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Hello again, AI! Please forgive me for I have sinned - I let my project thread lapse for too long and it went off into archives! For those who haven't been following since the beginning; http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3428752 <-- Caution, needs archives!  As punishment, my CV boots have decided to rip, and require replacement. Seems as good a place as any for Part II of this absurd project! Let us begin. SO YOU WANT TO CHANGE A BOOT. Pretty standard thing to do on a car, but I've never done it myself on something with geared hub portal ends. I don' t think many others have either, so we decided to take lots of photos.  STEP ONE: Loosen lug nuts, jack up wheel, remove nuts. Then remove the wheel nuts too.  (reccomend 6 ton jack stands under the spring perches here) With the tires removed, move them over to your girlfriend's Opel GT, and cause her to seriously consider putting heavy truck axles under it and becoming a wargirl.     That being done, back to the Volvo...  (paint is July's project.. stay tuned)  Next step: Remove the drain plug for the geared hubs, and drain the heavy gear oil out.  If you have a failed CV boot, they're probably already dripping like this.  Next step is to remove the steering pin, so you can rotate and remove the portal end.  The bolt itself should come off just fine without much effort (if it's sticking, just hit it with deep creep or the like)  Bolt should just hand-turn off afterwords.  After that, we used a simple 2-jaw puller to seperate the ends, and it popped right off.  Portal end now pivots freely.  You can see some tearing at the boots on this side,  And this side as well.  Next step is to pop off the brake lines - in theory people have done this boot swap without draining the brakes, but without doing before, we wanted to go by the book, and the book says to remove them. I probably should have used a different catch for the brake fluid than the one we used for the oil. whoops.  Once the hardlines are disconnected, you can remove the anchor plate from the hub end with two small bolts, and tuck the soft lines up over the leaf spring to keep them clear of the work area to avoid damage.  Otherwise they get a bit close to the area where you need to work in to pull the eight bolts off of the flange where the portal end meets the axle.  Another view.  Next step is to pull and remove the portal end and axle shaft from out of the axle housing. The manual reccomends a special jack to hold the portal end, we found that a Motorcycle stand works fantastic for this application.  Adjusting the height of the jack to meet the stand is easy.  From there, you can pull the hub off - it's pretty damned heavy, about 75 pounds. Next time, I'd put wheels on the bottom of the stand.  Out she comes! other than being heavy this was straightforward.  Moar axle.  plop.  Axle shaft, geared hub, and drum brakes, in all their glory.  WELL HELLO TO YOU TOO, YOU STINKING SON OF A BITCH. So after I had this job done professionally two years ago (as seen in the previous thread), these fuckers let loose on me within 6 months of them going in. They happened to do it about the same time my brakes failed (also in the previous thread), all happening during a -20f cold front we had. Normally I don't move the truck when it's that cold, but I had left it out on the street and wanted to move it into the driveway for the plows, and everything let loose when I moved it. welp.  Funny thing to do: call up volvo and ask for this part number. *giggle*  Old seal came out with some gentle tapping with a chisel, being very careful not to mar the mating surface.  Stare too long into the abyss...  Brass ring that forms the inner seal to the axle shaft that the CV boot rides on.  To get the new boot sealed in, Volvo used to have a special tool (seen in the previous thread where a guy in sweden posted doing the same job). We didn't have one, so we very carefully used a socket extension and a hammer to tap the metal ring on the outside of the seal into the seat, all the way around. We wound up haing to use a second extension levered against the hub to keep the areas we'd previously seated in place. Putting it all back in I sadly didn't get photos of, as it was getting dark and we wanted this one done, but it was basically putting the portal hub back onto the motorcycle stand, lowering the jackstands a notch or two to line up better, sliding the axle back into the tube, then using a longer threaded bolt end (photo missing - will add tomorow) as a locator pin on the top bolt hole of the portal end, then just sliding it on until we could get a bolt in and hand-tighten. Then another bolt on the other side, and slowly pulled the hub on using those bolts. 7 of 8 bolts went back in just fine, however we had to lower the axle to get the 8th in, as it was up against the rubber bump stop there, and compressing that side of the axle gave us no room to slide the bolt in. And that's how to do a CV boot swap on a Volvo C-304! This wound up being a 3 hour project just to do the passenger side, but considering we'd never done it before ourselves and didn't really know what to expect or what extra tools we'd need, I think it all went rather well. Tomorrow: the other side. Still to come: Paint and Bodywork. oh man does it need it. Doccers fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Sep 13, 2015 |
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Jun 28, 2015 05:52
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For what it's worth, since I handle all of the oil changes in the house (3 vehicles), I'm pretty familiar with the local AutoZone. Specifically, their used oil collection practices. The vat itself says you can dump brake fluid in it, along with ATF, power steering fluid, etc. I think they expect that some mixture will happen somewhere. The brake fluid part was a  to me, since it's so much different from oil, gearbox oil, and ATF, but they do accept it in the same vat (here). Coolant contamination is an absolute deal breaker.
