LocoCoyote
World Citizen
Went down to the Abenteuer Allrad expo in Bad Kissingen this past Thursday (4 June 2015). Since it was a Holiday in Germany, I was able to sneak off and have a look around. Unfortunately I had to be back at work on Friday, do a one day blitz-tour was all I could swing. But still, it was a great day with lots to see.
One of the problems with attending any expo on opening day is of course the crowds. I don't know how many people wound up attending, but if day one was any indication then I am sure they met or exceeded the expected crowd of 50,000. I must pass on my personal kudos to the organizers, though....as always they did a superb job of arranging the various park and camping areas and transport (free of course) between these areas and the expo grounds. One of my big disappointments was failing to run across Scott Bradey; one of my personal overlanding heroes and fellow Arizonian (I am from Williams myself...way before I wound up transplanted to Germany). I did, however, get to meet (again and briefly...they had a lot of action the day I was there!) two of my other heroes from the overlanding world; Sabine & Burchard Koch from Pistenkuh.de. These two have been living the dream and doing us all the service of documenting (in writing and film) their travels. If you haven't visited their site yet, I highly recommend it.
And the last disappointment ..... for some reason my usually trusty iPhone failed to take good pictures. I am no expert (obviously
) but I suspect it had much to do with all the wonderful sun we had that day. It is hard to be upset about that. Most of my pictures came out very dark and unusable. The only good ones I have tend to be ones I took later in the day. So I apologizes for the lack of cool pics from the expo...I will give you what I have.
The first trend I noticed was the propensity of van type conversions. Many Mercedes Sprinters and the like. Some very nice VW based campers also. The problem I have with these is no matter how much you feature these up, they always lack one crucial thing....ground clearance. Some truly clever and well considered builds were constantly being derailed by this problem. One of my favorite builders, ORC (more on them later) had a nice Sprinter with the cutest little wheels (wheels = rim + tire for me...just so you know). The thing is, they really were not that small....235/75/R16... They just looked small on the raised body/suspension they had. But look underneath at the diffs....yep...no clearance to speak of.
Roof top tents were present, of course, but the trend was heavily toward built up campers as well as (quite surprisingly for Europe), drop in campers. Most vehicles incorporated a camper of some sort or another. The other trend was what I term "man! that's big". Seriously, it seems that the sizes of the overlanding vehicles is growing. defender 130s instead of 110s, Iveco daileys, Mitsubishi Fuso and the like were very prominent.
And there were the Unimogs.....
It was here I found my first pleasant surprise of the day. Mercedes Benz, in cooperation with Hellgeth engineering, now offers a special model Unimog suited to the overlanding community. The Unimog 5030.
So let's compare some numbers, shall we? The 5023 gives you a 5.1l four cylinder engine that produces 231hp and 900nm torque @ 1200-1600rpm. It has a selectable 4x4 and a GVW of 13 tons (metric). The 5030 give you a 7.7l six cylinder engine that produces 299hp and 1200Nm torque @ 1200-1600rpm. It has permanent 4x4 and a GVW of 13 tons. Both engines meet Euro 6 emission standards. All other aspects of the vehicles are the same. The cabs are more car like in that they are well insulated/sound dampened and boast many features like multifunction steering wheels, bluetooth connectivity, etc. Very nice.
Land Rovers were well represented with the majority of them being Defenders of one stripe or another. With this being Germany, this was hardly surprising....I think the number of Defenders over here rivals that of the number in the UK. Seriously, they are very popular here. Land Cruisers were also well represented as were various quads, buggies, and other off-road stuff that are less interesting for overland travel purposes. Still fun stuff, though.
The only vehicles that trump the well loved Unimogs, are the G wagons. ORC (orc.de) had once again one of my favorite stopping places with several nicely worked over G's in attendance. The absolute star of the show (for me) was a flat green camper build on portals (more on this further down). The camper body was more boxy than is traditional and gave the G a unique look that was just cool..... This was a one off build for a customer, but any of the modifications that it had can be performed by ORC. In fact, there is a very nice documentation that shows ORC take down and totally rebuild a 30 year old G wagon...inspiring stuff.
In the last picture you can see the ORC G Camper 2 that was for sale. Aside from its being black (a terrible thing to do to a vehicle), it was a very nice build and is produced as a series....i.e. you can order one from ORC. This one was on special for a mere euro 99,999. If I had another 99.998 in my pocket, I would have bought it on the spot!
There was another very nice G put up on portals and painted my favorite sand color.... which brings me to portal axles on a G wagon...
I am going to go against the current trend and state up front that I am against them. While I love the way they look and I recognize the off-road enhancements they provide, they make little sense for a overlanding rig. The main points I dislike are the raised center of gravity and the extra weight of the tires...since it looks like you can't put on portals without going to an insane tire size. Taking the examples showed at ORC, you wind up with a tire/wheel that weighs about 70kg....that is like putting 4 or 5 extra people in your rig weight wise....insane! Plus the near impossibility of finding oversize tires like that when traveling the backwaters of the world. I do like that the strain on the axles is reduced by up to 60%....the only real benefit I can see from portals. Besides, the G wagon is already more capable that you will ever need when traveling overland...if you are tackling something it can't handle and it is not a life or death situation....well, you are just wrong anyway and might want to reconsider your choice of traveling overland! ;-)
and the final tidbit and for me the best: Word has it that Mercedes will again offer the G wagon Professional in 2016! Several folks in the industry told me this during various chats and talk around those wonderful G's!
anyway, those are my impressions from the expo this year.
