TerraLiner:12 m Globally Mobile Beach House/Class-A Crossover w 6x6 Hybrid Drivetrain

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Tatra Kolem Světa: Tatra Around the World



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“Tatra Kolem Světa”: that's what you have to google, in order to unlock the river of webpages that document the extraordinary Tatra 815 GTC (Grand Tourist Caravan), and the global expedition that it undertook in the late 1980's: http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_kolem_světa , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans.../cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_kolem_světa , http://auto.idnes.cz/pred-25-lety-v...moto.aspx?c=A120327_154413_ostrava-zpravy_jog , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...moto.aspx?c=A120327_154413_ostrava-zpravy_jog , http://www.tatra-club.com/forum-tema/tatra-815-gtc-18347 , http://translate.google.it/translat...tatra-club.com/forum-tema/tatra-815-gtc-18347 , http://www.tatra-club.com/clanek/expedice-tatra-kolem-sveta-byla-hlavne-propagaci-ceskoslovenska-58 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...-hlavne-propagaci-ceskoslovenska-58&sandbox=1 , http://www.tatra-club.com/clanek/tatra-815-na-ceste-kolem-sveta-95 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans....com/clanek/tatra-815-na-ceste-kolem-sveta-95 , http://www.pinterest.com/thomasth/tatra-kolem-sveta/ , http://www.auto.cz/tatra-25-pred-lety-vyrazila-kolem-sveta-65761/foto?foto=0 , http://auto.pravda.sk/magazin/clanok/26177-tatra-okolo-sveta-bola-najlepsou-reklamou/ , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...kolo-sveta-bola-najlepsou-reklamou/&sandbox=1 , http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto&sec=2 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto&sec=2 , http://www.lideazeme.cz/clanek/s-tatrou-kolem-sveta , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans.../www.lideazeme.cz/clanek/s-tatrou-kolem-sveta , https://en-gb.facebook.com/tatra.kolem.sveta , http://novojicinsky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/s-tatrou-objeli-kdysi-cely-svet-20120411.html , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...s-tatrou-objeli-kdysi-cely-svet-20120411.html .

:exclaim:
Strong Warning: some of these websites are kinda “funky”, and perhaps residually east-bloc, and they might do some interesting things to your browser….. Be prepared for computer crashes and having to reboot a number of times, as you surf the automotive blogs of the Czech Republic. I've had to reboot my computer more times in the past week, than in the previous 5 months. So be prepared for some frustration, and don't leave anything important unfinished, unsaved, or open on your desktop when you begin surfing these Czech sites. They seem very badly designed, or very aggressive, or both.
:exclaim:

As near as I can tell, there is just one English-language article on the web about the Tatra 815 GTC, and its round-the-world expedition, at http://travelreporter.com/tatra2.html . But it is useful and informative.


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1. The Tatra 815 GTC (Grand Tourist Caravan)


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In quick summary: the 815 GTC is one of the first of the T815 series. It's 10 m long, 3.85 m high, 2.5 m wide, 19,800 kg. With crew, luggage, and supplies, it weighed 22,000 kg.

The truck was designed by the Vehicle Research Institute in Prague, and was state-of-the-art. The engine is a ten-cylinder air-cooled T3-929-30, 15.8 liters, with an output of 208 kW (280 HP), max. torque 1010 Nm at 1400 rev. / min. The chassis is classic Tatra backbone tube, all-wheel drive, full diff locks, and all-wheel independent suspension via split, swinging half-axles, with spring-loaded, air-bellows suspension. Fording capability, 0.8 m; two 280 L fuel tanks; and a maximum speed of 95 kmh. Fuel consumption was 34 L per 100 km on pavement, or 6.97 mpg, and the engine was specially adapted for low-quality fuel. The Tatra 815 GTC could travel 1,200 km without refueling. It carried 600 liters of drinking water, was fully heated and air-conditioned, and had a 220 V volt electrical system with wall-sockets in the camper box.









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2. The “Tatra Kolem Světa” Expedition


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The expedition began on March 18[SUP]th[/SUP], 1987, from the former Czechoslovakia, and returned 37 months later, in April 1990, to the new Czech Republic.

