EXCAP STEYR 12M18 marries KrugXP cabin

OK – it’s time to ‘come out of the closet’.  After being a long-term silent listener on forums like the Expedition Portal, it is time to give back and share some thoughts about our journey and decision process for buying a custom-built Expedition truck.

Five years ago, Emily and I were travelling through Chile in a (boring) not off-road capable rental car.  We visited the Atacama Desert to watch some of the Paris-Dakar rally, which is held in South America, instead of Africa for the last several races.  One nice afternoon, we were outside a café in San Pedro de Atacama, when suddenly a cool looking vehicle, that seemed out of Mad Max movie, appeared in front of us. Emily was stunned, her eyes got big, and she just blurted ‘What is that?’

“It’s a UNIMOG”

I responded

Her eyes were glued to the expedition truck until it disappeared into the harsh, moon-like desert landscape.

A dream was born.

“Coming back to this amazing place in our own Expedition truck”

Slowly we began to turn this dream into ‘reality’ over a five-year period and want to share this journey with you.

The ‘reality’ is a ‘87 refurbished STEYR 12M18 truck, that we bought from EXCAP in Germany in 2015.

The truck will be married with a custom-built cabin from KrugXP in the Ukraine and our Expedition Vehicle should be ready in 2017. 

Initially, we were just focusing on UNIMOGs as a base vehicle option.  Emily wanted the same truck that we saw in San Pedro de Atacama and, as a German, I was convinced that this would be the greatest truck base for an expedition vehicle. However, when I started reading more about UNIMOGs and expedition trucks in general, I discovered other alternatives for base trucks and learned about some of the UNIMOG disadvantages.

One great information source is the Expedition Portal – thanks to all the great contributors – I learned a lot from you guys!

I test drove many MOGs and researched about the various UNIMOG models and followed this path for several years. I am not a total truck ‘Greenhorn’.  Driving a UNIMOG with trailer was part of my drivers’ training for getting a military tank license during my mandatory German military service back in ‘82.   The only two good things I got out of these useless 15 months in a tank battalion were driving the coolest vehicle ever, a 33 ton 600 HP MARDER SPZ tank and a free civilian truck license. The truck license allowed me to earn good money as contract truck driver during college times…hauling anything from concrete to German beer. It comes in handy now, because in Germany you need a truck license for trucks exceeding 7.5 tons and the league of good expedition trucks, including my new STEYER plus cabin – mostly will exceed this limit.

The more I read about the UNIMOG, I realized that it is not really a long-distance truck. It actually is a UNIversal MOtor Gerät (translated Universal Motor Tool); too sensitive for long distance cruising, due to the axle overheating problems, noisy cabin and low cruising speed (without modifications).

Since we are not planning to take part in a Paris-Dakar rally and think that realistically we will be travelling 75% on tarmac (probably most of the off-road miles on dusty fire-roads and “washboard”), I started looking at alternative platforms that are better suited for long-distance travel and at the same time offer decent off-road capabilities.

One of our main ‘handicaps’ is that we ultimately want to import the truck into the U.S. The long-term plan is to drive it from California to Patagonia – but that is still a long shot. Unfortunately, you can only import vehicles into the U.S. that are 25 years or older – this is one of the pros of the STEYR – ours was built in 1989.

We checked into other types of platforms. Besides thinking about MERCEDES Sprinter 4X4 or 6X6 as a base for a bit, the one alternative that we pursued for a while was the FUSO based platform and we like the Earth cruiser concept –  especially the fact that you get truck and cabin from one vendor. We have visited the Earthcruiser factory in Bend, OR and also considered the WOELCKE FUSO based model, called AUTARK for a while.

The FUSO of course rides smoother than a bigger truck, but when test driving it, I felt that it might be under-motorized.  We like the Earthcruiser pop-up cabin and the small footprint, but we had our concerns with too little storage space and comfort for longer trips – I trust the ‘Aussies’ that they know all about the outdoors and the concept seems very well thought through, robust and good quality.  However, Emily really wanted something that’s similar to the UNICAT cabin we saw. I also planned to add a motorbike rack, so the FUSO weight limitations would most likely be exceeded.

