• Lightweight, but durable
• Accommodate a 10l Scepter fuel can for our Diesel coolant heater.
• Space for at least 40-60l of fresh water
• Cutting area and a storage for all our kitchen supplies
• Accommodate a multifuel stove (like a MSR DragonFly)
• Storage for our Engel fridge
• Space for a proper fresh water system (pump, filters) as well as an air compressor
• Cabinet design need to be free standing and not screwed to the vehicle body
• Accommodate a 200cm / 78inch long bed, but leave enough space to sit on the engine hump
• Area for two to four large plastic containers

After that we approached the design from many different angles made one drawing after another one and bounced several ideas around. All of them had pros and cons but in the end we settled on one design with the most advantages and most economical space usage.

Front:
The idea was to raise the platform as high as possible, but still be able to sleep comfortable. On the other hand there need to be enough space between the cabinet and the front driver/passenger seat to have some kind of area you can sit and live inside when the weather is not good. To do that the cabinet had to have an extendable bed, otherwise the bed would be not long enough. The solution was two large storage drawers with strong sliders in the front.

After our first packing session we were really amazed how much stuff you can fit in the cabinet.

Mattress:
We bought two different coloured Sunbrella fabrics from outdoorfabrics.com and gave it to a foam shop which made the covers as well as provided the (puuuhhh expensive) high-density foam pieces. With the main foam piece set in place as well the two separate pieces we are pretty flexible in setting up our bed. Either the entire bed is open or just one side. So one person can still sleep when another person sits on the engine hump using the area as a table.

Details:
All slides are heavy-duty and rated for 200lbs (90kg) each set. One of the heaviest parts on the cabinet, but we didn’t want to compromise in durability.

We used regular climbing rope as a handles for the rear drawers which works really well, is lightweight as well as a good bump stop against the rear hatch door.

All drawers are secured with stainless sliding pins from a marine shop. I also made metal inserts to prevent any worn out pin holes.

On the passenger side we built another box over the wheel arch to store bigger items as well as attached an axe and saw with a couple Quick Fist rubber clamps. On the opposite side is a compartment for portable water filters, water pump and an ARB air-compressor (more about that in a separate post)

As you see in the photos below, all edges are protected with Marple hardwood, wile the rest of the cabinet is half inch birch plywood. The drawer front face is made out of clear coated solid Marple hardwood as well to give it extra protection and a nice touch to the cabinet overall.

It took quite a long time to finish the cabinet, but in the end everything worked out well and we are very happy with the outcome. Thanks to my friend for all the time and effort he put into this project. Without him this cabinet wouldn’t be as nice as it is.

Fluid Film is formulated from specially processed wool-wax, highly refined petroleum oils and selected agents to provide corrosion control, penetration, metal wetting and water displacement. These long lasting products contain no solvents, will not dry out and will penetrate to the base of all metals, providing corrosion protection from both natural and industrial atmospheres.

It was easy to apply with a air gun, even inside the subframe and tight areas. It probably will last for a couple years till you need to apply another coat. Another side effect of the product: DinoEvo smells pretty good now :)

Also, every time when we cross a border to another country we are going to add their national flag. A practice seen by “Sprinter Life” we really like.

The GS100 is the cream of the crop when it comes to solar panels. It boasts 18.3% module efficiency and is composed of 32 back contact solar cells. Compare that to standard crystalline modules with 14% to 16% efficiency. This panel has a very small footprint and fits into places other panels can only dream about. As for weight, this baby comes in at a mere 14.5 pounds! Another distinct advantage of the GS100 is its width of only 20.7 inches. The mono-crystalline, back contact cells on the GS100 means there are no grid lines blocking the sun’s rays. It also means you can expect outstanding performance in both high heat and low light conditions.