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Jun 28, 2015 07:19
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some texas redneck posted:For what it's worth, since I handle all of the oil changes in the house (3 vehicles), I'm pretty familiar with the local AutoZone. Specifically, their used oil collection practices. that is... quite surprising, thanks for the info.
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Jun 28, 2015 07:21
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Obviously check with your local store first, this could be a region specific thing. Just show up with some used oil and say you'd like to drop it off. On your first visit or two, you usually get escorted to the back and quizzed about the contents, in my experience. Subsequent visits usually get a "you know where it's at, here's the key for the padlock on it, just clean up if you spill anything", at least for me. The container itself should have a label showing what you can dump in it. I haven't actually bought anything from that store in ages (unless they have an oil + filter deal that beats Walmart), but since I do so many oil changes, I'm in there often enough that they recognize me. If you're not going anytime soon, I need to go up there in the next couple of days to drop off some oil, I'll try and grab a picture of the labels on the container.
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Jun 28, 2015 07:49
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So the 4th of July coincided with the Golden Super Cruise - where basically the whole town of Golden Colorado turns into a car show for the first saturday of every month in the summertime. Being that the Volvo was now not pissing heavy gear oil everywhere, and 5 Ton Lady's opel isn't quite ready to go (she's working on it actively though), we decided it might be fun to take the six wheelers out to play.  It was fun.  We met some awesome people,  And had a blast driving around sporting gigantic american flags for the 4th of july, and having people cheer when we drove past. I'm hoping I can find some photos of both of us driving, all I was able to get were a few rear shots of the 5 ton as I was, well, driving, but I know a ton of people were taking photos there, so I keep looking around on the various golden super cruise pages. At any rate, a good time was had, the Volvo is running nicely indeed, and I'm about ready for the re-wiring and painting phases. yay for poo poo getting done!
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Jul 7, 2015 05:28
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I feel like your 5-ton needs some skulls and a bulldozer blade on front.
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Jul 7, 2015 09:56
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This is the best thread and makes me want a surplus 5 ton so ridiculously badly.
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Jul 7, 2015 13:25
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I'm glad things are happening with your crazy Volvo 6x6 again. I love that thing so much. Need more video of offroading it.
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Jul 18, 2015 16:50
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I'm pretty sure if you turn up in the 5-ton truck Autozone will take whatever you're giving them.