The head of the expedition was the cinematographer Jiří Stöhr, who prepared the expedition in co-operation with Tatra’s management, and with the assistance of the journalist Peter Bárta (promotion, photography). Both Stöhr and Bárta had taken part as students in the “Expedition Lambaréné”, a 1968 road-trip whose destination was the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_Lambaréné , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambaréné , http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedice_Lambarene , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...tp://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedice_Lambarene , http://www.lideazeme.cz/clanek/expedice-lambarene , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...://www.lideazeme.cz/clanek/expedice-lambarene , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...//www.csfd.cz/film/274184-expedice-lambarene/ . The vehicle used in that earlier, 1968 expedition is also now housed in the Tatra Technical Museum:





Other members of the 1987 “Tatra Kolem Světa” expedition were the nuclear physicist Stanislav Synek (interpreter, sound engineer), geologist Dr. František Jeniš (motorized hang glider pilot), service technician Dalibor Petr (driver, cook), and master of engine testing at Tatra, Karel Valchař (co-driver). In China, the expedition was joined by Ing. Aleš Novák, at that time head of engine testing at Tatra.






Notice how not only the names, but so too the blood-types of all expedition members were painted on the cab doors.


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The expedition travelled across six continents, visited 67 countries, and logged 139,860 km – see http://translate.googleusercontent....od.htm&usg=ALkJrhhSaKEv1635QkRuqwMLAoilieL2mg or http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=obec&sub=1 . The purpose of the expedition was to promote Czechoslovakian industry: Tatra wanted to replicate with a truck the round-the-world journey by Tatra car undertaken by two Czech heroes back in 1936. One stated objective was to make two films and a 56-episode television series, but for various reasons that came to naught. There is now comparatively little film or video footage of the expedition, i.e. compared to the 120 hours of footage originally shot.







In the first year the expedition toured Central and Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Soviet Union, England, and Ireland. It crossed the Atlantic ocean arriving in Halifax, and toured eastern Canada, then down to NYC, across the United States, up to Canada again, and through British Columbia and the Yukon to Alaska. It travelled around Alaska, and then down most of North America's west coast, through California and Arizona, after which it crossed the border into Mexico, and continued through Central America.


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In Guatemala the expedition had its first major setback. The crew were arrested and imprisoned for 10 days, and after they were released they found their vehicle completely trashed, and a sizeable proportion of their film and negatives destroyed.

From central America the vehicle travelled by boat to Brazil, and the expedition then drove down to Argentina, across Argentina to Chile, and up the length of the Andes all the way to Ecuador. At one point in the Andes the Tatra 815 GTC drove at an altitude of 5300 meters above sea level, setting a new world record. From what appears to be either Peru or Ecuador, the expedition crossed the Pacific by boat (the crew spent Christmas 1988 in Samoa), and moved on to New Zealand, up the center of Australia, island-hopping across Indonesia to Malaysia, and then Thailand. From Thailand the expedition drove through Cambodia and Vietnam, from where the vehicle took a boat to China. In China the expedition seems to have travelled mostly across the north by a Silk Road route. It skirted the Taklamakan desert, crossed the Tibetan plateau, and descended into Pakistan. In 1989, while descending the river Hunza in Pakistan, Dr. František Jeniš was tragically killed when his raft overturned.







From Pakistan the expedition continued to India, travelling through most of the center of the subcontinent and down to Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south, and then up to Bombay, where it took a boat to Tanzania. In Africa the expedition retraced some of the route of the earlier Expedition Lambaréné, in reverse. The expedition seems to have travelled as far south as Botswana, then up through the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, on a route that is reminiscent of Beppe Tenti’s "Overland 12" covered earlier in this thread. Continuing through the Sudan and Egypt, the expedition left Africa and headed up through Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey, and then back to Europe:





The expedition returned to the new Czech Republic shortly after the Velvet Revolution, and the post-revolutionary government’s new priorities meant that it received little attention. Apparently much of the film footage sent ahead was lost in transit, and most of the footage that did make it back went unprocessed and unused, and has since been lost or destroyed. Just one documentary film was made, but was only shown privately – see http://www.tatranacestach.cz/tatra-kolem-sveta and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ttp://www.tatranacestach.cz/tatra-kolem-sveta .