To regulate the power coming from the panel to our battery-setup I installed a Morningstar SunKeeper SK-12, which is one of the smallest and most reliable battery-chargers I could find and fits perfect in the small battery compartment of a Delica. Also it constantly measures the temperature of the battery and adjust the charge accordingly.
To run the heavy-duty wire form the panel to the battery I used a waterproof plug from the marine industry. That makes it easy to remove the roof rack when we need to load DinoEvo in a shipping container. Also the plug has still a few more connections available in case we want additional lights up on the roof rack.

Update July 2011:
After meeting with Pablo & Anna from viajeros4x4x4 I revised my initial plan of finishing the entry step a bit. They cut off both sided of the round corners to gain more space. While I found the rear piece quite useful I agree the front part is not. So I took a grinder and cut it off, finished the corner with some left over maple hardwood and bolted a thick piece of angle aluminum on it. Project done.

There are many different ways of heating air/water in an RV. For us a Diesel powered coolant heater from Espar (Hydronic D 4 W SC) made the most sense for a few reasons. First its very compact as space is limited, second you only have to have one single source of fuel on board and third you can preheat your Diesel engine on very cold days. The reason for an Espar vs. Webasto is the better availability of spare parts worldwide as well as the possibility to run the heater over a longer period of time in high elevation (over 1500m above sea level – with special fuel pump sensor) which we are going to have a lot during our time in the Andes.

Finding the hot fresh water tank was a challenge as most of the RV or marine tanks in North America are way to big for the limited space we have available. I was close to get a custom tank made, but we finally found the perfect size at the Overland Expo in Germany. Elgena – an established company from Munich – offers all kinds of stainless steel water heaters in smaller sizes. We bought the Nautic-Junior M with 10 litre capacity.

After getting all the parts together, we had to find a space to mount them. Most sense made for us to take the rear air-condition and heater core out (front AC is still working) and build a box for everything. After months looking through ads on Craigslist I found an old toolbox with almost the exact measurements we need. I sandblasted the box and gave it a few coats of paint and mounted all the brackets. The big opening on the side of the tool box matches up with one of the openings of the old rear heater. So all the cables and hoses are going up to the cab this way.

Next step was to mount a new heater core inside the van. I found a small auxiliary heater core at Princess Auto. The quality (and noise) of the 120mm computer fan mounted on the back of the core was not the best, so I upgraded it with an ultra-silent fan and installed RPM dial switch to make it even more quite. Right above the Diesel heater was a big enough spot behind the side panels to mount the heater core.

The fuel pickup of the Diesel heater is connected to a Scepter military fuel can inside the van for two reasons. First, I still want to be able to mix WVO on warm summer days into the engine fuel tank and second on really cold days – when you actually need the heater most – the Diesel won’t gel up in the warm cab.

The plumbing inside the box was very tricky and time consuming. I wish there was more space as there are a tons of hoses going back and forth. The system is set-up in way that the fresh water tank gets even heated with just the engine coolant alone. So basically when we drive around and come to a campsite, the water is already hot. The same is with the rear heater core. It also works without the Diesel heater. Only if we are camping for several days at the same spot or for cold nights we need to use the Espar.

A schematic overview of our system:

Coolant is coming from the engine to a temperature sensitive valve (1). It goes than to the Espar (2) and gets heated up. Hot coolant is going to the Elgena hot water tank (3) and heats up the water. After that it goes to the auxiliary heater core (4) inside the cab. Than coolant is going back. Now the valve (1) comes into play again. Initially, up to a cooling water temperature of approx 67 °C, the heat from the Espar is only fed to the heat exchanger and hot water tank – inside of the vehicle and water heats up fast. From a cooling water temperature of around 67 °C, part of the heater’s heat is also fed to the Delica’s engine. This slowly heats the engine circuit, without causing the “small cooling water circuit” to rapidly cool down.

So far everything is running how it should, but we still need to extensive test the entire system as well as hook up the fresh water tank.

After about 6 liters of glue, 1.5 rolls of carpet and about 30 hours in total, the panels were all covered.

