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Origins
Photo courtesy of Pauls Facebook Profile - This is close to how the truck came to us.
As mentioned elsewhere, the truck came from Darwin and was probably sold into the public domain by either Grays (who held the contract originally) or Pickles Auctions on behalf of Frontline Machinery.
We purchased the truck from a bloke called Paul from Two Rocks. He was using it as a recovery truck, pulling people out of trouble on the beaches and tracks north of Perth Western Australia.
The truck was registered and came to us with a set of 395 x 85 x r20 tyres mounted on Hutchinson Beadlock Ally Rims. These included the heavy rubber Beadlock Runflat inserts that the military uses to allow the truck to keep moving even after a hit from a 50-calibre round direct to the tyre.
Other mods included a rudimentary roof rack complete with a 100-watt solar panel, an under-tray toolbox inside of which was a bunch of spare oils, an inverter, and a spare car 12v battery (Used as a house battery for some accessories. There were also a few tyre-changing bits and pieces.
Along with the mentioned bits and bobs, Paul also provided a set of 4 Sea Container Corners that can be used to hold any future structure we build on the tray.
The tray also had a set of drop sides but the set was not complete and we were not going to need them anyway. We sold them offf to another Mog owner not long after we took delivery of the truck.
MR License
So the next step was to get the correct driver's license to allow me to drive the truck legally.
I did a bit of research into attaining my MR (Medium Ridgid Lic) and settled on a company in Maddington WA. Spending around 6 hours of a single day with their trainer and learning what I needed for a successful assessment, I walked in the door at home with a fresh permit to drive the Mog... Yipee!
Directions and deliberations...
It was now time to sit down and discuss just exactly how we wanted to use the truck, what we needed from it and the best way to execute the changes that we eventually decided upon. We had to make a list of what we wanted to carry, and how we intended to use it, and then figure out the best way to carry it on the truck.
This meant turning to a 3d modelling program and for that we used Sketchup.
For the drawings to have any use and meaning, we needed to take comprehensive measurements of the tray, so we mounted the sea containers mentioned earlier and squared them off to each other to ensure an accurate build.
Measurements in hand, we got to work on a few different iterations of what we figured we needed.
As can be seen by the various photos and videos throughout this site, we went through a number of changes to get to where we are today. It is very likely that in time, the current setup will evolve further to account for changes in the gear we want to carry of the uses we put the truck to.
For now, we are happy enough with what we use to travel and camp in.
Check out a few of our sketches below that we used to build the truck canopy.
The initial concept shows the placement of a 1000ltr bulky (IBC) mounted between the two canopy cabinets and fold-out drop-down gantries that provide access to the items stored in the canopy. The truck is 1450mm high to the tray so, anything stored here is way out of reach in a lot of cases.
Eventually, we did away with the gantries and reduced the IBC down to 600ltrs by chopping it down and re-welding the top back on.
The space where the gantries were to fit is still there and is now used to store a number of tables that become our kitchen and work platforms around camp.
The shorter IBC holds more than enough water to last us 30 days in remote locations.
The spare tyre area is big enough to hold a complete wheel and tyre set plus a carcass. The wheels are easy enough to change so one complete spare is enough.
The internal dimensions of the front canopy on each side are 1550Lx630Dmm by 1100mmH.
The rear ones are 1950Lx630Dx1100H.
As the IBC has been chopped, we now have a storage area above the IBC that measures 1220Lx1050W and 400mmH and is used for some of our bulkier items such as our Joolca Triple Toilet Tent, spare blankets and Toppas Doggy Swag (Darche)
Having the 3d model allowed us to make changes and see what would fit where. I measured a few items we knew we wanted to take and checked them against the truck drawings to see where they would fit best.
In the case of the trailer, I determined that the items we wanted to carry were not going to fit into 300mm deep cabinets that placing the Jimny in the centre of the trailer would allow for, so we offset the car to the Drivers side of the trailer to allow us 600mm plus deep cabinets on the Passenger side. This design change happened at the drawing stage and saved us a fortune in time and many dollars had we worked out the space limitations after the structural framing was complete.
The trailer was going to be built from scratch including the actual running gear and chassis but, in June 2023, major changes to home-built trailer regulations came into effect making it a bigger and more time-consuming job to undertake. As can be seen in the trailer build page, we elected to just buy a suitable trailer and make the required mods to it to circumvent the rule changes.
If you want a copy of the Sketchup Model, please get in touch and I can send it to you.
Beginning the Build
The sea container corners are cast so if you intend to use this approach yourself, please get the advice of a qualified welder to ensure you stick all the parts together correctly. Even not having specialised welding training, I knew that the cast corners would need plenty of heat to create a good bond with the new duragalv RHS that we were using.
