using a travel trailer on a MAN KAT 6x6 or 8x8

[Frenchy]

hi,

i am planing to buy a MAN KAT for a trip to Africa (first then probably South America :sombrero: ).

But in Europe having a camper box build for a truck is very expensive, let's say for the price of a travel trailer (with slidings) from most american rv builder, you will have the same (but totaly empty) box without sliding in Europe.

So i was thinking to buy a travel trailer, import it to Europe and have it fix on a MAN KAT or bring the truck to USA and have the box directly build on it.

Do you know any travel trailer manufacturer who can supply this kind of custums demands?

thanks
David

 

[kerry]

The general lack of quality and subsequent flimsiness of most US RV's would deter me from following this route.
Why not buy a used European travel trailer and mount it to the MAN?

 

[Frenchy]

i don t know any brand who offer slide out option in Europe.

But will all the different trailer brands in US, i hope there are some with a better quality than others.

i have seen for example some Lance trailer on some 4x4 pick up, but i don t know the quality of them.

 

[kerry]

There is different quality in different manufacturers and there are some high quality pick up campers. I don't know where Lance campers stand in the quality range. There are a few pick up campers which have slide out options. I don't know if any of those slide outs are built strongly enough to endure off road applications. I'd definitely want to see some evidence that a slideout would be up to to the task of existence on a MAN truck before investing in it. Most of the ones I have seen have not struck me as being very rugged.

 

[ersatzknarf]

Perhaps one of the all fiberglass Bigfoot-type trailers would be an option ?

Here is something similar to what you are trying to do :

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9299

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9218

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18478

 

[Jeep]

you'd have to use an Airstream to get any quality, ugly, but solid

 

[LukeH]

not in France you won't

Hi Frenchy, I'm guessing from your pseudo that you might just be based in France.
The only way you could register a KAT in France would be as a collector's classic (carte grise collection) and as such it must be over 30 years old and you can't modify it!
The service des mines won't accept it on an individual basis, and MAN France refuse to issue a certificate of conformity.

Sorry to pee on your camp fire, but for the load bay length and load capacity there are much more comfortable vehicles that drive better and are legal in France.
Having said that if you don't mind cruising at 75 km/h and having to stop and empty every fuel station on your route, then you can get a 6x6 on vebeg for under 15000 euros, but you generally need to do some work on the oil seals.
Bolting a trailer on, at least you can hard mount; no need to faff around with 3 point fixings. The KAT has a rigid tubular chassis. Fantastic toys.

 

[deminimis]

Frenchy, as far as slideouts and overland travels, you might be in for mechanism and structural failures, plus the added chances of leaks. You may want to check out Doug Hackney's blog on their build. Sounds like you might be looking to do something similar. Because of them, I went with a Bigfoot camper. Needed something to hold up to Baja and we've were impressed. Oh, here's his build (plus it can be found on here): http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/

Good luck!

 

[TimMakins]

...but for the load bay length and load capacity there are much more comfortable vehicles that drive better and are legal in France.

Hi Luke - I would love to hear your suggestions for such vehicles. I hope to get a 4x4 or 6x6 truck for full time living, and feel that the <7.5 ton category doesn't offer enough room for this. Looking at ex-military vehicles. Spares would be useful { Reliability is paramount. What would you suggest?

Tim, currently traveling in Ghana

 

[DontPanic42]

You might want to check this out:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42205

 

[egn]

Here you see a camping trailer "mounted" to a MAN KAT, just fastened by belts. It worked fine when driving through Sahara as assistant truck.

But off course there are no slide outs. I wouldn't recommend any with a real overland vehicle, because of vibrations and shake. It surely would fall apart over time on very bad roads.

This works also with classic cars because the camper is just freight.

2 month ago a friend of mine was buying a pretty good condition KAT 1A1 6x6 from Vebeg for less than 10.000 Euro. A comfortable camping trailer of 6 m length costs new about 20.000 Euro. Mounting is no problem because of the stiff frame. You are ready to go very fast. This all makes a highly capable offroad camper for much less than 40.000 Euro.

BTW, my KAT runs much more than 75 km/h, and does this for nearly 3.000 km without fuel stop. And I was driving on very bad roads in Russia 75 km/h in comfort where most cars and trucks were driving only half of that. :sombrero:

 

[LukeH]

Hi Luke - I would love to hear your suggestions for such vehicles. I hope to get a 4x4 or 6x6 truck for full time living, and feel that the <7.5 ton category doesn't offer enough room for this. Looking at ex-military vehicles. Spares would be useful { Reliability is paramount. What would you suggest?

Tim, currently traveling in Ghana

Hi Tim, this is Frenchy's thread so I won't pollute it with the eternal what truck question.
I reckon there's room for a couple of threads on the subject; say
What Euro truck over 7.5t and under 10000 euros
Over 10000 euros
Whas US truck etc etc.
Maybe the moderators could regroup the threads that are close to each truck type/market that have already been discussed.

While you're in Ghana give my worst regards to the a55h0l3s at Alaska caming Busua Beach.
And if you find the guy in charge of the rush mat camping emplacements on Krokrobite beach about 1km before Big Millie's try and get the 200 dollars back that he stole from us. You can keep them, but he shouldn't; called himself David.

Sorry Frenchy totally OT