started to rain. It got very windy, and wind was blowing straight into the awning, the whole truck was rocking with the stronger gusts, but it held together.




It didn't leak, but the rain was coming in sideways. If we had finished the front and the covers for the windows it would have been better I think. One of the older tentpoles bent a bit, but we had a spare one. I'll get some a couple more new stronger ones. The GroundGrabba screw pegs were great, didn't move one bit.



The normal steel pegs we used on the side didn't work, so I made some loops out of 8mm shock chord and threaded them through the grommets, and used some sand pegs - those worked great, not moving until we had to pack up. I just need to get some more as I only had 10 of them. I also decide to peg them out at an angle, that seemed to help a lot with the wind.

We made a few videos, and will try and make something for our Youtube Channel soon as we got some great footage, both in the dry and in the wet, editing videos together is a pain though, so may take a while. I also have to edit the 300Gb of video we have of making the awning into something short enough not to get boring.



It rained for three days, with the sun coming out on Friday. Then when it was time to pack up, it started to rain again, pretty heavy rain as well.



Taking the sides down was easy, but we had to wait for a break in the rain to take the roof off, and it was pretty heavy.

The awning is now hanging up on our back deck under cover to dry off, and we will have to get rid of the sand before we do some additional work. Mainly to add some wear strips in a few places where the poles and ropes rub. Then we will make the front and the covers for the windows. We are both very happy with the result, but our little Singer sewing machine is half dead, struggling to stitch properly. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and get an industrial one. Probably should have done that to start off with. We still need to make the front, window covers, an new spare wheel cover and a new bag for the back of the truck to take parts of the awning. I also want to make a cover for the windscreen that fits on the roof bars, to shade the whole thing, that will be better than the silver shade inside the truck.

We will make the front so the that sides are at an angle, the seems to work better in the wind. It was a good test this week, we found out all the things we need to do to finish off the awning properly. We have changed the way we want to do the front quite a bit, making a section between the centre poles such that it can be rolled up, or pegged out to shade the entrance. I also need to move one of the clips on the roof bars, to stretch it out a bit more. We also want longer poles, so that there is less load on the thinner section of the pole. Next time we will use both of our ground sheets, as packing up meant that the awning got a bit sandy.




Our video from the trip

 

[charlieaarons]

When I flew home to Anchorage yesterday afternoon from San Diego it was +23....F.

 

[ITTOG]

This is the awning as it is today, View attachment 646198

It took fair bit of effort, as it is quite big; 3.5m x 5m. We had to move bit of furniture to get it to fit in the lounge and dining room

View attachment 646199

The double sided "basting tape" worked a treat, holding the seams together.

View attachment 646200

Getting the large runs of material to fit under the little Singer sewing maching took some figuring

View attachment 646201

We had to build a runway from all our various camping tables to do the long runs, especially the zips.

View attachment 646202

And it needed a fair bit of rolling up to fit under the arm of the machine, a proper industrial machine would have made it easier, but the Singer worked and only cost us $199 a couple of years ago.

View attachment 646203

In the end it worked out great.

View attachment 646204

Probably the hardest part was the zip for the hatch in the awning so I can still climb up and down the ladder.

View attachment 646205

We still have to make the sides and the front, hoping they will be a lot easier as they are smaller, but there is a lot of fiddly bits, as we want a door in the front and one side, and mesh windows in all three sides.

It is quite easy to put up, the first time took us about 10 minutes, but we should get faster and doing it on concrete didn't help things either.

View attachment 646311

We have a few more things to do to this part of the awning, like fitting the clips that will hold the rear corner tight, and the clips on the front bar to hold the front of the awning taught.

All in all, it has turned out pretty good we think.

I noticed the flutes (I don't recall the real name of them) on the back of your mog and was wondering if you noticed a mileage improvement? I once thought about putting them on a cargo trailer but never did.

 

[Iain_U1250]

I noticed the flutes (I don't recall the real name of them) on the back of your mog and was wondering if you noticed a mileage improvement? I once thought about putting them on a cargo trailer but never did.

