All About Juggernaut

On this page we are sharing all of the details of our Expedition Truck Juggernaut. Also we will share our honest opinion of why we choose this rig and all the items inside it. We will also cover what we would do differently next time so you can learn from our mistakes. We love the idea of a car that can go everywhere! Thats why having a 4WD vehicle was our main priority. We strongly believe that you have to know what are the essential items you want and what can be compromised on. For us, being able to stand up straight inside was essential, a reasonable living space and being comfortable was non negotiable as we work on the way and we need a good space to sit down to work, it is our home, office, gym and car, we spend the majority of our time here so being uncomfortable for the majority of our lives makes no sense. People that travel very fast and dont stop for work or to relax, then comfort is probably not as important.

Juggernaut is a FUSO Canter 2019, we went for this truck as in Australia if a vehicle is less than 4.5 tonnes it is considered a car so we don’t have to apply for another driver license or anything like that. This was the lightest truck in its class, other brands we looked at were a bit heavier therefore not an option for what we wanted to achieve. Fuso has a good reputation and it has not disappointed. Because weight was a priority for us, absolutely everything was weighed before going in to the build and all the materials we used for the build were the lightest reliable options available. Another reason why we choose a truck was its ability to carry more water and other supplies so we can go off grid for longer, its high clearance means we dont scrap out on 4x4 tracks or let water in on creek crossings.

Off grid ability: For electricity Juggernaut has a 200amp Enerdrive Battery which we charge with the 740watts of solar panels on the roof, it also charges as we drive via DC to DC charger and in case of emergency we also have a generator backup⚡️which we rarely use. We have 300L of water, 200L of Grey Water and 220L of fuel, thick walled tyres for all terrain which create large surface areas when deflated for all types of 4wding⛰, high clearance and a short wheel span allow us to tackle all of the 4wd tracks we have wanted to. We save battery electricity consumption by using a webasto diesel hot water and air heating & webasto diesel cooktop. Juggernaut is completely self reliant for about a week out of civilisation comfortably before needing to come back for food, water, dump sites etc. (If you were prepared to sacrifice on some comfort you can stretch this out to 2 weeks, but we like fresh food, regular showers and using the truck toilet rather than public toilets or the bush)

Heating and cooling: We have a Maxx Air Fan built into our ceiling (we know of others with their Maxx Air Fan mounted on the back wall which is a good idea also for maximising solar on the a roof. What is great about this fan is it sucks the hot air out of the truck drawing the cooler air in through the windows from outside. It uses very little electricity. This is a great way to cool down a hot truck after a day of being locked up in the sun. We use the maxx air fan in combination with a champion battery operated portable fan which lasts 8hrs we blow this air from the kitchen window on us, It works well the majority of the time for cooling the truck and us, however in extreme heat fans wont do much, thats when we use the 24v Truma Air Conditioner, it works great at heating and cooling however it is power hungry using about 40amps per hour. Compared to 1-2.5amps to run the Maxx Air Fan. For that reason I would recommend having both as they both a have situations that are useful in Heating we use the air conditioner if connected to power, or the diesel hot water heater has a fan to circulate the heat that radiates of the hot water system that we use when we are off grid. It has the abilty to be extremely hot, more than you could ever need. It has medium fan speed and high fan speed, we have never used anything more than the medium speed and we still have leave the bathroom window open or it will simply get too hot inside the truck.

Security: We installed a 4 camera security system to record what is happening around the truck, we also have an alarm on all 3 doors. Probably overboard, but we like to be safe in the remote places and when we leave the truck unattended 👀.

