First timers. HUUUGE project. Love this truck.

[TrouseLife]

Alrighty y'all, my partner and I purchased a 1982 Datsun 720 diesel from a friend of ours who is one of the biggest diesel / import truck nerds that we have ever met (and a great guy in general). We have already built a custom, handmade (and mostly recycled) camper shell (aka. trouse: truck-house or travelling-house) onto the truck bed. Our plans are to continue to build up the interior of the camper to make it more homey, install a secondary fuel tank and vegetable oil conversion, and tour the country for a while. I (Ant) have been doing a much smaller scale version of this plan with a 1998 VW Jetta TDI that I have tramped around the country in while making and running biodiesel along the way, but it is very difficult to sleep comfortably in a Jetta (even if it does get 50+ mpg). Figured it was time to say hey and jump on into the forums. Also have a few questions as it has been 6 years since I had a truck and 8 since I've had a project vehicle that wasn't a tiny sedan.

 

First off:

 

Suspension--

So, knowing that we would be adding upwards of 1000 pounds (camper and our gear), we bought and installed a Pro Comp helper spring from JC Whitney. (http://www.jcwhitney.com/pro-comp-helper-spring/p3066200.jcwx)

However, the suspension is still pretty sad when fully loaded. The leaf springs aren't under so much duress that they're inverted (or looking like theyre sprung the opposite direction), but they're pretty close to flat when fully loaded down. We were looking into possibly purchasing Hellwig progressive rate helper springs (http://www.jcwhitney.com/hellwig-progressive-rate-helper-springs/p2005981.jcwx?filterid=d50461y1982g694j1) or the Hellwig traction control springs (http://www.jcwhitney.com/hellwig-performance-traction-control-springs/p2005971.jcwx?filterid=d50461y1982g694u0j1) as a helper spring that would be attached above the leaf springs. Another option we are considering is tracking down another leaf spring that is longer than the original helper spring we installed into the leaf spring stack to just beef up our springs.

Thoughts, questions, suggestions?

 

 

Simple addition of weight--

Most of our slowing down is by using the engine / tranny and downshifting, but should we be concerned about our brakes any moreso than normal for this 31 year old truck? And, yes, we plan to keep a close eye on all fluids and change the tranny fuild out regularly (20k miles??)... of course.

 

 

Vegetable Oil--

The funnest part of the project. Has anyone on the forums had any luck (good or bad) with modifying fuel systems to a 2-tank setup? Is the water pump on these trucks any weaker than a comparable size diesel truck? We plan to modify the coolant lines to use the engines heat to warm our second tank. This is fairly typical for vegetable oil conversions. The oil must be heated in order to obtain the right viscosity and flow rate and then is compreable to petroleum diesel fuel.

 

 

Electric--

We would also like to add an additional battery to power our auxillary lights, charge our phones, run our computer, and not drain the truck's main battery in the process. You can't always park on a hill to start the truck in case the battery is run down (as I am currently learning in Florida, the land of no hills). We have no clue how to go about this while still being able to charge both batteries and not overload the entire system. Ideas?

 

 

Pictures so far--

Starting to build the foundation.

 

Leaf spring work at night. Blurry because it was cold (upper-30's) in North Carolina.

 

 

The frame. Quite skeletal.

 

 

Covered in tin roof that the neighbor took off his grandma's house as he remodeled it. $25 for more tin than we needed.

 

 

Fresh primer on the camper. My first thought: looks like a Colombian ice cream truck.

 

 

Back door and Ham radio tag from the Heart of Dixie. KI4QWW one day I'll be back on the radio waves.

 

 

Interior... until we get it insulated, waterproofed, and homey.

 

 

 

Picture Gallery!

s780.photobucket.com/user/trouselife/library

(updated every so often)

 

 

 

Thanks for such a great resource in this furom and thanks in advance for the help. We will be sure to keep y'all posted.

 

TrouseLife

Katie and Ant

 

 

P.S. other trouse synonyms: tramper (truck camper), track (travelling shack), tred (truck/travelling shed), etc. Any other humorous synonyms gladly accepted.

[Ranman72]

helwig is a well known company and I dont think you can go wrong there 

I have met the owner as my friend married his daughter and he is a very cool family man and a family owned business 

[wayno]

One thing to keep in mind is that these trucks only have 61hp, the more weight, the harder the hills are going to be to get up them.

I have heard and seen a lot of vegetable oil conversions, one of the ones I bought did what you mentioned, the heater core lines went all the way back to the tank, don't know how it worked, but he also had a heater for the oil just before going into the pump, he had a couple gallon diesel tank under the hood, and the main tank was vegetable oil, I think the injection pump was kinda wore out though, it was a SD25, but didn't have any more power than the SD22.

​It is not likely that you will be push starting this engine, you need to have enough battery to start it, buy an isolater and run 2 batteries, one for the truck, and the other for the camper, you can likely get it started on a hill when it is warmed up, but cold, I doubt it.

You have non-vented rotor brakes, a good upgrade is to go to a wrecking yard and buy everything between the upper to lower balljoints(including the balljoints) from a 1985/86 720, they had vented rotors, and it will bolt right in.

I personally have added 2 extra leafs to my leaf pack on each side, one going all the way to the mount eyes on each end, and the second one is about 4 inches short of each eye, this will really stiffen up the rear, I also bought coil over shocks, and have airbags also, but I haul a lot of weight in the truck a lot, but I did start out with 521 leafs, which are stiffer to start with.

 

 

The guy that I bought the vegi oil truck from at one time had a fire back at the tank, not sure why, and he never mentioned it, so just do it right, or not at all.

Another thing you must look for is the transmission noise, if it makes noise when in neutral when the clutch is not pushed in while idling, or it makes noise while driving, quit driving it, as the diesel transmissions are hard to find, and if that bearing self destructs, you are going to have issues trying to find a replacement transmission, it is best to just fix it before it explodes. 