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Jul 18, 2015 17:05
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Part the Next: WIRING! EVERYONE LOVES WIRING!  It's time for me to tackle the part of the project I should have started with but was simply too overwhelmed to begin. The Truck is 24 volt. Most everything under the sun is 12v. My solution had been a 24 -> 12 converter, as I had heard that tapping off the battery was "bad" and could cause explosions. Turns out this was due to a mistranslation from the swedish forum I get a lot of information from. welp. No biggie. Until the cheap POS started to fritz out on me. So since it's absolutely safe to tap directly from the 24v side, It's time to do this for real. I decided to get a couple of photos of the main battery box and wiring coming off them to show what shape I'm in - some of this is from Baron Margo, some of it is our own creation:    Yeah... not proud of this. So, lets get together some heavy gauge wiring and crimps for the main 24 -> 12 positive lead.  Yep. That's a crimp alright. Now lets get some wire strippers and crimpers.   Not a chance in hell is this going to do the job. I swear to god, everything on this project is larger than life. BUT THATS OK BECAUSE THEY MAKE LARGER THAN LIFE TOOLS.   ... Does Doccers burn the volvo to the ground? Does he weld a wrench to terminals playing with 3 car batteries at once? Will anything work right again when he's done?! Tune in next time, for the stunning conclusion to "The gently caress you mean Negative's not the same as Ground?"
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Sep 13, 2015 05:37
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At first I was like "wow that's a tiny lug, that poo poo will be useless." Then I saw the gauges on the first crimper. Then I saw the gauges on the second crimper. I feel like once you start buying old military vehicles you need to buy more old military vehicles just to move the giant comedy-sized tools that you need to work on them.
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Sep 13, 2015 05:47
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PART II: So, after wiring everything up, lets see what we have:  ONE WIRE leading from the battery box instead of 7! (ignore the small disconnected wire - disconnected at both ends, just being used to hold the large one in place until I can find my bag of velcro strips)  Anchored firmly in place running under the base of the table,  Into the mysterious cabinet.  Inside of the mysterious cabinet it goes up,  Into a ludicrously oversized switch. And then from there it goes Down, Into a nicely placed 12v deep cycle battery.  Hello Battery! But lets go back to that switch. It also has a lead going Out...  To a nicely placed, fused, distribution center.  With a nice big red switch. Everyone likes nice big red switches, right? So there. That's the backbone of the 12v system in the Volvo - Everything is fused, and the 12v battery can be isolated from the rest of the system so I can run stuff from it without worrying about draining the main 24v system and leaving me without starting power. As a bonus, if the 24v system somehow gets drained, switching the 12v battery back in will provide extra power for the starter. So. What does that leave with that mysterious cabinet?  A very nice large folding table in the center of the passenger area, and that cabinet on the right...  Which, along with my hand because I obviously havent figured out how to use cameras yet, creates a nice fold-down workspace, and a lockable area to keep my 10m, 2m, and HF radio gear, which will be the next part of this project! (all that wiring up in the front that's draping down is the stuff I'm going to be replacing/rewiring to the distribution center. You can see how much of a mess things were with the old set-up.) Post-project notes: A few things I'd like to change out when I can - 1: the ground cable for the 12v deep cycle battery is the same clear cable that the positive side is. I don't like this, I'd prefer to have a nice black cable, but Home Depot was out of stock. Since it's a simple run of cable I don't see myself (or anyone) confusing it for the hot side, but when I can I'll replace that with black or green for ground. While I didn't get a photo of it, the "hot" lead coming in from the 24v side is fused about 6 inches from the battery terminals on the 24v side - so that long run from left to right does have at least one safety precaution should something short it there. The next step is going to be re-installing all of the 12v devices I've fudged in over the years to that distribution center, which should allow me to run things far better than they currently are. After that, I want to build a rack mount system to live inside of that cabinet for the radio gear just for ease of installation/upgrades/maintainence. I've also got a ground bar for RF ground, and need to find a good spot on the chassis to ground that to, seperately from the power ground. And then there's antennas. Oh god antennas. I'd love to find a used Shakespeare 120 HF (AT-1011/U) but they seem to be pure unobtanium these days, so I'll likely just get a stand-alone 20 meter vertical and start from there. Fun!
