Lowly the Lorry. . .

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update:

Leaf spring work commences. Jacked the rear of the truck up and set the chassis on jack stands. Removed the dualies on each side and then used the jack to lift the left side of the rear axle until the leaf stack was neutral. Then the fun began.

For those of you just tuning in, Lowly lived his life as a work-a-day emergency response truck on the salty coastline of Wales. As a result of his youth his undercarriage is rusty wherever there isn't MB factory paint. This includes the threads on the massive U-bolts that hold the leaf stacks to the axle. I labored for an embarrassing amount of time using penetrating oil, wire brush, hammer driver, breaker bar, 4' cheater bar etc. with very little to show for it; headway on removing the nuts was painstakingly slow. Then the "little grey cells" (as Hercule Poirot would say) began to come alive and I realized I could just cut these U-bolts off because I just sold my firstborn for a set of new ones! Enter my Milwaukee angle grinder and cutoff wheel. Wam, bam, thank you ma'am.





After that it was a matter of pounding the leaf stack with a mini sledge until the rust broke loose in order to remove one leaf at a time.




With the leaf stack removed I was able to get a better look at what I'm calling the rear "sway bar" and its drop down brackets. The brackets are beyond leperous with rust to the point where replacement is necessary.





I've modeled up the bracket and am currently in the process of doing a proof-of-fitment test print on my 3D printer to see if I might be able to replace these brackets with carbon fiber/nylon 3D printed pieces rather than purchasing new ones or getting a new set fabricated.




So far I don't think I've ruined the truck and it actually feels like I'm making headway.

- Sheik

 

[MogsAndDogs]

Well done. I didn't realize that 3d printed parts could be that strong. I havent ever printed carbon fiber or nylon though.

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update:

Lowly gots himself some new shoes!

If you've been following along with this saga it is not breaking news that my hunt for wheels and tires has been quite circuitous. I finally was able to source both the tires and custom wheels from two shops who happen to be near each other in Wisconsin (see posts in this thread #217 & #223).

Feltz Tire was a pleasure to deal with, knew where I was coming from and knowledgeably answered my many questions. I pulled the trigger on 10 tires and 6 internal bead locks (4 on the truck, 2 mounted spares, 4 additional unmounted to be ready for future use) and had Stazworks the wheel builder pick them up.

Stazworks was able to work with my needs (offsets, bolt pattern, etc) to fabricate 6 custom wheels from the 2-piece MRAP aluminum rims. The new centers are spaced appropriately so that my front and rear tires line up with each other despite changing from dualies in the rear to the "super single" style tires. It was a long lead time from Stazworks despite the numerously stated "two weeks" but they did eventually arrive (requested to build on November 15, delivery on March 19th!). Stazworks mounted and shipped the tires on two pallets to a local freight hub where they awaited pickup.



Used our unpredictable and janky scissor lift to unload the monsters. Tip: never let one of these beasts lie completely down on the ground. Use a rock, jack or small child to prop the tire/wheel up on to decrease the lift angle.




I'm very happy with both the tires and wheels. I haven't mounted them on the truck yet due to ongoing leaf spring replacement but will update as soon as I do.

While any of the wheels can be mounted on any of the hubs, the rears will have their 2-piece bolt pattern facing the chassis rather than away (slight inconvenience and aesthetic downgrade but really not that big of a deal to me).

Front:




Rear:



Tire cost: $175 each x 10 = $1750
Inner beadlock cost: $25 x 6 = $150
Wheel cost: $550 each x 6 = $3300
Wheel mounting cost: $35 each x 6 = $210
Shipping cost: $658.50
TOTAL: $6068.50

- Sheik

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Shop Update:

A bit of shop infrastructure was needing to be brought online in order to continue making headway on Lowly. Thanks to beachfront living in his former life Lowly is pretty rusty in quite a few places. In the process of replacing leaf springs some of these places were made easily accessible and needed attention. Rust removal on small to medium parts is made much easier with the use of a media blasting cabinet. Cheap cabinets can be purchased from the Chinese Tool Supply (aka Harbor Freight) but require several additions/improvements to make them really usable.

