Hoping to take off in the future on a trip starting in Europe > Asia > Africa and hopefully without an end date, we are researching which vehicle to buy. We currently have a 2008 Dodge RAM 3500 with the 6.7l Cummins diesel, dual rear wheel and 4x4. The truck has the diesel exhaust filter removed (DEF delete) so no (apparent) need to run ultra low sulfur diesel. On top of the truck sits a 2014 Livin Lite Camplite 8.6 truck camper (aluminium / fiber glass construction).
We've taken our current truck + camper into Mexico and Central America without issues, as well as up to Alaska. (we live in Arizona)
Now our question is: do we ship to Europe to start our trip or buy something (more suitable?) in Europe. The German mobile.de website seems to have many options available.
I have dual citizenship (Belgium + USA) and have family in Belgium. Buying something in Europe and registering it in Belgium is no problem.
Looking at the typical needs of an overlander: large fresh water tank, good/great 4x4 capabilities, solar / sufficient batteries / inverter, cold weather insulation, toilet / shower, reliable vehicle / 'easy' to maintain wherever we are / affordable parts if things break down ...
How would a Unimog with custom camper box work for these needs? The mobile.de website has several unimogs (all setup and ready to go camping) available in the 28K - 50K price range. These unimogs are usually from the late 70s to the late 80s.
How good/bad of an idea is this?
Thanks in advance!
I apologize to everyone for this lengthy entry and that it probably sounds a bit too opinionated -- I should probably just keep my mouth shut but I cannot help myself.
By way of credentials, you can read more of this on my website
www.whiteacorn.com, but in brief:
- My wife an I traveled from the top of North America to the bottom of South
America and return in a Provan Tiger (Chevy Duramax 3500 with camper built on) in 2009 - 2010
totaling 60,000 miles over 18 months. This vehicle had a DPF delete (though not a DEF/AddBlue delete
as it was a pre-DEF/AddBlue vehicle). This is some sort of evidence that a DPF delete will make a vehicle tolerate
higher sulfur fuel. This is our Tiger
- after that in a GXV camper on a U500 Unimog we traveled around the world between July 2012 and today.
In 2012 west to east across Canada, east to west across the US, down the Baja. In early 2013 shipped to
Vladivostok Russia departing from Vlad in April arriving in Istanbul Turkey for Christmas via Russia,
Mongolia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Following that half
of 2014 in Europe, half of 2015 in Europe including Iceland. Now back in Europe for part of 2017,
shipping back to North America in May. We have about 70,000 of our own miles on this truck. So in
all we have done about 130,000 miles of "overlanding" over about 7-8 years in 2 different vehicles.
Our current vehicle is very like Charlies, a 16 foot Camper box on a North America U500 - why this truck?
The only decent 4x4 medium, duty truck available in NA (maybe),
and
I thought it qualified as a "Mercedes" vehicle - a mistake.
Also the European style forward-control truck makes much better use of length and wheel base
than US trucks that have engine in front of the driver.
After 70,000 miles I have a love / hate relationship with the U500. If I lived in Europe the box would now be on
a MAN or IVECO - but I don't. As a number of people have noted. Most overlanding is done on some form of road
and the U500s are not optimized for roads.
In all our travels we have only done a handful of miles where 4x4 was really necessary, and only a little
bit of that would have been such that the Tiger would probably have been stopped and the U500 would have got through.
But that in some ways is the real point. When driving across the steppes of Mongolia and you come to a swampy
creek crossing and there is no one insight you want to be able to get through, you don't want to get bogged,
or turned back.
and just for interest sake
On the other hand I would be the first to say that you "do not need a Unimog" to overland the world. Locals
in every country drive all over the place in little cars and Toyota style 4x4 vehicles.
You can certainly do it in a Dodge with camper.
The Westcotts (turtleexpedition.com) recently drove "the silk road" in a F550 camper. In central Asia we saw people in F250 with slide-in campers and Europeans in front wheel drive motorhomes, young couples from Europe in VW vans with their baby. We have read of guys driving to the Himalayas in a London cab and across Asia in a fire truck.
By way of a change of pace I am going to move away from "which vehicle" and pose a number of "other" issues.
