Hi everyone

I have been thinking about a Magirus ever since I saw one the first time. The great looks (some like the mother, some like the daughter...) the big engine and well just all the fun that it looks like :-)

First phase. Shopping.

Mobile.de is a very nice place to shop these trucks. I used a german translator that I got in contact with on Allrad-LKW-Gemeinschaft to help with contacting the seller and asking different questions about the state of the vehicle.


In february this year I found the right truck.

Flight to Berlin, rental car to a small town near the border to Czech republic and there it was!

4000 euros later I was on the winter roads back towards Denmark. Quite nerve wrecking to drive a completely unknown (to me) truck back during the night, without having any roadside assistance insurance or anything. Or any tools for that matter.

Next phase. The rebuild.

Very discreet is the keyword. It has to keep looking like a firetruck because it is registered as a veteran truck in Denmark. Long story short: In Denmark only millionairs can afford truck campers due to insane tax laws. So it is not a camper - just a truck.

I have been quite lucky with alot of the things that could have been really expensive to fix on the truck.

Often the front shafts are knackered. Mine are an upgradede version with grease nipples (as opposed to the originals).

Often the brake cylinders are leaking. Mine are sound.

Often the cabin is quite rusty and needs extensive repair. Mine has been driving in the alps near Austria so no rust.

The engine is nice but I miss some better gearing. My truck is from 1973 and has a slower than normal gearbox. Meaning that when I bought it the comfortable speed was 72kmh. Now, with new tires the comfortable speed is just 80 kmh. Newer versions drive up to 100Kmh with larger tires!

It has permanent 4x4. Differential lock on the VTG / middelgearbox (Name?) and reduction gearing for off road driving.

9 seats in the cabin and lots of room in the back.

Last phase: The plan.

Africa! I have 2 small kids and I we need some room for them. I decent toilet and a kitchen. I guess we could have done it in a Land Rover or other baby-sized-car but that would just be too easy ;-)

Again the danish tax laws actually make it cheaper to use a truck for the project than most other vehicles.

Budget.

Truck: 4000 euro
Tires and rims: 2500 euro (ouch!)
500l diesel tanks: 600 euro
Kitchen: 300 Euro
Solar panels: 300 euro
New batteries: 550 euro
All the other stuff: 1500 euro

So before we leave we will have spend around 10,000 euro in the truck. Which is rather cheap I think.



I will post a new pic of the truck soon! It looks quite different now!

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

Hi Peter,


Thanks for posting, interesting vehicle and Im looking forward to seeing how it looks now. Im guessing it already has a good size water tank fitted

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

A bigger (taller) rear body , might be possible to keep the roller shutter feature as a security cover over the windows ? For appearance mounting a lightweight aluminium ladder on the roof wouldnt be too much of a price to pay? The nice thing about fire appliances is they have been extremely well maintained (usually) I had one of these, originally with a camper idea , but decided in the end due to rarity not to convert . Mine was one on left

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

Wow, beautiful truck indeed! How is regulation regarding driving a vehicle that looks like a public / utility truck?

I know people here that bought old ambulances and had to remove quite a few parts so that it was obviously no longer active, and easy to spot this. Flashing lights, logos, all such thing had to be scrapped.

Any clue on fuel consumption? Usually parties like the fire brigade / army / police don't really care for this since they have deep pockets (well, in the 70ies) and performance is more important. No fire fighter wants good milage but a truck that might not perform as good.. and gets him or buddies in danger. On which I fully agree!

Looking forward to the end result and how things will turn out!

Alex

@Gipper - No this one was without fully integrated watertank. It just had a 1000l plastic pallet tank installed. Easily removed :-)

@Tacr - I cannot do any modifications to the body. I have removed the ladder allready :-) Dont need any ladders, but sandladders :-)

The truck is indeed well maintained. They have spent quite a few d-mark to fix it over the years.

@Blommetje - I taped the blue lights over. I think they are the only illegal part, as well as the horn. I have not removed the horn - way too much fun :-)
So as far as I know the blue lights and the horn are universally illegal for private use on public roads.

The consumption has been around 33l/100km on the original tires. I hope that it will improve to 20-25l/100km with the new tires. Diesel is cheap once you leave europe, so no worries :-)

Just added tint to the windows today (3m Crystalline 70 all around) and a roof hatch! I big truck with many windows like this one is like a growth house

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

If you cant mod the body , is that both outside and inside ?
have you tinted the front side windows ?
Any further pics ?

Yes blue lights big NO NO ! Be careful with siren as that could cause you problem as well.

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

I have tinted all the windows. BUT I have used some first class tint. Its called 3M Crystalline and if you compare it to a factory tint on a modern car you can actually not see the difference. This is due to the fact that the 1973 windows are completely untinted whereas the modern car windows are a 70-90 % tint from factory. The 3M product is expensive but really discrete and nice. Around 60% heat rejection without getting the gang-banger look

The rules are unclear in regards to modifications. I know that mounting a new box on the back is a clear violation. I also know that changing the engine or the complete cabin would be a violation. But it is all very fuzzy. Danish tax laws are pretty insane on that matter.
I am doing a quick-n-dirty rebuild on the inside of the box. Just 500l diesel tanks and 100l water and some storage and a small kitchen and finally the toilet. No accomodation in the back.

The front is very easy to use. The benches are lined towards each other so with some plywood boards that can be laid in between, we have a 170x205cm bed. Simple and good. Also serves as daily hangout and eating area with a height-foldable RV table.


On the very positive side I have an 8 year period between regulatory inspections (MOD/TÜV) and there are some other benefits (and restrictions) as well.


The siren looks like a standard truck siren so I hope that no-one will give me a hard time about it.

I will try to shoot some pics tomorrow. Too dark now :-)

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

How about a good paint job?

Hi again.

I promised some more pictures. Here they are

The safari snorkel is made from 110mm high pressure sewage piping.

The front mounted sandladders are made from used gratings from an oil rig. 38mm glasfiber reinforced.

Been quite busy lately since I got my second daughter just over a week ago.

Right now we are contemplating a departure date around December this year. We live in a very privileged country where we can get both paternity leave and maternity leave for almost a year :-)

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

Spare tires are insanely heavy! I use a boat winch (cheapest option) that can pull around 800kg. I started out with a 350kg one, and it couldn't take the beating. I am no super hero but no weakling either. I can just lift the tire and the rim, when they are apart. But not at all when they are combined :-)

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

Think having sandtracks mounted there will cause you problems as headlights are obscured so not legal for road use in EU or most other countries come to that !

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

The rack is made to be easily removed/installed. When driving in countries with lots of rules and few stray animals I plan to put them on the roof. I have 8 in total and only four can go infront.

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

Hi,
Could you include some more detailed pictures of how you attached the snorkel both to the truck and the engine please?

I have a Iveco 90-16 and the air filter is so low it would drag in a puddle. Been looking for opütions but commercially available solutions apear to be around 3k€.

Thanks in advance.

Al

Snorkel is made out of HD 110mm sewer pipes. On the original airfilter there is a "mushroom" cap that has an exact diameter of 110mm so I just used an appropriate pipe fitting. The brackets for the sewerpipes are, surprise, brackets for sewerpipes and were bought in the same shop.

The pipes themselves were fairly cheap, but the Mann filter with cyclone is quite expensive. 200-300 euro I think it was. I am not sure it was worth it either.

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

Hi everyone. I thought that I might be fun for you to see what happened since.

2*220l diesel tanks installed
Box from 1967 Gaz66 military truck.

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.