Hi there from Hamburg/Germany

[Fastdad76]

Hi there from Hamburg/Germany
I am owning a little overlanding business here in kraut country. But its focused on pickup trucks and small 4x4s.

My next private vehicle now shall be one of the big boys. My plan is to build an expedition rig for my family of 4. But I never follow the masses and always do my own thing. So a MAN, UNIMOG or some old IVECO, MAN or Mercedes fire engine fell from the list. I always owned American cars. Therefore the plan is to use a 6x6 MTV as basis.

I already got a lot of useful info here And I'm sure I'm at the right place here for future questions
Cheers, Andre

 

[AZDeuce]

Welcome Andre, and good luck on your endevours!

 

[Tracer]

Hello Andre. PM the Miggins Bros., they are in the Berlin/Hamburg area. Chris has a very nice MAN KAT 1 4X4 5 Ton truck, similar to the one pictured below.

 

[NDT]

MTV???? OMG get the real thing if you are in Europe. Our copy not as good by a longshot.

 

[Mullaney]

Hi there from Hamburg/Germany
I am owning a little overlanding business here in kraut country. But its focused on pickup trucks and small 4x4s.

My next private vehicle now shall be one of the big boys. My plan is to build an expedition rig for my family of 4. But I never follow the masses and always do my own thing. So a MAN, UNIMOG or some old IVECO, MAN or Mercedes fire engine fell from the list. I always owned American cars. Therefore the plan is to use a 6x6 MTV as basis.

I already got a lot of useful info here And I'm sure I'm at the right place here for future questions
Cheers, Andre

Welcome Andre - from Charlotte, North Carolina, USA!

You definitely have come to the right place. There are several Build threads here for an expedition rig. Got an active MTVR and a LMTV happening now so you can see progress step-by-step. Both guys seem to be posting at least once a week. Sometimes more often than that.

Again, welcome to the Green (and Tan) disease. It is ever so much more fun than "current events in the news"!

 

[Fastdad76]

Hello Andre. PM the Miggins Bros., they are in the Berlin/Hamburg area. Chris has a very nice MAN KAT 1 4X4 5 Ton truck, similar to the one pictured below. View attachment 810436

Thank you, Tracer! Yeah the KAT1 brought me to military trucks TBH. Why bying a commercial rig when you can get all that you want in a premade package?

The KAT1's are awesome. But there are already "a lot" here. I even have a buddy with a pretty cool 8x8 in the neighbor city. And I am more the guy who tries to stand out of the crowd. Because I lost my heart for American steel I got attracted by the MTVs

BTW the 8x8 has its own YT Channel. But the guy is just driving around for fun.

 

[Fastdad76]

Welcome Andre - from Charlotte, North Carolina, USA!

You definitely have come to the right place. There are several Build threads here for an expedition rig. Got an active MTVR and a LMTV happening now so you can see progress step-by-step. Both guys seem to be posting at least once a week. Sometimes more often than that.

Again, welcome to the Green (and Tan) disease. It is ever so much more fun than "current events in the news"!

I already got a lot of help right on the first day! This place here is awesome!
Thank you

 

[SCM35A2]

Welcome to the site!

 

[Fastdad76]

MTV???? OMG get the real thing if you are in Europe. Our copy not as good by a longshot.

NDT, the "real thing" would be a Steyr 12M18 which is only available as 4x4. Yes, it has lockers. But TBH I dont plan to go to such remote places where I could get stuck with even with a MTV.

Copy or not. IMHO the FMTVs are more of an improvement than a copy. The parts availability is way better with the CAT engine, Allison tranny, Meritor axles etc. than for a Steyr with its many Steyr specific parts. Thats a huge plus if you plan to travel the world in your rolling tiny house And twice as much power (with a lot of potential to increase it) is another plus. The biggest plus for us as a family is the fact that the FMTVs are available as 6x6. Thats not the case with the Steyr.

 

[Fastdad76]

Thanks to our member "Mirko" I already have a 3d model of a M1083. Its not that detailled as you can see. But the dimensions are pretty accurate.

I already made a roof rack with a set of 40" LED lightbars and extended the frame by approx. 2ft to fit a 20ft shipping container frame. The container frame will be a low cube version as used in Asia (8ft high instead of 8ft 6") to be way below the German height limit of 4 meters (a bit more than 13ft 3").

I plan two spare wheels in the back of the habitat box. Therefore the spare wheel carrier will be deleted. The air filter will be replaced by two Donaldson PSD10's. This way the box can be moved forward to keep a nice departure angle.