New German Expedition rig

My cousin and his wife are going to be visting from Germany end of april maybe can get them to bring me one over. :LOL:
 
I used to live in Switzerland plus I spent a lot of time in Germany. In both countries, I would see these sorts of huge vehicles and even smaller (yet still large) Unimog "expedition" vehicles. After speaking with so many of their owners, I came to the conclusion that most of these were used only once, maybe twice and then parked. Europe is a very long way from anyplace that you can find anything less than pavement to drive on. Many of these vehicles are built well in advance and continually upgraded by the owners as they wait for their dream trip to finally materialize. Really, for many, the build of these vehicles is all the adventure these vehicles and the owners get to feel. I remember trying to find anyplace in my European travels to feel the bumps of a dirt road under my wheels. In Switzerland, I used to drive several kilometers out of my way to a short gravel street of maybe 500 feet, just to feel like I was home in the deserts again.

I had to take occasional trips back home to California to get my fix of the outdoors including 4 Corners and Baja. Finally after 2 years of living and prepping a truck in Switzerland, I was able to have a true adventure. In Europe? Nope, I had to ferry my Mitsubishi L300 Van (Montero 4x4 with a van body) to North Africa for a 6,0000 mile journey through various Sahara countries.

In Africa, I would come across these "expedition" monsters. Usually the situation was they were either broken down and because of their complexity unrepairable, hopelessly mired in sand with no way of extradition, or, simply too wide and large to fit the tracks of the road or even squeeze through the village streets. What's more, and it isn't their fault, the Germans driving these monsters had zero bush/desert experience, they were lost and frightened in a world you and I call home. Hence, the fact they needed to take a whole house with them. These vehicles were an insult of materialism foisted upon peoples of Africa who barely had food to eat.

I made friends with one Swiss fellow in Djanet, Algeria who was camping in his broken down Unimog. He was waiting for a flatbed truck to arrive from Tunis, Tunisia. Tunis was over 1,000 miles away on the north side of the Sahara. Well, by the time this Unimog (only 1 year old mind you) made it back to its proper service facility in Switzerland, it cost my friend $30,000 in towing! No to mention his 6 month vacation was ruined in the first two weeks and his $300,000 Unimog camper was well, impractical (ie;useless).

This nice fellow and I stayed friends as he coincidentally lived near my home in Switzerland. When I moved back to California he came and visited for a 6 month camping trip. I found him a Chevy Luv 4wd with a shell, $1300. Frederik would say to me <I>"That's the best truck I have ever had!"</i>

I am so not impressed, when I see these monster "expedition" vehicles, I just roll my eyes with disgust at the waste of earth's resources, at the waste of fuel and at the absurdity of people with too much money and obviously/actually little to no experience of what a frickin' "expedition" is. Go ahead, take a trip, get yourself a Landrover, or a truck camper and take that $500,000+ and use it to help the people in the countries you are visiting.
 
I am so not impressed, when I see these monster "expedition" vehicles, I just roll my eyes with disgust at the waste of earth's resources, at the waste of fuel and at the absurdity of people with too much money and obviously/actually little to no experience of what a frickin' "expedition" is. Go ahead, take a trip, get yourself a Landrover, or a truck camper and take that $500,000+ and use it to help the people in the countries you are visiting.

well said Gene.
 
those Germans don't do anything small do they

Cort



:D It's not much bigger than your Marathon Coach or Prevost land-yachts you get here.
so for the same $ I prefer a 6x6 and go places.
 
I am so not impressed, when I see these monster "expedition" vehicles, I just roll my eyes with disgust at the waste of earth's resources, at the waste of fuel and at the absurdity of people with too much money and obviously/actually little to no experience of what a frickin' "expedition" is. Go ahead, take a trip, get yourself a Landrover, or a truck camper and take that $500,000+ and use it to help the people in the countries you are visiting.

well said Gene.

While I'm fascinated by the vehicle itself, I also concur.
 
:D It's not much bigger than your Marathon Coach or Prevost land-yachts you get here.
so for the same $ I prefer a 6x6 and go places.


I agree with you Marc that the Prevost RV's are ridiculous, but they are somewhat appropriate (though wasteful) for their intended use of camping in RV parks.

I didn't mean to pick solely on Swiss and Germans, I simply used them as examples as that is where I lived and those were who I saw in Africa. My point was that these huge "expedition" vehicles people are building for these supposed "expeditions" are actually not even appropriate for their intended purpose. I have been to Africa,I have seen plenty of these vehicles. Watching these vehicles mired to their axles, stuck between buildings in villages and broken down with mechanics scratching their heads over what to do, it would be funny youtube material if it wasn't for the fact so much resources were wasted and so many Africans offended by these vehicles.

