tatra 813 new owner

[duncan]

The trip home was, apart from being way oversize and not being able to see anything but green metal in the mirrors, about as uneventful as the first half of the journey.

Just when we hit the Dutch border, it started snowing. We did about 1000 miles through Germany and the Czech republic without having any snow problems whatsoever, and then on the home stretch it starts snowing in the Netherlands. It almost never snows here... thanks murphy! It made for some slippery last hours but we managed to get home without problems.

 

[cranetruck]

Congrats on completing your trip without incidents! Looking forward to seeing some details...

 

[duncan]

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[southdave]

So how complete was your cab you recieved?

 

[duncan]

It's complete except for the left and right side indicator. The beam under the grill at the front was bent somewhere when moving it, probably years ago. It's bolted in so I can easily remove and fix, or replace.

I assumed it would have the mud guards/fenders too, but thats apparently not the case. Will see about restoring my old ones, and ATH is looking at getting some new ones, if the price is right. They can be seen here bolted on the old cab.

Other than that it's way more complete than expected. All the cab wiring is installed. The main power circuit, the circuit breaker and main solenoid are there. The NATO plug for jumpstarting is there. The seats are still wrapped in plastic. The engine covers are there, with the original sound proofing blanket. The searchlight, a set of rotating alarm lights, interior lights, all there. Theres a brand new heater under the reat bench, even the fire extuinguisher is strapped in right next to the drivers seat.

Ow, yes, the mirrors didnt come with it. Cant complain though!

 

[duncan]

Posted this one before, but its the best shot showing the cab I have at this point. You can see the main power cable hanging on the right (right side of the truck, left for the viewers), that goes right from the battery to the main solenoid which is mounted near the air filters behind the right part of the grill. You can see the plastic wrapping on the seats too.

Just noticed the TATRA logo is missing from the left part of the grill. However, for completeness I forgot to mention: wipers with wiper motors, the set of high beam lights, new manhole covers, and the folding sun screen!

 

[cranetruck]

Like the tree saw being part of the "pioneer" tool set...

 

[southdave]

all i can say is WOW, so this NOS not a take off, just slapin it on and go?

 

[duncan]

Yeah they seem to have quite a bunch of NOS left, including cabs.

 

[John C]

Hi Duncan.

Glad you got the cab back and everything went ok, looks like you had fun - lol
Wow the cab only just fitted on that trailer, I think if you had been traveling in the U.K. with it you could have run into some trouble with our authorities due to the width/overhang - they are funny about stuff like that; hehe.

So all in all how much did ATH charge you for the new cab, if you don't mind me asking? - do they have any 2 door cabs?

 

[duncan]

They charged 2150,- euro, which is nothing when you see what I got for it They have 2 door cabs too, but they were apparently in some storage somewhere. The dealer building itself mainly stocked T815 and T148 parts.

Authorities couldnt touch us, both me and my father in law driving are experienced semi drivers. We're allowed to drive vehicles up to 3 metres wide without oversize-load warnings. We should've had some reflective plates on the sides though, but I couldnt find those in time. In the end we mounted a battery powered bicycle light on the back of the cab cause german autobahn traffic overtaking us at speeds above 130mph is kinda scary when you know they dont know your size. Most of the trip was no problem though, almost all roads had a hard shoulder which allows you to drive way to the side of your lane, thus not blocking other traffic.
I figure if we didnt have problems with czech, german and dutch police, then UK shouldnt be a problem either!

 

[duncan]

Another day of work completed. Finished cleaning the cab, it was very dirty and some of the dirt was baked into the paint after all these years.

First thing we did was get into the thing and see what was there. Great feeling to sit inside my new cabin for the first time. I found some goodies too An empty bottle of strong liquor was the first thing I stumbled upon. Then I located 2 curtain rods (I think), and to top all that off... when I removed to rear bench to look at the new heater, I found original papers and a box of spare parts!

Havent translated the papers yet, but one is a factory paper for the cab with production details and numbers, and the other is the testing/details paper for the heater. It has the wiring, dimensions, and a short operating manual of sorts (hard to guess with all the crazy czech language).

The spare parts box was a true winner. It contains a small control panel to make the heater into a stand-alone unit. Thats perfect since I now have 2 heaters, controlled from the dashboard, and one that I will wire to said control panel. Also contained various small parts, and 2 spare glow plugs. I am a happy person!

 

[cranetruck]

Fun stuff Duncan! So the heater paper is dated 1988, is the first heater a 1974 model, same as your truck?

 

[duncan]

You and your magnifying glass The 1988 date the production date of the cab. Havent checked the date on the heater. It looks to be identical though. The cab has some very minor changes from my 1974 model. Most noticeably it comes with the orange flashing lights on the roof, the gun holders changed from metal to plastic, the engine covers are better secured, and the seats are improved.

 

[duncan]

I figured out how the bed works! I mentioned before how the 2 parts of the rear bench can be converted to a bed, with the extending supports. That would still leave you with a rather short bed. Today the pieces of the puzzle clicked when I looked at that seemingly random piece of cloth I found in the cab.
Combined with 2 rods it clicks into place between the left and right side rear doors. There are 3 straps (the white ones) that span the entire width of the cab. The bench fills the middle area, and 2 parts of canvas cover the parts between them and the doors. Voila, 2.4 metre long bed big enough for 2 persons. I think for the bed to be comfortable you might need to remove the rear facing seats though, but other than that, genius!

 

[surewriting]

I just read through the entire thread, and WOW! I feel an extremely strong urge to get one of these now. The only problem is I'm still in college lol. Keep up the amazing work!

 

[duncan]

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[surewriting]

Not a week; it was that or read Robespierre's justification for Le Terror and write a paper on it lol.

I've been watching the top truck trials videos on youtube, and I wonder if they ever sell the used trucks if a team goes under? Would those cost a heck of a lot more, and are they even available like that?

 

[duncan]

Ex truck trial trucks are usually ex-trucks because theyre beyond repair (at least financial). These trucks dont really drive anymore and have been used only for low speed crawling and mudding for years. Usually the tanks are moved, the bumped are cut off and the toolbox and battery box under the cab removed. They look great in the videos but from an MV owners perspective theyre damaged almost beyond repair.

Someone around here bought an ex trial truck for cheaps to get parts, but the only parts you can grab from it are the things that will never break. He also mentioned there was more water and mud than oil in most of the drivelines. Thats all fine ofcourse if you take the truck to a trial a few times each year and run it for a few hours.

The only reason I'd buy one is for spare wheels, drivetrain or engine parts. If you cut an old 8x8 in half you can use the rear 2 axles as the base for a very cool trailer

 

[duncan]

Still waiting for the weather to get good enough to paint the cab, its still around freezing, and very wet. Meanwhile Ive been working on some of those small jobs that always seem to take the most time

Also, we went to an exhaust shop, and I got a proper stainless muffler. Full free flow, high grade stainless inside and outside. According to the papers it should "give a nice deep and dark engine tone". Just the thing I need