Preparation - Salter's travels

Assembling the body

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

Driver training

I made a list of what needed to be done before we could set off on our travels. It looked fairly straightforward:

Sell Dethleffs motorhome
Sell our houses
Sell company
Get married
Learn to ride a motorbike
Learn to drive a truck

The house was the first item I tackled. After 20 years in an ex-council house on a large estate, I was not too sad to see it go. It was a very practical house and the neighbours were great. There were views over a landfill site, sewage works, the M1 motorway and Meadowhall shopping centre. I was ready to expand my vistas. Diane also sold her house and we moved into a lovely rented cottage in the Peak District.

Selling the houses gave us enough money to buy the truck. Just the truck. A cab on a rolling chassis. December 2015. The last possible date to buy a Euro 5 truck before the emission regulations were succeeded by the Euro 6 standard. This was important, not because we wanted to create clouds of diesel fumes, but because a Euro 5 engine is much more tolerant of the lower quality fuels commonly used outside of Europe.

I launched myself into what became two years of almost continuous driver training. After some initial trepidation, I came to thoroughly enjoy this. Just about every week I was doing some sort of training. First came the IAM and addressing my road craft and car handling skills. The last driving tuition I had received was as a spotty teenager so not too surprisingly there was plenty of scope for improvement. Achieving the IAM standard was a great boost to my confidence and prepared me for truck driving. Thank you Stockport IAM.

The HGV test is very different from a car test. There are the obvious vehicular differences but the real issue is that this is a professional driving qualification and a long way from the beginner’s car driving test. First up is a medical examination and then two theory tests. One is concerned with hazard avoidance and feels a bit like a video game. The other is a knowledge test covering not just the Highway Code but also truck specific aspects such as the tachograph, securing loads, weight limits and so on.

Finally I was ready to get my hands on a real truck and discovered that I loved it. As a youngster I had always fancied driving a big truck so to finally get into the driving seat was a real thrill. Enterprise LGV Tuition in Manchester introduced me to a truck and I drove it four hours a day, every day, for a week. On the last day, me and the truck were taken to the test centre and I passed. Thank you Enterprise. I was enormously pleased with myself and quite annoying to be with for several days.

This felt like a big step towards the dream. We now actually owned a truck and I could drive it. On the way back from skiing in the Dethleffs we called in at the Unicat workshop and met our truck, the fledgling Baloo. First impressions were that it was enormous. The wheels were massive and the driver’s seat was way higher up than my training truck. Once upon a time, I used to consider the 8.5m Dethleffs pretty big but it seemed dwarfed by the MAN TGS 33.540 6×6.

Back in the UK I made a start at the motorbike problem. I was the problem. More specifically, the problem was that I found the whole motorbike thing quite scary. If I had started with motorbikes when I was young and invulnerable this would not have been an issue. However, I am now old enough to appreciate the potential pain involved in falling off a bike.

First were two more theory tests. Then come two practical tests. The first of these, in an enclosed compound, covers basic handling and manoeuvring. Took me a couple of attempts. The final part of the test involves accelerating to at least 30mph and then, at the examiners signal, doing an emergency stop. The night before, I dreamt of dropping the bike, sliding across the compound, taking out the examiner and smashing into the wall at the far end. Reality was much kinder but on the first try I did not go fast enough.

Before I got to the second test I needed to change instructors. Sadly my original instructor was taken badly ill so I ended up in a new school. Here I met Paul Beatie. He taught me in a way that built my confidence. This was a turning point in the quality of my riding. There are many variations on teaching style and I realised that finding the right instructor was a very individual thing. There are many good teachers but your particular instructor needs to be someone you can work with. With the dawning realisation that the bike was not going to kill me, I breezed through the road test and finally held a full bike licence. Thank you Paul.

In the afternoon, after passing my test, I addressed myself to the 690. Baloo is designed to carry a motorbike on the rear. I had bought a beautiful KTM 690 Enduro R that I was itching to ride. The guys at Unicat told me to buy a 690. I didn’t know one bike from another but they were correct. In the fullness of time this has turned out to be the perfect bike. Back then, it was a steep learning curve in the difference between a tame learner’s bike and the raw performance of a KTM. I fell off. Several times. A few weeks of practise later, I thought I was getting the hang of it, took the bike off-road and fell off some more.

Much tuition later I passed my ERS qualification and then, rather impulsively, bought a KTM 1290 Super Adventure. Absolutely loved this beast. My fear of bikes had now completely evaporated and I felt compelled to ride it every day. Went on to pass the IAM motorbike test. In the summer, Diane and I did a terrific motorbike tour of Europe.

