Sitec's Truck......

Ever since I bought this truck, there have been holes in the exhaust system... As I've racked up the kms hauling rocks into our place for the house build, the holes have got bigger. On the last rock run a large chunk fell off the LH muffler. Since then it's sounded like a tin can full of bolts being rattled! The original system needed a rethink anyway, as it was two long separate mufflers mounted under the chassis rails, either side of the transfer box, connected by a network of piping which fed back to the upright stack. Soon after I bought the truck I also bought a later Mercedes Actros muffler. I wanted a box type muffler like the later trucks. I didn't really study the muffler I'd bought, but it transpires it was intended for the left side of the chassis, not the right where I wanted it to be. Needless to say, there was a good weekends work 'modifying' it to suit it's new position (which included inverting the polished alli cover plate). First up was some inlet and outlet mods, along with flipping the cover plate. Then I propped it in place using blocks, so I could devise a way of mounting it...

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Armed with card templates, skirt templates and several trial fits, I had an inverted muffler with the bracketry required to fit my chassis, and some side skirts tacked in place...

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Lastly it was time to fit it up, and mount the cab tip pump in behind the first part o the side skirt. It was at this point that the original drawn plan changed, with the addition of the lower 45 deg taper on the side skirts (as I wanted it to house the muffler outlet). Coachbuilding proper has begun!

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Now I'd made a start on the RHS of the truck it made sense to keep going! A while back I'd temporarily fitted the large fuel tank off the donor truck. I say temporary as it had hung there with two M12 bolts for the past 6 months, and I'd only ever been game enough to throw a max of 100 litres in it at each fill! This tank had to be lifted as high as possible, so the filler could only be accessed from a door in the body. It also had to be as close to the muffler as possible as I had to leave room for an AC base unit... We are taking a $300 punt with the AC... I bought a 2 year old Mitsubishi 3kw Reverse Cycle Air Con system that had been pulled out of a house that was being knocked down to make way for a road upgrade in Adelaide. Every Mine Donga in WA has a household system, and these withstand being thrown on and off trucks, and seem to survive. No doubt, time will tell. If it does not survive, then it's little lost and room for another locker! With the tank lifted and shifted, I was able to hang the AC off the body floor. This has to be attached to the body and not the chassis as the system has a much higher gas pressure than automotive systems, and uses copper pipe not flex, so the base unit needs to be attached to the same thing as the head unit. It all fitted on the right side between the wheels... just!

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Next up was the side skirt that also forms the front section of the rear wheel arch. This bit is crucial as it forms part of the finished look that has to be 'right'.

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Lastly was to fit it, and fill the middle bit. Suddenly that huge tank has been swallowed up and hidden!

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Currently there's about 700mm clearance between the base of the skirts and the ground!

With the RH side between the wheels filled, it was time to look at the left side. First job was to relocate the air tanks/battery box back to where they were when the truck left the factory. They had been shifted back when the crane had been fitted, but were in the wrong place for our requirements. I worked out that the tanks and battery box would fit directly under the Hab Box door, in what is quite a slim place. The faithful tractor was pressed into action to assist with the lift...

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Next up was gas storage. Being me I have taken a different approach with this too... We needed capacity for decent times off grid, but wanted cylinders that are removable (as we can't ship the truck with cylinders on board). We also wanted cylinders that can be easily filled. I won't go into too much detail re the cylinders. :)

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With just enough room for a pair of aluminum forklift cylinders, I fabricated a carrier and bolted it to the chassis.

