Friday 29 July 2016

Air Servo System

The air servo systems on the Tatra controls stuff like clutch booster, gear shift booster, front  rear and center diff locks, engine stop and high and low split gearbox.

The original setup was a bit dated as you can see so i decided to modernize it whilst adding additional units to control the air free-spool on the front and rear winch and of course the obligatory spares.






Wednesday 20 July 2016

Rear Winch Mounting

I was in two minds weather to install a rear winch on the truck, after giving it some thought i decided to do it.

My thinking was that if i decided to fit it when the body was on it would be a lot more difficult. As with all things i am doing this has been designed so that it will apart from underneath, in the event it needs servicing or replacing.

I started by making some brackets from 50x10mm steel, i basically welded it together to make very substantial angle. After all it will have to stand a pull of up to 30,000lbs from the winch.

I bolted the bracket to the chassis with some M16 bolts, and fitted the winch to the bracket.

Cutting the slot for the cable in the 20mm thick rear chassis cross member was a bit of a challenge but it happened never the less.

The next step is the hydraulic pipes and the air line for the free-spool and the radio remote control unit.






Sunday 10 July 2016

Auxiliary Fuel Tank

The plan here is to run the water heating and living accommodation heating and Generator from a third fuel tank.
This third tank has a capacity of 250ltrs, it will also double as a reserve tank for the truck, If the truck fuel runs low a switch in the cab can pump the contents of this tank into the main tanks in approx 2 minuets, Leaving about 30 ltrs for the heating etc.

I have installed a float switch system in the main tank the will prevent an overflow in the event of the switch being operated when the main tanks are full.

The bracket i had acquired in CZ when i was there turned out to be the wrong size, so i had to fabricate a new bracket for the tank.