A successful Expeditionsfahrzeug requires a robust, proven and well engineered base vehicle, that is additionally straightforward to maintain and service – given that inevitably spares will be needed on occasion (particularly when visiting and operating in extreme regions), then a good global availability of such parts is also useful.

Army and emergency service vehicles offer strong advantages as base vehicles for your expedition trucks, given that by definition the required aspects of maintainability, durability and functionality are included, although dependent on the source vehicle, specialist knowledge or parts that are available in such service organisations, may not be so freely available in the civilian market.

As a result, it is no surprise that a vehicle such as a Landrover or Unimog is used so widely both in the emergency services or the expedition market. Finally, as our vehicles are sourced from Swiss/Austrian/German 'Feuerwehr' (fire brigade'), Swiss/Austrian/German 'Bundeswehr' (Army) or German 'Technische Hilfes Werk (THW)' (no British equivalent), they have had easy lives, intense and regular maintenance, and often 'over-nighted' in heated & dry buildings.

As the new price of most emergency service vehicles is very high compared to the civilian versions and/or types – there is an inevitable cost associated with extreme 4WD and off-road capability – such a price tag whilst not worrying the mid to top end of the expedition vehicle market, pressures the low to mid-end, meaning that until Gekkotruck, the choice for many people was build the vehicle themselves, or operate something smaller than required (such as a Landrover base), or even settle for a non AWD/4WD vehicle - at Gekkotruck, we renovate the underlying chassis, perform a full mechanical inspection, and include enough standard items, that you are ready for your expedition following delivery of your vehicle, along with providing the necessary TÜV (MOT/DVLA) re-registration, along with underlying certificates of correct build (primaríly gas & electrical safety, new weight empty weights, dimensions etc.).

So what about the living cabin, the box ? - with some manufacturers, their design philosophy is aimed towards a self-contained living unit that sits on the standard chassis, and they leave the choice of the chassis to the customer. With other manufacturers, they build a living cabin, often customisable, but are fairly limited towards changes/additions to the chassis.

At Gekkotruck, we see it differently. Necessarily there are compromises with every build, and the only reasonable solution is to look at the whole vehicle holistically, and then design/implement changes accordingly - we have standard model formats, which mean that we have already answered many of the design questions that usually occur - clearly, if your need is a 2 person rig, then the choice of vehicle is tremendous ( and relatively straightforward, but if your need is a 2 adult plus 4 children layout, you will struggle to find a company that listens, or that you can afford to pay to listen):

• UNIMOG 1 - (2 to 4 travellers) - 7.49 tonne, Unimog 435 based (ex-Germany Bundeswehr) - Baseline standard complete price of 89K EUR
• UNIMOG 2 - (2 to 5 travellers) - 7.49 tonne, Unimog 435 DOKA (ex-fire service/THW) - Baseline standard complete price of 113K EUR
• UNIMOG 3 - (2 to 6 travellers) - 7.49 tonne, Unimog 435 L37 ( 'triple' cab)(ex fire service) - Baseline standard complete price of 125K EUR
• MAN KAT 4a/b/c - (2 to 5 travellers) - 7.49/12.4 tonne, MAN KAT1 (BISON) (ex German Bundeswehr), 4, 6 and 8 WD (guide price, from 90K to 150K EUR)
• SPECIAL  (2 to 4 travellers) - we also can supply under special customer request our own Gekkotruck varient of the Unimog 4000/5000, i.e utilising new or nearly-new Unimog chassis based vehicles  - given that vehicle base is circa 100 to 160K EUR, this considerably increases the overall price of the unit, although still significantly cheaper than DACH based competitors (guide price 240K EUR)
• (NEW) ZETROS (2 to 5 travellers) - we can also supply our own Gekkotruck varient of the Mercedes-Benz Zetros (4 or 6WD) - whilst not available in a DOKA driving cabin format, passenger seats can be made available within the living cabin to provide 4 to 6 berths - base vehicle new chassis príce is over 160K, hence these vehicles are custom, with 'custom pricing' (guide price 250K EUR)
• STAR (2 to 5 travellers) - we can supply vehicles based on the former Polish truck company STAR - STAR truck production rights, parts etc, is now owned/operated by MAN trucks - STAR was a Polish truck manufacturer synomynous with army, construction, and off-road capability, along with longevity, robustness and utility. During the latter years of STAR branding, many serious 4 and 6WD chassis, fitted with MAN based engines/gearboxes etc., were manufactured & operated throughout Poland's 'challenged' road network. Trucks are good for 4WD and 6WD format, also with DOKA style cabins - mechanically are very robust, utilitarian and economical, plus supported by the global MAN service/parts network (guide price 90 to 130K EUR)

We are also happy to discuss any specific alternative chasis that you may wish to use as a basis for your vehicle.