M1087 Conversion

[littlesfmtv]

I was building it in my driveway, but ran out of time with all of my other life obligations. I took my truck to CO to a guy who has been building trucks for 30 years. It's now on its way to realizing its potential!

Some tweaks, the box has been expanded to the cab. This creates a fixed floor area separate from the expanding box, which presents more than a few engineering challenges. My expanding floors are fixed instead of folding, so now all of my kitchen/restroom/sitting area go into the slide outs. The people who sold me the truck told be a bunch of BS, and some of their "repairs" were either barely done or not done at all and have had to be redone.

 

[cattlerepairman]

You are gaining a ton of extra room there up front. Is that a stock tandem axle chassis or lengthened?

Sent from my SM-G991W using Tapatalk

 

[littlesfmtv]

It is the standard 1087 chassis. There is a 72" gap between the front of the box and the back of the cab. It's where all of the stairs/handrails, etc. Were previously stored.

 

[aw113sgte]

Very cool! Whats the plan for the door in the front of the extension? Cab passthrough?

 

[littlesfmtv]

Very cool! Whats the plan for the door in the front of the extension? Cab passthrough?

Correct, it will have a cab passthrough. I wanted as large of one possible. The nice thing about the A1R trucks is no airbags for the cab suspension, so its a lot easier to do the passthrough. I know a couple with an A0 truck, and they basically have pieces of wood they use to chock the cab before they shut down so it doesn't tear the bellows between the cab and box.

 

[littlesfmtv]

Truck is coming along, hopefully the finish line is ~90 days out. Most of the major engineering hurdles have now been cleared or figured out. Converting a 1087 is not for the faint of heart. Last thing I am figuring out is how to make the box expansion electric. There are inputs to the gearboxes closest to the cab that drive it, and I may be able to use a variable speed electric motor with a torque limiter to accomplish it while still retaining the manual system at the rear. The entire box has been lined with lizard skin. 1087 boxes do have some pretty serious insulation, but there is no thermal break with the framing. This coating also acts as an insulator to help with this. The color is a really light grey. Pantone something. I went this light to help with heat management since I live in the south. Ive scrapped using an incinerator toilet for one of the newer japanese self sealing units used in cranes. The truck is all electric or diesel, no propane. Final solar will be close to 3k watts on the roof. battery bank is 6 epoch 12v 480WH batteries organized to 24v. Diesel gen to top charge batteries if no sun for extended periods. Truck will be able to comfortably sleep 6, but up to 9 with an air mattress. 9 seats with seatbelts (I have a big family) 200 gallons freshwater, 158 gallons of diesel with the added 100 gallon aux tank. I've thought about getting a surplus hydraulic tank and using it as another aux tank at 25 or so gallons.

 

[aw113sgte]

Looks great, what kind of wood are you using inside?

Looks like it's modified so the floors don't fold down anymore. How are you planning to do the shower/sink now that the center area is taken up when closed?

 

[littlesfmtv]

The structure in thee photos is the bamboo ply framing. The cabniet faces will be a product called Sugar Lineal Palm Plywood by dura palm. once all of that is in, the bamboo will largely not be seen.

 

[littlesfmtv]

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Looks great, what kind of wood are you using inside?

Looks like it's modified so the floors don't fold down anymore. How are you planning to do the shower/sink now that the center area is taken up when closed?

The water/electrical will run in a similar fashion to the original electrical flex lines that were there. It would have been near impossible to do a more significant build out without fixing them. I have been in a 1087 conversion prior to starting my own, and he left his floors in place. It is an awesome build, but I really wanted to have have more permanent fixtures in place.