I cleaned off all surface rust and ground them shiny on all of the surfaces that required a weld. The heat was way up too on the welder when the job was done and several passes were executed in relatively quick succession so there was plenty of heat build up when the job was done. To date, even after many rough roads with corrugations, we have not developed any cracks around the corners whatsoever.
I don't have any earlier photos of the build before this, but this photo shows the layout of the main side rails that knit the structural roll bars in place.
All the cuts were done according to the drawings and in almost all cases worked out perfectly. I used a handheld 115mm electric grinder to cut the pieces after marking them up with a scribe. I found this much easier and more accurate than using a cut-off wheel. (Mine seemed to always wander off square during a cut)
I ended up removing the front panel of the tray too, but the strength removed in doing this was replaced by the new structural framework made out of 100 x 50 x 3.5mm RHS.
I was pretty busy with work at this time so the build took a while to get to the point where I could begin cladding.
The idea was to create a walkway between the two canopy sides that would give us the space to store a bit of gear or maybe some firewood.
Beginning to add the stringers to form the connecting parts between the main frames. These are done in 75x50x3mm.
You can also see the subfloor that will provide the inner floor ply support. These are done in 25x50mm SHS x 2mm
The canopy rear walls are divided up into panels with more 25x50x2mm supports and later provided the fixing points for the cladding that divides the canopy from the IBC storage area and the walkway.
You can also see that the canopy not only relies on the sea container corners for support on the tray, I also allowed the intermediate frames to sit hard onto the tray timber and steel frame for extra strength.
Getting ready to start on the door frames. I used string lines to make sure that I had a line to work to in order to make the front and rear doors lined up with the bends on the frames.
Once the door frames were made, I could work out how I was going to create the door seals and how the waterproofing would work.
End of day shot showing the canopy frame pretty much complete, ready for the doors to be fabbed up.
At his point, I'm pretty happy with how it is coming along. The way the canopy is built, I will be able to chop and change things as required in the future.
Doors were made in situ. I used 10mm window packers and clamps to hold the precut top, bottom and side frames in place while I ran around and tack-welded them together.
Time to knock off... Doors frames to be fully welded the next day.
All frames made out of 25x50x2mm Painted RHS. They are partially recessed into the door opening by 25mm
Time for a sneaky Single Malt.... Yum!
Door frames welded and ready for hinges.
I used HD Gate hinges (I'm a Gate guy after all) They were welded to the canopy frame and to the Door frames. They can not be removed for security
If you look closely, you will also notice in this shot that I sectioned and extended the guards by 100mm. Nice and legal now with all of the tyre inside the guard.
Doors installed - happy dance!
Now to sort out how to seal the doors up.
Decided on 3mm x 20mm flat bar on edge to act as the surface for the seal to be fixed to. I then had to fabricate 8 custom Gas strut brackets to step over the seals and act as the lower mounting brackets for the struts.
The rubber seal used is 20x14mm d rubber with self adhesive tape already installed. It came from Clark Rubber and was $200 for 30m
On with the cladding. 3mm Aluminium Composite panels were used to cover all of the canopy.
Here you can see that the area from the centre connecting frame to the forward frame is where the Water IBC will go. (As in the drawing). Behind the first lower bar there is a hole through the floor that has all of the cables and pipes passing through for water and 12v power passage.
Once the IBC was installed, I fitted a carpeted panel that acts as a mounting surface for all of the electronics.
The electronics compartment houses an ItechWorld 40 amp 240v charger that is in place to allow us to run our Honda Generator when the solar system is down on output...
We chose a 3000w pure sinewave inverter by ItechWorld. We also have a 30amp Solar controller by Epever. The solar controller is fed by a 385-watt Shingle style 24v House panel on the roof of the Bundutop Tent.
We have also invested in 2 sets of 300w ItechWorld Solar Blankets for when we are parked in the shade... These can be set up to feed into the system at the same time as the main panel but only if the main panel is shaded. I can control where the solar input is coming from through a rotary 3-way switch.
The remote panels can be used on either the trailer or the Mog as a single blanket or doubled up to boost the batteries.
On the right-hand wall (Red Key) is the tent isolator switch to prevent yobbos from trying to put the tent up while the latches are still done up.
We run a 240v RCB (RCD) on the 240v circuit and an RCD on the Solar circuit too. The whole system is monitored by a Victron Shunt and we get a good idea of what is going on with the solar using the app that connects to the Epever controller too.
Water levels are monitored by a Topargee 12 v tank level system that operates via a phone app. It counts out the litres of the tank as they are used and gives an accurate water remaining count left to go til empty. The truck carries a total of 650 ltrs over two tanks. The main one, 600ltrs (IBC) and a smaller 50-litre tank is the hot water service tank. This tank provides the storage for the Joolca system and we can choose to circulate the water through this tank a few times to preheat the water feeding the shower on cold mornings.
