XM1027 - CUCV Crew Cab Build

[tim292stro]

Yeah, but this freak cold/wet weather is delaying my outdoor work time - it's killing me, killing me...

Seems like every time I get enough parts together to work on something, the weather turns and I have to wait a few weeks - nothing kills momentum like a forced wait. If I wasn't trying to do it right, I'd just git er done, but this will be a daily driver and will need to last me 20+ years.

 

[Another Ahab]

Still following along.

Thanks again for documenting your build.

me too, but too much documenting not enough picturing.

Just now subscribed and diving in. Great thread.

I know it's been ragged already and don't want to be a PIA, but -like some magazines- a lot us like the pictures more than the articles. You know, when the weather clears, the creek don't rise, and God willing: Any chance for more, maybe?

 

[tim292stro]

Yeah, you're not being a pain, I know...



I have two pictures at the bottom of post #62, and two at the top of post #64 that shows the current appearance of it (covered in black plastic sheeting, lighting is the only variable over what it looks like right now). Not much to look at, we're still getting rain a bunch, so I want to keep it from pooling in things like the bed...

I'm working on the electrical plan this weekend, and I'll post a few pictures or maybe just a PDF of the line diagram. There is some stuff about the electrical system that I want to keep "classified", so I'm going to need to figure out how to hide that before I publish. That stuff I only want my mechanic to see, and then, only if he needs it (that's need, not "need [i.e. want]") - I don't even want his underlings to see it.

Interest is interest, I'll try my best to answer questions as they come up.

 

[tim292stro]

Okay so here's a picture of ONE of the tubs I've filled with parts I've collected for this project - this is mostly electrical and non-mechanical exterior components (wife would kill me if I put all of that other crap in our bedroom).



Yes, this project is like a family puppy, it sleeps at the foot of our bed.

People talk about how the little things are the killer in a project, just keeping this stuff organized is a pain.

 

[tim292stro]

I mentioned I am working on the electrical plan (and was this past weekend), I think I figured out a way to hide the stuff I want to hide without getting too sophisticated with how it's done. I have to use a flat raster image rather than a PDF, since the PDF is still leaving the actual content in there behind the masking. I don't want to password protect yet...

So far I have the engine compartment design done, and I'm moving to the exterior lighting next, then physical security, climate control, and lastly comms and media. That's basically it, not too much to this electrical system (and it's that way by design). This will be a fold-out on Tyvek or some other water-proof/grease-proof/oil-proof paper, and included in the manual I'm also writing up for the truck. Yeah, I want to remember how I did things and how to service them, and my mechanic is not involved with the build, but will be used for basic maintenance - I don't want to kill him with something he didn't expect.



[Edit:] Admin, I uploaded a 28KB 5072 x 1045 pixel PNG, and the site converted it into a low-res 620 × 128 pixel JPG the same file size... What gives? (Yeah, even the photobucket upload got reduced...)[/Edit]

 

[tim292stro]

The wiring diagram is done, but I still haven't figured out the picture posting thing - I may have to break the wiring diagram up into smaller images to have it upload correctly. I'll try that later tonight.

I won a keyboard on eplace for the CarPuter that will go into this truck for $0.99 - it's "legit" since it came from a DRS JV-5 data terminal (see datasheet below), and has an eraser-head pointer (mouse) and came with a stylus from the JV-5 for the touch screen. What I won:


Public JV-5 Datasheet from here:
View attachment JV5.pdf

Since the military has been on a COTS stint for a decade or more, the keyboard is standard USB product from iKey (SLK-880-FSR - I use one of these on my server at home), but using the military size-9 6-position DTL-38999 connector (standard wiring pin-out to boot). The keyboard is back-lit, waterproof, and rugged - but even though iKey offers an NVIS-B lighting option, my target is NVIS-A compatibility (this allows a wider bandpass filter on the NVG, so more ambient light range can be amplified by the intensifier tubes, typically only found in aviation). I may have to re-LED the keyboard to make it work, but this isn't hard since I already have the NVIS-A LEDs - modifying the 15.4" Retina Apple MacBook screen for NVIS-A and resistive touch has been much more fun. I'll post results on that when I'm done and tested up (so that I have night vision pictures).

Transmission tomorrow (finally!!).

 

[Another Ahab]

Wow. Seems remarkably sophisticated, and clearly you know your stuff:

- Is all of this (electronics) about engine/system diagnostics?

- Or is this related to the "Communications Suite" I think you mentioned earlier?

 

[tim292stro]

All Communications/Entertainment.

Gauges, engine, transmission, transfer-case, and differentials are all manual or self-powered (mechanical) so basically anything that's not headlights, brake-lights, wipers, or the starter or fuel pump are not critical in this truck's electrical system design - and thus expendable for survivability. Everything else is considered "luxury". For example I have a smart-phone as a backup for both communications and entertainment - other passengers would likely have them also (wife does).

