Bedford TK

[mylesdw]

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 ?

It is a bit bouncy but the idea is just to sit out there and enjoy the view. I tried not to go with legs because they would need to be adjustable to cope with uneven ground and also because the door needs holding down against the springs when there is no weight on it; that's what the slot arrangement on the stays does. The stays are 6mm steel in tension so they should be strong enough and the hinge is new (the old one was rusty and broke). It is 20mm solid bar through thick walled pipe so also pretty substantial. I'll be keeping an eye on it... I could add chains down to the corners but they would be a pain to stow when travelling. Maybe some quite thin stainless wires that just clip on and removed completely when not needed?

 

[DAPPH]

Glad to have re made contact.. I've been chasing other things in life …. mainly 3D CAD & 3D HMPP, so I didn't look in . Have recently experienced hospital food for 8 days ( BLEK!). All better now .

Sorted out the garden for winter and am about to return to 3-4 hrs a day learning more about CAD & the 3d printing in plastic .

The TK has certainly moved on a tad since I last looked in on you ..I think I had to go back 139 or more post to get back to where I remember last visiting .

It's looking good ..
Re:- grease on brake metal to metal parts. We used a smidgeon of high melting point copper based silicone grease on each rubbing point , before that became available we used a tiny spot ( end of a match stick ) of zinc & castor oil based paste aka old fashioned zinc & castor oil based nappy cream .
Look again at my leg stand post they are adjustable , I feel that the crook in your stays would keep them down

 

[mylesdw]

There's some 3D printing stuff a few pages ago - making some LED ceiling lights. The printer at work is used a great deal for prototyping and mocking stuff up prior to committing to metal.

As far as CAD goes, the online tool onshape is very good for simple stuff and free (with some limitations)

 

[DAPPH]

I read you printing posts & liked them . I'm sorted with my CAD prog etc. the lads in other threads have been very helpful in that direction .

Currently I'm waiting for a replacement Original Prusa i3 3D printer that was killed by DHL using a forklift tine as a lance to spear it .. The replacement is due here any day now .

I'm thinking of using PLA filament to make the intricate forms for lost wax/ plastic casting in brass . Initially I was going to use drags , copes & a pair of home made rubber wax form moulds from a worn original … build a wax injection device & use hard wax for casting. Then modify the form to take up the wear in the original . The hot melt filaments make that redundant and by the look of things much easier .

I hope to end up using a tree of prints coated in several coats of investment slurry, let it dry in the airing cupboard for 48 hrs or so . Then back fill around the tree in a purpose made casting shoe with damp investing powder so I can cast a tree of six or eight components at a time . I've still got to design & make the centrifluge to get the molten brass in the very fine parts .
If it works it will be interesting to see if the parts fit without adaptation or if I have to increase the size of the form to allow for the contraction of the cooling brass to get the right size & fit .

 

[mylesdw]

Truck is away camping with my sister and brother-in-law. Would you believe the one thing we have not solved is how to make the shower run consistently!

 

[Adam MC]

View attachment 161386

Truck is away camping with my sister and brother-in-law. Would you believe the one thing we have not solved is how to make the shower run consistently!

Have a look at the feeder water tank for the shower, it might be vacuum locking. A small one way valve might help.... my brain fart for the morning anyways

 

[mylesdw]

No header tank, it all feeds from a 24V pump and a pressure vessel, then an instant water heater. It's to do with the flow rates through the heater, mixer tap and shower rose I think; the rose is restrictive enough to allow the heater to get into 'too hot' mode too easily. That's my current theory anyway but the truck is away on holiday now!

 

[mylesdw]

Experiencing some cooling issues - it overheats on long climbs. It's marginal I think, when we drove back from Dunedin there are three huge hills and the temperature was fine (on a cool day) but going over the hill to Akaroa the other day at 25° or more it boiled. I'm wondering whether the electric fan I fitted is not powerful enough. It certainly has a lot less pitch than the mechanical fan its replaces but it is about the same diameter and has ten blades instead of four, still, ultimately it's down to power and maybe is simply does not shift enough air.

The 'natural' air flow through the radiator is very poor; nearly the whole rad is shielded by the cab with only the bottom inch or two out in the breeze.

