Silkroute Equipment Choosevan

Choosing an Overland Campervan.
Page 1 of 51
Choosing an Overland Campervan.

People often ask "what is the best vehicle?" or "could I do that in my motorhome?" when they read
about the sort of overland journeys described on this web site. (For example China, Iceland and
northern Europe, Siberia and Mongolia, Central and South America.)
This web page is an attempt to answer these questions. But first a disclaimer, a few definitions,
restrictions and qualifications.
Disclaimer.
Because some of the opinions and advice offered on this web page relate to issues of safety and
health, you are strongly advised to take expensive professional advice from several independent
sources rather than believe anything I say. In fact if you are a USA citizen and/or of a litigious
nature you might be better off not reading it. Don't say I didn't warn you.
If you do read it and think I have got something wrong please tell me.
Definitions.
What to call it?
I have heard vehicles designed or adapted for "overland" travel called lots of things - expedition
campervans, expedition motorhomes even expedition RVs. I think expedition is a bit strong and
both motorhome and RV a bit domestic, so I have settled for overland campervan.
Overland journey?
By "overland journey" I mean something considerably more demanding than a two week trip to
the South of France but less demanding than pioneering a new route across the Sahara. Most of
what I call overland journeys would:
Be more than (say) ten weeks long.

Involve significant travel on poor, often dirt roads.
Be wholly or partly in sparsely populated areas of the world without official "campsites".
Often involve travel at high altitude or in hot, cold or very wet conditions.
Cab, cabin, body and chassis.
I will use the term "cab" for the part of a campervan you sit in to drive it and the term "cabin" for
the part of the campervan you live in, Together the "cab" and the "cabin" will be referred to as the
"body". The bit with the wheels and the engine will be referred to as the "chassis". I acknowledge
that with some designs of campervan the distinction between these parts is not very clear.
http://www.xor.org.uk/silkroute/equipment/choosevan.htm 05/11/2010
Choosing an Overland Campervan. Page 2 of 51
Gas and petrol.
I will use the term "gas" to mean LPG (1) and the term "petrol" to mean the common motor fuel
also known as "gasoline" (2).
1. LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is principally a mixture of propane and butane, stored as a
liquid under pressure. (It is usually referred to as LPG when sold in fuel stations.) When
sold in cylinders (also called bottles) it is often predominantly either propane or butane and
sold under these names. Propane boils at -42°C whereas butane boils at 0°C, making butane
unsuitable for use at low temperatures.
LPG should not be confused with CNG (compressed natural gas) sold in some countries as a
motor fuel. CNG consists mainly of methane. It is not used for heating or cooking in
campervans. Countries that sell CNG at fuel stations (for example Brazil) rarely sell LPG
and vice versa.
2. In the UK "petrol" is used as a short form of "petroleum spirit" meaning "a mixture of
hydrocarbons containing 5 to 8 carbon atoms, boiling in the range 40-180°C." It is called
"gasoline" or just "gas" by almost everybody else. (As an aside, comparable hydrocarbons
with 11 or 12 carbon atoms are called "kerosine" or "paraffin" and those with 13 to 25 are
called "diesel" or (just to add to the confusion) "gas oil".)
Restrictions.
Two people only.
Although a number of overlanders travel on their own, or with children, or in large groups in one
vehicle, this web page is concerned primarily with vehicles intended for two people. This is not
only the most common arrangement, it is the one I am most familiar with.
Living in the vehicle, not beside it.
Overland vehicles can be divided into three groups depending on what is expected of the vehicle.
At one extreme is "transport only". All the vehicle is expected to do is to get you, and your
luggage, from A to B (for example travel by car from hostel to hostel). At the other extreme is the
"live-in campervan" where the vehicle is expected to provide both transport and the comforts of a
"home".
In between these is the "live-beside" vehicle. This is typically a 4x4 (SUV) vehicle (often a Toyota
Landcruiser or Land-Rover Defender) with a tent, on the roof or on the ground.
This web page is only concerned with the "live-in" type of vehicle, which I shall refer to, from
here on, as an "overland campervan".
(As an aside whilst it can be advantageous to travel in groups, this works best if all the vehicles in
the group are of the same type (i.e. all "live-in" or all "live-beside")).
Qualifications?
Almost every overlander I have met on the road (and many armchair overlanders) have strong
opinions about the ideal overland vehicle. At least my prejudices are partially informed by
experience. I have spent thirty-six months of the last five years on "overland journeys" totalling
more than 150,000kms. I have spent two years designing and building my own "overland
campervan" as well as both owning and renting conventional campervans. Many years ago I was a
driver/leader for Encounter Overland.
Perhaps most importantly I have discussed "the ideal vehicle" with dozens of other overlanders.
What makes an overland campervan different?

Since a lot of research and development has gone into producing a vast variety of conventional
campervans and mass production has made them relatively cheap, why are they not ideal for an
"overland journey"?
Durability.
Most conventional campervans are not designed to be driven over rough roads for long periods.
On a recent journey one generally "well built" conventional campervan suffered from the
following problems. The screws holding the furniture to the walls had to be tightened every week,
the oven shock itself loose, the bed mounting failed, the windows leaked, the external lockers fell
open even when locked and the leisure batteries fell thru the floor. On an earlier trip, an admittedly
fairly old campervan fell apart to the extent that the floor separated from the walls.
Redundancy.
On a long overland journey equipment will fail. Most conventional campervans do not have
redundant systems, good overland campervans do. For example some overland campervans have
solar panels and a generator. Others have both gas (LPG: propane or butane) and diesel heating.
Capacity.
Most conventional campervans have only a small payload available. A few hundred kilograms
may be sufficient for a two week trip to France, but may not be enough if you have to carry extra
water, fuel, food and clothing for an overland journey. As a result many conventional campervans
are overloaded when used for overland journeys.
Geometry.
Most conventional campervans are based on a light goods vehicle chassis (for example the
Mercedes Sprinter) that have relatively small wheels and hence little ground clearance. Far worse
than this is that the campervan body often overhangs the chassis in such a way to reduce the
departure angle. As a result they easily get damaged or stuck.

Security.
Most conventional campervans are not very secure from theft. The doors and windows are usually
relatively low and thus easily accessible. In many cases the locks are flimsy.
However, in spite of these shortcomings, many people use conventional campervans for long
overland journeys quite happily (although many owners that I have met have been planning to
change their vehicle for the "next" trip).
A Checklist (General).
Before considering specific types of overland campervan it is useful to review some of the
"features" that have to be balanced in a good overland campervan. For example vehicle size.
When parked most people would prefer to live in a large, rather than a small, vehicle. Whereas
when navigating the back streets of Cusco anything larger than a car seems to be a liability. The
balance people chose is a function of what they find important. People who are used to living in a
small space and are very tidy may not value extra space much. On the other hand an (ex-)truck
driver used to driving 40 tonne trucks thru small villages will not be intimidated by driving an
eight metre campervan thru the back streets of Cusco.
Weight.
N.B. Some of the legal and documentation points made in this section may only relate to the
UK.
I have seen "live-in" campervans ranging in weight from under 2500kg up to about 20,000kg. The
most common range however is between about 3500kg and about 10,000kg.
It is important to differentiate between the actual weight of a campervan on the road (as shown by
a weighbridge), the maximum legal weight (1) and the maximum permitted weight (usually for
each axle) as specified by the chassis manufacturer.
It is also necessary to consider the type of driving licence you, and anybody else who is going to
drive the vehicle, has. If you took your UK driving test before 1997 (I think) then you will
probably have a "C1" licence that lets you drive a vehicle up to 7500kg. If you passed your test
after 1997 you may only be able to drive vehicles up to 3500kg (2).
All other things being equal you probably want a "light" vehicle under 3500kg because:
You can drive it on (almost) any licence.

You can cross nearly all bridges.
You will pay less at some ferries and road tolls.
You can drive in most city centres.
You will get more kilometers per litre (M.P.G.).
You will not get stuck in soft sand as often.
It will be easier to push or tow out if you do get stuck.
However all other things are not equal! There are almost no commercial overland campervans
under 3500kg, whilst there are many conventional campervans under this limit.
To understand the problem consider what contributes to the weight of a 3500kg conventional
campervan. In very round terms you have a 2000kg chassis/cab, a 1000kg body (including the
furniture, toilet, shower, fridge, hob etc.) and a 500kg payload (water, food, clothes etc.). The
problem is that for an overland journey you want more fuel, more water, more food, more clothes,
more spare parts, more gas (propane), more leisure batteries and so on! Also because many
conventional campervans are right at the (artificial, driving licence induced) 3500kg limit the
version of the chassis/cab selected will have small wheels (they are lighter), light duty suspension,
a light duty chassis etc. All things that make it less robust.
Consider two conventional campervans both with a legal weight limit of 3500kg. One is built on a
heavy duty version of the chassis (with a manufacture's weight limit of say 4000kg) but has a
smaller less elaborate body. The other is built on a light duty version of the chassis (with a
manufacture's weight limit of 3500kg). Both weigh 3000kg empty. Now load them with 1000kg
for an overland journey.
Both of them are now illegal. If stopped in the UK and weighed you have a problem. But much
more important (for an overland journey) is that after driving for 10,000km over rough roads the
one built on a "heavy duty" chassis (probably with bigger wheels and better ground clearance)
which has still been within the manufacturer's weight limit is far more likely to be in good
condition. All 3500kg conventional campervans are not created equal.
Once in the 3500kg to 7500kg (legal) range there are a number of interesting combinations of
actual weight and manufacturer's gross weight limit.
Consider a campervan built on heavy duty chassis/cab that weighs (say) 3500kg and that the
manufacturer says can have a gross weight of 7500kg. Put on a 1000kg body and a 1000kg
payload and you have a vehicle that is both legal and well within (75% of) the manufacturer's
weight limit. This combination is, in my view, the optimum weight range for a two person
overland campervan.
There are (particularly in South America) a lot of overland campervans that are built on small
truck chassis with a manufacture's gross weight limit of 10,000 or even 12,000kg. These
chassis/cabs often weigh around 5500kg. With a big 1500kg body but an unrealistic payload of
500kg they can just get under the 7500kg driving licence weight limit. Fully loaded with lots of
water and fuel (and a motorcycle or quad bike) they often weigh 9000kg. Not legal; but still well
within the manufacture's weight limit.
1. Note that the weight shown on the UK V5C Registration Certificate is the "Revenue
Weight" and is the maximum "Gross" weight you are allowed in the UK. But the weight
requested by the RAC on the ICMV (International Certificate for Motor Vehicles)
application form is "Weight (Unladen) (in kilos)". However the RAC (at least in 2006)
actually transcribe this number onto the ICMV as item 17 "Weight of car fully laden". This
means that if you fill in the ICMV application form honestly you may find yourself
explaining to an Argentinian police officer (in Spanish) why your vehicle is "over the weight
limit" on your ICMV.
2. In most "overland travel" countries you will probably want to present to the police your
International Driving Permit, rather than your UK driving licence. The important category
here is "C" (on the common 1949 version of the IDP and "B" on the less common 1926
version of the IDP, needed for Brazil etc.). This category is over 3500kg, note that there is
no upper 7500kg limit on the IDP.
Length.
Most good two-person overland campervans are between 6 metres and 8 metres in length (a far
smaller relative range than is found in weight). Short vehicles are easier to drive and park, and they
may even fit in parking places allocated to cars. They are also cheaper to ship. However one metre
of additional length makes a dramatic difference to the space available for living (if you remove
two metres for the cab, then one extra metre can represent a 25% increase in usable space). It may
be the difference between an permanent bed and one you have to "make" each time you use it.
The biggest downside of a long conventional campervan is the resultant reduction in the departure
angle (see below). This is not an inevitable consequence of increased length, and many overland
campervans are designed to maintain an acceptable departure angle even if quite long.
My personal prejudice is for a vehicle between 6.5 and 7 metres in length as a good compromise
between driveability and liveability.
Departure angle is more important than length.
Width.
The relative range of campervan widths