Layout: For the inside we went to see lots of places with caravans and motorhomes in Sydney and got some ideas on what we wanted. We drew the original sketch/plan of what we would love our Truck to have and “Aussie Exploration Vechiles” built it for us in 4 months. (Reach out to us if you want us to put you in contact with them) We ended up just making a layout that was a bunch of features we liked on many different setups and some that we invented ourselves. The Bedroom: Here is where we spend the majority of our time living in the truck! Our bed is a custom shaped queen size bed. We put the bed this way so it is functional and easy so we don’t need to jump over the other person at night or anytime to get out of bed. Each side has a little lamp, a photo of our families 💗 and a “pigeon hole/tray” that is our bedside table. On top of the bed each of us have 3 shelves for clothes! And then the cabinet on top in the middle of the bed is where we keep our vacuum, ukelele (that Angie is gonna learn how to play one day 🤞🏽), some games and bags. Underneath the bed we have so much storage space where we keep all the things we don’t use very frequently such like the inflatable Paddle Boards, Snorkelling Gear, Jerry cans, fishing gear, our dirty laundry basket, tools and more.

TV: For us “Netflix & Chill” time is very important! By Netflix & Chill we mean watching a movie or TV series, we watch something almost every night as it is our way to disconnect and relax before going to sleep! Its like mediation! 😌🧘‍♂️ For our house on wheels we wanted a big tv, but a tv is quite heavy and ugly in such a small space so we got this awesome projector #wowoto and for our screen we use an Ikea roll down blind which works amazing and is super cheap! 🤑

The Kitchen: The Kitchen!✨ We know it might look small but honestly we have more than enough much space for everything we need and more! On top of the fridge we have a cabinet that we used to put all our cleaning products, toilet paper, sunscreens etc. Our amazing fridge from Thetford that we though was small but it holds a week worth of fresh food, longer if we eat out some days!🥝 Our sink that has two taps (one for normal water and the second for filter watered, just in case we don’t have clean water). The cooktop we chose is from webasto, it is a Diesel cooktop and we love it! We though we were gonna need some more space for cooking but really it has been so easy and definitely enough space! Under the stove we have our Panasonic Convection Microwave, it roasts and bakes same as a normal oven! We saw so many reviews online about this and really you can do everything in it!🧁 The draw below that one we use it for our cookware, Nutri bullet and some more food! Under the sink we have a draw with our cutlery and cooking utensils and below that two rubbish bins, one normal and the other one recycling! ♻️ On the right we have our amazing pantry that we love, we have plenty of space for our food! While designing the truck we tried to make every single space useable, functional and comfortable!

The Dining/working area: We work on the road and spend a lot of time sitting on the computer so we love having a place to do that very comfortably. Thats why we went for this table that we can easily move and give us space and also flexibility for putting the table how we wanted. We have 3 seats in Juggernaut and these are next to the door as you enter the truck. We can move the table and have a long table and sit in front of each other or sit next to each other that is what we do the majority of time.

The Bathroom: We really wanted our shower separate from the toilet (Thats a personal preference, in this type of lifestyle it is very common to have a shower over of the toilet to save space, we wanted the wet shower area to be seperate). The shower is a good sized shower for a mobile home, it is 800mm x 800mm. We have a super lightweight roll out shower screen that keeps all the water inside the shower and we used from Ikea some suction cap shelving that holds our shampoo and soaps securely when going 4wding. We were between toilets for the truck as we loved the idea of composting but really didn’t realise how good they are until after we made that choice, we went for the Dometic Cassette Toilet that is the typical toilet you find in a motor home or caravan. Our way to help reduce damage to the environment here is by using Thetford Green Toilet Liquid products which are eco friendly as apposed to the harsh toilet chemicals available. On top of the toilet we have a little vanity with mirrored faced shaving cabinet. We keep our tooth brush, tooth paste and creams etc we use in a daily basis.

The Gym: Yes, you are reading correctly, we do have a “Gym” with us, pretty basic equipment but good enough for us to get a good workout in. For us health is very important and we try to do our best to work out frequently on the road. (To be honest we have weeks that we workout 5 times and others were we dont work out at all. We bought a 4 dumbbells that can be changed by to be increasing 2.5kg increments from 3kgs all the way up to 25kgs each dumbbell, we have some elastics weight bands, yoga mats and also jumping ropes. At the back of Juggernaut we have a pull up rack (only Mikey does them) and we stretch out our spines by using gravity boots which allow us to hook our feet from the rack and hang upside down.