I first added a gravity sand feed assembly to the bottom of the cabinet using black pipe fittings. In my opinion this is a necessity to actually get media from the bottom of the cabinet into the blasting gun; don't expect HF's tube pickup to work AT ALL! Air inlet to advance the media is accomplished via small holes drilled between the nipple's threads under the cap; exposing more of the nipple's threads by unscrewing the cap exposes more holes, thus providing additional airflow.



I also included a ball valve to the gravity media feed return line so I could cut media flow and be left with an air blow-off gun inside the cabinet to blow excess media off after blasting.



The last critical piece I added to the cabinet was a small dust cyclone on top of a 5-gallon bucket along with suction provided by an old shop-vac we had laying around.



All of these additions make this blast cabinet actually usable - I'm amazed anyone can use one of these without these improvements. I'm now able to blast down to bare metal, can see inside the cabinet and don't have any dust from the blasting process contaminating our shop.



Let the small part painting begin!

- Sheik

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update:

Rust mitigation commenced once the old springs were removed. Whatever was small enough to fit in the media blaster got a good cleaning; everything else got scraped and scoured. Next came a couple coats of rust converter followed by a couple coats of Rustoleum's "Massey Ferguson Tractor" gray paint (purchased in gallon quantity at the local tractor supply store). Finally a Lowly task suitable for the critters to assist with!



Once everything was painted in and around where the springs would mount up, it was time to install the springs.



Except the diesel tank interfered with the geometry of the new springs so it had to be removed.



The springs were then wheeled into place using an engine hoist and pinned to the chassis mount locations.



With both springs hanging from their mounts it was readily apparent that the axle had translated and rotated. The sway bar had also been removed; only the rear shocks and driveshaft were keeping it from rolling off its blocking. Head scratching commenced on how to bring the alignment pins on the bottoms of the springs back toward the receiving holes on the axle. We ended up using Lowly's front wheels as deadmen and dragging the axle back into place using ratchet straps. An additional ratchet strap was used to pull the driveline upward, rotating the rear axle.




Everything lined up and Lowly's axle was jacked up into place. The U-bolts were installed (albeit being 5 inches too long; spacers were fabricated to facilitate assembly) and the axle was finally united with the new leaf springs.



Now to see if those fancy new wheels actually fit! Stay tuned.

- Sheik

 

[Geo.Lander]

Lowly Update:

Parabolic springs arrived via sea freight from Germany. Ordered on December 2nd, delivered to Southern Oregon on March 17th. Needless to say, a Super Mario Bros warp tube was not used in the delivery of these springs!

Who better to pick them up from the delivery point than Lowly himself?
View attachment 650537 View attachment 650538

Not the best packing job; it appears the initial pallet buckled & broke under the substantial weight and it finished the trip on a second pallet. Despite the subpar packing job they arrived none the worse for wear.

Harald at DFF Ferden in Germany was great to deal with despite the language barrier. He worked to identify the correct springs for Lowly and modified the quote a couple times to accommodate my order's components. Here is the cost breakdown:

Front Springs + Rear Springs + Hardware + Sea Freight = 3776.20 Euro ($4783.58)

Here's what you get for that sort of pocketbook hit:

View attachment 650539

Do they fit on Lowly? Stay tuned.

- Sheik

They bolt on nicely don't they! We can thank the feedback from @VerMonsterRV regarding the fitment bushings being modded in the design iteration we got

 

[Sitec]

Lowly is going to look quite different on new boots and suspension!

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update:

With the rear leaf springs installed it was time to mount up the new wheels/tires for the first time. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous that I somehow goofed on measuring Lowly's hubs and Stazworks then followed those measurements into a very costly mistake. Checking the lineup:


The moment of truth:


Success; yes-haw!


The very relieved pit crew:


It appears I can still measure things and convey critical dimensions to fabrication specialists. From all points of observation the wheels mounted up nicely. The circular bolt/nut pattern that holds the 2-piece wheel together point inward on the rear axle and they do come pretty darn close to the drum brake hub/housing, but they thankfully don't touch. Success thus far!