is very small. Probably between 1.8
metres and 2.4 metres.
Many of the arguments for wide and narrow vehicles are the same as for length. However two
additional factors may need consideration. If you are tall and your vehicle is narrow and well
insulated (i.e. the wall thickness is say 60mm) then you may not be able sleep transversely (this
reduces your design options). At the other extreme if your vehicle is too wide (more than say 2.2
metres) it will not fit in a shipping container (it probably won't anyway because of height) nor on a
single width flat-rack. As a result you may have to pay 50% more to ship it.
Height.
Most overland campervans are between 2.7 and 3.8 metres in height. Most of the variation comes,
not from differences in the internal height of the living space, but from variation in the distance
between the living space floor and the ground.
There are a few direct advantages of a

tall campervan, these include a better
view and increased security (your
windows are out of reach of people
standing on the ground). There are also a
number of desirable features of an
overland campervan that often result in a
tall vehicle. These include large wheels
and tyres, long spring travel and a
torsion-free mounting of the body on the
chassis (see below).
However there are a number of

significant disadvantages of a tall
vehicle. The most obvious being low
bridges! More common are low
gateways, wires and trees. Driving a tall vehicle thru a town with overhanging trees and low wires
can be very stressful! Ending up at a camping place that you can not get into because of a low
gateway is frustrating. Also shipping costs on many RoRo ferries are determined by volume and
are thus directly proportional to maximum height.
A lot of low bridges (particularly in ex-soviet countries?) seem to be at 3.5 metres. For this
reason I would consider a height of 2.9 to 3.3 meters to be a good compromise.
As well as the height of the vehicle it is worth considering how "wire friendly" the top of a
potential overland campervan is. Imagine driving the vehicle under a strong wire hanging loosely
across the road just below the maximum height of the vehicle. Will the wire catch under the solar
panels (or roof box, or skylight, or CB antennae) and rip them off leaving a hole in the roof! Or
will it slide harmlessly over the top?
Departure Angle.
I consider the departure angle of a potential overland campervan to be very important, and yet it
is very rarely specified, even for commercial overland campervans and never for conventional
ones.
The departure angle of a vehicle measures the ability of the vehicle to cross a sudden change in
gradient. First imagine driving along a horizontal road that very slowly slopes upwards until it is
climbing at an angle of 20 degrees. Other than having to change down a couple of gears this is not
likely to be a problem. Now consider that instead of a gradual change from horizontal to 20
degrees the transition is sudden, for example driving onto the departure ramp of a ferry. Now it is
very probable that the part of the vehicle behind the rear wheels will scrape along the ground. This
may just make a nasty noise, or it may rip off the gas tank. It may also lift the rear (driving) wheels
of the ground, then you are probably stuck.
For a genuine "off-road" vehicle a departure angle of 45° may be desirable. However for an
overland campervan which is a "bad-road" vehicle (not an "off-road" vehicle) it is only necessary
to have a better departure angle than the vehicles that normally use the roads you are on. For most
overland journeys a departure angle of between 15° and 20° is quite sufficient.
The same argument applies to the front to the vehicle (approach angle) but this is usually far
better than the departure angle and will not be considered.
Ground Clearance.
Ground clearance determines the size of object you can drive over without hitting it. For most
overland campervans this ranges from about 120mm to 450mm.
Usually the the lowest point

under a vehicle is the bottom of
the differential, but sometimes it
is the engine sump or a steering
link or even the shock-absorber
mounting. It is important to
consider not only the absolute
value of the ground clearance but
also how much damage will be
done by hitting (say) a rock.
A common problem on dirt roads

is that other vehicles have created
deep wheel ruts and if you drive
in these your differential (or
sump etc.) will scrape along the
"raised" centre of the road. The
photograph shows members of
China 2002 trip in Tibet using
pickaxes and shovels to fill in the
ruts with stones and soil from the
centre of the road to allow the five conventional campervans on this trip to pass. Note that the
black Mercedes 811 van shown had sufficient ground clearance to pass this section of road without
any "roadworks".
In most cases the thing that determines a vehicle's ground clearance is the size of the wheels and
tyres. Raising the suspension (by fitting different springs, or different spring shackles, or air
assisted suspension) can increase the departure angle but not the ground clearance. (It can also
adversely effect the handling of the vehicle.)
A very small number of vehicles (e.g.

Unimogs) have gearing in each hub so
that the axle is not concentric with the
wheel (portal axles). In this case ground
clearance can be very high even with
relatively small wheels and tyres. Some
trucks (e.g. MAN) have a "flat"
differential that increases ground
clearance.
Wheel size is still (for some reason)

measured in inches. To achieve
acceptable ground clearance (and to
some extent departure angle) wheels of
16.5 inches and upwards are desirable.
Departure angle is more important than ground clearance.
Front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and all wheel drive.
Front wheel drive should be avoided! Yes I know examples of front wheel drive conventional
campervans that have crossed Mongolia and Tibet and toured large parts of South America, but...
When driving uphill, even on a good dirt

road the amount of weight on the front
wheels of a fully (over)loaded campervan
can be so low that traction is lost. (The
front wheel drive campervan that I know
of that crossed Mongolia had to towed up
several hills.)
The constant velocity joints used on front

wheel drive vehicles tend to be easily
damaged by rough roads. Two of the five
front wheel drive campervans that I
know of that crossed Tibet had major
problems with their CVJs. One of them
had to be transported 1200kms on the back of a (rear wheel drive) truck.
All wheel drive (there are a few 6x6 overland campervans around!) is better than rear wheel drive,
at a price.
It is very difficult to quantify exactly how much "better" a four wheel drive (4x4) vehicle is than
the equivalent two wheel drive vehicle (2x4). The reason for this is that if a given chassis (for
example the Mercedes 815D) is available in both 2x4 and 4x4 format then any 4x4 version you see
is also likely to have:
Bigger wheels (and thus more ground clearance).

More "off road" tyres (and thus better traction in mud).
Bigger springs (and thus a better departure angle).
Differential lock[s].
Low ratio gears.
It is also important to consider the difference in specification and cost between the 4x4 version of
an "on-road" truck and a true "off-road" vehicle.
Take the case of the 4x4 version of

the Mercedes 815D (an on-road
truck) and a Mercedes U3000
Unimog (a true off-road truck).
Both vehicles have a maximum gross

weight of 7500kg and both are 4x4.
However the Unimog has 20 inch
wheels (rather than 17 inch), twice
the ground clearance (with portal axles) a 51° departure angle (rather than around 20°), front as
well as rear differential lock, a raised air intake (for fording rivers) a pressurized transmission
system (for fording rivers), disk brakes all round, a parking brake that will hold on a 45° slope (if
you dare!) etc. etc.
It is also worth noting that the intended

load distribution of the two vehicles is
very different. The Unimog, like many
true off-road vehicles is designed for a
near equal load on each axle, whereas the
815D is intended to have substantially
more weight on the rear axle (which
consequently has double wheels).
But the Unimog also uses considerably

more fuel per kilometer on the highway
(say 70% more?) and is far less pleasant
to drive than the 815D. The U3000
chassis/cab probably weighs 1000kg
more than the 4x4 815D. Most importantly it costs a lot more.
In very round terms I believe that a 2x4 815D chassis/cab costs 45,000 Euros, a 4x4 815D
chassis/cab costs 62,000 Euros and a U3000 Unimog costs more than 100,000 Euros!
In my opinion the extra cost of a 4x4 version of an on-road truck (if available) is worthwhile,
but the extra cost of a true "off-road" vehicle is not.
Having said that I also think that if an otherwise suitable vehicle is available with 16 or 17 inch
wheels, rear wheel drive and a departure angle of 15° then the fact that it is only two wheel drive
should not exclude it from consideration.
Tyres.
Probably the single biggest reason for "stoppages" on the overland journeys I have done is tyres.
On both the China trip and the Mongolia trip one vehicle I traveled with had a vastly
disproportionate number of punctures (around eleven compared to one or two for the other
vehicles).
The cause of this was using tyres of incorrect load rating. Consider a vehicle with twin rear wheels
and a total weight of 6000kg. If "perfectly" loaded then each tyre must carry 1000kg. Very few
vehicles are perfectly loaded (not many people take their vehicle to a weighbridge just before
starting an overland journey, and even those who do may not weigh the axles separately and then
repack the vehicle).
If possible tyres with a load rating of 150% of

that strictly required should be used. In both the
above cases the tyres were supplied by reputable
tyre companies without considering the load rating required. In one case the tyres were only 60%
of what was required even with "perfect" loading!
On a more recent journey one vehicle had significantly more punctures than the others. In this case
the tyres had been correctly selected for load but had very little safety margin because no tyres of a
higher load rating could be found.
When selecting a vehicle it is worth checking that tyres of a suitable load rating and tread
pattern can be purchased.
The choice of tyres determines, to some extent

(1) , your chances of getting stuck in mud, sand or
snow.
Overland journeys are a mixture of good tarmac,

bad tarmac, good dirt, bad dirt and off-road.
There is no one tyre suitable for all these
conditions.
On most journeys the vast majority of the

distance is on good tarmac (say 70%) and less
than 0.01% is "off-road". The sort of tyre that is
normally fitted to conventional campervans in
Europe is not ideal for mud, snow or sand. Tyres
that are specifically designed for mud (think tractor tyres) are uncomfortable, noisy and possibly
even dangerous at high speed on tarmac (they may have a top speed rating of 60kph). There are
tyres specifically designed for soft sand, they are not particularly good in mud or snow, neither are
they suitable for high speed driving on tarmac.
On 4x4 vehicles it is normal to use the same type of tyre on the front and rear. On 2x4 vehicles,
with double rear wheels some people use "steering" tyres on the front and "traction" tyres on the
rear.
Clearly a compromise is required. Before setting out on China 2002 I wrote to several tyre
manufactures asking for advice on what tyres to use on my Unimog. Below is part of the reply I
received from Continental AG. (I am not suggesting that the answer is necessarily applicable to
other vehicles, or that Continental should be your manufacturer of choice, it is just an example of
what needs to be considered.)
Dear Mr. Stewart,
In the size 12.5 R 20 MPT / 335/80 R 20 MPT we offer several different tread patterns
for nearly all kind of services. Probably the original tyres on your Unimog were MIL
pattern, which is a military standard. Nearly all tyre manufacturers produce them, but
their performance is not very good.
Here is a small assessment of our patterns
(100% = MIL. More than 100% is a better performance).
Noise & Traction Traction Lifetime Max. Speed

Vibration Sand Clay (kph).
MIL 100% 100% 100% 100% 100
MPT80 90% 90% 120% 110% 100
MPT81 130% 130% 110% 120% 110
70E 90% 100% 120% 110% 70
AC70G 100% 95% 140% 80% 90
Conclusion:
For your purpose the 335/80 R 20 MPT81 seems to be the right tyre. It is released
tyre from Daimler-Chrysler and fitted in high quantity.
We have tested it with success together with many special customers on expedition-
and rally vehicles (Rallye Paris-Dakar, Pharaoh Rallye, etc.)
1. Driver skill (or caution) is probably a bigger factor in getting stuck. On one occasion I
travelled with two similar rear wheel drive 2x4 campervans, both about 7 metres long. Over
a 1000kms of poor dirt road one had to be towed out of the sand five times, the other not at
all.
Driving a vehicle with modest ground clearance and/or departure angle for long periods over
rough terrain can be very demanding (and stressful, particularly if you are alone). Driving a
very capable off-road 4x4 over the same terrain is far less demanding. (You know that if you
misjudge the size of a gully there will be a big jolt, but you won't rip your fuel tank off!)
Body Mounting.
Most people give very little thought to how the body of their campervan is attached to the chassis.
Imagine a rigid box bolted directly to a perfectly rigid chassis. Now imagine driving along a
slightly uneven road. There is no problem; the suspension absorbs the relative movement of the
wheels keeping them all in contact with the ground. Of course there is limit to how uneven the
road can be. Beyond a certain point the suspension will not be able to keep all the wheels on the
ground. (True off-road vehicles are far better at this than on-road vehicles.) Even with permanent
four wheel drive, unless you have differential lock, you will loose all traction with one wheel off
the ground.
However no vehicle has a perfectly rigid chassis. In the case of true off-road vehicles the chassis
may even be designed to twist significantly as part of the suspension. In the case of on-road
vehicles the chassis will twist simply because it is not rigid enough not to. If the rigid body of a
campervan were bolted directly to the chassis then it would be twisted each time the vehicle was
driven over rough ground and the body would soon buckle or crack. For this reason the body of a
conventional campervan is usually mounted on rubber blocks. However these may well be
insufficient to prevent transfer of "twist" from the chassis to the body when the vehicle is driven
over rough roads.
The real solution to this problem (found for example on all Unimog campervans) is a torsion-free
sub-frame. This is in effect a second chassis mounted above the real chassis at either three points
or more commonly two pivots at right angles. These type of mounting rely on geometry, not
elasticity, to avoid the transfer of twist. However the torsion-free sub-frame found on Unimogs is
expensive, heavy and raises the cabin by 200mm.
Nearly as good as a torsion-free sub-frame, and a great deal cheaper, is to mount the cabin of the
campervan on two parallel rails that rest on the chassis. At one end (often the rear) they are bolted
directly to the chassis. At the other end they are attached with springs, that may allow as much as
100mm of vertical movement!
Conventional campervans, driven for long distances over corrugated roads, are often torn apart by
a combination of twist and vibration. Making the body stronger may reduce the damage done by
vibration (for example making the furniture of thicker wood and fixing it to the floor, walls and
roof) however this will also make the body more rigid and thus more susceptible to damage by
being twisted.
A good overland campervan should have a strong body (cabin) attached to the chassis by an
appropriate torsion reducing mounting.
Dust.
Many otherwise satisfactory overland