Czechoslovakians will often draw comparisons to the Hanzelka + Zikmund expedition that took place 40 years earlier, 1947 – 1950, and which, by way of contrast, generated a wealth of photographs and films – see http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/kultura/109410-legenda-h-z-na-stejnych-cestach-ale-mene-seriozne/ , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...da-h-z-na-stejnych-cestach-ale-mene-seriozne/ , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/zivotopis , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...aafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/zivotopis , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/afrika , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...tavaafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/afrika , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/pygmejove , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...aafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/pygmejove , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/archiv-klub-h-z , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...a.cz/legendy/hanzelka-zikmund/archiv-klub-h-z .

There seem to be a very limited number of low-quality still-photographs of the “Tatra Kolem Světa" expedition available on-line, of the truck actually en-route, and most of these have been posted above. So the “GTC expedition", as it is now also called, is considered a bit of a "lost expedition”, and maybe even a cursed expedition.....


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Even still, while the expedition was running it was a television news story around the world, and the crew gave 50 press conferences en-route. Reports about the expedition and its unique vehicle appeared in hundreds of foreign newspapers and magazines, and a few books were also produced – see http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=knihy , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=knihy , http://www.databazeknih.cz/knihy/tatra-kolem-sveta-79485 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ih.cz/knihy/tatra-kolem-sveta-79485&sandbox=1 , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...h.cz/knihy/tatra-kolem-sveta-102734&sandbox=1 . An interview with the expedition crew filmed during a visit to the World Trade Center in New York, and broadcast nation-wide, is claimed to have earned advertising revenue that exceeded the total cost of the expedition. But of course the Czechs themselves saw little of that. A DVD about the expedition is also available on the Tatra museum's e-shop website – see http://shop.tatramuseum.cz , http://shop.tatramuseum.cz/upominky-c18/dvd-tatra815-gtc-kolem-sveta-1987-1990-i991/ , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans.../dvd-tatra815-gtc-kolem-sveta-1987-1990-i991/ .

When they returned to the new Czech Republic the crew were suspected as spies, no doubt because during the Cold War the only Eastern Europeans and Russians allowed to travel outside the east bloc were Communist party members in good standing, who as often as not worked for the intelligence services. The FBI certainly thought they were spies, following them closely in a van while they traveled the United States, as did the Guatemalan military, which temporarily imprisoned them – see http://travelreporter.com/tatra2.html . Like the Americans, the Guatemalans were convinced that the inflatable boats, the moped, and the motorized hang-glider that the expedition carried were spy equipment.


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3. Models of the Tatra 815 GTC


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In recent years a certain nostalgia for the heroic “Grands Projets” of communism has resurfaced throughout the former east bloc, and web-sites have appeared that are trying to document and reconstruct this “lost expedition”.

The 815 GTC truck itself is now so iconic, that it has been reproduced in paper and plastic as children's toys – see http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=modely , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=modely , http://www.bestpapermodels.com/en/1-48-tatra-815-gtc.html , http://www.minibox.cz/100_001.htm , http://www.pmht.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=494 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...//www.pmht.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=494 , http://www.aliexpress.com/tatra-t815_reviews.html , http://www.skoda1203.estranky.cz/fo...em-sveta/tatra-815-kolem-sveta---krabice.html , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...em-sveta/tatra-815-kolem-sveta---krabice.html , and http://muj-hobby-bazar.cz/cz-detail-11866-tatra-t-815-kolem-sveta-kaden-kdn-cca-1-43.html .

In paper:







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In plastic:







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And in some kind of hybrid combination of the two:






Personally I love the rainbow-colored graphics, the somewhat hippie-esque “magic-bus” aesthetic, and the one-world visual rhetoric:


............ ............


