Here's a model that's more budget friendly....
Perks and Recreation: These $400,000 RVs Are Built for ‘Overlanding’High-end custom-built RVs have the power to drive you far off the grid and the technology to keep you comfortable. Dan Neil takes the EarthCruiser FX through the Nevada desert.
CRUISER CONTROL The flat-nosed FX isn’t a looker, but the beast can take amateur adventurers nearly anywhere PHOTO: TONY SEARS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By
Dan Neil
Dec. 20, 2019 10:17 am ET
IT’S WELL KNOWN that RV salesmen live lives of high adventure. Consider the case of Don Smith, the newly hired representative for EarthCruiser out of Bend, Ore. Last week, the gods that toy with salesmen’s fates decreed that Mr. Smith, 51, be dispatched from Chicago to Las Vegas to take a reporter and photographer, and the photographer’s damn dog, into the Nevada bush for an overnight camp.
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If you could drive anywhere in the world in a 4x4 RV, where would you go and what/who would you take with you? Join the conversation below. Just like that, Mr. Smith found himself far into red-rock canyon country, the Logandale Trails OHV area, sharing bourbon and moonlight with two men and a 45-pound Vizsla, in a slightly used, still-formidable EarthCruiser FX expedition vehicle.
The term “overlanding” covers a lot of ground. In its basic and most accessible form, it’s camping out of the back, or on top, of a 4x4, a jeep, a pickup truck, with enough liquid provisions (fuel, water, beer) to spend the weekend off-grid. Let’s say you’re in for $25,000. Kick that up a notch and you will find a product category of overlanding campers, designed to ride on heavy-duty pickup chassis and capable of supporting amenities like a comfy bed (usually over the cab), a galley, hot water and shower. You could comfortably venture off grid for several days. Now you might be looking at $100,000, including heavy-duty pickup trucks; still, that’s a lot of backcountry recreating for the money.
‘These custom-built expedition machines speak to well-heeled, bucket-list buyers seeking adventure.’
But let’s say you wanted to spend more, a lot more. That would bring you to a small number of independent manufacturers of custom-built expedition machines, super RVs, such as FX ($399,000 new, $250,000 as tested). Designed for maximum self-sufficiency, in all climates and terrains, with effectively hundreds of miles of range, these machines speak to well-heeled, bucket-list buyers seeking adventure. I suggest they start by using the head while a Vizsla is watching.
Looking very much like a habitable Yeti cooler, the FX is based on a Mitsubishi Fuso medium-duty truck chassis—a “cabover” design in which the face of the vehicle is flat and the driver’s seat is positioned over the left wheel. The Fuso’s layout makes the FX (21.4 feet long, 10 feet high, 6.75 feet wide) surprisingly maneuverable in the badlands, with sort-of amazing turning radius, 10-inch ground clearance, and a commanding view of the trail.
And because it carries up to 140 gallons of water and fuel in underslung tanks, the FX’s roll-over-angle is quite high, but Mr. Smith encourages me not to investigate.
On the Roam AgainThese $400,000 RVs are built for high-end, comfortable adventures. Bring the dog.
The EarthCruiser FX is an expedition RV, built on a Mitsubishi Fuso cabover truck that has been augmented with a heavy-duty front drive axle and 4x4 running gear.
TONY SEARS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Steadily, pachydermically, with its small turbo-diesel occasionally bawling with the effort, our 2017-model-year FX lumbered up several miles of axle-busting trail to take up residence in a narrow arroyo between sandstone escarpments that were, coincidentally, Vizsla-colored. Sure is quiet, now that we stopped making so much noise.
Mr. Smith had overcome several difficulties in the previous 24 hours, including navigating the valet stand at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where they don’t see many whitewashed SWAT vehicles. But now, with the FX parked, windows glowing and side canopies deployed, he faced a critical shortage of ambience. The firewood he bought at a roadside stand would not light. Being a good salesman, and knowing he was on the spot for a campfire, Mr. Smith improvised brilliantly, soaking a roll of paper towels in diesel fuel.
No good. He looked dejectedly at the fire pit. “It won’t burn,” he said. “They should make boats of this stuff.”
How did Mr. Smith get mixed up in all this? Born 30 miles from Elkhart, Ind., the RV manufacturing center of the world, Mr. Smith spent nearly 30 years fixing and selling these things. Then his inner quality-control angels spoke to him: “I couldn’t take it, I couldn’t do it anymore. Most RVs are just junk.”
