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Hi All
Well finally got most of the truck sorted and managed to get out on the road for a test run.
We spent last week exploring the hinterland behind Grafton and Coffs Harbour, despite being a little chilly at times we had a great time and the truck performed perfectly. All the gear I put in place worked really well and my main design brief, that being to have camp set up in 5 mins from the time the handbrake is on, worked a treat.
A few pics to show how I finished up a few things I wasn’t sure about. You may recall initially I want to have the gas attached permanently to the stove on a system that slid out. Well a few warnings from posts here had we do a bit more investigating and it turns out it was not I great idea.
First problem was that my stove was a high pressure stove, meaning no regulator on the bottle, effectively the jets in the stove itself act as regulators of sorts, this means that the pressure in the hose is at the same pressure as the bottle and can cause issues if the hose is too long, about 1.8 meters seems to be the max hose length for this type of stove (for a whole number of reason I won’t go into).
The other issue is that if you want gas appliance permanently attached to a gas source in a vehicle like this then they need to be installed by a gas fitter. In the end I put it all in the too hard or too expensive basket and found a neat solution that works well and most importantly is safe and fool proof.
So in the end I chose two companion brand wok burners. These are reasonably priced are a low pressure appliance which meant I was able to use a longer hose. In the end I used a 3 meter hose which is the longest I could find and was told the longest that is safe to use practically but it was all I needed anyway.
These stoves performed exceptionally (in some really cold conditions too). There is a double burner version available but the distance between the burners is quite large making it a very wide unit so two units took up much less space, I also thought that having to two complete units provided a bit of redundancy should one fail. Given we are planning to live out of this truck got 4 months next year touring Australia I want as much redundancy as possible without having to carry a spare of everything. I also made up a wind shield which folds up neatly and takes up very little space.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...7&d=1404778053
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...8&d=1404778053
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...6&d=1404778053
Gameco in Sydney provided the hose and fittings to connect the two stoves, they actually made the small hose on the spot for me, provided great advice and were reasonably priced, these guys only do Gas and know their stuff (no affiliation just a very satisfied customer).
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...9&d=1404778053
I also put a quick release gas fitting on the hose at the stove end and this take a second to connect. So the hose stays wound up and attached to the gas bottle in the gas storage area and gets connected when we camp, the whole things takes about 20 seconds to do, it’s great.
Under the fold out table I have stored two of those pop up basins.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...0&d=1404778053
As you can see I ended up caver the cooking area in aluminium, it's 1/2 mm thick and I just wanted to have the surfaces closest the stove covered in something non flammable, or technically less flammable than wood. The entire kitchen area is sprayed with three coats of polyurethane which makes it easy to clean and is a tough finish.
to be continued.....
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A few other things sorted.
I installed a central locking system it was pretty easy to do just really fiddly and took a bit of time.
Reversing camera and rear bar light
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...4&d=1404778712
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2&d=1404778712
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...3&d=1404778712
Got the console upholstered and it turned out fantastic, it’s big too makes a great arm rest and decent amount of storage.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...1&d=1404778712
Also installed a roof console for the radio and to have some better lights. I neded up buying a ready made one as I simply ran out of time, but it works well and installed easily.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...5&d=1404778712
Made a good storage spot for the table so it can be easily accessed.I really wanted a setup where you didn't have to move one thing to get to another and didn't have things stored on top of each other, a place for everything as they say.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...8&d=1404778712
Extended the storage system so that it now goes all the way to the ends of the pod and put removable hatches on to provide easy access to additional storage in the rear.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...7&d=1404778712
Finished off the electrical system and replace the deep cycle battery with an 120amp AGM.
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...6&d=1404778712
Finally got to drive it in some great locations and started enjoying the beast..
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...0&d=1404779070
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...9&d=1404779070
Cheers for now
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Looks like a great set up, I wont ask how much it weighs.
I like the colour circuit volt meters
I'm going to re do my UHF so the passenger can grab it first.
leaves one less thing to do whilst driving
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Hi Threedogs
Planning on having it weighed later this week as I have found a local guy who can do it for me, fingers crossed. I have been very weight conscious throughout the build process so it should be OK.
Plan to fill up the water and fuel tanks and see how it goes.
About the mic on the other side of the console, good idea, I had a similar though myself and I couldn't commit to drilling the holes required to mount the mike clip into the console because I wasn't sure what side and position I wanted it in so used a stick on mic clip instead.
One of these.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BLACK-MIC...item2c69ce6b1b
The double sided tape that came with it was crap so I used some heavy duty stuff and it has stuck well. I will grab another one and put a clip on the other side as well so it can go either way.
Cheers
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Well I loaded her up today and filled both water tanks and both fuel tanks to capacity. All recovery gear, tools and camping gear, fridge etc. Everything except food and drink and it weighed it at 3167.
It has labelled as having a RGVM of 3400 so whilst it's heavy it still within limits so I'm pretty pleased with the end result.
Also I wont often completely fill both water tanks and it will only be completely full of fuel part of the time so should be OK.
Cheers
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Fantastic set up. The solution for the stoves was brilliant and is one thing I have to improve in my ute
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Awesome rig mate! Kinda wishing a bought a ute now!
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very nicely setup mate, well done on the thought and execution, very practical.
