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So, it gets worse before it gets better. The more I removed the more I could see what needed to be modified! Time to make room for spare wheels, rear lockers and the new floor... With a new floor in place, the access door relocated back a little and the glass shifted forward, I now had the basis of a box to suit my truck. Time to look at partitions.
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Next up was the bed platform. The original plan was to have a Queen or King mattress across the back, but having slept across the 101 and needed to get up in the night, crawling over one another was not an option. Fore and aft sleeping was the way forward. We then saw another truck which had two single mattress's and access in the middle. This made perfect sense, so the layout started to take shape.
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While the build progressed at home, the poor donor truck was sadly meeting its demise at work. The Road Ranger and alloys sold, which covered the purchase cost of the truck itself, and it was now a bit of an eyesore at work, so I needed to wrap it up. The engine came out, and then the cab and remaining things that were of use to me were removed from the chassis. This was then sold. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot the problem with the donor's engine.
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With progress going quite well on the body, time was nearing when I would actually need a body on a truck to continue... The time had come to strip the crane and tray off our truck. I had a buyer for the crane too, so after one last job at work it was off with the crane and tray! Another day was spent steam cleaning the chassis and then it was a short but entertaining drive home in my 10.6 litre gocart!!
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This is how mine looks with the smaller tyres, and with black rims (they used to be white - a bit of a dumb colour for wheels).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spudboy
They look fine, not too small either. I have to say tho, I'm not a fan of black wheels... Ours are going silver. :)
Yeah - silver might have been a better option, but I had 4L of black! And I've got a few other vehicles with black rims which look good, but not sure it works so well on the truck.
So, with the chassis steam cleaned and at home, it was finally time to see if my stepped workshop would allow me to do what I planned it for.. Slide 2 tonnes of body across two bearers ad onto the truck. I shouldn't have worried. It worked well, and with an hour of shuffling, I had a body on a truck!
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So, the original plan was to sit the body on the truck, and make sure it fitted correctly etc, and then remove it again and continue with the body build (worrying about the chassis and side skirts later)... However, once I had the body sat on the chassis, it seemed really daft to just check it fitted, make some mounting points, and then remove it again! A few weeks were spent making my take on a 4 or 5 point mounting system (which is a thread on it's own, as lots of folk have lots of ideas on how this should or shouldn't be done), but here's the basics of my take on it... I have the two 'fixed' points on the outside of the chassis up front just behind where the front springs mount. By having the fixed points at the front, the front of the body and the rear of the cab always stay in a similar plain, making the crawl thru access simpler. It's also difficult to have a body pivot point in the center of the chassis rails where it needs to be when there's a gearbox in the way as is the design on a normal 4 point mount! The first pic is of one of my two 'fixed' points. For some reason the pic uploader feels the need to turn the pic!?
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This consists of a drop plate with a 60mm hole, which matches a 60mm hole in the chassis. In that hole is a 60mm x 24mm brass bush with a hole in the center and two large washers and a bolt to hold it in place. The next pic is the first of my center chassis pivots. The second pivot can be seen a little further back. These pivots are bolted to cross members that are sat in between the front rear spring mounting points, and the rear rear spring mounting points... in theory meaning the chassis is carrying next to no load, and the body has its downward pressure direct on the leaf spring eyes.
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The next pic is of the third pivot point which is at the back of the truck. This probably isn't needed, and was never planned, until I decided to change from one large water tank to two smaller water tanks, with one being in the rear of the body. More on tanks later. This third pivot sits on a small home made X member at the very rear of the chassis. More on what those large plates are all about later too!!
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The last pic is of the truck chassis under twist (400mm of blocks under the rear left outer dual wheel). When this was taken, all the body mounts were still only tack welded, so if I had anything wrong, these tacks would have broken under twist. I also tested how much load was on the pivot pins... Both would tap out with a normal hammer, so I know I have them in pretty well the right spots. When this was taken, I hadn't got the last pivot in place. :)
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The 5 point mount takes a bit of explaining, so here's a sketch which might help you all better understand it.
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Next up was to mock up some side skirts to help me scale the proposed skirts, and see that my idea of replicating the front arch shape at the rear works... There's a lot of vehicle body manufacturers who get this very wrong, and it can make a vehicle look overloaded or like it's had an insane lift. I want this truck to look good as well as serve a purpose, as there are some 'interesting' builds on the net.
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With a basic shape formed, that I'm happy with, the dimensions were locked in. I had my skirt style and dimensions. These differed slightly from the drawing, as I have added a 45 deg section at the base of the skirt.
