MAN 4x4 Truck camper build

[Felipe]

Hello David,

The engine in my truck has a single turbocharger. The dealer said that the 240HP engine can go to 260HP just with a little computer magic. But encouraged me to stay at 240HP for some time and then decide if I needed more.
My first experience driving mine was funny, I would say. Before the purchase I went to the dealer for a test drive (and wife's approval)
My truck has the ZF12 Tipmatic transmission. The dealer just told me to flip the switch to "D" and go. I drove from the garage to the door, that was easy. The door exits directly to a main highway, so I patiently waited until no buddy was coming and then pushed the throttle. My first feeling was that the engine had died ! the thing was just not moving. I realized that the transmission decided to take off in 4 gear. When it slowly started moving, then transmission suddenly shifted to 8 gear, then to 11 and finally to 12. Everything happened in a ver low torque situation that made my entrance to the highway difficult and scary.
Which transmission do you have ? the ZF12 Tipmatic ? If so, it is a little bit tricky and you have to get used to it, but once you do, it works perfect.
So far I would say that 240HP had been OK for me. The fully loaded truck weights 10 tons and I plan to drive it like that for at least some 10,000 Kms and then decide if I need the 260HP with its draw back of higher fuel consumption
Ill try to get some pictures of the build somewhere in the web over the weekend.
Here is the finished rig.
Regards
Felipe

 

[SpudBoy]

Hi Felipe - ours has the same transmission as yours. It is not especially fast at changing gears, which I gather can be an issue in heavy sand. There is a different drive mode where you can make the gearbox go through every gear without skipping. Also, when I did my test drive, the salesman showed me a way of flicking through the gears using the steering column stalk, but I can't remember how it works now. You seem to be able to drive it just using the steering stalk, for both changing gears and also for the exhaust brake.

The roof has just gone on, on our build. Am pretty happy with the feeling of spaciousness inside. The 2100mm (7') roof helps with this. Tomorrow the windows are getting fitted!

Cheers
David

 

[EuroJoe]

popcorn and lotto ticket bought subscribing

 

[SpudBoy]

Last week's progress was getting the sides up. It looks much more like a canopy now, and we can get an idea of the scale of things.

This is how it started out, attaching the back wall to the bed frame:

and then the other 3 walls attached to that:

Other progress items are getting the entry door frame made, and building a skeleton door to fit, and working out where the 12v wiring in the roof needs to go before the roof is fitted.

More details here: Sides are up


Had some more good progress this week. The basic canopy construction is now finished, with the windows fitted, 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:

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):

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

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

Cheers
David

 

[alan]

I got one question for you fella's. do you have money tree's in your backyard? if so please send me one
very envious!!

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi David,

Have you fitted different tyres? What are they? Make, tread, size?

Regards
John

 

[SpudBoy]

Hi John, yes I have fitted super single rims, and Bridgestone M748 tyres. They are 425/65 R22.5 on 11.75 inch rims (or maybe 12 inch rims - I can't remember).

I only wanted the standard (common) size super singles which are 385/65 R22.5, but the axle rating requires the bigger tyres with a higher load index.

Cheers
David

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi John, yes I have fitted super single rims, and Bridgestone M748 tyres. They are 425/65 R22.5 on 11.75 inch rims (or maybe 12 inch rims - I can't remember).

I only wanted the standard (common) size super singles which are 385/65 R22.5, but the axle rating requires the bigger tyres with a higher load index.

Cheers
David

Hi David,

Yeah, all right. That still sounds OK. We fit a lot of 425's at work but the last couple of MAN's we had ran 385's with derated rear axles. You wouldn't be planning to run near full GVM would you? For future reference, Toyo do a great tyre for all terrain use... called M320 with anti- chip compound in a 425.

 

[SpudBoy]

I made a few phone calls about derating the rear axles, but it sounded like a huge amount of work. No-one I spoke to gave me any indication that it was straightforward, so buying 425's instead of 385's seemed to be the easiest route.

I bought 6 of them, as it's not so easy to get hold of this size throughout Australia, so we thought 2 spares was a good idea. 1 mounted on a rim and one as a tyre only.

Interesting to hear that Toyo do this size too. When I was looking, all I could find with a semi offroad tread was either Bridgestone or a Chinese tyre called something like Long Sun Dragon brand, so I thought Bridgestone was the safer option.

 

[SpudBoy]

ECU Tragedy!

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

 

[LoRoad]

Oh that just stinks! Good luck on a quick recovery.

 

[Felipe]

Hello David,
Im sorry to hear what happened.
The MAN dealer here recommended me to disconnect both terminals from the battery and join the end of the cables together and keep them that way during the camper build. They said that by doing that, the ECU is isolated from the rest of the system and damage from electrical discharges is most likely avoided (maybe a wrench falling in the wrong place). They also said that to reconnect the battery, it is very important and critical to connect positive first. I do not know if this had something to do with your case.
Hope you get it fix soon.
Regards
Felipe

 

[SpudBoy]

Canopy fitted to the chassis

A milestone day today. The canopy is sitting on the chassis, and it looks a lot like a proper camper now

To follow up on how the two are fixed together, this is a shot of the spring brackets now welded to the canopy. The wood blocks keep the spacing even and they'll get taken out tomorrow.

The airconditioner got fitted today too, which was a stroke of luck seeing it was 43 degrees outside.

More picture and so on here: The canopy is finally on the chassis

 

[jervig]

Mine is just delivered last week. The last ones in Europe without Adblue.

Building starts next week, keep you posted.

Groetjes,

Jeroen

 

[fuoristrada camper]

You dare ,a Tgm in ''flemisch grey'' !

Your 3th Man?

Grts

G16