- 2 days ago
This 1988 MAN truck overland rig is a full-time travel home with 43-inch run-flat tires, a hydraulic winch, and an inside setup that feels far bigger than its footprint. At Overland Expo East, Craig from Van Life Mates gives a detailed tour of Sherp, the German fire truck conversion he and his wife use to travel around the country.
The walkthrough covers the truck’s off-road hardware, from hub-mounted diffs and front-and-rear lockers to the crawler gear, swing-away bumper, rooftop storage, and hydraulic motorcycle rack. Inside the composite box, the rig packs in heated floors, three forms of heat, a wet bath with sink and cassette toilet, a queen-size bed, a 24V battery system, solar power, and a kitchen built for real travel life. It’s a smart, self-sufficient expedition vehicle with serious overland capability.
For fans of truck camper tours, van life, expedition rigs, and off-grid RV builds, this is a great look at how a classic military-style platform can become a comfortable mobile home. The tour also covers storage, outdoor cooking gear, air ride seats, and the practical details that make this setup work for long-distance travel.
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The walkthrough covers the truck’s off-road hardware, from hub-mounted diffs and front-and-rear lockers to the crawler gear, swing-away bumper, rooftop storage, and hydraulic motorcycle rack. Inside the composite box, the rig packs in heated floors, three forms of heat, a wet bath with sink and cassette toilet, a queen-size bed, a 24V battery system, solar power, and a kitchen built for real travel life. It’s a smart, self-sufficient expedition vehicle with serious overland capability.
For fans of truck camper tours, van life, expedition rigs, and off-grid RV builds, this is a great look at how a classic military-style platform can become a comfortable mobile home. The tour also covers storage, outdoor cooking gear, air ride seats, and the practical details that make this setup work for long-distance travel.
SEO: overland truck tour, expedition vehicle, truck camper, van life, off-grid travel, full-time RV, 4x4 overland rig, camper conversion, travel vehicle tour, outdoor adventure
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TravelTranscript
00:00This is Patrick from New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel here at Overland Expo East in Virginia.
00:05And look who I just bumped into. This is Craig with Van Life Mates, and he has this awesome rig.
00:11This thing is absolutely incredible. He's going to give us a full tour inside and out.
00:15Him and his wife travel all around the country, and they're about to take this out on a big trip.
00:19And the inside is amazing, so join us for the tour.
00:23Hey Patrick, thanks for having us on your show, and I look forward to showing off what we have here.
00:29We're fortunate enough to have here. It is a 1988 Mann truck, which was actually a collab between Mann and
00:36VW.
00:37So the actual front of this looks like a 1980s Vanagon, if you were to take this front piece of
00:45paneling off of the front here.
00:47So starting off, everybody asked, how big are these tires? These tires are 43 inches tall.
00:53They are run-flat tires, and they are Hutchinson rims, which means the rim does, it is a two-piece
00:59rim.
00:59So you take these outer bolts off, and you're able to actually take the wheel apart with a seal so
01:05that you can replace the tire if you need to on the side of the road, which I hope I
01:09never need to do.
01:09So the diffs are actually in the actual hub, so there's a sun gear in there that helps kind of
01:16liquidate some of that back pressure on the wheel.
01:20The one thing we're looking for, if any of your people can give us a good idea for a step
01:25for this, because my wife has a hard time getting up into the cab, we had a stolen idea from
01:31another manufacturer we thought was amazing.
01:33They were like a fold-down step that you use on Fords for the rear tailgate.
01:39Unfortunately, this cab tilt, and we didn't realize it was going to hit the tire when we did that, so
01:43you live and you learn.
01:45Some other cool things is there is a ladder here that you can get from the cab up to the
01:50roof.
01:50You just have to open the door, and then you just kind of jump up on the tire, and you
01:54can climb all the way up onto the flat part, which is nice for solar panels and keeping them clean
02:00and that kind of thing, especially when you get into dusty environments.
02:03So up on the rack, which is a custom-built rack, we actually have two aluminum boxes up there for
02:08some just over-storage.
