Ombygninger m.v.

Här diskuteras lite av varje med Tjorvenanknytning
Jesper Bering
Inlägg: 51
Blev medlem: 03 maj 2010 19:38
Ort: Ringsted, Danmark        Ålder: 62

Ombygninger m.v.

Inlägg av Jesper Bering »

Kære Venner,

Her er lidt oplysninger om min Tjorv. Jeg skrev dem oprindelig på engelsk fordi jeg skulle sende dem til en DAF-entusiast i Holland.

Jeg har desværre ingen gode billeder af min vogn. Jeg vedlægger to billeder fra en dag hvor drivakslen var havareret, så jeg måtte hente vognen med traktoren, og et billede fra sidste gang jeg skiftede vindspejlet (framrutan). Påskriften på solskærmen er en kopi af et skilt fra de gamle københavnske sporvogne.

hilsen Jesper

===============================================
00:15 15-09-2006
21:53 31-10-2007
14:55 27-04-2008
08:31 23-11-2008
17:49 06-05-2010

Kalmar "Tjorven" model KVD 441B, production year 1970, chassis No. 51362,
Danish registration No. CH 86 617.
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I have owned and driven this car since 1976. I purchased it at an auction from the Royal Danish Mail and Telegraph Administration, which purchased 25 cars from Kalmar Verkstad via the Danish DAF importer K. W. Bruun in 1970. They were all discarded in the early 1970'es. The Kalmar was 30 % more expensive than the Renault 4 van, the standard mail van of the days.

The Tjorven was built to the Swedish Mail Administration's order by the factory Kalmar Verkstad AB in Kalmar, Sweden, otherwise manufacturing excavators, big fork lifts and railway cars. The car was highly prized by the mailmen, but it did not stand their use of it. The main problem as I see it was that the mechanical components, which came from a 600 kg passenger car, were indeed too weak for a 800 kg delivery van (to be driven by mailmen, too!).

The name "Tjorven" is adopted from a child-book by the famous Swedish author Astrid Lindgren "Vi på Saltkråkan" (We Children on the Crow Island). Tjorven is a clumsy-looking, fattish girl with great cleverness and vigour, always solving troubles for her fellow children.

I purchased the car for use in my final project as an engineering student at the Danish Technical University in spring and summer 1976, where I designed and built an electronic regulator for the Variomatic gear shift to replace the DAF vacuum system.

The car has been serving me ever since, providing regular daily transportation, including heavy-duty projects such as driving with soil or concrete tiles in heavy overload, driving with live sheep, or driving long-distance trips. It has not been treated carefully in any respect besides mechanical service and repair; nothing is too heavy or too dirty for my cars. The whole body was replaced following an accident in 1977 where I drove right into a wooden road lamp post (the post was splintered into fragments, as the car has no deformable zones - the safety belt saved my life and ability by very little margin). Besides this, I believe that the engine has been replaced around 6 or 8 times, and the windshield 4 to 6 times. I have scrapped 5 or 6 Tjorven and 4 or 5 DAF cars over time to obtain spare-parts.

As far as I can see, the Tjorven contains the following DAF components:
DAF 44: engine, driveshaft, front axle, 14" wheels with caps, hood lock and holder, headlamps, instrument group and controls, rear 'variomatic' sign;
DAF 55: primary Variomatic, secondary Variomatic (fitted with an extra-low ratio), secondary Vairomatic centre frame;
DAF 66: steering column and steering wheel with controls (right-hand version), hand brake lever .

The car has a traditional chassis frame made from rectangular steel tubular profiles and a body made from hand-laid polyester with fibre-glass reinforcement (GRP) and some steel strengthening bars at certain places. According to DAF designer Joan van der Brugghen, the body is said to be designed by the famous designer Sigvard Bernadotte, a member of the Royal Swedish family. Swedish Tjorven conoisseurs doubt this; they attribute the design to the Swedish designer Rune Monö.

