Author: Martijn

The mounting of the living area, the cabine, consists of 4 parts, the last part is for v-shaped attachments in the front and back.

We can only weld these in place with the complete frame, connecting rods and other mount parts in place. So, we hoist the frame onto the truck, attach the 4 rods in the middle and then it’s time to get the exact height for the front and back mount parts.

After finishing the welding, everything can be put together and onto the Unimog: the floor frame is fastened with 6 connecting rods. That’s it.

Another milestone passed.

The mounting of the living area, the cabine, consists of 4 parts. The second set of mounts we’re putting together, is meant for the front-to-back movement.

By having the parts laser cut, with small pegs and holes, it’s easier to put things together. Welding these was easy enough.

We need two, one on the left and one on the right.

After designing and laser-cutting the parts, it’s time to put things together.

There’s a few important parts here:

1. crossbars, chassis parts
2. front-to-back mounting, cabine side
3. lengte-richting bevestiging aan het chassis
4. dwars-richting bevestiging aan de opbouw

We’ll start with the crossbars on the chassis, one at the front and one at the rear. When putting the parts together, I notice that a mistake was made (by me): the front and rear mounting holes are distanced different and the size is different as well.

After welding the slots, new holes were drilled at the right location and the rear holes are enlarged.

Now everything can be put together!

Welding, deburring and there, two finished crossbars. A vibration damper will be pushed into the hole and later on, a connecting rod will be used to keep the living area attached to the crossbar.

Unimogs have a very flexible chassis, excellent when driving in heavy terrain and it’s one of the reasons these vehicles are so good at it.

But of course, the living area, the cabin, shouldn’t twist as the chassis does, it will destroy the cabin. This requires a so-called ‘subframe’. The idea is that this will connect the cabin to the chassis without relaying the chassis movement to the cabin.

We’ll connect the subframe via a 4-point attachment system to the chassis, in a diamond shape. The front and rear connection are left/right flexible due to a pivot point, while the middle connections are forward flexible due to a rubber bushing.

Martijn drew (part of) the Unimog chassis and designed a subframe. the idea was that the cabin would be mounted on top of this frame.

Later, we we heard the frame could be integrated in the floor, so the cabin would be slightly lower. And as it should be mounted as low as possible, we decided to do so.

After having all the parts laser-cut, it’s time to assemble!

The master brake cylinder and reservoirs will be moved forward and slightly down to make room for the camber body and more space with the rear fender.

Brake lines marked, taken piece of the old support, put together a new support and ‘rewired’ the brake lines. Done!

Because we moved the fueltank from the right side to the left, because of the living cabin entrance, the original exhaust had to be removed. We decided to purchase a stainless steel replacement.

We got it from a company in Germany, no more rusty pipes! It does take some fiddling around with the pipes, but after a while, the new exhaust and muffler are installed on the left side, just under the cab. There’s even space left to get a larger fuel tank if required.

Our ex-firefighting truck had a waterpump via a power take-off (PTO): when the engine is running, you engage the PTO so it revolves and you can attach all sorts of machinery to it. This works even when the truck itself is in the neutral gear.

We don’t need a PTO for the camper and the extra piece with the round flange will be removed as well. We’re keeping the actual PTO-drive, but we need a cover for it. Mercedes probable sells those, but it was a small effort to design it ourselves and have it laser-cut in steel.

Cause the inner piece portrudes a bit, there’s an extra ring. A bit of welding puts the cover and the ring together. After painting, Iris can attach it to the gear box. All done!

After repairing the rear chassis crossmember and the step, it’s time to put some new paint on these as well as the fenders, winch and bumper. The old black and very rough white paint is removed by sandblasting the parts and there’s a new coat of black paint. Looks good, doesn’t it?

It will take (quite) some time before we’ll re-attach these parts, but yeah, moving forward is nice.