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Sep 13, 2015 19:25
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Quicky followup - 90% of old wiring from the front and mid section is already removed, but my RCA video cable from the rear view camera is too short to wrap around the corners. In order to do wiring correctly, I'm ordering a male-to-female extension. Anyone know of any issues with doing so on a simple backup camera deal?
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Sep 14, 2015 01:50
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Im running HF in my landcruiser (its used as a "Oh poo poo" form of communications in the outback quite a lot) and Im running a Codan 8528 Radio with a Codan 8558 Auto Tuner and a Multitap whip as backup. Its the big black antenna base on the rear door (not my car, but couldnt be arsed going outside to take a photo of it when its basically in the same place as theirs) Autotuners are Goooooood, otherwise you have to get out of the drat truck and change the lead wire on the multitap if you need to change frequencies.
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Sep 14, 2015 02:14
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Ferremit posted:Im running HF in my landcruiser (its used as a "Oh poo poo" form of communications in the outback quite a lot) and Im running a Codan 8528 Radio with a Codan 8558 Auto Tuner and a Multitap whip as backup. I have both an autotuner and a manual tuner. The manual tuner will be installed in the volvo, the autotuner is staying with my Icom IC706MKIIG as my base station for the moment. For the multitap - do you just run it as say, a 20m and use the autotuner primarily, or do you have a secondary (or primary in this case) antenna? (you said you use it "As backup" so I'm curious) Also, does anyone know of an NVIS/Tilt type mount for standard antenna threads? I'm coming up bupkis. (I should probably ask in the HAM thread) Thanks for posting - I've been curious about those multi-tap thingies.
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Sep 14, 2015 02:40
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Doccers posted:I have both an autotuner and a manual tuner. The manual tuner will be installed in the volvo, the autotuner is staying with my Icom IC706MKIIG as my base station for the moment. For the multitap - do you just run it as say, a 20m and use the autotuner primarily, or do you have a secondary (or primary in this case) antenna? (you said you use it "As backup" so I'm curious) Its more of a secondary antenna- Auto tuners are known to fail if they get too much dust ingress from a failed seal and corrugations have been known to cause things to break in them and render them useless, so Ive just got two antenna leads at the radio head and swap between the multitap on the bullbar and the autotuner on the back (looks hilarious with two huge antennas on it too)  Thats one of my multi taps. Basically each tap point is tuned to a different frequency so to change the frequency you move the fly lead to each tap which changes the tuning of the antenna. This is my spare spare one because its not quite tuned to the frequencies we use primarily down here- its close, but not perfect. Thing bout a multitap is they arent bad if your stationary, but if your on the move and the Sked your listening too or working with has to change frequencies, you have to stop and change the tapping on it. They default to 2020khz though, which is the primary frequency for the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) so even if you loose the fly lead you can still get a call out in a medical emergency, which is why they are ideal for a backup. We tend to run between 2 and 14Mhz in Australia, dont really see much higher on a day to day use, but according to this http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/6/1 I MIGHT be able to hit Colorado with 20mhz if conditions are playing nice. I've heard the russians before on 8022khz!
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Sep 14, 2015 03:01
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Ferremit posted:Its more of a secondary antenna- Auto tuners are known to fail if they get too much dust ingress from a failed seal and corrugations have been known to cause things to break in them and render them useless, so Ive just got two antenna leads at the radio head and swap between the multitap on the bullbar and the autotuner on the back (looks hilarious with two huge antennas on it too) 20m (14mhz) is pretty much worldwide capable... I've gotten Japan before from Colorado. Out here 2m (144mhz) is most common for mobile, but you do see some 10m (28mhz). I just think this would make a great platform for mobile 20m comms, which would be hilarious IMHO.
