Many people want to know the technical and design details of our truck. Maybe they are planning their own expedition vehicle or simply have a technical interest. This page will take you to all the information! If you’d rather skip the reading, you can go straight to the chassis technical details, the cabin details, or the build plans and images.
Our beast is officially known as ‘Matilda’ and is built on a MAN TGM 18.290 4X4 chassis with a custom made living cabin built by Krug Expedition. It has an overall length of 8.41 m, a width of 2.49 m, a height of 3.94 m and weighs 14.5 ton. It’s going to be tight in some places!
Why a MAN TGM for our Expedition Vehicle?
When this dream started we planned to use an Isuzu NPS 300 4×4. Before long it became apparent that using this as a full time, self-sufficient, off-road, worldwide expedition vehicle was going to push the chassis to its limit, if not exceed it. With a GVM of only 4500 kg, it was not going to be robust enough to carry the water, fuel, toys etc that we needed. When you consider that our truck has 600 litres of diesel, 600 litres of water, 150 litres of greywater and a spare tyre that weighs 104 kg, that alone weighs 1454 kg and we haven’t even started with the living space! That was just asking for trouble to happen in some remote place!
We needed a truck with more than enough payload capacity so as not to constantly have the chassis at its maximum limits and under stress. It should have a reasonable worldwide serviceability, (OK so the USA will be a challenge, but there is always DHL ) and absolutely must be more than capable off-road. That doesn’t leave too many options.
We considered second-hand vehicles, but we are hoping to do this for the next 20 odd years and thought it prudent to start with a brand new truck.
We looked at Unimogs, which are very capable vehicles by all accounts, but neither of us like the look of them and just didn’t fancy living and driving in one for the next 20 odd years. After test driving a MAN 13 ton 4×4 a few years ago we were pretty much sold on our truck being a MAN and after all, they drive the,m in the Dakar Rally so they can’t be all bad! So that is what we have bought, albeit the 18-ton version with quite a few more upgrades and accessories than we first planned! Time will tell if we have made the right decision! You can see the technical details of our chassis here.
Which builder?
As our dream evolved we reached out to and researched various expedition vehicle builders in the US, Europe and at home in Australia. We heard horror stories of so called off-road vehicles falling apart in Mongolia, saw far too many $$$$ for our liking and received arrogant or sometimes non-existent, customer service. That said, we also gathered heaps of ideas, received helpful answers to our questions, slowly built up our knowledge and our truck’s concept unfolded. A manufacturer in Queensland, Australia was our choice …… until we found Krug.
Why Krug Expedition?
Our initial discussions with Krug were promising. As a result, we reached out to others who had built with them. Their feedback was positive, especially in regards to the quality and technical aspects. One owner we spoke to has an engineering/technical background and with another technical friend, they visited Krug’s factory. They had nothing but positive things to say about Krug. This greatly increased our confidence in Krug’s ability to deliver us the vehicle we needed.
As time went on, (it takes quite a while to go from concept to finished product) it was obvious that Krug is passionate about delivering a high-quality product. One that would survive the roads and countries we wanted to travel, whilst allowing us to be 100% self-sufficient living off the grid. They use top quality, primarily German products and ensure everything is built to last whether that be from how a wire is fixed or to the way the cabin is attached to the chassis.
Krug worked with us to design a living space that would suit the way we live, incorporating everything we have asked for. They took on all our feedback and every random idea we threw at them and came back with a solution, most of which have ended up in our final design. Those that know me will confirm I am pedantic about the detail and every bit needs to be perfect, however nothing was ever a problem for them, no matter how many times it needed to be tweaked. We have changed out some of their standard inclusions to ones that we prefer without an issue as well as having items shipped to them for inclusion in our build.
Read our blog post “In The Beginning” to find out how 2 Australians ended up building an expedition vehicle with a company in, of all places, Ukraine.
Factory Visit
Elizabeth visited their factory in Cherkasy, Ukraine in May 2018. Whilst our truck build had not started at the time, there were others in progress, confirming their build quality. The neatness, protection and securing of their wiring and pipework as an example shows they build their cabins to last. Nearly everything for the build is done in house. Their own factory presses the panels, welds the frames, manufactures the windows, paints the cabin, builds the cabinetry, fabricates custom parts for the cab, fits the electrical, makes the electrical switch plates etc. I think they have every trade imaginable working for them!
Last but not least, their pricing was quite a bit cheaper (it still isn’t cheap though!). We have ended up with a far superior and better-equipped vehicle than we ever dreamed we could have and without the additional costs of shipping it from Australia. Are we excited? You betcha!