When the EURO exchange rate dropped to acceptable levels, we started expanding our search to Germany.  Besides looking at potential cabin builder alternatives, I got interested with the Austrian STEYR 12M18 truck as a base model and was reading a lot about this truck and ran into an article about EXCAP in the German Off-road magazine Allradler. I immediately made arrangements and added a last-minute visit to this small niche company, specialized in refurbishing STEYR 12M18 military trucks. In the past these trucks were available at auctions like Dorotheum, where the Austrian military was selling these trucks. I heard that in the good old days you could get a decent STEYR from EURO 6,000 onwards. Unfortunately, these days are over due to the increasing popularity of this truck and the endless supply from the 4,000 trucks that the Austrian army bought between 1986 and 1993 is drying out.

Stefan, the founder and EXCAP owner agreed to see us on a Sunday on short notice, because it was our last day before flying back to the US the next day.  We spent almost the entire day at his EXCAP factory, in a small village in the idyllic Odenwald area, not too far from Frankfurt.

It was ‘love at first sight’ when we saw his meticulously refurbished STEYR EXCAP trucks.

Being an industrial designer by trade, his attention to detail and passion for his product shows in every single part of the refurbished truck, down to the individual screws, which are each color coded during the assembly process for quality control purposes. His business concept is to ‘totally’ dismantle the used trucks down “to the bones”, sand blast every single part, repaint and/or coat the parts, replace wear& tear parts and then reassemble the entire truck. The cabin gets sound insulation, air suspension seats, storage space, stereo and lately even a leather steering wheel.

The result is a better than original condition truck that has been technically and visually optimized and ‘prepped up’.

Before making the last move to sign a contract, I continued reading a lot about the STEYR, spent many sleepless nights on the German STEYR Forum and talked to several STEYR owners. Seeing the EXCAP in his full beauty – Emily and I agreed that the EXCAP STEYR was the right base platform for us.

Here are the main reasons why we picked the STEYR 12M18 and bought it from EXCAP:

• Old enough to allow us to (hopefully) legally import it to the US – the minimum age requirement is 25 years – our truck is built ’87
• Simple diesel engine and no complex electronics – hopefully can be fixed by any ‘bush mechanic’ around the world
• No need for Low Sulfur diesel or AdBlue – you can probably run this truck on olive oil
• Good cruising speed of around 100 km/hr
• Original STEYR HP is 180 at 6,600 cc (hence the 18 in the 12M18) – the EXCAP additional intercooler and upgraded BOSCH Injection brings it to around 230 HP
• Very agile, fast on the street and still very off-road capable
• Small turning radius (Wheelbase 3500 mm)
• Good load capacity – the truck is designed for up to 12 tons (hence the 12 in the 12M18) – we plan to carry a motorcycle and don’t want to exceed total weight capacity like most light trucks below 7.5 t fully loaded do
• Big, comfortable cabin
• Cool design – I think for an old military truck it has a timeless ‘cool’ modern look

• EXCAP totally refurbishes the truck, including the cabin interior and you get an almost better than new truck – mine had only 69,000 KM on the clock. Here is just a partial list of what is included in my EXCAP package:
  • Full sand and dry-ice blasted chassis and cabin
  • Full double paint
  • Exchange of all diesel, air and brake lines
  • Fixing of known gearbox issue
  • Coating of all parts and screws
  • New GABO split rims with new 14.5R20 Tires
  • Roof rack
  • LED Head Lights
  • New BOSCH injection pump
  • Intercooler – increases HP from 180 to 230
  • Bigger 80AH generator
  • New Batteries
  • New shocks and cabin shock
  • Air suspension seats
  • 580 Liter plastic tanks with heated SEPA filter
  • New Stainless steel exhaust
  • Lots of other small improvements
  • Price – good price/ value ratio – I looked at many trucks – and many were overpriced, especially used base trucks for their real limited level of refurbishing
• I don’t have the skills, tools, space or time to refurbish a truck myself and have not seen a similar ‘perfectionist’ approach of truck refurbishing for any other expedition tuck base. Try to find and pay for a similar quality perfectionist refurbished UNIMOG, other MERCEDES or MAN chassis
• Last but not least, we really felt that the “EXCAP chemistry” was right – Stefan, is a very passionate, professional and trustful business person, and it shows in his product. I spent a couple of days at his factory observing the different phases of refurbishing, had lunch with his employees and could see that they are all exerts in their respective areas and most importantly I could feel that they love what they are doing

OK – I could go on and on about the base truck decision-making process – and of course there are cons to the STEYR as well, like the lack of spare parts and service coverage or lack of drivers’ cab air con – but let me now take you to the next part of our journey, which is selecting the cabin.