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Sep 14, 2015 03:10
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I think Australia uses HF in a more specific way than a lot of other places in the world- only other area that really uses it to the same extent would be Africa. Same reasons really, because we're so sparsely populated there realistically isnt any other form of communication in a lot of areas, and before satphones it was the ONLY way of communicating, so it looks like Aus has developed most of its HF systems to work within Australia rather than globally (not to say that you cant) Like most things here, HF is regulated by the government so you have to be a licenced operator to use it, which is pretty simple- you just join a radio club and thats your licence. Biggest one is VKS 737 who use about 7 frequencies Channel 1: 5455kHz Channel 2: 8022kHz Channel 3: 11612kHz Channel 4: 14977kHz Channel 5: 3995kHz Channel 6: 6796kHz Channel 7: 10180kHz And they also run a heap of bases across australia that do regular sked calls and things like that. http://www.vks737.on.net/pdfs/DOC%2019.pdf Its a pretty cool system for those of us who routinely wander off into the outback and want to let people know that we arent dead yet. I think to go global legally here you need a HAM licence, which is a small once off fee to make sure you know what your doing and your not going to spray back street boys across the HF sprectrum that aircraft in the middle of nowhere are using. We also use UHF for general CB use here too- 476.4250 to 477.4125hmz with 12.5khz spacings for 80 channels. Its a nice system but its class licenced, so any dickhead can ebay a UHF radio and pretend hes a DJ and clog up a channel and repeater for hours at a time.
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Sep 14, 2015 03:32
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Ferremit posted:I think Australia uses HF in a more specific way than a lot of other places in the world- only other area that really uses it to the same extent would be Africa. Same reasons really, because we're so sparsely populated there realistically isnt any other form of communication in a lot of areas, and before satphones it was the ONLY way of communicating, so it looks like Aus has developed most of its HF systems to work within Australia rather than globally (not to say that you cant) That sounds a bit like how we have things in the US, We have a simple GMRS (general mobile radio service) where you plunk down some money and that's your license - though GMRS is really UHF only, that radio club uses some pretty drat long wavelengths. I wonder what power it's limited to, I'll have to look that up... (GMRS for example is limited to 2 Watts) We also have CB which is completely unlicensed here and it's a real cowboy show, almost useless anymore unless you switch to sideband. (CB is limited to 5 Watts AM, and 12 watts sideband - but you see some cowboys pumping out something like 5KW or more illegally, and it seems like the FCC has basically given up on enforcing anything on CB) And then you have HAM licensing, of which I hold a General license, so I'm authorized to use a large chunk of the bandplan - and I'm allowed to push 1,000 Watts, which is higher than a lot of the AM Broadcast stations in the US... Though to date I've only transmitted at a 100 Watts like twice as a test, and do almost all of my work at 20 watts or less. ( http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hambands_color.pdf ) Question: What do you use as your primary antenna then? If it's agile enough to transmit across that rather wide band of frequencies (albeit with a tuner), I'm curious what it is. 
Doccers fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 04:10
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Doccers posted:That sounds a bit like how we have things in the US, We have a simple GMRS (general mobile radio service) where you plunk down some money and that's your license - though GMRS is really UHF only, that radio club uses some pretty drat long wavelengths. I wonder what power it's limited to, I'll have to look that up... (GMRS for example is limited to 2 Watts) Yeah, UHF CB class licencing restricts things like wattage, max is meant to be 5w. Im running 25w on mine but thats because i bought a commercial grade radio and the extra punch is worth it at times. The biggest issue we have is the fact you can buy a 4 pack of .25w UHF radios for $50 so every retard has one and as soon as they discover repeaters its show over. Theres also a shitload of companys using the UHF CB band for commercial operations, which is against the conditions of the licencing but the ACMA wont do poo poo about it. quote:And then you have HAM licensing, of which I hold a General license, so I'm authorized to use a large chunk of the bandplan - and I'm allowed to push 1,000 Watts, which is higher than a lot of the AM Broadcast stations in the US... Though to date I've only transmitted at a 100 Watts like twice as a test, and do almost all of my work at 20 watts or less. My Codan HF punches out 100w each and every day. Its enough to make all the LED's on my dash glow when doing a sellcall  The whips nothing special, its just a 1.5m radome that screws into the top of the 800mm tall antenna tuner. The magic is inside the black bit. You can go bigger- i think the most you generally bolt on in mobile applications is a 2m long stainless steel whip. Still does pretty drat well, I can happily talk to Perth or Townsville from Adelaide on it!
