yoeddynz

Shit yeah- at times we hit 3500!!!! Quite honestly the old truck went really well. Like Cam had told me a while back that its low geared so rather than slogging its revving. so we just drive slower. I reckon Takaka hill when we do it in future will be no lower than third gear needed.

Cheers guys. What amazed me was the cool response both on the road and from all sorts of people who 'just popped in for a look' while we were parked up. Truck drivers liked it, waves from big bus drivers and tourists were wow'd. We had one Russian guy who now lives in Chch and he wants to build one soi he just had to come by and check it out, asking all sorts of techy questions. A builder from Germany said "no way could you get away with building something like this in Germany" due to tough as TUV regs (I don't see why though- if its a load being carried on a truck then why not?) Oh- and we passed a tractor. Yeah man- I was like "I'm gonna have this tractor on the next straight" to Hannah and yeah, next clear road, I opened it out and let all 150 ponies unleash fury. It was a pretty modern tractor too... He reckon we must have hit 80 at least!

Just got back from our first proper trip away in the housetruck. Man it was cool. So much chilling out was had- we finally got to properly just sit back and enjoy our new home in an amazing enviroment. I'll sleep tonight and probably dream the sound of waves. We started out trip off last monday after a few last hectic days of final little jobs including building an extra folding support for assisting with rolling the pop outs in and out. I can just take the weight to 'walk' them but Hannah cant and its awkward. So I built an extra frame work that hooks onto the rope rail with adjustable legs. Then with a wheel on each of the two outside corners the popout is then free to roll right on in with out any heavy hernia inducing lifting. Once this was built, tested and ticked off I had to build a storage box to hold the frame plus some stabilisers I had built. Oh yeah- I built some stabilisers as well. They are just there to stop the truck rocking in the wind. So I built a nice big box which is bolted up under the back. Also blocks of wood used for levelling etc will go in there too. So come Sunday night after final packing of gear and a shop for supplies when the roadside outside was clear we took off out Taylor dam for the night. And a lovely peaceful night too. The truck seemed easier to drive but I think thats me getting used to it already. Monday morning dawned blue and chilly. Off on our trip! We drove out to the local truck stop, filled up and then while on nice hard concrete in warm sunshine we greased the kingpins. This is a job we used tow do often on our Bedford TK and it makes a huge difference to the steering efforts. The Hino has powersteering which can hide stiff kingpins and greasing them can get missed till they wear out so its a job I want to keep on doing. We also bled the clutch slave but I think it or the master may need new seals. Greasing the kingpins at truck stop.. The driver of this Kenworth wants to build a housetruck- he had a good look about ours while I sat in his cab pretending to own it. The Kenworth has an 18 speed auto which he said couldn't be easier to drive. Oh and his truck does 1.85 km per litre of diesel.... Then we hit the road and the first test was how the truck went over the dashwoods- just a 200 meter climb out of town but twisty. It was fine- down 3rd gear which was slightly too low- 4th being to high but thats what I expect in a truck thats only got a 5 speed box. The handling is quite wobbly- i spoke to several truck drivers at the stop- they all said it'll be a handful due to its age, the length, the hight and weight over the cab plus the fact its on leaf springs. They all just said slow down, chill, dont give a shit who is behind me and pull over to let anyone past. One said take all corners at least 10kph slower than the recommended speed signs. So I slowed down, Its low geared and starts revving its tits off at above 80kph. So I sat on 70. Cruisy as! Very little traffic. One thing I noted was how polite cars and trucks were to me. It was really good. We got lots of waves too. On way to Kaikoura coast.. We made it to our favourite camp spot just north of Kaikoura and within half an hour had the truck all set up. I then mucked about jacking the front up onto blocks of wood so to get it level. Lovely evening and so peaceful. The intention was to stay just two nights but the next two days were pretty windy/wet and we changed our minds deciding to stay an extra night. tHen another, then another. It was just so nice there. We collected driftwood for the fire and I made a trip into Kaikoura for more wine on my bike. It was pretty laid back. The first day of cold weather brought loads of snow on the mountains looking over the spot. Magical. Went running/cycling. Coming back to the truck with the fire going and having a hot shower then chilling out with yet another hot coffee looking over the beach was heaven. Oh yeah- the shower works bllody well- first time we had used the trucks shower since we built it and we had fears the old califont might not be good enough but it was awesome. ' I had borrowed my mums proper camera and took many many photos. Here is a selection of some. We took some of the inside because I don't think there are many up to date photos of the bedroom etc. Today we drove back and filled up the tank again. The 220 km trip used 50 litres which works out at 12.5 MPG. I'm pretty happy with that really. I was hoping it might be around 12 as our TK would do 15 but weighed 2 tonne less plus offered much less wind resistance. My brother had come over from Nelson on Saturday and stayed the night in the spare room. He took these two photos on the way back. So now back at home there are some little jobs to do like make some proper rear steps that attach to the deck, get the 240 camp powersupply cable then a electrical WOF for that. Then its off again and back to that working melarchy... bugger. Kind of used to this long 'build a home' holiday idea but unfortunately our savings are seriously dwindling.

Yep- worth the money I guess as they look fucking good.

They are lovely! Did you polish them yourself or get them done? wow.

Swap it for the girl on the ball?.....

They are up at $279 on the website. I was going to get the DB gauge but like the idea of this one (cheaper) and with the graduated led scale around the perimeter that I can set.

Yeah thats a sweet as luce eh!

yeah friendly fella.