Check out his website: superexceeded.com

• New rear brake shoes
• Replaced all remaining old coolant lines
• Rebuilt alternator including new housing
• New brake master cylinder
• New fuel filter
• Replaced steering boots and tie rod ends
• New upper and lower ball joints
• Replaced all CV boots
• New sway bar stabilizer bushings
• New clutch slave cylinder
• New clutch kit

That should be it with preventive maintenance. I’m really happy how the van performs. Most of the components that wear out over time should be good now for a long time.

P.S.: The bubble wrap is also perfect to use behind your back when you sit near a campfire at night.

Due the size of the new wheels, the spare tire does not fit anymore in the stock location which left a nice, large area for either a storage compartment or a tank. After I changed the stock exhaust to one with an side exit, the idea was to have a tank there. The problem was, that we couldn’t figure out a proper way to fill the tank. Also the size of the tank couldn’t be exceeded beyond around 40-50 Litre, which was not big enough for the additional effort and cost of a second tank.

Design:
In the end we gave up the storage compartment idea and went ahead with a large tank in the back. Many people who run WVO have their second tank in the same spot. What I don’t like on all of them is that they take away the great departure angle, therefore our design had to be different.

In the initial design I tried to push a squared tank as far up between the crossmembers as possible. Later on the tank grew and reached far more forward including two big angles. One along the leaf springs and another above the rear axle. After taking rough measurements I created a few cardboard prototypes to make sure everything fits. Andrew – our welder – did then a fantastic job fabricating a 1/8″ aluminum tank from my drawings. He also came up with the basket system to securely hold the tank up.

Connections:
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. No pump or electric valve to fail, no pickup and return line. Just a simple feed to the stock fuel tank including a manual valve to disconnect the two tanks. The only thing I had to add was a steel fitting in the stock tank. The Broadway Welding Shop took care of that.
The breather hose was a little bit more work as it has to be as high up as possible which means I had to drill through the subframe. Not to weaken the frame and also to make my life easier with the hose I cold-welded a stainless steel pipe through the frame and connected the breather hose to it.
For the filler hose I got a good deal on a 1.5″ I.D. fuel hose without a wire in it, which makes it way more forgiving to work with in smaller voids, but on the other hand you get pretty quick some kinks in it. I thought about using just the stock filler for both tanks, but found it would make it more complicated. Instead we installed a Perko Marine filler neck on the side of the van right next to the tail lights.

Painting:
Even though all fittings are stainless steel and the tank is out of aluminum, I wanted to give the system extra protection against corrosion. Therefore I primed and painted everything with Tremclad. Also while the stock fuel tank was out, I gave him a good coat of paint and all new hoses as well.

In combination with the stock fuel tank (60 Litre) we should get now a rang from around 1000km per fill up.

Another small “security-feature” is now the tamper proof bolts for the front- and rear licence plate.

There is still a lock on the trunk door missing as the hasp system doesn’t work there. Also another project will be the protection for each window. I have already something in my mind, so stay tuned…

Follow Dino^Evo on Twitter.

Usually, I don’t use the horn that often, but if I have to, it should make an impact. The stock horn was just way to wimpy for this purpose, but I also didn’t wanted to add additional stuff for an air horn to make it crazy loud. Therefore we changed it out to Hella Supertones. What a difference!

One step to a better electrical management for the auxiliary stuff was to get a proper fuse block. The marine industry has some nice options like the Blue Sea ST Blade Block which we installed in one of the side panels where the rear AC/heater controls used to live. It’s connected to the IBS dual battery system in the engine compartment.

You can never have enough 12v outlets. Unfortunately there was only one on the dashboard. So we installed a second one with heavier gauge cables next to it. The outlet goes straight to the fuse block and therefore is connected to the second battery. It’s great to charge up stuff and not to worry about your starter battery.

