Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

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Fred
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Jockey wheel fully installed and rollin'! :-D

Pre weld prep: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2490689536
Tacked on: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4055508993
Welded back: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6249746433
Welded front: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3510515713
On three wheels 1: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0985916416
On three wheels 2: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8094340096
On three wheels 3: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4522727424
On three wheels 4: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0671699968

:-)

Purely optional plan for a slice of the weekend (not important to do any of it, but keen to do all of it):
  • Crane up front, remove gas tank from underneath
  • Remove heat shield from underneath
  • Remove remaining brackets etc from inside (15 pieces all up, 2 done the other day, 17 total)
  • Possibly drill out welds for tunnel reinforcement strips
  • Remove entire dash temporarily
  • Remove all things from behind dash, including loom
  • Try to stop water ingress by sealing various things
  • Reinstall dash in lightest possible stiff form
  • Wire in trailer plug to tail lights and test
Basically reduce the work to just paperwork, forms, fees, inspection, WOF, rego, which should mostly be easy or impossible.

The next thing I'd be keen to do is a rough tunnel removal and a handbrake relocation to the back. With sufficient packing the king single could be used within it at that point :-)
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

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My other trailer was trying to be more like the caravan earlier today:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3278477312
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8101869568

:-)
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Got nothing done, post of shame. Got most of my other chores done, though, which is something. But didn't get much time to relax all weekend. Now it's 11pm and the alarm is set for 5:30am. Likely an hour away from sleep, too. Bleh. This week I'll endeavour to push the caravan project over the line, though.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Spent the best part of today messing with this casually. Got quite a few things done:
Component weights removed today: 963 + 963 + 560 + 921 + 300 + 287 + 67 + 657 + 500 + 124 + ~250 (guess for insulation crap)

Total: 5,592 grams, 5.592kg, or over 12 pounds!

3 more brackets, the gas tank, and all of the stuff from inside the dash, next! :-p

And reinforcement plates in. Which will add a bit more weight back, but IIRC they were in when I weighed the ball weight the first time.

Other chores to do, tomorrow, though. May not do anymore on this. Or I might slip something in. We'll see.

Wiring I want to retain (all other can go):
  • Tail lights, including number plate light
  • Door power locks
  • Door power windows and switches
  • Door speakers
  • Interior lights
  • Radio antenna
  • Glove box light, if it has one
All of the engine loom etc is still hanging through the firewall and that's a fair bit of copper to come out, and pretty far forward, too. The trailer plug is still hanging out the back, and needs to be moved to the front and hooked up differently. Door speaker wiring is pretty crappy, but door speaker cavities (lol) are even worse. A project for another day to add a touch of luxury to the old girl. It'll also need its own power setup at the rear, possibly including shore power in and two grunty jumper terminals through the gas flap.

OK, off to do other chores, like eat, and sleep.

Fred.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Ultra minor progress today: Obtained and installed a pair of dark grey interior handles in the front of the caravan, replacing one black one, and adding the new one to the ex-drivers' side. That's it, nothing more. This week is looking full on in various ways, so likely more caravan neglect. Working on it is effectively free, though, and I have some financial constraints upon me right now, so this suits.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

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Small immaterial update today, as I was physically unable to do much else:

Latched it up as is, and took it for a drive to VTNZ where they took a photo and got on the phone and told me I can't swap vehicle classes. Gave me the new trailer form and sent me on my way telling me it was going into their internal magazine. Not sure how I feel about that. Ok if A) I get a copy and B) the plate number is not shown. Otherwise kinda pissed off.

On the way home I bravely hit the motorway and had the caravan doing "highway speeds" for a minute or so. Generally it drives/tows nicely. Observations:

1) Needs new rear shocks! Railway line crossing had it bouncing around fairly wildly.
2) Needs rear sway bar! Took one stable corner moderately fast and observed a significant difference in body angle from Lantis to caravan.
3) Stops ok, but braked would be better. Ditto for the ute while being A-framed around.
4) Towing with a RWD would be better, as I had to launch pretty hard on moderate slopes, meaning FWD wheel spin/squealing occurred. Steeper and it could have been a great way to do an indefinite burnout and go no where or backward.

Stuff I learned:

750kg gross is the threshold for TA TB trailer classes, but not for required equipment, which is at 2000kg. Above that you need the trailer braked, and you also need a second chain.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

I also picked up another set of wheels the same as the 740 sedan, two of which can go on this thing so it matches the tow car exactly :-)
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

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A cute picture from this morning with the 240 wagon: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6498998272
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

New idea! While thinking about the fact that all lights must work, and that the caravan has reversing lights, and that I'll need to ensure the tow car at WOF time has correct wiring, I thought about this feature of my ute:

Image





The caravan must have relay controlled high power reversing lights! The ute ones are old school incandescent 100w lights, 200w total. That was good but LED units are probably a winner these days :-) It's actually pretty important, having tried parking this thing in the dark, I can tell you that the tow car reverse lights both light up the caravan, and get blocked by it, leaving the path behind dark and impossible to see.


A couple more of the ute setup:


Image

Image
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Minor progress: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9688429569

Drilled 4 holes. Wrongly. Then enlarged.
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