task
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Posts posted by task
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Amazing, thanks for sharing 😀
Giving me itchy feet again!
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No reason a car of any age shouldn't make it if maintained well! Sounds like a good trip.
We took a pair of Triumph Stags down the the Swiss border last year for a week, I had zero issues, not bad really since I'd only pulled it out a barn and got it back on the road 6 months prior to the trip. (pictured here at Reims motor circuit which is well worth looking at). https://maps.app.goo.gl/htYdP9PhMrweD5vE9
If you're going to be in the area then Colle Sommeiller might be worth a look, I've got it marked on a map for future exploration.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3Ez1egrhzS4qzkiC7Also this if you're passing... https://maps.app.goo.gl/promndpjuRD2t7Tp8
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7 hours ago, simonr said:
Wow!
That's an amazing build.
I built my camper van for my specific needs which were more work related - but I think if I were building one for 'me' it would be more like yours.
I went down the route of using Home Assistant on a Pi4 to connect everything in the van which has proven pretty good - particularly the automations. I have it making more sensible decisions about heating, ventilation & air conditioning than is possible with a thermostat. For example, if the interior temperature is > exterior, use the ceiling fan for cooling. If exterior is > interior, use the AC. It uses the three to try to maintain 22C inside with the minimum fuel / electricity usage.
I considered Cerbo GX, but past experience of Victron was theat they are a bit of a black-box, closed system. While they tend to work, there's not much scope for hacking. My previous van was all Victron. The current one has none!
Although lots of people build Overland 4x4's, I have a similar issue to you, being 6'7" tall and the idea of being couped up in a Land Rover doesn't appeal very much. However, I'd not considered a 4x4 van!
I'd not seen the side-pod things either. They seem an excellent idea.
Thanks, having looked through your build I feel that’s some high praise
I wanted to keep the van relatively simple and have redundant systems for a lot of functions. I’d love to have a play with the Hassio for the van though, I’d considered a smart stat on the eberspacher for remote control, maybe on the next van 😆
It’s a interesting line to skate between 4x4, overlander and campervan. I tend to be fairly risk-adverse when we are travelling but a little more ability would be nice. That said I don’t think I’d have managed 6 days of 8 odd hours behind the wheel in a row eating up miles in a Land Rover or similar and there’s very few places that the van hasn’t got us.
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What a build!
Some seriously clever ideas gone into this that actually work. The thermotop controller is a very good idea.epic stuff 😀
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Not strictly “build” more “use after the build” but thought some might appreciate it.
We got back from our summer trip a week ago and thought I’d do a update on how the van got on and post a few trip photos.
Our route was :
France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, (accidentally Azerbaijan in an exclave), Georgia, Turkey through the south, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, France.
This trip has been quite some time in the planning, having eyed up Georgia as a destination after 2019 but world events conspired against us for a while.
Van went fine, almost zero re-occurrence of the injector/rough running when cold issues we had last year other than a slight grumble one morning in Georgia that wasn’t repeated. I think some dodgy fuel from the Balkans last year caused the issue and with a combination of new filter, injector recalibration and some injector cleaner it’s hopefully been put to bed. I do need a new DMF and clutch now I think, bit of shuddering on slow speed manoeuvres when slipping the clutch, to be expected though.
We did a little over 8000 miles in 6 weeks on a mixture of roads. The first 6 days were spent on cruise control at 65mph in 40+ degrees followed by a lot of slower dirt roads and crawling up rock strewn mountain passes. The return journey was broken up by a 4 day visit into Romania to relax a little closer to home.
A small selection of the 1000s of photos I took, there’s loads on our instagram though for anyone who’s wants to see more.
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Try popping it onto the CSK FB group and the other RRC FB groups once you've decided a price and have a brief description with photos.
I sold my CSK through Ebay and have sold a couple of vehicles since, always sold quickly and with zero hassle using a "advert" rather than an auction, the most recent being my MGB V8.
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I wondered how much the cyclone filter on top of the raised intake was actually doing so when we got back from our summer travels I emptied it out and measured it, 4 grams of fine dust and a few larger bits so I'd say that was better in the cyclone than the air filter!
I didn't do much van related from September until New Year, a few trips to Wales with mates was it, most of my time was taken fixing the Range Rover and preparing the Triumph Stag for the trip down to Switzerland.We usually head away for NYE and this year decided to head up to Scotland, van had other plans though.
First issue, the turbo wastegate actuator parted company with the turbo-pack, tied it back on with some wire and limped it home.
