What did you do to your SMB today?

[Jeffrey]

I picked up my 2007 RB50 SMB from the diesel shop. Needed a new engine wiring harness and serpentine belt with tensioner. Every time I go there it is $1500 to $4000! Today was only $3K.

[lmpetersen]

I finally lifted our family van. I bought this van after posting what I was looking for on here and a local member reached out and had exactly what we were looking for, a Sportsmobile top, EB, with a non-kitchen interior installed by SMB. It’s been perfect for us except that we go off road a lot. We didn’t need a rock crawler(we have something else for that) but trails, fire roads, etc we wanted a little extra clearance and the ability to run big tires. So after a lot of research we decided on the Weldtec kit with king shocks and custom rear leafs. The ride quality is amazing.

[Bellpilot]

Looks awesome!

[GunniLuv]

That is one helluva a transformation! Nice work.

[geoffff]

Originally Posted by unreng

We've experienced the loose bracket made of flat stainless at the top of the aluminess swing arms. Changing the bolts made a bit of a difference.
Did some thinking for what might work better and searched the forum. We wanted something that would work a lot better than the smb design and could easily be replaced.

...


The washers are not permanent. They are to stabilize the difference in height until the stainless turnbuckles arrive.
If there's any play in the bracket, just turn the buckle until it's tight.

Bought 4 turnbuckles from this company - https://www.e-rigging.com/three-sixt...eye-turnbuckle

We plan to put one buckle to each bolt on the swingarm back to the hinge.

unreng, here is what I did -- I made a longer bar that connects to all 3 bolts. Prevents rotation:

[Kibo]

I've been wanting to add a shovel that we can carry on our rig at all times. We don't have a way to easily mount one outside yet and I didn't want it to attract attention or be a theft target, so I decided to put it inside.

I decided to buy the consumer version of the Krazy Beaver "murder spork", aka the Seymour Midwest Structron 49632Gr. I figure that the shovel is meant to be used and the fancy red blade of the KB would just get scratched up anyhow. Seymour Midwest makes both shovels, with minor differences. (Made in the USA, woohoo! )

The shovel is 40" long, which is the perfect size to stand up in the rear corner of the van. I mounted it to our removable modular water system using two Quick Fists . To fit the curved contour of the upper rear corner of the van, I had to space the lower QF out ~1" so I fabricated a mounting bracket. With the spacer in place, the curve of the shovel matches the interior panel and the spork tines are safely out of harm's way (for the most part--I still plan to put a cover over them). It looks crooked in these photos, but it's perfectly vertical when viewed from behind.

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by Kibo

The shovel is 40" long, which is the perfect size to stand up in the rear corner of the van. I mounted it to our removable modular water system using two Quick Fists . To fit the curved contour of the upper rear corner of the van, I had to space the lower QF out ~1" so I fabricated a mounting bracket.

I really appreciate how secure you keep things in your van, especially those military water cans. I'm frequently amazed (horrified) by too many rigs with loose or barely secured items off roading, not to mention while on the road.


Herb

[Kibo]

Thank you Herb! I agree, all it takes is a sudden brake application in traffic to send things flying, let alone off road driving or an emergency stop. I think the situation is compounded in our van by our modular "transformer" setup, where we don't have built-in cabinetry in which to store things. I did have a 5mph encounter with a stationary object 3 years ago that sent the point home.

[Twoxentrix]

Struggled whether or not to publish this here, but in the event it may save others considerable $'s chasing down the problem I've decided to post.
***Had the front windshield rubber trim glued back on this morning (after soliciting some advise from member JWA - who was very accommodating and helpful!), Turns out this trim is already glued to the windshield when you order them, serves no purpose other than cosmetic.
Doesn't sound so spectacular until you hear it cost $690 and a lot of frustration.

Evidently its not an uncommon thing for the rubber that goes aground the front windshield to occasionally come loose...I had never heard of it, and the noise it made inside the Cab would never have allowed a normal person to identify the trim as the culprit.
Started about 7 weeks ago, driving on the freeway, suddenly I had a large grumbling sound - lasted about a second, then again for 2 seconds...it was loud, sounded like it was coming from under the van someplace below the steering wheel. Kind of like hard plastic from the fan shroud getting beat up by the fan blades. Several more times within the next week - started to realize it only happened at higher speeds.
No codes, No issues with fluids or electrical. Trans and engine running fine...but started to suspect something in the trans was going out.
Drove it to the shop (15 miles away) - no problem until I got about 5 miles from them...then it started up again at a longer interval.
left it with 5 very capable mechanics for 10 days and no one could figure it out. They could only duplicate it once, and located nothing. They only charged me 5hrs labor ($625), but actually spent quite a bit more time on it. We were all stumped.
The day I picked it up, I got on the freeway towards home and the noise began resonating throughout the cab, so i called the shop and had the owner and two other mechanics on the phone listening to the racket. Drove it right back to them.
We were all scouring the van for clues.
If it wasn't for another client who just happen to be there picking up one of his fleet vans we would still be looking to resolve this. He said to check the windshield trim - we thought he was nuts.

Sure enough, 1/2 of the black rubber strip across the top of the windshield was loose. Occasionally the wind from higher speeds would pull it up and start flapping against the roof. Certainly not what it sounded like when listening to it in the cab! It always sounded like it was under the van and something was getting tore up. At slower speeds it would settle back into its normal position - so it wasn't obvious. $65 to re-glue the rubber back to the windshield today, $625 for the experience, and now a Free education for all.

[pjpvi]

I decided to overcome my fear of rebuilding shocks. Tore apart some old Bilstein shocks and one damaged new one from my recent Baja trip, cut eye mount off the bodies and welded a stud for the rear of my van so now the body will be up instead of down, reassembled, nitrogen charged and they seem to work well. Best part is I've now overcome my fear of rebuilding shocks!