campervans have a dust problem.
A "dust problem" does not sound too

serious but it can be. Imagine that at the
end of each day's driving somebody got
into your campervan and tossed a
handful of brown talcum powder over
your bed, into your wardrobe, into all the
cupboards and into your shower. Every
day.
The vehicles that seem to suffer most

from dust are panel van conversions with
double rear doors. This seems to be the
result of both the aerodynamics "sucking" the dust in and the movement of the rear doors due to
body twist.
One new conventional campervan I traveled with had such a bad dust problem that the cab had to
cleaned every day, and even then you could write you name on the dashboard (and read it) after
100kms of dusty road.
Old or New?
Overland campervans are often considerably older than you would expect. In South America many
of the campervans you see are over 20 years old. The decision to drive an "old" vehicle is not just
determined by economics. Some people specifically select a base vehicle that is over 15 years old,
even if they then build a new body on it.
The reason for this is electronics. Old

vehicles (my 1980 Unimog for example)
have no "mission critical" electronics.
The result of this is that the engine is not
very efficient, it produces considerably
more pollution than an equivalent new
one would and at high altitude it smokes
a lot. But it also means it is repairable by
most garages and its performance will
probably degrade slowly and
"gracefully".
In contrast a more modern engines may

simply refuse to work if the ECU (the
heart of the electronics) believes that
some parameter is out of range. The
parameter may really be out of specification (the engine may never have been designed to work
above 5000 metres) or it may be that a sensor has gone wrong (or even fallen off). In an ideal
world the ECU would tell the driver what was wrong in plain language and offer the driver a
choice of what to do (for example, stop, work at only 80% capacity, or ignore the problem.) Of
course the ECU itself might fail. Again, in an ideal world, the engine would still work, perhaps in
some reduced power mode. We do not live in an ideal world.
If your newish (but not too new) popular German vehicle goes wrong in Germany there is a good
chance that in the next big town there will be an agent with an expensive set of hardware, software
and wetware (operator training) who will be able to plug a cable into your vehicle and tell you
what is wrong.
If on the other hand you are in Ushuaia and your relatively uncommon Italian Scam stops with a
strange warning light you did not know you had, things may be more difficult! I have heard of
people unable to get their vehicles fixed in South America, not because they can not get the parts
shipped over, but because they can not get their ECU to tell them what is wrong! Some people
have had to ship their vehicles back to Europe for a diagnosis.
The counter argument I have heard is that modern engines and their ECUs are now so reliable that
it is no longer desirable to use a pre-electronics vehicle. (However I have recently seen a relatively
modern vehicle from a good manufacturer that had the battery mounted directly above the ECU.
When the vibration from corrugated roads caused the plastic overflow pipe on the battery to fall
off, the battery dripped acid into the ECU!)
I am not sure what you can do to reduce the risks of having mission-critical electronics.
Presumably some manufactures are better and/or more widespread than others (Bosch?). Perhaps
you can carry your own diagnostic system running on your own laptop? It may be possible to get a
copy of the software relevant to your vehicle even if you can not run it. It may be possible to find
out if there are any unacceptable limits built into the firmware of your vehicle (e.g. it will stop
above 5000 metres and below -15°C). It may be possible to have your vehicle re-programmed to
remove these restrictions. It might be worth carrying some replacement sensors.
Many of the concerns that apply to engine management electronics also apply to immobilizers.
Vehicle Fuel.
Diesel (also known as gas-oil) is the fuel

of choice for an overland campervan.
For most overland journeys a fuel

capacity sufficient for 1000km is
adequate. 1500km is better. Anything
above 2000km is probably excessive
unless you have lots of chassis space
available for extra fuel tank(s).
For several reasons I believe carrying at

least one 20 litre Jerry can of fuel is
worthwhile.
Chassis Manufacturer?
The ideal overland campervan chassis manufacturer would produce a range of suitable, extremely
reliable vehicles and have a network of well trained, well stocked service agents in the countries
you intend to visit.
If you intend only to visit Guyana then you might consider a Bedford (if they still exist as a
manufacturer), for Russia a small Zil or a Kamaz might be worth looking at, for China a Dong-
Feng truck would be easy to get fixed, in India and Pakistan a Tata would be welcome in many
garages.
However for more more realistic overland journeys the manufacturer I would recommend is
Mercedes-Benz. This is not only my personal prejudice. During the last five years I have
completed four significant overland journeys, three of them traveling with other overlanders. On
China 2002 three of the five vehicles were based on a Mercedes-Benz. chassis. On Siberia and
Mongolia 2004 the figure was four out of six, on Central and South America 2006 the figure was
five out of five. About 50% of the overland vehicles we met at Ushuaia (where many overlanders
meet up at Christmas) were based on a Mercedes-Benz. chassis.
Left or right hand drive.
On balance I would opt for left hand drive.
A Checklist (Habitation).
Sleeping.
In my opinion a permanent bed (that is

one that does not need to be assembled
each time it is used) is very desirable in
an overland campervan. (Actually I think
it is essential!)
The mattress of a permanent bed does

not have to serve other functions (for
example seat backs), as a result
permanent beds are usually more
comfortable. They are also considerably
more convenient (1).
If possible the bed should allow you to sleep either way round (2). To achieve this both the "head"
and "foot" of the bed should have adjustable reading lights and a firm wall that you can lean
against if you wish to sit up in bed.
There should be an openable window in the bed area (both for ventilation and as an emergency
exit in case of fire). A low noise, low current adjustable fan above the centre of the bed is also a
very good idea. There should be at least one metre of free space above the bed (3). It is worth
considering a higher level of thermal insulation in the bed area (this is one of the few places in a
campervan where you may be in contact with the walls).. The relatively small opening between a
permanent bed and the rest of the vehicle is a good place to install a mosquito net. There should be
no openings in the roof above the bed (4).
1. If you have a "boxed in" permanent bed (as in the photograph above) I suggest using three
equal sized foam cushions (divided latitudinally) rather than a single full sized one. This
arrangement is equally comfortable and makes access to the area under the bed easier as
well as making "turning" the mattress and changing the (fitted) sheets far easier.
2. This is particularly important for an expedition campervan because you will often wish to
"wild camp" and you may be unable to find level ground. Most people can sleep well even
at considerable angle if their head is higher than their feet.
3. This is also for improved ventilation, but may exclude some "cab-over" and "pull-down"
beds.
4. Skylights are notorious for leaking (and being left open). A water leak anywhere other than
over the bed can be tolerated if necessary, over the bed it can not!
Insulation.
Overland campervans are often exposed to a wide range of temperatures and a high level of
insulation (with no cold bridges) is desirable, particularly in the area around the bed. A figure of
less than 0.5W/M2K is desirable (1). This usually means a wall thickness of between 50 and 60
millimeters. Many conventional campervans are far less well insulated than this.
The cabins of many commercial overland campervans are constructed using a sandwich of glass
reinforced plastic (GRP) and foamed polyethylene, normally between 40 or 60 millimeters thick.
This form of construction is light, very well insulated, and waterproof.
Note that good insulation is important for keeping cool in hot weather as well keeping warn in
cold weather.
1. A very rough calculation is that with a "U" value of 0.5W/M2K an 8 metre long cabin 2.2
metres wide and 2.1 metres high will require about 1000 watts of heating to maintain a
temperature difference of 25°C (say +20°C inside and -5°C outside. In practice poorly
insulated windows, doors and skylights as well as necessary ventilation will double this
figure.
Heating.
There are four (3) energy sources that can be used to heat a campervan, and the same four sources
can be used to provide hot water. These are diesel (via a furnace), diesel (via the vehicle's engine),
gas (that is LPG: propane or butane), and electricity . An ideal overland campervan can make use
of all four energy sources.
In my view the best single system is a "wet" diesel

