Oberaigner Sprinter 6x6 with KrugXP cabin
 

Well it's taken long enough but my vehicle is basically ready to ship out from Germany. LWB Oberaigner 6x6 Sprinter with a 4.7m long cabin built by KrugXP. I saw it last week at Hellgeth Engineering, who are assisting with the joining of the two parts and who have put in some tow points and additional fuel tanks for me (I went with plastic in the end). So it now has 200L total capacity.

http://timstraveltruck.rocks/wp-cont...shed-Truck.jpg



It weighs in at a shade under 5,500kg empty, so should max out at about 6,400kgs once I've loaded it up and with all water (250L) and diesel tanks full. GVW is 7 tonnes so I'm well within that.

My concern now is the Euro 3, 4 cylinder 2,143cc engine was struggling on long inclines but I'm looking into mild ECU remapping for more torque - nothing major, nothing which will overstress the engine, which is available in several road cars tuned to much higher torque and power outputs than in the Sprinter.

More pictures of the build in progress at www.timstraveltruck.rocks

Nice Truck.

The photgrapher seat is awesome ;)

Can you show a groundsheet of the interieur?

Lovely truck Tim, it look great, nice one mate!

great looking truck..:thumbup1:

PickyPalla - I will do, but I'm just off to see The Stranglers perform in Dubai tonight and photographing some race cars tomorrow, so maybe on Saturday.

Thanks Gipper - and for your salient advice along the way too.

Thanks gren_t. It actually turned out exactly as I designed it - I'm not sure why that surprises me, but I'm very happy with it. Now I have to wait as it makes its way slowly to Dubai on a RoRo.

Caution! What works in a sedan that virtually never uses full output for a sustained time may indeed overstress the engine and especially the cooling system on a 7 ton turck with an extra driven axle and increased air resistance. On inclines you WILL use full output for sustained periods, increased output tuning or not.
There is a good reason why mfgs rate the same motor lower in trucks than in passenger sedans.
I have an "uptuned" 3.0L 6cyl diesel in my BMW X5. It has 10% more hp and 15% more torque. I use that extra power for about 10 seconds per day, accelerating to expressway speed or trying to make a green light after a right turn. I have a stock 6.4L 906LA in my Unimog. I use full output for up to minutes at a time on inclines, since the truck weighs 12 tons and has a 3.6m high camper box roof. Which is why I have NOT "uptuned" the engine, considering possible reliability decrease in the places I tend to go (last summer to Mongolia, 3/4 of the way around the planet at 50 deg latitude from my home).
Your camper build is admirable.
Charlie

Wow, that's an impressive build:thumbup1:

I agree with m37charlie with to the potential to overstress the engine.

I have a Scan Gauge 2 permanently connected to our Sprinter (OM642 V6). It has an engine load field. I was really surprised to see how easily it shoots upto 99% engine load when in 6th on relatively easy climbs.
Dropping down to 5th instantly drops it to 60%ish on the same incline. I know it's obvious but having this info is a great driving/economy aid but could help to drive without stressing the engine. I don't know about yours but ours doesn't have a water temperature gauge, very German. It'll never overheat so you don't need to know, yeah right:innocent:
An egt gauge would be great info too.

Thanks Charlie, Russ. I hear you, and have the same reservations about 'tweaking' the performance. I'm in two minds about it anyway, so will take the truck for a few test drives in Oman, where there are some VERY steep mountainous roads, and see what it's capable of in stock format. Maybe I'd be better off with a good Bluetooth OBD reader and a cheap Android tablet, to keep an eye on all the sensor readouts instead.

Thanks for the build compliments - KrugXP have done a great job - all I had to do was open my wallet and scream!

Floor plans
 

pickypalla, please see the attached images of the layout, taken from my SketchUp model. Bathroom and main door removed for clarity. There's a few very minor details missing but nothing of any importance. However please note the forward seats, i.e. the 'box with a cushion' on the left and 'pilot's seat' on the right, are not shown on these images. But you can see those in the photos on the website obviously.

Cabin is 4,700mm long, 2205mm wide, 2138mm high (plus the rails, solar panels and access panel height). That does not include the lockers which hang down below.

Panels are 60mm thick so internal dims are 4,580 x 2085 wide x 2018 floor to ceiling.

I messed around with a Bluetooth obd and my android phone. To be honest the app's I tried weren't great. But that may have just been my poor choices.
The scan gauge 2 was only £120ish and has some neat functionality, down side is that the readout is from the 1970's:rolleyes2:

IMHO an egt gauge would be invaluable. This isn’t possible without adding a thermocouple to the exhaust and a standalone gauge. This functionality isn't possible from any of the existing sensors.

For what it's worth I'm having my OM642 remapped next week. A mild economy biased remap, around 220bhp and 480Nm. Plus deleting some stuff that will allow use of higher sulphur diesel.

nice truck and like the ayout. In my experience, the components that fail, will be the aftermarket ones! It isn't a big engine for the weight, whats the BHP? but my inclination is keep it stock

if you want to uptune , then as long as you fit EGT , and a good oil and water temp guage , and look at them when using at limit you should be OK , with a diesel the EGT is the really important one , with cooling , a bigger rad , and oil cooler should allow longer usage at max output , within constraints of EGT as the primary reference . Think about going to a bigger intercooler if turbo , esp if using in hot climates . If aircon dont use if in front of rad , when using max output of engine.

Very nice!

For the longest time I had my heart set on the Oberaigner Sprinter 6x6 chassis cab as a base for an overlander vehicle.

With the help of Oberaigner I worked my way around several obsticles which included brake test homoligation and import into South Africa despite Mercedes Benz SA wanting nothing to do with it and making it clear that they will not honor the warranty on a 6x6 self-import, etc!

Oberaigner even had a demo unit lined up for me at a bit of a discount. At the time I was told that the unit had also used been in Saudi for testing! But I am sure it cannot be the same one as your unit?? I have some photos of it that Oberaigner sent me at the time (approx 18 months ago). It was white back then and had a box body on it which we were going to remove.

But ultimately it was the total cost of the whole excersize involved that I was staring at that killed it for me. It just would have cost too much to get it into South Africa and too big a risk with no warranty backing from MBSA.

Today I am happy with the alternative path I took but I will always look at the Oberaigner Sprinter 6x6 with fond affection.

Well done on your awesome rig!

How is the 6x6 performing now?


It certainly looks (looked) good in the top picture when it was shiny and new! beer