I also feel for the poor fool who has been sold a bill of goods by the makers of these vehicles, only to find themselves in Africa wishing they had a small, manageable vehicle. I have met those people, they wished they had my little van. And I do feel for all the Americans who have been sold a huge RV only to find themselves never using it and now, many of them losing their RV's at 20 cents on the dollar. I have even seen a Lance camper that was a "short sale", a short sale!
 
I also feel for the poor fool who has been sold a bill of goods by the makers of these vehicles, only to find themselves in Africa wishing they had a small, manageable vehicle. I have met those people, they wished they had my little van. And I do feel for all the Americans who have been sold a huge RV only to find themselves never using it and now, many of them losing their RV's at 20 cents on the dollar. I have even seen a Lance camper that was a "short sale", a short sale!


Pretty liberal attitude Gene. You make it sound like RV's, boats, luxury cars or the mountain/beach home were sold at gunpoint to some unexpecting buyer who had no clue at what they were doing....all at the expense of the environment. I do not feel sorry for people who bought big ticket non-essential "toys", only to discover later down the road it was a bad investment for them. I am more or less a minimalist myself, but if someone wants to drop $500K or more on a RV, so be it. If someone else wants to give the same $500K to charity, that is fine too. Most of the big coach builders (and a lot of the smaller ones) in this country are gone, but they provided quite a few jobs and a boost to the economy while they were here. You wouldn't believe how many suppliers and vendors are involved in a RV business. Decadent....yeah...but so is a $4.00 cup of coffee. That is why they call it capitalism.

I bet the local who made the $30K on the towing wasn't insulted.


CWD
 
Wow
all i wanted to point out is a cool rig.
Yes, it's expensive, a cool 800.000 euros expensive.
Quality costs money.
 
My point is that while houses are houses, $4 coffee is coffee, RV's are RV's, all of which serve their intended purpose. These monster "expedition" vehicles are not expedition vehicles. They fail miserably at their intended use and in the process use enough raw materials to build say 50 or so ATC, or 20 or so of Marc's Xp campers. I simply have my opinion of this after traveling 6,000 miles through north African Sahara and seeing these monsters mired and broken. Being a professional mechanic I would try to help out. The ridiculousness of these heavy, complex, handicapped vehicles in a place such as Africa where the complexity of the even simplest 4wd was questionable in comparison to the Peugots and VW's the locals were driving everywhere (and I mean everywhere)as they laughed at the invading "expeditioners" , became an embarrassment and a remorse for the very owners driving the monsters. I have two friends, one Swiss, one German who each owned Unimog (Unimogs are tiny compared to some "exp" rigs) campers. The Swiss fellow lasted two weeks with his $300,000 Unimog, lost the rest of his 6 month trip, ended up now owning a BJ75 LC. The German couple gave up on their Unimog after one year of their around the world trip and finished the last six years in a Vanagon.

Whew, sorry if I made this thread into my soapbox. I think we mostly think alike which is why most of us choose to have our comparatively minimalist pop up campers. I wouldn't trade my go anywhere Dodge/ATC for any monster camper.
 
Unimogs are NOT suited for expedition travel in my mind.
They are complex and they were designed for municipal work. Remove snow,clear passes etc.
That's one of the reasons when you find a used one they have very low mileage.They never leave town.
Yes, people have taken them around the world, I thought about using them as a base vehicle, but after looking closer at them. Not for me.
The new ones have a huge Greenhouse,great to see the street curb which it was intended to do,and you better bring lots of sun lotion.
The air intake is by the front tire, so better be careful going through deep water.

That 6x6 lends itself way better for expedition travel. While you don't go down a path were my or your unit fits, they are designed for prolonged travel in the open space.
Those 2 particular units are being shipped to Mongolia.

One of the XPCamper's we are building goes to Africa. And yes, it will probably stand out more than others as well.

BTW, lbs for lbs the XP uses less materials than any other camper manufacturer.
 
I wonder how many of these EcoBehemoths I'll see at Overland Expo Saturday. I'm sure I'll see tons of camping Barbie stuff too. Got my Tilley and zip offs already to go. Oops did I say that out loud.
 
I wonder how many of these EcoBehemoths I'll see at Overland Expo Saturday. I'm sure I'll see tons of camping Barbie stuff too. Got my Tilley and zip offs already to go. Oops did I say that out loud.


Hey Jay, don't forget your pencil.
 
Wow
all i wanted to point out is a cool rig.
Yes, it's expensive, a cool 800.000 euros expensive.
Quality costs money.


Yes, and there will always be a market for quality. I still don't feel any love for someone that drops $300K on a rig without doing some homework first to see of the vehicle will fit his/her needs. If they have that kind of discretionary funds to spend, they should know better.

CWD
 
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