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Mercedes only list that part as coming with a whole new turbo pack which I was keen to avoid, quick job on the lathe saw a thread tapped and a bolt added to hold it on. Re-fitted and we tried again.
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This time we got about 20 miles before getting a warning on the dash
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Limped it home again, bettery wasn't looking very healthy as we pulled onto the drive and the headlights were like candles
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Exchange alternator from Mertrux
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New alternator fitted we managed 800 trouble free miles around Aviemore and managed to enjoy a good dose of snow and -7 overnight on NYE
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2 hours ago, Peaklander said:
I've had a look at OsmAND maps and subscribed for a year as it looks really good - thanks. I've got an iPad 9th Gen which I am going to pair with a handheld GPS as during local 'testing', the iPad constantly drops the signal from its own GPS. Someone locally is going to lend me a bluetooth Garmin so I can try this as the GPS source for the iPad. I am planning to buy a handheld anyway because we have been caught out when walking a couple of times, relying on poor maps or iPhones that really don't like it when there's no data signal.
I am extending the RAM track we already use and also need to buy a mount for the iPad. Our iPhone and TomTom (not taking this anymore) use the B 1" ball but I'm thinking maybe a slightly heavier iPad would be better with C 1.5" but they are bulkier too. Did you go for 1" or 1.5" RAM balls?
Tablet is mounted with 1.5" balls, I don't think the smaller ones would have been sufficient!
I'm using a Samsung tablet which seems to hold the GPS okay, interesting about the GPS issues on the iPad as I'd been considering upgrading to one.
I really like OsmAND, they have a online map feature now too which is pretty useful for route planning and allows you to import GPX from places like Wikilocs and manipulate them
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On 3/27/2023 at 12:09 AM, Badger110 said:
I have purchased a VW crafter 2014 SWB as a project, does it share the same engine as yours?
@muddy is right, the Crafter uses the 2.0 VW TDI, it's a good engine, had one in my previous Transporter of the same vintage.
What are the plans for it?
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I've been running Trucklite LEDs in the classic since 2015, bought for £250
I'd sort of echo what Reb has said however I've been very happy with mine, I still think they're a lot better than many modern vehicle lights I've had in hire cars and in my own vehicles. They're 1000x better than the VW Transporter or Sprinter lights for instance.
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18 minutes ago, Nonimouse said:
There is a Mercedes engine Guru in my village, I will drink cideer with him this weekend and ask
That would be awesome, thanks!
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33 minutes ago, Nonimouse said:
Sporadic doesn't sound like injectors, unless it's electrical/electronic. Injectors decline
Not stating the obvious, but is it showing any fault codes?
no fault codes now or when it was acting up.
My main reason for suspecting injectors was the massive improvement when they were recalibrated, I'm not sure what else it could be? -
23 minutes ago, Nonimouse said:
There was a well documented injector issue with tis lump, but it tended to happen early on.
Have you checked the timing chain and tensioner - that's a known problem with stretch/wear. Can happen at 100k onwards and is especially prone in vehicles that sit and tick over for long periods
That's about it for rough running - it's a really good engine, almost as good as a 617
I'm not getting the tell-tale rattle on startup that comes with the chain issues so I think that's okay.
It's an odd issue as it's sparodic, for instance it's running fine currently and has been for a few weeks.
I'm on the fence about replacing the injectors however I think it's worthwhile with the only downside being the cost. I'll have the injector seals done at the same time. -
21 hours ago, Nonimouse said:
Sure it wasn't the high sulphur diesel?
There's a strong chance it was, I've had issues ever since then though. Rough order of events:
- Odd idle issue where it would hunt, sound a bit "boomy" and smell of diesel fumes from the exhaust on idle even when warmed up
- A knocky/clattery diesel noise on mid-range RPM under load
- Rough running in the morning when first started, this got so bad one morning that it was difficult to drive, usually cleared up a bit when warm. This was sparodic as the following morning it would have zero issues.
I thought it might be a blocked DPF from a lot of very slow driving coupled with poor quality fuel, however, even after several days driving on fast roads through Austria/Germany/France running "ultra diesel" the issue persisted.
I took it to a local guy once home who ran an injector re-calibration and that fixed the clattery noise issues pretty much, however, I think the injectors are now on the end of their calibration parameters. At least that's my understanding.
Since doing that I had a couple of morning where's it's taken a few goes to start and it ran lumpy until it had been driven and I still get the unusual exhaust noise/smell when it's been driven for a few hours slowly around lanes etc.