Haha I knew it would be you egging me along! Yeah it'll get some more attention soon! Heres some pictures of bits I just got on a visit to quake city (poor old Christchurch)... Innovate MTX wideband gauge kit... I got some red vinyl for a dash extension under the current dash for extra gauges. Its not a perfect match but hey- it was free and thats a price I don't mind paying. These next few days we will be sorting out a few jobs on the housetruck before we go for our first proper trip in it. Then once back its Viva time ;D

from start of 99 to end of 09 less some time in france/italy etc. I'll be back maybe next year for a few months in summer- I wanna watch the tour de france again. love it. Hey if your into old jap cars contact the guys on exile-rotorsport.com Many kiwis/aussies on there- good bunch. Regular drinking meets in london town. Obviously into rotors but really they like anything old and cool.

Here ya go. Most modern car I have ever owned and normally I wouldn't but we just couldn't resist it! We paid 900 quid and shit it was a good car. Seen a couple of these around here but boy people want alot for em. And I dont think NZ got the 525tds like this- only petrol guzzlers. We will have another next time we are over there. Such a cruiser.

Fuck that bimmer is low alright!!! And you live in london village...with all them bloody annoying judder bars (sleeping police man...) The S12 looks nice but that bimmer looks choice even though its a posh new one. I had a E34 estate and miss it dearly. The S12- they must be fairly rare in the UK now eh? or at least very rusty. Looks like you got a mighty fine score there.

The guy who owns or co owns Blenheim toyota has a NZGT hatch like yours and he just got his grey leather seats recovered by a Blenheim upholsterers- they did a good job. http://www.finda.co.nz/business/listing ... -trimmers/ You ring them as the leather looked a good match. Good guys there too and cheap rates.

So KK is the man for cheap SS bolts? Damn- we just bought a load. Looking good man but watch that front lip. You'll have to add like 50psi to your fronts with so much down force....

Damn- we are still in CHCH- just got back from chris's pad checking out awesome Gems and even awesomer radio controlled stock cars. Gonna dust off my old futaba and build me a metal model Hino stock truck!!! I'll text ya now. And fellow viva dude- do it!!! Build a yellow bus home. Its awesome fun and bus would be so much quicker easier to build.

Cheers man! We love this old van - it does us well so deserves attention. And Geoff- I'll pass on your generous offer.... We are now down in Quakecity and I must say the trip down via lewis pass with some pretty cold weather was made soooooo much better now we have a heater! I managed to get a second hand heater fan speed resistor for $10 and now we have 4 speeds not just one. And this morning is a chilly start in the city so happy having a heater!

Quite a recent build? Any links to info on it- i'm just curious as to how easy a fwd box might fit. Once when i was on a mythical urban adventure i met a little bird sitting on a grapevine who told me that 323 boxes almost fit up but i think it was telling me a tale about its wife.

Yeah those pushbutton switches look great- where did you get them? On the above mention of rotaries by dpns has anyone ever mounted a rotary into a mini while keeping it front wheels drive? In fact has anyone made any sort of adaptor to mount a fwd box to a rotary?

Can we get waxoyl in NZ? Thats what I would spry down inside the arches. Its looking good- in fact its looking fucking hot!.. but you must stop posting pictures from now on because I too am getting Z envy and may well just have to win lotto and then buy that 260 I have been resurrecting....

we'll be down in chch soon but in van. Next trip in truck will be kaikoura coast for winter solstice:-) shit- not far away. Must get cracking and stop cuddling cats.

cool- i was thinking of trying a hose. I think we never had this problem in the past as we always flushed it from the engine end of the hose as you have suggested. I'll give it a go. Cheers. Cant wait to have a heater!

Bump this up to top as hopefully someone can give me an idea on how to bleed the heater matrix? Or will it self bleed? I can't see how it would.

'Absolute prick of a job time' on our van today. Since we have owned it the heater has never been very 'heaterish'. More 'tepidish'. When we bought the spares van for its engine we also nabbed the heater box while we were at it. I say we but actually it was hannah who had that pleasure. Today it was my turn and I had to remove the whole bloody dash to get at it. Plus loads of extra shit had to come off as our van had air conditioning which has never worked anyway. I dont want all the extra stuff that goes with it under the dash anyway. pics missing I got the heater box out and luckily the two of them are almost identical- the new one actually has a wider matrix but the box is the same dimensions. The air conditioning unit/matrix was completely clogged with dirt/dust/pine needles???/flys etc so no wonder our poor wee fan only ever produced airflow when on full. I ripped the guts out of the enclosure so now the air flows straight through from the fan to the heater matrix. While the lot was out I cleaned all the 24 years of dust away and luckily there was only some surface rust here and there. Hannah has neautrilised that as we plan to keep this van long time. What was nice to discover was that there is not rust along the bottom of the windscreen seat- as a lot of hiaces of this age start to go there. Took the carpet out next and cleaned up the whole lot after this shot. Good access with the heater and aircon gone. I have come in from the cold now having just refit the new box. I think I cut some wires I shouldn't have. I had to cut the loom in one place in order to remove the unit and I thought they were only for the aircon circuit but just in case I made sure I cut them in a place that would be esay to solder back together. So I now have some upside down under a van soldering on a cold sunday morning to do. Question time.... How am I meant to bleed the air out of the heater matrix? It stands on its end with the pipes facing down through the floor so trapped air will sit in the top of the matrix. There is no way to connect it up with out fitting it in place first.

oh ok. i'm using a 3.5mm jack cable between headphone socket on telly and aux in on headunit. Can I get a gli for that?