Der Großer Wagen - MAN 10.220

[Echo_29]

Last Sunday we were descending the trail after a night in the Cinder Cone-Lava Beds in the Mojave National Preserve. On our decent our friends radioed us that to our right two figures were trekking across the creosote covered lava fields heading towards the cinder cone we'd climbed the day before. I speculated that they'd parked on the highway because they didn't have a vehicle capable of traveling to the cones...then we turned the corner and hidden just beyond a 20-foot tall wall of lava we found this amazing vehicle!

Our 80 Series Land Cruiser for scale.

Me for scale; I'm 6'-7".

Jib crane/winch for spare tire (around 40 inches tall) and a couple of bikes.

The camper badge. Here's the website which is rather weak and the translated version (with less images links).

...and paying homage!

Does anyone have links to more thorough sites on build-ups of these vehicles. While I've seen images of these vehicles and know the BIG MAN trucks from Dakar (note the sticker on the side of this rig) I've never come across enthusiast sites for them (but I haven't looked very hard either).

 

[timber]

I saw them on Tuesday While on the loop between Mid Hills and Hole in the Wall. What an amazing rig! Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, I also had to pay homage when they went by.

 

[Echo_29]

Here's a reply to our photo of the MAN on Flickr, it's a link to another MAN truck seen in Joshua Tree in March.

 

[haven]

this page has additional examples from the company that
built the expedition cabin

http://www.der-fehntjer.de/offroad.htm

 

[Lynn]

Here's a reply to our photo of the MAN on Flickr, it's a link to another MAN truck seen in Joshua Tree in March.

Interesting how they mocked up the inside of the camper box, first on paper:

Then (apparently), using styrofoam:

Quite a while ago I ran across a bus conversion blog where they mocked up their interior layout using cardboard, inside of their garage. They spent quite a lot of time 'imagineering' in their mock up, so that they could get a better 'feel' for the layout before they started building.

That's something I plan to do when I build my dream machine. I'd hate to get three months into a multi-year ROW trip and think, "Man, it would have been SO much better if we had put <that> over here, and <this> over there."

For me, that would be worth the effort, rather than just trying to visualize from a 2D floor plan.

 

[Stan]

Does anyone have links to more thorough sites on build-ups of these vehicles. While I've seen images of these vehicles and know the BIG MAN trucks from Dakar (note the sticker on the side of this rig) I've never come across enthusiast sites for them (but I haven't looked very hard either).

Our MAN build can be seen here, http://www.theoverlander.org/blog.html scroll to the bottom to see what we started with. It took us 4 months pretty much solid work this summer, we are now living in it, presently in Germany.
We reckon about a week of that build time was 'thinking/planning'! It was really hard to get the layout to work, but it does.. We have a wood burner, space for the little one and dog(who has unfortunatly passed away)This space is now jakes 'Den'. Layout is KEY, we mocked up stuff and spent days not achieving much other than sitting about in the box!? We used it with our camping gear in and that was very helpfull..
The finished result is here;http://www.theoverlander.org/my-wheels/trucks/the-sleepy-truck.html:ylsmoke:

Stan

 

[Echo_29]

Well the owners of the Über Wagen sent us an email and here's their website: www.dergrossewagen.de

Translated

 

[Volvo73]

Hi,

The Germans love to travel. So there are alot of companies who are building camper trucks. Out of my budget unfortunatly : P Have a look at these websites:

http://www.langerundbock.com/expeditionsfahrzeuge/

http://www.fuess-mobile.de/english%20offen/index_en.htm

http://www.procab.net/templ/en/enprocab_home.html

http://www.exploryx.de/Modelle.49.0.html

http://www.orangework.de/fahrzeuge.htm

http://www.archemobil.de/de/expedition.html

http://www.ormocar.de/index.php?id=21&L=1

I´m going to build up a camper truck by myself in the next 3 years and recently bought this flatbed as the base :drool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5W44YSaPok

Ingo

 

[Echo_29]

Volvo 73,
Thanks for all the great links!

Well we had left our email addresses on the MAN truck and the owners got in touch with us. They were in Anza Borrego before the new year and were coming up to Joshua Tree after Christmas. Since we were going to be in 29 Palms then heading down to the Lo-Desert for a week of camping we arranged to meet up!

Christine and Peter were great hosts and gave us about 45 minutes of their time to tell us about the truck and give us a tour (something they do constantly)!

They had some great stories about their travels (trips to Iceland and Tunisia are simple drive-on ferry trips) and the build-up of the truck. Peter said that building this truck was cheaper than buying a 4x4 Sprinter. They purchased the chassis, had the box company construct the shell then outfitted it themselves thus saving lots of money in the process.


Here's a little video of the behemoth driving away.

 

[JayGannon]

Interesting how they mocked up the inside of the camper box, first on paper:

I have the interior layout of an 80 series Land cruiser on the floor of my studio at the moment, doing something very similar, its a good way to work out good usage of space.

 

[dzzz]

Volvo 73,



Here's a little video of the behemoth driving away.

Neat! any idea of box length?

 

[Echo_29]

Neat! any idea of box length?

I'd guess about 14'

 

[Volvo73]

Its 14.6 x 7.55 x 6.4

 

[EuroJoe]

military trucks

that scania is very impressive, I am always tempted by the 6x6 5 ton US military trucks on ebay, converted to super singles and a living quarters built on the back.............. one day one day:coffeedrink: