yoeddynz Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 An update with some good news and very sad news.Good news is that one job we have not been looking forwards to is done. I built a huge belly box for storage. Its big and is heavy- 2mm sheet steel turned out to be heavier than I thought. But its strong.Its good to have it up as its the last big fabrication job done. Its all pretty much wood work and some wiring to do. Which can all be done inside - this means cosy. Bring on the cold miserable weather! (not that we get that here in Marlborough- its just endless sunshine ...)Today we mounted it up in place. It will be ply lined out and I'll make some shelves.We have built a surround for our grey water waste tank and that'll go up today on the other side once the paint has dried.The sad news is that 'Kitten', our favourite little helper who you all will have seen in various photos since we started the build, was run over by a car yesterday.Dad was called out by the lady who hit him and he brought him to me. I had to 'dispatch' of him as he was in a terrible way and its the hardest most horrible experience I've ever had- period.Hannah and I are absolutely distraught. I miss him so much already. So we dedicate our housetruck build to Kitten. He was our little man, one in a million... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 Hannah found this in the house- I know its not a real substitute but at least it wont break hearts.. Some friends who I used to work with in a bike shop in Oxford, UK that now live in NZ came over from Nelson for a visit in their new bedford camper. Sooo cool. very cute. It drives really well- frst time I have driven a CF. We spent today mountain biking and I'm now very tired! One of the little jobs I have done in last day or so is to replace the very rusty bent piece of steelattached to the chain holding up the spare wheel. It has rusted so bad that it was all twisted and I wouldn't want what feels like 60-70kg of wheel dropping onto road. I beefed up the new design and has a fail safe I have padlocked some more chain around wheel to chassis. I tidied up the wiring for rear lights. I'm now on the hunt for some old lucas 581 style rear lights such as on the series land rovers. I missed out on a brand new full set- forgot to watch auction finish and someone beat me by $5!!! : I'll continue the hunt. If anyone can help with cheap landie lights.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 'Dealing with crack' One of the rafters has had a crack since day one. I plated it from behind but it has grown since the wood dried further. I took the plate off and filled the crack with Araldite epoxy... Then jacked it up till the gap closed. I will now leave overnight and re-plate it with a bigger plate. We took our carpet off cuts to this old retired couple today to get edged. Soon we'll have some lovely cheap rugs. Note; fire is blazing. Ohhh I love chilly nights. Its so cosy in here. I have moved my Vivas rotary engine parts inside so I clean them in the warmth with good music and plenty of tea. Bliss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 We have a coffee table! I have always wanted to build one so we took our time on this one. We selected some really nice bits of wood including Rimu, Apricot (our old fallen tree) and Miro. It had to fit a dvd player and we build a little drawer for remotes etc. Making the drawer we tried a new neater approach using the table saw to cut grooves like a router and this made it much neater. We even had one last peice of rescued Rimu 4mm ply for the drawer bottom Hannah has given it loads of varnish and it looks great. We love it! Very happy and proud. I can now chill out, listen to music with somewhere to lay my feet and plonk my cup of tea on! Heres some sexy staged coffee table shots... We have also finally finished the little fresh water tank under the back stairs. We got an really nice old tap in england ages ago and brought it over with us knowing it would come in handy. The space for the tank was tall and narrow. We just couldn't find a container to suit. In the end we got two cheap ($10) swing top bins from the warehouse and chopped 2" off one then rammed it upside down into the other. With loads of silicone they are stuck together and sealed well. I had hole sawed into the top one for a little submersible pump. There is a flexible pool hose for filling via the back window. Heres the tap. It just for drinking water which means we can keep the main tank for shower water only enabling us to fill up from rivers etc and not worry about nasties. Also built these tiny little drawers for phone chargers etc- annoying little items that always seem to be in the way if left in big drawers! In fact apart from the rear lights, placing the last of the lexan over the leadlight windows and a small issue of a leaky rear wheel cylinder it ready for for a COF. But for now while its raining we'll continue to have fun moving our stuff in and making little storage cubby holes for all the little items. And in the evenings chill out- the lighting from the car bulbs is much warmer than the bright fluro tube. Last night it poured down outside- we felt so cosy. Oh - and we have a new little friend..Kitten 2. She is actually mum and dads but we have kidnapped her. She was great mates with Kitten 1 and looks almost the same except she has little grey patches on her here and there. Very chilled and very naughty. Very cool!.