Extras, Safety Equipment: We are very precautious and we are all about safety first! Thats why we carry with us some items just for security to protect our lives in case of an emergency easier. - Stedi Hi Beam Lights. We installed these after we started the trip, we thought we did not need them before the trip, but it was just straight out dangerous and stressful with out them on outback roads with no street lighting. Particularly dangerous as dusk. - Fire extinguisher: - First Aid Kit: We bought a complete First Aid kit just in case we have any emergency or accident on the way. - First Aid Snake Bite: Because in Australia there is so many dangerous snakes - 4WD Drive Recovery Kit: We have not got bogged yet, but you never know when - Battery jump starter pack: which have needed a few times when we had a battery charging setting issue when we first started the trip. - Satellite Phone: Sometimes we are going to explore very remote areas with no phone reception, so we have this satellite phone in case of an emergency we can contact help.

Things we would do different: This is our first truck build, we are super happy with everything we no complaints here, however after living in it for 6 months we can see better ways to do things that we would like to share with you so you can get the best from your van build, truck build etc :) 1. Worry less about weight, the truck is designed to carry 6.5tonnes. Its good to be as light as possible because it will help with fuel economy and less strain on the truck when going offroad, however it was our main focus when in reality its better to get the truck exactly how you want it with out comprising. Being under 4.5 tonnes is an achievable target however at what cost, you might have to leave too much stuff at home that you would have wanted to bring or not have truck fitted out with all the items that would have made your life much easier on the road. We have a payload of like 600kg which is decent but by the time we fill up water and fuel and food there is very little room for anything else. Better off registering the truck for 6.5 tonnes and having a payload of 2500kg then you never have to compromise or wonder if you put too much stuff in. 2. Build a wind scoop above the cab, or buy a premade windscoop. I suggest have a welder make one up because then you can have storage inside the windscoop and they can make it strong enough to deflect tree branches, like our scrub bars. Wind scoops improve fuel economy from between 10-15 percent. Obviously the environmental impact is greatly reduced, but even if you dont care about that stuff it will save you thousands of dollars on fuel and allow the truck to drive faster. 4. Put the bed sideways at the back. By doing this you can make the truck about 700mm shorter which is perfect, it would then only be 6m long which will fit easier in the parking spaces, especially important in places like europe. Also the storage space over and under the bed is more plentiful and functional. Climbing over your partner a few times a day is not that bad a sacrifice given the extra benefits. It also makes the truck lighter, cheaper and better balanced. 5. Composting toilet - We heard that they could have problems in humid places however we have met people now that have taken them into 100 percent humidity 40 degree celsius weather with no issues, the composting toilet will always work well if it has adequate ventilation in humid areas (strong fan extraction) the benifits are it turns your waste into compost, our friends just let the number 1’s fall onto the grass (which it is sterile so it causes no harm to anything or anyone) so basically every few weeks you empty a bag of dirt (compost into a bin or bush every couple weeks) its much less work, no buying expensive chemicals, no damaging the environment with those chemicals and wasting water in the sewage treatment process. It is much less smelly and more hygienic than a cassette, sometimes finding a dump point for a cassette toilet can be a hassle also. 6. Small portable generator - we bought the built in generator thinking it would run our air conditioning however it is not realistic, most campsites wont allow generators and for good reason, its not fair to make that much noise at night with people in tents or other camping setups near you. The little 2000w portable generator are sufficient to give the batteries a quick top up if needed. We only use ours once a month so keeping it simple in this department is a better choice. The built in generator requires very regular and expensive servicing, its bulky and heavy too. Not worth it, we simply would not have any generator but rather get bigger battery storage. 7. Electric hot water and electric induction cooktop. More cost effective, lightweight and most importantly it is eco friendly, as you will be using renewable energy from solar or excess electricity that would typically go to waste from driving if not stored in onboard batteries. 