Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hi all, right after New Year's, we will be working on a new tank design for the Delica which leaves the spare tire where it is. Capacity should be in the 60 litre range (that's a wild guess for now). It will feature our new solid machined/welded aluminum in-tank heater with integrated return line fitting that is being tested in Saskatchewan shortly. The first tank will be going into my Delica mid-January, I hope. I'm going to stick with the fill-through-floor design, but if anyone wants one with a line off the side for doing the hydraulic-fitting idea, we can do that.

Also, on the question of filter mounting location. My recently acquired Delica was typical in having arrived with a "pretty good" battery. Good to about -15C maybe. Below that, it was iffy. So, I have replaced it with an Optima, turned sideways, which gives lots of room for the TurboFyner or the VegMax 2 (VM2) coolant heated filter, easy access to the filter element and drain for changing, it's nice and warm, so will allow for fast switchover in coldest weather, and you only need to holesaw a small hole though the battery tray for the drain valve. There will also be room in there for 3-port valves, it appears, which can be bolted directly to the VM2 filter with the use of our spacer plates.

The Optima, by the way, spun things over nicely at -20C this morning, van outside, no block heater, no synthetic oil (yet). Took a couple of tries on the glow plugs, but a fairly good start.

I am going to be adding an oil pan heater, way easier to install versus block heater. Clean the oil pan, peel and stick, a little silicone, run the cord, done. The heat rises from there to the rest of the engine. 250W, so just plug in and leave it on all night, and things will be nice and warm in the morning, on a Delica, with the heat trapped by the well-insulated doghouse. Look for the heater under "Delica oil pan heater" at our site, plantdrive.ca

I'm also going to see if our MFT (Multifunction Timer) can be used to set up the glow plugs to stay on a little longer.

I'll post pictures as the conversion progresses.

PlantDrive wrote: right after New Year's, we will be working on a new tank design for the Delica which leaves the spare tire where it is. Capacity should be in the 60 litre range

Awesome!

Hi Ed,
I'll be following your progress closely!
I have a wacky question for you:

I see on your plantdrive site that you have a Delica-ready 100 litre tank that goes in the spare tire location. You also have plans for a 60-litre tank option that leaves the spare alone.

If I was after a mega-range-on-veggie setup, would it be possible to do an install with both, for a 160 litre veggie reserve? I'm curious about this, because I have a camper conversion Deli with very little room to bring tanks with me on trips. No floor space, no roof basket (I have a camper pop-top) and no hitch basket as I'm always carrying bikes. So my only options for carrying lots of fuel are in-tank, or a cargo trailer.

Could it be done? Would it work with the heater fitting, sender, intake etc all in one tank and the other plumbed into it to increase capacity?
David

dpd wrote:Hi Ed,
I'll be following your progress closely!
I have a wacky question for you:

I see on your plantdrive site that you have a Delica-ready 100 litre tank that goes in the spare tire location. You also have plans for a 60-litre tank option that leaves the spare alone.

If I was after a mega-range-on-veggie setup, would it be possible to do an install with both, for a 160 litre veggie reserve? I'm curious about this, because I have a camper conversion Deli with very little room to bring tanks with me on trips. No floor space, no roof basket (I have a camper pop-top) and no hitch basket as I'm always carrying bikes. So my only options for carrying lots of fuel are in-tank, or a cargo trailer.

Could it be done? Would it work with the heater fitting, sender, intake etc all in one tank and the other plumbed into it to increase capacity?
David

have you thought of a mount for the spare on the front like those old vw vans?

Hi, to answer David..... no..... the smaller tank will be at the rear, the same as the larger one is now, but it will be built to incorporate the spare, thus the smaller capacity.

I've been trying to figure a way to do a second tank without taking out the spare!

I'm very interested, and I might even have several other buyers interested.

Keep us posted!

Thanks for the answer, I think I'll be looking at re-mounting the spare...

dfnder wrote:If I was running Veggie all the time I would think that for a camping trip say twice a month I would be able to afford a little deisel. Also I would think it easier and nicer esthetically to carry spare veggie on a rack outside than remount the tire. Everyone has their own priorities though :) Go for it!!!