As part of our years of research, we started looking in the U.S., went to the Overland Expo in Flagstaff a couple of times, visited many vendors and have checked-out various new and used expedition trucks. Although we liked some U500-based trucks, we were always disappointed with the cabin layout, finish, design and craftsmanship.

Once we had laid our eyes on a UNICAT, we actually saw the UNICAT Terracross on the 5.6L International Harvester chassis – this became our new ‘standard’ for cabin quality and design – and most anything that we saw in the U.S. after looking at the UNICAT, looked flimsy, not well thought through and most of all old-style.

And by the way, we did not miss to look at Earthroamer and GxV – but we passed on both quickly due to the quality – price ratio and that we do not like the old style cabins.

Branching out to look at European cabin makers, I visited the UNICAT factory in Germany – but when asking for quotes, I got a ‘sticker shock’ and realized that this category was out of our financial reach and did not even bother to spend time on ActionMobil, which is in the same or even higher price league as UNICAT.

Surprisingly we found several alternatives, that come close to UNICAT quality for a lower price tag.

We focused on the following cabin builders – sorted from highest to lowest price-range:

1. Langer & Bock
2. BlissMobil
3. OrangeWork
4. Bocklet
5. Fuess
6. Ormocar
7. Woelcke
8. BiMobil
9. 4Wheel24

One of my first cabin favorites out of the above list was BlissMobil. The STEYR truck that I ended up buying, was the EXCAP demo truck, which had a 15” BLISS cabin on the back during the 2015 Abenteuer & Allradmesse  in Bad Kissingen, Germany. BTW – this is the biggest Off-road exhibition in the world and is a ‘must-see’ for everyone that is reading this article.

So initially I thought – BlissMobil is it – and felt that this was a natural fit for the EXCAP. Emily & I visited the factory in Breda, NL.  I really liked what I saw and was very convinced about the container concept. However, Emily did not like it because the cabin cannot be custom designed. Diving more into the details and pros and cons of the Bliss concept, we deviated from this idea not only due to the price tag, but mostly because we did not like the interior layout and options, and the fact that Bliss only offers limited customizability. One more point was the fact that literally everything is contained in the cab, including black and grey water tanks. My plan was to use the truck- and cabin space as efficient as possible and ideally planned to put the black water tank(s) somewhere outside of the cab in the truck frame to have more storage space.

One very helpful resource for great tips and information around the topic of Expedition vehicles I have to mention is Ulrich Dolde. He has built his own Expedition camper on a Mercedes base and wrote a book about ‘how to build your own expedition camper’ and his experiences and lessons learned. He is very familiar with all the different vendors and components that are available on the market and provides consulting in this area. His book is available in German and English as hardcore or e-book. As a novice I got a lot of useful tips from him, which I incorporated into our custom design. Here is a link to his interesting website with tons of information and a gallery of expedition trucks www.selfbuildmotorhome.com.

So how did we end up with KrugXP?

We narrowed down the choices to two cabin builders – Ormocar and 4wheel24 and spent considerable amount of time communicating with them about the technical details and components, visiting the factories in Germany and actually received detailed proposals from them. They are both great companies, the owners spent a lot of time with me, discussing our plans and I want to thank them for their dedication and effort.

While Emily and I were deciding which company to choose, I had several conversations with Stefan from EXCAP, and he pointed me to KrugXP, a Ukrainian company.  He mentioned that he planned to get a cabin from them for himself. He sent me some cabin sketches and a link to their website. Our first impression was a real ‘WOW’ effect, compared to all other cabin interiors of other companies that we had seen so far.

Trusting Stefan’s industry experience, eye for good quality and his excellent design taste, I added KrugXP as an option to explore.  During a family visit I arranged a meeting with Joerg Eden, who is the KrugXP sales manager. He did not hesitate to drive his MAN TGM 18.340 4×4 demo truck 500 km on a short notice, to meet at an Autobahn rest area to show me KrugXP quality first hand.

Over a nice Espresso drink from his NESPRESSO machine, we talked for several hours and he showed me each detail (besides the NESPRESSO machineJ) on his truck and answered all of my questions about KrugXP that I could think of in this limited time. Everything I saw was exceeding my expectations – from cabinet locks, lights, electrical wiring and plumbing to the several 100-plus page manual with details of all components, electrical wiring diagrams, cabin drawings, etc., that comes with every KrugXP cabin.

