Thread: New Camper

Originally Posted by Mistral

Bike lockers, 1 each side at the back.
Attachment 242524

The only bit of kit I've got like yours is the t shirt😁

That is epic! Very impressed.

I just looked up the price of a mog like yours and it was $300k+, I think my caravan cost me $30k to build, not sure I can convince the Mrs to sell the house.

You better talk to XR500 on how to change a tyre.

Originally Posted by XR500

Just seeing the electricery on the fuel gauge sender sent a shiver down my spine!!!

Yep, it's sealed in an ally tube, with a magnet floating up & down on the outside of the tube, but it still seems counterintuitive to put an electric stick in a fuel tank!

The Army's fleet of 1700's is now 40 years old...and still going strong. I would hope that your new version still uses lots of air valves to undertake the major functions of park brake, main brakes, diff locks, high/low gear shift, and pressurising the gear train when in 4WD?? Having stripped the Mog down that far you should have found that the 4 way valve permits the air to be used to inflate the tyres. Dropping the tyres from 85psi down to 30psi gave them a whole new level of traction.

Yes air for all of that, & all the gear shifts. No working group on these, but 4 really low gears, then the next 4 are high. Same in reverse.
I've fitted an ARB compressor as well but yes it comes with an attachment for inflating tyres, plugs are both sides down the back as standard.
And yep, pressurizes all the running gear, diff's, portals, even the tail lights to keep water out.

We showed the young guys how to use the Mog's spare tyre to get us out of the shit. Even withstood a snatch block pull. But it did require a bunch of young guys to dig the hole and place the spare in it!!!

And some where I do have a photo of four civvie 4x4's snatching a Mog out of mud.

Water a third of the way up the windscreen is as far as I have taken a Mog wading. But there's no electrons in a U1700L to upset

And there's the biggest difference, this thing is chocka with electrics. I had a good talk to the service guys at Truck City before I pushed the button on it, coz I was nervous about how precious it might be. They work on a lot of commercial Merc 4x4's, and pretty much laughed at me being able to upset it much.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

The only bit of kit I've got like yours is the t shirt��

Ha, that's not me, that's my awesome welder/fabricator. Check out the welds on the towbar/winch mount in one of those photos.
In fact, I'll chuck in on here



I know some of you guys are pretty handy, but that's next level for me!

@XR500
Hey XR, how deep did you have to bury the spare to winch off?
I've done that with my GQ Patrol, but the Mog feels like a REALLY deep hole?

These things in the vid look good, still gotta dig a lot though?

https://youtu.be/bxnwAkMh9U8

What is the Mog going to weigh all up when finished and loaded? 10T+?
Think you would pull the straps off that earth anchor thing in a worst case senario.

By the way very jealous, my wife was trying to convince me to buy an old 1300 last year last year but I'd rather get something that doesn't need an class 2 licence.

Originally Posted by Barefoot

What is the Mog going to weigh all up when finished and loaded? 10T+?
Think you would pull the straps off that earth anchor thing in a worst case senario.

By the way very jealous, my wife was trying to convince me to buy an old 1300 last year last year but I'd rather get something that doesn't need an class 2 licence.

Yeah was more thinking of the concept that that actual item. Pretty easy to get something more heavy duty made.
Re the class 2, when I started down this path I was going to build on an Iveco Daily 4x4, like this, which would have been class1;



But they had mixed (sh*t?) reviews in Aus, and the delivery date seemed infinitely flexible, & then the Unimog's came up.
They are a $300K truck, with a 2 year wait time, and they were there in Queenstown at a huge discount, so like a lot of these projects, it took a big jump in scale & price overnight.

Originally Posted by Mistral

@XR500
Hey XR, how deep did you have to bury the spare to winch off?
I've done that with my GQ Patrol, but the Mog feels like a REALLY deep hole?

