The truck
Yoda is a former Austrian army truck (Steyr 12M18), is roughly 30 years old and was refurbished by the German company EXCAP. The box which gives us a living space of about 12 square meters was made by Krug Expedition who are based in Schladming (Austria).
When we bought the truck, it was still army green. So when we looked for a name we thought of something small and green… There you go. That‘s how Yoda was named.
The great thing about the truck is, that it‘s mechanical only. It‘s got no sensitive electronics, very simple mechanics that are easy to understand and – even more importantly – easy to repair. It can handle pretty much any Diesel quality this planet has to offer and doesn‘t need AdBlue.
For us the Steyr was the perfect choice. For others it‘s not.
Box
The box was built by the Austrian company KRUG Expedtion. We have a layout that separates the bed from the living area. The bed is 200x150cm, the dinette 200x130cm and also works as a second bed (for the future children). We are very happy about the choice of layout because of several reasons: If one of us like to sleep, the other can still do some stuff in the living area without to much disturbing; it gives a lot of space, doesn’t fee cramped and we can also sit with guests (4 people comfortably) on our table and have a dinner or games evening together.
Kitchen and cooking
In the kitchen there are two induction plates and an oven that runs of the battery and therefor solar.
Maybe in winter we need to have an eye on it if do not move. But this wont happened so often during our traveling.
Water and toilet
We have two 200 liter tanks of water (totaling 400L of fresh water) and one 300 liter grey water tank. With this we are fine about two weeks and could stretch it out to about three if we limit ourselves a little. We have a dry seperation toilet (Air head) that is the best solution for us. No need for chemicals, hardly any smell and you can empty it very easy and nearly everywhere.
Solar and electricity
We have 1150W solar on the roof that charge our 600Ah (@24V) Lithium batteries. The Steyr also has an 80Ah generator, that also charges the battery while driving. Krug builds the boxes with Victron and MG components.
We also have an AC that doesn’t draw too much power and can be run off the solar system during the day as well.
Motorcycle
For getting into cities (especially handy in Europe where the streets are narrow and there are certain areas with restrictions for old diesel vehicles) we bring along a Yamaha MT125 on the rear carrier. If you are interested on how to get it on and off, you can hop on YouTube and search for our roomtour. You’ll find it there.
We opted for the bike for several reasons: We needed something small and light to have less weight on the back (it weighs only 140kg) and we needed something with a small sitting height so Judith can also ride it. We don’t need it to be very off-road capable as we don’t intend to take it off-road. It’s only a 125cc but that’s all we need to get the two of us around and we are both not very experienced drivers anyways.