Thread: Spudboy's super-sized camper replacement for a 130 - and no it's not a Unimog!

The Xmas break was a good time to get some more stuff done on the truck, amid the usual over-eating and drinking of holidays. The main enhancement was fitting a table and starting the seats, and installing the generator. I also fitted some rubberised flooring which has tidied up the interior no end.

The table is made from a big stainless plinth (which also holds knives and forks and glasses and plates) and a lightweight fiberglass top:


The plinth bit came about because we got sick of opening and closing the cupboards to get common everyday things out. This way, these common things are easily to hand and it also makes the table top very solid. You can't really see it in this photo, but the top shelf has knives and forks and spoons, as well as a few common implements like a wooden spoon and a vegie peeler.


The generator is a Honda 3kVA, and I made up a special aluminium 'sled' for it to slide into the rear garage area on these rubber bushings:

The rubber bushings stop about 90% of the vibration coming through the cabin, and although you can definitely hear (feel) it when the gennie is running, it really is very quiet.

It's got its own little door for the exhaust so even in the pouring rain it can operate. I might have to fit some ventilation fans to keep the airflow going, but at this stage it appears to be fine without them.


The flooring is not very exciting, but it finished off the interior nicely. It is non-slip rubberised stuff, and feels soft to walk on.


Other little jobs have been to fit some digital clocks, so I can tell what time it is and when I should come in for dinner, and so you know what time it is in the middle of the night when you wake up. I've tracked down a leak in the shower door (I hope) and just done a dozen little 'nothing' jobs that needed doing.

We went away in the truck for a few days down at the beach after Xmas, but it's back to work now so less time for truck things in January....

More info on these links to the blog:
- Table-and-Seats
- Fitting-the-240V-Generator
- Flooring

Cheers
David

Do you release the strap when the genny is running?

Nope - there is not a lot of tension on the strap, just firm, and the engine seems to want to vibrate "left and right", which the strap doesn't stop. It mainly stops the up and down movement when travelling, from road bumps.

Originally Posted by spudboy

Nope - there is not a lot of tension on the strap, just firm, and the engine seems to want to vibrate "left and right", which the strap doesn't stop. It mainly stops the up and down movement when travelling, from road bumps.

My concern is that the tensioned strap will be nulling out the isolation of the rubber isolators. A rotating mass will be causing movement in the horizontal as well as the vertical so will tend to jump about, you have to get enough dampening to avoid it taking off and resonanting.

The next two items conquered have been fitting the fridge/freezer in between the rear seats of the double cab, and getting the foam seat cushions upholstered.

Fitting the fridge was a fiddly job, plus the weight of an 80L Engel made it troublesome to actually get up into the cabin on my own. Not sure how much it weighs, but I can lift it on my own, just not easily lift it 1.5m in the air on my own!

I've got it wired in with a 22.8V low voltage cut off so it won't completely flatten the truck starting batteries if something goes wrong. I had to TIG up a number of custom brackets to keep it all in place.



See the whole job on the blog here: Fridge-Freezer

The other achievement this week was learning how to upholster. I've done a bit of canvas sewing in the past, but it's not one of my strong points. Working with cloth is so 'vague' after working with steel and wood. I've got a very simple old fashioned mechanical sewing machine. It is plain, but it sews through 6 or 8 layers of fabric without too much drama.



This is the semi-finished product:



I still need to fix the bases in properly, and attach some velcro to the back of the seatbacks. It's very comfortable though!

Here's the link to all the other upholstery details on the blog if you are interested: Cushions-for-the-seat-base

Cheers
David

Long time - No post!

It's not that nothing has been happening, it's just that I haven't got around to blogging anything for ages. It has been steady progress on a range of jobs, and a lot of the stuff I'm working on hasn't been completed, so I'll have a lot of catch up blogging to do shortly.

It's only about 4 weeks to go until we head off to northern WA for a coupe of months, so we're getting to the pointy end. Regardless of what remains unfinished, we have a departure date which we'll be sticking to!

So, things done lately include, an outdoor camping table that can also recharge the batteries:


Strengthening brackets for the disc brake cover plates, which have a tendency to vibrate and fracture, much like a Land Rover Defender, over corrugations:


A stereo that runs from either an iPhone or a USB stick:


Tent pegs for sand:


And a way of stopping all the glassware from smashing together:


There are about 20 other things I made a start on, like fitting a UHF CB radio, but haven't yet finished, so they will all turn up in a future blog.

To check out the full details, see these blog entries:

A-dual-purpose-table
Lots-of-small-jobs
Strengthening-the-Disk-Brake-backing-plates

Cheers
David

I like the table - neat idea Where did you get the onion bags / leaky condoms , I could do with some of those !!!

why not just remove the backing plates all together, I'll be throwing mine away first time I do a rotor swap , I need all the brake cooling I can get !!!

Hi Don,

For the onion bag stuff, go to ebay and search for Protective mesh netting, and you'll get this listing:

Protective-mesh-netting-for-wine-bottles-camping-transporting-goods-10-metres

I did think about throwing the backing plates away, but when I took off the first one, I could see all the ABS ring gear (with all the slots & etc) exposed so I thought I'd better still protect all that.

MAN said it would be best to leave them on, but they didn't really offer any advice as to how to stop them cracking.