Spare Wheels

 Here is a couple of pictures of the spare wheels in their brackets.

Finished Crawl Through

 So the crawl through has now been fabricated, its all welded in place, just a bit of paint needed now, I will line the inside of it with carpet for a bit of comfort.

I have used a 20mm compression seal where it joins the cab,  there is no clips or anything to do before you lift the cab.

The last Bit of Body

 Now that the crawl through is finished, all the metalwork is done for it, the time to finish

the very last bit of the body panels, The Front.

That is the last of the fiberglass sheet to finish the body completely. A bit of a milestone i would say.

And so here it is:

More Crawl Through

 When I started thinking about the crawl through, it was a bit daunting, I have looked at other trucks and seen various methods of making the seal.

I knew that I didn't want to have to do anything before lifting the cab, like undo clips or bolts or anything like that. I would simply forget and would end up breaking somthing.

It ended up being a lot simpler than I thought it would be.

I started by making the tunnel out of 3mm steel, this will be fitted into the front of the body, the face of that tunnel has a seal on it that mates with the flange I made to fit into the hole I cut in the cab.

As the Tatra's cab is live mounted to the chassis and not rubber-mounted, it doesn't move, so the seal mates perfectly

Here are a few more pictures.

Tool Box

 The toolbox on the left-hand side of the truck is for wheel changing tools airlines and puncture repair equipment.

I have installed a hose reel with a 30Mtr hose and an automated tire inflation/deflation system, so the tires can be pumped without having to sit there holding a button for hours.

Body to Cab Crawl Through

 This is one of those jobs I have been putting off for a long time, I just couldn't work out in my head how to do it properly and neatly, and how to have the door not take up any space.

Finally, I settled on a sliding hatch, the door will hide behind the seating when open and only sticks into the cabin by 40mm.

Once the cab is cut out, I will make a flange that will fit in the hole and a seal on the end of the tunnel will mate with it. An additional cowling will then fit over everything as an additional weather tight measure.

Many thanks to my buddy Dirk, who is far better at welding thin sheets than I could ever be.

Roof Nearly Finished Now

 Another few days work completed on the roof, now all the solar panels are installed and wired, the sat Tv system is installed and wired.

I managed to get a bit of a walkway down the center using treadplate, I think it would be difficult to walk down there stepping over the aircon units but it can be done.

The only thing left to do on the roof now is a few antennas for comms and wireless etc.

The white area you see in front of the rear aircon unit is the space for these other antennas.

More Internal Insulation

 Now that the external paneling is finished I added some more insulation on the inside.

Solar Panels and Aircon

 There is 9 solar panels in total, these are wired in three banks of three utilizing three separate controllers for a total of 2.4Kw.

The air conditioners are Truma Aventa Comfort units, they are inverter type units that cool and heat. These are controlled the trauma iNet system that also controls the Truma Combi D6E water an hot air heating.

There is also a Maxx Fan in the roof over the bedroom, for ventilation without running the aircon.

The other strange thing sneaking into the pictures is the Oyster 5 satellite system (without the dish fitted)

The Roof

The roof will be full of tech once it is finished,  You cha see her that the sealing rings for the aircon units have been installed.  On the left of the picture, the rails for the mounting of solar panels have been installed.