In the spring of 2017, Diane and I got married. We had been together for well over a decade but somehow circumstances had never seemed quite right. Eventually, I surprised the hell out of her by, literally, getting down on one knee and offering her an engagement ring. We rode to the registry office on the KTM 1290 and then had a big party back at the cottage.

My business partner, Andy, and I sold the company. This aspect of the preparation took over a year and was truly horrible. We I had decided 5 years earlier to sell. My position in the business had metamorphosed. When Andy and I first started it was all about computer programming, which I loved. As the company grew I had become exclusively a manager, salesman and accountant – roles that I did not enjoy and was not good at. After 25 years I was totally ready to get out. However, we were both completely unprepared for the uncertainty, anxiety, stress and intense emotional roller coaster ride associated with the process. When the documents were finally signed, both of us were left gasping for breath.

Diane really needed to get her truck licence. Not least from the safety perspective, it is important that we can both drive Baloo. She procrastinated for a long time but eventually, in 2018, decided to get on with it. While she trained for her class C licence I tackled my C+E. This is not necessary to drive Baloo unless we choose to pull a trailer, but I found it interesting and satisfying. Just a few weeks before we were scheduled to collect Baloo, Diane passed her test.

One medical, four theory tests, seven driving tests and a wedding later we were finally ready to start travelling.

First thoughts

Building a vehicle like Baloo takes a few years. Some of this is the physical construction but the greater part is the planning, preparation and discussion necessary to drive the project.

When I first met up with Thomas Ritter at the Unicat workshop, I had a few clear ideas about what I wanted but only a few. I also had many questions and a massive list of uncertainties. We spent a whole day looking at vehicles, talking about my plans and discussing possibilities. By the time I left my head was awash with ideas and dreams. It was all possible. The life that Diane and I had discussed many times might actually be possible. The vehicle would be based on a commercial 6×6 truck with a motorcycle mounted on the back.

Diane and I have a long history of camper vans and motorhomes. We had a good sense of issues that needed addressing so that we could travel, full time, in a vehicle. We were far less certain of how to resolve these issues.
One of the fundamental problems is simply that of capacity. Fresh water, grey water (from the shower and sink) and black water (toilet) are heavy. A conventional camper is limited to a maximum weight of 3,500kg so that it can be driven on an ordinary (class B) car licence. Despite being made of lightweight materials the vehicle and its systems will take up most of the allowable weight. The final payload is typically just a few hundred kilograms so total water capacity will usually be well under 200kg. This translates to just a few days of water, especially if you want a shower each day. The toilet will be full in a few days. Not a problem if you stay on campsites but makes going further afield difficult.

Similar considerations apply to batteries. It is difficult to carry enough capacity for more than a day or two and difficult to keep them charged.

In the winter keeping a camper van warm can be hard work. LPG is the usual energy source for heating, cooking and water heating. LPG is compact but even so our experience was that we could easily burn 10kg a week in the Alps and that meant a weekly trip to buy gas.

Our previous camper was a beautiful tag-axled Dethleffs Esprit. With a curbside weight of 5,500kg (class C1) this gave us a bit more scope but even so, being more than just a few days away from a campsite services was tricky. Worse, as a vehicle it was horribly compromised. The immense rear overhang would ground out on the slightest inclination and the front wheels would lose traction on even slightly damp grass.

With a truck, the payload is measured in tonnes. A 6×6 can go anywhere. A motorcycle is the perfect complement to a somewhat ponderous truck.

There was clearly a great solution here. For me there were two immediate problems. I could not drive a truck and had never ridden a motorcycle.

Building Baloo

Vehicles like Baloo do not come off the shelf. They are quite uncommon. In fact our concept of a dream vehicle seemed to be something unique until we met up with Unicat.

The plan, here, is to post a series of articles describing how we set about working with Unicat to come up with the sort of vehicle we wanted. Unicat are, in my opinion, the absolute world leaders in this sort of thing. You can find them here: https://www.unicat.net/

The vehicle is a genuine mobile home. Not a camper van. The difference is to do with compromise. When camping you accept using sleeping bags and paddling across the grass to use a shower. That is all great fun. For a while. Eventually you want to get back to your proper bed and your own shower. We wanted a mobile home that we could live in for years on end so we needed a vehicle that did not compromise how we lived.

Baloo is what we ended up with.