Building an Expedition Vehicle: The Floor

PVC floor expedition truck

How does one write an interesting post about flooring? Seriously! Even after 2 glasses of wine this is daunting, so I will just keep it to the facts.

Choosing the floor

Finding the right floor for our expedition truck was -until we found one- a not-so-fun experience. We probably looked at 1000 different patterns/websites/pinterest posts /…, but nothing we really liked. At one point, I would probably agree with buying a polka dot pattern floor, just so we no longer had to keep looking. But like with most projects in this build, perseverance prevailed. Thank you Elmer for sticking to your guns, not willing to compromise, even though you had to endure me shooting daggers on several occasions.

And thank you Theo from Handyfloor, for your enthusiasm and for letting us test tons of samples. This is how we eventually found the floor we both really liked: PVC click tiles with rust pattern.

PVC flooring

We chose for PVC, since it is the most versatile material we found. It’s

  • water/moisture-proof,
  • bug-proof,
  • easy to install,
  • UV-light resistant,
  • affordable,
  • easy to clean,
  • thin – 4.5mm (but not too thin)

This combination we just could not find in any other flooring option. We even looked at options like cork and bamboo.

 

Installing the floor

Note: We are not entirely sure if the click-system will be strong enough; but we can always glue it later.

PVC-floor finished in expedition truck | Terratrotter


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6 thoughts on “Building an Expedition Vehicle: The Floor
  1. Hi,
    May I just thank you for your thoughtful and interesting posts – well not the floor so much, but certainly all the others!
    I have just managed to buy a Belgium army reserve stock u1350 and so our adventure begins.
    Please excuse me if you’ve covered this already, but did you keep the original subframe, or make one especially for your FM2?
    I hope you are enjoying your travels.
    Kind regards
    Elliot (UK)

    1. Hi Elliot

      Thank you for the nice reply and glad to hear you like most of our posts. We had a Special Subframe made for us. The cargo bed, that was originally on the Steyr, has no articulation and was fixed to the main frame. Our subframe is fixed at the front and has a pivot at the back, where most of the articulation will happen.

      Good luck and fun with your Mog! And should any more questions come up during your build, feel free to ask!

      Take care

      Elmer & Nicole

  2. Hello Elmer & Nicole,

    Please could you direct me to the designer/builder of your subframe?
    As the box is only attached at the four corners, this must place different (perhaps more?) stresses to the more usual situation where there is an attachment of the subframe to the box at many evenly spaced places on the box floor. Also, in their usual designed use these Zeppelin radio boxes have the overall support of the truck load bed, I believe.
    I would very much appreciate your views.
    I last visited Losenj, Croatia (at that time Yugoslavia) over forty years ago. There was a small open ferry that went from there to Illovic, an outlying island. Most of the men had gone to find work in America and sent money home. Different times, similar issues.
    Best wishes,
    Elliot

    1. Hi Elliot

      Actually, the designer of our subframe does not build them anymore. But any good welder WITH EXPERTISE should be able to reproduce ours.
      If you like to know more about the different subframe possibilities, we would highly recommend the book “Build your own overland camper” by Steve Wigglesworth. We are currently reviewing this book and he spends a whole chapter on dealing with torsial stress and different subframes.

      These Zeppelin FMII are designed to be transported on trucks with one container lock on each corner. Not directly flat on a truck bed. So the inner frame of a Zeppelin box is designed to spread the “stress” from each corner via the whole frame. (The military even threw them out of airplanes!).

      Losenj…. We still have fond memories of that little gem! So tranquil..
      Believe it or not, there is still a little boat running to the other Island. You just need to call him on his cell.

      Take care

      Elmer & Nicole

    1. Thank you for taking the time to leave a message! Always motivating to hear that people like our work.

      Cheers,
      Nicole & Elmer

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