Note: Meanwhile there is quite a lot of pages about the built and therefore I have created an Index to allow quicker orientation. This is the Link!

The madness started with a bus (a Ludewig 1 1/2 decker (which was a double decker on the last 6 of 12 metres in total) which I modified into a camper. The idea was to live in that camper whilst my university study. But after a tremendous start there was a lack of money and energy. So finally I was happy to get rid of it in 1990. 

The picture shows the baby. It looked quite good but I was never able to achieve a reasonable temperature in winter.
Although it had enough of iron the water (sweat etc.) will sooner or later always cause problems with corrosion.

This is a view from the front entrance to the rear.

 

This was our "Bussi" 

After I had shown my former girl friend (now my wife) the Ludewig (or what rust had left) she liked the idea very much to have a camper. So we bought in the same year a Volkswagen LT 4.0 with a 4-wheel drive and an Action Mobile cabin. This is the Rolls Royce of the cabin manufacturers. Nevertheless we had enough bits and pieces to repair and to improve whilst more than 10 years of the ownership

The main problem was the 4-wheel drive: 2 out of 3 trips caused a disassembly of the 4-wheel drive unit. 

Luckily we had a long transmission directly from the "normal gear box to the rear axle so that we were able to return in the worst case with this one after having disassembled the 4-wheel drive unit.

 This picture is made from the seating area in the rear (facility to modify to a bed for 2 persons) looking to the door to the driver cabin. At the right is the shower / bathroom combination and at the left the fridge, sink, and cooking area. Above the door is another bed for two more people.

And this finally is our 

BIG FOOT:

The first picture shows how it looked when we picked him up at Heidtmann. 

Afterwards the planning started which Ormocar transformed into a real cabin plus building the additional frame, entrance- and door to the driver’s cabinet plus a big rear door. 

More pictures about this project on the next pages.

Why??
The original truck was a Mercedes Benz 1217A from the German Border Control, equipped with an addable 4-wheels drive. When you switch from 2 wheel drive to 4-wheel drive you engage as well a blocking of the 4-wheel drive unit and a reduce of 30%. Furthermore this truck already had the normal clutch and not the military version. My idea ("you are mad" as my wife would say) is to have a trailer sooner or later which I can use to transport all the bigger stuff from the garden etc. and as well have a removable, additional platform to carry a car.
The truck was in a very good condition; the last service was only 3 months before.
It fulfilled all our requirements: 3 separate seats in front, 4-wheel drive, Mercedes because of the spares availability worldwide, enough space and capacity for a cabin to allow a fixed double and a single bed plus a separate shower and toilet.
The first idea to build a cabin with an alcove I soon gave up when I had to exchange the fuel filters at the first drive with the truck: the tilting facility of the drivers cabin is fantastic and allows perfect access to the motor etc..
Furthermore we liked very much the hatch on top of the driver cabin. We are still thinking to equip it with a machine gun ....
The truck had 86.000 km done when I bought it from Heidtmann in autumn 2002, which is nothing for such a truck. He had changed the standard tires to 385/65 R 22.5, which allowed single wheels on the rear axle. This is the reason for the name my wife gave him: Big Foot.

 

Because of several requests I have added below some technical specs from Big Foot:

The data on the rims are as follows:
22,5x1175 IS 135
D/DOT GERMANY
160L
DAF 1247502
27798   (next line):9
857PCP

 

respectively

Lemmerz

012102

1
      /4
78   

11,75x22,5

 

Due to my measurements the offset of the rims (depending which way round you mount them) is 137 mm respectively –150 mm. 

 

And here some data from the registration document:
The max. speed is 107 km/h, the motor has 5.638 cm³ and 124 kW or 169 HP. The max. weight was 12t and is now reduced without any technical changes to 9t (so it can be raised again up to 12t without problems), front axles payload remained at 4,3t, for the rear axle at 7,7t. The towing capacity is 10,3t. 
The sizes are as follows: Lengths 7,14 m, height 3,9 m and 2,49 width.