Hi all,
I'm fairly new around here, but I've spent the past few months reading and soaking up as much information as I could, but a few things still some up as questions for me.
As a bit of background on me, I've got three kids, Ages 6, 4, and 1. Currently we homeschool the oldest in 1st grade, and the plan is to continue that until it doesn't work for my wife or my daughter as they all get older. My dream was to get a nice big Airstream camper and spend as many days as possible driving around the US with my family as my job would allow. Eventually maybe taking a year off or retiring early (sub 50) and Roadschooling across the country with the whole group before they hopefully start going away to college. Well my wife has a penchant for international travel and wants to see the world and show her kids the cultures of the world. Flying a family of 5 around the world for vacations, ruled out the idea of towing the family airstream. Then I found this site, which shifted my whole paradigm. What if we quit my job, sold our house and drove around the world!?
But I thought there's no way we would all fit and be comfortable. Then I read Shachagra's build thread here on the portal and got incredibly inspired. Right now I'm investigating and formulating a plan to build my own expedition rig taking inspiration and design cue's from several build threads that I have found here online.
My ideal rig would be:
- Sized similarly to and with a multibedroom layout a la Shachagra
- Built on a Crew Cab Chassis using composite/foam panels glued together and with a pop up roof a la Neverenough's build
- Built on a tandem axle 6x6 with super single XZL's or similar a la LoRoad's Brazos
- Have a Fold out garage/deck off the back with bike/motorcycle storage a la Greynomad's or Jay Shapiro's Ecoroamer builds
In my mind, taking design cues from all of the above would result in my dream vehicle. The first problem I see is size. That thing would be freakin huge! What's the most appropriate chassis for something that big? I think to keep it registered in the US my choices would be quite limited to basically either Freightliner M2-106 or International Crew cab tandem 6x6 chassis as I would prefer to go with something newer so as to hopefully minimize future breakdowns in the field. But I'm picturing something around 30,000lb GVWR.
Is it realistic to hope to take one of these model round the world? Europe a la Shachagra seems simple enough although expensive. But my dreams are down through South America and out across the Russian Steppes, crossing the himalayas, driving through and around australia, and hopefully throughout Africa.
Then to mention the size, I desperately don't want this to happen to me! A better picture can be found at Goannatracks.com
Most everything I've read about trips like this try to keep it small and containerized for shipping costs and travel restrictions through small areas, not to draw as much attention, timber bridge weight limits(!) etc, but in order to hold potentially three teenagers for an extended period of time with everyone getting some personal space and not going stir crazy:Wow1:, I can't see how that would be possible in anything smaller.
Does anyone know of any other sites or forums where travel experiences with these really big type rigs would be discussed or blogs I could read about their large rig travel. I see that Unicat and GXV apparently build some monster size stuff and would hope that people are out there travelling the world with them, but I would certainly like to read more about it. A nice MAN or Mercedes Crew Cab 6x6 would be awesome, and somewhere there's people doing it and writing about it hopefully that I can find in English. Any pointers or links would be greatly appreciated.
Well thanks for reading this far and if you are one of the above mentioned rig owners, thanks for all of your inspiration. Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of me and my own build thread if my ideas and concepts solidify and begin to turn my dreams into reality. I even came up with a great name for my thread/blog/website/etc.
Roadschooling Overland Adventure Mobile - ROAM!
And as we know, it wasn't built in a day. If all can go according to plan, I'm thinking of beginning our Round the World trip in 2020. (Cue the b-52's "Roam around the world..."):smiley_drive:
Thanks,
Wayno
I'm fairly new around here, but I've spent the past few months reading and soaking up as much information as I could, but a few things still some up as questions for me.
As a bit of background on me, I've got three kids, Ages 6, 4, and 1. Currently we homeschool the oldest in 1st grade, and the plan is to continue that until it doesn't work for my wife or my daughter as they all get older. My dream was to get a nice big Airstream camper and spend as many days as possible driving around the US with my family as my job would allow. Eventually maybe taking a year off or retiring early (sub 50) and Roadschooling across the country with the whole group before they hopefully start going away to college. Well my wife has a penchant for international travel and wants to see the world and show her kids the cultures of the world. Flying a family of 5 around the world for vacations, ruled out the idea of towing the family airstream. Then I found this site, which shifted my whole paradigm. What if we quit my job, sold our house and drove around the world!?
But I thought there's no way we would all fit and be comfortable. Then I read Shachagra's build thread here on the portal and got incredibly inspired. Right now I'm investigating and formulating a plan to build my own expedition rig taking inspiration and design cue's from several build threads that I have found here online.
My ideal rig would be:
- Sized similarly to and with a multibedroom layout a la Shachagra
- Built on a Crew Cab Chassis using composite/foam panels glued together and with a pop up roof a la Neverenough's build
- Built on a tandem axle 6x6 with super single XZL's or similar a la LoRoad's Brazos
- Have a Fold out garage/deck off the back with bike/motorcycle storage a la Greynomad's or Jay Shapiro's Ecoroamer builds
In my mind, taking design cues from all of the above would result in my dream vehicle. The first problem I see is size. That thing would be freakin huge! What's the most appropriate chassis for something that big? I think to keep it registered in the US my choices would be quite limited to basically either Freightliner M2-106 or International Crew cab tandem 6x6 chassis as I would prefer to go with something newer so as to hopefully minimize future breakdowns in the field. But I'm picturing something around 30,000lb GVWR.
Is it realistic to hope to take one of these model round the world? Europe a la Shachagra seems simple enough although expensive. But my dreams are down through South America and out across the Russian Steppes, crossing the himalayas, driving through and around australia, and hopefully throughout Africa.
Then to mention the size, I desperately don't want this to happen to me! A better picture can be found at Goannatracks.com
Most everything I've read about trips like this try to keep it small and containerized for shipping costs and travel restrictions through small areas, not to draw as much attention, timber bridge weight limits(!) etc, but in order to hold potentially three teenagers for an extended period of time with everyone getting some personal space and not going stir crazy:Wow1:, I can't see how that would be possible in anything smaller.
Does anyone know of any other sites or forums where travel experiences with these really big type rigs would be discussed or blogs I could read about their large rig travel. I see that Unicat and GXV apparently build some monster size stuff and would hope that people are out there travelling the world with them, but I would certainly like to read more about it. A nice MAN or Mercedes Crew Cab 6x6 would be awesome, and somewhere there's people doing it and writing about it hopefully that I can find in English. Any pointers or links would be greatly appreciated.
Well thanks for reading this far and if you are one of the above mentioned rig owners, thanks for all of your inspiration. Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of me and my own build thread if my ideas and concepts solidify and begin to turn my dreams into reality. I even came up with a great name for my thread/blog/website/etc.
Roadschooling Overland Adventure Mobile - ROAM!
And as we know, it wasn't built in a day. If all can go according to plan, I'm thinking of beginning our Round the World trip in 2020. (Cue the b-52's "Roam around the world..."):smiley_drive:
Thanks,
Wayno