This Swiss have taken touring around Australia to another level with their luxury apartment on wheels.
When most of us think about doing the big lap, we think about loading up the wagon or ute with a bunch of camping gear, enough clothes to handle all weather conditions and maybe invest in a camper trailer for a bit more comfort over the coming months. Rene and Brigitte Schoch, however, have taken that exact plan and turned it up to eleven. Not wanting to lug a caravan behind them, and not willing to settle for the relatively decreased comfort of a camper trailer, they went looking for something, well, bigger. Arriving on our fair shores in April last year, theyâve spent the last year rolling around the joint with their humungous Man truck and German-built slide-on camper on the back. Take a look at this thing and tell us it doesnât make your own touring set-up look a little underwhelming⊠Iâm seriously considering burning my swag.
THE VEHICLE
Man 4X4 trucks make even an F-250 look a touch anaemic. Massive solid axles with bags out the back and leaves up front, diff lockers, over 40in of rubber and a payload that would make a road train driver raise their eyebrows in appreciation. While theyâre not exactly designed for tight technical trails, for outback touring these things would eat up the kays better than Clive Palmer at a buffet.
And thatâs just what this one has done. Rene told us that heâs gone through about ten-grand in diesel since heâs been here, which may sound like a lot, but keep in mind theyâve been all over the country and see a lot of out of the way places. And hey, itâs cheaper than paying rent.
Powered by a 6.9L turbo diesel straight-six pumping out 184kW and 1000NM of torque, thereâs no shortage of power, or gearing, on tap, and despite the rigid axles and leaf suspension, there are two air suspension seats in the cab that make the ride softer than a bloke with a man bun. The 12-speed auto uses a simple twist dial to engage, so itâs actually fairly easy to drive once youâre used to the dimensions and the fact that youâre sitting about thirteen feet in the air. Off-road wheel placement is fairly easy too with the cab-over body. Simply put your bum over where you want the driverâs side wheel and youâre set.
With all that said, the truck itself is actually fairly stock. Rene didnât want to modify things too much because it simply wasnât needed â he wanted a tourer, not a rock crawler â but donât worry, thereâs plenty more to this thing than simply being huge. Read onâŠ
THE MODIFICATIONS
Yep, Iâm talking about that camper. Imagine for a sec one of those luxury studio apartments overlooking the River Seine in Paris, or Central Park in New York, youâd expect it to be pretty swanky right?
You get the same feeling stepping up into this camper that you would walking through the front door of one of those places. âNeatâ doesnât even begin to cover it. Itâs cleaner than a dentistâs surgery and comfier than the Playboy Mansion. Camping out of this thing canât really be called camping⊠or even glamping, itâs more like pulling up in remote Central Australia and having a five-star resort show up right behind you.
Heating and cooling? Yep. Sink and oven? Yep. Full bathroom and shower? Yep. Dinette, massive bed, full sound system, more storage than a warehouse? Yep, yep, yep and yep.
It really is mind blowing to step inside this thing, and full credit to Rene and Brigitte, after a year of cruising through the Kimberley, the deserts, a bunch of the Top End and just about everywhere else you can think of, it still looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. We even broke out the black light to confirm a suspicion and sure enough, we couldnât find a single spec of dust. Meanwhile our swags need quarantined and fully fumigated after a single weekend away⊠way to show us up guys. After just shy of 12 months on the road, the Schochs are thinking about heading back to Europ in the next few weeks, and yep, theyâll be shipping their left-hooker Man camper home in a container⊠Hmm, imagine cruising the Swiss Alps in this bad boy!
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