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 The other day when I was running wires underneath the truck I noticed a waterfall of fluid that had been running down the N/S inside tyre. The taste test confirmed it was brake fluid. Bugger I thought-- I bet this wont be plain sailing and I bet the linings are rooted. I think it has been weeping over the past year whilst sitting. Dave (avenger tiger) came over for sat night and on sun morning we started taking the wheels off. I knew it to be left hand threads on the n/s but didn't realise that after removing the outside wheel thta the stud was then holding the inside wheel in place. So dave and I were under the truck trying to kick the inside wheel off and after a couple of minutes I thought 'hang on....' Yep- so the studs hold the wheel on, all new to me, but which way is the thread on these? We tried it as a LH thread but boy it was tight so rather than stuff something we left it to ask someone else. Fortunately the mad hatters from CHCH one their way back through from the nats popped in for tea and banter. And one of them (forgot name- please remind me...) is a truck spanner twister. He confirmed my orientation for me. This afternoon Hannah and I took remaining wheel off, studs were fucking tight, and stripped it all down. All new to me- quite simple but every thing is bigger. The half shaft has to come out first.. Now this is a halfshaft... Big nut holds hub on... big bearing... Dirty... I cant imagine what the stuff on big trucks must be like but given MR Truck mechanic above told us all on monday about a mack he worked on with a gearbox that weighs 1100 kg I shudder at how heavy the drums must be . Came apart well enough and yep, one cylinder is leaking and the linings are soaked. I have honed out both and one cylinder is fine to rebuild but other (...the leaky one..) has some pitting. I have just been reading up about new linings not being good for immediate COF tests as they take time to bed in? In the past I have resurrected contaminated linings by burning the fluid off and it works fine. Hmmmmm. What to do? I don't know if there is a place in Blenheim that can rivet new linings on for me. Plus would I have to get drums machined? There is no lip on them and surfaces seem fine. And new linings would have to be matched to the drums to make sure the radius is the same? Bloody tempted to try burning the fluid off these and see how they look but any advice welcome. I actually read that some newer truck brake linings are capable of being cleaned as such due the fact that the lining will often outlast axle seals and wheels cylinders and they will work worth little difference... http://www.roadranger.com/ecm/groups/pu ... b-0109.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted May 15, 2011 Author Share Posted May 15, 2011 Now we have a very clean brake assembly with lovely dry, clean linings, a new wheel cylinder, the other honed nicely and rebuilt. And happy to say that refitting those hefty springs was so much easier than I thought! Fitted new seals as well. The one on the end of the axle tube was knackered so no wonder hub was filled with oil rather than grease. Question time for the truck mechanics out there.... How much grease should I pack around these bearings?... To some this might be a stupid question but I've never packed out such big bearings on such a heavy weight truck and I don't know how much to use. Do I pack the whole hub full or just smother the bearings themselves and no more? I don't want to risk getting any into drum when I lift the bloody heavy thing back in place over the axle tube. Once this side is finished we will check the other side out. Luckily that side will be in the sunshine and the next few days will be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 Glad we have a Hino- cause the ads were sooooo cool !.... I love the way Japanese say Ranger... sounds like ninja. http://youtu.be/2-tn4_r9Xmg http://youtu.be/TRfCVuXZf4E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 Ok - finally an update. We have both now become a bit slack and have started getting up late, doing way to much looking at old trucks and vivas on the internet (well I have....) and playing with the new Maine Coon kitten my Mum got recently. So close to being able to cof the truck and hit the road but hey- no rush. First off- we finished the rear brakes. Once the near side was sorted with cleaned up shoes, new cylinder, seals in the other and new oil seals we checked the other side which was all good. As we had it apart though it was thought prudent to replace all the seals to be sure. Then we bled the system which took ages as I discovered the reservoir had two separate section- the one for the front brakes was hard to view and it must have got low then got loads of air in front circuit. Finally got the pedal up hard so hopefully the brakes are all good now. The front shoes look brand new too when viewed through the little slots in the back plates. So other things we have done are fitting a 180 watt solar panel, IVT mppt controller, and huge battery. Really cool to know