DuraVee plus S-788 camper conversion

[Mogman]

I guess My DuraVee project fits both the Hot Rodding and Modification.
I have finished a Duramax conversion on my M-998 #2 and will start next week installing a custom hard top and a S-788 shelter which will be Modified into a camper, including A/C and a 3KW diesel gen set.
I will post things as they go, really going to miss the hot rod convertible, but I got places to go and enjoy

 

[Mullaney]

I guess My DuraVee project fits both the Hot Rodding and Modification.
I have finished a Duramax conversion on my M-998 #2 and will start next week installing a custom hard top and a S-788 shelter which will be Modified into a camper, including A/C and a 3KW diesel gen set.
I will post things as they go, really going to miss the hot rod convertible.....
View attachment 840237

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More pictures please? I don't own a HMMWV but could definitely enjoy seeing a DuraMax tucked under the hood, and the motor mounting arrangements. Maybe from the bottom too showing what you did to get the power to the ground?

Inquiring Minds want to know...?

 

[Mogman]

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More pictures please? I don't own a HMMWV but could definitely enjoy seeing a DuraMax tucked under the hood, and the motor mounting arrangements. Maybe from the bottom too showing what you did to get the power to the ground?

Inquiring Minds want to know...?

Here is the link to the build thread.

How not to install a Duramax in a M998

Well hopefully this will not be the epitaph for this project, I thought a thread with the progress and possible pitfalls that lay ahead might be interesting to someone, constructive criticism, hints and comments from actual experience will be of course welcome. Some of this has been told before...

www.steelsoldiers.com

 

[Mullaney]

Here is the link to the build thread.

How not to install a Duramax in a M998

Well hopefully this will not be the epitaph for this project, I thought a thread with the progress and possible pitfalls that lay ahead might be interesting to someone, constructive criticism, hints and comments from actual experience will be of course welcome. Some of this has been told before...

www.steelsoldiers.com

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Thanks! I had seen that title before.
Will definitely spend some time reading...

 

[osteo16]

I guess My DuraVee project fits both the Hot Rodding and Modification.
I have finished a Duramax conversion on my M-998 #2 and will start next week installing a custom hard top and a S-788 shelter which will be Modified into a camper, including A/C and a 3KW diesel gen set.
I will post things as they go, really going to miss the hot rod convertible, but I got places to go and enjoy
View attachment 840237

She looks Fast !!! Love it..

 

[Mogman]

Well we are making some progress on this project, I have acquired all the mounts and have them "figured out".
I have most if not all hardware needed to mount the S-788 to the DuraVee.
I have finished installing the air lift bumper, the lower rear mounts and the pintle extension.
The front mounts bolt to the "body member" that runs behind the front seats and fortunately the inside mounts on each side use an existing mounting hole in the body so having to align the front mounts to drill the remaining six hole just got allot easier!
I still need to fab up the tail light mounts to move the tail lights and a few more details and we hope to mount the shelter next weekend, depending on how fast the guy gets the 2 1/2" X 2" lift blocks I need to compensate for the 2" body lift to me.
The plane is to get the shelter mounted and work out the how the cab will be sealed to the shelter, we definitely want a pass-through so the extra effort to seal the shelter directly to the cab is justified, in my mind at least!!
Then removing the shelter to install a ton of stuff that will be hard to impossible to access with the shelter in place...
I will take more photos than I have been, here is a pretty poor shot of the rear lower mounts.

 

[Mogman]

Kinda wish I had stayed in bed today! I decided to move the knuckle truck over to the shelter and try out the hydraulics, ended up busting a hose and puking hydraulic oil all over the shelter so now it will look like crap until the entire truck is painted some time down the road...


Jeez, it's always something!

 

[Mullaney]

Kinda wish I had stayed in bed today! I decided to move the knuckle truck over to the shelter and try out the hydraulics, ended up busting a hose and puking hydraulic oil all over the shelter so now it will look like crap until the entire truck is painted some time down the road...
View attachment 854801
View attachment 854804
Jeez, it's always something!

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Yeah, hey it sucks when a hose breaks - but on the bright side - at least nothing was up in the air and nobody got mashed! Time to replace that hose and any of the others that might look about the same age...

There are all kinds of degreaser products that will remove the hydraulic oil. Red Roost Degreaser is good stuff. After I cleaned up my mess on my M-936 where I busted a hose (that I knew I should have replaced) with that stuff, everything looked fine.

 

[Mogman]

Fortunately that knuckle truck has lock boxes on all the cylinders, if a hose breaks it will not drop the load and all cylinders are positioned so the load is not on the seal or ram side of the cylinder so basically a piston ring/seal would have to fail to actually drop the load which is very rare.
It does not look like I have the fittings to build these hoses so I am down a week until Discount Hose can get me the parts.

