DRD4-7R, a Finnish adventure truck project -blog

[Heering80]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for quite a while now, and now it's time to start an adventure truck project of our own. As it it easier for me to update the story in one place, instead of many different forums, we have started to blog the slooow progress of our build. At he end of this message you can find a link to our blog.

Don't be waiting on daily updates, since I'm not that handy with this kind of stuff. However, the more you feel like commenting on the blog, or here, the more I probably feel pressure to do something So you're very welcome to share ideas etc..

Our truck is an ex fire engine MB 1222 full time 4x4, and the idea is to mate it with a container from German armed forces (Zeppelin FM2). The background picture of our blog is our own snapshot from a vacation at Arizona in 2007. We were staying in Phoenix at our friends place, and traveling with a Honda CRV on that day. We headed to T-Lo's Ultimate Offroad at Prescott AZ, and took a scenic route via Crown King (if you know the place). The picture is from over there somewhere

Hopefully we'll get some page views with your help!

http://adventuretruck.blogspot.fi/

 

[getout]

I think this is my favorite quote from the blog:

"P.S. As a comment on what my wife said about the costs of driving off road - I don't think it has hit her yet what this thing is going to cost "

I often find myself in the same situation. I'm pretty sure I intentionly or subconsciously fail to communicate all I know about what has to be done on a project when I'm telling her how great it will be when it's done. I guess that's why she keeps saying yes.

Good luck!

 

[Iain_U1250]

"It will be great when it's finished" - that what I said to my wife when I got a phone call one day from her asking why had a crane truck been delivered to our house. It took a bit of convincing that I was not mad, and that I could do most of the work myself so it won't cost that much. I think she was right though, I was mad and now this project has gone on for four years and cost a fair bit of money, about double what I had originally thought, but I have not spared any expense but in hindsight, I might have been better off with a better truck to begin with, might have saved me a year or two of work.

When I spend more money on something new, I explain to her that it is necessary, "If we break down in Siberia ( or Sahara, or and other remote place I am thinking of at the time) , it will cost a lot more and we might be stuck there for weeks waiting for parts" My very patient wife just accepts that is is necessary.

I love the name of your truck - DRD4-7R. Having that on the rear of the truck would explain it's existence to those who know what it means. It's like putting NCC-1701 on it, if you understand why, then it all makes sense

Good luck with your project,

 

[rblackwell]

" "If we break down in Siberia ( or Sahara, or and other remote place I am thinking of at the time) , it will cost a lot more and we might be stuck there for weeks waiting for parts" My very patient wife just accepts that is is necessary.

Good luck with your project,

So far we have tried breaking down in both Siberia and Iran.
In the first case (Yakutsk) it cost us 2 weeks and a couple thousand dollars to fly to berlin to get parts.
The second time in Shiraz, Iran it cost 3 weeks and 6 or 7 thousand dollars.

Cheers all

 

[mattik]

and the idea is to mate it with a container from German armed forces (Zeppelin FM2).]

I will follow your blog with interest. What do you approximate the cost of the container to be?

 

[Heering80]

Container cost me €2900 shipped to finland. I have no idea of the costs when it's ready. Hope it would be around 15K with all the tech inside, but will probably be way more.

 

[mattik]

Doesn't the cost always end up being "way more"?

When it is time for it, I would appreciate if you could extensively document your choices regarding heating and isolation.

 

[LukeH]

I love the name of your truck - DRD4-7R. Having that on the rear of the truck would explain it's existence to those who know what it means. It's like putting NCC-1701 on it, if you understand why, then it all makes sense

I had to google it, so tonight I will go to sleep sleep less dumb
Love it, totally great and what I've read explains a lot of my unease in what I'm living at the moment. 3you can't stop me wanting to go on adventures; it's genetic!"

Heering80 Thanks for sharing, will be following with interest.

When I spend more money on something new, I explain to her that it is necessary,

If only mine were so patient, I have to find a way of giving her the DRD4-7R gene , then all would be so easily justified.

My very patient wife just accepts that is is necessary.

You lucky, lucky bastard

Good luck and enjoy

 

[Heering80]

When it is time for it, I would appreciate if you could extensively document your choices regarding heating and isolation.

I have thought of installing a Truma Combi D6 diesel heater for water and air. When I get the box at our yard, I'm going to test the diesel heater that it already has. However, I've heard that it's noisy, so probably will need the Truma.

When it comes to isolation, the container has a nice 6cm foam layer within the walls from the factory. So no plans for isolation yet.

 

[theburtseoni]

I sure do like the Volvo truck you had, but watching the new project build will be interesting!

 

[Heering80]

This is the current situation.

 

[canals1164]

Interestingly you appear to have your sub frame pivot at the rear, we did the same and it seems to work well. Most others seem to have pivot at the front of the cabin. The only issue we have found is that when we have motor bike on rack fixed to chassis it looks like its moving against the back of the cabin! Must say the double cab will be fantastic for taking passengers, its going to be a great truck.
cheers
Ian

 

[MuskokaMudder]

Neat concept.
Can you provide the dimensions of your army box? I am most interested in the length.
I am pondering getting a box as a starting point for a build.
thx

 

[Heering80]

Interestingly you appear to have your sub frame pivot at the rear, we did the same and it seems to work well. Most others seem to have pivot at the front of the cabin

I always thought that the place of the pivot would be irrelevant when it comes to the total flex of the container, and that it would only determine the "phase" of the movement. I would have put it in the front as it would have been cool to see the box move max amount compared to the cab. But the guy who build it was determined to put it like this. I'm happy he did, since I kinda undesrstand his reasoning; the front point isn't on the front axle but in the middle instead where the frame twists the average of both ends, the minimum that is.

I'm writing this on a bus, so there might be funny letters somewhere.

The container is from german army. It's 4,25m long and 2,2 wide. You can google it by zeppelin fm2. There is some info in our blog also. 6cm urethane insulated peace of heaven

Riku

 

[Ullie]

The minimum twist of the chassis is at the back axle. So you can place a pivot at the back and in the front, but not at the back axle. The further away you go from the back axle (either direction) the bigger the twist of the chassis is. This is normally indicated in the building guidelines from mercedes. It was/is so for our 814 DA 4x4.

Good luck with the further build.