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Sep 14, 2015 05:25
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Ferremit posted:Yeah, UHF CB class licencing restricts things like wattage, max is meant to be 5w. Im running 25w on mine but thats because i bought a commercial grade radio and the extra punch is worth it at times. The biggest issue we have is the fact you can buy a 4 pack of .25w UHF radios for $50 so every retard has one and as soon as they discover repeaters its show over. Theres also a shitload of companys using the UHF CB band for commercial operations, which is against the conditions of the licencing but the ACMA wont do poo poo about it. hahah nice. The autotuner I have is an internal box that sits on top of the Icom radio itself - it does the loading internally, so less chance of dust getting in there I'd suppose. Anyways looks like I found some folding antenna mounts like I wanted, so I've got one on order to test with, if I like it I'll pick up another one. Then it's fun of drilling holes in the cab for PL-259 bulkheads. Hopefuilly I'll have this all done in time to go on a nice off-roading trip or some camping or something. I realized I have almost no footage of me actually off-roading the thing, so I need to take along someone for the sole purpose of filming it.
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Sep 14, 2015 06:07
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I'm pretty sure that codan thing is a screwdriver antenna like a little tarheel or yaesu atas device. You got me wondering now how much one of those is, probably more expensive than ham equipment. I also definitely wanna see some video of that volvo offroad.
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Sep 14, 2015 06:33
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Crankit posted:I'm pretty sure that codan thing is a screwdriver antenna like a little tarheel or yaesu atas device. You got me wondering now how much one of those is, probably more expensive than ham equipment. Pretty much, Tuning slug on a worm drive is essentially how they work. http://www.hfradiosales.com.au/coda...20protected.htm I only paid $50 for mine, but my mate bought a later model one for $350 the other day. The latest stubby ones from codan (less than a foot tall then add whip) are AU$1500 or so brand new!
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Sep 14, 2015 07:39
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You probably do want to use a 24-12 volt converter for that, actually. You are in fact going to eventually unbalance your charge states between the top and bottom 12 volt batteries for your 24 volt system - unless you "carefully" manage this situation - which for lead acids seems to mean "just make sure you run your charging system for an hour or two past where it seems to be charged." So the occasional 3+ hour drive with the alt spinning fast enough for full output to be available would probably do it just fine. This kinda goes out the window if you're drawing significant current on your 12V tap - I wouldn't think twice about something like a CB and a GPS unit on the middle tap of a 24 volt car battery stack, but add an inverter with a bunch of crap on it, a few lights, an air compressor, maybe a fan and an automotive refrigerator, etc and you start needing to actually think about this. Fortunately 24-12 conversion really should be easier and cheaper than most people think. What are your maximum surge and constant draw currents you expect to see on your 12 volt system? e: for your purposes, I might actually think about adding a 12 volt alternator to the vehicle. If you need info on how to frankenstein together a standalone-regulated (3 wire, warning lamp, sense, and ignition feed) nippon denso alternator in the 75-120 amp range for such a thing, let me know, I just put a design for one together for the plane at work and I'm puttering around with similar plans for my Justy because I don't like paying 150+ for a 55 amp alternator and have to change the accessory belt setup for the AC compressor anyways. With a second, independent 12 volt system, you could even put two batteries in parallel for your 12 volt equipment, but carry precrimped cables to disconnect them from the 12 volt system and put them in series instead to use them as an emergency starting battery. kastein fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 14:20
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kastein posted:You probably do want to use a 24-12 volt converter for that, actually. You are in fact going to eventually unbalance your charge states between the top and bottom 12 volt batteries for your 24 volt system - unless you "carefully" manage this situation - which for lead acids seems to mean "just make sure you run your charging system for an hour or two past where it seems to be charged." So the occasional 3+ hour drive with the alt spinning fast enough for full output to be available would probably do it just fine. Everything on the 12v side is going to be low-power. I plan on adding an inverter to the 24v side, but not the 12v. Primarily 12v is going to be for radios, interior low-power LED lights, and things like that while the vehicle is not running - Hence the battery cutoff switch. Air compressors, winch, etc, is all going on the 24v side. Eventually I'm adding solar as well, both for 12v power and as a battery top-off while it's parked.
