Pangea

[Deliberate Nomad]

Yes the decision was deliberate and thanks for the deliberate pun on my deliberate name.

As the soon to be owner of this next Pangea let me share a little of our decision process. As always, it is a personal preference that is more emotional then logical. This is the culmination of many years research and trials. We have done several multi month trips with TLC and a tent. We lived in a Sportsmobile (Yellow Fella) for two years and loved that experience and vehicle. http://www.pbase.com/oksana_p/sportsmobile. We have also lived 15 of the last 20 years in different countries in Aisa. We have rented various types of campers in locations such as Mongolia, Austraila, and Turkey. All of this helped in the decision of what type of vehicle we wanted for a multiple year full time global travel experience. We made a lot of trade offs in the process. We know our biggest restriction will be height followed by weight that will limit where we can go. I believe we will still be able to go 90% of the places we went in the Sportsmobile. We will use bikes to get into smaller villages. As we get older we also want to have more comforts in our home on wheels. We are happy with the trade off for more livable cabin for extended times in inclement weather versus losing access to some locations due to size.

We like the raising roof because it gives more interior space when open and fully closes off all windows when down. No exposed windows is a nice security feature when left parked for extended time, for shipping, or the occasional stealth camping. Besides I just think it looks cool.

We choose to use a Unimog U500 because their are limited options in the US for a cab over 4x4 truck. GXV found us a great used one with low mileage and all the features I wanted (CTIS, EAS, Vario Pilot, working gears, cold weather). MB trucks global parts supply (outside US) is also a positive factor in our decision on a vehicle for our planned global travels. Most important my wife thinks the U500 is cute and I agree. I test drove one and believe it was as quite and easy to drive as the diesel E350 Sportsmobile we had.

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[ujoint]

Incredible rig, can't wait to see it!

[Deliberate Nomad]

Here are a few pics of the body panels together and the windows installed.
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[mhiscox]

Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed about this very interesting build. I am very interested in the pictures you supply.

[Overland Hadley]

Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed about this very interesting build. I am very interested in the pictures you supply.

x2

[greg.potter]

I love the raising roof, hard-sided concept, and hope to do one myself one day. I will watch it come together with much interest.

What material is being used for the body panels?

What drive system is being used for raising / lowering the roof?

[Deliberate Nomad]

Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed about this very interesting build. I am very interested in the pictures you supply.

Mike,

Thanks I will provide more updates as the build progresses. I will never get to the level of detail you and Paul had on your original Northwest Edition build thread. However, I will try to be on par with your summary thread. I learned a lot from your build and others so I want to share back.

Brad

[Deliberate Nomad]

I love the raising roof, hard-sided concept, and hope to do one myself one day. I will watch it come together with much interest.

What material is being used for the body panels?

What drive system is being used for raising / lowering the roof?

Greg,

Thanks for the interest.

The panels are an SCS (structural composite sandwich) material that GXV uses. It is described further on their website at http://globalxvehicles.com/engineering/. They do not just use sheets of this material. They use a supplier in Europe that
engineers and fabricates each pannel to the specifc requirements of the build. Different materials are used inside the composite for attachment points. The floor has a welded aluminum frame structure bonded inside the floor panel. Doors have locking components bonded inside the panels. I visited Unicat in Germany before my decision to go with GXV. To my laymen's eyes the panel material used by GXV and Unicat appeared to be the same but I do not know the technical specs.

The lifting mechanism is a synchronized closed loop hydraulic system with a lifting cylinder in each corner that GXV has used on other builds. I do not know any further details on the lifting system.