the battery is getting charged up. Comparing against the amount of petrol we used to use in the last truck we have worked out that it will take under a year and a half to pay it all off. Plus no more mucking about getting the genny out and filling it, no more noise. sweet. I have made it so the panel can be angled towards the winter sun which makes a huge difference to the output. We built a little book shelf upstairs with a cupboard at the end to house the controller. Hannah also built another bookshelf in the spare room- it now houses plenty of Haynes manuals among other books...sweet. So not a lot of big jobs but many little ones. Finding places to stash stuff, making little shelfs cabinets. We took time and enjoyed building a little wall cabinet over the work bench- I needed something to mount a little spot light from and thought a nice cabinet, again made from a whole mixture of woods, would be fun to build. Very happy with the result although the little light has turned out to be a bit weak. Oh well. Have a nice extra storage space now. I built some extra bits on the side to stash lots of pens etc while I was at it. Today we went and looked at another massive Housetruck- a really big Mitsubishi 4 axle truck. It has 4 slide outs.They need the space as its catering for a family of five. Very nicely made too - not surprising given the fella who built it is a coach builder. Load of great ideas that I would have nicked from it had I seen it before we started ours but thats life. They are coming to have a look at our truck tomorrow. I didn't think to get any photos but here is a link to their build blog... http://www.ourbigtruck.co.nz/photos/ Something else I have started on is a front support combined with a bike rack. We will want to take our old bikes with us - Hannahs old 1940s bike and my Rod braked Royal mail post bike. Rather than stash them inside I thought a rack on the front. Combine that with a front support and all sorted. I have become paranoid about the overhang even though I have added side supports. I thought no harm in a removable support for when we are driving- just there in case we hit a sudden dip at speed (like 60 KPH- now that would be fast) and the bed wanted to land on my head. Luckily the chassis rails extend forwards enough to bolt a big section of channel onto them behind the bumper bar. I bought more steel and built this lot.. I had to notch the channel to clear a roller for the park brake cable to run in when the cab tilts. I will weld a plate onto the bar and then build a bike rack that I can bolt onto it. What was a nice discovery was that there was a teeny tiny bit of slack aound the bolts holes for the bar so while hannah wiggled the bar I went inside and into the bedroom. It wasn't until I got to the very very front that the framework must have sagged enough for the slack to go. This was all with out the side supports bolted in either. So now I will have no fear of the waking up in the morning to discover the steering wheel against my chin. Tonight we finished my special project. I have planned to build it for ages- my 'workshop under bench stool and cupboard system' or 'Wubsacs' for short. It makes more use of otherwise wasted space. I have been really looking forwards to building this. Yet again I have used lots of different types of wood. In fact I had no choice as the supply is dwindling and there is no point getting more as we may as well use whats left. Hardly any more things to build. The stool has lots of little storage spaces. Hannah has varnished it and made a cushion for it from an old curtain we brought over from our last truck. I need to make some cupboard handles and some rope handles so I can lift it outside. The idea is that I can put tools in it like ring spanners then I can use it outside if working on the car/van etc and have a little built in shadow board. Its really just something I wanted to make. We really hope to get our act sorted and take the truck for its COF next week. I must admit I'm quite nervous about driving it- even though I have already driven it enough when we got it. Now its a house and its a touch longer it seems loads bigger- but its not really. I'm sure I'll be fine and enjoy it. Hardest thing will be reversing it back through the gate as the gate is narrow, the road is bllody busy and if anyone parks opposite I'm stuffed as its too long to make it without the rear swing taking out the fence. Oh and lastly- not truck stuff but still sort of related as it stops us getting anything done!!! The new kitten... His name is Morris. Dad named him that- after the cars. He will be big. Where we got him they had another Maine Coon who was only 3 year old and weighed in at well over 13kgs!!! He was so huge. Mum couldnt pick him up. When he was sitting his head was higher than Hannahs knees. I have never seen a domestic kitty cat so big, And he'll get bigger too as Maine Coons take 5 years to get to full size. I hope our new kitten gets to that big. Its looking promising. And for your interest..Mac- the bloody big Maine Coon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 Last night I drove it out the drive once the traffic had died down. We had check that the rear overhang would clear the footpath due to gutter dip. From 500mm off the ground