Pangea

greg.potter

Adventurer
I love the raising roof, hard-sided concept, and hope to do one myself one day. I will watch it come together with much interest.

What material is being used for the body panels?

What drive system is being used for raising / lowering the roof?
 

Deliberate Nomad

New member
Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed about this very interesting build. I am very interested in the pictures you supply.

Mike,

Thanks I will provide more updates as the build progresses. I will never get to the level of detail you and Paul had on your original Northwest Edition build thread. However, I will try to be on par with your summary thread. I learned a lot from your build and others so I want to share back.

Brad
 
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Deliberate Nomad

New member
I love the raising roof, hard-sided concept, and hope to do one myself one day. I will watch it come together with much interest.

What material is being used for the body panels?

What drive system is being used for raising / lowering the roof?

Greg,

Thanks for the interest.

The panels are an SCS (structural composite sandwich) material that GXV uses. It is described further on their website at http://globalxvehicles.com/engineering/. They do not just use sheets of this material. They use a supplier in Europe that
engineers and fabricates each pannel to the specifc requirements of the build. Different materials are used inside the composite for attachment points. The floor has a welded aluminum frame structure bonded inside the floor panel. Doors have locking components bonded inside the panels. I visited Unicat in Germany before my decision to go with GXV. To my laymen's eyes the panel material used by GXV and Unicat appeared to be the same but I do not know the technical specs.

The lifting mechanism is a synchronized closed loop hydraulic system with a lifting cylinder in each corner that GXV has used on other builds. I do not know any further details on the lifting system.
 

Deliberate Nomad

New member
I would love to camp in a giant field of California poppies when the truck is done if I can find such a field. However, I still do not think that would make the truck stealth. It should have made you smirk more than a little as there is nothing stealth about a Unimog. Add a big box on it and paint it Mercedes Orange (aka EU Municipal Orange - intended for safety due to high visibility) and you get even less stealth. I suppose I could park among road maintenance vehicles in the EU and possibly blend in. My real point is that when the roof is down 99% of the gawkers will be saying "what is it?" but will NOT know that someone is living inside. They will just think it is a parked truck albeit very strange truck.

This reminds me of the weekend we camped in a Ford dealership in Prince George British Columbia in 2007 when an oil pressure sensor failed and disabled the engine. There was nothing Stealth about that last vehicle either - yellow 4x4 van with toys hanging off it. Cars kept coming into the lot and driving around us. The police also circled us but headed off once they saw the driveshaft on the ground and realized why we were parked by the service bay.

image.jpg
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
You better get used to the idea of people watching you ALL the time :) Friends of ours took us on a drive with their Unicat in Arizona. Nothing special for me as I have been working for Unicat back then, but the "show" that came with it was something else! Every stop light, every parking lot people where lining up to talk to us.... First quite funny, it got old very fast. Almost everyone wanted a "tour" of the truck. After explaining to them (the 50th time that day..) that this is their house and they prefer not to give tours people got angry and not so friendly anymore.... Crazy! Another thing they had to do, place signs around the cab to tell people not to climb up on it. Can you imagine people doing this ALL the time to your $$$$$$ truck? I would go ballistic :)

In any case, I can't wait to see your truck all done! And if you ever come up to Vancouver Island, please let me know :) I wouldn't mind a tour LOL

Cheers,
A
 

Jr_Explorer

Explorer
Can you imagine people doing this ALL the time to your $$$$$$ truck? I would go ballistic :)

Paint it ALL with flat black Monsta Liner. Put a bunch of antennas on it (including a dish or two) and mock up some gun ports on the box. People will be SURE it's some clandestine government agency truck and that you're spying on them! :ar15:
 

Deliberate Nomad

New member
Victorian,

If I make it to Vancouver Island again I will let you know. Don't mind showing it to people that understand what it is.

Don't like the idea of people climbing on any one else's vehicle regardless of cost - it is someone else's pride and joy. Traveling through India and living in China I understand how a crowd can gather around something different.
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Hey Deliberate Nomad,

You would be more then welcome to stop by. I'm sure that we could chat for hours about your truck and world travels :)

Cheers,
A
 

GR8ADV

Explorer
This is awesome, and soon to be even more so as it progresses. Thank you for taking the time to share with us all.
 

Deliberate Nomad

New member
The body with roof is now mounted on the chassis. The interior build to start soon. The exhaust stack will be modified so it does not exit against side of body.

image.jpg
 

foxhunter

Adventurer
I had the exhaust stack raised on my white gxv/u500 after I had owned it awhile to where the tip is just over the edge of the roof, but no higher than the AC unit. It was a fix that took about 15 minutes to bolt an extension on. Since then, no more scrubbing off soot. The body stays clean and the soot blows across the top of the roof and doesn't even accumulate on it.
I saw your body being put together at GXV at the end of May. From the above picture, it looks like they are progressing quickly . I see you put an ac on the cab. Mine doesn't have one, and it can get pretty warm when driving into the sun on 90+degree days, so that was a good option. The orange really looks good.
 

Deliberate Nomad

New member
Foxhunter,

Thanks for the input. The plan is to do the same as you with the exhaust stack. I like your confirmation that the soot is not accumulating on the roof. Besides cleaning I did not want soot impacting the solar panels. GXV recommended the additional cab AC for the u500 with Variopilot option. For some reason the Variopilot versions have problems keeping the cab cool.
 

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