$60,000 Custom Lance

Big rig for serious off roading should have independent axles,
something like these Czech Tatras would be my first choice :B

http://youtu.be/xoG2Inl5PEg

I used to go every year to Moab just to watch people with more money than sense break stuff trying to do things which had not theretofore been done.

(A jeep axle, broken under extreme stress while trying to climb a near-vertical wall, sounds very much like a rifle shot, BTW.)

The Unimogs and their owners were always my favorites, year after year, though.

Cool machines, and very cool people. They didn't do such silly stuff.

They just crawled over impossibly difficult obstacles in their ridiculously tall, long, wide, and heavy trucks, and then had a picnic.

Joe

sabconsulting wrote:
I'm certainly not doubting Lance's build quality and they are definitely nice than many of these bare-bones expedition pods. Remember that Unimogs have long travel coil spring suspension and many of the modern hyper-money heavy duty trucks I have seen converted to expedition vehicles also have much better suspension than these old military trucks

Steve agree on that, it would be a pretty firm ride and you would hope it does not go over really rough roads or too far.

Wow! $26,000 for the truck and $60,000 for the camper? I know it's overkill in terms of the truck, but really, a NEW engine and NEW Allison tranny and completely ready to go all the around at this level for $86,000 is a sweet deal! It wouldn't work for my needs, but for the right person they should jump at it! I do wonder how much further fabrication would have to be done to get the back ready for the camper?

Dak

(And those Mogs also have the beds on torsion free mounting system too....all of which would help ease the hammering on the camper). On that truck it might take an extra 10k pounds of dead weight (beer?) to make it ride better.

Nope, I'm in Oklahoma now....came here straight from west Texas on another job that got piggy-backed on the previous one. While working in Texas I managed to get to one national park and three state parks on my two weekends. Pretty nice having everything with me to do that stuff.

btggraphix wrote:
Phones are a drag for posting but Steve I have seen some photos of Lances on Unimogs at those euro shows. I'm not saying it isn't harsh on them but these American TC's can hold up to some abuse and they are sure way the H more comfortable than the utility boxes that people live in on many Mogs.....

I got back from work today and almost drove right past my camper because my wide open spot suddenly got surrounded by giant 5ers and MH's! Like living in suburbia with neighbors 6 feet away. Not my cup of tea but better than living in a hotel. Here's to you eyecom.

Hi Brian,

I'm certainly not doubting Lance's build quality and they are definitely nice than many of these bare-bones expedition pods. Remember that Unimogs have long travel coil spring suspension and many of the modern hyper-money heavy duty trucks I have seen converted to expedition vehicles also have much better suspension than these old military trucks. Maybe this latest incarnation of deuce and a half has a more comfortable ride - mine was a 1944 model, but when I see them they just look like the same basic truck but with a more modern engine and transmission. They do have presumably radial-ply super-single tyres rather than dual DRW cross-ply set-up my truck had - that will make a big difference.

I admit your camper has done well on your truck, though again, your 4500 is a different beast to these old double-axle army trucks.

The trick to getting this to work on a deuce and a half might be making sure you really are carrying a lot of weight on the back (several tons) so the suspension is actually working for a living rather what mine did, which was not move at all and just bounce on its tyres.

Are you still in Texas?

Steve.

Phones are a drag for posting but Steve I have seen some photos of Lances on Unimogs at those euro shows. I'm not saying it isn't harsh on them but these American TC's can hold up to some abuse and they are sure way the H more comfortable than the utility boxes that people live in on many Mogs.....

I got back from work today and almost drove right past my camper because my wide open spot suddenly got surrounded by giant 5ers and MH's! Like living in suburbia with neighbors 6 feet away. Not my cup of tea but better than living in a hotel. Here's to you eyecom.

SugarHillCTD wrote:


I would expect that the first rough road would shake the TC to pieces. Those trucks have some seriously stiff suspension.
.

Don't get me wrong, you may be completely right here....but I chuckle a bit because almost this exact same wording was used describing my camper truck combo when it came up on Craig's List after they came back from South America . Here I am 6 years and about 450 ish nights and 80k miles later and still rolling along. Heck, throw in there 1 year and this rig has roughly 750 nights and 110k miles on a very harsh stuff bumpy chassis and....OMG.....I have a slide that hasn't disintegrated! Egads! How can this be? Lance built a pretty damn solid TC and it is still going strong.

Sleepy, awesome post...

I did of course add a Kelderman air ride at some point in there to help ease our poor Lance from early onset arthritis and I think she appreciated that, but Lancezilla rolls on....

Unless this proposed military vehicle has extensive suspension mods done, the alleged truck/Lance camper combo is a pretty bad match.

I would expect that the first rough road would shake the TC to pieces. Those trucks have some seriously stiff suspension.

If it is anything like the deuce and a half I drove when I worked for the National Park Service, I can't see any camper lasting very long. They make an empty dually seem like a Rolls-Royce.

Very interesting and I like the trucks, but I wonder if there is a bit of a mismatch in ruggedness here. Maybe I'm wrong, but trucks of this size, albeit more modern designs, are often made into extreme expedition vehicles - seen them at the German Abenteuer Allrad show. However they seem to have much more rugged looking accommodation pods on the back than the likes of our truck campers - pods that are designed to spend their lives being hammered over corrugated African dirt roads (and those are mounted to vehicles with better suspension than this). When I had a Deuce and a half (albeit a lot older than these trucks) I recall its suspension was about as compliant as rock - anything in the load bed got a really hard ride.

Steve.