Located roughly in the centre of the photo, you will see a Celfi Go (Thanks to a mate) This unit effectively boosts the 3 and 4g signal of the Telstra network. As long as you have a weak signal (say 1 bar), the unit boosts the signal to provide a better connection to the network.
In the lower shelf, we have installed 2 x 200ah Kings Lithium batteries for house power. To date, there have been zero issues with them.
We have since purchased Starlink so in time, we will provide a section on how we find this system for comms.
Plenty of room to swing a cat...
You will notice the silver foil thermal insulation in the photos. This is a simple bubble wrap sandwiched between two layers of silver plastic foil. I don't think that it does much to keep the temp down inside but it has to be better than nothing. I will be upgrading this material by adding foil board or similar to the canopy walls in due course.
We settled on a Kings 110 Litre upright fridge freezer for our intitial setup. I can honestly say, this thing has surprised me with it's reliability.
Only thing that has happened to it is a fault that caused the 4wd Supercentre to replace it under warranty due to water getting into the temp control screen. The replacement one has had a silicone bead run around it to prevent water getting in when the freezer defrosts.
Dometic CFX3 95DZ was purchased from Anaconda in Cannington. These fridges (Or coolers as they call them) are not happy when the ambient temp gets up there. I have had to install 2 x 12v fans to prevent the fridge temperatures from fluctuating wildly. Without the fans running, even with the doors open, the fridge becomes a freezer and the freezer becomes a fridge. The fridge tech at Dometic has suggested that there could be an issue with the refrigerant valve and I will be taking it back for a checkup soon. (Cheers Peter from Dometic)
Gas struts came from Strut Specialists in Guthrie Street Osborne Park (Perth WA) and are 350nm 700mm on the front doors and 500nm on the rear (Larger doors) You will notice a paracord handle on the door too. This helps us short asses to close the door.
This box is installed under the tray on the passenger side and contains a rudimentary kitchen set up. it measures 1000mm x 500mm x 500mm
We have 2 x Induction cookers and find them great in windy conditions and can run both of them on about 600w each or one of them on 1000 watts but it is rare to need to run them over 600 watts. We do boil the kettle on about 1000w and it boils very quickly.
We have a total of 4 (240v) outlets in the kitchen box as well as 4 usb A and C outlets. Perfect for charging phones, tablets and camera gear. Behind a false wall, I have housed the water control gear. There is a Joolca Water pump and another water pump and both are connected to a solenoid manifold that distributes water to relevant parts of the truck such as two cold water outlets and an additional 2 hot water outlets. The hot water is provided by a Joolca Hot Tap version 2.
Distribution of water is controlled with a 6 gang switch panel mounted on the outside of the box. The power supply to this box is fed through the load side of the solar controller so I can turn of the power when we park the truck up, thus preventing idiots from playing with our water supply.
The IBC is filled through the top left connection and the others (Marked in and out) are for the onboard grey water tank. This is filled via a third water pump mounted at the rear of the truck tray.
One of the issues we encountered with the Joolca hot water system was that the wind would sometimes blow out the flame. It only happened occasionally, but once is enough for me. I hate cold showers...
The solution is a simple baffle that I made out of an Ally Checker plate and it works like a charm. I made sure that I left enough room for the unit to breathe and vent, but the interruption of airflow is enough to keep it from blowing out.
Thanks to DJM Caravan Repairs in Kelmscott for providing the awning parts we required. We also had a canvas awning skin made by Robco (A division of Kings Canvas) in NSW. Checkout their Website here.
The material is 550 GSM military spec ripstop canvas. You will notice that it is still currently in use by the ADF on various equipement.
The awning arms are a bit too short to deploy as a stand-alone setup, but we set the canvas up using the support arms fixed off to the canopy body. We will modify the upper arms of the framework before too much longer so we can have the awning setup like the photo above.
Here you can see the awning arms deployed.
It is great to have a large area under cover for cooking and meal prep.
The canvas is 3.0m out from the canopy and 3.5m or the length of the canopy box. It takes about five mins to deploy and pack up.
An over view of the pantry... We reckon we have enough supplies here for about 3 months... the only limiting factor with this assumption is the beer storage.
We have used Tactix Folding crates from Bunnings Warehouse and have found with a bit of modification, they will hold 2 cans short of three blocks each. (Don't know what Bridget is going to drink but I should be ok)
Various plastic boxes (food grade) are used to store a range of packet foods and ingredients for meals.
Plastic drawer sets from Kmart are great for storing utensils and kitchen stuff. Canned food for us and the dog makes up the rest of the storage under the drawers.