Now for those front leaf springs. . .

- Sheik

 

[Wazak]

Nice one Sheik it's looking pretty good

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Nice work, pretty sure you're going really enjoy the ride especially with the front springs. We're back in the States and I have started back on the shock upgrade. Any chance you have time to do some measurements? Mainly need the ones with the wheel hanging in the air with the chassis supported, with the shock disconnected. This max length is needed. The compressed is easier but you see now there isn't a bump stop. A bracket needs to be fabricated for it. I know someone in Tuscon that can do that but we won't be there until October.

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update + Questions:

Front leaf spring swap continues; as in most things that come my way, it has become more complicated than originally anticipated!

Mounting hardware that was removable was taken off the truck, blasted and painted. The critters once again assisted in some of the rust converter application:



Areas around the axle where the leaf springs mount were also scraped, rust converted and painted:



The new front springs have slightly differing geometry around the mounting eyes than the original MB springs. First off, the new springs have the same diameter bolt sleeves front and back whereas the originals take a 2mm smaller diameter bolt in the front compared to the back. Off I go on a goose chase to solve this issue; decided it was easier to source some thin sleeve bearings to "step" the spring's bolt sleeve down to accept the original bolt (rather than trying to drill out the mounting yoke's eyelet holes to accept a larger diameter bolt.



The next geometrical difference is a more bulbous area below the spring's front bolt sleeve. This would not be an issue except on the left side of the truck there is a piece of the truck's exhaust that extends forward out of a "Y" in the bottom of the exhaust header and travels just under the mounting yoke's location before dead-ending in an oval shaped sheetmetal can. The original springs cleared this tube routing but the new springs interfere.





Questions: what is this oval shaped (grey colored) can? what is its purpose? what benefit is there in having the exhaust Y up to a can without any discernible outlets?

No matter, I'm going to have to disconnect this red rubber wrapped exhaust pipe leading up to the can in order to mount the new front springs.

Stay tuned.

- Sheik

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Not sure what that can is but we don't have it. Your truck is a bit newer so maybe something with emissions?

We also ran into that bulbous bit contacting the sway bar when all the bits were dangling. Once attached it cleared ok.

 

[Joe917]

We have the same can, 1993 MB 917AF. I had it off to get clearance to change the viscous fan. I assumed at the time it had something to do with the exhaust brake, but now I think about it maybe not.

 

[jaleel_da_sheik]

Lowly Update:

Big news!



Just pulled the trigger on the habitat box. Decided to go with Globe Trekker, a new business that has begun making and supplying the box components here in the USA and better yet, right here in the state of Oregon. With the understanding that they are a new company, I'm going in with eyes-wide-open, but so far all of my research and interactions with their team have been positive. List of the reasons I'm going with GT (in no particular order):

1) made in USA
2) quick lead time
3) driving distance from my location (save on shipping)
4) innovative aluminum edge extrusions
5) 80/20 type slots in edge extrusions for ease of mounting brush guards and/or solar panels and/or whatever
6) material selection in foam panel sandwich
7) lower pricing due to stateside manufacturing (no overseas shipping), and standardizing of panel construction layout

Here is their link:

Expedition Camper Solutions

Overland Expedition DIY Campers, Cabovers, Zero Torsion subframe, storage boxes, doors and windows for off road off grid nature camping enthusiats

www.rvglobetrekker.com

Lead time is 7-9 weeks so I'd better get cracking on finishing up my subframe design and fabricating it! Better get my springs installed first!

- Sheik

 

[Sitec]

Hi Sheik!

Well, I've just lost 20 min looking at their website. It all looks pretty good. I'm guessing as they're a new company, pictures are lacking. You should hint that you are happy to allow your vehicle to be used as a promo vehicle (photographs and shows etc), if they'll throw in a few extra's for free... I'd think a few weeks of picture taking, and a few trips (paid for) to shows could be quite fun!

The only thing I saw that I wasn't a fan of was the 3-4 point subframe... They have made the mistake lots do, by having the pivot above the center line of the chassis, without having side connecting rods... Following your build with interest!