02:10We put light stuff that we don't care, that doesn't need to be weathertight, just so we don't have to
02:14worry about it.
02:15We do have a five-ton hydraulic winch, which is actually hooked up to the PTO of the engine, so
02:20that will pull from either the front or the back.
02:23So we just have to redo the linkage, and we can actually pull from the rear as well.
02:27We do have all these brand-new lights from Triple R Lighting, which is a European brand.
02:33We are absolutely in love with these lights.
02:35One nice thing about these lights is they actually have a coating on them that's like manufacturer spec, so you
02:40don't get that dusty gray on the light, the metal part, which was important to me being an engineer.
02:46Over here is the front cab.
02:49We're going to take a look at that at the end, I feel like.
02:50We've got a battery box, which is our 24-volt battery, which is the regular what this vehicle came with.
02:57And everybody asks, what was this originally?
02:59Well, this was originally a German fire truck.
03:01It had all the German fire truck apparatus on the back with all the water tanks and all that stuff,
03:07and they took that off and put the composite box on the back here.
03:11So starting off in this compartment, we have all of our kind of just excess storage.
03:17So we do have onboard air, so I have some of my air hoses here.
03:21I have my hoses for connecting up for fresh water.
03:24I have some two extensions.
03:25I've got about 300-foot of hose, so if I'm far from the spigot, I have that.
03:30I have all the amazing things like thieves and everything that you learn that you need when you go, especially
03:35into Baja and stuff.
03:36You need different connections to connect up to their portable water or fresh water purification sessions.
03:42So that's really it's just a storage box here, pretty shallow, but it's a great place to kind of keep
03:47that stuff.
03:48In this box, we do have an actual, or not a compost, a cassette toilet.
03:53So this is the cassette.
03:55You just pull it out and then dump it into a regular dump or into a, you can put it
04:00into a port-a-potty or you can put it into, I mean, you guys know cassette toilets.
04:04So we also have an outdoor shower, which is amazing here.
04:08That actually connects up in here.
04:10So you can take a shower out here.
04:12If there's people around, you either got to be comfortable with that or you have to actually put a little
04:17shower curtain that we have as well.
04:19This box here is actually our hydronic heating system.
04:24So this actually, the whole floor of this composite box has a tube where it'll heat the whole box.
04:31So even our garage space is all heated.
04:33This is the 5K system to do that.
04:35It's a Johnson pump.
04:36And then this here is our dump for our gray water.
04:40We have about 20 gallons of gray water in the rig.
04:44And then under or behind that is the hydraulics, the oil for the actual winches.
04:51So that's the original piece of the vehicle.
04:53Here we have a massive garage.
04:56The garage goes all the way through.
04:58And there's one cool thing you'll see with the garage.
05:00There's a little bump out like halfway.
05:02It only goes for the first like foot.
05:04And that's, I'm going to show you an inside.
05:07You're going to love that.
05:07It's an awesome like thing that this thing has.
05:10Also, we have these slide out trays here where we keep extra parts and some tools.
05:16Those are too deep.
05:17And I know it's pretty full, but that's just how we travel.
05:19So down here is where I keep kind of like all of my oil and kind of parts.
05:26I also keep the tire piece, which I'm going to show you here in a second as well.
05:29So that's there.
05:31One cool thing about this truck is it does have a swing away bumper.
05:34So if we do get into a really steep kind of back side, it tilts up.
05:42But if a car hits it, it doesn't go in.
05:45This motorcycle rack as well is a hydraulic motorcycle rack.
05:50So it does go all the way down to the ground, which is probably worth seeing because it's pretty cool
05:56when it does.
06:02I'm not going to do it all the way, but it will go all the way completely flat with the
06:05ground.
06:05I put a couple tanks on here recently, all aluminum, just to kind of match.
06:11But we use this not for any of the interior of the truck.
06:15This is all for outdoor cooking.
06:16So we love cooking.
06:18We have a pizza oven in here.
06:20We have a jet boil.