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Sep 14, 2015 15:21
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Excellent, sounds good to me then!
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Sep 14, 2015 16:20
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Wiring update mark whatever! With the main 12v battery install completed, it's time to add some functionality to it. Other than "loving wires hanging every goddamn where", I had some significant issues with the previous setup I wanted to rectify. Issue #1: Rear view cameras are AWESOME for a truck like this. I seriously depend on it since I have zero visibility out the original stock rear view mirror setup. The problem is, that in cold weather the camera literally freezes over and cannot output a valid video signal. The solution to this is to let it run for a couple of minutes, and the heat from the current going through it will allow it to heat itself up to operating temperature. However, it then needs to be re-initialized to output a valid video signal. The way I had it wired before, the only way to do that was to shut off the ignition and then re-start it. This is dumb. So, I installed a switch to run both the camera and the display, so I could re-boot them at will.  Simplicity itself. This is now on it's own fused circuit based on the 12v battery, so if I gently caress up and leave it on, it won't drain the rest of the system and leave me in a no-start situation. Second issue: At night, it's loving dark in the rear cab. Those who read the previous thread may have recalled that my solution to that ( a 24v super-bright LED setup) didn't exactly work terribly well, in that it blinded everybody, was excessively harsh, *AND*, it was on the 24v circuit. So if I hosed up and left it on, Congrats! drained batteries. Another issue was that in order to reach that switch, you had to already be inside of the cab. Climbing into this truck is not quite as simple as stepping into a car, and even then, most cars light up when you open the doors. That's not really an option for this thing without getting silly complex, so I had to come up with an alternative solution.  A row of switches reachable from outside the door, and easily discernable by feel in the dark.  Which leads to a double light bar conveniently illuminating in such a way as not to blind everyone! It's also fantastic for reading in the back, and for working on projects on the table - considering I finished the latter half of this project in the dark using only that strip for illumination, I can verify this. These lights are perfectly balanced - they're not too harsh so if you happen to look at them your retinas aren't burned out, and there are a LOT of them, so they provide a nice warm glow everywhere in the camera - there's almost no shadowing. They're also placed almost directly above head level, and some of the light angles down perfectly for seeing anything in your lap (like a book or whatever). I could not be happier. Again, this is on the isolated 12v battery side. The switches above currently activate as follows: Left switch: Forward lights. Right switch: Rearward lights. Mid switch is going to be for an illumination light underneath the body, to illuminate the area below the passenger door. Since you have to hop down at present, it might be nice to see what the gently caress you're hopping into. Next step is going to be the radio install, I have 95% of all the parts, I'm just waiting on some antenna mounts to ship. That being said, it's time to post some updated photos of the current interior.  The radio cabinet.  Looking rearwards to the sleeping area - Toolbox needs to be stored in it's cubbyhole under the bed, someone's car is parked behind the rear door so I can't do that presently.  From the bed area looking forward. You can see how retaining the split folding seats can be a huge help in moving about the cabin. You can also note how the left side 45 degree panel between the wall and ceiling sags at the front, I have not yet decided what to put on that metal bulkhead to anchor the end of that panel. Might be putting a console for an entertainment center there, or it may be reserved for part of the A/C system I may be installing. For now it's ugly. ohwell. You can also see I ran out of upholstery material to finish the entire left side wall there. poo poo's expensive and since that side's original pegboard and insulation is still intact, I'm not eager to shell out cash to finish that part yet. I'm going to need to replace the hinges on the table, I used piano hinge because I thought it would work well, it doesn't. It bends, and pulls away from the mount, and causes the entire table to droop. I'll be replacing it with beefier hinges. ohwell, this is a learning process for me. Notice the conspicous lack of hanging wires everywhere!  Next time (I hope): Communications ahoy! Doccers fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Sep 20, 2015 |
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Sep 20, 2015 21:20
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Ugh, I want this vehicle so bad. I play in the woods every weekend during the winter, it would be so much fun in this!