when level to only 90mm with back wheel sitting in the gutter. But it made it!!! Tomorrow we go for the COF. It started straight away and sounded lovely. It seems so big even though reality is that its only 1m longer than when I drove it from Nelson. I will have to really watch that rear overhang when swinging into side roads though!!!! We cant leave parents house during the day because if there are cars over the road during the day I cant go out far enough to get out from drive as the truck is too long. Slightly nervous as well as excited. I will drive it out tonight and park out of town at a nice rest area in front of local hills. Then in morning we can drive to test in a relaxed manor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Woo hoo!!! We now have a fully road legal house! Yesterday was a day of many little jobs like putting catches on anything that may fly open around corners, fall and smash or just move about marking things. Finally after waiting till all the traffic died down and the cars parked opposite had left I swung the house out wide onto the road, avoiding taking out the gate we drove up to Taylor dam - a nice spot about 8 kms from home in the country. The truck was surprising to drive- its actually far less slower than I thought it would be and rode much smoother than I was expecting. I'm not used to driving such a long truck but that aspect was fine. What did scare me is not being able to see exactly where the front overhang finished- I kept thinking I might take out a sign with our bedroom. Hannah just sat there insisting we were really close to the curb- but thats what all passengers say eh? Steering is fine- steers like an old truck but at least it has power steering which the Bedford didn't have. Brakes felt fine. But the gear change is sloppy- I really want to tighten up the linkages as its tricky to find the gears on downshifts. The gearing is really low- 80 kph will be tops unless I rev it hard. Its sits on 80 fine though. Its low geared for sure but at least its good for acceleration and around town/hills. At 80 I'm doing 3500rpm and off the green sector on the rev counter. Parked up by the lake/dam and chilled out for the evening- really kind of weird not hearing town but instead hearing ducks and other birdlife. We slide out just one pop out and tried the invertor out- watched a dvd. Annoyingly our new 'pure sine wave' invertor seems to create a hum through the speakers if we play the dvd sound out through the headunit. If we just use the TV speakers there is no hum. Both the invertor and the stereo are off the same battery. Can I put some sort of filter on the power feed to the stereo? In the morning we woke to a chilly but not frosty clear day. The views are great out here- so close to home but so peaceful. I took some photos, hannah made coffee, I got nervous as it was test time. Taylor dam.. The Ned (950m) in the distance with morning cloud... We arrived at Blenheim's VTNZ about 9.30 and there were 2 trucks in front. The guys were well interested in our house and all piled indoors for a looksie. They loved it and gave lots of praise which is nice. Every thing was looking. Dave who works there and has been helping with info on certain requirements like windows etc mentioned we could change the usage over to motor home- this knocks licencing from $600 a year to $400!!! Cool. The truck flew through the test until it came to the rear brakes. The came up imbalanced so given it was cold plus we hadn't hardly used them at all Dave suggested taking it out for a good session, work the brakes and get the truck weighed while we were at it. We needed to know the weight for the reclassification plus for buying more road user charges. The nearest weigh bridge was about 7 kms away and all the way there I kept doing hard stops and some left foot braking in true rally style. A lovely welsh lady at the coolstores weighed the truck. Its max weight allowed is 11.5 tonne. We were hoping it would be under ten. To our surprise it was under 9!! 8.4 tonne. Cool- that saves another $32 per 1000 kms. We went back to VTNZ- no queue this time- straight onto the brake rollers and much much better. Its a pass. They reckon they should get better with some more use too. The brake dials of doom... So Hannah did all the paper work involved with change of usage and I showed more of the workers plus some random truck driver inside the truck. As we wouldn't be able to get back into my olds place while cars on the road we decided to head to the beach. Bought some hot pies on the way to celebrate (yeah- I'm hardcore) and chilled out at the beach for the rest of the day which was awesome- so cool to have the door to our house open out onto the beach. No one else around. Lovely sunny day too. I took loads of photos- they aint great as I only have my phone. I must borrow mums camera next time. On way out to beach... Settled in nicely thank you.. View from back door... View from window in spare room... Some others.. This evening we watched another movie with the sound of waves in the background and then we packed up and headed back to my olds about 9pm knowing it would be clear to get truck back through drive. And here I am now- back in wifi zone uploading photos- very very happy I am. In two weeks we plan to