This shot shows the shelving unit that was used (And modified) to act as our pantry. They are from Bunnings and started out life as 4 shelf 1.8m high 1.2m wide and 550mm deep units. We simply cut them down and hacked them up to suit our needs. Being modular, meant that it was easy to adjust the shelf locations and we could easily fix them into the canopy structure as required.
Pots pans and other cooking gear is stored in the lower centre area to keep the weight low in the canopy.
My side of the truck canopy (As I call it) makes use of the same shelving system (We bought two of the same sets) This side of the truck stores all of my tools, spares for the truck and trailer as well as various things like portable dunny, chainsaw, spare storage containers, shade sails, gazebos walls, power equipment, cast iron cooking gear, storage boxes containing spare electrical parts, general camping equipment and sundries.
Some of the final work we did on the canopy was to fabricate a set of rooftop racks. The challenge was to allow for two solar panels (house-sized) and somewhere to house our Portabote and Bridget's Kayak.
All these things made it a difficult task to accommodate everything.
The solution was a set of racks for each of the canopy wings, and an elevated rack over the centre section to take the solar panels and under which, we stored the Portabote. Problem solvered...
We did a couple of trips with this configuration, but once we decided on a rooftop tent, we ditched the roof rack system and we now store the Portabote in the trailer. The two solar panels have been replaced with a better unit that is as powerful as the two original ones. This panel is fixed to the roof of the tent.
The roof top tent (By Bundutech) is a King model and measures 2100mm long and 1600mm wide. It is more than big enough for the two of us and we can even leave all of our bedding in the tent when we pack it down.
The whole tent weigs about 85kg. We have a complete Roof Top Tent Section HERE if you are interested
We thought we would add a bit of luxury to the section between the canopy wings now that it is the way to get to bed at night. We found a very thick and seemingly heavy-duty Synthetic grass at (you guessed it) Bunnings. You can also see the locking door that contains all of the electronics for the truck at the back of this section.
Speaking of doors, the idea of getting up at night (as you do when you get as old as us) to go to the dunny is not appealing if it is a long way to go for a tinkle... Instead, we set up our bush dunny on the back of the truck for this purpose. This led to me having to make a rear door for privacy while the toilet is in use.
The rear door is framed in 25x50 RHS galv and is clad internally with an Ally panel like the rest of the canopy. The hinges are HD Stainless. The framework at the bottom is doubled up so that we can carry our two 3 kilo gas bottles here when not in use.
Mikeasso, applying the camo paint... There is not a lot to this paint scheme... point and shoot basically. The latch and lock for this door is an upside-down Magna Latch that you would normally use on a pool fence gate. It was the only thing that would provide access from the inside and outside and yet still be functional with the two height requirements and fixing points. I had to fab up a directional changing handle device, but that was pretty easy. When inside the tent area, there is a foot-operated handle that opens the door.
The installed 3 kg gas bottles. The new bottles have a safety valve that prevents them from leaking if they are tampered with. The catches are always padlocked.
Once the roof racks were removed and the tent was installed, we needed a place to store our clothes and spare bedding. We turned to our old Rhino Boxes that we had from way back when we had the PT 2-2 Haulmark Trailer. These were simply bolted down to the roof of the canopy using sealed stainless bolts with rubber gaskets. We added struts to the lids to hold them open when we are accessing them.
Total height of the truck is 3200mm to the top of the boxes.
Barwork
Not wanting to have damage occurring to the underside of the truck, I decided to add some protective bars to the underside of the tray. They are by no means rock sliders as I am pretty sure they would be crushed under the weight of the truck if they came to rest on the ground at any point... they are more for deflecting stuff.
The whole bar work thing started with me identifying a need for some heavier-duty mudguards for the back tyres.
The bar work forward of the rear guards, just sort of happened, mainly because I was really lucky to get a supply of 40nb pipe at the right price... I had intended to bend all of the pipe with a bender but realised pretty quickly that the bender I had was a waste of time.
I went to Valve and Fitting in Bibra Lake and purchased a shite load of 90/45 degree bends and other bits and bobs these made the job of getting the bar work built easy and quite accurate. Go to their website here
40mm NB Pipe and fittings. Tacked in place and welded fully on a bench.
The welds were ground down to tidy them up then primed and painted with black galv paint and Night Sky Satin Black Paint.
Mud Guards and side bar work run together and for protection for components on each side of the tray.
Not shown but I made skins for the new mud guard frames out of the original guards. These are simply screwed on to the pipework.
Rear box holds all of the tyre changing gear such as tyre levers, air lines and torque multiplier, as well as tyre repair kits, recovery gear and snatch straps.
Rear barwork is unfinished at this point. The step up in the bottom bar is to allow the trailer drawbar to turn and not hit the rear rail.
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