Oh by the way. This little 12v rechargeable torch you see in the picture is from Spotlight. Very handy and pretty bright for the size.

Problem:

Rims: Steel rims in 16×7 are way to heavy (about 33lbs vs 22lbs in alloy) and take too much power away from this already small engine as well as overstrain the suspension. Going offroading with lighter wheels proofed that the suspension in a Delica is just not made for too heavy wheels and struggled in several situations. For the durability steel rims offer, it is just not worth to accept the downsides for a lightweight overland vehicle like I’m building up.

Tires: Due the cab over design of a Delica, the noise of the mud-terrain tires are pretty noticeable inside. At around 30-60km/h you can hear a loud hauling sound. Also even if we use our van mainly for recreation offroad, I don’t think it’s actually worth to live with the downsides like higher fuel consumption, worse handling in snow/rain and the noise. Good All-Terrain tires offer similar handling off the road AND on the road and just not as good in very muddy situations.

Solution:

Rims: The 4″ backspacing of the steel rims is perfect and brought the wheel right to the edge of the body panel without hitting anything in full articulation. The problem was it is really hard to find 4″ backspacing (0 offset) on 16×7 in alloy. After weeks of research, emails and calls it came down to two options. Either some indestructible white TX-1 rims from Performance Wheels in Australia or MOD#3 trailer rims from Greenball in the States. Due budget limitations I went with the MOD, but they needed to be sandblasted as well as powder- and clear-coated to fit our aesthetic vision for the van :)

Tires: As stated it my previous wheel post, it is quite important to choose a tire you can get in every country you like to go to. That means most of the smaller brands or some Asian brands are out already which leads again to the big player in the business.
As for the tread it needs to be something less aggressive but still good offroad. Also not all the suitable tires are available in 235/85R16 (31.7″). In the end it was a decision between the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac, BFGoodrich Commercial T/A Traction or the All-Terrain T/A KO.
Due the overall good ratings and availability I went with the the BFG All-Terrain. They are probably better tires out there but considering all our requirements, I think an average, well known and mild aggressive tire is the way to go. Time will tell.

I bought the tires and rims at Discount Tire Direct. They had to special order them but it worked out to be a great deal, fast shipping as well as good customer service.

Andy (contact) – a fellow Delica owner and very talented fabricator made up a custom aluminum ladder with some strong stainless steel brackets for us. Just 10″ wide with the option to mount it as far to the left as possible. After the ladder was done  I sandblasted it at U-Blast and dropped it off at a powder coating place to match the van colour. The final protection layer was done with DuPont A-7480S clear coat.

Follow Dino^Evo on Twitter.

A good indicator to see if someone takes his l300 on some serious trails is the bent licence plate. Every time you go through a very steep water bar you scrape at first the plate. Some people don’t even bother to bend it back, but I decided to do a little modification. Just cut the mount in half and riveted the two pieces together.

We usually use the HID fog lights just offroad where no one is around, but sometimes it would have been great to use them as additional high beams. The problem was if there is traffic, you want to switch the high beams as well the fog lights off as quick as possible, which isn’t working if you have two separate switches. Therefore my friend Jay came up with this handy little switch to connect the fog lights with the high-beam switch. I can now run either the fog lights all the time or switch it on/off with the high-beam switch.

After I heard all kinds of horror stories about staff at gas stations filling the fuel tanks up with gasoline, I wanted to make it more visible that our van needs Diesel. I made a vinyl sticker with a little Japanese touch.

One of the well known “problems” of Mitsubishi l300s are the water in the footwell after heavy rain. Most of the time the reason is the broken down seal behind the front corner panels. So I took them off and cleaned the seam, treated the metal with rust paint and sealed it up again.

The leak mentioned above resulted in a constantly wet carpet which created rust spots underneath. Did I mentioned I hate rust? So I treated it right away. Wire brush, sand paper and rust converter. Also I took out the carpet and replaced it with a rubber mat.