91 & 90 OM606 UMM Alter II & 80 Cournil - Paris Dakar build?

An idle day at sea.. some ideas start flowing for a completely separate auxiliary wiring system..

IMG_3567 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Power and earth distribution board on the right that also has built in fusebox. Very handy for running a whole separate system. The waterproof junction box on the right has relays in it. I have three of these about the vehicle that house relays for heated mirrors, horn, onboard 12v power, spotlights, rear work light etc.

IMG_4953 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Dash cut for switchgear (there were just a single rear foglight and unused single front foglight switches here hence the yellow connectors, these I worked out the wiring for and replaced with my connectors for the Carling Switches.

IMG_4913 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Front winch isolator, rear winch isolator, work light, front floodlights, heated mirrors on the carling switches. All wiring using proper crimped connectors with heat shrink over the top of the crimps. No crappy plastic crimps here! Also note new boost gauge, fits in nicely with the stock air vent.

IMG_4938 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Made up this plate to bolt to the front bumper (rivnuts in bumper)

IMG_4946 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

New front spotlights. Super power. Direct copies of the ARB spotlight (800 a pair I think?!). 130 via Alibaba express. Would recommend..

IMG_4949 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

All the wiring heatshrunk and then run in these stainless P-Clips to stop it being ripped out by trees, deer etc.. run back to the relay junction box you saw earlier.

IMG_4960 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Note the ghetto cable tied Warn 9.5xp winch controller/solenoid box on the above photo, you can just make out that it is cable tied to the bullbar. Enough of that, time to make a proper mount. Also note the chuffing huge intercooler.. although that is another story.

IMG_5549 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_5551 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

You didn't think I was going to run all of this and two winches off of just the stock single battery did you...? Twin yellow optimas are the bomb. I don't think you could get a better heavy duty battery.

IMG_5451 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Gonna need this lot..

IMG_5581 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Locating them both here though wasn't easy. A lot of small fabrication of mounts, plates and moving the coolant reservoir, power steering, air intake etc etc etc..

IMG_5614 2 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

But wait one.. what is that funny box in the last picture? This is a Sterling Power Pro Split R. It is not possible to use a traditional heavy duty split charge relay in this situation as when running th ewinch at its full 9500lbs recovery rating it would draw 482 amps, the strongest relay I could find was 200A, so thats a bit of a fire risk.. The Pro Split R works as a zero voltage drop alternator distribution system capable of charging both batteries without the need for a split charge relay from one to the other. It sits inline after the alternator and distributes power as it sees fit. It is intelligent in that it monitors the main power battery and gives this priority for charging but otherwise will charge which one is needed. Whilst it will not be possible to top the secondary battery up with a draw of 425A from a fully bogged down winch pull I will provide up to 120A without dropping out and crucially without melting. If pushed over this it will intelligently limit itself to 120A rather than overstretching itself.

IMG_5582 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

I then compartmentalised the area over the passenger wheel well to hold the Pro Split R, the original glow plug relay box and the winch power supply relays. The Pro Split R outputs I also put mega fuses inline and you see their boxes here too.

Every cable is properly crimped and heat shrunk, even the battery cables. All the cables even the battery ones are marine grade tinned wire as well. Should be just the ticket for this muddy wet machine. You can see the re-sited coolant reservoir and power steering reservoir too. Don't worry, the battery hold down clamps are heat shrunk as well.

IMG_5727 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

I couldn't do all of that and not want to monitor what each battery is getting though... this is an Ironman dual battery monitor that I brought back from Australia and wired with 1.5mm tinned wire form the main battery terminals. It is also wired straight to the positive ignition feed that is on the Sterling Power Pro Split R straight from the Alternator. It fits nicely under the carling switches on the dash. It took me a really long time to find a battery monitor that looked how I wanted and did just that. Keep it simple eh.

IMG_5787 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

*BONUS SHOT* everything works. LEDs. Nice.

IMG_5783 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

A passing thought is that all this kit or just the cost of one new winch is the same amount as I bought the UMM for in the first place. Does this matter? I think not. I love a good project, and now I'm excellent at wiring.. skills betterered.

So where does that lead us now? And why has the title of this thread changed from one UMM to two...

Well.... I found a barn PACKED and I mean PACKED, nose to tail, side to side, with project UMMs, from complete vehicles that would be easy projects to absolute basket cases. We shall call this, the UMMporium.

This is the entrance and fortunately it was this first one that I had specifically come to see.

IMG_8971 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_5238 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_5239 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

So what's the deal, I'v already got an Alter II right.. correct.. but this is more than it seems (yes I KNOW it seems a rusty ducked heap..)... it is almost twice what it seems..

IMG_5242 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

HOLY HORSE curse word curse word. That is an extra set of door holes. A mythical RHD crew cab pickup/stationwagon.

There are only three other RHD crew cabs. One is the original UK demonstrator that was a crewcab pickup and is an absolute wreck and now owned by an UMM collector, the second and third are both crew cab station wagons (removable back sections) and onsite at the UMMporium. The second will never be sold, but this one was.. to me.

I'd never heard of these until last week when I was randomly looking up BMW M51 engines and apparently, they were fitted to these!

They remind of Jowetts (not that Jowett ever built a 4 X 4) but unusual and if fettled & sorted can become a reliable & rare alternative to the usual market offerings!

Sadly all the late Alters were Peugeot XD3 or XD3TE fitted, 2.5 lumps out of the really boxy saloon & pickup they produced.

Only one M51 prototype was ever built with a factory supplied BMW motor. This was right at the end of UMM production and it never got any further. The vehicle still exists and has recently been rebuilt by Peter Tumble Motorsport in Portugal.

If only...

Truly, sadly as secondhand vehicles they were bought cheaply and usually repaired and maintained on a similar theme. Once you get one sorted from it's previous neglect then it really is a bombproof and dependable vehicle. I've the little one on it's side and driven it up all sorts of things without denting it (thick steel) or breaking any mechanicals. Anything that has gone wrong has been noticeably unloved and ill maintained in the past.

I wouldn't hesitate to jump in the small one and drive it to Scotland and back.

that would be epic with a 2.2 HDI.

yeah I did see, shame not to keep it french! though have seen decent things from the R28 project with the dirt every day guys on motortrend.

Great stuff, keep it coming!

PS: you have a very Dutch name for an Englishman.