I have a feeling that you are a patient person, as these trucks are not that powerful. 

[millican]

There are single tank conversions as well. greasenergy-shop.com has one for the 720. I've been just adding the vegetable oil I filter into the tank with the regular diesel. It seems warm enough here to not notice a difference with one or two gallons of vegetable oil per tank.

Like you said, in Florida you won't have hills, but what is that in the first picture? That looks like a pretty significant grade. That doesn't look like any Florida I've seen! With the extra weight, it's very easy to put a heavier load on the transmission by using it to stop, than the load it would have taking off from a stop. Don't make the transmission do all the work of stopping.

You already know that in Florida people like to tailgate like they're trying to mount your back bumper to rape your car. With or without the extra weight, they'll get impatient with vehicles as slow to accelerate as our Datsun diesels. I really want a sticker that says "Slow moving vehicle", and another one to go underneath that says, "Even slower for tailgaters".

[K_trip]

- removed -

[TrouseLife]

thanks for the great responses. they've been quite helpful with this project.

 

Progress in the past 2 months:

 

-first off, partner left. The artistic drive of the camper project is gone, but I can be sure (now that I'm the only one driving) that the transmission will be driven less strenously. c'est la vie.

 

-more leaf springs! While visiting friends in south GA, I was able to track down two sets of CJ5 leaf springs that were just the right size to install on the Datsun. Two more springs in the pack and new U-bolts too. Now the back end doesn't sway after driving over bumps, and the camper sits more level.

 

-As a xmas gift, my techie father helped me install a battery isolator and a fused DC power splitter for the auxillary battery. I loathe wiring and electronics in general, so having someone help with this was quite handy.

 

 

New problems:

 

Transmission issues happening now!

I am planning on a long distance road trip (moving to CO). Last week I was topping off all my fluid levels and doing some general checkovers of the truck. Everything looked good except the tranny. I went to top off the fluid, and it was only holding 1 pint of the 2.6 pint capacity. On the dry side. So i took a shorter trip to a friend's house in alabama and had some rough sounds coming from my tranny as soon as i got to his house. I got it towed back to my family's house and am going to a transmission shop in the morning (left my access to good tools and shops back in NC). I climbed under the truck to see if anything stuck out to me. The drive shaft from the transmission to the universal joint had about an inch of play up and down. Grinding occurred in all 5 gears and reverse, and it progressed from grinding in only 5th gear as I got to my friend's house. I'm guessing my problem starts with some sort of rear bearing in the tranny breaking down from lack of lubrication. Maybe? I haven't had all that much experience with transmissions... yet. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

thanks yall,

TrouseLife

 

ant

[tr8er]

Who the hell leaves a guy with flatbed dually? Just keep truckin!

[wayno]

Are you saying the driveline was loose(moved sideways or straight up nad down), or are you saying that it turn back and forth and inch?

[TrouseLife]

moved sideways or straight up and down

 

off to see the mechanic now.

[elmerfudpucker]

Try air shocks or bags, that will help with the load, wood and tin will be heavy, I would take a wire feed and weld it together and cut the wood out of the picture to save weight. 

[datzenmike]

Start with 4x4 springs.

[TrouseLife]

Who the hell leaves a guy with flatbed dually? Just keep truckin!

 

Thats not me, thats wayno. I have been dreaming of how nice it would be to have a dually underneath the camper though.

 

 

Try air shocks or bags, that will help with the load, wood and tin will be heavy, I would take a wire feed and weld it together and cut the wood out of the picture to save weight. 

 

The tin would be way too flimsy by itself, and its really nice to be able to throw some boats on the roof and not worry about it caving in on me.

 

 

On the bright side, the stock bottle jack still has enough gusto to pick up the truck. I was happy learning that fact with that but don't want a flat again with this big camper.

[wayno]

Sounds like a U-joint issue to me, I mean if you can move the driveling up and down an inch.  <_<

[TrouseLife]

i know a slight wiggle isn't much to raise an eyebrow over, but grinding in neutral with the clutch not depressed could never be a good sign. The U-joint wasnt my go-to suspicion on this one. The play was all at the back end of the trans. Sometimes a little more love is needed before a cross-country roadtrip. I'm just hoping I can afford the roadtrip after all the mechanic work.

[wayno]

That sounds like the transmission if it grinds while in neutral while the engine is idling, that would likely be the cluster gearing bearing self destructing, you need to stop driving/ running it and pull the transmission and hope the front cover of the case is not broken.

If the case is not buggered up, and the front cover is good and also not buggered up, you can clean the inside of the transmission, buy a new bearing, and put it back together and call it good, but if you had other issues with the tranny, then it just starts adding up money wise.

Diesel transmissions are kinda hard to find, so let us all know what the mechanic says, and your options can be looked at, lets just hope the case and front cover are good.

[elmerfudpucker]

Hit the scrapyard and grab a jack out of a hummer, works great anywhere! +1 on 4x4 springs!

[TrouseLife]

Well it looks like I'll be waiting a bit longer in the heart of dixie. Still haven't heard back from the transmission shop. The Southeast got an inch of snow, and the entire state of alabama is shut down (don't know about the others). If mail doesn't run; can't get bearings; can't fix transmission; stuck in the south. I can't wait to get back to a place where people know how to behave in the snow. There are still cars abandoned on the highway.

 

 

[1" of snow... im dumbfounded!]

[TrouseLife]

Back from the transmission shop finally! Bearing kit installed and Front U-joint and 5th gear replaced. 5th gear was missing a few teeth, but all looks good now.

 

Insulated the camper with fiberglass insulation and bubble wrap foil. Packed the camper. Hitting the road.