 

[colnerov]

Hi, Lots of things to consider with electric fans. Is it a pusher or a puller? Pullers are marginally more efficient unless the core is thick then a pusher is better. Is the fan close enough to the core? So the air has to go through or take the easier path and wash out sideways. Is the motor big enough to drive the fan? Are the fan blades straight or curved? Straight shift more air, curved are quieter.

Colin

 

[knighty]

what does the temp guage say when it boils? - does the radiator cap fit properly?

next time you've been up a big hill (boiled or not) jump out quick and check the bottom radiator hose.... button hose should be cool no matter what (hot water into radiator, cold out, thermostat controls flow rat to keep engine at the right temp)

if the bottom hose is hot hot (more than a bit warm) then the radiator/fan is the problem... if the bottom hose is cool then the problem is somewhere else :-o

 

[mylesdw]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps, in no particular order -

1. It is a curved blade puller fan fitted in the original steel shroud. Not a bad fit, probably ¼" clearance all round.
2. It's a cheap Chinese fan so it was probably made with a Toyota Landcruiser in mind rather than a 466 CID lump and a radiator with poor airflow
3. You can see that the new fan is probably nearly 2" less in diameter than the original
4. I'll check the bottom hose, that sounds like a great trick to try and localise the source of the problem
5. The gauge is not much help right now, in a future project I will get it properly calibrated but at the moment it is pretty useless

 

[mylesdw]

Has anyone had experience of hose clamps coming loose? They are all new hoses and good quality clamps but several times now, a small leak has occurred and several of the clamps are loose. Could it be to do with the new hoses being NOS and the rubber being soft or something?

 

[Farside]

I'd be suspicious of the rubber quality. A lot of the rubber goods coming out of China are sub-standard, just ask me about poor quality fork gaiters - that weren't priced like cheap crap, either.

 

[knighty]

I'd tighten them all up when they're hot and see how that does? - not much else you can do

I've been thinking about your radiator+fan.... normally fans are only really for when you're stationary, the air flow through the front grill and into the radiator being more than enough when you're moving... but maybe that doesen't hold true for something big/heavy/slow like your TK?

I was going to suggest a bigger fan, but you've replaced the old one with pretty much size for size so that shouldn't matter. can you manually trip the fan on and check there's plenty of air flow?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

mylesdw....just catching up on your project after being away....you've definitely come a very long way in the last few months....well done!

I keep wondering whether there is a way to pipe that excess heat into a water holding tank and solve your shower problem at the same time?

 

[mylesdw]

I think what I need to do with the shower is to disconnect the colt water feed completely and just rely on controlling the hot water flow to regulate the temperature. I think that the mixer tap in the shower creates instability because it reduces the hot water flow rate.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Hi mylesdw....what kind of amperage is the shower running. I know the mains ones here in the UK run at maybe 9Kw so 37 amps (9000/240)....on 24v I think the amps would be pretty high?

 

[mylesdw]

It's gas, rated 10 lpm @20° temperature rise.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Ahhh....it's the feed pump that's 24v....I'm with you now. And the instant heater is gas.....that makes a lot more sense

 

[mylesdw]

I've been thinking about your radiator+fan.... normally fans are only really for when you're stationary, the air flow through the front grill and into the radiator being more than enough when you're moving... but maybe that doesen't hold true for something big/heavy/slow like your TK?

I was going to suggest a bigger fan, but you've replaced the old one with pretty much size for size so that shouldn't matter. can you manually trip the fan on and check there's plenty of air flow?

The electric fan runs pretty much opposite what you would expect in a car! When you're cruising pretty much flat-out on the main road the fan runs and when you are going slowly through the town it cuts out! I think it is simply the cab design, very little of the rad is in the airflow, the rest is up behind the engine cover in the cab. Difficult to judge the airflow but the original was a four blade with lots of pitch.

next time you've been up a big hill (boiled or not) jump out quick and check the bottom radiator hose.... button hose should be cool no matter what (hot water into radiator, cold out, thermostat controls flow rat to keep engine at the right temp)

if the bottom hose is hot hot (more than a bit warm) then the radiator/fan is the problem... if the bottom hose is cool then the problem is somewhere else :-o

On a recent long climb the engine got hot (did not actually boil) - the bottom hose was too hot to touch. After a few minutes idling with the fan on, hose back to just warm.