06:22We have a big propane stove, which I'll show you as well.
06:28And then we have a blackstone like everybody has to have, I guess, nowadays.
06:31So we have too many outdoor cooking things.
06:33That's the only thing I'm using that propane for.
06:36Motorcycle lift will lift a 600-pound motorcycle.
06:39And once again, it will roll completely on.
06:41This piece actually screws onto here when we need it, which hopefully I never need it.
06:46But this goes on here, and then it will lift the tire off of the back if we ever need
06:51to lift it down because that tire weighs about 350 pounds.
06:54We also have our sand boards here, as you can see.
06:56So if we do get caught in sand or snow, we have ability to get out.
07:01This is actually an umbrella that we use and can be also mounted on the front of the vehicle.
07:09To give a shade in the vehicle.
07:10We are considering potentially putting an awning on the side.
07:14We haven't committed to that yet.
07:17There's also a 5-gallon jerry can mounted on the bottom side here.
07:21And if you look underneath, we do have shock adjusters here to control the shocks, depending on if you're on
07:28or off-road.
07:28And the winch is actually mounted back here behind the axle.
07:32So in here, we have another propane tank.
07:37And then that oversized cast-iron cook surface.
07:41And above it is the other side of that garage.
07:45We do have lighting through the garage.
07:47And once again, it is conditioned.
07:48So everything in this garage, you can see the pizza ovens here.
07:51I have also a, what they call a scottle as well in there that we love to cook with.
07:56Super thick composite.
07:58It's almost exactly like a Yeti cooler.
08:01It has the insulation between.
08:03And then the staircase slides in.
08:05We have a 60-gallon gas tank, which will get us about 900 miles on a single.
08:11And water fill is over here.
08:13I do have connections here for both U.S. and, we have U.S. and Euro plugs.
08:21So we can plug into either and charge the batteries if needed.
08:24And then the most important overlanding tool ever is a shovel.
08:28So we're going in.
08:34So before you guys, well, as you guys come in, you're going to see a few things.
08:37Number one, we do have a screen, which is an accordion screen, which is the best application,
08:42in my opinion, there.
08:44And we'll kind of just work our way around this way.
08:46To start here, we do have some storage here where we keep the dog stuff.
08:50Usually, we keep his dog dishes down here.
08:52Some garbage bags, that kind of thing.
08:54Over here is where one of the inverters is for charging the batteries.
09:00And then the 110 outlet.
09:02So the American power is all in here.
09:04And then you can see we just got some dog stuff in here.
09:06The water pump is over there.
09:08And then there's a connection to connect the electric heat if we want to use it.
09:12So if we're onshore power, we'll heat this thing with electric so we're not using fuel.
09:17If we're not, then we'll use the diesel heat, which is the secondary heat.
09:21And then we can also use the actual engine itself to heat the whole system as well.
09:26So you have three forms of heat in this vehicle.
09:28So this table does twist a little bit here.
09:32And there is a door here that is a security door, which is just one of those storm security doors
09:39to use on a business.
09:40And it gives us full access to the front cab from here.
09:43So, and that's also insulated as well.
09:49All the windows are outbound windows, which is a European brand.
09:53They actually are double-pin glass.
09:56They're all awning windows, so you can leave them open in the rain because the rain just kind of beads
10:00off of them.
10:01And you do have screens, bug screens.
10:05And then you also have blackout screens as well.
10:07So, and that's on every single window in the rig.
10:09It looks like I need a new gas strut there.
10:13These are for the lights above.
10:15So they're just, it's a very light touch, turns them on and off.
10:19We do have also the skylights as well.
10:23These benches will seat two on each side, so you can fit four adults up here.
10:28And a rig this size is really, really awesome, in my opinion.
10:32And then below, this is where all the water storage is, just a heads up.
10:37So this lower part here is where the gray water and the freshwater tanks are.
10:42And then we have the hydraulic heat that comes up here and some switches and some old, like, 80s-style
10:48radio system, which is awesome.
10:50Everybody wants to know how much lithium do you have, right?
