Ex army trucks - Are they worth it?

[Christian]

It would be much easier to help you, if you gave a bit more information such as:

What is your experience with 4x4's, trucks, overlanding, expedition vehicles?
What is your level of competence mechanically? can/have you built/worked on trucks etc. before?
What are your plans, both travel-wise and build-wise? do you plan to build it yourself?
What is your budget/timeframe?

 

[frabraha]

It would be much easier to help you, if you gave a bit more information such as:

What is your experience with 4x4's, trucks, overlanding, expedition vehicles?
What is your level of competence mechanically? can/have you built/worked on trucks etc. before?
What are your plans, both travel-wise and build-wise? do you plan to build it yourself?
What is your budget/timeframe?

Sure thing.

Have no experience with 4x4's, trucks. Have a roof-top tent on my car, that we have used for trips, overlanding and such.
Mechanically competence, yes. But not worked on trucks before.
We are a couple with no kids.

The plans are:

• Get a suitable truck
• Order the habitation box, this will be done by a company. Just the empty box.
• While waiting for the box to be build, and depending the state of the truck. Fix things that need to be fixed.
• Find a suitable place to build out the interior of the box
• Travel travel travel

Plan to do as much as we can ourself, but can and should outsource what we are not capable to do ourself.
Timeframe, buy the truck sometime next year. Hopefully finish the build by the end of 2026.
Budget is about 130 - 150 000 euro

 

[Christian]

And you are in Norway? I'm from Denmark.

First of all spend a lot of time gathering information and draw on the experience of others, not necessarily asking directly, but just looking at blogs, in forums, youtube etc.
Find out what your actual needs are, and be prepared to revise them again and again and be willing to kill your darlings.

Regarding the trucks you listed, IMOP they are totally overkill. Remember you are talking about moving to persons, not recovering a stuck tank.
And while big 6X6 trucks like that look cool and all, they are heavy! Everything about them are, planetary axles and up.
And something like that will be costly in all aspects, from fuel, maintenance, tyres, tax etc.

The size and weight alone will limit your travels more than going the other way to a light 2WD.

Why? Think about bridges on back roads, they have weight limits, atleast in Europe. The dimensions means that the turning circle will be a problem. The height will be a problem too...

 

[frabraha]

And you are in Norway? I'm from Denmark.

First of all spend a lot of time gathering information and draw on the experience of others, not necessarily asking directly, but just looking at blogs, in forums, youtube etc.
Find out what your actual needs are, and be prepared to revise them again and again and be willing to kill your darlings.

Regarding the trucks you listed, IMOP they are totally overkill. Remember you are talking about moving to persons, not recovering a stuck tank.
And while big 6X6 trucks like that look cool and all, they are heavy! Everything about them are, planetary axles and up.
And something like that will be costly in all aspects, from fuel, maintenance, tyres, tax etc.

The size and weight alone will limit your travels more than going the other way to a light 2WD.

Why? Think about bridges on back roads, they have weight limits, atleast in Europe. The dimensions means that the turning circle will be a problem. The height will be a problem too...

Some great tips.
Yes, from Norway.

We have been researching for a couple of years now. Looked at a lot of youtuber's and some on this forum aswell.
We have also started drawing out what we want and need. And are well aware of the limitation of a big truck. When we are traveling, the plan is to rent a place to park for a couple of months or so, and have the truck parked. And explore the area with an ATV, bikes and such. Then move on to the next couple of months parkingspace. That way we don't need to take the big truck on all of the smallest roads. Well, thats the plan anyway.

At first we looked at maybe a bus would be suitable, but that has its limitation aswell

And what decided we should go for a truck, we really want to go to Africa and east to Mongolia.

 

[Neil]

Anyone know how those Steyr trucks are compare to a similar MAN truck?

Both these manufaturers make great trucks.

However, in a later post you suggest you want to go through Africa and the far east.

MAN parts are tough to source outside europe and Steyr parts are tough to source everywhere, including europe.

I would look at whats more common in the places you want to go and what the dealer networks are like.

I love Steyr's but would never go world wide in one . You will never get parts

Neil

 

[frabraha]

Both these manufaturers make great trucks.

However, in a later post you suggest you want to go through Africa and the far east.

MAN parts are tough to source outside europe and Steyr parts are tough to source everywhere, including europe.

I would look at whats more common in the places you want to go and what the dealer networks are like.

I love Steyr's but would never go world wide in one . You will never get parts

Neil

Really?

I read somewhere that MAN was the most worldwide of them all. And that getting parts for it was easy.

 

[Christian]

Really?

