In Feb 2016 we had a ski trip in our Dethleffs motorhome. Diane fell heavily, fracturing her wrist and suffering bad concussion. We gave up on skiing and called in at Unicat on the way back to see our new truck. So far, all we had was a truck chassis with a cab on it. First impression was dominated by just how big it was. Completely dwarfed our motorhome – and we thought that was quite big when we first bought it. Thomas, boss of Unicat, stuck some trade plates on the truck and we went out for a drive. This was exciting and a little intimidating. Up to that point the only truck I had driven was the one I used for training. The MAN TGS 33.540 6×6 cab was considerably higher and left hand drive. However, I soon settled into it and by the time we came back, about 15 minutes later, I was feeling quite comfortable. From the driving seat your viewpoint is about 3m above the road. This is terrific. You can see so much further down the road, over hedges and over other vehicles. This makes for a great sense of presence on the road and a good understanding of everything going on around you. In general everything to do with driving a truck is quite a bit slower than in a car so there is a lot more planning and anticipation going on.
We did not see the vehicle again that year. Between several visits and a lot of email exchange we had discussed many aspects of the design. My general approach was to take a fairly light touch. Unicat were clearly the experts and I assumed that if I talked about what we wanted to do in the truck then they would be well capable of building something suitable. So for example, we wanted to be able to go a good way off the beaten track – this would mean plenty of fresh water storage and solar panels on the roof. We wanted to travel in snowy places which meant internal water tanks and batteries. We wanted to go off-road occasionally so everything needed to be fairly strong and well secured. There were quite a few choices to be made. Picking a colour was quite difficult. We eventually settled on white as being cooler in the summer and not looking in any sense military. On reflection, I can see that I should have involved myself a bit more with the design. I mentioned concerns over ventilation and how the shower would drain. Our current motorhome was enormously better on both these issues than our previous one so I had a sense how important good design could be. However, I was reassured that Unicat had everything in hand so I didn’t push this. Delivery was agreed for the end of 2017 and we let them get on with it.
Early 2017 we took the motorhome skiing again. All was well until Diane dislocated her shoulder. We gave up on skiing and popped in to see Unicat on the way back. Can you see a pattern here? Unicat had begun work on the chassis and cab. The cab was being re-lined to improve the insulation and look of it. The chassis needed many changes. Mounts for the main body were added along with an extra fuel tank and the generator. Originally specified as an 8 kVA unit this ended up being 15 kVA. Most of the cost of the generator was in the fitting. Because the bigger, but quieter, three cylinder engine would fit into the same housing, the more capable unit seemed worthwhile for a relatively modest increase in cost. Using a motorhome in the winter over many years, I had discovered that a generator was essential. The house batteries would rarely last more than a night or two off-grid. Running the vehicle engine on idle was hopeless because the alternator would not deliver enough charge. A DC-DC convertor can help with this. A generator, however, can get you out of all sorts of trouble. It can charge the house batteries and the engine battery. It can run all the electrics in the motorhome and even provide power for heating. Of course you had to get it out, set it up, fill it with petrol and start it. Now we were going to have a completely built-in generator that could be started by a push button inside the living unit. This felt like real luxury.
Full of anticipation, we headed back home and launched ourselves into a busy year. Highlights included getting married, selling the old motorhome and selling the company.
At the end of August, Diane and I set off on a short motorbike trip around Europe. This included a visit to Unicat, a few days in the Alps and some business meetings in Denmark. We were hoping to see the main body assembled and possibly mounted onto the truck. Shortly before we set off, Thomas got in touch to say they had been delayed because there were four other trucks being finished. Could we come later? Well, no, we could not because everything was booked. So we turned up anyhow even though there was very little progress to see on the main body. A lot of the cab and chassis was finished though. The cab was back together and looked good. The chassis modifications were nearly complete. We discussed a myriad of details and then got to the delivery date. This needed to be pushed back because of the other work they had been doing. Presumably their other clients were more important than me, but no matter, we agreed on the end of January 2018. This suited me because we would be able to use Baloo to go skiing.
Mid-October we were sent some pictures of the panels that make up the main body. The panels are 50mm of closed cell foam sandwiched between two sheets of fibreglass. The floor panel is thicker, contains a steel sub-frame and a supporting layer of wood. Holes are cut for doors and windows. Frames are glued in and eventually the whole box structure is glued together. A lot of planning needs to go into the panels. The glue is incredibly strong but it is also a one-way trip. You cannot change your mind later.
At the start of November, we were sent pictures of the assembled panels and the main body mounted on the chassis. Meanwhile, I had completed the deal to sell the company. Everything was starting to work out. I put together a plan to get me, Diane, the dogs and everything else, out to Dettenheim (Unicat workshop near Karlsruhe) ready to go skiing at the beginning of February. I sent my plan to Thomas and this is when the wheels came off the project. His response was to express surprise that we thought the vehicle would even be ready by the end of February.
Ok, time to get bit more involved. If nothing else, Diane and I needed a date to work to. So I wrote to Thomas “How about you send me a proper project plan with key milestones, construction phases, targets, dependencies and a critical path analysis ?”. This elicited absolutely no response at all. Nothing. These terms represent key concepts in any project management system (PMS) but none of them appeared to hold any meaning at Unicat. After a little more discussion, I arrived at the opinion that Unicat had absolutely no effective PMS. For a company involved in projects regularly exceeding a million Euros in value, this struck me as remarkable. It was useful information however. For a start, it was now obvious why Unicat could not deliver to a schedule. Also, it would be a good bet that any time estimate was going to be over optimistic. When Thomas suggested they would need at least three or four months after Christmas, I mentally added another 50% and we agreed on the end of June.
Meanwhile, we had eight months to kill. We had sold our motorhome