A perfect match for the EXCAP quality and attention to detail – very efficient and smart interior layout and design, combined with top-notch components and good craftsmanship.

One component to mention are the real glass windows that match KCT window quality – but are produced by KrugXP. Other highlights are the MIELE appliances, MASTERVOLT Lithium Ion batteries, charger and Inverter, natural wood veneer furniture – and I could go on and on…

… so to bring it to a point – similar to our EXCAP experience – KrugXP was also ‘love at first sight’.

What a quality difference compared to a used $350,000 U500 UNIMOG expedition truck, with a cabin built by a reputable U.S. company, that I test drove. The cupboard doors in the cabin were almost falling off during the test drive. According to the owner, the water piping for the heater had broken and flooded the cabin before, because non-heat resistant plastic pipes were used – ‘WOW’ – good that I continued searching and did not buy that truck just because I was so focused on UNIMOG platforms at the time.

Before ‘jumping the gun’, we decided to wait with a final decision and visit the 2016 Allradmesse in Germany and visit the KrugXP factory in the Ukraine. So in May it was time for another trip to Europe, determined to pick a cabin builder. After spending three days at the Allradmesse in Bad Kissingen, talking to many vendors and looking at their products, one of them being MASTERVOLT (thanks for the great draft beer at the MASTERVOLT booth!).

After checking out most of the cabin builders one last time, Emily and I agreed that KrugXP is our favorite. We love the design. It is according to our taste. It is beautiful, simple, but elegant. The quality of the furniture and appliances are excellent. It is comfortable. There is a lot of lighting. We do not feel cramped.

Straight after the Allradmesse we flew from Frankfurt to Kiev.  Victor, who is the KrugXP founder, sent a driver to pick us up at our hotel in a brand new Land Rover for the 200 km trip to the KrugXP factory in Cherkassy.  Victor, Joerg, and a translator were there to greet us. Over a nice lunch and spending half a day visiting the factory and talking, we found out that Victor is a vivid Expedition truck enthusiast himself. The story goes that he had a very expensive high-end Expedition vehicle from one of the most reputable companies that fall apart during one of his trips. He decided that he could do better and started building his own cabins and founded KrugXP, initially catering to a mostly Russian customer base, who loves to take their trucks to the extremes of Siberia and Mongolia. The devastated Ukrainian economy allowed him to hire extremely skilled workers and engineers that mostly come from the airspace and nuclear industry. Speaking about nuclear power plants, since Chernobyl is only 100 km from Kiev, we actually did a guided tour to Chernobyl – a once in-a-lifetime experience – see pictures here on my photo website.

What we saw at KrugXP convinced us – and we also felt that the “chemistry was right”.

However, we still had one concern, which was the fact that KrugXP is not a widely known brand (yet) and we hardly could find any references. After a lot of unsuccessful research, I finally found some reference to KrugXP by a British guy who lives in Saudi Arabia on the HorizonsUnlimited  forum. His name is Tim Ansell and he got himself an amazing Oberaigner “pimped up” 6X6 Sprinter and bought a custom KrugXP cabin that will be fitted to his MERCEDES truck by Hellgeth Engineering. Since he was a couple of steps ahead of us, he provided me with many valuable tips and information.  We continue to stay in touch, communicating about our projects. Tim has started a cool blog, where you can find information and pictures about his truck project.

After talking to Tim, I at least had the feeling that I am not the only ‘crazy guy’ out there going through a multi country, multi continent project like this and we signed a contract with KrugXP for a custom cabin shortly after our return to the U.S.

The KrugXP cabin is planned to be ready by March 2017. The EXCAP truck will be driven to Cherkassy, ‘married’ with the cabin in the Ukraine and then driven back to Germany, where we hopefully can pick up the joint package, after getting some last upgrades done to the truck chassis by EXCAP.

We just want to point out that we have no relations with either company mentioned in this blog nor do we get any kickbacks – all we wanted to do is sharing our journey that lead us to this decision.

We are very excited and counting the days to see our second home and move in.

Besides dreaming about driving down the Pan-Americana, we are also having nightmares, like thinking about the hassle of importing the truck into the U.S, the Russians taking over Ukraine and even more scary, getting it registered legally in the U.S.  There is still a lot to do before being able to finally take it on a trip…

…so stay tuned for more updates of our journey and hopefully some real trip stories soon to come…