The rear axle swing arms and springs are Kalmar's own heavy-duty versions. The front spring has the two bottom leaves reinforced somewhat, but this is very insufficient; the car weighs 800 kg by itself and has a 575 kg load capacity, as opposed to XXXX weight and XXXX load for DAF 44. The bumpers are slightly modified Volvo 140 bumpers.

In a special version which I think was delivered to Swissair for personnel transportation in airports, two three-person bench seats were mounted in each side of the cargo compartment, and a "talk here" window fitted in the glass pane between the driver's cabin and the cargo compartment. A step was possibly fitted to the rear bumper. The Swedish Tjorven conoisseur Torsten Forsström doubts this; he think that the Swiss version was for use as a school bus. At least, Swissair used the car in Zürich Airport, painted in their grey and red colours. Other special version were planned and even prototyped, but seem not to have gained any commercial success.

As can be seen from pictures, I do not use my spare time for car washing or otherwise caring for the appearance of my cars. I am keen however on maintaining body and mechanics in safe and reliable condition, and in particular on improving the mechanical design in various respects.

Over the years, I have made the following modifications to the car:
Fitting a hand crank for starting the engine in emergencies (as start by towing is not possible due to the centrifugal clutch);
Replacing the rubber crankcase-breathing check valve with a steel reed valve of my own design;
Fitting extra protective tubing around the heat exchanger rear exhaust output pipe (preventing elsewise heavy rusting);
Lowering the silencer for easier fitment and removal (Tjorven has only the front silencer of the two used on DAF 44);
Fitting auxiliary cabin heating, taking all cooling air from the left-hand cylinder directly into the cabin (has to be fitted during winter and removed during summer - heat regulation is by opening the sliding doors more or less during ride);
Scrapping the exhaust-gas carburettor hot-spot and fitting an intake air preheater, instead taking part of the cooling air from the right-hand cylinder into the air cleaner housing;
Drilling a drain hole in the clutch housing (to prevent melted snow from collecting in the bottom of the housing when the car is parked downhill, freezing into ice and blocking the engine from rotating);
Extending the consoles carrying the two rear engine mounts and lengthening the sloping, elongated holes in the consoles (for easing removal and fitment of the engine);
Replacing the accelerator bowden cable with a linkage system;
Strengthening the front axle spring from 5 to 7 leaves (quite necessary! - the plastic leaves had to be removed);
Replacing the very stiff and uncomfortable rear axle springs with passenger car springs (lengthened by pulling in a hydraulic press to increase load capacity);
Modifying the front wheel bearing inner races to be solidly clamped with shims for adjustment;
Replacing the low-ratio rear axles with high-ratio DAF 44 axles (giving a remarkarbly higher gearing and lower noise; the primary Varimatic is still DAF 55);
Filling the bearing tubes for the rear axle swing arm bearing with grease, and fitting grease cups;
Replacing the Variomatic vacuum regulator system with manually activated vacuum valves together with a vacuum reservoir (thus obtaining a semi-manual gear shift. This is a reminiscence from my electronic regulator system; it works very well indeed and give much better gear shift facilities, e.g. the possibility for gearing up at full throttle);
Replacing the earlier DAF 66 (?) steering column with a later DAF 66 column, and raising the column a little to align properly with the steering rack;
Replacing the DAF 66 rubber Hardy disc in the steering column with a DAF 44 steel one (the Hardy disc is situated in the engine compartment on the Tjorven, and the DAF 66 version does not stand the weather);
Replacing the earlier DAF 66 (?) hand brake lever with a later DAF 66 one with adjustment facility;
Replacing the rear-view mirrors on the hood by large truck-type mirrors on the A posts plus an extra mirror on the facia panel (ex SAAB 96 two-stroke);
Dividing the facia panel into two, so that it may be removed without removing the steering wheel (which is NOT easy!);
Fitting extra front and rear top lights;
Fitting noise-absorbing rubber-foam ceiling covering (it is now possible to talk to the passenger above 50 km/h);
Fitting a trailer towbar (only 300 kg trailer weight allowed by factory, unfortunately);
Fitting a roof-mounted radio-communications aerial with an artificial copper ground plane on the roof underside;
Replacing the large POP rivets, which fasten the platform to the steel reinforcements resting on the frame via vibration dampers, with stainless steel carriage bolts.