furnace that circulates very hot water thru one or more
fan matrixes and a calorifier (hot water tank). The best
known system of this type is made by Eberspächer and
produces around 4kW of heat. The main advantages of a
diesel heater is that you can always get fuel (and you
already have a big tank of it). The downside is that these
systems are expensive, noisy and may not work at high
altitude for long periods (1). They are also susceptible to
the diesel fuel "freezing" (more accurately the formation
of solid wax in the fuel) just when you need them most
(2).
Diesel heaters that circulate very hot water (rather than heat the air directly) have the advantage
that they can be coupled to the engine's cooling system. Depending on how this is done it may then
be possible to heat the cabin (that is the living area as opposed to the cab) and/or the domestic hot
water using waste heat from the engine. It may also be possible to heat the engine block and the
cab using the diesel furnace. This is often done at night to make starting the engine easier,
however for really low temperatures the fuel tank and fuel pipes must also be heated.
The other common means of heating a campervan is gas (LPG: propane or butane). Because gas
heaters are fairly cheap (at least compared with diesel ones) and most campervans have gas
available because it is used for cooking, gas heaters are very common. They are also reliable, clean
and at least in the case of propane work well at high altitude and low temperatures. Indeed the only
thing wrong with gas heaters is that they use gas, quite a lot of gas.
I will deal with the problems of buying and storing gas later. However if you only use gas for
cooking (with a hob and grill but not an oven) you will use between 1kg and 2kg a month, if you
use gas routinely for heating you may well use ten times this. In some parts of the world getting
more gas can become a major obsession. If you have a campervan with gas heating and you intend
to take it on a long overland journey it may well be worth adding a diesel heater and keeping the
gas one for emergencies (4). Redundancy is a good thing (subject of course to weight, cost etc.
etc.).
Electricity is of course an excellent source of heat and hot water when you can hook-up your
campervan to mains power. Small fan heaters take up very little space and weigh little. An
immersion heater element in your hot water system takes up no space and weighs only grams.
Electrical heating can also be useful even when then is no mains electricity supply. If you have an
inverter (to convert your 12/24 volt DC supply to 220/110 volts AC) and (say) a 900 watt
immersion heater then you can effectively (if inefficiently) heat your hot water from your engine
whilst driving (5).
If you have a generator (6) and a small electrical fan heater then you have a second (or third)
heating system that uses a fuel you can easily get (probably petrol rather than diesel if it is a small
generator.)
Redundancy is a good thing in an overland campervan.
1. At high altitude there is insufficient oxygen to burn all the fuel and soot is deposited inside
the furnace. Some Eberspächer systems are available with two switchable fuel pumps, one to
be used at high altitude, the other at low altitude. However even the high altitude pump is
not suitable for indefinite use above 2000 metres. Some marine systems may not work
above 1000 metres.
2. Diesel fuel intended to be used at low temperatures is formulated to reduce the temperature
at which solid wax forms. Problems often occur when fuel purchased at low altitude is used
at high altitude. After a cold night neither the engine nor the heater will work.
Some diesel fuel additives are effective at reducing the "freezing" point. The same effect can
be achieved by adding up to 20% petrol (gasoline) but only if the engine manufacturer
specifically approves it.. To be effective the additive must be in the tank, the fuel pipes,
pumps and filters before it gets cold. This usually means it must be added the night before
and the vehicle then driven and the heating system run for several minutes.
3. Yes, I know of campervans with wood burning stoves as well.
4. You can use your gas heater to heat water to pour over your diesel pipes and filters so that
you can start your diesel heater and/or your engine.
5. To heat 15 litres of water from say 20°C to 50°C with a 900 watt immersion heater and a
90% efficient inverter takes about 35 minutes and requires a "spare" battery capacity of
around 50AH (at 12 volts). To recharge the battery requires about three hours (driving) at 20
amps (allowing for losses). Note that because you do not (in general) want to discharge your
battery below 50% you need around 400AH (at 12 volts) of battery capacity to make this
approach viable.
On a recent trip one campervan used this method for many months as their only source of
hot water when a fault developed with the immersion coil of their diesel heating system.
Redundancy is good.
As an interesting aside this fault allowed engine cooling water (with antifreeze) to enter their
domestic hot water supply and thus possibly get used for cooking. The fault was only
discovered because each morning the engine cooling water tank was found to be
overflowing.
6. Although I have never seen it done it should be possible to use the considerable excess heat
of a water cooled generator to heat a campervan cabin and/or hot water. Think of it as a
diesel heater that charges your batteries.
Cooling.
"Do you have air-con?" is a common question. When the temperature is above say 30°C air-
conditioning (well cooling anyway) becomes attractive. The problem is that to cool a reasonable
sized campervan by say 10°C requires a lot of power. There are only three viable sources of this
power. The vehicle engine whilst running (we are not here talking about cab air-conditioning, this
is inadequate to cool the cabin.) external mains power or a large (probably diesel) generator.
High capacity refrigeration units driven directly by the engine are available, but they are expensive
and noisy. On an overland journey external mains power is probably only available 20% of the
time. Only a large chassis mounted, water cooled generator is really up to the task of running a
cabin sized air-conditioner for four or five hours a day. It can be done but budget on say 10,000
Euros and 200Kg.
It is now possible to buy small 12/24 volt air conditioners intended for use in the sleeper cabs of
trucks parked overnight. They consume about 14 amps (at 12 volts) and have a built in timer to
switch them off after an hour or two. If the design of your campervan allows the sleeping area to
be curtained off from the rest of the cabin this type of air conditioner just might be of interest (I
had one in my Unimog campervan). However they cost around 1000 Euros and only achieve
around 5 degrees of cooling. A couple of good (100 Euro) fans mounted above the bed are far
better value.
All the cooling systems I have considered so far use a sealed gas/liquid system with a compressor
and evaporator. They work (1).
There are also water evaporative systems around that achieve their cooling effect by evaporating
water with the aid of a fan. They are sold as suitable for cooling a medium sized campervan. They
(almost) don't work (2)
1. A small air-conditioner like the one installed on my Unimog campervan (a Sleeping Well
made by Indel-B and distributed by Eberspächer) consumes about 6 amps at 24 volts and
produces about 450 watts of cooling.
2. To produce 450 watts of cooling (enough to cool just the sleeping area a few degrees) by
evaporating water you need to evaporate it at a rate of about 5 litres an hour. The problem
is that when it is humid (when you most want the cooling) the rooftop units sold for
campervans do not evaporate anything like 5 litres an hour. And the more humid it gets the
worse they perform. Not recommended.
Cooking Equipment.
I know nothing about cooking per se this section is only about the means of heating food and
liquids, specifically:
1. The hob (cook-top).

2. Grill.
3. Oven.
4. Microwave oven.
5. Electric kettle.
Almost all campervans have a gas hob with between two and four burners. (Although two burners
may be enough for most purposes having a couple of spares can be useful.) Most modern gas hobs
have electrical ignition and far more importantly flame failure detection (that is if the flame goes
out the gas stops flowing after a few seconds).
When designing my campervan I was tempted to install a diesel hob. On paper these are very
attractive, primarily because if you use diesel heating as well then you do not need to carry any
gas. In practice they seem to be a disaster! So far I have not met anyone with a diesel hob who
would recommend it. They are expensive, noisy, slow to start, slow to heat and unreliable. They
may not work at all above 1500 metres.
Adding a grill under a four burner gas hob adds only a few Euros to the cost, but brings some of
the benefits of an oven (and you can make toast and better bacon sandwiches). If you find you
don't use your grill you can always use the space for storage.
A gas oven (don't even think about a diesel one) may be worth while if you are sure you will use it
regularly and have the space. They do, of course, use a fair amount of gas.
A microwave oven (1) may be worth while if you have a suitable inverter (2).Think of it as a very
cheap diesel oven. If you find you don't use it to cook you can always store thing in it. On balance
I think a microwave, but not conventional gas oven is worthwhile.
An electric kettle is, in my view, very desirable in an overland campervan! I have one (3) of a
design normally used in hotels, where the base is secured to the counter top. Not only is boiling
water in an electric kettle faster than using the hob, it can save significant gas.
1. Because you do not want a microwave oven with a digital clock or any other fancy features,
select the most basic model you can find. My 220 volt 800 watt LG microwave oven cost
less than 40 Euros and has survived two major journeys. Microwave ovens designed to work
on 12/24 volts are very expensive and bad value for money.
2. Although a microwave oven may be described as "800 watts" remember this is the heat
output, not the power input. An 800 watt microwave may well consume 1500 watts and
really needs a 2kW inverter to run it! If you do not have an inverter capable of running your
microwave then it will only be of use when you have mains hook-up (perhaps 20% of the
time).
The power needed to heat up a meal for two is about 40AH (at 12 volts). The calculation is
informative. If we assume an 800 watt microwave oven consuming 1500 watts for eight
minutes that gives 200 watt hours. A naive conversion into AH at 12 volts would give about
17AH. However a 2kW inverter running at 1500 watts from a 24 volt supply (you really
should not try to run an inverter of this size from 12 volts) will draw about 78 amps (i.e.
around 80% efficiency). Assuming a realistic sized battery bank of 200AH (at 24 volts) and
using a Peukert's Exponent of 1.3 this is effectively increased from 78 amps to 144 amps!
Eight minutes at 144 amps converts to a consumption of around 20AH (at 24 volts). Or to
put it another way an "800 watt" microwave oven uses about 5AH (at 12 volts) every minute
it is running. Even so, given some of the problems with gas I think a small cheap microwave
oven is still worthwhile.
3. Mine is a Micromark Hotel Kettle (part number NEWMM9859) costing about 30 Euros.
Boiling 0.7 litres of water, for two cups of coffee, takes about three minutes (using about
15AH at 12 volts).
Refrigerators, coolers and freezers.

Refrigerators and freezers use the evaporation of a refrigerant liquid to "pump" heat from the
inside to the outside of an insulated box, coolers use the Peltier effect (1) to do the same thing.
Coolers, having no moving parts and no gas to leak out, are very reliable, however they are limited
to producing about 30°C temperature difference and so can not make ice for your gin and tonic in
the Gobi desert. They are not often used in campervans, but a small one may be ideal for keeping
drugs (insulin for example) cool but not frozen.
There are two methods of circulating the refrigerant in a fridge or freezer. One is to use a
mechanical pump the other is to use heat. Fridges that use a mechanical pump are referred to as
compressor fridges, those that use heat as absorption (2) fridges. Absorption fridges have no
moving parts and most can be run from gas, 12 volts or mains. They are ubiquitous in
conventional campervans. However they are not recommended for an overland campervan.
Because of the amount of power they use they are often wired so that they will only run from 12
volts when the engine is running. When wild-camped they must be run from gas which can be
difficult to get (see below). Older absorption fridges do not work well unless level.
Compressor fridges for campervans are far less common and considerably more expensive. A
typical 80 litre 12/24 volt compressor fridge may cost as much as 800 Euros (3)! When the
compressor is running this type of fridge uses about 4.5 amps at 12 volts. The proportion of the
time the compressor runs is a function of the temperature difference between the inside of the
fridge and the surrounding air, the level of insulation, the amount of "warm" food put into the
fridge and how often the door is opened. It is worth adding more insulation to the outside of a
fridge if space permits. Newer fridges are rated according the ambient temperature they are
designed to work in (Climate Class). You probably want one rated "T" (Tropical).
Some fridges have a "cool store" (4) that will maintain the internal temperature for several hours
without the compressor running (so that you are not disturbed by the sound of the compressor at
night). In my view they are a waste of money, if you can hear your campervan's fridge running two
metres away then it is not properly mounted or it needs more gas or it needs a new compressor.
The heat generated (extracted) by a compressor fridge must be removed to the outside world as
efficiently as possible. Great care should be taken to ensure a good flow of air over the condenser
(usually at the back of the fridge). Getting this air flow wrong may result in the fridge not working
(or using far too much power). A small fan can greatly assist and the small extra power used is
well spent.
The commonest reasons why a compressor fridge fail to work properly is that the wire used to
connect it is too thin or too long or both. (measure the voltage at the back of the fridge when it is
running, it should not be less than 0.2 volts lower than the voltage measured at the battery).
The mechanical aspects of an overland campervan fridge should not be ignored. Many fridges do
not have sufficiently robust mounting points and they may fall out! If possible the base should be
bolted down and the top and sides clamped (with say 20mm thermal insulation). The interior
construction should also be considered. The flimsy plastic used in some fridges will soon
disintegrate when they are shaken up with (say) a couple of wine bottles inside. A stainless steel
interior is better. It is also worth using two or more perforated plastic boxes that fit exactly within
the fridge to store and organise food. Anything just placed on a shelf will soon get "re-arranged"
by a couple of big bumps.
There is something to be said for having two small fridges rather than on large one.
1. Peltier effect: The change in temperature produced at a junction between two dissimilar
metals or semiconductors when an electric current passes through the junction. The direction
of the current determines whether the temperature rises or falls. The effect was discovered in
1834 by J. C. A. Peltier (1785–1845).
2. In an absorption fridge the refrigerant (usually ammonia) is dissolved in water and later
separated from it by heating as part of the cooling cycle.
3. An increasingly common alternative is to use a high efficiency small domestic fridge

running from a local inverter. These are far cheaper and if they do fail may be replaced far
more easily. Selecting the right fridge and inverter can be complicated.
4. Sometimes called a "eutectic store" because a eutectic mixture is used to provide the latent
heat at the desired temperature..
Gas: How to store it and buy it.