head south in truck to the Kaikoura coast for the winter solstice. That I am very much looking forwards to. Still lots of jobs to do but at least our house is legal now! EDIT; whoops- hannah spotted a double up of photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted June 10, 2011 Author Share Posted June 10, 2011 Now that its all road legal I am busy cracking on with the other jobs..... Well it is raining outside and cosy inside. ^ this explains why we are so slack. I think cats are a major contributing factor to overall slackness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 A bit of an update here. I thought we would be in Nelson by now, parked up, waking up before 9am and doing that work thing. But we keep finding little jobs to do. I think we may be stalling... The most important thing to sort out was getting a electrical warrant of fitness. This is a requirement by law if we want to stay in campgrounds and use the hookups. Now I have to give big thanks to Sentra who donated us a power cable! Its a really nice solid quality cable. Cheers man. I wired all the relevant stuff in place like circuit breaker, rcd etc. Then a friendly Welshman working for a local electrickery company came round, had a look, gave some advice. We moved bits here and there and then he wrote out a nice 'leckywof' which is valid for 4 years. Sweet. Done. Other jobs done recently include the following; After putting up with wobbly, slippery steps for ages now I finally got around to building some better ones. I have made them out of steel, with adjustable legs for uneven ground as they now attach directly to the veranda. I have added mounting points both at the rear directly in line with the door and also off to the side. This is so if we park somewhere that the ground or access is bad straight out back we have another entrance option onto the veranda. One place we are looking at parking up in Nelson has a creek that would be directly behind the back door if we park there. The steps swing up and over onto the veranda when travelling. I have used up loads of odd bits of steel left over from the build. Very satisfying. The brackets to be bolted onto veranda frame. Build in progress.. I also made them even distance between the steps this time. The previous ones were spaced wrong and it meant bigger step ups. Sooooo much easier walking up them now- especially for my olds who, as old people do, complain about such things. Here they are against the old steps. Hannah finally got to make a little bathroom cabinet for shampoos etc. She's very proud of it and rightfully so as it look great. She got to use a little door knob she found ages ago that has a little fern print on it. It matches the green paint. The little things in life. I'm glad she is easy to keep happy. I boxed in the water pump, filter and associated pipework now that I'm happy the old old califont works well. I was worried about the ceiling getting too hot so I decided to make a little heat shield. But with what. Ahhhh- the left overs from the kitchen bench thats been laying outside next to the shed. Perfect! All thats needed to finish the bathroom is a step for the throne- being a composting toilet its really high up. In fact you can look out the window while reading car magazines on the 'job'. Not that we have tried the toilet out as I have yet to put in the flue plus the fan and without that it would be a very stinky place. We wont be needing the toilet yet as the spot we are moving to has toilets. But it will be there for when Nelson gets its overdue earth quakes, or we go travelling. Today I finished fitting a bike rack I have built. Its using parts from this old rack I built for my old Rx3. When I sold the Rx3 the fella didn't want a rack or tow bar (such a crime- all cars need tow bars...) I love this shot- could it be the only Rx3 coupe out there with a tow bar and rack? So I brought the rack back to NZ with us. Now it adorns the front of our house. And what good is a housetruck update from me if it hasn't got a cat in it. Heres Daisy happily enjoying the woodburner.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 OK then. heres a late update. Not much really as far as work on the truck goes. Its working fine as both a house and a truck. We drove it over to Nelson 3 weeks ago. Nelson is now our new home. It went drove so well and was such a buzz. I loved it. very cruisy and much better up and over the hills than I thought it would be! It cost us $50 to move our entire house from Blenheim to Nelson. Sweet! Hannah followed in the old toymota hiace. We stayed at Pelorus bridge halfway to Nelson and woke to the sound of many bellbirds etc. That was cool. The exhaust brake was bloody handy on the way down the hills. Not many photos really. In fact I only took one photo of it on the way but Hannah took some video of it as she followed. Heres a link to the a youtube clip of truck going over the Whangamoa saddle... Now we are settled in Nelson and have a most awesome campspot. Surrounded by native bush with a bird sanctuary as well. Loads of cool birds and birdsong and nothing else but the creek 4 meters from our back door. We have made a little path down to the creek with river stiones and will make a BBQ area. As the truck is all finished its been time to