Torsion free chassis?
 

Hi, I am building an overland camper with a 2003 Mowag Bucher 6x6 truck. Starting point is the torsion free chassis. I understand that on most vehicles this is an absolute necessity. On 4wd trucks there is a huge amount of chassis flex and hence, you need to mount the cabin or box on a chassis that can flex. Now, on these Mowags, there is virtually no flex at all on the chassis. As they are 6wd they have two axles on the rear which reduce flex significantly. I have had the rear of the truck up on a forklift and the torsion is minimal leading me to consider whether it is possible to just mount the cabin or box directly onto the chassis. This is a first build, so my experience is precisely zero, anyone out there got any comments on this dilemma? Thanks.

Not to be taken as relevant to your build, but I have an OKA truck in Australia and that has a similarly rigid chassis. A few of us have built frameless sandwich panel habitation boxes and glued it to the cabin andthe only possible movement is some rubber pads which have maximum movement capability of about a mm. One of the builders has done 200,000km much of it in outback tracks you wouldn't believe and there has been no damafe to the box. Mine has had one whhel off the ground several times and on one best forgotten occasion, all wheels off the ground, and nothing has moved or distorted

My choice would be a Tatra with its unique backbone chasis.

Read Chris BLOG (he`s building it right now).

Mezo.

Thank you for your comments, I am coming round to think that some form of minimal flex is necessary but not that which afflicts big 4wd trucks. Also looked at the link, same there, a pretty rigid chassis needs little flex. Opinions appreciated.

Thank you for your comments, I am coming round to think that some form of minimal flex is necessary but not that which afflicts big 4wd trucks. Also looked at the link, same there, a pretty rigid chassis needs little flex. Opinions appreciated.

Hi

Torsion free systems come into their own on traditional ladder chassis which twist all over the show.

However, the Mowag isn't a traditional Chassis, in fact it's far from it.. Each of its 6 wheels moved up and down vertically , completely independent from the other 5.

This is about as torsion free as you can get.

My view would be that no other modifications or torsion free add one would be required and could actually be counter productive to the stability of the unit.

I would go with what you've got, it doesn't get much better.

Good luck

Neil

Cloud 9 is Born

You might consider a "low torsion" mount system. Bolts to camper isolated with either rubber blocks or stiff springs (like valve springs), with Loctite for threads.
Both have been definitely done and documented before.

Charlie

Roryma,

I am toying with a similar idea, i.e. building an overland camper on this very vehicle. Have you got any ideas re how to make the best use of this awesome vehicle and how to utilise space as efficient as possible?