Outer Limits 4x4 Board

If your reading this thread you have probly been asking your self a heap of question, as i did when me and the missus first decided to sell our home and take a drive .
There is an mirade of choices out there as to vehicles you could use for a long term home on the road .
A bus towing zook ? A 4x4 or 6x6 truck with a hard side camper.
All have advantages and disadvantages it all depends on the end user "you" to way up all those questions and hopfully make the right choice.

I needed a vehicle that offerd a home like comfort with the best offroad ability we could afford.
The vehicle needs to "fit" on australian tracks especially coastal areas where trees and bushs, and rocks tend limit the size of a vehicle,
We chose a nissan gu 4.2 turbo diesel trayback ,on the tray i have built a simple camper,
camper had to be tall enough to stand in ,have double bed ready to sleep in,fridge.freezer,60ltrs water,a self contained 12v power system,enough ventilation from windows to be usable up north .
A semi off road caravan to use as base camp.

So this is what we started with "covered wagon and the farm truck"








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The needed to be built from somthing easy and cheap,i retained the steel tray as the base, and added a 25x25 x1.6 frame out of mild steel, get your measurments right ,and have the steel mob cut it for
Thanks to Ben for the welding.

Cant wait to see the out come, im currently looking for a large dual cab 4x4 and adding a lazy axle and extending for a good sized slide on camper. I have contemplated building my own so this is going to be watched closely.

Mark.

This is exactly what I wanted this section to be about!

Your build and tour plans look exciting!

cheers bru

Thanks Mark -Bru ,
The roof frame is hinged at the front , my tray size determined the size of the roof,and its an idea to remember the available cladding sheet sizes when building stuff like this ,most alloy is 2400 x 1200.
We used 1.6 alloy with a join down the middle,allternative in a single piece you can get a .90 x 2700 x as long as you want.
Bit of a worry having a join was worried about leakage so i decided to use sika flex 252 adhesive ,on the roof sheets you need to prep both surfaces,once this stuff goes off you will not get it apart without destroying the sheet,i added 2 x 200 watt solar panels.
The sika also works to isolate the combination of steel and alloy which apparantly don't play well left alone together (corrosion).




The seal on the hinged end of the roof is grey PVC with a flexible sealant pop riveted under some 2x20 al strip.

At the rear i wanted a dirty area for stuff like jerry cans ,generator, spare ect.
this formed by a 350mm allcove in the rear of the box.
simply folded prop sheet,



some extra pieces of metal in the right spot behind to support the spare ect.



Oh nearly forgot don't forget some triangulation.
(nearly as good as cable braceing ! )

Above the rear recess leaves a shelf area inside the box via the full width an area around 1900x350x350 large enough for a small cooking storage area.

Looks tops mate, I tow I dual cab rodeo behind the bus and want to build something similar.....ish

The main focus for me is suitable power/water wtc and a cooking section and bed. First on the list is to upgrade the trailer and then I need to replace and upgrade battery and solar in the bus, going from 400a/h battery and a pidly 240w solar to 1000a/h and 1240w solar

How long ya been full time now? 18months for us and loving it!!

That gen set looks just like our one, runs the fridge & split system in our bus easily.

Tiny wrote:Looks tops mate, I tow I dual cab rodeo behind the bus and want to build something similar.....ish

The main focus for me is suitable power/water wtc and a cooking section and bed. First on the list is to upgrade the trailer and then I need to replace and upgrade battery and solar in the bus, going from 400a/h battery and a pidly 240w solar to 1000a/h and 1240w solar

How long ya been full time now? 18months for us and loving it!!

Thanks Tiny, been since july ,but we floated around central coast for a month or so sorting stuff out, been exellent so far .
Im thinking i would like to see a bit of a thread on your bus and setup ,

longlux wrote:That gen set looks just like our one, runs the fridge & split system in our bus easily.

longlux 4.4 kva yep runs our heron 3.0 in the van no probs, mainly got it for inverter welder ,grinder drill ect.

I was looking at using high impact plastic sheeting like the outer cladding of newer caravans, or just buy the insulated sheet from caravans to keep the framing to the minimum.

Mark.

A pair of 6000kpa struts make the roof lift a breeze large zip down windows allow for good air flow,
bed is what they call a caravan double.



Under the bed lives a 65ltr primus fridge freezer,2x 120 amp batterys,60ltr water tank,chain saw,grinder , inverter welder,ect ect.
oh and the queens seat

MARKx4 wrote:I was looking at using high impact plastic sheeting like the outer cladding of newer caravans, or just buy the insulated sheet from caravans to keep the framing to the minimum.

Mark.

Some of he composite would be exellent Mark ,i allways loved these FWC light as and low profile http://www.fourwheelcampers.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; in amoungst there pics is some of there framing.

The fridge is on a couple of bunnings 45kg slides.



Door hinges from the top,and half an alloy ladder gets my short old ass up there.

Basically thats it,its still a work in progress,
of cause it needed a few extras, tires where sad ,bfg muddies 285x75x16 on 8inch sunnys, some ipf spotties,
and a trip to Dobbinsons at narrellen nsw to get its fat butt up a couple of inchs they done a top job.
and a 12500lb winch.
Also tinted windows thanks to Terra firma 4x4 @ kempsey nsw who done the after hours

know one really knows whats under the tarp




I will try to finish it if i can just stop using it !