It's not as difficult as the industry would have you believe. USB is four wires (power, ground, and a differential data pair), the Retina display is Embedded DisplayPort (eDP), which is basically DisplayPort (digital VGA replacement) - if you can trace out military numbered wiring you can deal with DisplayPort. Once an adapter is made, an eDP panel just plugs into a standard video card with DP output. There are hack articles for anyone trying to do this too - the backlight driver is the only difficult part, but since I needed to do sun-light readable and NVIS-A with the same panel, I needed to hack one together anyway for a completely custom backlight.

The antennas for the truck will be doing CB/FM/Weather/2G/3G/4G-LTE/AWS cellular data (standard COTS USB modem with external antenna ports) plus 2.4/5.8GHz WiFi. For the WiFi, I will also try to make the computer a Broadband-HAMNET mesh node (selectable). There was a classified ad where I was looking to buy broadband antennas from anyone which was unsuccessful, but I found an antenna vendor that is going to work with me directly on the purchase (not Shakespeare or Valcom-Gulph by the way, got the cold shoulder from them). I'm locked-in under NDA with the vendor, but I can say without getting myself into trouble that the antennas I'm using are one of the antenna types that appears on this model MRAP (and no, I won't tell you if you guessed right):



CarPuter is all commercial-off-the-shelf parts:

• Asus Z77 Mini-ITX platform
• Intel IvyBridge CPU
• Nvidia Quadro NVS510 (4x mini-DP outputs)
• 16GB of RAM
• 512GB of SSD
• Azurewave AW-CE123H Bluetooth 4.0 + 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
• Pantech USB 2G/3G/4G-LTE/AWS modem (Verizon)
• 250W Mini-box automotive DC-PSU
• XMOS mutichannel USB audio digital out

OS is Hardened-Linux-From-Scratch running virtual machines via KVM/QEMU - the dashboard will have Android running as a guest VM running completely out of RAM. This will give me a slick interface for Navigation, webpages, VoIP, and media playback (via Google Play, or Spotify Premium, or Pandora, or others...). If I get really desperate for bandwidth in the middle of nowhere, I can always plug in a sat-terminal (those are standardizing around Ethernet too ).

My day job is in computers (please read my disclaimer), so the computers stuff comes very easy to me.

[EDIT:] Yes, I plan to have the truck Lojack'd before I street it. And I am building a custom security system for it. [/EDIT]

 

[ChrisinVT]

Why an NDA for buying some antennas?

 

[tim292stro]

They are used in current combat environments (not surprising, they are awesome!), are ITAR controlled (certain signal transmission and reception capabilities can be a "munition"), and the company is providing information I need so that I can correctly design the system around them (probably more for the last part than anything).

Also must be a U.S. Citizen, and because of the ITAR thing, can't have a criminal background. C'est la vie - want the nice stuff, gotta be a nice guy on the right team.

 

[tim292stro]

Picked up the transmission:


340 mile round trip in 6 hours. Jose from Valley Truck Parts out of Fresno, CA hooked it up - very hard to find an FSO-8406A right now from talking to them (and searching extensively myself). There is probably a bunch of people doing the modification I'm doing, but to a Dodge RAM (NV5600 transmissions are notoriously easy to overload to destruction, New Venture is gone, so parts are drying up). Next step after getting it in a garage, is to crack it open and rebuild it, then hook up the NP203/205 to it with an output flange adapter:



It is a complete transmission from a 2004 International 4400, see the shift tower on the pallet, clutch housing, and the entire clutch release mechanism was included. It is also a beast - 430lbs dry!!! (Dodge manual NV5600 was 360lbs, so not much more). I'll have a bit over a 1/4-ton just in drive train - including the engine and axles, it'll be closer to 1-1/4 ton.

 

[WILDBOY6X6]

I like it got any during/after pics yet? I have one like this too trying to find a SSer that would like to do this type of thing.
My trk has a 6.2 and banks turbo.

 

[tim292stro]

As the pictures are taken they go up that night - not as much visible progress as I would like yet. Stay tuned, more pics and discussion to come.

 

[tim292stro]

I'm going to put up this picture and ask what you guys think - ignore the trim, paint, and suspension. Focus on the length.

 

[Another Ahab]

Proportions at the lower image seem most right:

- but of course it's all just a matter of "taste"

 

[BleedDemon]

Will the bed be shortened to accommodate the cab extension? I don't know about usability, but the extension could be more comfortable for back seat passengers. As much as I would prefer the extension, I feel the other option would be more in line with a military look.

 

[tim292stro]

Lower image is "as-is" unmodified.

Upper image is what I'm considering - I rented a current Dodge RAM Quad-cab when I was out in Ohio last fall, the car seat for my son in the center of the rear row was touching the back of the front seats, and his feet were sitting on the front center console. I'll be adding a second car seat this summer (thus the need for the larger truck in general) if one car seat was having trouble fitting in a rear row, I imagine that two won't fit.

