NRS91

Slip joint stops you being impaled on the steering column or having the steering wheel crush your chest... id like to improve my odds where possible

My main concern would be the lack of a slip joint in the event if a crash

You missed two important words... its a 5700kg off road truck, if you start putting a few hundred kilos of sloshing weight up high you could become a cropper on side slopes as the weight transfers off to one side. Keeping the heavy stuff low down will pay dividends later on. If the water tanks can go under seats/beds or between chassis rails that would be ideal, and will make it easier to fill too.

Personally I wouldn't have a considerable weight of fluid above chassis level, for both static and dynamic stability reasons

Getting back to the original question, check out TFL (The Fast Lane) on Youtube, they did a range test of a Tesla towing a box van trailer... after the popularity of that video they also took a camper trailer away for the weekend into a woodland with one to see if it was viable. Basically they are capable but the range when towing is hopeless... (To make life easier I dug out the links)

A manual transmission is around 90% efficient from memory but then the engine isnt constantly running in its peak efficiency range so you loose efficiency there... then if you have a bad driver you loose more... trains and mining trucks have used Diesel/Electric drive system for decades due to efficiency and reliability... combine that with the modern advances in EVs and small automotive diesel engines it would be interesting to see a modern Diesel/Electric 4x4! It would give you the range and usability of a smaller Diesel running peak efficiency with the opportunity to run electric only

My main thoughts would be the mud collected in there tbh

Yea the suspension design is worthy of a thread alone tbh

The torque reaction should be ok provided there is plenty of vertical separation between top and bottom links (i believe 1/4 the height of the tyres is recommended?)

I would love CTIS for green lane days or running in and out of fields. Reduce impact on the ground and improve grip but still back up to road pressures, would improve the life of the tyres too. AgRover used chain driven portals from a small Allis Chalmers tractor, not really suitable for the weight and power IMHO

guessing the white smoke on start up was just the veg oil then?

looks awesome Mike! Good to see it all working out!

Was that 100 miles before you started having issues? For the cost of a filter I'd put a new one on as all the symptoms are of fuel starvation. Only other thought is that youve gummed some internals up in the VE pump which is throwing the governor off. A quick trick is to fill a fuel filter with neat injector cleaner then run the engine for 15-30secs so it's filled the fuel injection pump, lines and injectors then leave it overnight to break down the gunk

i may have missed it but have you changed the main fuel filter?

any joy on those pics?