I only use it for camping (year round bike commuter in the city, brrr.) I would love to make 100% wvo trips within 3-400 km from Edmonton, and one-way at least to the next wvo fillup, so range is key... in-tank is just cleaner and easier than in cubes!

AndrewH wrote:have you thought of a mount for the spare on the front like those old vw vans?

I have thought about it but I have an older ('90) style narrow bush bar, with the original fog lights mounted low and PIAA driving lights mounted high and it would suck to lose all of those.

A cooler setup might be one that I vaguely remember seeing a pic of on this board, where the spare was on the front but behind the bush bar, i.e. sandwiched between bar and vehicle. That would be super cool and very unique, and would obviously require extending the bush bar out front.

Anybody got any clever ideas how to do that? I imagine it would have to be stronger that the original mounts, to take the extra weight of the spare bouncing around which weighs much more than the bars themselves...

I think mounting the spare on the front is a very bad idea. These vans are already heavy on the front / light on the rear (when not loaded), and already have a higher centre of gravity. Moving the spare from down low at the back, to up high at the front is really asking for it in terms of handling, IMHO.
Not the same as the old rear-engine VW.

PlantDrive wrote:I think mounting the spare on the front is a very bad idea. These vans are already heavy on the front / light on the rear (when not loaded), and already have a higher centre of gravity. Moving the spare from down low at the back, to up high at the front is really asking for it in terms of handling, IMHO.

Actually I worry a bit about the other way around...

I have 240 lbs of battery (2 trojan 6Vs) permanently in the rear, and I usually carry a 'stowaway2' swing away cargo box, for another 200 lbs or so hanging off the receiver. Add a new 100 litre veggie tank on top of that, and the camper furniture, and that's more than 600 pounds at the rear. At that point it might be OK to move some weight up front... I agree with you though, that for handling putting it up high is not so good, I'd rather keep it low down!!

I've also thought of trying to get the spare on to the hatch and adding struts or replacing existing struts with beefier ones (I need the hatch to stay open on its own so I can cook) but I have no idea how practical that might be, or if there is even a tire mount out there that I can bolt straight to the hatch...

you can test the balance of your van if you have the right equipment.

DIY :

hoist and two 12" + thick steel bars.

Put the steel bars parallel to the van on each side under the four frame/jack mount points. measure the distance, divide in half and put the hoist bars on each side at that point. lift up a few inches from the ground to see if the Delica leans forward or to the rear and adjust weight as necessary.

Prof :

Axle weight load indicator device

Did it on an expedition Pajero last year heading down to south america. He wanted a perfectly balanced , fully loaded rig. Was pretty neat.

I don't think the weight of the spare mounted up front would make a big difference, but I don't know it either. I do know that the front sure is the most convenient spot for a spare. When you need it it's right there, out in the open, at just the right height, vs. crawling around under the bus and struggling in the mud to get it out of the stock spot. And unlike the rear hatch mounting option where you must swing the spare out of the way every time you want in the back, the front mount is never in the way. I would be interested in trying a deli equipped with a front mount or in hearing from others drivers that have

Ok, maybe not so important as to have said "very bad idea".... but worth thinking about?

I guess it depends if you are planning on always having the van loaded or if it is going to be light on the rear end a lot of the time. What's the spare weigh, plus the weight carrier mods; then allow for being cantilevered out past the front axle, and the additional effect of the mods to the bars, (moving them further out)?

What's the overall effect on balance + CG if no load in the rear, and no extra tank, etc? I'm guessing that in some circumstances, it's not good, but I am not qualified to comment further than that and so should not have. Maybe someone here has some experience of it, or can analyze it properly.

"Expert" or not, thanks for bringing it up anyway. Winter driving in Edmonton, it's a good thing to think carefully about weight and handling before throwing stuff around.

Front mount probably won't happen anyway, unless I can figure out how to get the bull bars forward and squish a tire in between. I think I'm better off sticking it on the hatch and searching for better struts.

Glen from CC Auto was going to fabricate a bracket to mount the spare on the bull bars, based on a bracket that came on one of the vans he imported. Unfortunately it blocks the stock fog lights and the plastic shroud needs to be removed, but it looks like a solid design.

I still would be interested in a WVO tank that left my spare alone, can't wait to see the pictures.

Here's a nice looking modified bull bar mount: