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Finally back in Sydney having been holed up in a rainforest for 9 weeks during the Covid lockdown. There are worse places to be stuck in the camper. My wife and I managed to live in this shoebox for 9 weeks without any difficulty. Each day I would go to work in the front cabin with laptop...

Hi Josst - I've found the brown Corteco seals to be very good. Be aware that the wear ring comes in two sizes, a fatter one to fit the older hubs with the 11mm bearing and a thinner one to fit the newer hubs with the 14mm main bearing. The same rust problem occurs on your front inside seals...

Hi Jose - I had the 90kmph vibration and went through 5 different wheel balances. Eventually I bought a wheel balancing machine and did some testing. Clip on weights break loose very quickly. Balancing beads helped, but not enough. Stick on weights (as used on mag wheels) worked the best. With...

The problem is always the spare tire. We incorporated it into the camper, but it takes up a lot of valuable storage space under the double bed. With a cab over, even a custom build with an extended floorplan with departure angle, you would need to retain your floorplan for kitchen, dinette and...

They are on this thread https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/u1300l-camper.209565/. I can add more if you have specific questions.

The benefit of the U1300L is it's small enough to get into tight places yet big enough to carry a decent load. I'd suggest you use what you have while fixing the mechanicals and then replace the box once you've decided what you want to use it for. I used the ambulance box for the first 5 years...

Just spoke with my mechanic here in Sydney - That truck had the option of a MB 8 speed, ZF 5 speed or Road Ranger 10, 13 or 15 speed. He has spare Road Ranger 10 and 13 speed boxes if that helps.

On the topic of camper builds, there are endless options and I investigated many of them. Importing big, empty boxes into Australia is always going to be pricey mostly due to transport costs. Me doing my own assembly was out of the question. I have neither the engineering skills nor the ability...

Just back from another week on the Queensland north coast. FGS are going to build me two windows so that I have cross draft across the dining area. Across the bed I switched sides so that the fan in the rear corner blew straight onto my face. Kept it at low speed and it was very comfortable. I...

I have a U1300L and, in Australia, need to cover big distances. I’ve recently upgraded the portals with the Atkinson Vos fast gears and the bigger bearings. My shocks are the Hellgeth Koni’s and I run XZL 365/80 which are rated to 70mph. When travelling on the blacktop I keep my tyres at 65psi...

Solar: My carefully crafted solar calculations didn't account for parking in the shade and not moving for 6 days. My plan was to use excess solar to heat the water system. Turns out hot showers every evening are really nice so why not just run down the batteries. Wilma only got to use the kettle...

Decide on the condition of the roads you will be travelling on and work backwards. A 12 ton Unimog fully laden won't snap it's chassis or axles when twisted up in very bad offroad conditions or being smashed on heavily corrugated roads. It won't go up a sand dune unless you have V-treads. An...

Hi Wyuna - this was a custom build and being for a Unimog I wanted the skins to be very tough. To make the walls as strong as possible FGS built both the outer and inner skins the same using a combination of glass fibre products. They specialise in composites so could build exactly what I...

The new camper is heavily built (3mm glass fibre each side of the very dense 40mm insulation) and has a lot more furniture. The difference between the new box and the old Binz box, including subframe, is about 800kg. I've used some of that with bigger batteries, extra water, bigger toolboxes...

Weight - fully loaded with both passengers in, 190 litres of water, 360 litres of fuel, tools, recovery gear, food, etc, etc. we are at 6,850kgs or 15,000 lbs. The GVM is 7,490kgs so plenty to spare. Bear in mind, we are weekend warriors so fully loaded we go off grid for a week to 10 days max...

Nathane and Victorian - FGS custom folded the drawers, had them powdercoated and then modified existing handles to fit. I don't know the brand. Best contact FGS Composites.

Victorian - The Elgena with air heated water doesn't have the 24v (my truck is 24v) element option. How long it actually takes mine isn't accurate. I flick on the VictronConnect app and if its still drawing the 490w I ignore it. Once it shows zero I switch off the inverter via the app. Joe917 -...

Hot water is via an Elgena 10l system. The Eberspacher D4 blows hot air through the water cylinder plus there is a 240v element. I was interested to see whether I could use excess solar or excess alternator power while driving to heat water. Before setting off I switch on the Elgena element, but...

That's Urs and Bin of FGS load testing the big storage drawers!

Shake down test underway - We found a magnificent camping site at Eurimbula NP and decided to stay for one night. So far we've been here for 4 nights with one more to go. The camper is working very well, both for living and as a place for Wilma and I to work from. The Lagun legged table swings...