When he met founder Lance Gillies, Mr. Smith said he was interviewing his would-be boss, too. “He said he’d only change a part or a design to make it better, never to make it cheaper.” Mr. Smith signed on.
PHOTO: TONY SEARS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Unfortunately, Mr. Gillies was not available for comment because, according to Mr. Smith, he is currently off-roading in Borneo, attempting to follow the exact line of the equator. As one does.
Why are these things so stupid expensive? I asked respectfully, warming my hands by the paper towels. Mr. Smith explained the biggest difference between expedition vehicles and typical RVs is the use of marine-grade materials, equipment and appliances—literally, land yachts. The FX’s distinctive, thermos-like skin is a thick sandwich composite of an insulating layer and a material like gel coat, widely used in boat construction. The cabinetry is milled out of King StarBoard, a marine-grade high-density polyethylene. “There is not a bit of wood in it,” Mr. Smith said.
The FX’s impressive control panel would be typical of large boats, including the circuit-breaker panel for auxiliary systems such as lights, water pump, hot-water heater, as well as status panels for water, battery, and waste reserves. Our FX, using a now-discontinued diesel engine, was equipped with a diesel-fueled cooktop, upon which the kindly Mr. Smith cooked us bacon and eggs. The next model, with a gasoline engine, will use an induction cooktop. Has anyone seen the paper towels?
And on we sailed, through the night. In case you are interested in the sleeping arrangements. Mr. Smith took the forward bunk, converted from a dinette table. Whiskey the Vizsla slept on the double bunk in the back, between my friend Tony and myself, only stirring now and then to step on my face and gunny sack.
On the Roam Again
It’s true that with a little planning and the right provisions, one can venture off-grid for days, eating simply and sleeping in a roof tent above a 4x4 pickup. But with a little more planning—estate planning—you can spend weeks or years in one of several audacious, seven-figure expedition vehicles on the market. Now wouldn’t that be more comfortable?
“An EarthRoamer is a solar-powered, luxury condo on wheels,” said Bill Swails, CEO and founder of EarthRoamer, an extreme RV company near Denver. Mr. Swails, 58, retired from the aerospace and telecom industries in the 1990s to pursue his dream of becoming an outdoor photographer, roaming wide and living out of his own custom-built camper. People seemed to have liked it. By 2002, Mr. Swails had designed his first commercial offering. EarthRoamer has since built 258 extreme campers and RV’s.
The company’s current lineup includes the prodigious HD expedition vehicle—a term of art meaning it is self-reliant over long distances, in all kinds of weather, and nearly any terrain. The HD ($1.8 million, bespoke and fully equipped) uses a Ford F-750 commercial truck chassis, modified with a heavy-duty solid front axle and 4x4 transfer case. Powered by a 6.7-liter, 330-hp turbo diesel V8 paired with a six-speed automatic, and carrying up to 115 gallons of diesel aboard, the HD has a range of about 800 miles.
Other capacities: 250 gallons of fresh water, 125 gallons for gray and 125 for black water; and a 20 kWh lithium battery, backed by a maximum 2.1-kW solar array.
All this spells big: The HD is 35 feet long, 8.5-feet wide, and 13.2 feet tall—tall enough to have newbies ducking involuntarily at overpasses. And, fully laden, the HD is seriously heavy, with a GVWR of 38,000 pounds. It might be comfortable in the bush, but what about the interstate?
Michael Van Pelt is another explorer turned RV entrepreneur. The native Arizonian started Global Expedition Vehicles, of Springfield, Mo., only after building his own, no-compromise prototype in 2005, inspired by images he saw in National Geographic in the 1980s of a Mercedes Unimog plowing through sand dunes.
Mr. Van Pelt’s overlanding ethos required that his vehicle have exceptional range, able to remain off-grid for days —“to get rid of the umbilical cord,” as he writes in his corporate memoir. GXV’s current flagship, the UXV-MAX ($650,000 base price), can stay at sea for weeks, with up to 300 gallons of diesel fuel and 200 gallons of water, depending on chassis. Not to mention the to-order upfits such as a washer/dryer, king-size bed, drinking water filtration system, and home theater.
The UXV-MAX even has its own gas station, an optional 75-gallon tank to refill any motorcycles or ATVs stored in rear-accessed “garage.”
Just in case you want to get away from it all.