Some more modifications have been planned for up to 30 years, but are still not made:
Fitting dual carburettors, eliminating the need for heavy hot-spot heating;
Adjusting the air preheater to give a slight compressor effect from the cylinder cooling air;
Fitting an electric speedometer driven by magnetic pick-up from the secondary gear box teeth, instead of the cable-driven mechanical speedometer, the cable of which broke down in 1977 (this cable is extra long due to the right-hand drive, and is carried through the body in a very bent and twisted path; an experimental version of this electric speedometer was tested during my final project at the Technical University);
Fitting larger front-wheel brake cylinders (or smaller rear-wheel ones) to obtain more braking power on the front axle as compared to the rear axle (this may necessitate a diagonal division of the brake circuits in place of the front-to-rear division);
Possibly moving the hand brake system from the rear to the front axle (the front and rear brake backplate mounting flanges seem to be identical - this modification may not be accepted by the inspection authorities?);
Modifying the rightmost windshield wiper to swing relative to the wiper arm (it fouls the rubber edges of the windshield as it is now).
Fitting a two-person passenger seat (the driver's cabin is indeed quite wide).
Du har inte behörighet att öppna de filer som bifogats till detta inlägg.
_____________________________________________________________________
Jesper Bering, Alstedvej 26, Alsted, DK-4173 Fjenneslev (Midtsjælland), Danmark
Tlf. +45-57-60 80 12, j(snabela)b48(punktum)dk
Användarvisningsbild
HKC616
Inlägg: 1664
Blev medlem: 31 okt 2009 14:53
Ort: Moheda

Re: Ombygninger m.v.

Inlägg av HKC616 »

Mycket intressant läsning om din Tjorv, kommer karossen från en svensk postbil?

Bifogar en bild på "Swissairs Tjorvar".

/Fredrik
Du har inte behörighet att öppna de filer som bifogats till detta inlägg.
Namn: Fredrik Nilsson
Ägare till:
HKC616
CKJ666
DMO190 fd GMJ210
CNR370
DRW087
OHD14W fd DAZ225
CSJ294
50687 fd ELJ330
52091 fd DCC735
50012
Tidigare:
ALA167-såld
51800 fd DCC844-skrotad
51782 fd FHL739-skrotad
FRY181-såld
Jesper Bering
Inlägg: 51
Blev medlem: 03 maj 2010 19:38
Ort: Ringsted, Danmark        Ålder: 62

Re: Ombygninger m.v.

Inlägg av Jesper Bering »

Kære Fredrik,

Det danske postvæsen importerede 25 Tjorver i 1970. Jeg går ud fra at det var standard posttjorver, de var blot malet i det danske postvæsens mørkegule farve.

Billedet af de schweiziske Tjorver er fra en Olsen-Banden-film. Jeg sendte et klip fra filmen til Torsten - det er muligvis derfra du har billedet?

hilsen Jesper
_____________________________________________________________________
Jesper Bering, Alstedvej 26, Alsted, DK-4173 Fjenneslev (Midtsjælland), Danmark
Tlf. +45-57-60 80 12, j(snabela)b48(punktum)dk
Användarvisningsbild
HKC616
Inlägg: 1664
Blev medlem: 31 okt 2009 14:53
Ort: Moheda

Re: Ombygninger m.v.

Inlägg av HKC616 »

Ok, fick för mig att dom Danska postbilarna var röda men det var visst dom Norska, fel av mig.

Bilden på de Sweiziska Tjorvarna hittade jag på en filmsida på nätet som uppmärksammar bilarna i filmer.

/Fredrik
Namn: Fredrik Nilsson
Ägare till:
HKC616
CKJ666
DMO190 fd GMJ210
CNR370
DRW087
OHD14W fd DAZ225
CSJ294
50687 fd ELJ330
52091 fd DCC735
50012
Tidigare:
ALA167-såld
51800 fd DCC844-skrotad
51782 fd FHL739-skrotad
FRY181-såld
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