Mounting box on iveco
 

Hi all
previously read threads from Luke etc regarding this subject, lots of different ideas e.g 3 point, diamond etc well heres another a know I really dont know what to do any advice would be helpful.

Does the unimog 3 point partly rely on the unimogs felixable frame to allow the box below it, does the 3 point work on the iveco 40.10 4x4. Apart from the tilting rear hinge the two back ones dont look like they have a lot of movement.

Stephen has also sent me picks of the method he has used help..... dont want to make mistake as it may be deadly later

thanks

Mark

Mounting box on iveco
 

Another subject which has as many different solutions as the number of people you care to ask!

Well, just to get my two-penny's worth in first, I think as the Iveco has a channel section chassis which is designed to flex, the box should be mounted flexibly too. However on a smaller, lighter truck like this I think 3-point systems are not really neccessary.

On my WM Iveco camper, the ambulance body was built and mounted by Marshalls, who are a respected coachbuilders with a lot of experience of military applications, having supplied the British Army for many years. This body has six double rubber doughnut-type mountings between the chassis and box, three each side, fixed to angle brackets on the chassis and bolted to the box floor via light 'top-hat' sections running the length of the box, with suitable steel spreader plates. The box is heavy, but very rigid, which helps. On road the box moves continually in relation to the cab (also on rubber mounts although not as flexible - standard Iveco mounts as far as I know). Off road, the box can move quite alarmingly! (A heavy duty flexible PVC bellows is fitted to the cab/box doorway). Having diff locks, an angled crossing of ditches is easy but wheel waving is minimal and the twist between cab and box is spectacular!

On the basis that Marshalls know more than I do and I shouldn't fix what ain't broke, I have left this arrangement alone and in nearly ten years of my ownership there has been no sign of failure of any part of the system. This includes a lot of offroad use, both in the UK and Africa.

One further factor (yes, I'll say it again!) these lighter trucks have a relatively low weight limit so a three-point pivoted system with it's hefty subframe is going to reduce the vehicle's payload by a significant amount.

Hope this is of interest to you in deciding which way to go with your Iveco!

Cheers

Nigel

PS: photo attached showing chassis bracket (yellow paint mark) with rubber doughnut above and galvanised top-hat channel section bolted through to box floor. I'll take a clearer shot if you wish.

Mounting box on iveco
 

Hi Nigel

thanks for the reply its been of great help, ok on that basis i would imagine the standard mounts would be ok pity they are just so expensive (£500)
for six how to cut old ones off due to rust.

Have got the option of a small 3 point sub mount of a mog however does way 260 Kilos, Which I would imagine could be used up else where? ,however does make rear of box easily demountable due to ball hitch arangment in your experience would that ever be usefull on the road e.g repairs?

Could you just explain a bit more about bellows do you mean between between the cab and box. Be good to see some pics as I have heard of these ambulances before, believe there were only 8 made. How far back is your box from cab.

Was think of putting on an ambulance box (civvy) that was made by marshels however deemed it to long and to heavy. Also recieved an email the other day by someone selling the same marshal iveco.

Recieved email the other day of someone selling a marshal 40.10 4x4 ambulance no price though

thanks a lot Mark

Mark

Mounting box on iveco
 

Hi Mark

I doubt if the box mounts are Iveco, I'm sure you could find suitable mounts elsewhere at a more reasonable cost. They are a double rubber 'donut' with a four-bolt mounting plate top and bottom. If your chosen box needs extra strength for offroad use a frame may be needed; Graeme (Graysworld) is using the original rubber mounted subframe from his Iveco pickup bed to mount his glassfibre box but the Marshalls boxes are foam sandwich construction so are very stiff and rigid to start with. (And ***** expensive; I heard they were around £20k just for the bare box!!!). Don't forget these trucks only have a 4 tonne MGW (upgradable to 4.45 tonnes) so considering you are going to kit it out as a camper and load everything else in/on it as we all do, 260kg is going to eat deep into the payload - it's a quarter of a ton, after all! So do your sums - a lightweight box may need some sort of frame but it doesn't need to be as hefty as a 3-point 'Mog one in all likelihood and probably doesn't need the extreme articulation either. Mogs are usually at least 7.5 tonne MGW so they can afford the extra weight!

My box is about 100mm from the cab back, even with lots of twist it never touches and that includes the overcab part. The PVC bellows is a bit like those in railway carriages and is attached to the box and the cab with ally strips riveted through. Pic attached showing green PVC bellows. You can see the black sliding door on the box which is behind the passenger seat when open as in the pic. The black panel behind the driver's seat is the front of the camper box itself. In the Marshalls ambulances the opening in the cab back is much wider than the box door, as you can see. A piece of ally chequer plate screwed to the cab floor covers the gap. I guess a bit of trial and error is needed to determine the cab/box gap depending on factors such as which mount system you use on your box but most of the movement is lateral with only a small mount of pitching fore and aft. Think of the way the chassis would twist offroad and it becomes clear.

I have never needed to dismount the box, everything is accessible for repair as there is loads of ground and chassis clearance.

There is a Marshalls Iveco Ambulance for sale in the Cotswolds I know about, newly converted this year to a very high professional standard (I've seen it as I know the owner), he's only selling due to circumstances etc but it won't be cheap as he's put a lot into it. Mind you, the military WM Ivecos rarely fetch less than £10k even before conversion - I paid £9.6K 'as is' before conversion for mine and that was 10 years ago! (Yes, there were only 8 of the Marshalls RHD Ambulances)

Will get a better pic of the body/chassis mounts posted some time this week.

Nigel

Hi Nigel

thanks for the pic, spoke to a company to day about aftermarkert mounts, so your pics wpould be very useful. Does anybody know how to attach pic files so they dont take up so much space

Mark

Mounting box on a Mercedes
 

Hi!
I've just joined this great forum, and found many interesting posts. I have a Mercedes Gelëndewagen ex-army ambulance, which I have converted into a camper. The box is mounted to the chassisframe on four places - one mounting in each corner. This way of mounting sounds similar to one mentioned in this post. The mounting consist of two rubber parts, on the top there is a rubber "disk" and on the bottom there is a rubber cone. A long bolt is going through these, into a fixing bracket one he box. I have attached some photos showing this. I have Mercedes partnumbers one the rubberparts, if needed.

We have driven several thousand kilometers with the car, both in Scandinavia and on a long trip to Iceland. I've seen the flexing from the cab to the box, offroad quite much. These trips has been with no problems, but I know about one case (similar car) where the long centerbolt has broken on both left mountings of the box. This also happend on trip to Iceland, maybe because old/hard rubbermountings, to high speed offroad and to much weight on the roof of the box. After that story, I changed all mountings to new ones.

Torstein

Mounting box on just about any chassis.....
 

Yes, pretty much the same as mine but just a smaller version for a smaller vehicle. Neat camper! It seems to be a standard method of fitting boxes flexibly to a chassis, and is commonly used in coachbuilding even for 100% on-road commercial vehicles as it eliminates vibration and stress fractures as well as allowing for some chassis flex.

Mark and I have been exchanging photos via private email since our last posts (in case some of you had been wondering where we'd got to!) as the file size limit on the HUBB is fairly low and I'm too much of a computer numpty to work out how to reduce the file sizes as yet! Anyone else want more pics just PM me with your email address and I'll be happy to oblige.

Nigel