10:55So I'm going to show you.
10:56We have 500 amp hours, but it is all 24.
11:03So that doubles us up quite a bit.
11:05We do have Victron, as you can see, throughout.
11:08And then this is the European inverter, which is a 300-watt inverter.
11:13And then we have 600 watts of solar on the roof.
11:18So that gives us enough to, well, I'm not 100% sure I'm right on this, but this is just
11:24a feeling.
11:25It's enough to keep us equalized when we are in south.
11:30But when we're here in the north, I lose about 5% of the battery a day using Starlink, using
11:40the fridge, and just our basic run of the day.
11:43So over here, we just have some storage, some additional storage.
11:48I don't really use this, but we have the ability to kind of use that as well.
11:52This is kind of our control center, which I'm going to do a little modernization over the next few years.
11:56But we do have water pump, which is just a normal switch.
12:01Our inverter control, a stereo for the back here.
12:04This kind of tells us what's going on.
12:05You can see we're making 120 watts of power right now with the fridge on.
12:09We can also see what's going on with the water tanks and the gray water tanks, all that stuff.
12:13So this is our solar controller, so this controls the solar power that's coming in.
12:19So you can see we've got 6.8 amps right now coming in.
12:22And then this runs all of the heat in the whole rig, so we can control that.
12:26It also runs the hot water, which is also off the same system.
12:29So we don't have a hot water tank.
12:31We actually are, it's a dual-use system.
12:33So one thing, well, before I get into that, the storage in this thing is like the next level.
12:39We are amazed at how much storage.
12:41We just got tons of storage here, and then my wife loves cooking.
12:45So we got tons of food storage here, and she might have jammed stuff in here.
12:49So if it's a mess, I apologize.
12:51But we got cleaning supplies and candles and stuff in here.
12:56And then below, we have a microwave, which is on the inverter as well.
13:01And then we got more water storage and some of the other good stuff down there.
13:05So over here is the kitchen.
13:08Again, one thing we have is a pop-up tray here to extend your kitchen work area, but it's
13:13also mounted a little lower so that you can actually sit on here and put your feet up here
13:18too with a cushion if you like.
13:19So above it are some controls for the outside lights and then the lights in the kitchen here
13:28as well.
13:28So, and then we have, this would be the European power here.
13:33So that's where we're getting there.
13:35We have an induction cooktop here, which we have two inductions.
13:39We rarely use this just because it does use a ton of power.
13:42So we can use it.
13:44We just, number one, don't like cooking inside of our living area.
13:48So we do it when we have to.
13:50We usually are cooking outside with propane.
13:52That's our preferred style.
13:54We have two of these fans, which get air flow through here.
13:57Amazing.
13:58This fan here actually is for the front unit.
14:01And then we have one at the bed, at the foot of the bed as well, which is amazing.
14:04This controls the electric heat right here.
14:07And then above there is a thermostat so we can set the temperature of what we want that
14:12electric heat to run at.
14:14The faucet is a pull-out faucet.
14:16It is, you know, like a normal household faucet.
14:20So a stainless steel sink.
14:22We've got the paper towel rack.
14:23We've got additional L-bracket kind of stuff.
14:27And then here is our silverware drawer, which you'd expect.
14:31Over here is a overflow where we keep an induction kettle and all that stuff.
14:36And then below is your IKEA trash bin, which is a really good size for a rig this size.
14:43Our fridge, the handle, I just got a brand new one.
14:46It broke.
14:47And then someone here just looking at it broke it completely off.
14:50So I can't open that right now, but I'll be able to open it by the end of the day.
14:54Bathroom is amazing.
14:55And the size of it for a rig this size is even more amazing.
15:01So let me back out here.
15:03So it is a wet bath.
15:05It has the towel warmer there, which also is heat in there.
15:08So when you're in there taking a shower, you got nice heat.
15:10It has two compartments above.
15:13Everything in here is watertight.
15:15And you do have a sink, which is pretty rare in a vehicle this size.