I read somewhere that MAN was the most worldwide of them all. And that getting parts for it was easy.

I doubt MAN is the most common truck, but that doesn't matter, the KAT1 is no ordinary MAN!
And less than 10.000 units have been built from 1975 up until early 2019.
No ordinary MAN supplier will have parts for these. Just look at those axles...

Although questionable, the one your are looking at even has the aircooled Deutz diesel, which can be good or bad partswise, but definitely a heavy drinker!!!

 

[frabraha]

I doubt MAN is the most common truck, but that doesn't matter, the KAT1 is no ordinary MAN!
And less than 10.000 units have been built from 1975 up until early 2019.
No ordinary MAN supplier will have parts for these. Just look at those axles...

Although questionable, the one your are looking at even has the aircooled Deutz diesel, which can be good or bad partswise, but definitely a heavy drinker!!!

Just tried to google most common truck. Got F-Series from Ford. The most annoying thing, truck has another meaning in the USA then in the rest of the world...

Well, there will always be some parts of the world that hasn't this or that part.

Steyr trucks, are they as reliable as a MAN (not the KAT, but a "normal" MAN truck)?
I've been following the Yoda Travels on youtube, they're Steyr seems like a god reliable truck.

 

[Neil]

I read somewhere that MAN was the most worldwide of them all. And that getting parts for it was easy.

Not sure where you got that information from

I think there are only a handful of dealers in the whole of the Americas. Definately from Mexico south I have never seen one. I was told that there was a very limited supply of parts through VW but these will be factory orders and take weeks .

As Christian said , getting parts for a KAT will be be almost impossible .

It's a minefield. I have an old Mercedes and South and Central America has been really easy for parts. However, I am awarecthatvthe the USA and Canada will be very difficult .

My advice would be go as common as you can . Anything unusual such as Steyr or KAT, HX60 etc will be a challenge.

In addition , if going to more remote parts of the world then less electronic and more Mechanical can have its benefits

Neil

 

[frabraha]

Not sure where you got that information from

I think there are only a handful of dealers in the whole of the Americas. Definately from Mexico south I have never seen one. I was told that there was a very limited supply of parts through VW but these will be factory orders and take weeks .

As Christian said , getting parts for a KAT will be be almost impossible .

It's a minefield. I have an old Mercedes and South and Central America has been really easy for parts. However, I am awarecthatvthe the USA and Canada will be very difficult .

My advice would be go as common as you can . Anything unusual such as Steyr or KAT, HX60 etc will be a challenge.

In addition , if going to more remote parts of the world then less electronic and more Mechanical can have its benefits

Neil

Good advice.

 

[Ozarker]

Which makes me think, for a couple to travel Europe and Africa, a well built F-250 or F 150, would be a better choice. I get the alure of the mega trucks, but as a DIY rig? Fords roam the globe, it checks every box as to travel, I recall mountain passes in the Alps and I'm glad I wasn't in a mega truck.

 

[Deleted Member 183]

Regardless of the truck you choose... Make sure you have a DHL account! And possibly a good German customs broker with "connections" in the countries you plan to travel. It also might serve you to take an "expedition" to (probably Germany) find the best medium heavy duty junk yards and get to be buddies with the owners!

Over the years I have gotten quite a few friends in "low places"... That are willing to palletize "chunks of truck" for a DHL pickup.

 

[frabraha]

Regardless of the truck you choose... Make sure you have a DHL account! And possibly a good German customs broker with "connections" in the countries you plan to travel. It also might also serve you to take an "expedition" to (probably Germany) find the best medium heavy duty junk yards and get to be buddies with the owners!

Over the years I have gotten quite a few friends in "low places"... That are willing to palletize "chunks of truck" for a DHL pickup.

Great advice! Have not thought about that

 

[Arjan]

If you feel you need a truck, 4x4 and want to travel the world I suggest looking at Iveco. They make seriously good trucks 3,5 tonnes upwards. I had a ex. firebrigade back up Eurocargo truck, RWD with auto chains and 14 M2 living. On the 1st trip I sold it to a couple he really wanted it. MAke sure you know what you ask for - the EU has very limited use for a truck like that. Now looking for a 3,5 tonnes Iveco Daily as they can easily converted to 4WD if needed, have good parts and service in many places and use way less fuel etc. than a 8 tonne truck. Also, EU is seriously looking into tachographs etc. for private use over 3,5 tonnes....

Bon Courage !

 

[modernbeat]

With your current budget and experience, I'd buy a truck that was already done and try it out. And only then would I either modify it, buy a different truck, or build a custom habitat.
And there are trucks that fit your budget. This one looks like a decent truck for that price.

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