M1078 LMTV expedition vehicle build

LostInTheWorld

Builder/Traveler
Hello all,

I’m fairly new posting here, but I have been a long time expedition portal browser. I have also been very active on other forums for years (G503, cruisersforum, rotaryforum, and steel soldiers).

I want to share a bit about our newest project.

---Project Background:
I am a nature and wildlife photographer. My wife and I travel quite a bit in the US and sometimes internationally. We go on backcountry photography trips in our Wrangler/Autohome setup. We love our little jeep roof top tent (RTT) setup, but we are looking to significantly expand our trip capability with more internal volume, so we are selling our RTT and starting an expedition truck build. We are planning extended (months long) trips in the western US, Alaska, and Canada in the coming years, so we are building a new vehicle for that purpose. We typically use our 4x4 to access out of the way locations (often in snow, sand, mud, and flooded roads), but we don’t intentionally seek technical situations. Our new vehicle will be highway capable, but we are in no rush, so cruising along a highway at 55-60 mph is fine with us. We want it to be something we feel comfortable living in for extended periods off the beaten path.

---Build Capability:
I’m a certified welder (TIG and stick), I’m a machinist (I own a small machine shop), and I’m a mechanical design engineer. I have worked in the engineering field one way or another for the last 19 years. I have built several aircraft, and I have worked quite a bit with military vehicles. My wife is professional quilter, blogger, and was an aircraft design engineer for over 10 years. She has a great eye for design, color, and style. Basically, we are set up to handle most reasonable design/build projects.

---The Vehicle:
We are building an Expedition Vehicle with a ~110 square foot living space on a 21 foot long 1996 M1078 LMTV military truck chassis. We compared many truck chassis options (FUSO, Unimog, Steyr….). There are plusses and minuses to every option, but we felt that the LMTV fit our needs and budget best. After working on our LMTV for a while now, it’s clearly a pretty sturdy vehicle and has plenty of capacity for our project. When complete, our truck will be capable of remote operation for several weeks without supplies and will be registered as an RV and drive-able with a normal Class C driver’s license.

We removed the truck bed last month and fixed a lot of mechanical things on the truck. Right now we are cleaning up the truck, removing unneeded systems, and getting ready to paint the frame. We are also working on the design of the habitat. We plan to work on the truck this summer, and start the habitat build this winter when the weather favors indoor work.

Here is my wife driving our truck when it first arrived: https://youtu.be/U9NhmKjRN08

Here is our truck in its current state:
current-configuration.jpg

Here is our basic layout as of right now:
fuchs-m1078.jpg

We have just recently started a blog on the project. I plan to post here, but you can keep an eye on our project on our build blog.

I’m sure we will have a million question as we work through the project, so I wanted to get the ball rolling.

Have a good evening,
Michael
 

tienckb

Adventurer
Subbed big time!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
2002 LX470 expo ready
2008 Ford E350 EB V10 4x4 Sportsmobile PH top
Custom off road trailer
 

Silverado08

Observer
Quite a project,will be watching,,
First mod Id suggest if it doesnt already have, invest in locking fuel cap..
 

BrianV

Observer
Something about these trucks is super intriguing to me.
I've always wondered if a pass through from cab to camper possible at all?
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
This will be nice to follow :) Let me know if we can help you with our composite panels.

Andreas
 

LostInTheWorld

Builder/Traveler
* Subscribed...I looove these trucks!

Subbed big time!

Watching this on!

Nice to see you over here! Welcome.

Finally! I've been waiting to watch someone build one of these for years.

Thanks, guys. Good to be here. This project has been a lot time in planning. We compared about a million options before getting to this point, so we're excited to get going on it. We're expecting this to take a few years, and we're hoping to have fun along the way.

We'd really like this to be a positive ongoing conversation about the project, so if you have input or questions, please chime in.

Thanks,
Michael
 

LostInTheWorld

Builder/Traveler
Quite a project,will be watching,,
First mod Id suggest if it doesnt already have, invest in locking fuel cap..

Totally agree. Especially because we have about $150 worth of fuel in there at any given time! I saw a nifty anti-theft device on a MAN expedition truck from Europe once. There was a little metal tang that stuck down from the habitat and blocked the top of the screw cap. I haven't quite figured out how that could work for us, but I thought it was neat.

Anyone have any good thoughts on how to secure our cap? It's really big and has a strainer thingy inside, so it might be hard to find a functional replacement. Or maybe it's a standard size... ?

Michael

20190619 (18).JPG
 

LostInTheWorld

Builder/Traveler
Something about these trucks is super intriguing to me.
I've always wondered if a pass through from cab to camper possible at all?

Totally. It requires modification of the air box. Look at GXV they have done a few now.

There are two major obstructions to making a passthrough on the M1078's: air box and spare tire crane. Moving either one (or both) opens up a lot of space. We expect our truck to be a bit nose heavy because the hab will likely be lighter than the bed and cargo expectation of an LMTV, so we actually wanted to move our 350# tire to the back anyway. With the tire removed, there is quite a bit of room there. We're going to put our composting toilet inside of a small bathroom that occupies that area. Putting a passthrough door in the side of the "bathroom" wall would line up pretty well with the area behind the passenger seat, and is something we are definitely considering.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an off-the-shelf hatch / door / frame assembly for the passthrough? We can make something from scratch, but it might be nice to just get a pre-made passthrough hatch, if they are available.

Michael

20160630 (26) sm.jpg
 

LostInTheWorld

Builder/Traveler
This will be nice to follow :) Let me know if we can help you with our composite panels.

Andreas

Hi Andreas,

We're totally comparing different hab build options right now. We think we have our floor plan pretty straightened out, but we are comparing different wall materials. We have always liked sandwich panel options because of the lack of seams and high insulation value. We have both worked extensively on composite aircraft, so we both feel very comfortable with composite sandwich materials. Our main concerns with sandwich panel have always been material cost, material shipping difficulties, and insuring proper corner joints.

We decided to post this thread for a few reasons. First, we feel that there is a lot to be learned from participants of this forum. Second, we thought it might be helpful and interesting to others to watch our progress.

Would you feel comfortable posting some price information here for us all to benefit from? If not, I would like to have a PM discussion with you about options. For the sake of others, it would be interesting to see some details posted here.

Our habitat will be 174.5" long x 81.5" tall x 96" wide (exterior dimensions). We are designing around a 2" wall thickness assumption at this time. We are planning on having a steel subframe, but it would be really interesting to get some information on wall and roof panels.

Have a good evening,
Michael
 

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