Another green laner build

When I got to it I nearly did the sensible thing and backed out of the lane. There was a fairly nasty bit further back that would have been tricky to reverse over so I decided to go for it. The plan was to straddle the big hole but right at the worst point I fell in.
In the pic I'd already winched the front out and I had enough traction to drive the rest of the way.

Well, It's been a while since I last posted an update. Over the summer the air compressor for the suspension seized and the Jimny got left in the naughty corner for quite some time. Just before Christmas I got some spare time and started getting the Jimny back up and running. I think the compressor over heated. The engine bay was just too hot for it. After spending a lot of time scratching my head trying to find an alternative location for the pump I ended up installing it under the left hand wing. This time I'm using a BMW suspension pump. It is not as fast as the previous pump but it's better quality and small enough to squeeze into the available space. These BMW suspension pumps are pretty reliable and second hand ones are really cheap on eBay.

 

I also changed the valving. Instead of individual solenoid valves I'm now using a Mercedes valve block. Pattern valve blocks are easy to obtain but the special plug to fit it took some finding. One advantage of this valve block is that I can isolate the tank making it faster to pump up the suspension if the tank is empty.

 

PS For a change the rust on the inner wing looks worse than it actually is. I just slathered it in an experimental 50/50 mix of waxoyl and hydraulic oil. Hydraulic oil creeps into crevices a lot better than waxoyl and the waxoyl helps hold the oil in place so it doesn't just run off.
 

Last year I mentioned I wanted to spend a few weeks in Wales. Well, this year I intend to actually do it. However I hate camping in tents. As I'll be on my own, I don't really need the passenger seat. With the seat out there is just enough length for me to comfortably fit laying down. Many years ago I did this to a previous car (a rare Reliant Fox van) and it worked quite well but I didn't have enough storage space for more than a couple of days.
Let's see if I can turn this beast into a practical camper. Here's my initial list of requirements.
Lots of storage
Refrigeration
Heating
Comfortable sleeping area
The modifications should be mostly reversible and as light as possible. Keeping weight down is going to be an issue.
No roof tent/roof rack - it would make the Jimny too top heavy.

I will need some sort of awning over the back. Cooking inside the cab is not practical but a shelf on the back door and an awning over the top should make a workable cooking area. This is an initial proof of concept. When stored the fabric rolls up into a compact package that lives on the roof. I 3D printed a bracket that clips onto the top corner of the back door and supports the end of the awning. The two braces support the other corner. One clips onto the door latch and one onto the roof rail. Hopefully this setup should be able to withstand a reasonable amount of wind.
Currently I cannot find a good place to store the two braces. I may have to come up with some way of splitting each one into two pieces. Apart from that the biggest issue I have found so far is that it's very easy to forget to remove the 3D printed bracket on the door after stowing. Closing the door with the bracket attached results in a sickening crunch.

Here is the awning extended. Please ignore the fact that my workshop is even more untidy than usual.

   

And here it is stowed.

 

The fabric is currently just hot glued into place as it's quick and easy to remove while I experiment.
I have yet to come up with a good way of attaching the awning to the roof. Hot glue unfortunately isn't a permanent solution!

Now to add a second deck in the back with room for supermarket totes to fit underneath. This is the MK1 version made out of 12mm ply. There is enough room above the totes for pull out shelves.

 

I made this version too short and the 12mm ply is a bit heavy. In the MK2 version I dropped the height a few centimetres so there is just enough room for the totes to slide in and out and scrapped the shelves. All parts are cut on the CNC router so it's easy to tweak the drawing and re-cut the parts. The ply is fairly cheap so it doesn't matter that much if I waste some. Here it is with the walls glued to the base. The top is still removable to simplify installation. The weight of this part is a bit over 10kg. Not great but not horrific either.

 

To prevent rattles and spread the load evenly I laid some plastic dust sheet in the back of the Jimny and added some spray foam.

 

I then fitted the woodwork, allowing the spray foam to expand and form itself to the shape of the floor.

