First Queensland-built Freightliner truck motorhome coming

Queensland expedition vehicle specialist SLRV is building its second RV for the American market, with a unique off-road motorhome based on a left-hand drive Freightliner M2 106 4x4 medium duty truck currently taking shape at its Gold Coast factory.

Well known for its high-priced, extreme off-road luxury motorhomes, the Gold Coast-based manufacturer completed its first American-market RV truck conversion in 2021 based on a refurbished 1999 Acela 6x6 truck.

"It's our second custom-build for the 'States; the first one last year was based on an Acela 6x6 which is essentially an ex-military truck done up with nicer interior and dash. That was a bit of a weapon," SLRV’s Warwick Boswerger said.

The SLRV Freightliner 4x4 conversion will incorporate a three-point torsion free subframe and a 5.2m long motorhome body with 60mm thick panels, and a custom floorplan featuring an electric lift-up bed over a club lounge to maximise interior space,

It will come fully loaded with 110V domestic appliances powered by a 1380Ah lithium battery system with Mastervolt 6000W inverter and truck charging system, and 1.2kW solar with a 100A solar charger.

Other features include 600 litres' water storage, front and rear 25,000lb winches, SLRV Expedition roofrack and bullbar, and German double glazed glass windows. The chassis and motorhome conversion is expected to be completed by early-2023.

The Freightliner M2 106 model is a popular commercial truck in the USA where it's sometimes used as a touring motorhome base or to tow large fifth wheelers, but it isn't sold in Australia. The heavy-duty Freightliner offers a GVM of up to 30 tonnes and is powered by either Cummins or Detroit diesel engines with a choice of manual or automatic gearboxes.

The US customers arrange transportation of their chosen, left-hand-drive trucks to SLRV's factory in Molendinar where the custom body is built and fitted before the finished expedition vehicle is shipped back to the 'States.

While SLRV mainly focuses on the Australian market with a number of regular production models for MAN, Iveco, Isuzu and Unimog off-road chassis, the American-market vehicles are fully custom designed and built to suit the specific base vehicle and buyers' requirements.

"Everything coming from the States will be custom built for a while until we can create a standard body for that market," Boswerger explained.

He said SLRV had attracted a lot of international interest since its $2million two-storey, MAN 8x8 off-road motorhome was splashed all over the internet in 2019.

"Everything erupted overseas from the 8x8, and we've had a huge amount of enquiries from all over the world, including Europe, Africa and the USA," he said.

He said fussy US buyers seeking a world-class go-anywhere motorhome were prepared to go the extra mile and seek out expedition vehicle specialists in Europe as well as Australia.

"There's probably only one or two companies in America that would be building that same style of expedition vehicle," he said.

He also said SLRV was developing a reputation on the world stage for delivering among the very best in build quality, luxury and off-grid capabilities.

"Everyone is expecting a lot more these days, and that's what we've always done is to allow people to go out there and have the systems so they can run all the appliances and make remote touring a lot more comfortable," he said.

Incidentally, due to health reasons the unique 2021-build, SLRV Acela 6x6 motorhome was recently put on the market by its Arizona-based owners, with an advertised pricetag of US$675,000 (approx. AUD$953,000).

Boswerger said SLRV's next big build is another 8x8 motorhome, but this one will be only single storey and based on a Czech Republic-built Tatra truck supplied by Perth-based OffRoad Trucks Australia. It won't be the first locally-built, Tatra expedition vehicle after Queensland's OffRoad RVs put one on the road last year.