You can store gas in a "tank" (usually
mounted on the chassis) or in cylinders
(bottles) stored in an externally
accessible locker.
Most campervan gas tanks are cylindrical

and are mounted horizontally under the
campervan body, with the mounting
brackets bolted to the chassis. They
usually have a capacity between 20 and
60 litres (~10 to 30kg) (1). The tank itself
may weigh considerably more than its
maximum contents. Care should be taken
to make sure it is mounted very securely
in a protected position.
Campervan domestic gas tanks are normally
filled at fuel stations intended for LPG fueled
vehicles. All gas tanks should have a system to
prevent over filling (2). Many gas tanks have a
gauge indicating, very roughly, the amount of
liquid gas is in the tank.
There are three common fittings used for LPG

tanks around the world and it may be possible
to determine which one is being used in a
given country. It is simpler to carry all three.
In some countries LPG is widely available, in other counties not at all. In countries with natural
gas, CNG is often available at fuel stations rather than LPG.
Domestic LPG tanks on campervans are
illegal in some counties (Andorra is one I
believe) and they must be removed
before a vehicle can be registered there! I
think that vehicles with LPG tanks
(domestic or otherwise) are not permitted
in the Channel Tunnel (UK to France).
LPG tanks (and cylinders) should be

emptied before shipping a vehicle,
though they are rarely checked. Some
LPG filling stations in Europe may refuse to fill domestic LPG tanks because of "insurance
issues".
Overland travellers with only an LPG tank and only gas heating or a gas fridge often become
obsessed with finding the next LPG filling station.
Gas cylinders (also called bottles) come
in a wide range of sizes, shapes and
fittings and contain either propane,
butane or an undefined mixture. Those
used in campervans are usually in the
range 5kg to 13kg (3).
Local gas cylinders are normally

exchanged when empty. In general gas
cylinders acquired in one country are not
exchangeable or refillable in another
country. Even within one country there
may be two or more incompatible ranges
of cylinders provided by different
companies. It is very rarely possible to
get normal gas cylinders filled at LPG
fuel stations.
Almost all countries have local gas

cylinders available for exchange, often at
fuel stations.
Most gas appliances (hobs, heaters etc.)
require gas at a fairly low pressure,
usually between 25 and 40 millibars (4).
In order to provide gas at this pressure a
"regulator" is used. This reduces the
(high) pressure in the tank or cylinder to
the required low pressure. To allow the
cylinder to be exchanged there is a
flexible connection between the cylinder
and the rigid pipe-work of the
campervan. In the past the regulator was
mounted directly on the cylinder and the
flexible connection carried gas at low pressure. In recent years new European campervans have
had the regulator mounted on the body of the vehicle and the flexible connection then carries gas
at high pressure.
There are four strategies that can be used on overland journeys when using gas cylinders.
1. Take it all with you. If you use diesel for heating and use an electric kettle and a
microwave oven then your gas consumption is likely to be between 1kg and 2kg per month.
Two 11kg cylinders will last for most overland journeys.
2. Try and get your existing cylinders refilled by taking them to a local gas cylinder filling
depot (not an LPG fuel station); for safety reasons these are often found just outside large
cities. If you have a range of adaptors that fit your cylinders you will increase the chances of
getting them filled. However unless your cylinder
exactly matches the local ones (very unlikely) or
you have an adaptor that matches the local
cylinders you may not be able to get them filled.
Sometimes the depot staff will not even try, sometimes they will make valiant efforts to
connect their filling system to your cylinders. Sometimes they will only succeed in partially
filling or far worse, over filling your cylinder (5).
3. If your campervan has the pressure regulator attached directly to the cylinder a far simpler
and cheaper solution is to throw away your empty cylinders and buy a new local one and a
new regulator. You can then attach the new regulator to your existing low pressure hose
with a worm drive clip, and check it for leaks with soapy water. At the end of a long trip you
may well have a fine collection of regulators but
the total cost will have been far less than buying
and fitting a gas tank, and far less stressful and
possibly dangerous than trying to get your
cylinders re-filled. If you can't take all your gas
with you this is my recommended strategy.
If your campervan has a (new style) fixed pressure

regulator (i.e. one not mounted on the cylinder)
then unless you can buy the correct pre-terminated
high pressure hose to attach the local cylinder to
your regulator (you will not be able to) you can
not adopt the "buy a new cylinder strategy".
However, if before you set off, you have a small
modification made to the low pressure pipe-work
of your campervan (by a fully qualified and
registered gas engineer of course) then you can
still adopt the "buy a new cylinder and regulator strategy".
4. You can use one or more special refillable gas

cylinders. You can buy (for about 300 Euros) a
gas cylinder, that in addition to the standard fitting
used to attach it to its regulator, has a second
fitting that is used to fill it as if it were a (small)
LPG tank. You can also put a "extension pipe" on
this fitting so that you do not have to remove the
cylinder from the vehicle for filling.
This special type of cylinder incorporates a

mechanism to prevent overfilling.
The 6kg yellow Gaslow cylinder on the left is

refillable, the silver/blue pipe is an "extension
pipe" that allows the cylinder to be filled from
outside the vehicle. The grey cylinder on the right
is a European standard one made of aluminum. The two cylinders are connected to a (new
style) fixed regulator with pressure gauge. The regulator is connected to the fixed pipe-work
of the campervan by a flexible low pressure hose that could be removed and connected to a
cylinder mounted regulator if required (are you following this?)
The lower picture shows a number of high pressure pipes and adaptors. None of them fitted
any of the types of cylinders used in Central and South America!
1. Gas in tanks is usually measured and sold by the litre, gas in cylinders is usually measured
and sold by the kilograms. One litre of propane weighs about 0.5kg.
2. For safety reasons gas tanks and cylinders are never filled beyond 80% of their nominal
capacity. Under normal conditions the pressure in a gas tank (or cylinder) is determined by
the type of gas (propane or butane) and the temperature of the liquid gas. As the temperature
rises the saturated vapor pressure (SVP) also rises. Gas tanks and cylinders are designed to
withstand pressures several times higher than the SVP of propane at the highest ambient
temperature likely. However if the tank (or cylinder) is filled to capacity (with liquid
propane or butane) and sealed, then as the temperature rises the bulk of the liquid expands,
and being almost incompressible, exerts a vastly higher pressure on the tank (or cylinder)
which will eventually rupture or if fitted with a suitable safety device vent liquid gas. The
gas released may then ignite. (Not recommended)
3. Note that a "5kg" gas cylinder will weigh about 8kg empty and 13kg when "full", that is
when filled correctly to 80% of its physical capacity. If filled to 100% of its capacity with
cold liquid gas and sealed it will probably rupture when it warms up. Ordinary gas cylinders,
unlike gas tanks, do not have any safety mechanism to stop them being filled beyond the
80% safety limit.
4. A millibar is one thousandth of a bar and equal to 100 Pascals.
5. Warning: There is a real danger that if you take your "foreign" cylinder to a gas depot that
is used to filling larger local cylinders they may put too much gas in your cylinder. If you do
not notice this (and quickly release some of the gas) your cylinder may rupture as it warms
up.
If you are going to try and get your gas cylinders re-filled whilst on an overland journey
then you should take with you an appropriate range spring-balance. Before starting your trip
you should weigh your cylinders empty and make sure this weight corresponds to the empty
weight stamped on each one. Then calculate the expected weight of your cylinders when
correctly filled. Write this weight clearly on each cylinder (it may already be stamped on
them).
Immediately you receive your re-filled cylinder from a gas depot weigh it. If it is over the
expected weight release some of the gas (obviously you should only do this in the open air
a long way from any source of ignition.)
When filled to 80% you should be able to feel the liquid gas sloping around inside the
cylinder if you hold it horizontally and shake it from side to side, if you can not you should
release some of the gas until you can.
Water: Tanks, pipes, pumps and filters.
Conventional campervans usually have fresh water tanks that hold between 100 and 150 litres.
Large overland campervans may carry as much as 1000 litres. Probably between 300 and 400 litres
is optimal.
Most campervans are designed on the premise that clean potable water will be available from a
nearby domestic tap. On an overland journey getting water is often a problem. An overland
campervan should be able to fill up with water from a wide range of sources.
On a well designed overland campervan the pipe that leads from filler point to the water tank
should be large bore (>60mm) short and direct. The water tank should have a separate pipe to vent
the expelled air from the tank. Without such an arrangement it is often hard to fill up with water
from a large bore, high pressure hose (found in many garages) or from a bucket or watering can.
As well as a short hose (say six metres) to use via the
water filler point, it can be advantageous to have a
~30 metre hose reel mounted within an externally
accessible locker. This hose can be directly
connected to the water tank so that it is not necessary
to remove the filler cap. Lay-flat hose-pipes sound
like a good idea but can be very slow if the water
pressure is low.
When it is necessary to fill up from a river or spring

you may need to use a 12/24 volt submersible pump
that can be attached to the far end of your filler hose.
It should be possible, but not mandatory, to filter the

incoming water thru a metal strainer and 10 micron
filter.
It should be possible to clean the fresh water tank. This may seem obvious, but
the design of many campervans makes it almost impossible to gain access to the
clean water tank. (After cleaning the inside of your water tank with a suitable brush and a pressure
washer it can be sterilized with Sanogene.) A 150mm inspection cover and 100mm drain are worth
having. It should also be reasonably easy to inspect and replace the 12/24 volt pump that supplies
the domestic water. (You should carry a spare.)
A separate drinking water tap with a suitable
filter (for example Nature Pure from General
Ecology Ltd.) is highly recommended. If you
must fill up with dirty water (you will) do so via
a metal strainer (to remove snails, leaves etc.)
and a 10 micron filter, then treat the water in the
tank with Sanogene. (2009-05-26 Unfortunately
this product is no longer available. However
Accepta in the UK produce chlorine dioxide
tablets.) A second 10 micron filter should then be
used before your final drinking water filter. The
first 10 micron filter is necessary to remove
"large particles" so that the chemical treatment is
effective. The second 10 micron filter is used to remove precipitates that may be produced by the
chemical treatment. These are not harmful but they will dramatically reduce the life of your final
0.1 micron drinking water filter.
You should routinely switch off the
12/24 volt water pump whilst travelling.
This avoids pumping 300 litres of water
into your cabin if a water pipe comes off
whilst you are driving.
To avoid freezing the fresh water tank

should be within the cabin. (If the
external temperature is below freezing
for say 48 hours, then no amount of
insulation will prevent it freezing, what
you need is heating.)
All fresh and waste water plumbing should be by well supported, accessible, high quality flexible
pipes. Rigid pipes (often made of white plastic and jointed by glued connections) should be
avoided. You should have a plumbing diagram of your vehicle and be able to access all the pipe-
work. The number of pipe joints should be kept to a minimum. Where possible joints should be
made using stainless-steel connectors and stainless-steel worm drive clips.
If you have a hot water tank (calorifier) heated to (say) 80°C and a thermostatic mixer valve (many
diesel heating systems do) then the pipe that connects the calorifier to the mixer valve should be of
an appropriate temperature rating (the normal red 15mm food quality pipe is not suitable for use
above 45°C, at 80°C it will eventually balloon and burst.)
The waste (grey) water tank should have a capacity of between 50 and 100 liters and should have
both a drain tap mounted about 30 mm above the base of the tank and a 100mm dump valve
mounted on the base of the tank. The waste water tank is normally emptied via the dump valve,
which should be left open when driving. The drain tap can be used with a 10 metre dirty water
hose when parked in the same spot for some time (this prevents stagnant water collecting under the
vehicle).
If the grey water tank is mounted outside the insulated cabin then there should be a means of
allowing waste water to flow directly from the cabin to the ground (for use when the grey water
tank is frozen).
Electricity: Batteries, charging, mains power and inverters.
Electrical problems are very common on overland journeys. Most of them affect the cabin electrics
rather than the chassis electrics.
Nearly all campervans have two [sets of] rechargeable batteries. The battery used to start the
engine is referred to as the vehicle battery, the one used to run the lights, water pump etc. in the
cabin is referred to as the leisure battery. They are used very differently.
The vehicle battery is really only there to start the engine (1). All the other electrical equipment on
the vehicle (e.g. the head lights etc.) are run from the alternator when the engine is running. When
parked for a couple of days the vehicle battery does nothing. The leisure battery on the other hand
is supplying power to the cabin lights etc. One reason for having separate, independent vehicle and
leisure batteries is that if you leave all the cabin lights on for a week you may discharge the leisure
battery but you will still be able to start the engine.
The capacity of a leisure (or vehicle) battery is measured in amp hours (AH). Thus a 100AH
battery is capable of supplying one amp for 100 hours (or two amps for 50 hours) (2). If only it was
that simple.(10)
Fully charging a lead-acid battery is very hard work (3). To get a battery charged to 100% of its
capacity requires a sophisticated electronic charger (99.9% of vehicles do not have one). A
vehicle's alternator may only charge the leisure battery to about 70% of its "capacity" (4). Worse
still to get 100AH out of a 100AH battery requires you to fully discharge it. This is very bad for
the battery and if done often will dramatically shorten its life. In practice, with a 100AH battery
you may only get to use 20AH! (Between the 70% you can charge it to with the vehicle's
alternator and the 50% discharge limit required to give the battery a reasonable life. Imagine you
bought a chocolate bar that was only 70% of the expected weight and you were told it was unsafe
to eat the last 50%.)
Other things being equal a big leisure battery (or more probably several batteries) is a good thing.
But leisure batteries are very heavy and expensive (6). The minimum capacity for an overland
campervan is probably 150AH (at 12 volts). Between 200 and 400AH (at 12 volts) is probably
optimum. Anything more than 400AH (9) is hard to justify.
If you drive for six hours each day, and during the remaining 18 hours you make liberal use of the
(compressor) fridge, lights, fans, laptop computer, phone charger, diesel heating system, electric
kettle and microwave you will only use around 100AH (at 12 volts). A fully charged 400AH
leisure battery will comfortably supply this and the next day's driving will replace the AHs used.
At the other extreme, if you are wild-camped and use gas instead of the electric kettle and the
microwave you may use around 50AH per 24 hours. A 400AH battery, charged by your alternator
will last you about two days. If you want to wild-camp for longer than this you will need: more
battery capacity, solar power or a generator.
Another 400AH battery will get you two more days of wild-camping. (After four days you may
have to drive for quite a long time to replace 200AH you have used.)
Solar power is attractive, but more expensive and complicated than most people think.(10)
Solar panels are effectively sold by the watt (in