 

This almost worked but I didn't add enough weight and the foam lifted the woodwork slightly, pushing it out of alignment. Apart from that issue it looks really good.
Luckily spray foam is relatively easy to scrape off. It also occurred to me that the spray foam could trap moisture so I'll leave it out for the time being. It's easy enough to re-do it in the future.

 

More progress. First a shelf for the back door. This will be mostly used as a cooking area.

 

 

By the way if anyone wants the drawings for any of the parts in this build just let me know. I can also cut them out for the cost of materials plus a small donation towards my time. Collection only on that one though - I'm not getting involved with postage.

Next lids for the front compartments. I found some nice catches on eBay that work well. They are almost flush and once the panels are carpeted they should end up slightly below the surface.

 

A few posts back I showed the new suspension valve block. Well later I realised that the only suitable place for the cab heater was in that space so the valve block has been shunted over and the air reservoir relocated to the back, just behind the bumper. It's not ideal placement but I'm really running short of space. Here's a pic of the diesel cab heater in place. Ignore the ugly wiring - it will get tidied up.
The cab heater is very effective. In testing, with the outside air at 10C and the heater at it's lowest setting I got the cab up to 21C. It was still slowly climbing when I shut the heater off.

 

I found some useful plastic containers on eBay that fit perfectly in the space between the fridge and the back door. I'll probably use them for food storage. They are very lightly built which is good from a weight perspective but I'm not sure how well they will hold up to use.

 
 

Continuing on, the fridge now has restraints so it won't hit me in the back of my head in the event of a crash. The strap is a repurposed seat belt. I removed the reel and made it a fixed length strap that goes from the top seat belt mount to the false floor. The wooden false floor assembly is bolted to the car with 6 bolts so it shouldn't move.

 

My sleeping bag sits nicely in the space between the fridge and driver's seat.

 

While I had the sleeping bag out I thought I'd test out the sleeping position. The old 6" inflatable mattress I have had for years is a no-go. Without the mattress it's fairly easy to get in and out of the sleeping space, with the mattress it's really cramped. Just as a reference point I tried the sleeping bag without any mattress and it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I expected. I think I can be pretty comfortable with a 1" or 2" sleeping mat.

There is no where to fit a hilift jack in this setup and hilifts are rather heavy. While browsing YouTube I found this trailer jack conversion . The jack I bought weighs roughly half as much as a hilift and is rated for 2 tonnes. I need to make an adjustable toe for it but I think it should work quite well. The basic design is quite similar to the Fiat Panda 4x4 jack I use on my trials car, which works very well. The main down side I have found so far with the jack is that winding the handle is painfully slow. I'm tempted to cut the handle off and weld on a nut. That way I can wind it up and down with a battery drill or rattle gun.

 

 

More progress - carpet makes it look a lot better. I couldn't find any car carpet in the correct grey so I went for black instead. Domestic carpet is too thick for this application.

 

 

 

Starting to fill up the seat compartments. The footwell is where the heavy stuff goes - winch, jack, jacking brackets etc.
The middle compartment contains the auxiliary 100Ah lithium battery and electrics. The battery is way overkill but it was such a good price I couldn't help myself. Some tools will go in here as well.
The rear compartment contains a 20L water tank, 10L diesel tank for the heater and most importantly some decent speakers. I'm not really keen on having diesel in the cabin but I cannot think of anywhere else for it to go.

 

The false floor in the back is designed to fit lengthened supermarket totes. I'm a bit out of practice with plastic welding but the welds are strong even if they aren't that pretty.

 

They fit firmly in place under the floor.

 

How long will the 10ltrs of diesel last running your heater?

Ahh this build is Looking great.
I got a diesel heater indstalled in my SJ trailer now and have only ran it testing for 3-4 hours. Cannot see the the diesel level gone down so must be less than half a litre.
Does not have to be on more than lowest setting on a small room like this.

I got the same fridge as you or one size smaller. Annoying that there is no hooks on it for straps. Will boldly screw on some hooks one day when I get more fed up or collect the courage for it.