start looking for work. Been looking at going back to trade work as a fitter turner and there is plenty to pick from but I'm not at all into the whole 7am start thing!!!. I want to work to live not live to work. So we are starting a little workshop ourselves doing anything. Hopefully it works out. As a back up I'll have some bikeshop work to do over summer which is cool. I need to be able to get bike stuff at trade rates because man its been an expensive shock to pay retail! Since we have 14 bikes (and growing) it'll be nice to pay trade for parts again. We have no internet where we are- not even a signal. So its the library or my brothers house for us. Hence very little of me on any forum over past few weeks. But man do we have some cool biking and tramping on our back door. From the truck its a 2 minute walk to the most amazing walking track I done in ages. It takes us right up into proper ancient forest with some massive trees. And loads of wicked mountain bike tracks start right near us. So while we have not been working we have both been playing loads! I love it here We have the sun till 4pm but in summer we'll have it all day. Nelmac (the nelson council team) have supplied us loads of firewood which is sweet too. Nights have been chilly with all the clear weather we have had the last 3 weeks. Views from up our valley- truck is parked right down at the bottom. Up near top of the valley there are wicked swimming holes. This one is 1 hours walk away and so peaceful. I get some photos of the truck parked up soon. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Righto. I said ages ago I would get some pics of the truck parked up where we are currently living. I realise these might not be the most exciting photos on this forum but enough of you lot might appreciate it eh. And I figure if it helps inspire then thats all good. Took some photos on Monday afternoon in the sunshine while having a drink. I love the porch- such a nice place to relax (but for the bloody sandflies....) Hannah chilling on the back porch. We get the sun right through till late which is great. The stream we are parked next to. We built the little path down to it a few weekends after moving in and its settled in nicely. Now with all the spring growth its looking really nice... Looking up from the creek... Our neighbour who lives in a small bus he converted has been living here 15 years or so. He has an awesome garden down to the stream and has tame Eels that he feeds. Some are pretty big.. And a swimming hole just along a few meters.. The truck has been very good- well the house I mean. Just dealing with the possums shitting on the roof from the tree above and general leaf cleaning from the gutters. I started it up the other day and worked the brakes as I figure this may well help keep the wheel cylinder seals happy. I'm glad its got good new clean brake fluid throughout for this reason. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Wow- A blast from the past- the little housetruck we built in 2006 and sold on is up for sale. Hopefully it finds a good home as its a great wee truck! http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... &district= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 We have just added a touch of class to the bedroom. Nothing less than a Rembrandt. Its the nightwatch. Dad gave it to us (well it was left outside in the carport so I claimed it ) This is all for now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 4, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 4, 2014 Well I'm not sure if I should post this update here or in the bush block thread. I think it's all truck so can go here. On Saturday last weekend I drove the truck out from its 3 year park up at the brook campsite. Popouts slid back in place all good. Started sweet as because I've regularly ran it and drove up to the concrete near entrance to campsite fine. Tyres all a bit soft but ok to use. Clutch good. Powersteering pump grumbles. Oh dear. Anyway- took the test of our stuff plus two cars out to the land and then drove back to nelson to give the truck a clean. Cobwebs everywhere. Cleaned up lovely though. Packed everything away and battend down the hatches. Went to bed early. Tight squeeze onside when them pop outs are popped in.. Woke up to dawn chorus at around 5am for a very early drive out to land before roads got busy and the spring winds picked up. Had to get used to the magic wand guessing game of a gear stick but got back into the swing of it ok. Truck warmed up and got sweeter and sweeter. For an ungainly house it drives quite well actually. 80kph is at upper end of the green economy zone on the Rev counter and it cruises along sweet there. Took some pics once out in the country side. Lovely early morning sun and roads so peaceful. Cab is really quiet too. Kevin just sat chilled out between us on a soft blanket. Took inland road which is nicer but hilly. No sweat though. Got to property just on 6.30 am or so. Driveway was always a worry as steep entrance angle for so much rear overhang but it cleared it fine. Parked up and had breakfast with much needed strong coffee. Ahhhhh relief. So happy it went well. Kevin was a bit perplexed with the fact his house was now at the 'new' place. But he got used to it and seems happy as. The rest of the day was spent moving stuff about and making sure the parking pad was as level as could be. Had to do a 10 point turn to be able to back truck up onto pad and the power steering pump really started to grumble. It'll need attention (or just fluid...) Truck now sitting right where we want it and the aspect is way better than at the campsite. We now get sunshine in where we planned to at the right time. The interior way brighter. Solar panel gets full sun and has topped up the battery by midmorning. No bloody oak trees blocking light and filling the gutters/drains with crap. Overall very happy! 