Mercedes Unimog Expedition Truck Build (2018-2019)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

This was an expedition truck design and build project that I completed over an 18 month span with my wife Yvonne.  The goal of the project was to build and travel in a custom four-wheel drive expedition truck.

We built the vehicle from a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 435 military truck. In addition to refurbishing and modifying the truck chassis and drive-train ourselves, we personally designed and built the habitat living module and systems specifically for this vehicle.

The chassis is large enough to accommodate a 75 square foot living module with a total vehicle weight of up to 16,500 lb. The habitat module has a bathroom, shower, kitchen, eating area, permanent bed, refrigerator, heating, full solar charging system, and a pass-through into the refurbished truck cab. The vehicle is capable of remote operation for several weeks without re-supply.

Up to date information on the project can be found on our blog and Instagram:

wabisabioverland.com

instagram.com/wabi_sabi_overland/

M1078 LMTV Expedition Truck Refurbishment (2017)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

This was a joint project with my wife Yvonne.  The goal of the project was to refurbish a surplus military LMTV for civilian use as a chassis for an expedition truck.

Michael Fuchs M1078 LMTV

This project took us a little over a year and required refurbishment, painting, power coating, and replacement of many vehicle parts as well as the fabrication of many new custom items.

At the completion of the refurbishment, we sold our freshly finished LMTV. A full description of the refurbishment can be found on our project blog: fuchsiafoxexpedition.wordpress.com

36 ft Bluewater Cruising Pacific Proa Conceptual Design (2016)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

This is a conceptual design that I did for a modern cruising proa sailboat. Proas are a type of traditional South Pacific two hulled outrigger sailboat. Proa are asymmetric with one large hull (aka) on one side and a small hull (ama) on the other.  On a Pacific Proa the smaller ama is always kept to the windward side of the boat.  The ama acts as a counterweight and provides righting moment against sail load subsequently negating the need for a heavy keel.   The absence of a keel and having the small ama lifted high in the water makes Proa have unique sailing performance and potentially very high long distance cruising speed. I sized this Proa for a couple to comfortably live full time while long distance worldwide bluewater cruising.

Michael Fuchs Proa

Tandem Radial Tractor Composite Gyroplane (2016)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

Of all the aircraft that I have ever flown, gyro flying has by far been the most enjoyable flying experience.  The intent of this project was to build a one-off, stable/docile, open, two place, gyro with good visibility for fun local flying and short cross country flights.

Michael Fuchs Gyroplane

During the design process, I checked 82 different weight and balance scenarios and iteratively refined the configuration to establish as little CG movement as reasonably possible.  The structure was monolithic carbon fiber/epoxy/Divinycell with localized fiberglass and Kevlar buildups. The horizontal stabilizer was epoxy/fiberlass/polystyrene with unidirectional pultruded carbon fiber spar caps. The fuselage tooling method was a seamless composite shell molded over a removable CNC milled foam male tool.

I compared 44 different engines for this application in the 85-150 hp range, and I decided to go with the Rotec Radial R2800 swinging a 76×57 Culver wood prop.  The rotor was intended to be a RFD 28 ft aluminum rotor with RFD double-bearing rotor head. The gyro is now being finished by a gyro enthusiast in Oregon.

Gyroplane Landing Gear (2015)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

This project was the design of the spring steel landing gear for the tandem tractor gyroplane that I was concurrently developing at the time.  The main landing gear were modified Cessna 140 landing gear legs.

Michael Fuchs Gyro Landing Gear

I used iterative Finite Element Analysis to tailor the leg spring stiffness to produce the desired deflection at max landing weight and landing descent rates.  I milled the width of the gear legs down to the specific analyzed dimensions.  Also, I canted the legs out for a wider stance while still producing the same root bending moment of the heavier C140. This wider stance required special axle mounting blocks to set the proper axle angle.  I analytically designed the axle block angle to produce level axles with the aircraft sitting static at a nominal weight.  The gear was sized per configuration applicable FAR23 load cases.

1943 Ford GPW (Willys Jeep) Restoration (2013)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

This project was a complete restoration that I did on a 1943 Ford GPW WWII army jeep.  This particular GPW was originally used by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Los Alamos, New Mexico during WWII on the Manhattan Project. This chassis was delivered to the government on June 9th 1943.

Michael Fuchs 1943 Ford GPW

I took every part down to clean metal and repainted with period correct paints.  I repaired all structure and body damage using original materials.  No body filler was used.  I rebuilt or replaced every system component and returned the electrical system to its original 6 volts.  The project took almost a year and a half of diligent work, but overall it was very satisfying to make every part as clean as new and historically correct.  I owned and drove the GPW for a year after I completed the restoration and later sold it to a collector in Texas.

Astrophotography Passive Sky Tracker (2009)

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

The goal of this project was to design and building a very simple all-mechanical camera mount that would passively rotate at the same angular speed that the earth rotates to facilitate taking consecutive astrophotography images with minimal blur.

Michael Fuchs Sky Tracker

The application for this tracking mount was to take 30-60 second exposures without noticeable motion blur.  It uses a simple homemade gearbox, a curved threaded lead screw, and a normal clock motor to move the camera at the same rate that the earth rotates.  When the tracker rotational axis is properly aligned with the North Star, I was able to take low-noise long-exposure images one-after-another for 7-8 hours.  I then “stacked” the images to get a final image with an equivalent exposure time of many hours.

My homemade sky tracking gizmo.
This is the Andromeda Galaxy. At 2.5 million light-years away from the earth. I took about 840 images with a Nikon 300mm, f2.8 manual focus lens for a combined exposure time of about 7 hours.
This is the Orion Nebula. It is about 1,340 light years away from earth. This image is about a 7 hour exposure made by stacking 30 second sub-exposures taken with a Nikon 600mm, f4 manual focus lens.