Author Topic: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic  (Read 3154 times)

Burt Gummer

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Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« on: June 13, 2014, 08:46:29 PM »
Old thread but as the last question remains unanswered...

I've got 3 20-footers and will get a 4th soon I think. I'm currently in the process of converting two of them into somewhere we can live in. Bedroom and lounge room in one, kitchen and bathroom in the other, a covered and enclosed area between the two. The following photo is the state as of today, I just got the roof frame finished before beer o'clock.



It will not look very flash, in fact it's supposed to look rough and little more than just two containers.

Where I am a "new build" or "one time use" 20-foot container costs $4000, about $700 cheaper if you live in the city. 40 foot doesn't actually cost much more but in my case is not suitable.


Not trying to derail the thread here, (which I did) but you've peaked my interest with that ride of yours.
Looks like a standard truck body with an aftermarket bed and cover, but the wheel appears to be disproportionally close to the cab in order to accommodate a full bed.
I bet it has a good story.

It's a standard 75 series diesel Landcruiser with an 8-foot tray and fibreglass canopy.



I'll be stripping it to make a camper in a year or so.

http://robgray.com/graynomad/gov/index.php


It appears that the trucks as well as the critters have evolved to survive on your continent.

I'm currently on the hunt for my own diesel and your example is preventing me from lowering my standards, thank you.
Your intended replacement is impressive too. And you designed the whole thing on CAD with every little detail.
If i'd be wearing a hat I'd tip it too ya.

Good to know I've been of some use :)

I like to do as much as possible with CAD, I still change things when building but at least I have a plan. The detail you can work with is great and you can hide/show layers to see what fits.


Walls and roof removed.


Just showing subframe and power components.


Closeup of power bits in slide out frame, inverter, solar reg, DC/DC converter and LiFePo4 batteries.


Vehicle chassis and three-point mounting system.

I use Sketchup, not a full-blown CAD package but free and very good.


Good God Gray! I can't even draw a 2"x6" in sketchup! You are a talented man for sure!

So back on track, how do you plan to insulate those sea cans? I ask because we use them as tool lockups in construction and to date all the attempts I've seen at insulating them were complete hack jobs except one where we did it my way.. Let the posting of Sinatra pick commence, lol.


So the structure is independent from the frame and has a certain amount of "play"? is what I gather from your 3 point system.
I'm imagining this decreasing the force acted upon the structure during transportation, I doubt this would help out any passengers but it would save the mounting bolts and their seats in the long run. (not an engineer just build stuff designed to withstand crummy roads.)

Correct, as done on most 4x4 trucks and indeed my current truck. It works well and isolates the body from the torsion produced in the chassis. If you don't do that you will get a bent body with most off road vehicles although it depends on the vehicle. Some have stiff chassis and long-travel suspension, some have flexible chassis and bugger-all suspension. In the first case you don't have to worry much, in the second case you do.

Check these pics of my truck





This was while I was testing the chassis twist, that's a 10-degree twist at the rear of the truck and it's all in the chassis as the suspension on these International ACCOs is basically non-existant.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2014, 08:50:41 PM by Burt Gummer »

Burt Gummer

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Re: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2014, 09:22:07 PM »
When I first glanced over the pictures of the wothahellizat I thought you snapped the structure off the body but 10% of play is still hard for me to grasp.
the fact that you told conventional engineering to take a hike and adapt the tech to your needs is what makes your monster amazing.
Do you intend of fabricating the modifications yourself or contract them out?
Is long-travel suspension going to play a role in your new build?
And how do you finance this fantastical lifestyle of yours! :fuckYeah:

graynomad

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Re: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2014, 11:53:53 PM »
Thanks for the spilt.

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I thought you snapped the structure off the body

You and many other people. See the car in the first photo, he thought we had broken it as well and stopped to see if we needed a hand.