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted October 15, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 15, 2020 Wow. It been six years since I last posted in this thread. I see it still has some missing photos I need to sort out at some point. Bloody photobucket. Anyway. Update time. This just happened... That's a new fresh legal stamp of approval stating that its safe to take our house out for some hoons. We just put it through a COF test because we have sold the housetruck recently to a nice local family. Wow. So much to take in. Suddenly things got very busy around our place! But I better back track to a while back with some various bits of work we did to improve the truck... In December 2018 we had a little leak from one of the skylights. Water was creeping through a spot, created initially by condensation on the skylight and had rotted the plywood roof around that area. It could possibly have been a local fix but we decided to take off the entire roof on that side, replace the ply, get rid of one skylight and make a new improved design with double glazing. A proper fix. It was hot and sunny,materials cheap and a satisfying thing to fix. Photos... Old design skylights looking a bit tatty... Rotten ply... rip it down starting with the butynol roofing... Open air bedroom... Lunchtime... new ply, new Butynol... New roof. New improved skylight yet to be built and fitted. Not got a photo of that but will get some. Was actually a pretty easy job- made better by sunshine, music and drugs. This dates the photo. Imp race car, Viva wagon. But check out that centre garden and compare it to the pics from when we first parked the truck up here 4 years previous to this pic... We also re-roofed both popouts because the drains that used to block with leaves when parked up in the Nelson campground had created some issues in the corners. New improved roofs and covered in alloy (for now- but it looks unfinished so we have some baby iron to fit before passing the truck over to its new owners) I didn't take too many photos- It was a job we just got stuck into. Here's what I did take. Luckily all the steel work was fine as. Some new wood, new ply and all good. Learned a lesson not to fuck about trying to make hidden drains! Keep it simple and easy to keep clean! Fast fowarding on to this year. We had chosen a while back to sell this housetruck and put the money towards building another. A few reasons why... 1: this truck layout didn't suit the aspect of our land. It never will. Stuff is in the wrong place. The bedroom at the front facing north for all day sun when we aint in there is silly. Turning it around doesn't help because that the sheltered doorway is in full blast of the main bad weather directions we get in our valley. 2: we are not using all of the truck to its full- the spare room is just filled with junk. The bike box is wasted not being used. The truck is too big in the wrong ways for us two. 3: I want to build another housetruck. This is probably the main reason really. But the next truck will be designed around our land and be removable (on legs) so we can use the truck when ever we want (cof and other costs considered). But yeah. I've got itchy housetruck building fingers. So much learned, so many little ideas. No pressure this time either because we have the cabin and the (being built right now) mezzanine floor to live in. Find the right truck and have fun. So a few people heard it was for sale, some came round and kicked its tyres and absorbed huge amounts of time but in the end it has gone to a young local family- who's parents had them growing up in a housetruck. Lovely people, staying local = happy sale. Its a great truck, they got a great deal and we are less stressed by keeping it local with friends. We decided we would put it through a cof even though there is a good chance it'll be parked up again for a few years. But it means everyone knows what the deal is and the condition. A few jobs in the last week after booking it in for its test. Clean some stuff, source and fit some seatbelts because its now registered as a motorhome and then test drive it... Just having a little look to see if its engine would fit the imp.... Such a lovely simple clean engine... Luckily I have been really strict on a regular routine of hopping in the cab every so often and pumping the brakes etc. Occasional starts on hot days when the air is dry and rock the truck on the clutch too. It all worked so nice. One rear brake was binding slightly - has been a bit tightly adjusted ever since I had fixed that leaky hub seal year ago. I backed that off and we took it down to the beach... Kevin joined