TerraLiner:12 m Globally Mobile Beach House/Class-A Crossover w 6x6 Hybrid Drivetrain

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[video=youtube;Sin2r4dllJ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sin2r4dllJ4 [/video] [video=youtube;NcR8exEhk1Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcR8exEhk1Q  [/video]



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• Odyssey Overland, Imaginative Traveller, "L-Bob", and Acacia Africa Overland
  

See http://www.odysseyoverland.co.uk , http://www.odysseyoverland.co.uk/trucks.htm , http://www.imaginative-traveller.com/safari-holidays/why-go/ , http://www.programmabob.com/C-Africa/J1012-6-Namibia/JPEG-Page.html , http://www.acacia-africa.com , http://www.acacia-africa.com/acacia_overland/ , and http://acacia-africa.com/travel_info/acacia_overland_trucks.php :








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• Dragoman

See http://www.dragoman.com/travel-styles/overlanding/trucks , http://theretomorrow.wordpress.com/tag/overland/ , http://www.comparesafaris.com/dragoman.html , and http://vimeo.com/tag:dragoman :












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• Overlanding West Africa
  

See www.overlandingwestafrica.com/thetruck/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/aminah-a-brief-history/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/videos/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/accratofreetown/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-2/ , http://overlandingwestafrica.blogspot.com/2013/10/aminah-arrives-in-dakar-with-al-and-nev.html , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=wall&filter=12 , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=photos_stream , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=videos , and https://www.youtube.com/user/OverlandingWAfrica :









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[video=youtube;483E5ywQ9MM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=483E5ywQ9MM [/video]


For fairly comprehensive lists of overlanding companies, see http://www.comparesafaris.com/safari.html#safaricompany , https://blackfrogpublishing.wordpre...rt-5-which-overland-company-should-i-go-with/ , and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAD61FEF1253144B0 .


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4. A Possible Conclusion: Abundant Windows are both Possible and Desirable


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It bears remembering that the OEX-B is a concept vehicle, and concept vehicles are not supposed to look all that "realistic". They are supposed to look a bit "wild" and out there, especially those developed as Art School MFA theses: the OEX-B concept vehicle was Hamid Bekradi's MFA thesis at an institution in Turin. Furthermore, although I don't like the OEX-B's particular take on curvilinear design -- the OEX-B is more "Colani" than "Art Deco" -- the OEX-B has tried to incorporate a number of key features found in commercial overlanding vehicles, like roof-level observation platforms.

What I find particularly interesting is just how much windowing the typical commercial overlanding vehicle actually has....:sombrero: ... Every truck illustrated above has a passenger box that looks like a bus, with lots and lots of windows. And the front windshields of these commercial overlanding vehicles are not that small, either.

So thjakits: this makes me wonder just how "normative" the Wothahellizat should be. In designing an expedition camper, should we be following the Wothahellizat, with virtually every window covered when underway? Or is it indeed possible to follow the "abundantly windowed" designs of the commercial overlanding vehicles just illustrated? This is a genuinely open question. A puzzle has emerged for me, after reflecting on the amount of open glass in the OEX-B, and the equally abundant glass -- it would seem -- in all currently operating commercial overlanding vehicles.

All best wishes,



Biotect

 

[dwh]

From these photos it should be readily apparent that the OEX-B is not really and expedition camper at all.

It's an insect. A winged beetle that won't fly.

Well...that solar array might fly, but it won't take the truck with it. I wouldn't trust that array in a high wind for a minute.


Besides...if I'm gonna be the brain of an insect, I want a REAL insect body:

 

[biotect]

Hi dwh,

Great video of a crawling tree-chopper…..:sombrero:

You are quite right, of course, Hamid Bekradi's OEX-B does resemble an insect with its wings opened. And probably deliberately so:





I can't find the reference, but I remember reading somewhere that the OEX-B was directly inspired by the morphology of the Scarab Beetle – see http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/scarab/ , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dung_beetle , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarabaeidae , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarabaeus_sacer , and http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/borneo,scarab/Interesting . Here are some photographs of the Scarab Beetle (the first row), and some related Beetles (e.g. the Rhinoceros Beetle ):







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Apparently the Scarab Beetle was every bit as sacred to the Ancient Egyptians, as the Cross is to contemporary Christians. The Scarab Beetle was associated with the god Khepri, who pushed the sun across the sky, much like a Scarab Beetle rolls its eggs in a huge ball of dung along the ground.

Each day the sun disappears, to be reborn again the next. So for the Ancient Egyptians the Scarab Beetle came to be associated with rebirth, the ability to be reborn, transformation, resurrection, immortality, and the power of creation itself – see http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/index.php/events/38-scarabs , http://www.egyptianmyths.net/scarab.htm , http://www.egyptian-scarabs.co.uk , http://www.themagickalcat.com/Amulet-Scarab-Beetle-with-Wings-p/asca.htm , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarab_(artifact)#Religious_significance_of_the_sc arab_beetle , https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091005120746AAVQ8ZE :



...







So even if a Scarab Beetle seems a bit odd as a source of design inspiration for Hamid Bekradi's OEX-M, it is not wholly arbitrary. If anything, it's kind of poetic. No doubt overlanding often seems like trying to roll a very big thing, with great difficulty, across an inhospitable landscape:





But agreed, that solar array will blow right off in a high wind.

All best wishes,


Biotect

 

[optimusprime]

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[video=youtube;483E5ywQ9MM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=483E5ywQ9MM [/video]



For fairly comprehensive lists of overlanding companies, see http://www.comparesafaris.com/safari.html#safaricompany and https://blackfrogpublishing.wordpre...rt-5-which-overland-company-should-i-go-with/ .