8. More solar, fill the entire roof with panels. We only put 4 x 185watts. Its good to not have to rely on a generator ever. 9. Bigger battery - the 200amp lithium battery is fine for us, but it would not be enough to run electric cooktops and electric hot water nor is it enough to run Airconditioning all night, we never run the generator at night, its not fair on other campers to make that much noise at night. The bigger the battery the less likely you will get low, and when you go driving it will charge the batteries right up so you have an endless supply of off grid electricity for luxuries like off grid air conditioning. 10. Put all electrical appliances above the floor level (or in a water sealed box below the floor) - we put the air conditioner, batteries, generator and main electrical switchboard below the floor level, they are all pretty high of the ground however we need to be careful not to go through deep creek crossings. Its just peace of mind knowing all your electronics are high and out of harms way, then you can go through deeper crossing than the vast majority of other 4x4 vechiles 11. Cabinetry Buttons, we used these little button latch systems to lock all cabinetry. It is a good system for onroad vehicles however when we do heavier offroad activities they have popped open on several occasions. We believe the little loop shapes latches that you twist to open (flush mount slam latch) are better suited for an offroad vehicle. 12. We got plastic windows for our build to reduce weight however they scratch easily. I would advise getting Glass windows so they look great and clear all the time, when living this lifestyle ideally you want clear windows that connect you to the nature outside the window. Also if possible go for windows which open all the way up so to have uninterrupted views and to allow good cross flow ventilation, our current windows only open 45 degrees which blocks half the view and airflow from cooling the van. 13. If possible store both spare wheels below floor level, it is the easiest way to lock them in position, the most lightweight cheap systems to winch them up and down, easy to access them when you need to. Also they are heavy so good to have heavy stuff below floor level to keep the truck well balanced (not top heavy) 14. 100L of water inside. This is just to have some water inside the truck which you can keep warm in extreme cold conditions so you can dump the outside water tanks before the water freezes and wrecks your plumbing. (If you never intend to go to freezing climates it is not needed) 15. 12v air conditioner. We use a truma 24v air conditioner which works great, but we heard there is good 12v air conditioning systems which came out recently which would be much more efficient as no power would be lost inverting from 24v to 12v. 16. Warm yellow hue coloured LED’s 12v lights. We got the cool white coloured LED’s, there has been nights when we are remote and we will have accumulated without exaggeration 1000 insects on the ceiling and walls of the inside of the truck. Bugs love these white lights. However studies have shown the the warm yellow hue coloured lights don’t attract many insects. 17. We have a curtain as a door on the bathroom to save weight however a sliding door would have been better. No real major advantages just personal preference. The wind can blow the curtain door around when its windy and it is not as good at retaining smells and sound in the bathroom area. 18. Install one way valve on the grey water, we dont have a one way valve on the grey water so smells can come up out of the grey water tank into out living area which is not desirable. Its particularly bad in hot weather when the grey water starts to evaporate faster. There is a grey water overflow pipe so the grey water overflows outside of the truck if it is overfilled, this overflow also ventilates air so all bad smells will go outside the truck trough this overflow pipe if there was a one way valve instead of back up the floor wastes in the shower 19. We have the stock 100L fuel tank which is enough 99 percent of the time however we carry another 120L in jerry cans (the most we have ever needed to use is 40L of jerry can fuel in one trip. Our recommendation would be to get a 200L fuel tank (we suggest 200L for australia, however it really depends if you intend to tour the entire world or how deep you go into the wild, fuel capacity really is a personal preference based of the distances you plan to travel with reliable fuel refill stations) rather than carrying jerry cans as we had an incident where one of the plastic jerry cans got punctured while 4 wheel driving. The 20L’s of diesel was under the bed and it leaked throughout the entire truck, it was days of cleaning in addition to needing to replace our flooring. 20. Simple chin up bar design - if a chinup bar is something you want, dont build a complicated contraption like us, keep it simple and lightweight by mounting 2 round brackets on the wall to slide a pole in, the pole would overhang past the edge of the truck to hang from, nice and simple and easy to setup.