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Something I am yet to talk about is access to the Hab Box. We've been lucky enough to have a good look over 4 or 5 Overlanders now, and I have done a reasonable stint in Africa driving tour trucks... One thing that needed to be right is access to the Hab Box itself, as we will be in and out of it quite a bit when parked up. Several of the trucks we have seen have a separate ladder setup that needs storing somewhere, and then clipping to the side of the truck when in use. One truck had a stand alone step ladder which we thought was lethal, especially after a wine fueled evening. I wanted our steps to be 'floating' above the ground and form part of the truck. They needed the ability to be folded down or up with the door closed. Wifetec openly admits that she's not sure footed, so whatever I built had to be safe, light and easy to use. With a interior floor level of approx. 1.5m from ground level, there is some height involved. This lead to having one sunken step in the body, which forms part of the step storage when folded up and also doubles as a foot well for dirty boots and sweeping stuff into. First pic is of the step top which sits in two hinge slots built into the footwell. The step is lift assisted with two gas struts, but has a cutout to allow the door to still be closed.

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The next pic is of the second half attached. At this point I couldn't see if it all worked, but it looked like it would.

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And with it folded up in the footwell...

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and lastly in the open position ready to use. The steps have since had a lot of traffic in and out, and work really well. The lower half can be folded up against the top half out of the way, if leaving the truck unattended.

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With the original battery box moved, it gave me a nice big space for a new slim battery rack and the first of two large water tanks. One will be inside, and one will be outside. The idea being that with two tanks, if we do pick up some contaminated water, we only contaminate one tank, and not the whole system. More fabricating saw me with a new double decker battery carrier, as the Hab Box footwell now sat in the battery tray!

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Soon to follow was one of the water tanks.

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Which left a nice little space for a small locker. Another day of folding, bending, tacking and welding saw a locker built and ready to fit.

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Lastly with the battery door made, the tank rack made and fitted, the locker fitted, I could make the cover panel to finish it all off!

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With both side skirts filled and ready for paint, it was time to turn my attention to the spaces behind the rear axle wheels. I have found a local engineering mob who have folded a few things for me (side skirts, roof hatches, awning boxes etc), and so I thought I'd price up having two rear side lockers fabricated for me... It would have been a few weeks of evening work for me and that was time I could be doing something else... They came back with a figure of $1500 for both lockers, so I said yes! Here's a few pics of the lockers once I had them home, the mounts I fabricated to make them fit, and then on the truck...

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Now I finally had something to look at that resembles an Overland Truck. The eagle eyed among you will spot that the cab has had a lift too... 75mm to be precise. The wheel arches on our cab had some war wounds from a previous life, so needed replacing. The arches on the donor truck were very good. The only problem is the donor is an SK ("Schwere" or Heavy Klass) where the cab sits higher to allow for turbo's and intercoolers etc.. Ours is an MK (Medium Klass). As I plan to maybe fit the turbo later, the cab lift using all the donor prime mover parts seemed logical. It looked simple, and ended up being reasonably simple. Taller brackets at the front, spacers under the rear cab springs, and an adjustment to the gear lever linkage length. It also meant that the front bumper (originally on the donor truck) now fitted properly! It's also given the front of the truck more stance.

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With the rear lockers loosely bolted in place, it was time to look at the rear towbar assy. This has to incorporate recovery points, and rollers for my proposed rear mast for lowering the wheels to the ground, as well as being a rated towbar... Getting huge wheels of the rear of the truck safely is something that has to be able to be done by Wifetec as well as me, because in the event of an emergency, she has to be able to change a wheel as well as drive the truck. The truck came with a decent towbar, which has all the required plates on it. I have used the basis of it, and made it better, to how I want it. The first pic is of the original towbar with the original end plates removed in prep for new heavier 20mm plates.

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The next pic is of the towbar with it's new end plates. Each plate has a large lower hole for recovery, and two forklift mast rollers that will carry 100 x 50 C section and form a mast with the rear bumper and spare wheels.

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Last pic for today is with the 'mast' in place on the rollers. This is what the rear bumper will attach to.

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Neat work Sitec. Lots of head scratching I bet.

What welder are you using?

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Originally Posted by 86mud

Neat work Sitec. Lots of head scratching I bet.

What welder are you using?

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Yeah, there's been a huge amount of thought go into this project... Had a few re jig moments to fit it all in! I'm using a simple 250 Amp single phase Cig Welder. :)