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Expedition trucks

An expedition truck is not just a vehicle, it’s an all-weather, off-road, off-grid tiny house on wheels ready for some serious adventure.

You can build your own or have one build for you. To help you accomplish your dream, we started an article series about the different components (solar, heating, etc. …). (You can find the oldest posts at the bottom).

Password protected articles

We currently have four password protected articles:

  1. “Overland travel: A dark night in Scotland”
  2. “Cost distribution of Terratrotter’s expedition truck” (halfway the build)
  3. “How much does it cost to build your own expedition truck?”
  4. “Travel the world: Budgets revealed”

To gain access to these articles join our community by subscribing to our monthly newsletter and receive the access code.

(We will never sell your information to third parties & at any point you can delete your information from our list. Read more in our disclaimer.)

Building an expedition vehicle: Kitchen – Part 2

Plumbing in kitchen, Expedition camper

Grey water solution for expedition camper: A modified water canister underneath the kitchen sink and additional option to collect it in a bucket outside.

April 29, 2016May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks4 Comments

Building an expedition vehicle: Kitchen – Part 1

Kitchen in Expedition truck | Terratrotter

Here are the first pictures of the interior of our expedition truck. We opted for a decent size indoor kitchen even though we prefer to cook/grill outside. Sometimes the weather will not allow outdoor cooking or sometimes is just nice to have breakfast in bed, right! We personally don’t like the compact sink-stove combinations with glass top […]

April 22, 2016May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

Building an Expedition Vehicle: Work in progress

We made progress on transforming our FM2 Zeppelin shelter into a off-grid camper unit. Double Blue U-11 water treatment system, searching for 24V Lighting, and further customizing our bed

April 8, 2016September 18, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks4 Comments

Interior Layout of our Expedition truck

Sketch of Interior Expedition Truck, Side view

3D-sketches of the new interior layout of our expedition truck.

March 25, 2016May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks6 Comments

Installing a fan in an expedition vehicle

This week we have installed a roof fan in our expedition truck. Although the installation itself went smoothly we had some unexpected prepping to do.   Why a fan? One person can generate up to 1.5 liter of extra moisture in the air. If you also cook, shower, dry wet clothes, … in your vehicle […]

March 18, 2016May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks2 Comments

We survived the holidays!

work on interior expedition truck

Wow. Time just accelerated the last few weeks. 2016 is already here when we are still processing what took place in 2015. Our new year’s resolution? Totally slipped our mind, EXCEPT making our dream come true. So with the little free time we had left these last few weeks we continued the work on the […]

January 2, 2016May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks2 Comments

Cost distribution of Terratrotter’s expedition truck

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

December 18, 2015February 4, 2019 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

Installing an Electrical System in your Expedition Vehicle

Electrical System on Expedition Vehicle - Schematic

The extra technology for a balanced, well-functioning electrical system in your expedition vehicle (incl. some of the common mistakes). MPPT – AC Inverter & Charger – Battery Combiner – Battery Monitor

November 20, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks2 Comments

Video: Terratrotter in Croatia

Video of two expedition trucks, a STEYR 12M18 & DAF Leyland, on a road trip to Croatia; incl. some video footage of us snorkeling. Other posts about this overland journey:  Road trip to Croatia: Overview Choose Your Own Overland Travel Adventure: Slovenian Alps By Night  

November 14, 2015April 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks, Overland Travel3 Comments

How (not) to remove skids from Zeppelin-Shelter

The FM2 Zeppelin-shelters all come with 3 skids (German: “Kufen”). Each on weighs approximate 25kg (55lbs). If you don’t need them and/or they take up space you can’t miss on your truck, you will want to remove them. This turns out to be a hellish task. Trial 1: Heavy Duty Grinder and Crowbar The first […]

August 25, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks4 Comments

Solar panels on your expedition vehicle: The very basics

Solar panels on expedition truck

The basics of a solar system on expedition vehciles: why, calculating daily consumption, battery capacity, recharging batteries with solar panels.

August 13, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks7 Comments

Video: Building our expedition truck – The first 6 months

July 23, 2015April 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

How to build a bed on rails?

Wondering about how to build a bed in your expedition vehicle (or other tiny house)? We will tell you everything about why we build our bed on rails and give you all the details to build one yourself. That we wanted a fixed bed in our truck, that we could just jump into when tired, was not up for discussion. […]

May 29, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

Sandblasting the chassis & choosing a new color

April was a slow month regarding the build of our expedition truck. Aside from work keeping us busy, everybody around us seem to be struggling with the flu or cold. So we could only wait until we got the green light to drop of the chassis to be sandblasted and the shelter for a new […]

May 18, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks3 Comments

Finishing the walls: Lining & Insulation

LINING THE WALLS OF THE SHELTER A major milestone has been reached in the “Old army shelter becomes our tiny house”-project. We lined the walls and ceiling with a white textured carbon fiber film, specially made to wrap vehicles. Expensive yes, but it makes a huge difference! White instead of mint green walls, makes the […]

March 30, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks5 Comments

Removing the back door of the Zeppelin shelter

  BYE BYE BACK DOOR With the new side door installed, we were able to remove the back door of the FM2 Zeppelin-shelter. This door is too big and heavy, not insulated and badly located; thus needed to go. After getting rid of the boxes around the door, we closed off the entire back with […]

March 15, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

New door and windows for our tiny house

It took us a while to decide where to buy our windows and new side door. KCT windows did not fit our budget, but the affordable plastic Seitz windows on the other hand had several drawbacks that concerned us. Plastic scratches easily and thus not the best choice for 0ff-road adventures. We also heard from multiple travelers […]

March 9, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks7 Comments

Preparing the shelter walls

REMOVAL OF ALUMINUM RAILS – With the weather improving somewhat we took the chance to get some more work done in the shelter. We took out the aluminum rails by removing hundreds of rivets. A few metal drill bits (5mm) were sacrificed for this. In addition, most of the old, dirty, glued-on heater insulation has […]

February 20, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

First sketch of our tiny house

First sketch of the interior layout of our tiny home

THE CREATIVE WORK – While we are waiting for some warmer weather, we continue planning the interior of the truck. We noticed we have been altering the layout multiple times (using SketchUp). Since we only have 8m2 to work with and it has to withstand the jolts during off-roading, everything needs to be carefully planned. […]

February 20, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

Protecting the engine oil and fuel

In the month of February we upgraded the truck a little more: We installed a new fuel cap. During the Christmas holidays someone tried to get access to the fuel. Luckily for us they failed but the fuel cap endured too much damage and needed to be replaced. This of course raises the question “Should you […]

February 18, 2015May 16, 2018 Terratrotter | Nicole Expedition trucks

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In the spotlights

Mountain Espresso for Two, luxury espresso on the road.


6 in 1 ramp / recovery board


Front page Motorhome self-build and optimisation
(Currently only available on amazon.de, but it ships internationally)

Click here for our review


Build your own overland camperClick here for our review


!! MORE INTERESTING OFFROAD ITEMS !! >>

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