Saurer 6DM ... soon to be ours!

AdventureAddictMama

AdventureAddictMama

New member
Hi everyone! We live about 30 minutes outside of Portland, Oregon and next week we are adding another member to our family of adventure vehicles...
a 1985 Saurer DM Transport! (See dealer's picture below.)
SAURER.jpeg
The idea is to build a box/have one made/etc? that can be loaded on/off the Saurer when we want to use it for trips. Hubby is also thinking of a free standing box we can pull away from while traveling. So many ideas! We will need it to sleep 4 and box needs to be built for all-season travel. (We are big skiers here!)
Would love any ideas, advice and/or suggestions you may have. Anything goes!
Also, if you have pictures of what you've done, we'd love to see your rigs.
We are excited to start this project and share this adventure with our two childen.
Thanks!
-Susan :)
 
L

lostih

Observer
Cool! Another shougie! I started with similar goals for my camper. We have two kiddos and wanted the truck to be available for use whilst not traveling and to be able to offload and move around a bit while traveling. I ended up having to settle on just coming off at the end of trips...my box got heavy etc. I suppose I could take it off while traveling, but doubt that will happen on this trip. Anyways, check out my build thread for picks of where I ended up. Hope to see your truck around town!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
S

SaurerDad

New member
java said:
Paging @Victorian!

They will make any custom sized insulated box, would be perfect for what your looking for! Foam core fiberglass panels, sold complete or DIY kits. https://totalcomposites.com/ No I did not use them nor work for them, but its a really nice product I did look at using before I bough my box truck.

Hope to see you skiing around the PNW!
Click to expand...

Thank you for that, the more we look we always seem to come across totalcomposites. Looking forward to starting our build!
 
mog

mog

Kodiak Buckaroo
SaurerDad said:
Thanks mog,
Do you have a camper box on the Fuso?
Click to expand...
I have a set of Total Composite panels to build a 7x14 box for the Fuso, I'm just looking for the time (and less than 100-degree weather) to build it.
I helped build an 8x16 TC panel cabin for an LMTV, awesome components.

I'll be up at the Northwest Mogfest in Sheridan (with the 1017) Northwest Mogfest
 
S

SaurerDad

New member
mog said:
I have a set of Total Composite panels to build a 7x14 box for the Fuso, I'm just looking for the time (and less than 100-degree weather) to build it.
I helped build an 8x16 TC panel cabin for an LMTV, awesome components.

I'll be up at the Northwest Mogfest in Sheridan (with the 1017) Northwest Mogfest
Click to expand...

mog,
I would love to see any pics of the LMTV build if you have any. We will be at mogfest as well, see you there!
 
mog

mog

Kodiak Buckaroo
SaurerDad said:
mog,
I would love to see any pics of the LMTV build if you have any. We will be at mogfest as well, see you there!
Click to expand...
As Andres linked, Quaid has tons of build photos posted LINK . I did not have a camera with me.
I'll PM you with my contact info. I'll be there in 'Mammut', so look for this,
side.jpg
Or the guy walking around with his Emotional Support Animal ;)
esa-wollymammoth.jpg
 
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Grenadiers

Grenadiers

Adventurer
Good luck on your build~! If we had purchased our Saurer without a 'Kabine', we'd have done it differently. The German SGH cargo box is too short (13' long, but we added 29 more inches) and more importantly, too narrow. When in Baja last January, we met a young couple with a box that was eight feet wide outside dimension, our interior is 6.75 feet wide. Long enough for my 6' 2" body to stretch out in the bed, but, the extra inches would be helpful for moving about the cabin. But, it's just the two of us with a dog and cat, and plenty of space for us. Also, our bed is elevated in the back, which is nice for the rear 'garage', but the table/bed is right in front of it. You have to crawl over the table, or whoever is in bed there at the time, to hit the head at night. With the wider cabin, you can put the table to the side, we have a big cabinet on one side by the door, and opposite is the sink/stove. And we have the heater/water heater under one side of the table bench, and the other has the 50 gallon water tank. The Swiss couple that built it did a fine job, and we can't change any of that. Also, the Kabine is built with extruded aluminum studs and cross members, very strong. So, the Kabine is bolted to the aluminum 'bed', no pivoting sub-system. I don't worry about it, no cracks in the 5,000 mles we've put on it. The Saurer's suspension, as you are aware, is not an articulating juggernaut! So, the previous poster's pic of crawling up and over a stump might not apply to our vehicles~! I have a rock crawling Jeep Wrangler TJ Unlimited, and am quite familiar with an articulating suspension, and can't see our Saurer in similar situations. Soft Baja beaches are ok though~!
 
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S

SaurerDad

New member
Thanks for your response. We just returned from Northwest Mogfest where the Saurer was a hit! There were a lot of comments based around,"That is the biggest truck I have seen!" I am gaining confidence behind the wheel and am continually amazed at the engineering that went into these trucks. Now that the truck is officially registered we are moving ahead with our design and build out. We will keep in touch as we sort out the layout.
 
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