15:19A mirror, max fan.
15:22The shower head is amazing.
15:24And then everything goes into a shower pan with the cassette toilet as well.
15:28So to us, this is like for a bathroom.
15:31It doesn't get much better than that for, once again, a vehicle this size.
15:35One of the coolest things in this truck, and I told you I was going to tell you about this
15:39when we were in the garage, is this top drawer.
15:42So this top drawer goes nearly almost all the way to the back of the bed.
15:46So like for food storage and stuff, everything's right here and you can see it.
15:49You're not digging through the back cabinet.
15:51So we really love that.
15:52And then the bottom one kind of serves dual purpose.
15:56Actually, the bottom two, they're actually drawers.
15:59We put our shoes in there.
16:01And then you can kind of walk up into the bed.
16:03We usually just use the bottom ones enough to get up there easily.
16:07And the bed is a queen size depth-wise.
16:11And then width-wise, it would be like, I always call it a California queen because it's longer than a
16:17regular queen.
16:17So I'm 6'2", so I have plenty of leg room in here.
16:21And my van, I didn't always have that case.
16:23And then with all of this storage above, it is just, we can get all of our clothes storage up
16:28there.
16:29And then we have a little overflow that we put down in the garage, which works with this here.
16:34And then we do have, my wife has an obsession with spices.
16:37So this is just her spices, which is a lot.
16:40We know that, but that's what she likes.
16:42And then we also have a snack exception.
16:44So we got a lot of snacks.
16:46So those two things usually get us through.
16:49Above me is the air conditioning.
16:50This is a DC air conditioning.
16:52So this runs off of the battery bank.
16:54We can go about two days of air on this if we were just completely going to empty our batteries
17:00out.
17:00We try not to do that.
17:02We try to, you know, use natural air when we can.
17:04And with the insulation on this, it does keep it cool in the summer and it keeps it warm in
17:09the winter.
17:10So if you keep the windows, if you get it to a certain temperature and you keep the windows closed,
17:14it does help a lot with that.
17:16We do have a rear, once again, skylight, which is amazing as well.
17:20You can see here.
17:21And then we do have outlets back here for both low voltage and high voltage.
17:25So you can charge your phones and all that good stuff.
17:27So once again, the whole floor has got a heating system in it.
17:31So everything is radiant heating here.
17:33And then in the cab, we've done some updates with the TV screen so I could have Apple CarPlay.
17:40That was important to me.
17:41We love using our Garmin as kind of a backup.
17:43And I do have an awesome 4K dash cam, which really makes me feel comfortable if someone has to pull
17:49in front of me or something like that.
17:51It is a stick shift, so it's a manual transmission.
17:55So you have to, that's my security device because most people don't know how to drive stick anymore.
18:00So that helps me from anybody stealing it.
18:03There is one cool thing I'd like to show you outside with the locks on there.
18:06It's an aftermarket thing.
18:13So we'll go over to the other side because it's easier to see.
18:18Excuse us.
18:20So if you're in a high crime area or a place where, you know, you're just not feeling safe about
18:25the regular door locks,
18:26there is this device, which is really cool, which will basically cover the whole door frame so you can't pull
18:32the door open.
18:32And you can't even use a pry bar or whatever.
18:37So this is a great, we have them on both sides as well.
18:39And then, and then inside the cab, we have air ride seat, which is also great in a heavy material,
18:49material, or materi, not military vehicle.
18:53Sorry, guys.
18:55Where you're going to get some air balance, which helps out a lot on the ride.
18:58So we go about 60 miles an hour in this.
19:00That's about the max that we can go.
19:02But it travels really nice at that 60 miles an hour.
19:04And some of the viewers are going to probably ask, like, do you need a CDL to drive a 15
19:09,000 GVWR vehicle?
19:11So the answer for that is you should have one.
19:15However, because it's considered an RV and this was registered as an RV, and that's probably the other question a
19:19lot of your viewers are going to ask is, like,
19:21how did you get this German vehicle registered in the United States?
