We have been looking at upgrading to an Iveco for a while. We were in no great hurry, but any chance to see a fellow travellers setup, what options they had chosen and how they had set up the toolboxes on their tray was treated as a learning experience. Everyone has different ideas, none of them are wrong. Some people have different ideas on what is an appropriate setup. I have taken it all in, hoping to make a decision at a later date.
Fate played a large part in our decision to purchase a dual cab model with a 6spd manual transmission. I had been considering a single cab and an 8spd automatic transmission.
The original owner, Leon McTaggart and I shake hands on a deal done in Brisbane
Once we agreed on a price, we had to finish our trip and I had to fly back up to the Brisbane Airport and drive it home via the “Spirit of Tasmania” back to Penguin Tasmania.
Back in Penguin I had to decide what I needed to do to make the tray suit my needs. I wanted a toolbox behind the tray, I wanted my hitch to be able to be able to be moved forward and backwards for optimum positioning. My present hitch in my Colorado is perfect, but I need to to add two new crossmembers, This requires me to remove some floor sheeting.
Laying out my options before I make a decision. The gullwing toolbox from my Colorado is somewhere to start. The particle board sheet is about 1000mm high, 550mm wide counting the front ladder and the tray side is overhanging tray by 250mm
Planning out the modifications, if I remove the front ladder I can add a 550mm wide toolbox, wider would be great but I need 1250mm from the centre of the hitch to the back of the toolbox to get a 90° angle if I get in a tight position and need to almost jack knife the 5th wheeler to get out without doing damage to the nosecone or the toolbox. I was toying with the idea of a 1000mm high toolbox with a top hinged toolbox. In the end I decided on only a 800mm high toolbox opening forward. This gives me the option of adding another toolbox on top or mounting a push bike on top of the toolbox.
With a 550mm wide toolbox I need to mount the hitch 200mm behind the rer axle, not ideal for stability but probably pretty good for weight distribution with the toolbox behind the cab, all educated guesswork on my part. In the end I positioned the hitch a maximum of 150mm behind the rear axle or up to 150mm in front of rear axle or any position in between in increments of 50mm.
The tray is a a little short behind the rear axle. If I remove all the sheeting off the floor, extending the tray should be straight forward, I was going to extend the tray by 200mm but when I checked to see if the satellite dish would fit in the back corner, I needed to add 250mm, I probably should of went to 300mm, but hindsight is a marvellous thing.
Chequerplate sheeting removed, way too many crossmembers, but most will stay, just too much effort to remove. Mudflaps and toolboxes mounted to them. The tray builder took the easy option. Original hitch was mounted 50mm in front of the rear axle, no good for a front toolbox with the present wheelbase.
The short crossmember was removed and two new short crossmembers were added for my hitch. I also had to lift my crossmembers by 50mm to match the height of the tray and stay within specifications with some 50 x 25 solid bar, a bit of overkill and some 50 x 6 flat bar to tie it all together
The new crossmembers have four threaded bosses welded into them to allow for quick removal without the need to have nuts underneath requiring two people to remove a bolt and nut, one under tray while someone undoes bolt from the top. A little extra effort in the build stage makes for easy removal later.
Another extra I added was an enclosed storage area underneath the hitch, my thinking was any electrical leads could be tucked away out of sight if needed without being damaged.
A small hinged flap giving access to under tray storage area. The black circle shows where the electrical leads will come through with a rubber grommet stopping any chafing
Extending the tray was very straight forward as the rear section was not joined to the main crossmembers. All I had to do was cut the two side rails and the two rope rails, add 250mm of new rails and reweld. I did add two extra rails to join two rear crossmembers for some extra strength and help prevent the new sheeting from sagging.
All chassis rails and underneath the sheeting for the tray was painted with chassis black to prevent rust
All new sheeting was glued down with Sikaflex and tack welded around the edges. A lot of extra work but I think it will be better in the long run, time will tell
The sides were shortened to allow for the front toolboxes to be opened without the sides being lowered. Making the gullwing tolbox extend right to the edge of tray would of been better and having sides even shorter would be best option, maybe next time.
I am not sure of the date exactly but I was back at work, so I painted the main tray, leaving the drop down sides for later. By doing this I could do some small jobs after work on day shift or after getting out of bed when I was on night shift. Progress did slow down as you don’t get much done when you only have small amounts of time here and there.
The main tray was painted and reinstalled back on the Iveco
Tray is all painted, there is still some accessories to refit and a toolbox to order.
Hitch in the 150mm behind the rear axle position. Once the toolbox has been installed, some movement forward may be possible.
5th wheeler sits almost level when hitched up. I am very pleased with initial setup with lots of adjustment if needed to get my ideal setup. Total length should be just over 14m although I haven’t measured yet. Getting the length to 14m or under saves money when booking the “Spirit of Tasmania”
Heading off for our first trip with the Iveco, toolbox has not been ordered yet.
Another positive point I have noticed in the couple of times I have been towing is the diff ratio of 5.11 with a double overdrive 6spd transmission delivers 90km/h (GPS) not speedo at 2500rpm, possibly a little high but perfect for towing with no gears changes needed for highway driving most of the time. I would definitely recommend it with a manual transmission (reverse gear in manual is fast), maybe not as important in an automatic. I have upgraded tyres from 195/75R16 to 195/85R16, this added about 6km/h to speed and made speedo read correct when checked with a GPS.
Another upgrade I have made is a new in dash entertainment system. While there was one already fitted it was Windows CE based. I have added an Android based system now that seamlessly integrates Wikicamps straight into my GPS app of choice “Sygic”. Sygic is an offline based app and does not use internet data. When over 90% of all entries into our GPS when travelling come from Wikicamps, it makes sense to have Wikicamps seamlessly integrate all destinations straight into your GPS. Sygic does this very easily and as I have it on my Samsung S7 phone there is no new learning curve as they operate the same on both devices. As we already had an earlier version in our Colorado it really was a no brainer. Click on link above for more details
The toolbox has been added, behind the cab so an electric foldup bike for Dianne can be stored away from prying eyes on a pull out sliding draw and I will stick with my bike and mount it sideways across the top of toolbox for now. The spare wheel has been mounted on top of Gullwing toolbox, with the firepot mounted above that. All major changes have been made but small adjustments will continue to be made.
Toolbox with my bike mounted above it. Spare wheel and firepot also mounted above Gullwimged toolbox. Two 43 litre water tanks have also been added below tray, although they are not in this photo
A mirror mounted rear view camera has also been added. This gives me access to four cameras on two seperate screens when combined with the two on the in dash entertainment system. Click on link for more details.
Chris and Dianne's Ultima adventure 