There are two main ways to do a torsion mount, I describe them in this part of my build blog.
http://robgray.com/graynomad/wothahellizat/wot2/diaries/diary_06/index.php#twist

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Do you intend of fabricating the modifications yourself or contract them out?

I do (almost) everything myself, always have and I suppose always will. The Landscruiser job is pretty small potatoes compared to building the truck bodies. I originally planned to use my mate's workshop again but have been building up the capabilities of my BOL so should be able to do all the work here.

Quote
Is long-travel suspension going to play a role in your new build?

No, AFAIK the Cruisers have pretty hard suspension and flexible chassis, so I will use the same technique I did on the truck but with smaller resilient mounts (the rubber donuts). Those mounts are great as they isolate the body from a heck of a lot of the road vibration.

Quote
And how do you finance this fantastical lifestyle of yours!

Short answer: No debt, no kids, good jobs, live cheap. In other words don't play the BS game that society demands.

Long answer: Almost never been in debt (paid first two houses off in a couple of years, bought the 3rd one for cash). Both had good professional jobs and no kids. Never been interested in expensive lifestyle (no new cars, big TVs, not even a dishwasher or AC etc).  When we paid off the first house we said we would try a different restaurant every week, never went to a single one, I just can't see the point in paying $100 for a $10 meal then coming home and making a sandwich because there was not enough on the plate.

Then at 45 had a mid-life crisis, sold everything, lived under a tarp inside my workshop while I built Wothehellizat Mk1 then hit the road. The money from selling houses and junk saw us right for a long time, then we pulled our superannuation (= 401k ?), then my dad died and left us a bit (used to buy the land we now live on). We have one more investment to liquefy and when that's gone we'll get the aged pension. Meanwhile I'm setting up the BOL so (hopefully) we can live on the smell of a can of baked beans, just in case something goes pair-shaped with the pension or whatever.

The pension here in Oz is about $28k for a married couple AFAIK, that's almost 2x what we've been living off and probably 3-4x what we could live of if we really pull the belts in and also get more into homesteading which is my current project. Some time ago I estimated that my wife could live quite comfortably on about $5000 pa.

For the last year I have been doing some contract electronics design, but that's just been pocket money really that I've left in Paypal, I will probably use that for some nice toys like tools or guns.

Ok spiel over, as you can probably tell alternate lifestyles are something of a pet subject of mine, maybe we need another split  :)



Burt Gummer

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Re: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2014, 12:16:39 AM »
Ok I realize now that we're both the methodical type and feel every question needs to be answered.
I'll stick with one per post of simplicity's sake.  :-[
It appears to me that your vehicles designs and your life style are inseparable and while going through your site I see that your wife is as well.
Which brings me to my next curiosity.
The deck of the wothahelliszat, how does it hold your weight? is the railing the suspension truss as well? Or does the awning play a roll aswell?   :o
So much for one question... at least they are regarding one subject.

graynomad

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Re: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2014, 06:04:27 AM »
Yes I can be very methodical, comes from having an engineering background I suppose.

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your vehicles designs and your life style are inseparable

I think that's a fair comment, I set my sites on a lifestyle and then design a vehicle that will meet the needs of that lifestyle.

Quote
The deck of the wothahelliszat, how does it hold your weight? is the railing the suspension truss as well?

Yes, on Mk1 the railing was structural and took most of the weight. Some info here

http://robgray.com/graynomad/wothahellizat/wot1/diaries/diary_26/index.php#handrails

The awning plays no part in supporting the deck, in fact it loads it with maybe 10-20kgs.

That deck was about 2 metres in the air, quite scary at first but we soon got used to it.




On Mk2 I have a simpler design

http://robgray.com/graynomad/wothahellizat/wot2/diaries/diary_17/index.php#deck



It's much shorter because half of the deck is actually inside the body, the protruding part only cantilevers about 800mm and it is supported with two simple steel straps back to the body.


Offline JohnyMac

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Re: Gray Nomad's Vehicle Topic
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2014, 09:44:47 AM »
Great pictures graynomad!
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