LukeH
Adventurer
He designed that unit specifically to be containerable. Can also be homologated with single rear wheels
What a weird sense of déjà vu, to find my first post in a thread about the resurrection of Polycomposit.
About three months before they went under I had a long telephone conversation with the boss. He is a lovely chap, passionate about desert camping and general all terrain self contained travelling. Very knowledgeable about all things Saharan and extremely willing to talk about it. (it’s possible that his time/cost management is what sunk him, considering the time he is happy to give with no commercial prospect).
The Nissan cabstar is converted to 4x4 in Spain by the only Nissan approved converter in Europe. Nissan themselves have homologated this conversion meaning that it’s even possible to register it in France (Anyone who’s had to deal with French administration, or read the 12 tasks of Asterix, will understand how difficult that is). It’s available as a double cab too.
The unit can be sold as a 3.5 tonne vehicle, but that means very little fuel and water capacity, and don’t put any luggage on board. The 5 tonne option is more sensible, but in Europe that’s a HGV licence unless you’ve had your licence a while.
The overcab bed prevents the cab from tilting. There’s no way around it, that model was built as a prototype for the boss, who has total confidence in the base vehicle. He is also not scared of undoing the whole lot and pushing the truck out from under the body if needs be; and that’s how he gets to the engine.
The operation takes a couple of hours and leaves the body on stilts. It’s not technically a demountable for registration purposes and because of the torsion free mounting (which he didn’t want to tell me about) but IMHO two hours to get the body off is short enough to consider it so.
I repeat it does fit into a container, with steel disks in the place of the wheels it drops down low enough to drive into a standard container.
How the hell you get out of the cab is another question.
It can be mounted on a Mitsu too…
It sure isn’t Unicat, but the prices aren’t either. IMHO if you want a light weight turnkey camper (5 tonne Nissan is light for me) They’re a good option.
I now live in Antibes, which is about 4 hours from Valence; it sounds like a lot but I would happily come up and pick up anyone potentially interested, to join a factory visit and translate. Any excuse to talk trucks is good for me, and although I’m in a heavier market it’s always good to pick up knowledge. Airports nearby are Nice (near me) Avignon, Grenoble, Lyon.
Happy trails
Luke
Hello friends,cab-forward medium duty 4x4 (this one definitely won't fit into a container)
What a weird sense of déjà vu, to find my first post in a thread about the resurrection of Polycomposit.
About three months before they went under I had a long telephone conversation with the boss. He is a lovely chap, passionate about desert camping and general all terrain self contained travelling. Very knowledgeable about all things Saharan and extremely willing to talk about it. (it’s possible that his time/cost management is what sunk him, considering the time he is happy to give with no commercial prospect).
The Nissan cabstar is converted to 4x4 in Spain by the only Nissan approved converter in Europe. Nissan themselves have homologated this conversion meaning that it’s even possible to register it in France (Anyone who’s had to deal with French administration, or read the 12 tasks of Asterix, will understand how difficult that is). It’s available as a double cab too.
The unit can be sold as a 3.5 tonne vehicle, but that means very little fuel and water capacity, and don’t put any luggage on board. The 5 tonne option is more sensible, but in Europe that’s a HGV licence unless you’ve had your licence a while.
The overcab bed prevents the cab from tilting. There’s no way around it, that model was built as a prototype for the boss, who has total confidence in the base vehicle. He is also not scared of undoing the whole lot and pushing the truck out from under the body if needs be; and that’s how he gets to the engine.
The operation takes a couple of hours and leaves the body on stilts. It’s not technically a demountable for registration purposes and because of the torsion free mounting (which he didn’t want to tell me about) but IMHO two hours to get the body off is short enough to consider it so.
I repeat it does fit into a container, with steel disks in the place of the wheels it drops down low enough to drive into a standard container.
How the hell you get out of the cab is another question.
It can be mounted on a Mitsu too…
It sure isn’t Unicat, but the prices aren’t either. IMHO if you want a light weight turnkey camper (5 tonne Nissan is light for me) They’re a good option.
I now live in Antibes, which is about 4 hours from Valence; it sounds like a lot but I would happily come up and pick up anyone potentially interested, to join a factory visit and translate. Any excuse to talk trucks is good for me, and although I’m in a heavier market it’s always good to pick up knowledge. Airports nearby are Nice (near me) Avignon, Grenoble, Lyon.
Happy trails
Luke