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4. Visiting the 815 GTC at the Tatra Technical Museum


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The 815 GTC can now be seen at the Tatra Technical Museum in Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia – see http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=5&idj=1 , http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?idj=2&r=3 , http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=5&idj=2 , http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=5&idj=2&zaznam=8&c_listu=2 , http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?page=rubrika_detail&rid=316&r=5&idj=2 , http://cestovani.idnes.cz/v-muzeu-s...y-/po-cesku.aspx?c=A100603_164018_igcechy_tom , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...y-/po-cesku.aspx?c=A100603_164018_igcechy_tom , http://thomuv.blog.cz/1108/muzeum-tatra-koprivnice , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...//thomuv.blog.cz/1108/muzeum-tatra-koprivnice , http://pe-le.rajce.idnes.cz/30.10._Koprivnice/ , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...uby.cz/tip-na-vylet-muzeum-tatra-v-koprivnici , http://sumperak.rajce.idnes.cz/Muzeum_Tatra_Koprivnice/ , http://www.hornibecva-beskydy.cz/tatra_koprivnice.htm , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ww.hornibecva-beskydy.cz/tatra_koprivnice.htm , http://www.autofankluby.cz/tip-na-vylet-muzeum-tatra-v-koprivnici , http://www.truck-forum.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5990&sid=006b7163696e8ebd3be303d9a7a54b6f , http://www.expedia.co.uk/Tatra-Technical-Museum-Koprivnice.d6190662.Attraction , http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopřivnice , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...=http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopřivnice , and http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=11&idj=2 :








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For “virtual sightseeing” of the Technical Museum on the Tatra website, see http://www.tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=11&idj=2 and http://www.tatramuseum.cz/virt/tatra/start.html . The hall with expedition trucks is 4[SUP]th[/SUP] down from the top. You should see something like this:





The virtual viewer gives you a full 360 degree panorama.

Although it's now sitting in the Tatra museum, apparently the 815 GTC is still drive-able. But in one interview what appears to be the director of the museum stongly insists that it would much too much of a hassle to dislodge the truck from its resting place….


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5. Videos of the 815 GTC, and Maps of the Tatra Round the World Expedition


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The following videos document the truck and the expedition; also see http://www.stream.cz/auto-moto/405111-tatra-kolem-sveta , http://spotter.cz/923509-tatra-kolem-sveta.htm#! , http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=video , and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtQ-NrTniCg .

The first video, which is by far the best, is a retrospective documentary created in 2005 that describes the expedition's route, and has abundant maps:


[video=youtube;RtQ-NrTniCg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RtQ-NrTniCg[/video]


Although in Czech, this video is filled with great imagery. At the beginning it has a short tour of the vehicle interior; it shows the Tatra 815 GTC driving through downtown New York; it demonstrates the roof-hatches functioning a bit like open-air “safari seats”; it has wonderful images of the hang-glider that was carried aboard flying above Mayan pyramids in Guatemala; it shows just how viciously the Guatemalan army trashed the vehicle; and it shows some of the vehicle's more interesting features, like the 4-man roof-top tent.

Notice throughout how this Tatra conversion is not an ActionMobil, UniCat, or Armadillo: when it drives over difficult terrain, the “cab” and the “camper” remain completely rigid with respect to one another. However, the Tatra 815 GTC is best described as “semi-integrated”, because the cab and camper are still separate spaces. The Tatra 815 GTC is not an example of “one-room” design, and the cab still tilts forwards to give access to the engine, as per standard COE placement. On the other hand, the rigidity of the Tatra 815 GTC's frame suggests that it could have been fully integrated. And it remains an early example of a globally capable, high-altitude competent, "go anywhere" sort of 6x6 expedition motorhome.

The second video, much shorter, shows some of the GTC's more interesting features, like the drop-down moped, and the huge roof-top tent:


[video=youtube;Rm19Sywjb-I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rm19Sywjb-I[/video]


The third video, also short, is a photo-montage that contains some still-images that do not seem available on-line, set to a distinctively 1980's soundtrack:




For a good, interactive map that traces the expedition's travels, but is still a work in progress, see http://gtc.zpc.cz/gmap.php and http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/gmap.php :





Note that there are considerable discrepancies between this map, and the maps that appear in the first video posted above. In the narration I tended to go with the video's maps when describing the GTC's route.


