Extras and Upgrades

If anyone who has built an Overland Truck like this ever tells you its finished . 

They are lying. 

These projects are never finished and there is always something that needs changing, replacing, upgrading or tweaking 

This page will be where those upgrades alterations are shown.


Shower Lift Pump 

My waste water tank is mounted high up in the chassis at the rear of the vehicle . It holds about 80 litres. 



The problem that most constructors encounter is getting water to drain freely, especially when the tank is mounter high to allow road clearance.  My grey water ( Sinks showers etc ) flowed fine through a 25mm ( ID) flexible hose from the sinks . However, the fall from the shower to the tank was insufficient for the shower to drain. It was quite common that water would pool in the shower, especially if the vehicle was parked slightly nose down 

To combat this a small collection tank, from Seaflo, was mounted at a lower point under the vehicle. All grey water drains via this tank.


The tank was modified before fitting. The first thing I did was create an outer box made from 35mm GRP sandwich that this tank would sit in . This not only provided some insulation, but would also protect  it from road debris. 

I also added a drain hose in the bottom of it that is attached to a tap . 

The reason or the drain was that in freezing conditions water entering this tank could then drain straight out into an external tank and not get pumped up to the main grey tank where it would freeze . 

The clearance on the prop shaft is a lot greater than the photograph suggests. 





The Seaflo pump is operated by a float switch within the tank and only comes into operation for a few seconds every minute. 

At first this worked fine, but I soon discovered that the internal float within the box became clogged up, on a regular basis  with the inevitable shower residue and became unreliable.

The whole system was eventually removed and replaced with a Jabsco Shower / Bilge pump. 

This is activated for 30 seconds at a time by a proximity switch within the shower. 



Washing Machine 

Whilst using our old motorhome for long periods, we discovered that washing clothes can become a real problem. Some campsites offer washing machine facilities, but the high street laundrette is a rarity these days. 
Spending hours with buckets and wringing clothes out wasn't our ideal solution. 

We fitted a small but fully functional programmable washing machine ( Euronova 1100 ). It is secured in place with Strong brackets.



Modern washing machines are cold fill and the machine has a sizeable electric element that heats the water to the desired temperature. I, however, have connected the water feed to our hot water supply via a thermostatic mixer tap. This means I can fill directly with water of the right temperature and the program moves straight on past the heating stage. The motor's power  consumption for the washing and spinning is manageable, and can easily be run from the inverter if required.
The water feed is isolated by a solenoid valve for safety.

Toilet

The toilet is a Thetford Bravura. It is full size and sits directly on top of an 80 litre black tank. This Tank is emptied from below the vehicle using a standard Thetford cassette that slides onto an downward pointing outlet. A full tank would take 5 cassette loads to empty it.




Door Locks

The original Cab door locks were pretty dated and not as secure as we had liked. In View of this we fitted extra modern dead locks.


Rear Leaf Springs

Due to the age of the vehicle, the rear leaf springs were re tempered and an additional spring was added to each lower stack.




Cabin Steps 

There are 6 steps to enter the cabin. Three are a permenant fixture in the drop down box that hangs below floor level. The remaining three sit under the drop down box and are retractable electronically . The steps are made by Kwikee .





An additional wider step from a fire engine was added to the passenger side of the cab.


Cab Air Conditioning 

Air conditioning was added to the vehicle cab. We didn't want a roof top system as it would have to be offset and would be directly over the passenger's head. Instead, we opted for a traditional 3 part system that consists of a belt driven pump mounted in the engine bay, a twin fan Condenser that is mounted, forward facing, on the roof of the cab and lastly a 3 speed fan Evaporator that delivers the cold air directly inside the cab from below the dashboard.




Headlamps

Knowing that our journey would take us on un paved gravel roads, we fitted clear headlamp protectors. These were made from the same material that is used for machine guards. They are easily removed in a few seconds.



Bull Bars

The addition of the original MB Bull bars changed the vehicles appearance drastically 



Alternator

The original vehicle used very little electrical energy. headlamps and fans etc. 

With the addition of air conditioning and extra lighting etc, it was decided to upgrade the original 50 amp alternator to 100 amp version 




Cab Window Tinting 

The original Cab windows had very little tint . A double layer of tinting film was applied to both the side windows and the windscreen.








Floor Fridge


Bike Rack

Tinting

B2b

Inverter 



Bull Bars

Inverter