Unicat (English site)
Unicat is the German company behind the unbelievably expensive expedition-class/overlanding RVs and trucks, including the Maximog, my personal dream machine. It's even better than the old Landmaster from "Damnation Alley" that I thought was so cool when I was a boy, not the least of which because they are real, even if I can't afford them. They'll take commercial truck chassis from MAN, Mercedes and others and rebuild it to the needs and specifications of their clients. These projects range from $200,000 to $5mil USD and you can't usually park them in your driveway.
The important thing to note is that they have posted several hundred pictures of the work they've completed on various clients' rigs. I spent a whole evening studying them in detail, making notes on apparent features and dimensions of the various interiors that seem to be common to their designs. (Although the MXXL-24 AH they built for some middle-eastern prince for millions of $$$ is over-the-top with a lot of original elements.)
The website's pictures are separated into broad categories of standardized products, individual customizations, professional machines for medical and disaster recovery uses, and "specials", basically the one-off unbelievable machines. A lot of the things they build into these overland machines are not really relevant to the discussion here, either because they are related to the cabs and engines of the integrated Class A/C nature of the rigs, or are related to the long-term range of the missions undertaken with them.
For me, it's interesting to see what they do with the space available. For instance, my trailer is 6'x10' with 1' chopped from the height. The Maximog trailer still has to fit on standard roads, so it can't be more that 8 1/2' wide, but it's 22' long and significantly taller, so they have the room to add all the toys we generally aren't interested in, like:
- Communications packages (local and global)
Remotely-operated vehicles
Fancy motor-operated door slides
Office spaces
NBC-protection (nuclear, biological, chemical)
Long-term range capacities and redundancies
Speaking for myself, I'm not really interested in the fancy finishes used either. What I am interested in, is the way they organize kitchen and personal hygiene spaces, sleeping and some of the mechanicals and storage spaces. I also love how they use bunk beds to add sleeping space.
In one of my favorite machines, a 7'x12' bodied EX37 on a small Iveco chassis, Unicat put the outside door on the other side of the bathroom space, which I thought was brilliant. You can prevent tracking mud into the rest of the trailer, and it's a creative use of the limited space, where you usually have to find wall space for a privacy booth for the toilet and an outside door. (The bathroom wash bowl swings away to access the toilet but still works!) For our use, I can imagine just the trailer box pulled behind my truck, no cab or 4x4 underpinnings.
![Image](http://www.unicat.net/img/EX37-IvecoDaily4x4.a20-560.jpg)
![Image](http://www.unicat.net/img/EX37-IvecoDaily4x4.i14-560.jpg)
![Image](http://www.unicat.net/img/EX37-IvecoDaily4x4.i02-560.jpg)
Anyway, I was hoping to spark conversation on what we can learn from Unicat and build it into our trailers.