"BIG FOOT 14"

or 

2003_10_02

 

Yes, I am still working on the truck but the last months haven't been too easy. Lot of work and even more problems. The tanks, which I had build in, the very beginning (with the cabins floor as the ground, wooden walls covers with glass-fibre and than the floor as the top of the tanks as well with glass-fibre) were leaking.

Unfortunately the cabin itself may have twisted too much for the glue between the different parts of the tank. Anyhow, whatever it was, it makes no difference, the tanks were leaking. So I tried 3 times to seal the tanks with a two components glue - unfortunately the last mixture wasn’t correct and when I opened the tank again (because it was still leaking!) I found mould in the glue. Mould in a fresh water tank isn’t acceptable at all and so I tried to find a solution. Two new tanks were built out of plastic. The only glue, which was able to stick two parts together, had a health warning. They guy who helps me recommended silicon for aquarium. Unfortunately the silicon didn’t stick at all. Although we fixed the different walls with a tremendous amount of screws sooner or later water started to leak through.

So my wife and me decided now to go for the perfect solution (and as usual most expensive one) and to order two stainless steel tanks. Unfortunately the result is that we are unable to go to our holiday trip in end of October as originally planned because of the long delivery time.

Besides all that shi.. a lot of other things have been done:

This picture shows the Venetian Blinds in front of the outer part of the air-conditioning system, which will open when the air-conditioning system starts - that's the plan, so far we have to use a manual switch.

 

 

This picture shows the removed kitchen because of the problems with the water tanks. As well the floor cover had to be removed and it was extremely difficult to get the same type again. In every shop of the group it was sold out except one, which I found luckily after 20 phone calls.

 

 

This and the next picture show the TFT monitor in the driver cabin. Not necessarily to write letters while I am driving (it is connected to a PC) but to watch the rear camera and look at the navigation system.

 

 

This picture shows the Air-conditioning system in the "garage". On the very first picture you saw the Venetian blinds from the outside.

 

 

This is the inner part of the Air-conditioning system. It is directly above the seats. Underneath you can see the fridge, taken out because of the leaking tanks.

 

 

This picture shows the floor above the (former) water tanks (now still empty) with the new cover.

 

 

The next picture shows the kitchen. Especially when you are frying eggs or steaks the fat covers everything next to the cooking place. So we have these plates of stainless steel at the left and another one to slide out. So the normal position is when it is pushed back (than it is in the area behind the fridge; as you can see in one of the next pictures), and pulled out when you are cooking.

    

 

 

The wall case with the mirror doors in the bathroom had a rounded edge, which was reaching, too much above the sink. So the carpenter recommended building a new one out of the same material as all the other furniture. It looks great!! Please refer as well to the following site: Big Foot 07,  last picture.

 

 

The water system is not an easy one - not only because of the fu.... tanks. Because I don't heat with gas I have a big boiler (30 Litres), which I can operate with 230 Volts and heat up with the hot water of the motor. For operation with 230 Volt the battery capacity, although quite big, wouldn't last too long. So I have an Eberspächer heating system, which normally heats up the water in coaches for their heating system. This system is connected with the water circuit of the motor. The warm water circulates through the boiler and heats up the drinking water (80°C - not really a comfortable drinking temperature!). The advantage is that I can save energy whilst I am driving because the motor heats the drinking water. When I want to start in the morning I can heat up the motor, which increases the lifetime and already heats up the driver cabin- very nice! On the other side I don't want to heat up the climate at the polar circle (whenever we may be there) because the water is always circulating. And I don't want the Eberspächer to heat up in addition the motor whenever we may go to the Sahara! So two electronic water switches can turn off the motor water cycle from the drinking water cycle if required. Part of the system you see here in the smaller bench. 

The last visit to Agtar went successful for most of the issues. Now all the missing parts had arrived and were installed (again two days later as planned from Agtar but that's OK).

The Marelli navigation-system bought from Agtar still does not work but they promised to get it working. For further information about the progress I have integrated the following link.

 

 

This picture shows the small board under the kitchen.

 

 

Here you see when lot of the furniture has already been re-installed.