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6. Detailed Technical Description and Images of the Tatra 815 GTC


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The best detailed descriptions of the technical aspects of the Tatra 815 GTC are on the websites called “TATRA 815 GTC Grand Tourist Conteiner”, at http://www.gtc.unas.cz and http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://www.gtc.unas.cz/&sandbox=1 , and the website called “Do you remember Tatra round the world?”, at http://gtc.zpc.cz , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/ , http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=tech , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=tech , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...tc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=tech&sub=6&sandbox=1 , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...tc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=tech&sub=7&sandbox=1 , etc.

For some links to other websites, see http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=odkazy , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=tech . And for some high-quality interior and exterior images of the truck, as it now sits in the Tatra museum, see http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&tl=en&u=http://gtc.zpc.cz/index.php?cast=foto , and http://auto.idnes.cz/foto.aspx?r=au...-zpravy_jog&foto=JOG421bb9_132124_1568451.jpg .

The following is the technical information from the first two websites above, translated from Czech via google, and then cleaned up as best as I could, with a few additions. I do not speak Czech, so the following should be taken with a grain of salt. I tried to extract meaningful sentences from very garbled material; for the direct, unpolished google translations, consult the links.


A. Body

The body is made up of separate steel boxes provided with acoustic and thermal insulation, divided into three separate areas:

• residential, tourism, and work
• engine
• storage containers for mobile devices

The interior design of the camper box was "variable", in the sense that elements like chairs and tables could be folded, and most of the space was triple or quadruple use.


B. Cab

The cab of the Tatra 815 GTC has a driver's seat and a passenger seat, with a jump seat in between, while the camper box has four more passenger seats:






This is a "cutaway", bird's eye of the cab interior, as rendered in the "hybrid" paper/plastic model posted previously. Not very accurate, but still thought I'd post it:





C. The Front of the Camper Box

The upper two seats in the 815 GTC camper box have superb views forward and to the sides, thanks to a second, elevated windscreen on the camper box, while the lower two seats have another, additional pair of windows to the sides:





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So it would appear that in transit, the Tatra 815 GTC could comfortably seat six people, without needing to resort to the fold-down "jump seat" in the cab. The front of the camper box in effect functioned as a "partial cab"; as in-transit seating space.

All the seats in the camper box can be made horizontal to form beds, and it seems as if expedition members did in fact sleep in their seats......... This seems necessitated by the fact that the Tatra 815 GTC has to accommodate a crew of six. Needless to say, one would not want to replicate this aspect of the design in a TerraLiner.

Above the upper seats in the camper box are roof-top hatches, which allow access to the roof tent used in tropical areas. While driving these hatches also function as “safari top” open-air viewing hatches, and allow photography and film to take place from a high vantage point, unobstructed by glass. These roof-top hatches are most visible in the images of the models posted previously. The camper box side windows are fully operable for ventilation, while the upper windshield is fixed, double-glazed, and fitted with washer/wipers.

The tubular frames that surround both windshields, as well as the front roof of the camper box, protect against mechanical damage.

Between the seats at the front of the camper box there is an instrument panel that includes: internal and external thermometers, compasses for both the northern and southern hemisphere, barometer, hygrometer, timers, controllers for heating and ventilation, instruments for monitoring, and diesel-electric remote control, etc.:





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The seating area at the front of the camper box also functions as a dining area:





So at a minimum one could describe the front of the camper box as a "triple-duty" space. Perhaps even "quadruple".


D. The Middle of the Camper Box: Kitchen and Bathroom

In the central part of of the camper box we find the entrance, located on the right side of the vehicle, the wardrobe, the kitchen, a counter-top equipped with cooker, sink, and gas water heater, a whirlpool washing machine, a refrigerator, and a freezer. A separate space served as a bathroom with shower, washbasin, and chemical toilet; it also functioned as a darkroom with the necessary lighting, color filters, and artificial ventilation:






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E. The Rear of the Camper Box

At the rear of the camper box of the Tatra 815 GTC is a study area equipped with storage cabinets, drawers, a typewriter, and a desk worktop, which flips up to reveal a cushioned surface that can be used as an additional bed. The window in the rear wall of the vehicle also has a washer/wiper.





