yoeddynz

Well with a bit of searching i've found a place in nelson that will do a regulator for $120 to suit any CO2 bottle including old fire extinguishers. so if I can fine a second hand one of them...

Yeah - I could spin up an adaptor- i'm gonna try a friend who helps run local vintage tractor club- if I join them i get to use all the lathes etc. worth a look!

We brought back this refillable co2 bottle with our mig welder from the uk....

I went to my local BOC centre today and they cant refill it.... but can supply me a new cylinder at $13 a month plus $50 per fill. but I would need a new regulator at $170!

So I went to Marlborough cylinder testing and the bloke there was not helpful at all.

Then I went to Blenheim hunting and fishing who were helpful- they refill co2 bottles for paintball guns. But again wrong thread- although if I can come up with an adaptor they will fill it for me.

So onto Cuddons engineering where I did my trade many moons ago. No luck there on adaptors- its an odd thread that Sealy seem to have made so only they can refill it- which is good business for them but a pain for me 12,000 miles away.

Cuddons can sell me a new cylinder which I would own- but at $300+ along with $150-$200 for regulator is expensive too.

So any ideas please as to where I can get a cheap source of CO2/ bottles/ regulators etc. What do you guys do/use?

If I can find a lathe to use I would make some sort of adaptor but no lathes nearby I can pilfer as yet!

Please help! we are on a budget and have the housetruck to build

alex

Not much work on truck in last two weeks as we have been busy getting all our stuff from the our container up to blenheim and sorted out. Shed and tools are all sorted and shadow board is stocked so its time to crack on with it. Although the money pile for the build has dwindled!

Today I had to reassemble the cab lights and put a seat in so I could go and pick up all the steel.

The pile doesn't look very big but it should be enough to get the box all built.

Later I'm off to find some Co2 for the mig then I'll start fixing the rust holes in the cab. Its COF time soon and I want the truck to look nice and pretty for the VTNZ boys.

I'm going to get a cross-slide attachment for my pillar drill and make a cheap shitty drill-mill. It wont handle much side loading but it'll handle shallow milling of some alloy plate. Then away i go....

or soak your nuts first so the glassfibres cant get near them?

i reckon there would be- yeah.

Yep- deck on top for sure!

Pot bellys etc are all fine and dandy- so long as you aint driving along with it going.

In england hannah and I drove my old Iveco camper up the M40 with snow about and had the potbelly stove going- traffic was bad and driving was slow. We felt sooooo cosy!

Heres a pic...

So stoves are OK. I guess ya cant go lighting it in controlled smoke zones- chch etc? I cant see anyone saying something. In 2006 while I was working at a pushbike shop in chch we used to park everynight at top of Bonevale ave and have the fire going. No one said a thing.

Yeah- we are gypsies to a point- mainly just the living as cheap as possible so we can spend money elsewhere (cars...)

I hate renting- filling someone else's pockets with money. we'll still have to rent a place to park but its usually cheap. We were paying $12 each a week in Oxford inc water! cheap as living - plus I was allowed to build that garage and have as many cars as we wanted! happiness.

oh i would ask too!

Nothing isuzu but a couple italian and a few mazdas, escorts etc

sorry but i promised i wouldn't tell anyone where they are- his dad who owns farm is old and doesn't want any stress so its all hush hush. But they are slowly being picked through and restored etc not going to waste. They rescued them over the years from wreckers and scrap merchants:-).

saw the viva. Got a peek but will be unloaded and inspected 1pm. Cant wait. gonna drive it back to uncles.

going to get car today! Woo hoo. Cant wait. Have to go through all the maf shit today- they unpack container and then i bet they become nazis.

Wayne martin it is. The people have spoken. I'll give him a call later. Try and book it.

Yeah peter wastney was fella in nelson. Fucking top bloke. But he only does truck cert stuff now. Perhaps all us young fellas were to much grief.

I'll give them both a call. What are the usual charges these days?

and Nelson...has anyone here used Brent Pahl?

I'm going to chch tomorrow to pick up container load of stuff and my viva . I may well pass it through a cert whilst there - any good ones there you chch fellas can recommend?

There are none in blenheim and only a couple in nelson and my old favourite cert man has retired which is a shame as he wasnt a money stealing nazi.

sounds good! the more other trucks we see the more ideas we might be able to pinch

Just won a ryobi thicknesser on trademe! sweet- neighbours are very soon going to learn to fucking hate us!

I know this aint exactly rare but I still love the look....

my rx3 (now matts in london). So simple and uncluttered!...

then the chevette....

And my current old engine of the year- the xflo in the viva. I love the rocker cover and simple extractors. Lots of tidying to be done on this yet...

and a big gun over the mantlepiece.

gonna hang some pots off the back wall...

very waterproof! We used this bloody good, bloody expensive rubber paint from aussie land. Its worth it. This time round though we might use shingles. Or possibly thatch the roof...

joke

the thatching that is.

shingles would be very hillbilly. cool.

here's some photos of the one we built in 2006. Cost $7000 to buy truck and build then used it while we were here then sold it for $12,000. It was a good learning experience. Really cosy wee truck that was actually quite cheap to kick about in. Was very light and airy to be in.

If you cut the cab back out you'll need to get it certified We'll be just driving it from here to there to work for however long- not really ticky touing about so we wont be in the cab very long.

just about to put some photos of the last one we built....

good thing is that the deck itself easily unbolts off the chassis.