These things in the vid look good, still gotta dig a lot though?

https://youtu.be/bxnwAkMh9U8

The wheel was buried vertical, with the top about 300 from the surface. So yeah...a big hole. Quite a decent sized slot needs to be dug for the strop that enters the wheel centre, and joins to the winch rope. In soft ground you would increase the resistance of the Mog spare wheel by going and finding driftwood, scrap etc etc and placing that in front of the wheel to increase its theoretical diameter. Everything to do with the Mog is 4 x what getting stuck in my Landy or GQ involved

Getting the guys to practise this in soft pumice country took about 20 min for three guys (two spades) to dig the hole, and half an hour messing around taking the spare down, connecting to strops, lowering into the hole, backfilling, sorting the snatch block etc etc. For any decent sort of stuck, a snatch block should be mandatory, esp with 12000lb elec winches.

That soft earth anchor thingie looks to be just as much work on the digging front, as burying the spare wheel. Would be interesting to watch them being tested to fail mode, and seeing what provides the best resistance.

I seem to have misplaced all my recovery photos. One trip with two mogs required about 12 winches for 2km covered. Usually off the other Mog, but half the time it was to make progress, so involved digging big slots to drop large sections (2m long)of grader blade with 4x4s of rough sawn brought along for the job of improving their resistance. All lots of fun, made easier when there are half a dozen guys to share the digging with

I'd love to convert one of these:

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/t...ing/4433139705

I'll wait until the kids leave home and I get a big shed.

Would be neat to travel the world in one, I've seen a few German and Swiss number plates in NZ on some that the owners have shipped over to travel in.

Originally Posted by Barefoot

What is the Mog going to weigh all up when finished and loaded? 10T+?
Think you would pull the straps off that earth anchor thing in a worst case senario.

By the way very jealous, my wife was trying to convince me to buy an old 1300 last year last year but I'd rather get something that doesn't need an class 2 licence.

Don't be put off by the Class 2 thing. If you stay class one you limit yourself to a very cramped 4x4 dogbox. Class two gives you some proper room to work with.

The 1300 initially looks good, but having owned one myself for 8 years I would go the 1700 route. The turbo makes an enormous difference in capability and comfortable driving on the road. The portal axle reduction hubs on the 1300 hold 600mls of oil, the 1700 hold 3.5 Litres. That sort of thing. Deck space on a 1300 is pretty cramped. One queen bed, a fridge and a cubby box and that's your whack jack.



The 1700 is much bigger than this, and would give you a lot more options.

And importantly for someone on a budget...there will be a shit ton of spares on the market at some stage

Went up 90 mile beach in Cape Runners ex fert truck from memory a converted MAN.
It would have made a good camper too rather than all these old buses running around.

Originally Posted by Savage1

I'd love to convert one of these:
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/t...ing/4433139705
I'll wait until the kids leave home and I get a big shed.
Would be neat to travel the world in one, I've seen a few German and Swiss number plates in NZ on some that the owners have shipped over to travel in.

I was talking to a guy looking at importing one from the UK.

Originally Posted by Savage1

I'd love to convert one of these:

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/t...ing/4433139705

I'll wait until the kids leave home and I get a big shed.

Would be neat to travel the world in one, I've seen a few German and Swiss number plates in NZ on some that the owners have shipped over to travel in.

The guys still in the Army have pretty much nothing nice to say about them. Heavy, thirsty, oversize for NZ roads and far less capable than a 1700 Mog. Get stuck in places an experienced Mog driver wouldn't even think about locking the diffs up for

Originally Posted by Mistral

Yeah was more thinking of the concept that that actual item. Pretty easy to get something more heavy duty made.
Re the class 2, when I started down this path I was going to build on an Iveco Daily 4x4, like this, which would have been class1;
But they had mixed (sh*t?) reviews in Aus, and the delivery date seemed infinitely flexible, & then the Unimog's came up.
They are a $300K truck, with a 2 year wait time, and they were there in Queenstown at a huge discount, so like a lot of these projects, it took a big jump in scale & price overnight.

Yes, had a quick look at them 2 yrs ago I think. One needed a new motor and another was on the verge of a rebuild. Both were sub 100K on the clock.
I think if it happens it will end up being a 4wd canter or similar. Big step down offroad wise but a shit load more cost effective. I see you can get suitable single rims sets for them out of Oz to fit 35" & 37" tyres. Thats a size I can still handle by myself.