Although the vehicle itself has only done 130k miles a lot of the systems SPEN had wired in required the engine to be running for them to use, inverter/hand wash basin and even the interior lights turned off after 30 mins of not running the engine, so I imagine the engine has been sat idling for quite some time. I know the DPF wasn't blocked prior to the trip as I had it checked, I didn't get a warning from the vehicle to clear the DPF at any point either.
So I think it's likely to be injector related, possibly excarbated by the high sulphur fuel as I know at least one fill-up that was the low quality, the guy had filled it before I realised what grade he picked.
Any suggestions of how to mitigate this going forwards? We're off to Turkey/Georgia/Armenia this year so imagine the same problems might come up. -
10 hours ago, muddy said:
Depending on your head the new housings have an extra bolt hole to clamp at 5 o clock ish.
You will see with the new sensors but the front ones in a 2wd have a rectangular bottom despite being round at the top, meaning if you try and wiggle them to free them they break up......
I think the 4x4 front sensors are the same looking at part numbers, we pulled one a few weekends back as it failed and managed to get it cleaned up and put back in. Worst case is that I have to limp it to a garage and get it fixed but it's better than trying to source one I think. Same reason I'll be carrying a front driveshaft as they're extortionate from Merc and a special order from Germany.
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12 hours ago, muddy said:
Brilliant build! please keep sharing. If it is the 651 engine (313/316) I would strongly suggest you carry a fuel filter housing, when the seal lets go it dumps all the coolant out the return from the head and you a pretty much undriveable. A 1/4" drive E10 Torx socket is also a must for those engines I have found.
It is indeed the 651 engine, changing this housing is part of my planned maintenance before heading out on this years trip along with injectors (I've had off and on issues since Macedonia where I think I ran some very low grade fuel), injector seals, water pump and a few other pipes. So I'll carry the old one as a backup if it's okay.
I've got quite a spares pile now to take but still need to buy some "spare" ABS sensors, if you lose a sensor you can't shift into 4x4 or low range which would be a real problem if you're half way up an interesting road. -
On 3/3/2023 at 4:18 PM, Nonimouse said:
Theres an option with just a super low first and an overdrive fifth - no low ratio. A lot of utility 2wd sprinters were fitted with rear difflocks .
Was this the early 903 shape Sprinter rather than the 906? A few of the guys we go camping with have 3xlockers and low range in their 903s. I was pretty tempted by the earlier van but the creature comforts offered by the newer vehicle won me over for covering long distance in short times.
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On 3/4/2023 at 5:11 PM, jason110 said:
My mate runs VW T5 upgrades in aberystywth. I think he sells some sprinter/crafter bits
He’s on Instagram or his mobile is 07507 606600
Matt, we were out laning with him on Sunday. Nice guy.
He does sell some Sprinter parts, the Almont 4wd skid plates seem good kit.
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58 minutes ago, landroversforever said:
Always wanted to have a crawl under one, so it's interesting to see that. Have they got a separate transfer case? Or is it more like a 4wd saloon/estate car type setup?
The 4x4 system is made by a company called Oberaigner rather than Mercedes themselves. It's a bit of an odd setup and not really true "4x4"
There's a transfer case on the back of the gearbox with a selectable "4x4" and "low range" however the system is fully open diffs so it can be run in 4x4 on tarmac is you wanted. The front axle is an unusual setup too being an aluminium casing.
In place of locking diffs it uses the ABS/Traction to lock spinning wheels and the power is a 60/40 rear/front bias split.
This means that fitting oversize tyres has a fairly detrimental effect on the reaction time of the traction system, combined with the lack of flex, which can be interesting on tight hairpins etc. for those who have fitted anything beyond 245/75. It would have been possible to specify a locking rear diff from factory but nobody has ever done so to my knowledge. ARB now sell a rear diff for the Sprinter which I've been sort of considering but I've yet to be in a situation that going slow and taking my time hasn't allowed me to work through. It's still a van at the end of the day!
For some real 4x4 van porn check out Iglhaut Allrad Sprinters, they generally have a greater lift and triple lockers with a proper low range. They convert your 2wd drive van to your specification for a price! maybe one day 🥰
All that said, the 2020/21 onwards vans now have the 4matic system from the estate cars which means no low range and non-selectable 4x4, in enthusiast and up-fitter testing seems to favour the earlier 4x4 system rather than the later one for more extreme use but the later system is far better on the road from a NVH point. Mine whines worse than the RRC does.57 minutes ago, landroversforever said:They're blue usually, with lime green wrap added to one half... sometimes they come up for sale with the green still on.