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Sep 21, 2015 05:28
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mutt2jeff posted:Ugh, I want this vehicle so bad. I play in the woods every weekend during the winter, it would be so much fun in this! Winter camping is a key reason I'm building this - the interior is insulated hilariously well, and in the end I'll be able to seal off the front cab with all of it's glass from the nice warm rear area.
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Sep 21, 2015 07:28
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Going out to eat is hilarious. Almost done with the radio mounting. Antennas are all mounted (CB, 2m, 10m), just need to make the custom shelving system for the radios themselves. Was going to go off-roading today but the trail I was expecting to hit had a closed gate on it, welp. So we just drove about in the mountains for a bit, was nice and relaxing until the speedometer imploded on itself and started reading we were doing 200 mph. Time to see if I can find a replacement original one, or just mount an aftermarket one. Being tempted by the aftermarket GPS driven ones. Bonus: Here have some Colorado. Stopped to stretch our legs and took this today. 
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Nov 2, 2015 02:29
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Doccers posted:Was going to go off-roading today but the trail I was expecting to hit had a closed gate on it, welp. It's just the first obstacle 
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Nov 2, 2015 19:21
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Doccers posted:the nice warm rear area. Need to work this into the thread title somehow.
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Nov 2, 2015 21:18
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Have I mentioned how much I love that thing? It's my favorite AI vehicle. I'd probably use it for something stupid like mount a train horn on it then drive up to otherwise inaccessible mountain rail lines and have horn duels with the trains. You could fit a hell of an air compressor in that thing.
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Nov 3, 2015 00:36
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Hi guys. Sorry I haven't posted in, well, forever. Big changes happening for us. We are moving - from Colorado to Washington. And we're going to Convoy the Volvo, the 5 Ton, and the Opel, and all of the other vehicles we have. It's going to be uh, fun? Of course, the best laid plans oft go awry, and Colorado decided to dump 2 feet of snow on us the day before we were supposed to leave. The only thing we could even get out of our driveway today, was the 6x6 trucks - the 4x4 Jeep couldn't break free of the mountains of heavy wet white bullshit piled up. On the way home, I decided to get a clip of video showing the amount of abandoned cars just between my house and the main road. And, coincidentally, the nice little trailer 5 ton lady picked up for her toy as well. Well played, Colorado, Well played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zbmmK-9tn0
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Mar 24, 2016 05:53
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Can't you put the Opel in the Volvo and then the Volvo in the 5 Ton and do it in one go? 
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Mar 24, 2016 15:20
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El Scotch posted:Can't you put the Opel in the Volvo and then the Volvo in the 5 Ton and do it in one go? And the rest of the house in the trailer?
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Mar 24, 2016 16:40
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El Scotch posted:Can't you put the Opel in the Volvo and then the Volvo in the 5 Ton and do it in one go? turtrucken
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Mar 25, 2016 04:35
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Where in WA? Volvo work party at Doccers house!? 
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Mar 25, 2016 05:23
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Mat_Drinks posted:Where in WA? Volvo work party at Doccers house!?
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Mar 25, 2016 14:05
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InitialDave posted:Sign on with uber, take it to Seattle, visit Firestone in Ballard for an inspection. Ftfy
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Mar 25, 2016 15:10
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