2006 they cost about 8 Euros per watt). You
might think that a 75 watt "12 volt" solar panel
would produce about 6.25 amps of charge for
most of a cloudless summer day in (say) Spain.
Say a total of 70 or 80AH. You would be wrong.
The very best you will get is about 45AH. With a

little cloud cover (5) this will probably fall to
about 20AH. With four 75 watt panels (total cost
around 2000 Euros) you will probably be able to
wild-camp indefinitely in some parts of the
world at some times of the year. You will, of
course, have to park in the sun (not in that nice cool spot under the trees). Even if your solar panels
do not fully re-charge your batteries each day they will still considerably extend your days of self-
sufficiency. Once you have 400AH (at 12 volts) of battery capacity I think up to 300 watts of
solar panel is worth while.
The other way to extend the time you can
wild-camping is to use a generator. The
ideal generator for an overland
campervan would be one able to charge
your 12/24 volt batteries at say 40/20
amps and would use diesel fuel. It would
recharge your leisure batteries if run for a
couple of hours a day. If it existed it
would be small (under 700 watts).
Unfortunately I have never found such a

generator.(11) The smallest diesel
generator I have found is around 4kW
weighs over 70kg and costs over 4000
Euros. If you want a small generator at a
reasonable cost it will be a mains
(220/110 volts AC) one running from petrol. To charge your batteries from this sort of generator
you will need to use your mains charger.(10)
Unfortunately the combination of a small mains generator and a modern electronic battery charger
does not always work well. The waveform produced by many small generators does not seem to
agree with some chargers. Either the charger does not work at all or it is quickly damaged. For
example my 24 volt 10 amp (say 280 watts) Mobitronic mains charger worked happily with my
900 watt Honda EU10i generator, but my 24 volt 25 amp (say 700 watt) charger died after a few
hours use. A friend's 24 volt 20 amp (560 watt) charger refused to work at all with my 900 watt
generator (it worked with his 2kW generator).
As a rule of thumb your generator should be three times wattage of you battery charger. You may
also find that the addition of a 100 watt incandescent bulb as a load for your generator may help.
(11)
If possible your generator should be stored externally in such a way that it can be used in situ or
removed from the vehicle to reduce the noise level.
For more information on generators for overland campervans see here.

There are two approaches to mains
(220/110 volt) power within a
campervan.
One approach is have the mains

equipment within the campervan (say a
microwave oven, electric kettle, small
immersion heater, power sockets etc.)
connected to the external mains hook-up
(when available) via a residual current
leakage detector (earth leakage trip).
The other approach (and the one I

recommend) is to have all the internal
mains equipment connected to the output
of a 2kW continuous power, modified
square wave inverter (7) and only use the
mains hook up to charge the leisure
batteries via a relatively small charger
(8) (say 12 volts 20 amps or 24 volts 10
amps).
There are three advantages to this

approach. Firstly because the battery
charger will never take more than say 2
amps (even when the microwave is
running) you are unlikely to blow the
fuses of even the most fragile campsite.
Secondly you will only need a small (500
watt) auto-transformer to plug into 110
volts (or 220 volts if your campervan is 110 volts). Thirdly you will achieve very good electrical
isolation between your electrical equipment and the external supply.
1. The current needed to start the engine can be very high, several 100 amps, but is only
required for a few seconds.
2. Because the useful capacity of a battery is actually dependant on the rate that it is discharged
it is important to understand what discharge rate is assumed when the capacity of a battery is
given. Most manufacturers quote the capacity of their batteries when discharged in 20
hours. Thus a "100AH" battery should be capable of supplying 5 amps for 20 hours. When
discharged more slowly the useful capacity will rise. However at very low currents the self-
discharge of the battery will tend to offset this. More importantly when discharged very
quickly (for example when supplying power to an inverter running a microwave oven) the
capacity may be very significantly reduced.
Even theoretically, a 100% charged 100AH (20 hour rate) battery will only supply 100 amps
for about 25 minutes (i.e. you only get 40% of its rated capacity - "40AH"). Also to do so
would involve fully discharging it and significantly reducing its life.
3. Expensive, intelligent, three or four stage mains chargers usually do it well. Vehicle
alternators poorly. Old solar regulators somewhere in between. New solar regulators very
well. The ratio of the amount of power you put into a lead-acid battery to the power you can
get out varies with the rate of charge and discharge as well as the temperature. It is never
100%. However 90% is a safe rule of thumb.
4. You can not just permanently join your vehicle and leisure batteries together. If you do then
two undesirable things will happen. Firstly when you start the engine you will take massive
current from your leisure battery and possibly damage it. Secondly if you leave all the cabin
lights on for a week you will discharge both your vehicle battery and your leisure battery.
You will not then be able to start the engine and you may damage your vehicle battery.
(Even leisure batteries should not be left discharged if possible, but they are designed for it,
vehicle batteries are not and are far more easily damaged.)
There are four common solutions to this problem:
1. The cheapest and simplest solution is a "split charging relay". This effectively joins
the leisure battery to the vehicle battery only when the engine is running.
2. A more sophisticated version of this system uses a computer to control the split
charging relay. By measuring the state of both the vehicle and leisure batteries more
intelligent decisions can be made. For example the vehicle battery may be used to
supply some power to the cabin, but only when the vehicle battery has plenty of
power to start the engine. When the engine is running the vehicle battery will be
charged first.
3. Instead of a split charging relay a solid state split charger can be used. Having no
moving parts this solution is probably more reliable than a mechanical relay. However
cheap solid state split chargers can drop up to 0.7 volts and should be avoided. More
sophisticated (and expensive) ones only drop around 0.2 volts.
4. The best (and most expensive) solution is to have a second alternator dedicated to
charging only the leisure battery. This may have the sophisticated electronics
necessary to charge the leisure batteries to 90% of their capacity. An additional
advantage of this solution is that with the addition of a little wiring and a relay or two
you have a system where both batteries can be charged by either alternator
(Redundant systems are good).
5. There are three types of solar panel in common use. Mono-crystalline and polycrystalline
panels are fairly compact but may not perform well in cloudy conditions, they are also very
sensitive to even small shadows. Amorphous panels perform better in dull conditions but
require twice the area per watt. Some amorphous panels are flexible and can be attached to
curved surfaces.
6. Conventional wisdom has it that you should always use special "leisure" batteries in your
campervan. These are made to withstand being heavily discharged whereas ordinary
"vehicle" batteries are not. If you have a good three/four stage charging system (from the
alternator, the mains and from solar) then it is certainly true that "leisure" batteries (i.e.
Deep-Cycle, Traction, Gel or AGM batteries) will perform far better than vehicle batteries,
but at a very significant cost. However if you have a poor charging system and routinely
abuse your batteries the benefit of proper "leisure" batteries is less certain. Leisure batteries
are also impossible to find in many "overland travel" countries. Towards the end of one
journey my expensive, four year old leisure batteries failed (both of them). I replaced them
with four very cheap (25 Euros) Russian car batteries. They work well enough to get me
home without freezing. I think in any future overland campervan design I would make sure
the area allocated to leisure batteries was sufficiently large and flexible to allow the use of
say four or six car batteries in emergency..
7. Inverters, like many other pieces of electrical equipment, are not always helpfully described.
My 2kW inverter is described as "4kW peak". Unless you are interested in starting large
motors the "peak" power rating is irrelevant (it is only deliverable for a couple of seconds).
What you want is the continuous power rating. For an 800 watt microwave oven a 2kW
inverter is about right.
Inverters come in two types, "sine wave" and "modified square wave". These terms describe
the shape of the output wave form. Real "mains" is "sine wave" and this is what most
electrical equipment is designed for. However "sine wave" inverters are still expensive
compared to "modified square wave" ones. For things like immersion heaters, electric
kettles, hair dryers and lights there is no problem with "modified square wave". Some
electronic equipment (computers, DVD players, TVs etc.) may not like "modified square
wave", for this reason some people have a 2kW "modified square wave" inverter and a 200
watt "sine wave" inverter.
8. Simple old fashioned battery chargers used a big (heavy) mains transformer and almost no
electronics. They were hard to damage. They survived glitches and spikes on the mains
supply, they also survived being powered by small generators. Modern electronic chargers
are considerably more fussy. A small (say 8 amps) old fashioned charger may be a
worthwhile spare to carry.
9. Removed.
10. By far the best treatment of this subject I have seen can be found in the book Motorhome
Electrics by Collyn Rivers. My only caveat with this book is that it is written from an
Australian perspective and generally assumes a lot of sunshine, easy access to gas and only
moderately low temperatures. As a result I think some of his recommended compromises are
not applicable to the design of a worldwide expedition campervan. However his detailed
knowledge and clear explanations make this a must-read book for understanding this
subject. Highly recommended.
11. Although I have not yet found my ideal generator things are beginning to get better. You can
now buy small 12 volt 50 amp Petrol Battery Chargers from Australia. See here and here.
Toilets and showers.
The vast majority of European campervans have plastic cassette toilets

made Thetford. These contain a removable cassette (tank) with a capacity
of around 20 litres. They are emptied by removing the cassette (usually
from the outside of the vehicle) and emptying the contents into a suitable
toilet (or, on many overland journeys, by the roadside). If you "wild camp"
in a public car park in the midst of a large city, it may be toilet capacity
(say four days) that determines how long you can stay without moving (1).
Some campervans have a ceramic toilet, and a "black" water tank of up to 80 litres instead of a
cassette. This gives you considerably more "capacity". However emptying a "black" water tank
(often via a two metre long, 100 mm diameter pipe) can be difficult even in a (non-USA) campsite.
To prevent odour problems with cassette

toilets, it used to be common to add a
chemical to the cassette before use.
Nowadays most overland campervans
have a small extractor fan (a SOG unit)
fitted to the cassette.
Toilets emptying into a "black" water

tank are fitted with a water trap and the
tank is vented externally.
Showers in overland campervans come in

two styles.
The common style have a "damp proof"

room with a part of the floor covered by a
shallow plastic shower tray surrounded
by a shower curtain.
The other style (left) have a "water

proof" room with a removable slatted
plastic or wood floor over a large a large
stainless steel "funnel" that extends to the
full size of the room. I prefer the second
design (2).
Shower rooms in campervans are used for other things than showering. They are often used for
washing, rinsing and drying clothes. The type of delicate plastic wash basin provided in most
shower rooms is totally inadequate for this use. I recommend that rather than a "wash basin" a
firmly mounted stainless steel sink is used.
The plastic taps used in many campervans are not very robust. I recommend using domestic metal
ones instead.
1. I have seen one campervan with an external storage locker specifically designed to hold a
spare cassette.
2. There are several reasons for preferring the "slatted floor" approach:
1. You can walk into the shower in your boots without damaging the shower try..
2. The shower will drain at any angle.
3. You can slop water about anywhere, when washing clothes for example.
4. You can allow clothes to drip anywhere in the shower.
5. You can easily wash the walls and toilet with the shower head.
Windows and a Hatch.
Most campervans of European origin

have double glazed plastic windows
made by Dometic/Seitz, these usually
incorporate mosquito screens and roller
(black out) blinds. Even small ones are
expensive.
A few, very up-market, campervans have

metal framed double (or even triple)
glazed laminated glass windows. These
are unbelievably expensive, very heavy,
but scratch resistant and more secure.
There is a trade-off between window

size, security, cost, weight and
insulation.
One alternative (one I now highly

recommend) is to have a large hatch,
incorporating a couple of small windows.
Hatches of this sort are currently a trademark of the German campervan manufacturer Bimobil.
If the hatch is position by the dining table then many of the delights of alfresco eating can be had
without getting out the folding table and chairs. A big hatch is also, in part, a replacement for an
awning.
Theft: Locks, lockers, safes and dogs.

