Big bummer on a round the world trip
 

I've been following the Hackney's progress on a round the world trip in their Fuso FG camper. Just recently in Ecuador, the frame on their truck broke. Here's a link to their blog:

http://www.hackneys.com/travel/ecuador/justanotherday.pdf

Interesting. What country are they in? Most any civilized place has welders, right? It does not look easy to get at though.

Ecuador. I agree, welders are everywhere. The question is, how much will have to be removed to do the repair and can it be done well enough to make it the rest of the way around the world. The truck is VERY heavily loaded. Another FG camper made it around the world without incident.

That happens on over the road trucks to. Air suspension helps, but eventualy they can crack.

Is that truck high mileage, or my other guess is that all there stuff is pretty close to the max GVWR?

Not very high mileage. They bought it new for the trip. I'm guessing they may be over the GVWR.

Thats the problem with a lot of those campers, they overload them.

They should have gotten a bigger truck if they have to carry X amount of weight, you can't go to beefy if your driving over crap roads like that.

I'm not sure how to fix a cracked frame, I think you junk the truck.

It's a pretty beefy truck to begin with. Rated for 14k. I'm linking a picture of their build up below. The truck has a 3 point pivot frame on which the camper sits. I'm speculating that a 3 point pivot frame which loads the truck frame at two points in the front and one single point at the center in the back, may contribute to frame flex. I'm interested if any engineer types here agree.

http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/buildup_album_03/image001.htm

Since the load is concentrated at the two ends of the frame rails it allows the middle section to flex more than if the load were evenly distributed on top of the rails throughout the full length.

Looks GREEN..................:D:D:D

To fix the frame...A diamond shaped plate is needed....Square ..up and up down, welds will crack. aka vetical........no good......:o

Nothing a log and a good roll of duct tape won't fix:D

Nah, should have used a Unimog... I can only imagine what it would take to damage that frame.