Bedford TK

[Barking Mat]

Looking very nice.

 

[mylesdw]

Every camper needs a mission control centre...

• Switches for pump, inverter and spares
• USB charging
• Stereo
• Solar controller
• Mains charger
• Battery monitor
• Tank level gauges

 

[jpmillermatic]

blown away! looks fantastic!

JP

 

[mylesdw]

I don't like that mains socket! Wish I'd placed it centrally on the side of the cabinet; it will annoy me.

 

[awemawson]

I don't like that mains socket! Wish I'd placed it centrally on the side of the cabinet; it will annoy me.

Easily moved. Fit a double so it takes up old and new location covering exiting hole

 

[mylesdw]

Yes, the cab is strangely low compared to a modern truck. My first attempt at putting a head-lining in touched my head and I'm not a tall chap so I threw it away and glued the material directly to the roof - gained about 2" of headroom.

 

[mylesdw]

A bit of printer fun making some ye olde light fittings.

Draw in CAD and then print in PLA


Tidy up and a coat of primer



Let Helen do some paint magic making it look like a bronze casting, then add LEDs and a toggle switch



Done

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Easily moved. Fit a double so it takes up old and new location covering exiting hole

That is a double, isn't it? Or ought I be off to Specsavers....

 

[awemawson]

Well spotted !

Fit a quad

 

[Mark E]

I would have thought the colour of the cabinet would be more disconcerting than the socket.

That green is hideous!


Great with it all though! How soon before you use it in anger?

 

[mylesdw]

We're certainly not going subtle in the colour department - the palette is taken from a set of plates we use for barbecues - sort of Mediterranean colours.

Planning to take it down to Dunedin to help my daughter move house in November and my sister here from the UK and expecting to use it about then too so hoping to have it habitable. I have a TODO list that still has a lot on it. Do you remember that stupid Changing Rooms program on UK TV? Every episode was the same and always ended up with them nearly running out of time and some silly frantic music would start to play. I'm hearing that music!

 

[jpmillermatic]

Brilliant work on the light fixture!

JP

 

[mylesdw]

Less than NZ$10 for the parts.

 

[mylesdw]

We took the truck out on 'sea trials' south to Dunedin at the weekend. That's six hours each way and quite a marathon but it was a good shakedown. Some overheating on the way down proved to be loose hose clamps and the temporary loss of clutch on the way back was simply the adjuster backing off and in need of a lock-nut.

I fitted some stays so that the back door can be dropped down level and used as a deck. The parts were laser cut and when they came back I found that I had cocked up on the measurements and the slots in the stays nowhere near long enough. After rethinking the design I mounted them upside down and they work very well, probably better than plan A. Strange how things turn out.

 

[DAPPH]

I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the post; it's nice to get feedback.

When I look back at the thread I think 'bloody hell!' that was a lot of work. A project that size I find rather overwhelming so I simply keep doing little jobs and suddenly it's all finished. As long as you do SOMETHING each day the project will be complete sooner or later but if you do nothing it will never be finished. It doesn't have to be slaving away in the workshop. Sometimes if it is cold and dark outside I sit by the fire with a glass of something and draw some sketches or maybe place an order for components. Time away from the workshop is very valuable for me, stops me doing (so many) stupid things by forcing me to think them through.

Enough of that.

I like it Myles ,
You're a man of my own heart, being physically disabled ( and now well past retirement age ) set me on the path of learning how to eat an elephant some 45 years ago …
Do it one bite at a time starting from one end with a plenty of " TEA " till it's all done . If you're unlucky you'll meet maggots halfway though .
It took me just under two years to dig a trench for power , water, foul water & comms services, from the home out to our office and garage. T'was 1x 1 to 1.5 mtr deep by 55 mtrs long, using a cut down ladies border spade blade set on a pitchfork shaft .


TEA = Think , Evaluate , Act

 

[DAPPH]

I was undecided about that. There is a lot of inertia in a truck so you don't get the bouncing about that a smaller vehicle does, on the other hand, it would be quite easy to run a ratchet strap around them.

To make things easier on my spine, arms, legs & also to allow my wife & Munchkin to do things . I would have set the batteries on some heavy duty tripple extending 100 kg full ball bearing drawer runners to make a push in / pull out rack . With the battery tray in between them using a 30x30 x 5 mm angle iron frame so that once un locked / untethered you can slide them outboard to pick them up off the tray rather than bending over to drag them out or push them back in .