The major thing we would do different - Our next Truck: During our trip we watched a documentary called “David Attenborough - A life On Our Planet” it inspired us to do live sustainablely so not to destroy the planet more than we already have, each of us are responsible to do our best to ensure there is a planet worth living on for future generations. So we have designed and are about to start building the first solar and wind powered Expedition Truck, it will be just as good as Juggernaut in comfort and performance except zero emissions. The Mission is Sustainable Travel! We hope it will inspire others to live in Sustainable homes regardless if their home is a bus, van, caravan, truck or a normal house with solar on the roof and electric cars 🏠 they can all be sustainable and mostly self sufficient these days (We have also decided not to have children as less people means less strain on the planets ability to sustain us, we love children and have many nephews and nieces so we feel content not having any of our own. Travelling without kids sure is easier too 😉😅) Not only will it be great for the planet but the largest expenses while travelling is fuel so in the long run it will actually save us money 💰 - The truck we are going to buy is an EV (electric vehicle) so electric motor. - We will get the maximum battery storage available, which has a 600km range fully loaded, I will have the truck at about 75 percent its maximum weight with a wind scoop, so performance should be pretty accurate or better than this. - The whole roof will be solar panels fixed to an aluminium frame, there will also be 2 solar awnings in the same framework as the the roof panels that fold down over walls while packed down (driving). The roof frame and awning frames will be connected with hinges and the whole system will be operated by hydrolics. But basically the panels will all be able to be tilted towards the sun, hopefully we will be able to have an option to turn on a timed system to automatically follow the arch of the sun throughout the day. Either way even with the solar panels packed down the charge will be significant. There will be approximately 6000 watts of solar plus and additional 1000watts of solar off the back wall which will also tilt up. - There will be 4 x 5000watt wind turbines that we will pull out and mount off the 4 corners of the box if there is a decent breeze. - We travel pretty slow so in most cases we will be able to survive on our solar and wind charge only. However if we need to drive really long distances in a short amount of time then we can fall back on grid power. In europe and USA there is fast chargers everywhere so charging will be done in 6hours to full (roughly 3hrs to charge to 80percent charge as the first 80 percent of the charge is really fast, the last 20 percent is slower. That is assuming the battery is almost flat before recharging. Realistically we would just stop for 2 hours or so to top and keep going, that would be more than enough electricity to get us to the next fast charge stop in rural travel. 2hrs is a good break to cook a meal, eat, rest and catch up on work or socials and then keep going. In Australia the western half of the country does not have the infrastructure to support fast charging at the time of writing this blog so if you needed to charge up fully from flat it would take almost 2 full days on charge in a caravan park (assuming there is no sun or wind to assist in the charge) but in most cases you would only need to stop for a day to top up enough to get to the next destination if you didn’t have a fast charge option (which is only something that would happen in the Western half of Australia and some countries which have not adopted fast charging stations yet) - There is countries and even the state of Tasmania Australia which are already completely powered by renewable energy, so filling up from the grid wont have any environmental impact. Soon enough most of the grid power across the world will be from renewable sources. We love travel so much, we have traveled via live a board sailing catamaran, hotels and hire cars, caravans and now Expedition Truck, we have found the truck to be the most enjoyable experience we have ever had, We can’t think of a better way to live. Apart from the initial outlay, the cost of living is far less than renting in a big city. And definitely much cheaper than buying a house in Sydney where we are from. All you need then is a job were you can work remotely and you can continue the lifestyle indefinitely. If you want to get the latest updates on the new truck build follow us on Instagram @thealcalloughbys to watch as we get the truck built and see our latest travel adventures. Safe Travels, The Alcalloughbys! If you found this blog helpful, please share it with your family and friends!