Friday 18 November 2016

Onboard Gas System

I mentioned before that all the cooking etc in the living accommodation will be done with electric appliances.
However i still love my outdoor cooking, so to that end i am fitting an outside kitchen as well, this will consist of a grill/pizza oven and a single ring hob.  These will be gas units, so i fitted a toridal 55ltr LPG tank this gives me more gas for the space it uses than a standard tank.

I fitted the fill point to the rear of the truck and the regulator will feed to a solenoid valve to isolate the gas when the outdoor kitchen is not in use.
I fitted the tank with an electronic sender so i can remotely monitor its contents on the tanks monitor panel inside the truck.










Hydraulic Cab Tilt System

The Cab tilt system on the truck looked a bit like an after thought, the pump was an old manual only type of pump and a bit leaky, it neaded about 20 up and down strokes to fully tilt the cab,  some of the hoses were a bit perished and the metal pipework was a real mess. It had to go.

I started by fitting a dual acting hydraulic power unit that runs from 24v and also has a manual pump, I replaced all the pipework to the ram for new. The unit seemed to move too much fluid and really whipped the cab up and down far too fast, after fitting hydraulic restrictors it is now nicely under control.
Of course i hope i will never have to lift the cab, but if i do at least i wont be knackered after it !!





This is the old pump system


Friday 4 November 2016

More Exaust

Today i had a bit of time to fit the exhaust stack, I knew it would look pretty cool BUT !!!

Just a small bit of pipe work left to do and i can listen to it.







Winch Remotes

Only a small thing but the winch remotes are worth a mention,  I used always use "Lodar" remote controls for my winch projects, but on contacting them the nice lady that i used to deal with has been replaced by an all new company man with a take it or leave it attitude.  Apparently because i hadn't purchased from them in a while i have "lost my discount" furthermore they have increased there price drastically and now charge for simple software changes.

Enter Dutch company "Tyro Remotes" .  Totally different deal,  extremely helpful wanted the business, don't charge extra for custom software, dont charge extra for custom buttons, they even put the truck logo on the remotes for me at no extra cost,  and there remotes come with cradels and are rechargeable.  The price ended up similar to lodar but for a far superior product and a much much better attitude.

The remote system has six buttons, On, Off,  winch in, winch out, freespool, and spool light.  The freespool and light buttons are latching operation (push on, push off)

I have used the same system for both the front and rear winch. (one for each)



Here is the unit for the rear winch installed,  because they are totally waterproof you can install them upside down,  as i have here to keep the antenna clear of metalwork.