I also spent a lot of time planning for how to keep the entire bed-space clear, and I don't have space for the exhaust to run out the bottom behind the rear axle, so I need to do an exhaust stack - not totally in keeping with the true CUCV I know, but then neither is a Cummins 5.9L 6BT, Fuller FSO-8406 6-speed manual, dual 24Volt electrical system, M939 series LED lighting, and for that matter a Crew-Cab. This will require a stretch of the chassis, rear doors, and C-Pillar. The C-Pillar stretch will allow me to push a stack between the Bed and Cab without losing space in the bed (like most stacks I've seen do), and will give me a ton of room behind the rear row inside the cab. The door stretch would give me more space for feet and car-seats. I'm talking to another local SS member about another non-op Crew Cab that I can potentially cut up, I'll probably keep the bed and rear frame to make a "matching" trailer eventually.

I've also been reading up on the seat-belt laws in relation to the intention to do MRAP seats, and I hit a wall of an issue - they wouldn't work under the current laws, so I need to use a similar seat belt system as was available factory (type-II lap+Torso belts for outer seats, type-I lap belts for the center rear seat, which I can upgrade to a type-II). The three things that get you are the multiple tap to buckle inlets (you can only have one hole you stick a tab into), the twist release (you can only have a single push-button release), and the torso and lap belts meet in the center (the torso and lap belt must intersect at least 6" outside the torso center-line). I hate it, but it's the way the law is written. I can do both styles (torso+lap and 5-point), but there is another clause that says that the two systems cannot interfere - and they still have to have a single point of release (so two separate seat-belt buckles is out). This is FMVSS 208, 209, 210 under CFR 45-571, so it applies to all states.

 

[BleedDemon]

In retrospect, my reply wasn't clear. I was referring to the Mega Cab-looking chop vs the standard crew cab chop. Also, I've been considering an HMMWV-style exhaust stack for my brainchildren. (May militarize my '08 Tundra)
Observe:

This shouldn't require a space between bed and cab. I'd also thought of making a slip-on exhaust tip for rolling with no camper shell. A slip-on extension with provision for said slip-on tip at the top would be good for use with a camper shell or bed rack. A simple bracket could be fabbed to attach to the bed rack or camper shell-mounted rack for stability.

 

[tim292stro]

I'll have a fuel filler door and an antenna mount at the front of the bed (both sides), so that would preclude that style. Also on the '80's Chevy trucks the saddle fuel tanks are external to the frame, and run from the middle of the rear door to the front of the rear wheel-well. Doing an exhaust like the above while cool, would run the pipe right under the fuel tank. Similarly, running it out the rear would put it under the rear fuel tank, and I'm trying to put power generation stuff down there too. As big as this truck already is, it just won't fit everything if I don't start adding some space that isn't there. The systems are just too large.

Think of this, if I put in the PTO generator under the cab as planned, I still need somewhere for the main breaker, and receptacles to be located, plus the wiring - and at 48kW, that's going to be some large gauge wire. That's just one system, the fuel tanks will take approximately 40% of the total under vehicle space, the engine+drivetrain+suspension about 40%, that only leaves 20% for the generator, fuel transfer, cabling, exhaust, and frame. It's very tight, so having the exhaust take another route relieves some of that pressure.

[EDIT:] I did get an email back from CARB on a few of my questions today, since there is no CAT for the pre-'94 Dodge the engine is from, basically anything goes on the exhaust - and since there is no tie-in for any emissions systems to the air filter housing, the air filter housing does not need a CARB E.O. This engine has essentially no emissions control systems that will complicate parts sourcing. I really won the lottery on the engine change - there is a tiny window here in '92-'93 where there aren't any emissions systems external to the block (only injectors, injector pump, cams, and turbo), but you get an intercooled turbo engine. [/EDIT]

 

[tim292stro]

Engine is moving to a garage this weekend - finally get to pick at that itch again. Day-job has slowed a little, but it is on a hair trigger.

I'm working on the CAD model for the cab cage, I'll post pictures of it once I have it just right - AutoCAD will let me do structural analysis before I build, so I'll have a better idea of how it will behave in a crash or roll-over (WHICH IT WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE IF I HAVE MY WAY!!!). I need to work on getting the other donor truck from SS Member WILDBOY6X6, that'll be required for the stretch. Money, money, money, and time, time, time. I need more of both

Also just finished paying for an S250 shelter I bought from SS Member jesusgatos (see pictures of it in this thread. [EDIT:] found more pictures of this shelter on the bandit website too [/EDIT]) - this will be good for storing parts on-site, and saving me trips (and thus time) while I'm working on the truck. When I'm done with the truck I'll work on converting the shelter into a slide-in camper. I have evil plans for it already .