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4. A Possible Conclusion: Abundant Windows are both Possible and Desirable


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It bears remembering that the OEX-B is a concept vehicle, and concept vehicles are not supposed to look all that "realistic". They are supposed to look a bit "wild" and out there, especially those developed as Art School MFA theses: the OEX-B concept vehicle was Hamid Bekradi's MFA thesis at an institution in Turin. Furthermore, although I don't like the OEX-B's particular take on curvilinear design -- the OEX-B is more "Colani" than "Art Deco" -- the OEX-B has tried to incorporate a number of key features found in commercial overlanding vehicles, like roof-level observation platforms.

What I find particularly interesting is just how much windowing the typical commercial overlanding vehicle actually has....:sombrero: ... Every truck illustrated above has a passenger box that looks like a bus, with lots and lots of windows. And the front windshields of these commercial overlanding vehicles not that small, either.

So thjakits: this makes me wonder just how "normative" the Wothahellizat should be. In designing an expedition camper, should we be following the Wothahellizat, with virtually every window covered when underway? Or is it indeed possible to follow the "abundantly windowed" designs of the commercial overlanding vehicles just illustrated?

This is a genuinely open question. A puzzle has emerged for me, after reflecting on the amount of open glass in the OEX-B, and the equally abundant glass -- it would seem -- in all currently operating commercial overlanding vehicles.

All best wishes,



Biotect

Thats your answer right there, 'Commercially operated'.
Think about it, you have people, probably like me, who have to work and save up hard for a trip like the one above.
You'd be pretty hacked off if you spent most of the journey sat the the seat without a window!
At the end of the day, they are a buisiness, and there will be a schedule they have to keep up with ( no matter how accomodating they are) they won't have the luxury of the 'expeditioner' who can more or less do as they please.
That is not to say lots of windows are a bad thing, but you need to seperate the needs of 'commercial' and 'private'.
Personally the lots of glass v the least amount of glass arguement is very personal

 

[biotect]

....
dwh, optimusprime,

What I am taking away from this design analysis of Hamid Bekradi's OEX-B, is all those photos just posted above, of overlanding buses used by “touristic” companies such as Dragoman, Oasis, Odyssey, et al. And the abundant windows that all these buses have, even though they travel thousands of kilometers year after year, in overlanding conditions.

Very much agreed with you, optimusprime: the amount of windowing one wants in a private expedition motorhome is perhaps a very personal matter. It's not really about what is "realistic" or "practical" at all, as some have been trying to suggest. But we will see how thjakits responds to these images of overlanding buses packed with windows. I posted so many images to make a very clear point: that it's not just one bus, at just one overlanding company, that is formatted in this way.

In the course of my research I became particularly interested in Overlanding West Africa, because it travels comparatively unusual routes, and focuses on just one region. Here are some more photographs of the same, found mostly on its Facebook website – see https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=wall&filter=12 .

• Overlanding West Africa Continued
  

Again, see www.overlandingwestafrica.com/thetruck/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/aminah-a-brief-history/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/videos/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/accratofreetown/ , http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-2/ , http://overlandingwestafrica.blogspot.com/2013/10/aminah-arrives-in-dakar-with-al-and-nev.html , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=wall&filter=12 , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=photos_stream , https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overlanding-West-Africa/138402216190609?sk=videos , and https://www.youtube.com/user/OverlandingWAfrica :









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thjakits,

Hope you will eventually be able to respond to my prompts…..

In the course of looking through Overlanding West Africa's facebook page, I came across some images that beautifully illustrate your point about front windshield damage.


Before:





The damage:





After:





The damage to “Aminah's” windshield happened in Ghana, caused by something flying off the back of another truck – see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.510084885689005.127160.138402216190609&type=1 and https://www.facebook.com/1384022161...27160.138402216190609/510089159021911/?type=1 .

So again thjakits, your point about the difficulty of replacing a large, 2.5 x 2.3 m windshield in the middle of the jungle is very well taken. Hope you've had time to at least glance at some my posts about a “segmented Art Deco” windshield – see posts #871 to #875 at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page88 ; posts #907 to #911 at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page91 and http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page92 ; and post #949 at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page95 .

And clearly, finding a replacement in Africa for a large complex curved windshield, like that found in Hamid Bekradi's OEX-B, would be well-nigh impossible:





But the point I developed in the course of discussing the OEX-B still stands: lots of commercial overlanding vehicles have lots of windows, windows that remain unprotected during travel.

Any thoughts in response?

All best wishes,



Biotect

 

[biotect]

...
dwh, optimusprime, and thjakits,

I wanted to round out this gallery of commercial overlanding vehicles, with more pictures of the trucks used by Acacia Africa Overland (see http://www.acacia-africa.com/acacia_overland/ , http://acacia-africa.com/travel_info/acacia_overland_trucks.php , http://thesleepybackpacker.com/acacia-overland-review/ , and http://journals.worldnomads.com/whereintheworld/story/12393/South-Africa/The-Real-Acacia ), as well as Drifters Adventures (see http://driftersadventures.com , http://driftersadventures.com/images/DRIFTERS-FLYER-2014-w.pdf , http://www.comparesafaris.com/drifters.html , and http://www.drifters.co.za ).

I hadn't heard of either company before doing this research, but like Overlanding West Africa, their trucks seem relatively new, or newly converted. And they seem particularly well-designed, perhaps because they seem newer than the aging vehicles used by more established operators. Like Overlanding West Africa's "Aminah", the windows on these trucks are very big, and very abundant.

• Acacia Africa Overland
  

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