Terrible quality picture....
Ahh, yeah, the rumour is the blue ones have better paint than the white ones! SSE and SPEN tend to release a batch every 5 years so I'd expect to see a new lot in a couple of years or so. When they do we might consider upgrading to a new shape although I'm not a fan of adblue when travelling.
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We set off on the 22nd July and crossed the tunnel on the Friday morning before heading down through Germany/Austria/Slovenia/Croatia/Bosnia/Montenegro into Albania where we spent 3 weeks exploring the country via dirt roads and tracks wild camping. I'll apologise in advance for the photos from the holiday, they're not really "build photos" but do show it gets used!
I fitted a RAM tablet mount before we left and ran OsmAND mapping for the journey.
First few photos are from the Theth to Shkoder road in Albania, quite a well known route.
The was just above the Permet hot springs, we drove for around an hour to find this clearing where we camped for the night
Just north of Permet in Albania
None of it was massively difficult but there were a few tricky section in places, mostly it was just a lot of long dusty rocky roads. Stunning scenery and total isolation in places.
After Albania and Macedonia we headed up through Montenegro for a few days then on to Bosnia where we spent a few days exploring Sarajevo and then headed down to Mostar before working our way towards the Croatian border for a look at the abandoned mig fighter jet bunker
I got quite a few decent photos of the night sky, there was very little light pollution, this was at the edge of a lake on the hard standing for an old military complex that we camped on overnight. Met a couple from Poland in a Toyota that were headed south so we exchanged map points, GPX and drinks around a fire.
One of the many bits of abandoned infrastructure from the 1984 Winter Olympics
The abandoned jet bunker on the Bosnian/Croatian border. We drove around inside which was pretty interesting although a lot of holes in the floor.
If anyone else is headed out that way I have a lot of places marked on Google maps along with some turn-by-turn GPX files for Albania and Montenegro tracks in varying degrees of challenging that I'd be happy to share. I've got loads more photos too 🤣
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10 minutes ago, landroversforever said:
This is fantastic. We get a lot of the SSE 4x4 sprinters around here, they just hold their money so well. My farmer mate was looking at one as a D3 commercial replacement before he went for a D4 that came along at a good price.
Thanks!
Are the SSE ones blue or white? I saw a couple of the blue high-roof ones available when we were looking but they don't all have a low box.
They're crazy money really but we struggled to find anything else that struck the right balance, I didn't fancy climbing in and out a roof tent on top of a D4 and the missus flat out refused. We looked at a "demountable" on the back of the Hilux but they just seemed as cumbersome as the Sprinter once loaded up with the habitation box and you can't access the cab area from the habitation which puts me off a little.
I did consider building something on the back of a Defender chassis but it would have been a lot of work and not as comfortable for travelling long distance, or as safe should the worst happen. -
For 2022 we went a bit further afield with a trip down through the Balkans, mostly in Albania and Macedonia.
In prep for this trip I changed the oil in front diff, rear diff, gearbox and TX box.
Had an alignment done after changing the front struts
You can see the clean water tank on the RHS and waste on LHS next to the 100L fuel tank (uprated from a standard 80L).
I ordered a rear diff guard, the diff pan is larger than the diff housing so one miss-placed rock will peel off the diff pan. Not ideal. Despite ordering this 3 months before we set off it didn't arrive until we'd already left so I fitted when we got home.
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Sometime after finishing the inside but before painting it back and fitting new rear springs we had a 5 week break booked somewhere in Europe, sadly some restrictions in 2021 made them almost impossible. Not to be deterred from doing a decent shakedown run we grabbed a refund on our channel tunnel tickets, bought a ticket to Belfast and drove over to Donegal for 5 weeks instead.
We had a great time exploring nearly all of the coastline, I was amazed how easy it was to find spots where we were alone and although we didn't really need 4x4 that much, other than a trip up Benone Strand, it was a good learning curve for the vans living arrangements.
We learnt quite a bit about the setup on the trip and decided to make a few changes:
- The table was far too big for two people, we made a new one from an Ikea chopping board that's a much more manageable size
- The combined solar controller and DC/DC charger was carp, we replaced the solar controller with a Victron unit and then also replaced the DC/DC charger with a Victron unit. When the I switched the solar controller over the solar-gain went from 1.5W to 7W instantly.
