RB44 project, conversion to suit my work requirements.

[skyhuck]

Are you very tall??

[treequip]

Are you very tall??

 

That was going to be my next question:laugh1:

[Old Mill Tree Care]

Great idea but I would rather roll naked on broken glass than feed that chipper!

 

Of course, I am only 6'1" in my boots.

[Gray git]

That's not a nice image you've put in my head omt. Thanks.

Almost agree but should serve it's porpoises.

 

sent while pretending to do something important on my mobile.

[TotalTreeCall]

So after all that time and effort do you think it is worth it to be able a couple more wood chips than a Transit.?

 

I would want a lot more payload for the hassle of running one of those machines.

 

I know what your saying, but the thing with me is, I paid £5k for a movano 5 years ago, engine blew up two weeks ago and the scrap man offered me £150 quid for it, If I spent the same money as the RB on a 07-08 transit tipper then in five years time I would be back to square one if it blew up or became un-viable to keep on the road etc.. Whereas the RB44 will hold it's value, I can use it to better my business (chipper, log splitter, forestry contracts etc) is MOT exempt and runs on red diesel, so yes whilst the saner person would have bought a transit I opted for this in the hope that I wont be pouring money down the drain in five years and that it will help me get a foot up the ladder with my business...

Also I used to own a Dodge 50 and it was the best vehicle I ever had, and the RB44 is a beast!! Nicely sign written and it should send the right message to potential customers.

[TotalTreeCall]

Great idea but I would rather roll naked on broken glass than feed that chipper!

 

Of course, I am only 6'1" in my boots.

 

Oops missed your post,

 

Yeh the chipper is mainly there to make the truck MOT exempt etc, I will prob use it for small jobs but will get a PTO chipper for every day chipping at some point, and hire a normal 6 inch chipper in the mean time as normal...

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I take my hat off to you, takes some kahunas to embark on a project like that. I toyed with a similar purchase back end of last year. Grey Git gave me some good pointers on the phone and thanks for that, I didn't take the plunge for a couple of reasons:

 

Firstly and most importantly, I'm no mechanic and I suspect there will be numerous engineering problems that I couldn't undertake for myself.

 

As an army concept / prototype vehicle, it wasn't adopted by the British army. I read some shocking reviews from units and mechanics that had trialled / worked on the vehicle on the ARSE (Army Rumour Service) website (note, take care if you type ARSE in your search engine, you may not get straight to where you want to be!)

 

And finally, the potential difficulty sourcing spares and finding someone that could work on such a unique vehicle.

 

All that said, sadly I decided it wasn't for me, but if you can overcome the problems, I take my hat off to you, best of luck with it!

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

This might be the way ahead for me.... Subject to a lottery win!

 

http://en.iveco-club.com/video/iveco-daily-4x4-cameleon-iv440-mms-modular-1266

[carlos]

cool project, love the dodge 50,s had two as campers but sadly they rusted away to being scrapped, can still hear the lovely sound of that perkins engine now!! lol

carl

[agrimog]

the RB44 was in service for some time, most of the "problems" that seem to be talked about are operator errors, brake problems, yes when you leave a vehicle siiting in a yard for 6 months at a time, of course your going to get problems, use it and there fine, pulling/ diving under braking...the vehicle is fitted with leaf springs, brake hard and of course its going to squirm about, its a inherant trait with leaf springs, too many of the grunts that were using them were comming from fwd control landrovers and smaller, and just were not familiar with the diffrent handling of the vehicles, there are 1000's of renault/dodge 50's out there with no problems, vans, tippers, busses, etc, the RB 44 is a good start for an excellent arb vehicle, pto's hydraulics, and linkages are all retrofittable, and there different enough to get you noticed by joe public