One of the problems with attending any expo on opening day is of course the crowds. I don't know how many people wound up attending, but if day one was any indication then I am sure they met or exceeded the expected crowd of 50,000. I must pass on my personal kudos to the organizers, though....as always they did a superb job of arranging the various park and camping areas and transport (free of course) between these areas and the expo grounds. One of my big disappointments was failing to run across Scott Bradey; one of my personal overlanding heroes and fellow Arizonian (I am from Williams myself...way before I wound up transplanted to Germany). I did, however, get to meet (again and briefly...they had a lot of action the day I was there!) two of my other heroes from the overlanding world; Sabine & Burchard Koch from Pistenkuh.de. These two have been living the dream and doing us all the service of documenting (in writing and film) their travels. If you haven't visited their site yet, I highly recommend it.
And the last disappointment ..... for some reason my usually trusty iPhone failed to take good pictures. I am no expert (obviously
) but I suspect it had much to do with all the wonderful sun we had that day. It is hard to be upset about that. Most of my pictures came out very dark and unusable. The only good ones I have tend to be ones I took later in the day. So I apologizes for the lack of cool pics from the expo...I will give you what I have. The first trend I noticed was the propensity of van type conversions. Many Mercedes Sprinters and the like. Some very nice VW based campers also. The problem I have with these is no matter how much you feature these up, they always lack one crucial thing....ground clearance. Some truly clever and well considered builds were constantly being derailed by this problem. One of my favorite builders, ORC (more on them later) had a nice Sprinter with the cutest little wheels (wheels = rim + tire for me...just so you know). The thing is, they really were not that small....235/75/R16... They just looked small on the raised body/suspension they had. But look underneath at the diffs....yep...no clearance to speak of.
Roof top tents were present, of course, but the trend was heavily toward built up campers as well as (quite surprisingly for Europe), drop in campers. Most vehicles incorporated a camper of some sort or another. The other trend was what I term "man! that's big". Seriously, it seems that the sizes of the overlanding vehicles is growing. defender 130s instead of 110s, Iveco daileys, Mitsubishi Fuso and the like were very prominent.
And there were the Unimogs.....
It was here I found my first pleasant surprise of the day. Mercedes Benz, in cooperation with Hellgeth engineering, now offers a special model Unimog suited to the overlanding community. The Unimog 5030.
So let's compare some numbers, shall we? The 5023 gives you a 5.1l four cylinder engine that produces 231hp and 900nm torque @ 1200-1600rpm. It has a selectable 4x4 and a GVW of 13 tons (metric). The 5030 give you a 7.7l six cylinder engine that produces 299hp and 1200Nm torque @ 1200-1600rpm. It has permanent 4x4 and a GVW of 13 tons. Both engines meet Euro 6 emission standards. All other aspects of the vehicles are the same. The cabs are more car like in that they are well insulated/sound dampened and boast many features like multifunction steering wheels, bluetooth connectivity, etc. Very nice.
Land Rovers were well represented with the majority of them being Defenders of one stripe or another. With this being Germany, this was hardly surprising....I think the number of Defenders over here rivals that of the number in the UK. Seriously, they are very popular here. Land Cruisers were also well represented as were various quads, buggies, and other off-road stuff that are less interesting for overland travel purposes. Still fun stuff, though.
The only vehicles that trump the well loved Unimogs, are the G wagons. ORC (orc.de) had once again one of my favorite stopping places with several nicely worked over G's in attendance. The absolute star of the show (for me) was a flat green camper build on portals (more on this further down). The camper body was more boxy than is traditional and gave the G a unique look that was just cool..... This was a one off build for a customer, but any of the modifications that it had can be performed by ORC. In fact, there is a very nice documentation that shows ORC take down and totally rebuild a 30 year old G wagon...inspiring stuff.
In the last picture you can see the ORC G Camper 2 that was for sale. Aside from its being black (a terrible thing to do to a vehicle), it was a very nice build and is produced as a series....i.e. you can order one from ORC. This one was on special for a mere euro 99,999. If I had another 99.998 in my pocket, I would have bought it on the spot!
There was another very nice G put up on portals and painted my favorite sand color.... which brings me to portal axles on a G wagon...
I am going to go against the current trend and state up front that I am against them. While I love the way they look and I recognize the off-road enhancements they provide, they make little sense for a overlanding rig. The main points I dislike are the raised center of gravity and the extra weight of the tires...since it looks like you can't put on portals without going to an insane tire size. Taking the examples showed at ORC, you wind up with a tire/wheel that weighs about 70kg....that is like putting 4 or 5 extra people in your rig weight wise....insane! Plus the near impossibility of finding oversize tires like that when traveling the backwaters of the world. I do like that the strain on the axles is reduced by up to 60%....the only real benefit I can see from portals. Besides, the G wagon is already more capable that you will ever need when traveling overland...if you are tackling something it can't handle and it is not a life or death situation....well, you are just wrong anyway and might want to reconsider your choice of traveling overland! ;-)
and the final tidbit and for me the best: Word has it that Mercedes will again offer the G wagon Professional in 2016! Several folks in the industry told me this during various chats and talk around those wonderful G's!
anyway, those are my impressions from the expo this year.
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