by this I mean, given your experience what should be a sensible budget for a AWD, fully equiped, reliable, go anywhere, sleep in the back vehicle? I'm thinking newish landy or bigger.

Anyone who suggests a Unicat will be taken out and shot

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I'd suggest an Unicat.

UNICAT® | UNICAT GmbH | UNICATAmericas Inc. | Expedition Vehicles

If you want to send me a complete financial statement I can help you answer that question. Otherwise it is obviously unanswerable by total strangers on the Internet. It's all about how much you want to and can afford to spend for how much comfort, convenience and reliability(?? on the latter).

Charlie

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Unimog U500 w/Unicat

sensible budget for a AWD Toyota Hilux D4D 2.5L Pickup
fully equiped, no such thing
reliable Toyota Hilux D4D 2.5L Pickup
go anywhere no such vehicle!
sleep in the back vehicle Toyota Hilux D4D 2.5LPickup

Did I mention the Toyota Hilux D4D Pickup?
if, however, you want the best 4x4 on the market.....buy a camel or 3! or there's always the Unicat!
Nice second hand MD 45/Unimog U1550 L37going for 'only' 279,000 Euro+VAT (in my dreams!)

Anyone suggesting a Unicat is obviously not paying attention to Fastships requirements, so I think a second hand Unicat, especially in pink is much more suitable


Regardless what budget there is for buying one, or even building one, running one ain't cheap either! Perhaps making the back dismountable, or another way of allowing it into a standard shipping container makes taking it to all those lovely places more attainable.

What do you want to carry is a big question too. How many berths, do you want to live inside, or will you always be somewhere warm enough that mainly you'll be sleeping outside? How far from fuel/water/food and mechanical assistance do you want to be with that many people? Do you want to try to stay under 7.5ton for licensing? Or a heavier chassis so you can have several fuel and water tanks, shower (jacuzzi even as one American flip top Unimog had in the back!) and be running well under its design weight? Under 3.0m, 3.5m or 4m tall making access harder to all sorts of places? Heading up a single lane track in the Cairngorms fully prepared for a few days in the snow only to find that being the tallest vehicle up that road for a long time the trees are too low!? 14.00 R20 michelins are not very big by off road truck standards but are 900 quid plus if new! Two spares sir? Of course!! Hydraulic winch- 200kg 6000quid, 150kg for a rear bumper to mount it if necessary. An older chassis to start with, since I'm told by the uk rac carnet cost is based on chassis value not overall vehicle value.

Despite bigger being more able to carry more lovely gizmos, Colin Chapmans "add lightness" still applies!

Tom Shepherds Vehicle Dependant Expedition Guide ISBN 978-0953232413 is suberb in giving lots of background info to that decision. Currently 169GBP on Amazon, we got one for around 30GBP from the Royal Geographic Society, I think cover price is perhaps 25GBP but its always highly priced!!

Atkinson Vos ooooop north currently has two converted camper mogs and two with rear bodies suitable for conversion (one is gorgeous and dismountable!! Electric window- who'd have thought!) that might be worth a look for ideas at least?

jason
=

Umm...hate to be picky...
it's "D4D" - we don't want to lead the gentleman to a dead end.

Charlie

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Unimog U500 w/Unicat

there was a really nice pinzgauer camper for sale for 12,000 euro in Austria, I saw the add will try and find the link.

it's a big truck unimog type a thing was all in dakar livery and looked nice.

or a nicely decked out Misubishi Delica it's people carrier that's been bolted to a 4x4 patform will go most places it's Japanese so will run for ever and parts are easy enough to find.

or a nicely decked out regular 4x4 with a tent or roof tent would do the job and spend what you've saved on the trip.

or take a really cheap car like a fiat panda and spend all the money on the trip, fiat panda's regularly make it to mongolia and back, even a Lada Niva's run for ever and in russia anyone from 11-99 can fix one. Again spend the balance of what you've saved on the trip.

I suppose it depends what you want and where your going... it's you driving top tesco's it has to be a Disco 3 with roof tent, bull bars, winch and snokel. If it the desert where nobody cares as long as it runs take whatever you want.

best of luck

In order to provide a sensible answer it would be useful to have a bit more info....

How many people will be travelling in the vehicle?

What is your expected destination? Are you going for a couple of weeks drive around Morocco or driving down to Cape Town or across to Singapore?

What sort of age are you? If you are young you will probably be happy kipping down in the back of any large estate vehicle or 4x4 but if you are older you may prefer to have propper bedding.

Roughly what sort of budget do you have in mind?

What ever vehicle you get the chances are you will have to spend money on it getting it properly serviced and prepped for the sort of trip you want to do - even if you buy a fully prepped vehicle that has already been round the world once it would be foolish not to get it properly checked over from top to bottom.

If you could provide us with a little more info we will try to provide a more sensible and appropriate answer.

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Cheers,

Julian Voelcker
Overland Cruisers - Specialising in Land Cruiser preparation and servicing.

Origional poster asked for budget for a vehicle, so no toyo v lr bunfights please as they are so boring

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say 10k GBP as a fair budget

yes you can go chaper or alot more expensive (did anyone mention unicat ?) but that budget should get you a built vehicle or a base vehicle + conversion if you do it yourself (checkout mobile.de)

Eg

Iveco 40-10 4x4 base vehicle £3200 which gives you standing space, diff locks etc. and plenty of room for sleeping inside (part of op's spec)

2.5k for tyres, big service, replace all rubber bits etc.

fit out to your requirements , depends if you are happy buying stuff 2nd hand , i saw an engel go for 82 quid recently on ebay, i bought a 1400 quid nat. luna fridge for £350, works great

rich

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Rich

Iveco Turbo Daily 4x4 40-10
Ex Owner LR101 300Tdi Ambi 'Tiggurr'

Obvious I know but also the more fully equiped, more reliable (more spares, tools etc?) your sleep in the back vehicle becomes, the less go anywhere it ends up! Or you still go anywhere, but perhaps with more body damage, more risk of rolling / getting stuck etc. And having just forked out all that dosh for a nice shiny Unicat you may not wanna do that!

(Sorry if that U word slipped out again, I do it in my sleep apparently too)

More specifically, last year I was quoted £14500 for a good U1300L chassis plus around £3k for a thorough checkover, service etc from two different places. Willinghams of Hull estimated £10k for a suitable camper box, shell only. Continental rather than Michelins were £320 each. A good second hand mog camper could be saving you money rather than new almost before you decide what colour carpet

:confused1:

Well thanks for ALL the replies (some last request coming for a few tho ).

My post was deliberately vague as I wanted to gauge what those who actually have DONE trips had found it realistic to budget for.

Thanks anyways but no more replies on this.

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The trouble with being so vague is that you will never get a quantifiable response.

You can sleep in the back of an 80 or a 100 series and I have had customers that have done UK to Cape Town trips in them with budgets ranging from buying the base vehicle (an 80) for £4k and then spending £6k prepping it or at the end of the scale buying a newish 100 series for £30k and then spending £35k prepping it - that is a massive variation for the same trip in virtually the same vehicle.

I am sure that the same could be applied to one of the long wheel base Land Rovers.

At the end of the day most well serviced leading 4wds will be fine for overlanding in standard form, it is then down to the individual as to what they consider necessary preparation.

__________________
Cheers,

Julian Voelcker
Overland Cruisers - Specialising in Land Cruiser preparation and servicing.