I put them on mainly to limit the amount of dust we get on the bag at the back, and it did help with that. It is hard to tell whether the fuel consumption has improved, as on the last big trips we sat at 95-105 kph most of way as we had a time frame to meet. We would normal sit around 90kph, but our fuel consumption didn't change that much, still around 22l/100km so maybe they do work bit. I've seen the independent reports done here in Australia, and looks like at best 3-4% improvement in fuel consumption, but in regards the dust behind the truck, I think they are doing their job. Next time we hit the dirt roads I'll rig up a camera to show what is happening behind the truck.

 

[ITTOG]

Yes a video would be cool.

I was curious because in the states I have only seen them advertised for improving fuel economy.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Iain_U1250]

We did a short video of our truck on the highway, will all the modifications we can keep up with the normal highway traffic.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Finally got around to editing my build up video I made earlier, this one is a lot better.

 

[Ramdough]

I noticed the flutes (I don't recall the real name of them) on the back of your mog and was wondering if you noticed a mileage improvement? I once thought about putting them on a cargo trailer but never did.

White Airtab | Airtab

buyairtab.com

Just to close the loop on this with a link.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Iain_U1250]

Finally got around to editing 70-80 hours of video footage into one video.


I did one a while ago, but it was pretty bad, this one I think works a lot better.

 

[Jostt]

Incredible photos Ian , I miss the phillip island beach , even in cold october...

 

[steve66]

G'day Iain & Trish, I stumbled upon your utube which led me here, 52 pages later, all I can say is WOW, and congrats.

We are at the 6yr build mark of our Isuzu, so know what you have been thru.

I read somewhere that you have canvas covers to protect the side Windows, we have the same issue, was planning on having solid covers made out of perforated SS sheet but storage is then an issue, can you please share some more details/ maybe a photo of your covers?

Thanks & cheers Steve

 

[Iain_U1250]

G'day Iain & Trish, I stumbled upon your utube which led me here, 52 pages later, all I can say is WOW, and congrats.

We are at the 6yr build mark of our Isuzu, so know what you have been thru.

I read somewhere that you have canvas covers to protect the side Windows, we have the same issue, was planning on having solid covers made out of perforated SS sheet but storage is then an issue, can you please share some more details/ maybe a photo of your covers?

Thanks & cheers Steve

Hi Steve, glad you liked the videos.

The ones I made roll up small, even on the big window.







I stuck two length of sail track either side of the window. Extending down to where I can reach. The canvas covers are just heavy duty canvas 500GSM ripstock canvas, same stiff we made our awning from. We made our own sailtrack tape by just putting rope into pockets Trish stitched into the canvas. We made it because we didn't know where to buy short bits of the sailtrack tape, we now you can buy it online easily now, not just in 50m rolls.



We also made a pocket to slide some thin tent rods into lengthwise, but a few tests we found it was fine without them, as the canvas covers are a tight fit. The flap a little bit if we go above 60kph, but have never slid down. I did drill some small holes for some locking clips, but have not used them. The key to this is getting the measurements of the screen spot on, they are a tight fit.

The sailtrack was glued on with Sikaflex, some as the rest of the truck. Our awning works the same way, and that has stood up in 70kph winds directly into it.



The long sailtrack on the side of the truck is to put in a small light weight shade sail, we use that to put our inflatable canoe under some shade, and to give some shade to the side of the truck with the fridges. We now have on at a high level as well, so we can have another 3mx 2.5m awning on the opposite side of the truck to the main one. We also have a shorter length on the other side for short term stays, just to shade the steel table. It also worked great when changing a tyre, as it was about 35C in the shade.

 

[steve66]

Thanks heaps Iain for the details.

 

[Iain_U1250]

We have released another video, this time some off road action in the Flinders Ranges and Arkaroola.

 

[Sitec]

Watched it at the weekend. Echo Back Track is something I'd like to tackle with our truck.... I think!