I have recently purchased a Daf 4x4 for over landing travel. It currently has a communication body on it however I want something a bit more spacious. However what is the maximum height I should be looking at? The body at the moment is currently 6ft. I have been looking at an 8ft body. However I was trying to visualise the body and feel it may be a bit high for the vehicle. What height is everyone else running? What is the max height for main ferry crossings? Many thanks for any help!


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I cannot comment on what others are using and do not have a truck myself but if you plan to ship it anywhere something that fits inside a container both width and height wise is useful, otherwise it can get expensive and if too wide quite difficult.

Thanks Mark, it's not my intention to put it in a shipping container to go anywhere, I just wanted some of people's thoughts/ use their ideas on usable realistic height.


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Not so much a realistic height , but an EU regulation max height 4mtrs , this is strictly not applicable for UK registered vehicle , as UK has no definable maximum , but when traveling in EU you would need to pay particular attention to clearances and the alternative routes posted for over 4mtr vehicles. Rear overhang is allowable upto 60% of wheelbase of vehicle HTSH ps ferries height limit usually 4.5mtrs most routes

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Current : 2007 Mowag Bucher Duro 6x6 Motorhome , 2006 Sedici 4x4, 2007 Range Rover supercharged

Ideally you need to keep your height to the minimum that is pratical. Reasons for this are mainly to keep your centre of gravity as low as possible (side slopes),low arches,overhanging trees and rock overhanges on narrow mountain tracks.
I would suggest internal height to be 15cm above head height allowing for lighting and roof vents

Thanks for the advice. I can understand the rational behind the 15cm. It's a good basis. At the moment I have 1 cm above my head. But it does blend into the cab quite nicely. This cab is 6ft. I wonder what drag would be like with another 1-2 ft?

I currently have around 2cm above my head inside my truck and find that it is plenty. The only disadvantage is that many guests have to stoop. The reduced height is a huge advantage regarding trees on narrow forest tracks, bridges in old cities, and low power lines in less developed countries.

I am 181cm heigh and so the box in my truck is likely to be usable for many others if I ever choose to sell it. It would probably be unwise to invest too much money in a box with headroom of much lower as you will be reducing your potential market if you ever come to sell the truck.

My truck is around 3.5m heigh, I would say that I could have added another 20 cm without major complications, but any higher would have caused problems regularly.

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Thanks nick for the feedback do you have any photo's of your truck. I am really in a strange predicament with this body. I am really 50:50 on it. And it's really strange as I am never undecided on anything. If I had the 2cm above my hair I probably would be ok. But I only have about 1 in the centre and it's so frustrating.

hi there we had our truck at 2.7m high and found this to be a good height for south america, the width of a truck does not normally stop you going anywhere its always the height, and remember overlanding is all about seeing new sights and meeting new people, so hot countries you will be outside most of the time and when you are inside your truck you are mainly sitting down so height is not so important, we have seen many a big truck all over the world where the owners turn up and stay inside their truck to avoid the locals,
just my opinion
enjoy the build

If you are really concerned about height then use the cab height as the datum , and make the rear body so that its a raising upper section , that drops down for travel , to that height sort of like an outside pop top. coaches , which operate all over the world are usually between 3.5 and 4mtrs OAH . This is the sort of thing

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Current : 2007 Mowag Bucher Duro 6x6 Motorhome , 2006 Sedici 4x4, 2007 Range Rover supercharged

Hi Monster, thanks for the input, its all building a good case. I totally agree about overlanding is seeing new places. And thats why I am building a truck rather than using the overland Landrover that I have.

See dtd-overland for those trips. What I want to do on the next trip is Scandanavia, and potentially a bit of winter travel. Its not always about the temped climates. I want to see the extremes too!

Totally get you about spending time indoors too. After travelling in Morocco I see how hot it gets inside. Would not want to be in one of these when its that temp! I think I have a route forward with the cab situation. The cab that is on it at the moment will be coming off I am 90% sure of this.

I have potentially found a refrigerated body its about 8ft in heigh (will be reducing the height to around 7ft) this will keep the entire height of the truck under 4m (about 3.5) and only a ft above where it currently sits now. But will have alot more freedom to expand my design upon it.

Watch this space... and the blog on the webpage above.

Shave your hair off?!?

Just regarding centre of gravity, taking a Mog U1300l for instance, the bare truck chassis with cab is about 5500kg, and its normally a max 7500kg truck. Two tons of payload which will mainly be on the floor (water, batteries etc) and I don't think adding a bit to the actual box height will affect the stability too much. It will look and feel wobbly but big tyres on long travel suspension on a flexy frame will do that. Putting heavy stuff on the roof would be another thing though!

The wife and I are not tall, and the box we hope to make soon will perhaps be 1900mm externally. I would rather avoid hitting things while driving than consider resale in the future. No holes in the ceiling either, 60mm walls and ceiling like the posh truck campers from Unicat etc. Supposedly with that much insulation you can open the windows in the morning, let the cold morning air in, and when its really hot outside at midday it will still be cool inside if the blinds have been drawn to keep the sun out. Maybe

We'll aim at 3.5m and end up a bit over probably, big tyres being the culprit I'm sure but big boots are essential . Our now sold Mog based camper was 3.9m and was a bit too tall for driving, but lovely for living inside for months on end.

Good luck

Just whack in a pop top to give yourself another 2' of clearance when the top is up. Downside they can be a bit leaky if not fitted well.

Our Mog is 3.4m, occasionally we've stopped to check on clearance for low hanging cables, but not had a problem yet. I wouldn't want to go much higher though! Don't forget, the higher it is, the more branches you'll need to clear to get through.....


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dunno about off road, but when I used to drive trucks for a living, 11'6" seemed to be a bit of a threshold. My artic was just under that and I just managed to clear no end of places where another couple of inches height would have stopped me

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014