 

[Mullaney]

Fortunately that knuckle truck has lock boxes on all the cylinders, if a hose breaks it will not drop the load and all cylinders are positioned so the load is not on the seal or ram side of the cylinder so basically a piston ring/seal would have to fail to actually drop the load which is very rare.
It does not look like I have the fittings to build these hoses so I am down a week until Discount Hose can get me the parts.

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I find it really strange that military trucks have one big check valve on the return side (M936 in particular) and nothing more. Most derricks or small cranes have a steel check valve on the steel cylinder for the lift in particular. Hiab makes their cranes that way and have since back in the 60's. Don't quite understand why the green toys aren't that way...

 

[Mogman]

I can only assume failsafe is not high on the military's priority list, my JLG man lift also has these lock boxes, although there is a set of manual valves on the base that allows the platform to be lowered in case of an emergency, I have not studied how they get around the failsafe devices, but I have had to get the wife to let me down once when the engine failed. the "emergency" 12V backup pump was removed before I bought it out of a scrap yard.

 

[Mullaney]

I can only assume failsafe is not high on the military's priority list, my JLG man lift also has these lock boxes, although there is a set of manual valves on the base that allows the platform to be lowered in case of an emergency, I have not studied how they get around the failsafe devices, but I have had to get the wife to let me down once when the engine failed. the "emergency" 12V backup pump was removed before I bought it out of a scrap yard.

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Yes sir! On a Hi-Ranger (bucket truck) there are check valves on everything that lifts a person. Even the outriggers have checks in them so if there is a failure there that the guy in the bucket won't ride it to the ground.

Maybe it is because of what it is and because buckets are generally working on high voltage wiring - there is a Dead Man Switch on the side of the boom - beside the three valves that need to bring the bucket to the ground. That is what we used to load test them once a year (back in the old days). I imagine calling it a dead man switch wouldn't be politically correct now days

 

[Mogman]

Dang, bought another shelter and paid too much for it (as evidence I was the only bidder)
But is is camo and is much "cleaner" as in it can be stripped to a "clean" start, not having as many built in through wall boxes etc.
One thing for me is the original S-788 door has a vent in it and it rips the skin off of my hand every time I open the door because there is just no clearance between the handle and the screws for the vent, yes this could be addressed but hey you can't take it all with you...
But now I can strip the first one for the accessories and stuff for the second one.

 

[Mogman]

Well I managed to make it home with the shelter today, 6 hours of light to moderate rain the entire trip, I am a little concerned though.
According the the manufacturer of the S-788 it has a base weight of about 650 pounds, I weighed the truck/trailer empty and with the Electronics Warfare shelter, I topped of the fuel tanks before each time I weighed it to be as accurate as I could and was surprised that this shelter weighs 1540 pounds, I just cannot imagine the racks in the "new" shelter weigh 890 pounds, I assumed they were of the same construction but there is that word again..


So I may just leave it on the trailer and strip the racks out and weigh it again.

Edit, after the rain stopped I did a little survey and I can now believe that there may be a few hundred pounds of racks in the shelter, so the plan is to strip them out and re-weigh.

 

[Mogman]

Well I stripped out the racks, it looks much different now.
I would have lost the bet if someone told me there was 860lb of racks in the shelter, but there was 860lb of racks in that shelter!!, that is 180lb More than the shelter weighs now!, I took it across the scales again and it now weighs 680lb which is damn close to what all the different manufactures claim.
I have no idea at this point who actually built the Lightweight Multipurpose Shelter (LMS), I don't think it was Electronic Warfare Associates, which it is now branded..
But I feel much better now, time to get the mounts lined up and stab it!!

And that was about 8-10 hours of blood sweat and cussing!!
And I got POT loads of military power connectors out of the deal....

 

[Mogman]

With a name like "electronic warfare" I would have thought RF would have been involved, but there were only Power, Ethernet and fiber cables and connectors, no sign of RF anywhere.. And of course there was no "sensitive" equipment, they even removed the florescent tubes from the lights in case they held some kind of "secret"

 

[Mogman]

Made the lift this morning, now to get the mounts lined up, this shelter had never been mounted to a vehicle, it still has the rubber pads on each corner.

 

[Mogman]

GOTER stabbed this afternoon, it went like we actually knew what we were doing, dropped right in place, even the camo matches although about 25 years difference in fading

Tied up the front mounts with string to keep them in place.


Of course because the DuraVee has a 2" body lift some spacers were required, used zip ties to hold the rear mounts in place.

Now to finish the mounts including tightening the 44 screws holding the adjustable rear mounts to the shelter!

 

[lpcoating]

Nice work. I've never tried it but I've read that Pledge dusting spray brightens up faded paint.

Guy

 

[Mogman]

I am going to move all further discussion about the shelter mods to the camper mods section so I will not have multiple threads running.