palebluewanders
Active member
Hello and Happy Easter, everyone! Our story actually began nearly a year ago, but we haven't made a huge amount of progress in that time so it won't be a very long story. ?
We bought this beautiful Mercedes 1124 AF (automatic and with front diff!) from a German dealer last May:
The next 7 months were just dealing with various German mechanics. We don't live in Germany or speak any German so that was fun. In all that time the only things they accomplished were:
In December we finally managed to get the truck from Germany to the UK. We even drove it a little bit for the first time! That was great. It's been in the good hands of Atkinson Vos since then (and in good company since Gertrude is also there!).
We're a bit later in the queue than Gertrude so they haven't gotten it into the workshop yet, but they have (with great patience and good humor) worked on designing some of the exterior stuff to our specifications:
In the meantime, we've been working on the interior design. This is what we have so far:
It has, unless we change our minds:
Still need to figure out:
And that's more or less where we are now. Oh, and we very recently decided to name her Meertruck, partly because it makes us laugh. Looking forward to sharing our progress and absorbing some wisdom from the forum, no doubt we will need a lot of it in the months to come.
Cheers,
Tracy & Toni
We bought this beautiful Mercedes 1124 AF (automatic and with front diff!) from a German dealer last May:
The next 7 months were just dealing with various German mechanics. We don't live in Germany or speak any German so that was fun. In all that time the only things they accomplished were:
- Some minor repairs
- Replacing the tires (385 / 65R22.5 Hankook AM15+)
- Removing the fire department box
In December we finally managed to get the truck from Germany to the UK. We even drove it a little bit for the first time! That was great. It's been in the good hands of Atkinson Vos since then (and in good company since Gertrude is also there!).
We're a bit later in the queue than Gertrude so they haven't gotten it into the workshop yet, but they have (with great patience and good humor) worked on designing some of the exterior stuff to our specifications:
In the meantime, we've been working on the interior design. This is what we have so far:
It has, unless we change our minds:
- Shower in the entrance to save space and also to clean off our future dog as he/she enters the living cabin
- Separett Tiny toilet
- Massive 300L Vitrifrigo fridge
- Bosch built-in oven/microwave
- Bosch kitchen extractor hood
- Induction cooktop (possibly hidden under the counter so it's all usable counter space without worrying about the glass)
- Cruise N Comfort AC
- Two 5kW Espar diesel hydronic heaters with underfloor heating, water heating, some radiators, etc. Will do the usual thing of borrowing heat from the engine too.
- Fancy air circulation system that Toni spent weeks designing
- The biggest window Outbound makes, lol (plus a couple of smaller ones)
Still need to figure out:
- Electrical system
- Part time recirculating shower (probably only the additional "luxury" part of the shower after all the grime and soap are washed away)
- The rest of the plumbing
- Maybe alternatives to wood to build furniture out of
- Whether we want to use aluminum extrusions for structure and where
- Where to put the radiators (can they go right under the Outbound window blinds that stick out so far from the wall?)
- Everything else
And that's more or less where we are now. Oh, and we very recently decided to name her Meertruck, partly because it makes us laugh. Looking forward to sharing our progress and absorbing some wisdom from the forum, no doubt we will need a lot of it in the months to come.
Cheers,
Tracy & Toni