Does you camper have a toilet and if so how are you going to emtpy it. In all our travels through Central America, South America, Russia, Asia and Europe we have only once seen an America style black-water connection. Usually one has to carry the contents of the toilet to a real toilet or in Europe "chemical toilet" dump to be emptied. This got to
be very smelly in our Tiger as it had a US fixed tank which had to be emptied with a bucket. Our current Mog has a
cassete toilet.
How much water ? The Tiger had 40 gals - too little, the Mog has 100 gals - more than enough. We shower, wash clothes
and dishes from that water. Usually drink and cook with bottled water - available nearly every where.
How are you going to fill with water. Water fittings are a problem, water pressure is a problem and in many 3rd world
places there are no faucets(taps) to fill from. In Russia/Mongolia/Central Asia we almost always filled from rivers and streams by putting a 110 volt emersion pump into a stream. In the Tiger we used a 5 gal plastic gerry can to carry water to the vehicle.
Electricity - between April 2013 and January 2014 we never once had a camp site with electricity. We relied on
solar, generator and alternator to charge our house batteries. These also (via a 3000 watt inverter) provided
power for our emersion pump that we used to get water and power drill and angle grinder which we used relatively frequently for minor repairs. I wont even start on what tools to take. Also the world has two different electrical standards 110V or 230V - you probably need to be set up for both. In the Tiger we used a transformer to go from 230V to 110V and in the current vehicle we have a world charger that accepts any voltage.
Tires ? What tires are you going to run and have you researched the areas you want to travel as to what tires are available. In South America our Tiger ran 265/75R16 rating E - a tire that you would think was readily available.
But in 2009-10 it was not. The size was available but the load rating - NO. See the following sign at a small Mongolian town. Whatever you do don't go with fancy odd-sized US off-road speciality tires without checking with local 4x4 clubs as to availability. Tires get destroyed by bad roads as well as simple wear so you need to plan on replacement
while traveling. Incidentally I broke this rule with the Mog - 395/85R20 are in no way readily available. But they
are also almost (but only almost) indestructible. If I had to make a choice for a 3/4 ton US pickup truck I would try to set up to run 10x20, 11x20 or 11R22.5. These ae some of the most common tires around the parts of the world I have visited.
I see a number of European overland vehicle makers are using 385/65R22.5 as being more available and robust than the 365/85R20 or 395/85R20 typical on a Unimog.
How are you going to service your vehicle. Oil filters, fuel filters for you Cummins (and my Duramax) may not be available any where else in the world. They certainly were not available for the Duramax in Chile even though Chile sold Vortex (gasoline/benzine powered) Chevy Silverado 3500s. One of the benefits of the U500 is that is sports a relatively common OM906 Mercedes engine and service parts FOR THE ENGINE are somewhat available. Even so I carry 50,000 miles worth of service parts. And
the engine can go 20,000 miles between oil changes. Though fuel filters are a matter of "how dirty is local fuel".
Fuel range. In preparation for our journey across Central Asia we read many blogs .. one British group reported needing to travel 2800 km between fuel stops in Uzbekistan (diesel fuel is all used for tractors during the cotton harvest). Thus our mog carries 750 L. Uzbekistan was not as bad as that blog suggested but we still traveled 1000km between fuel fills at one point.
If your camper uses propane - carry a range of fittings to both gravity fill your tank and switch in a local tank.
Propane is pretty much available everywhere though getting it into your tank is a challenge - that challenge
is made easier if you do not use a US fixed tank. Think seriously about a diesel fueled heater like a Webasto,
you wont regret it.
Thats enough - you get the drift - there is a lot more to long term living on the road (overlanding) than what is the
right vehicle. Think about the "living" bit.
Go as small as you can live with. Our Mog is 7.95 m L x 2.4 m W x 4.0 m H. The length is OK but it is definitely too high and a little too wide. In terms of size
Europe has been the most difficult region we have traveled with it.
You are lucky if you can buy in Europe. There are a much better range of trucks on which to base a vehicle, MAN, IVECO both trucks and Daily van
and a lot more expertise on building the camper part, as Charlie would testify.
If you have not already looked .. check out expedition-trucks.com
and Eric at adventure-trucks.com if you need any help checking out or preparing a European vehicle,
and of course in Merex in Gaggenau if you finish up with a Mog.
Will a European vehicle in your name require a European license while driving in Europe ?