 

[DAPPH]

Seconded, batteries contain a godawful amount of energy, no metal attached to you whilst working on them is the only option to avoid shocks

In my apprenticeship I saw the results of …. a lad putting a 1/4 Whitworth OJ spanner on the live terminal of two 12 volt 100 Ah batteries in series on an armoured fighting vehicle ….
Bang! , smoke , pork being burnt and screaming enough to wake the dead .

He'd only shorted the spanner to the body and it had disintegrated/ vapourised most of the spanner head , the lead terminal , the brass terminal clamp , the heavy duty battery cable in the clamp and part of his hand .

Yet only a few minutes earlier when we were stood round a table made up like the electrics system our instructor impressed upon all of us .... " Always but always disconnect the earth first when playing with batteries or heavy live unfused cables & always put it back on last of all . "

You don't just need to think of the dangers of wearing rings / jewelry , watches and metal watchstraps etc with electricity either .
Your just as likely to get them caught up on something and rip a finger or wrist etc apart before they give way .

Those heavy duty long medallion-man style catchless gold or silver properly soldered up Belcher chains etc are great for half strangling the owner with as well as electrocuting them.

 

[DAPPH]

We took the truck out on 'sea trials' south to Dunedin at the weekend. That's six hours each way and quite a marathon but it was a good shakedown. Some overheating on the way down proved to be loose hose clamps and the temporary loss of clutch on the way back was simply the adjuster backing off and in need of a lock-nut.

I fitted some stays so that the back door can be dropped down level and used as a deck. The parts were laser cut and when they came back I found that I had cocked up on the measurements and the slots in the stays nowhere near long enough. After rethinking the design I mounted them upside down and they work very well, probably better than plan A. Strange how things turn out.

View attachment 160005 View attachment 160006 View attachment 160007 View attachment 160008

No adjustable ( screw in/ out ) long drop down leg or poles to support the rearmost corner edges of the ramp when it is in the "Platform position , so someone can stand on the edge with out too much strain being put on the hinges or stays ?

Had them on the old 1938 ( ish ) Bedford QL office I used to drive around Germany circa 1970 & that drop down tail was only four feet wide max . The poles tubes were attached to the tail with an inverted " U " bracket and the screw feet were a hinged foot plate some 6 inches in diameter also attached by a "U " bracket . length of the threaded bar was 18 inches , when they hung down on the closed up tail they fitted into a U bracket that was fitted with a long retaining split pin and brass chain to lock them in position for travelling . There was also a lock nut on the pole tube that could be tightened to stop the foot rotating free in rough terrain.

IIRC
The boss where the foot plate was attached also has a half inch hole in it so you could use a 1/2 " round bar etc to rotate the foot to take things up or down to get the platform reasonably level . A pair of removable safe tread alu steps that hooked securely into the top edge of the ramp were added to make getting up & down easier . Ours had been modified to take two strong alu support tubes and a reasonable taut safety rope on one side only .

 

[DAPPH]

I don't like that mains socket! Wish I'd placed it centrally on the side of the cabinet; it will annoy me.

Add another double one to the left if you have space to give you four sockets . One will always be needed for the phone charger or video game etc. & one for the slow cooker whether it is being used as a cooker/ sterilizer or a gentle back ground heater .

 

[mylesdw]

To make things easier on my spine, arms, legs & also to allow my wife & Munchkin to do things . I would have set the batteries on some heavy duty tripple extending 100 kg full ball bearing drawer runners to make a push in / pull out rack . With the battery tray in between them using a 30x30 x 5 mm angle iron frame so that once un locked / untethered you can slide them outboard to pick them up off the tray rather than bending over to drag them out or push them back in .

Hi Dapph, good to hear from you. Has the internet been down in Wales?

I did consider having the batteries in a pull-out but with these AGM batteries there is really nothing to do to them once fitted, just take them out and change them in 5-10 years time. If I get round to fitting a generator I will definitely have it on runners but the solar system works great so that may never happen. The three solar panels easily run a domestic fridge and charge the batteries. In the morning the batteries are down to around 95% and recharged within an hour or so. The batteries even got back to 100% on a rainy cloudy day with no sun at all.