Tare weight is about 4 tonne. max weight is 11.5. But we plan to keep it under 10 as it makes a big difference on RUC. I think we'll be hard pressed to add more than 4-5 tonne... we'll see.

Bedford TK we had was lovely to drive and cheap to run but we looked and looked and couldn't find anything close to this for the same money. Plus most bedfords are petrol- fuck that when ya still have to pay RUC on top of the petrol with its combined tax.

That photo of the cops with their measuring sticks etc is brilliant!

love that kenworth- got a few pics of it. Its roof is on hydraulics and lowers back down. I agree on styling - is a bit ginger bread. It rolled into a service station in Motueka once when i was filling up- fuck i couldnt get my camera out quick enough!!!

answers...

I will put costs down as much as possible- nothing to hide and if it helps others out to build something I'm all for that. I just love sauna houses on wheels and we need more of them

So far costs...

Truck was $6500. We hunted for ages and wanted something that would be long in the deck and wheelbase. This is about as long as you get on twin wheels, and can hence drive on class 2.

I thought trucks would be cheaper here in NZ- they are cheaper in UK. more trucks to pick from over there I guess. I would have loved an even older truck but they are either fucked or expensive and usually very short.

Bonus is that this one has a sleeper cab. I'm getting a CB and gonna rename myself smoky....

Steel is next big cost- I've priced up 40 x 40 x 1.6 and looking at about $1100 for the lot. Legally you can build it in what ever you want if its permanently mounted- shit you could build it out of straw! But then it would blow away when driving..

I built the last one out of steel as its easy,light and strong. then build wood framing onto it.

For the outside we were going to clad in ply- at a cost of $900- 1000...but then we found Brent at Plankville in Richmond- he is our current hero of the mo. $100 we have paid for all that wood! we will be getting all our wood there including flitchs for the benches etc.

Once we have built the outside 'box' then we will be back to work as our housetruck funds will be dry.

We are keeping the deck as its really well built and bloody strong. I have been tinkering with the idea of making the house removable but that means some serious steel and bracing due to its length plus weakening effect of having pop outs. So I'm going off the idea- the likely hood of us removing it is slim anyway. It will mean a nice solid structure!

Over the cab we will have a hinged lift up bedroom base so the cab can swing through. This is a big mistake others have made where come cylinder head off time etc they are looking at engine out the bottom. It easy to do and we did this set up on the last truck built.

Insulation will be polystyrene - fairly cheap and easy to fit. Better than Batts which we used last time which tend to slump and settle with all the movement as you 'Possum Borne' it through the hundalees...

Rx3 is gone to another Kiwi in london village. He might be bringing it to NZ one day though...

I will post up some pictures of plans etc soon. I'm still planning and constantly looking at other truck on sites such as...

http://www.mrsharkey.com/

and...

http://www.htnz.co.nz/gallery/housetrucks/

alex

discuss here if you care...

EDIT: for some reason, only known to the Photobucket photo storage and organisation squirrels, a lot of the following photos are completely in the wrong place!

Then Imageshack started charging for their service and have removed all the links to the thousands of photos I and many others had loaded up if we decided not to pay and go find another photo host I will have to go through the lot and sort it out. It will take some time though...

Those PB squirrels will miss out on nuts and berries for their mistakes.

For now you will have to do a little working out what goes where. Sorry. Anyway. Please read on and enjoy....

Discussion thread on housetruck build can be found here....

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The beginning....

Well as this Hino is 1985 and I think pretty classic looking now-a-days. I'd have posted it on a housetruck forum but there doesnt seem to be one. Anyway its a vehicle build on an an old truck that I just thought might be of interest to you guys. I'm gonna start a discussion thread as I am really hoping you guys might spot faults, alternative methods and give me some ideas.

So I sat my truck license last week and now this is the view from bedroom window....



I was living in various vans and our truck the whole ten years i was in england so now its just the way for hannah and I - until we buy some land. This housetruck build will be our biggest yet and we intend to use a lot of ideas we have thought up over last few years plus ones nicked from others (finest form of flattery eh)



Its gonna have 2 push outs and 2 separate main rooms on bottom level of which one will be a workshop. This I have always wanted! We will have a big bedroom over the cab. Over the back will be a entertainment dvd watching, book reading room.



The deck is 6 meters long. wheelbase is 5 meters so we can go back 3.5 meters from back axle. We are going to stop at one meter back from deck otherwise the rear swing will be excessive.

I found it on buy sell swap nelson. Its really solid and has had the engine reconditioned at cost of $10,000 in 2000. Its rare to get a long wheelbase and rarer to get such a rust free Hino.
After we mucked about dealing with the old sod selling it who insisted we went with him to AA in Richmond to change ownership we went to a timber yard called Plankville and bought a load of amazing varieties of wood slithers to clad it in. We are going for a proper old rustic Oregan housetruck look on this one. No plastic, no ply, no metal.



Drives well (not that i can compare it to much...) and was quick on trip back to blenheim- faster than the hiace up the hills. That'll change...

I could only just turn it about in our front yard. Mums on holiday and hasn't seen it yet- shes gonna hit the roof! //oldschool.co.nz/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/biggrin.png



Yesterday we stripped the cab out and took off outside panels to expose what little rust there is.
Its all superficial stuff and we'll clean it up.



Our container of goodies arrives in Lyttelton next week so we'll have my whole workshop full of tools from England here with welder etc. The spray gun will be out and the cab will get a coat of something pastel and old looking. Anything but white!

Heres the length shot.....



glorious 6.2 litre engine..hmmmmm



back to work....