19:25And the reason we're able to register it here is because of the fact that it's actually a 1988.
19:31So it falls into that historic vehicle category.
19:35But it is registered as a mobile home.
19:37And when you see those people driving those giant buses on the road and stuff, they don't have a CDL
19:42either, and I feel like they should.
19:43But the reality is, is you do not need it for this.
19:46Well, that's amazing.
19:47For a 1988 vehicle, it is in exceptional shape.
19:51There's no rust on it anywhere.
19:52Yeah, it's super clean.
19:54That was one thing that was really appealing to us.
19:56The engine was actually upgraded horsepower-wise to a 1998, which has about 224 horsepower, or, yeah, 224 horsepower,
20:05which still sounds low in today's models, but it's a diesel, and it's massive, and the torque is just off
20:11the charts.
20:12This also has what's called a crawler gear, so you can shift, you can flip a button, and it will
20:17change the gearing ratio to 1 to 50.
20:20So this thing, when you put it in, and you put it in first gear, you could literally get out
20:24and walk around it, and it's going so slow.
20:27But it will climb over anything in that gear.
20:29And it's got lockers, too, so you eat yourself out of any situation.
20:32Correct.
20:32So it's got lockers in the front and the rear.
20:35It's also got a transfer case locker.
20:36So it's got all of that.
20:37We've gone up some gnarly stuff.
20:39We named the vehicle Sherp after we brought it on some really crazy off-roading stuff.
20:44And the reason we named it Sherp was because we thought it was like our own personal Sherpa.
20:50It got all of our gear up to the top of the mountain, and we didn't have to personally carry
20:54it ourselves.
20:55So that's the reason we came up with that name.
20:57I like the fact it's an old, it's a Volkswagen Vanagon front.
21:02Yeah.
21:02Everybody recognizes that.
21:03Are you going to do the conversion and put it?
21:05So we've been on the fence with that because this modern front looks so cool.
21:09We love it.
21:10But on the same note, bringing back that nostalgia of having a VW front on this, we feel would be
21:16cool as well.
21:17So we're kind of on the fence.
21:18We'd love to give your viewers input on that.
21:21Like, what do they think?
21:21Should we make it into a man again, or should we leave it a man?
21:26That'll be an interesting survey.
21:28That's a tough choice.
21:29You can go either way, obviously.
21:30And you guys are YouTubers, and you had a van, a camper van, previously.
21:35You did some travels.
21:37What are your plans with this?
21:38Yeah, so we actually started off with a vintage Airstream, and we got in way over our head.
21:43We had no idea what we were doing.
21:45And we bought a cheap Airstream, which is the worst one you can buy because that's the one that needs
21:50the most amount of work.
21:51And we learned everything.
21:52We kind of got the travel itch after that, but we realized it was just too big to travel with.
21:57So then we got into a Sprinter van when the van scene happened.
22:00We were right in, like, the beginning of that.
22:02And we had that for about four years.
22:04Loved it.
22:05We loved the ability to be—it was a 20-foot van, so we were able to stop in, like, cities
22:10and overnight camp and stuff like that.
22:12So when we got this, it was really important for us to still stay in a small enough spot that
22:16could fit in a standard parking spot.
22:18This does.
22:19It fills up every inch of it, but it does fit in a regular standard parking spot.
22:23It's 20-foot long, 11-foot-4 inches tall, and about 7-foot-4 inches wide.
22:29So it looks bigger than it is, and it looks more intimidating than it is, but that was important to
22:36us when we were buying our next rig.
22:37So from here, we just came back from a trip down to Dallas, Texas, and we're actually from here going
22:44down to—we're actually going back to our home base for a short stint,
22:48and then we're going down to Key West, Florida, for the month of December.
22:52So we're excited about that.
22:53So Van Life Mates on YouTube, check them out.
22:56Craig, I really appreciate the super detailed tour, and this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel here
23:04at Overland Expo East,
23:05and this rig is awesome.
23:08Thank you, Patrick.
23:09Appreciate the tour.
23:09Appreciate it.