Do many things get stolen from overland campervans? (How do you know?)
I have reasonably reliable information for about 15 campervan-years of travel (three mine and the
rest people I have traveled with). During this time I know of about ten "thefts". Four of these were
from vehicles being shipped (see below) the other six were items left outside the campervan,
usually at night.
At the risk of stating the obvious the best way to avoid having things stolen from outside your
campervan (chairs, tools cell phones etc.) is not to leave them outside.
I now (January 2009) know of one instances where an overland campervan was broken into on the
road (a VW Westfalia in Oaxaca's downtown business district). I also know of one instance where
an overland campervan was itself stolen (a Reynolds Boughton RB44 in London).
Most conventional campervans are very insecure, I knew somebody who casually opened the door
of a conventional campervan with a jerk without realising it was locked! You can not make a
campervan thief proof but you can make theft less probable and more difficult.
Any passing opportunist thief can break a cab window, open the cab door and grab what he can in
30 seconds. Alternatively if he can force the main cabin door without obvious external damage he
might be prepared get into the cabin with the door closed for several minutes.
You can reduce the chances of the first type of break-in by leaving nothing of value visible in the
cab, by having a visible division between the cab and the cabin and by having dead locks on the
cab doors.
If the main cabin door has a metal frame and has locking pins top and bottom then it should be
possible to make it immune to being forced by hand or light tools. It is not a good idea to have
strong handles and knobs. The less there is to get hold off the harder it may be to force an entry. If
you take hold of your door handle and pull hard what is going to happen? A broken door handle is
better than a break in (particularly if you have a spare handle with you). It should not be possible
to open the main cabin door by reaching in thru a forced or broken window.
I think that a split "stable" door is worth having. It is often useful to be able to open the door
without making it too easy for somebody to enter.
The plastic windows used in most

campervans are quite difficult to break,
but it is reasonably easy to break the
catches and then open them. You can
deter people from doing this by having
them mounted high up and/or by having
"bars". The bars do not have to be real,
they just have to look real.
In my current campervan I have two 40 litre metal lockers each with a substantial pad lock. In
these I keep my computer, printer, satellite phone, camera etc. It takes several minutes to pack
everything away into these lockers every time I leave the campervan. Lots of people just put their
computer in a cupboard.
In addition to the two equipment lockers I have two "safes". The one in the cab (bolted to the floor
between the seats and not visible from outside) has a simple digital push button combination lock
and is used to hold a small amount of money, any documents needed that day (1) and a modest
digital camera.
The second safe is hidden in the cabin and is sufficiently robust that even when found I believe it
could not be removed or opened with common tools in less than an hour. Within this safe is a
hidden compartment that is unlikely to be discovered (This is so that should I be forced to hand
over the "contents" of this safe under duress (2) I would still have some cash and credit cards.)
For some reason many German

campervans in South America carry a
real dog. You can get most of the
security advantage of a "dog" without the
cost of dog biscuits with a "beware of the
dog sign" and an electronic barking dog
alarm (3). I have known people to put out
a water bowl and hang up a lead for their non-existent dog.
Theft from campervans whilst they are being shipped is a real problem. There are three
common ways of shipping a campervan: in a container, on a flat-rack or on a RoRo.
If you can supervise the loading, sealing, unsealing and unloading of your container this is the
most secure way of shipping a campervan. You do not have to give anybody the keys to your
vehicle and the container is both sealed and anonymous. Unfortunately most live-in campervans
do not fit in a container.
If you can supervise the loading and unloading

of your vehicle onto a flat-rack then you may not
have to give anybody the keys, However your
vehicle will be very exposed whilst it is being
shipped. Your flat-rack may well sit for days in a
deserted corner of a container park.
(As I write this I can look out of the port hole of

the RoRo ship taking my campervan back to the
UK. On the dock, leaning against the stacks of
containers and flat-racks, are half a dozen people
selling souvenirs to the crew of our ship. There is
no discernible security at the dock gate. We are
in Dakar, Senegal.)
When I shipped my campervan from India to the UK on a flat-rack I had my horn stolen (they
unbolted it and cut the wires). Far more seriously a friend had one external locker of his
conventional campervan completely emptied. He lost all his expensive tools and one of his spare
wheels. The theft probably took place in Europe when the vehicle was being loaded onto its flat-
rack by crane.
It is also quite common for vehicles on flat-racks to be damaged when adjacent containers are
loaded and unloaded. I have heard it suggested that it is worthwhile wrapping your vehicle with
bubble wrap, cheap fibre board and steel strapping. This not only protects it from minor damage it
also makes it considerably more difficult to get into.
When you ship your campervan by RoRo you nearly always have to leave it in a dock-side car
park, unlocked with the keys in it! If your campervan is designed so that the cab and cabin are
separate then you can at least lock the cabin. It may be worth adding extra pad locks or bolts to all
the doors and hatches to be used only when shipping. Some people also add window bars (fake or
real).
If you cannot separate the cab from the cabin

then you may be able to protect the contents to
some degree by buying three or four cheap metal
trunks, putting these on the floor of the cabin,
bolting them together internally, putting the
campervan contents into them, locking them and
strapping them with metal banding. The resultant
"three trunk" lump should be too big and too
heavy to move. (You give the trunks away when
you arrive.)
The two RoRo shipping thefts I know of both

occurred on a Grimaldi ship between Europe and
South America (via West Africa). Grimaldi is
very unusual in that you can travel on the same ship as your campervan. This gives you the
possibility of looking after your campervan whilst the ship is in port (the most dangerous time).
However remember that the ship may arrive in port at 02:00 and stay 48 hours. If sitting in your
campervan below decks for several days does not appeal then then one other possibility is to put
steel banding round your entire vehicle. (Bring your own steel banding machine, share the cost
with your fellow passengers.)
1. When crossing borders this safe holds important documents (Passports, Carnet etc.), on
other days it holds only photocopies and laminated copies of Passports, and IDP and ICMV
etc.
2. I would first hand over the contents of the cab safe (hence the token money). Only if this
was not acceptable would I reveal the second safe. In addition to keeping money in the safe,
it is also a good idea to keep some "excess" money hidden elsewhere.
3. Alas our electronic barking dog alarm died after four months on the road.
Types of overland campervans.

A [modified] conventional campervan.
All three of the conventional campervans above have successfully completed at least one major
overland journey.
The EuraMobil (left) is above the snow line crossing into China from Pakistan via the Karakoram
Highway, it went on to cross Mongolia and Siberia. The Elddis (centre) is driving in deep mud in
Georgia on its way to China, Tibet and Nepal. The Hymer (right) is driving along the bed of a
flooded river in Bolivia, it visited every country in South America (except Colombia) including
crossing the Chaco in Paraguay and a 3000km loop thru Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French
Guiana.
Some conventional campervans can make good overland vehicles. I recommend you start with a
campervan that has:
Rear wheel drive.

Twin rear wheels (or at least wheels that you can get high load rating tyres for).
A Mercedes diesel chassis.
A high chassis weight limit.
A short body (less than 7 metres).
I would then suggest at least some of the following modifications:
Fit as large wheels as the chassis can accommodate.

Fit new "mud and snow" tyres with a high load rating, get a second spare.
Fit heavy duty rear springs and/or air assisted suspension (1).
Fit heavy duty shock absorbers.
Remove (or reduce in height) any rear lockers until your departure angle is better than 12°.
Fit a strengthened rear chassis cross member (that is replace whatever bit of metal will
scrape along the ground with something stronger and rounder (so it skids along the ground
rather than digs in).
Fit substantial towing points (both front and rear).
Strengthen the door and locker locks.
Strengthen the leisure battery mounting.
Replace the absorption fridge with a compressor one, make sure it is well mounted.
Replace (or augment) the gas heating system with a diesel one (Eberspächer). Mount it as
high up as possible for fording rivers.
Modify the gas system so you can adopt the "buy a new cylinder and regulator" strategy.
Mount a good quality fan over the bed.
Add up to 300 watts of solar panels.

Add a drinking water filter.
Remove any TV antennae (so that it does not catch on overhead wires).
Remove any roll out-awning (you need the weight for other things).
Remove anything you don't need to reduce the weight.
Check and strengthen all the furniture and equipment mounting (particularly the fridge,
water tank, batteries, cooker, hob etc.).
Advantages:
Because they are produced in large

quantities, conventional campervans are
often excellent value for money, they
are relatively easy to find second-hand
and there will be a ready market for you
to sell yours (if you do your
modifications carefully they will not
reduce the value much!).
They are often considerably more

attractive than "real" overland
campervans with lots of free space.
Indeed if you travel with "real" overland
campervans you will find your
conventional campervan is the "venue of
choice" for communal meals.
Conventional campervans often have bigger windows and far better views than "real" overland
campervans. They are also easier to insure and less conspicuous in Europe (I have been refused
entry in a UK camp site because my Unimog was "not a proper campervan"!)
Disadvantages:
You may occasionally get stuck (2) in

soft sand and mud and you may have
problems getting on and off ferries. So
you will either have to plan your route
(or alter the time of year you travel) to
avoid these things or travel with a 4x4 (3)
at least on the difficult bits.
Conventional campervans are not very

secure. Worse than this they may not feel
very secure.
If you are unlucky (or more likely ill

prepared) your conventional campervan
may fall apart bit by bit and your
overland journey may become an
unhappy crawl from one garage to the next.
You may find that whilst spare parts for your (Mercedes) chassis are freely available, parts that
have been changed or added by the campervan manufacturer (Hymer for example) are not. This
applies particularly to things like front windscreens, door fittings and lights.
In a conventional campervan (even if you have driven it across the Bering Straits in winter) you
will never be a full member of the "overlander's club" that forms when overlanders meet up to
boast of their exploits, and look down on conventional campervans.
1. If you fit air assisted suspension take a set of spare bellows with you.
2. Even if you don't get stuck you may find the fear of getting stuck spoils your enjoyment. I
met one overlander driving a nine metre long "fifth wheel" campervan (not recommended)
in Argentina who had driven 100km in the wrong direction on a raised dirt road because he
dare not try and turn round for fear of getting stuck.
An off-road 4x4 is no guarantee against getting stuck. Getting stuck is the result of
exceeding the capabilities of your vehicle (or your own skill). I got my Unimog stuck in a
rather nice campsite in Iceland, none of the 2x4 campervans did. I wanted to park on a rocky
promontory, they were content to stay on the grass. There turned out to be a very soft marsh
between me and the promontory.
3. You should try and find a big macho off-road 4x4 (a Unimog is ideal). It is not that you
really need the off-road capability (any 4x4 that is heavier than you will do) but the owner
of a real off-road 4x4 will not resent towing you out of the sand, mud etc.. That is why he
bought the 4x4, that is why he is paying for twice as much fuel as you are, that is why he
puts up with all the noise and vibration. You are doing him a favor (justifying his
expensive, uncomfortable vehicle).
Custom panel-van conversion.
Converted panel vans can make good overland campervans. But only if the chassis is a good one
and the conversion is well done. Many six to seven metre long panel-vans are in the right weight
range and even when fully loaded for an overland journey they are well within the manufacture's
weight limit.
However unless you are very lucky you will have to buy a new one if you want a 4x4 chassis
(second hand 4x4s are very rare). If you do buy a new one you may be better off with a chassis-cab
and a GRP foam sandwich body, rather than a metal panel van (see below).
Long panel vans on a 2x4 chassis often have a poor departure angle.
Advantages:
Panel vans are relatively easy to convert into overland campervans because you already have a
waterproof body shell. They can be very secure and some do not look like campervans (above
left), this can be an advantage when "wild camping" in city centre car parks.
Disadvantages:
I have yet to meet anybody with a commercial panel van conversion done in the UK (1)who is
happy with it. Most paid a great deal more than they expected to. For this reason this is not a
route I would recommend! However I do know of at least one successful self-conversion of a
new 4x4 panel van.
There are some disadvantages inherent in panel van conversions. Depending on the design of the
"box" it may not be possible to increase the departure angle. Because many panel vans have
slightly curved or tapered walls, when 50mm of insulation is added, the available internal space
may be just a little less than is required. Most panel vans have twin rear doors, this can lead to dust
problems. The way the body is mounted on the chassis may not be ideal for an expedition
campervan.
The design of some overland campervans allows the cabin to be transferred to another chassis/cab
or vice versa (2). You can not do this with a panel van conversion. Rust may be a problem with
older panel vans.
1. As far as I know there are no overland campervan (expedition campervan) manufactures in

the UK, this is strange because there are half a dozen in Germany. There are custom
campervan manufactures in the UK but I have yet to hear of one who has real experience of
building overland campervans.
Update - 2010-10-19. I have now been told of a UK manufacturer - Overland Vehicles of

