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

Thanks David,
corner caps are in express mail to me , will post a pic when fitted.


If you havent thought of it yet you are going to need a ladder, not to access the camper but to climb up and inspect / clean roof solar panel etc.

I bought one of these beauties from ebay
Brand NEW 3 8M Telescopic Aluminium Ladder Extension Step Alloy Extendable | eBay

folds down into nothing and extends over 3m , takes my 100kg no probs. it is suprisingly solid and stable.
(but keep your fingers and thumbs clear when collapsing it)

only issue with the ladder is I used it to clean the caravans solar panel for the first time and found the roof skin delaminated :censored: damn ladder !!

I called in there today, and asked about the caps (which are priced at $40 + GST in case anyone else wants to know), but they said they were already in the post and on their way to you! Super efficient :D

I'll check out those ladders....

Had some good progress this week. The basic canopy construction is now finished, and is now ready for painting, so that means some jobs on the chassis can get a look in.

The water tank has been fitted to the passenger side:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...013/12/578.jpg

The fuel filter has been relocated, out of the way of where I want to put in an underslung cabinet, and the tricky spring system to hold the canopy to the chassis has been set in place (waiting for the canopy to be lowered onto them):
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...013/12/579.jpg

It's now fully masked up inside ready for internal painting.

For more photos and details, see here: Lots of progress in a short time!

Cheers
David

That looks awesome

We have had some sort of electrical tragedy on the truck, with a 100% dead ECU :(

There is absolutely nothing when the key is turned on. Two new batteries got fitted and still nothing. The main engine fuses are blown, so something has sent a lot of current through things.

MAN have connected up the special computer diagnostics thingy, and it can't even see an ECU at all.

The bodybuilders have said they jump started it with a mega-battery starter pack, so maybe that is it? They assure me (and MAN) that they haven't done any welding on it at all. I was thinking maybe somone drilled a hole through some wires when they were fitting something, but there's nothing obvious to suggest this.

It is possible that it is a MAN manufacturing issue which will be covered by MAN warranty, but I am going to guess not. I'd be thinking it was something the bodybuilder did to fry it, but who knows. The MAN technician cheerily told me that a new ECU was about $4,500....

More details and a couple of pictures of the painted body here: Some sort of ECU tragedy

Bummer, thats not good news at all, one thing for sure the ECU did not melt itself down, cant see how you would be made liable for somone elses stuff up.


My corner caps arrived, just have to find a place to fit them.
thanks for your help.

Hope ECU is not too big a headache !!

Spudboy,

I had a look on your linked blog entries, very smart looking blog!

Will the canopy sit on the springs or will the floor go through the space taken up by the wooden spacers?

Have you got an advertising commitment to your truck manufacturer or are you just proud of the brand or both?

Hi SlugBurner,

No advertising deal! Just thought it would be a good logo to have on the site since it is MAN truck I'm building. The blog is built in DNN (DotNetNuke) which is a neat CMS system. I work in Visual Studio, so am just exploring how DNN works.

The canopy sits on the main chassis rails, for the whole length of the chassis. It sits inside the cheekplates of the spring assemblies.

The sideplates with the round steel bar only act as locators, so the chassis can flex underneath the canopy. So, in a left or right direction, it is locked. In a backwards and forwards direction it is locked. but in a vertical sense, it is free to move up off the chassis rail when needed. The springs are there to limit the up/down movement a bit. Does that sort of explain how it works?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by goingbush

...cant see how you would be made liable for somone elses stuff up.

...

---

How ever it happened, I am not thinking of paying for it. It will either be an MAN failure, or caused by something the body builder did, so in either event, it's sort of not my problem.

The truck has a 3 year/300,000Km warranty, and at the moment it has about 250Kms on the odometer, so virtually brand new.

Pretty clear to me (how the mounting system works) but helps having spent some time studying various flex systems, I'd be happier if it was sitting on poly pads as well, but MAN would have to know what is best.

Keen to see an articulation shot when done, showing the how much the subframe lifts off the chassis.