1124 AF Double Cab

Toby3

Member
HI, on to heating, cooking etc. Looking at gas, electric or diesel as figured it was best to start there and some of the builds seem to make a virtue of being diesel only or no gas. Do diesel cookers and diesel heaters work okay? How much hassle is it having gas on the truck?

Any views appreciated
 

Joe917

Explorer
Heat is easy. Diesel hydronic works great, uses your main fuel and can pre heat your engine and use the engine's waste heat. Choices are Webasto. Esparchar and Planar.
Diesel cookers have mixed reviews and altitude can be an issue.
Propane is nice for cooking but it adds a lot of moisture to the cabin and it can be difficult to source. Shipping companies are begining to refuse to ship vehicles with propane tanks.
Induction cooktop is probably the best way to go, you will need a robust electrical system.
 

Toby3

Member
HI Joe, thanks for this. Makes sense. Is this similar for others? Is is easy to run an induction cooktop off the electrical system. In the process of getting one designed so can see what we have to build in but interested in any first hand experience of it.

Truck starting to progress, on tyres, couldn't get the Nokians in the UK so have gone with Continental HTC1 385/65r22.5s so hopefully they should be getting delivered to Atkinson fairly soon.
 

nick disjunkt

Adventurer
I 100% agree with diesel for heating. The Eberspacher/Webasto units are frugal on fuel and generally work dependably for a long time.

In my experience, gas is a better cooking solution unless there is another reason that you need a huge electrical system. Unless you have a truck bloated to the gills with convenience tech, it is likely that you'll only need a fairly modest battery/solar set-up, which will struggle with electric cooking. Most of the world uses exchangeable gas bottles for cooking, so as long as you do a bit of planning with adapter hoses, you'll have little difficulty finding gas anywhere in the world.

Will Hayward supply a bottle adapter system which will let you connect pretty much any gas bottle you'll find globally, to a regulator which is static. I've used the system to adapt Italian, French and American bottles with no difficulty at all.

I would avoid gas for heating, only because of the rate that you'll get through it. It works ok if you have a huge integrated tank, but these are very difficult to fill up outside of Europe or USA. With small exchange bottles, you'll be swapping them out every week or in cold climates; no problem for motorhomes used for short trips, but it'll get old pretty quick if you're full-timing. Conversely for cooking, I got about 6 months out of UK 13kg propane bottles, including lots of roasts in the oven.
 

mog

Kodiak Buckaroo
Cool progress, think this is the point we are committed
Here in the USA we just have a problem with people stealing catalytic converters. Not as bad as in the UK where it looks like they steal sections of your frame! ;)
 

Sitec

Adventurer
Hi Toby. I'm surprised you can just chop and extend like that... I would have thought the chassis would have had to have a stepped cut in it, spreading the load over a greater area... similar to this.

truck-chassis-extension-link.jpg

Guess the rules are different over there. What wheelbase are you going out too? In theory the steering arms should change to as the steering geomitry changes to match the wheelbase...
 

Wyuna

Observer
I can only guess that it will be plated on the inside to help spread the load On the welds.

looking forwards to seeing the completed extension
 

Toby3

Member
HI

Here in the USA we just have a problem with people stealing catalytic converters. Not as bad as in the UK where it looks like they steal sections of your frame! ;)

.
Hi Toby. I'm surprised you can just chop and extend like that... I would have thought the chassis would have had to have a stepped cut in it, spreading the load over a greater area... similar to this.

truck-chassis-extension-link.jpg


Guess the rules are different over there. What wheelbase are you going out too? In theory the steering arms should change to as the steering geomitry changes to match the wheelbase...
I can only guess that it will be plated on the inside to help spread the load On the welds.

looking forwards to seeing the completed extension

HI Mog, yes agree, its getting dodgier round here

HI SItec, Wyuna, I don't know, I'm assuming as per Wyuna's comment but trusting the guys at Atkinson Vos are really good at this so hoping will be good
 

Iain_U1250

Explorer
Great progress on your build.

I would ask the guys at AV where that complies with what MB recommend for chassis modifications and to show you where they got it from. I would not take "trust me, we have done this before" as an answer. It would not be fun if your chassis cracks in the middle of nowhere. I am also assuming it would be plated on the inside so something, that is a high stress position. Here is our Australian guidelines for chassis modifications. They recommend a 45Deg cut and/or plating in various positions.

 

Wyuna

Observer
I have to agree with Iain and It will be a lot easier to rectify now than latter down the track with a habitat fitted, the last thing you want is having to fix a chassis crack on the road.

I'd want to know if it complies with MB bodybuilding handbook for your model, as they tell you how it should be done for your chassis

The more i look at the photo, the cut away is quite close to the spring hanger.

I'm also guessing they will fit 2 more crossmembers in between the rails.
 

nathane

Active member
Having had AV work on my Mog over the last couple of years I have to say that they have been exceptional in their attention to detail. Of course you should check, but I would be staggered if they hadn't done lots of work and thinking about how to make sure this was going to work.
 

Toby3

Member
Hi, thanks for all the comments. Yep AV researched it quite extensively before they did it and they have been working to the MB recommendations so expecting it will be to the standard. As per Nathane's comment, they do have a real focus on detail on all of the design so far so should be all good but will check all of it once its done. Hopefully will get back up there in a bit to be able to see progress in person.
 

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