us... We broke some rules... Hannah had a drive in the Abel Tasman carpark. She has not driven a truck since she owned her Bedford TK in Blighty. Happy Hannah wants to get her NZ truck license... I did some laps... We got home, gave it a really good clean, checked all the other bits and bobs. Today I drove it to Motueka VTNZ truck testing station where it was booked in... The fella was super nice, liked the truck. We went for lunch and came back to a freshly cof'd truck. It needed an orange bulb as one indicator cover is faded almost white in the harsh Nelson sun and he's advised I tighten the bearings on one side of the rear axle (the opposite side to that what I had worked on when doing the brakes way way back in 2012) We drove home happy but sad. Its been a great truck to us. Happy its going to a good home but still sad. Excited though...soon we can start hunting for another truck to buy!!! We had a beer to celebrate. Much work to do now- a few tidy up jobs on the truck and we have to finish the mezzanine to live in once the truck leaves our place at the ned of November! I'll have a few ideas to put forward for the next build. Some little designs that I would like to get others to view and discuss . Many minds etc etc. We will have the time to really make something sweet. I'm keen on another Hino - I would love a 4wd like our firetruck and have already been asking about via the various channels within Fenz (fire and emergency NZ - if you've not heard of that) plus there's a sweet classic truck down south I fancy. Hmmmmmmm.... Next housetruck build will be shorter in length, have a one sided full length pop out that extends at least 1.5 m, a bedroom over the cab but that raises up high for full standing height and slide back roof for star gazing. Open plan living area at the back with roll around walls for inside outside flow onto a verandah (when this truck is gone we will be landscaping the entire area its currently parked up on) Bloody excited really 31 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 3, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 3, 2020 Well the last few days has been a bit emotional and busy. Did the last few tidy up jobs on the housetruck and added a few little features we had always intended to but never got around to (typical..) Main thing we added was a bit of decking on the roof. This serves a few purposes. The black butynol roofing gets fucking hot in summer, too hot to stand on. Not ideal for insulation or bare feet. It also gets a bit grubby = messy feet or shoes marking the floor or carpets. Plus the plywood roof is 12mm which is strong but still springy to walk on between the rafters. The decking is sat on runners above the rafters so now feels solid as. We got rid of the ugly old temporary pop out roof sheets of alloy that we'd put up after fixing the roofs and fitted new thicker shiny alloy with proper edgings. Also added gutters so now the rain wont run down the side of the popouts. So the last few days we emptied out all our stuff and moved it into the mezzanine or the cabin. Quite amazed at how much stuff we had collected and stashed away in the truck! Then a final clean up and moved the truck down into the yard. Ran it up hot and did an oil change. Took a few more pics of it. Here's one with Minky the Micra for scale... Then drove it to its new home. Luckily only 10 minutes away! We had to cut back loads of trees to get it down their driveway. The owners taking heaps of photos as we went. Finally parked it up... It wont stay in this spot for good. The young family that will be moving in are in isolation having just got back to NZ. In two weeks time I'll be popping round to run them through the ins and outs, packing it up for travel and setting it up etc. We'll go for a brief drive too so they can have a feel of what its like to drive. Then we'll set it up in its new home spot proper. But for now that's where it is. Hannah and I had a cup of tea and said bye bye to our reliable, comfortable, safe and cosy home of almost the last 9 years or so... Yes we are sad to see it go because its our home that we built. But also really excited because its another step in life. We can finish the mezzanine now, build a garage, do some other little projects but most exciting is we also get to build another housetruck! We left the truck went to the local cafe/bar and had a pint with local friends - where word throughout the village that we had sold the housetruck was already well out there. Suitably fizzed up on beer we walked home on a warm evening and discussed our next housetruck build... So that is this thread finished. Its been a great journey and I'm sure its entertained a fair few. I'm hoping its inspired many to try out this housing and lifestyle and also been a useful source of ideas, tips, designs and lessons for those who were already building or about to build a housetruck. I'll be back with another thread soon for what will be our 4th housetruck build (excluding a few vans along the way) As always we've learned loads of things and look forward to using the lessons learned and ideas gained for the next build We have both already been checking out the usual places for a suitable truck. Fun times! Alex 41 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.