miketomcat

Mo Murphy has a cylinder head that I would like to find its way to Southampton or perhaps @fridgefreezer in Basingstoke (I'm sure he won't mind ). I'm in no rush but mo would like it gone sooner rather than later. Mike

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

I thought the diamond discs were for stone, brick and tiles. I'm happy to be proved wrong as I use diamond multi tool blades for fibreglass and have used diamond cut off saws which is essentially an angle grinder with a diamond blade. My current discs are 125mm parweld they seem to last well but I haven't been doing much metal fab recently. Mike

I would suspect it just needs stripping, cleaning and re greasing. Mike

Only if I don't have to raise them up to get the clearance I need. Mike

And the box is empty. All the bulkheads are out. A couple of little surprises, the front section is 3" foam (freezer section) instead of 2" like the rest and some cable runs weren't where I thought they were. Mike

For all numbers I'd just use a grinder or plasma cutter. If your lucky enough to have a mill then that's even better. For larger numbers take it to a machine shop they can CNC mill, plasma, laser or water jet cut them. It may be worth talking to a machine shop anyway sometimes they like a small fill in job especially if your not in a rush. Mike

This is pretty much how I learnt electrics. Positive=flow Negative=return Both must be connected for anything to work. The body and engine etc is negative so you don't necessarily need two wires (guage sender's etc). Mike

We have been looking at both horse and livestock trailers, however they tend to be a bit short and some are narrow. They also hold there value even a ropey one is £1k or really old. Our box will be about 14ft long but the flat base is only 12ft. As I discovered with our current trailer if you put the wheels central on the flat base part it ends up looking very tail heavy. I'm thinking if I go for a 14/15ft caravan chassis they are normally around 1500-1800kg gross and the chassis often doesn't go all the way to the back or they are reconfigurable by moving bolts Mike

Yeah I bought the trailer in haste but hind sight is saying it's not quite right. Rather than plump for near enough I'd prefer to change it for one that's a better fit. Annoyingly there's a chassis on faceache that looks perfect but it's completely bare so that's about a grand in bits which isn't viable and it's up north too. Mike

That triggers IVA. Which I may end up doing anyway. It's also not galv. Mike

After much deliberation I'm going to move the trailer on and look for another. We had to change the interior to make this one work and it ended up looking tail heavy. Much as I want to get on with the build I also want it right and this was niggling me. For various reasons mainly cost I may revisit the caravan chassis. Mike

I also run halogen headlamps and led sidelamps, no spots without a ballast resistor. I do run ballast resistor's on my indicator's. I'd disconnect each lamp (or remove the bulb) in turn, if one fixes it look there. The other thing to check is the stalk I've had several fail in various ways (currently the left indicator won't stay on). Mike

I had to tighten two of mine down a fair bit more to get them to seal. No idea of torque as I just kept nipping till compression/diesel stopped getting out. Mike

The interior has gone through some design changes recently due to switching from single to double axle and the position of wheel arch in relation to door. Unfortunately in the end it will be "looking" a little rear heavy but this will mean the majority of the weight will be at the front. As the bunks and toilet will be at the back. The kitchen, largest storage and heavy items will be up front. Mike

Yes it is nice and sturdy that was the appeal. They're knott axles seem to work fine the guy used to carry a Jimny on it. It towed beautifully on the way home, and the brakes worked well. It's on 14" rims which I can get some 26" AT or MT tyres for, so will fit with the style. The beauty with our design is if it doesn't work I can just switch the trailer out. Mike

We have a trailer. It's a bit rough and ready but it was cheap. We need to strip the deck and ramps off, give it a clean and coat of paint. Then we can get the box on it. Mike

Yes but it's not ideal. Far better if they are matched battery's. A DC to DC charger might be a better choice. Mike

This is exactly my experience with caravans. Ours will have a king size bed, bunks for the girls a toilet/shower and so clothes storage inside. Due to the exceptionaly antisocial nature of caravans there will be an awning on the side and the kitchen will be a pull out on the outside too. My aim is 1500kg but if it's under 2000kg fully laden I'm happy. We plan to carry a wood burner to use in the awning and either blown air heating or a hot water based heating system, I want to use a webasto type water heater with a clorifier (hot water tank) to give hot water. We definitely want some solar but don't plan to make it electric heavy. Mike

@Stellaghost' I'd make time for you. Army surplus is a good source, either a tent or a tarpaulin. Mike

It was something more familiar to me. To be fair @TSDmade the mould the shape he wanted, I just turned it into fibreglass. Mike

I've done a fibreglass one in the past.... Mike

Some progress today. Fridge compressor removed (dog nam it that's heavy) along with one of the internal units, the other one was built in! I can't twist it sideways to get it out of the door, I'm going to have to remove the bulkhead to get it out (it was coming out anyway). Whilst fighting with this I let the girls loose with power tools. They've drilled out the rivets holding the shelving racks in to allow them to be removed. Again two of them have been built in and will be removed when the bulk heads come out. Oh and finally I managed to lock myself in it. I was trying to adjust the lock on the rear door to get it to work better. Unfortunately when you pull the door down the internal catch can be released however the external bar drops in place. Que a phone call to the wife to let me out Once she'd stopped laughing I was freed. Mike

It is possible to retro fit C post seat belt mounts. I had to in our 1983 110 from memory the mounts can out of a 94 ish. Mike

I spotted a puddle of oil under the radiator the other week, it turned out the lower oil cooler connection was leaking. Now the problem with this is I had to do a work around when I replaced the radiator. I've ended up with two 90° M/F elbows to allow it to clear the steering box. This puts a fair bit of strain on the treads, consequently it's sprung a leak. Obviously this wasn't going to be a simple quick fix, so after draining the radiator of both oil and water. I was able to strip the fittings out re-ptfe tape them and reassemble. This led me to thinking I need to support these pipes to stop this happening again. My solution is a bracket that picks up on the studs at the side of the radiator housing. Hopefully this'll fix it for good. Mike