The following is the camper box interior as rendered in the "hybrid" paper/plastic toy model posted previously. It is very inaccurate, but thought I should still include it here:





F. Systems

The 815 GTC's plumbing system is stainless steel, with thermally insulated tanks carrying 600 liters of potable water. The plumbing system provides continuous pressure serving the kitchen, the washroom, and a shower outside the vehicle. Waste-water from the sink and shower drains into greywater collection tank that holds 180 liters. The 815 GTC carries four "TALK" [?] propane cylinders, 10 kg each, which power the stove and the water heater.

The ventilation and heating is forced-air, powered by a diesel generator producing 12 kW, located in the engine room. The ventilation and heating air is sucked in from outside, through a filter element located at the front of the vehicle. To moderate the temperature of the internal living space, three 3 kW heating units are installed. These units work only with “necyklujícím” air [untranslatable].

The 815 GTC is also fully air-conditioned:





The camper box is equipped with 220 V electricity to power kitchen appliances, pumps, the refrigerator, and fan. The 220 V electrical system connects to the battery via a rotary converter and transformer, or external connections via 50 m cable. The battery is recharged by the alternator when driving, or by the diesel-electric generator, or from external connections, always through the charger. The diesel generator can also separately power the 220 V circuit through the transformer. A 24 V electrical system provides power for overall and local lighting, ventilation for the “vytápějících” generator, and auxiliary equipment [untranslatable].


H. Diesel Generator Compartment

In the “engine room” near the front, located outside the main camper box, is the “vytápějících” diesel-electric generator, rotary transformer, isolation transformer for external power transformer [?], 220/120 V external power transformer for rotary transformer[?], electrical panel, battery charger, circuit breaker, solenoid valves, remote control, and a diesel pump [?] including container for the windscreen washer. The space is accessible by two lids on the side of the vehicle, or by removing the front cover plates after tilting the cab forward.





There was nothing on the Czech websites to indicate that the 815 GTC's 12.5 KW diesel generator is turbo-charged. However, given that the GTC was designed to be extreme-altitude capable, and set a 5300 m altitude record in the Andes, it would be surprising if the GTC's diesel generator were not turbo-charged. See http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...-Solution-for-Heating?highlight=high+altitude for further discussion.


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I. Special equipment

To extend the mobility of the crew, as well as journalistic capability of the Tatra 815 GTC, it carries:

• a modified two-seater Jawa 210 moped
• a two-seater motorized hang glider
• inflatable boats

These are housed at the rear of the vehicle.

The moped is located in a compartment under the rear window, mounted on a pneumatic lift that drops down to ground level. When the Tatra is driving this is raised to the transport position, and the container closed.

The Powered Hang Glider is disassembled into two pieces for transportation: the wing, and the chassis with engine. The wing is stored in a cabinet above the ceiling of the living space, while the chassis with engine is stored in a space above the rear window of the vehicle. It is dropped and lifted from the ground using a crane.

The hang-glider allowed the expedition to film aerial footage, some of which appears in the 2005 documentary video. The inflatable boats also appear in that video, as laid out on the ground by the Guatemalan military. Unfortunately I could not find any still-photos on the web of these supplementary forms of transport; just lots of images of the back of the 815 GTC:







J. The Roof-Top Tent

As an alternative sleeping option, the 815 GTC has a tent on the roof that sleeps four. When unfolded it creates a barrel vault on top of the vehicle. The lids of the box that contain the tent form the sides of the tent, when unfolded. The tent can be reached by the roof hatches, or by a ladder on the side of the truck.

The following images of the tent raised are not that great, but they seem to be all that's available on the web, at present:





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7. Another 6x6 expedition vehicle, inspired by the Tatra 815 GTC


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The 815 GTC seems to have inspired the design of at least one other Tatra 6x6 conversion, the truck used for the "Live Africa" expedition of 1994 – see: http://www.cestovatele.cz/afrika/1998042701.html and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...p://www.cestovatele.cz/afrika/1998042701.html , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/profil , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans....vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/profil , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/cile-hledani-zahad-mapa , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans.../expedice-ziva-afrika/cile-hledani-zahad-mapa , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/sahara , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans....vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/sahara , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/posledni-odlet , http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...afrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/posledni-odlet , http://www.vystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/tragedie , and http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ystavaafrika.cz/expedice-ziva-afrika/tragedie :



View attachment vnoci.jpg



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