- We wanted to run a coffee pod machine, so we installed a 2000W inverter and a Nespresso machine. This saves a lot of time in the mornings boiling a kettle and has been great when queuing at border crossings etc. allowing us to make a quick coffee on the go without using gas.
- The rear springs were sagging and the dampers weren't really doing much either, so along with new rear springs we added Koni dampers, new top mounts and some "sumo springs" for the front axle.
- The brakes seemed a bit "iffy" and on investigation the front calliper sliding pins were stuck solid. Replaced all 4 callipers and discs for genuine.
- I did a bit of website work for a guy that builds wheel carriers and roofracks and he gave me an Auxbeam control panel as payment, so I fitted that.
- I replaced the cheap shunt for the hab battery with a Victron unit
- Now that I had a bunch of Victron kit I decided to build a Cerbo GX on a RaspberryPi to remote monitor battery levels, graph solar and that kind of thing.
New -v- Old front struts and top mounts, Sumo spring bump stop replacements. These removed a load of the body sway and gave it a much more positive/planted driving experience without reducing the limited amount of flex it has.
In combination with the Auxbeam panel I wanted to make sure the bonnet lights would only run from one switch if the engine was "off" and the other switch if the engine was "running". As part of the SPEN build sheet for the van they specified the "EK1" or "upfitter" connection which has 3 connections. Perm Live/Ignition Live/Engine Running. This is pretty useful for triggering relays to run stuff like split charge systems that you don't want running if the engine is off.I added a bank of relays to run the front lights and air compressor (40A draw is too much for the Auxbeam panel), with triggers from main beam and engine on.
Mounted the Auxbeam controller in the roof where passenger or driver can easily reach it. It's also got a phone app that runs from Bluetooth so I can turn the compressor off or various lights when I'm outside or in bed. The fuses/sold state relays are underneath the passenger seat behind an access panel.
Bonnet lights mounted
Victron sell a Cerbo GX module for a hefty sum but the OS that runs on it is open source and they provide it free of charge if you want to run it on top of a RaspberryPi. When I stripped the van apart I found a Tracker/Telematics system that had a RaspberryPi inside a good case with a decent antenna setup. I mounted the antenna at the back of the van on the roof and re-used it with a Teltonika RUT950 to provide wifi/4g for the vehicle and then re-purposed the RPI for the Victron system.
In box with 12v power supply and VE direct cables
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14 hours ago, Arjan said:
Nice !
MAER has started doing off road stuff for the MB van
Including bottom plates and a winch mount
I didn’t know MAER did stuff, I’ll look and see what’s available, I’d like to fit a sumo guard before this summers trip!
10 hours ago, miketomcat said:Nice job I really like that. If I could afford another vehicle I'd like to do similar but with two kids it'll be a caravan for now. Maybe in the future though......
Mike
They sell a LWB 4x4 🫣
We met a family of 5 in Ireland who shipped theirs over from Cali to Croatia and had been touring Europe for a few years.
9 hours ago, Anderzander said:I didn’t realise those 4x4 vans had a low range 👍🏻. I’ve also never seen those side pods … seems there are a lot of stuff available for them ?
The low range isn’t Land Rover low, around a 40% reduction, it certainly helps but it’s meant I’ve kept to smaller diameter tyres rather than going large. It also helps that the original order was made with 4.364 ratio diffs instead of the standard 3.923.
They’re very popular in the states where there’s a massive market so a lot of kit available there but there’s not such a demand over here so we don’t get quite as much choice.
The side pods are quite a popular mod, there’s a few different types available but I chose the ones to give the widest sleeping area. I had thought they might be an issue on tight lanes but they’ve been fine so far, the body shell is the same as a 2wd so fitting one out is pretty straightforward other than my choice of low roof.
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Androids, iPads and other gizmos - or 'why is Garmin so controlling' (rugged GPS/OBD/etc)
in Modified Vehicle Builds & Special Projects
Posted
I've always used some sort of tablet for our various trips
Started with a cheap (free because it was left over from work) 7" Samsung Tablet running OsmAnd, TomTom Go and Gmaps
Now replaced with an iPad pro because it was also a good deal, still running OsmAnd along with a few other apps we use. No added functionality but the larger screen and much faster cpu has made it a far better experience.
Both have/had "torque pro" installed to connect to a ODB scanner and they both connect to the batteries and other electronics in the van for monitoring. The Samsung tablet had an advantage if you replaced the homescreen with one of the custom ones designed for overland bikes, it made it look very similar to the garmin unit.
Handy having a web browser too so you can load up TW2 when in the UK.