Suffolk, England. Well worth a look.
2. I met one German who replaced his 2x4 VW chassis/cab with a 4x4 Mercedes chassis/cab,
but kept the same cabin. Another German had a new cabin built on his old chassis/cab in
Brazil (He lived in the old cabin on the ground for four months whilst the new one was
built).
Standard commercial overland campervans.
There are lots of commercial overland campervan manufacturers in Germany, at least one in
Austria, one in Holland and one in the UK. Most of them build only custom (bespoke) vehicles but
a couple have [semi-]standard offerings. The two above are from www.bimobil.com (left) and
www.woelcke.de (right). Both of these are built on a 10,000kg chassis (one Mercedes the other
MAN) down-rated to just under 7,500kg for licencing reasons.
The BiMobil EX480 vehicle (interior pictures above) sells for about 120,000 Euros (In my view it
would require about 20,000 Euros of additional equipment (1) to make it ready for use as an
overland campervan.) I am not suggesting that it is the "ideal" overland campervan (2), however it
is certainly well built on a new 4x4 Mercedes chassis.
It is a good vehicle to keep in mind as a benchmark when considering new bespoke vehicles, self
build and panel van conversions. (3)
1. In my view it would need:

Diesel space and water heating.
A "stable" door.
An additional 200AH of leisure battery.
At least 200 watts of solar panels.
A 2kW inverter.
A basic 800 watt microwave oven.
A three or four gas ring hob with grill (not just two burners).
Better quality windows.
A drinking water filter.
2. There are a number aspects of the EX480 that have not been well thought out for an
overland campervan. Although the chassis and basic cabin are good the layout and
equipment are more suitable for a "holiday" campervan. For example:
A two ring hob, without an oven, microwave or grill is inadequate for a vehicle that is
going to be lived in for many months.
The counter space allocated to food preparation (1390 millimeters) is insufficient.
The dimensions of the dining area have been determined by the need for it to convert
into a second bed. This type of overland campervan is for two people (the cab only
seats two).
The shower room is not robust enough for clothes washing and drying.
3. I believe a number of people have paid considerably more in the UK for an inferior panel
van conversion.
Overland campervans with GRPFS cabins.
Because overland campervans are made in very small numbers (compared to conventional
campervans) they are rarely made of moulded GRP or formed aluminium. The most common form
of construction is glass reinforced plastic (about 2mm thick) and foamed polyethylene (about 50
mm thick) sandwich (GRPFS). The cabin is usually a simple box made from flat sheets of GRPFS.
A few have rounded corners (Ormocar: right, centre row, below) and a very few have bowed sides
(Action Mobil: left, centre and bottom rows, below). These little embellishments can raise the price
of the box by thousands of Euros!
Overland campervans with GRPFS cabins (Over 7500kg).
GRP foamed polyethylene sandwich cabin mounted on a truck chassis. Most of them are 4x4 (or
even 6x6). Whilst many of them have a "legal" weight limit of 7500kg most of them are based on
10,000 or even 15,000kg chassis (nearly all of them Mercedes or MAN).
I estimate that about 30% of them are at least partially self-built. The most well known
manufactures of this type of vehicle are:
Unicat(1) (Germany).
Terra/Cross (part of Unicat).
Action Mobil (Austria). Beautiful but very expensive.
Füss (Germany) Often on old chassis.
Woelcke (Germany).
Ormocar (Germany) Make "cabins only" often for self-build.
New overland campervans of this type cost between 150,000 Euro and 1,000,000 Euro. Füss
specialize in building new cabins on old (often ex-army) Mercedes chassis. Ormocar do not (I
think) make complete campervans but they do supply GRP cabins to other manufactures and for
self-build (a four metre long cabin cost around 10,000 Euros).
Advantages:
Because they are built specifically as overland campervans by companies that specialize in this
type of vehicle, they are often very well built, with lots of storage and sensible cabin mounting.
Because the cabin is high off the ground they are usually very secure (and you feel secure inside
one). Even when fully loaded (including the motorcycle or quad bike) they are usually well within
the manufacture's weight limit. Being made of a 50/60mm GRPFS they are very well insulated.
Most have large (20 to 22.5 inch) wheels and have good ground clearance and departure angle.
Suitable tyres are available.
Disadvantages:
Most people's immediate reaction is "too big". Indeed some of them are big, but most of then are
just tall, the width and length are no more than many medium sized conventional campervans.
As well as being tall, they are also heavy, and unless you have a licence to drive a vehicle over
7500kg this may be a (legal) problem.
1. Contrary to rumour Unicat GmbH continue to make some of the best and most desirable
vehicles in this class.
"We are manufacturing all Unicat models in Dettenheim, Germany. There have been major changes, but non of
them affected the quality, service and design of the vehicles.
Thomas Ritter
UNICAT GmbH (2007-08-02)
Overland campervans with GRPFS cabins (Between 3500kg and 7500kg).
This form of construction, and weight range is, I think, optimal for a two person overland
campervan. (However this must be a minority view because there are few of them around.) All
the ones I have seen have been based on a new[ish] 4x4 chassis, probably because old 4x4 chassis
in this weight range are rare (except Unimogs).
Since first writing this page I have received several e-mails suggesting I mention the Mitsubishi
Fuso FG as a suitable chassis for this type of expedition campervan. I agree. See here for several
examples of expedition campervans based on this chassis.
Advantages:
Because they are built specifically as overland campervans by companies that specialize in this
type of vehicle, they are often very well built, with lots of storage and sensible cabin mounting.
Most are built on a 4x4 version of an on-road light truck/van chassis. Even when loaded they are
usually well within both the legal and the manufacture's weight limit. Being made of a 50/60mm
GRPFS they are very well insulated. Most have medium sized (17 inch) wheels and have adequate
ground clearance and departure angle. Suitable tyres are available. With the right choice of chassis
they have good fuel consumption.
Disadvantages:
Compared to conventional campervans of the same length they often have far less living space,
less windows and poorer views. Because the cab is not integrated into the cabin the driving seats
are not available in the cabin. Compared to conventional campervans they are expensive (around
100,000 Euros).
Overland campervans with GRPFS cabins (Under 3500kg).
This type of campervan is usually built on an SUV or 4x4 pick-up. The three examples above are
(left to right) a Toyota Landcruiser, a Mercedes G Wagon and a Ford F250. Whilst it is possible to
build a viable overland campervan this way it demands great discipline if the weight is to be kept
within both the manufacturer's weight limit and the legal 3500kg weight limit.
With many vehicles of this type there is only about 300kg of payload weight available.
Advantages:
If you only have a licence to drive vehicles up to 3500kg then this type of campervan may be the
only alternative to a conventional campervan. If can live with the weight and size restrictions of
the chassis then these vehicles can make very good overland campervans. You will have no height
restriction or weight restriction problems. You can park in most car parks. They are cheap and
easy to ship (they may fit in a container). Fuel consumption should be low. They usually have
acceptable ground clearance and a good departure angle. Well insulated.
Disadvantages:
Because of length and weight restrictions these vehicles can be very cramped. If a permanent bed
is available it will probably be very cramped. If overloaded (as they often are) they may not be
very reliable. Although often based on an SUV the off-road performance when [over]loaded may
not be very good. Because they have a relatively narrow track width you may have problems
driving in (or avoiding) the ruts made by local trucks.
Unimogs.
There are few true off-road vehicles in the 3000kg to 10,000kg range manufactured in large
quantities and available to the general public. Vehicles made by Haflinger, Pinzgauer, Reynolds
[Boughton], Bucher [Duro], Mowag [Duro], Scam [SMT] and Bremach are available but they are
primarily made for the military or other niche markets and they may not be easy to get spare parts
for.
One exception is the Mercedes Unimog. Unimogs have been available for more than forty years
and have formidable off road capabilities. The current (2007) model range (1) is the U3000, U4000
and U5000. A new U3000 with a GRPFS body makes a very capable 7500kg overland campervan
(unfortunately at about 100,000 Euros more than the same body on a Mercedes 4x4 815D).
Many Unimog campervans are built on old U1300 Unimogs (all the top row, above).
Advantages:
An excellent, reliable, true off-road chassis from Mercedes with a torsion-free sub-frame.
Excellent ground clearance and departure angle. Good spare parts availability, even for 25 year old
ones!
Disadvantages:
Very expensive to buy new. Old ones are noisy, uncomfortable to drive, slow and have poor fuel
consumption (20 litres/100km).
1. As well as the Unimog U3000/400/5000 range there is also a U300/U400/U500 range (a

U500 left, bottom row, above). However these are sold as "implement carriers" (i.e. snow
blowers, road sweepers etc.) rather than the ultimate off-road vehicle.
Do you agree with everything I said? No I didn't think you would. Why not tell me about it?
Overland Campervans with Problems?

Below are some photographs of overland campervans in interesting positions. They are not here
for any particular reason, except that I rather like them, and some of them help me justify driving a
Unimog campervan for the last five years. But, I repeat, I do not think a Unimog (or other real off-
road vehicle) is worth the cost and discomfort except perhaps for some parts of Africa.
Overland campervans are bad-road vehicles, not off-road vehicles.
Stephen Stewart.
Home - This page last changed on 2010-10-19.

Silkroute Equipment Choosevan

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Silkroute Equipment Choosevan

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Choosing an Overland Campervan.

Choosing an Overland Campervan.

Be more than (say) ten weeks long.

Cab, cabin, body and chassis.

Gas and petrol.

Living in the vehicle, not beside it.

What makes an overland campervan different?

departure angle. As a result they easily get damaged or stuck.

each axle) as specified by the chassis manufacturer.

You can drive it on (almost) any licence.

Departure angle is more important than length.

The relative range of campervan widths

There are a few direct advantages of a

However there are a number of

will it slide harmlessly over the top?

Usually the the lowest point

A common problem on dirt roads

A very small number of vehicles (e.g.

Wheel size is still (for some reason)

Departure angle is more important than ground clearance.

When driving uphill, even on a good dirt

The constant velocity joints used on front

Bigger wheels (and thus more ground clearance).

Take the case of the 4x4 version of

Both vehicles have a maximum gross

It is also worth noting that the intended

But the Unimog also uses considerably

If possible tyres with a load rating of 150% of

The choice of tyres determines, to some extent

Overland journeys are a mixture of good tarmac,

On most journeys the vast majority of the

Dear Mr. Stewart,

Here is a small assessment of our patterns

(100% = MIL. More than 100% is a better performance).

Noise & Traction Traction Lifetime Max. Speed

Many otherwise satisfactory overland

A "dust problem" does not sound too

The vehicles that seem to suffer most

The reason for this is electronics. Old

In contrast a more modern engines may

Diesel (also known as gas-oil) is the fuel

For most overland journeys a fuel

For several reasons I believe carrying at

Left or right hand drive.

On balance I would opt for left hand drive.

In my opinion a permanent bed (that is

The mattress of a permanent bed does

In my view the best single system is a "wet" diesel

Redundancy is a good thing in an overland campervan.

3. Yes, I know of campervans with wood burning stoves as well.

1. The hob (cook-top).

Refrigerators, coolers and freezers.

3. An increasingly common alternative is to use a high efficiency small domestic fridge

Gas: How to store it and buy it.

Most campervan gas tanks are cylindrical

There are three common fittings used for LPG

LPG tanks (and cylinders) should be

Local gas cylinders are normally

Almost all countries have local gas

If your campervan has a (new style) fixed pressure

4. You can use one or more special refillable gas

This special type of cylinder incorporates a

The 6kg yellow Gaslow cylinder on the left is

4. A millibar is one thousandth of a bar and equal to 100 Pascals.