SLRV ExpeditionsFancy travelling in style, camping in luxury and having all the amenities could you could ever ask for?
Of course you do! Who wants to rough it in the outback when you don’t have to actually rough it in the outback? Who wants to go camping when you don’t actually have to camp?
Just get yourself a £1.5 million apartment on wheels, duh! That way, next time you go to, say, Glastonbury for your real-life camping experience, you don’t actually have to have the camping experience at all. Why has no one thought of this before?!
Check it out:
This beast of a £1.5 million ($2 million AUD) campervan, the 8×8 Commander, was built by Australian company SLRV Expedition Vehicles. Commissioned by a family of eight to travel round Australia off-road, it’s a luxury pad on eight wheels that looks like a cross between an armoured lorry and a hunk of a caravan.
The family asked the company to create the ultimate ‘apartment on wheels’, and while the team, led by Warwick Boswerger, had never made something so technically advanced before, they were eager to take on the challenge.
As the video shows, it comes fully equipped with a washing machine, and what appears to be a giant toastie maker. While inside are 10 beds, a fully equipped kitchen, dining area, lounge and bathroom.
SLRV ExpeditionsWarwick told Domain:
Our customers are keen on exploring the country or even the world. They want to get into places that caravans and the like can’t take them. This family certainly didn’t want to rough it. They wanted to be self-sufficient even in the middle of nowhere.
A massive house on wheels it is then.
SLRV ExpeditionsWarwick continued:
The owner wanted it to be like a unit. He wanted freezing-cold air conditioning and warm heating both upstairs and downstairs. There’s six kids in the family, so that means a lot of cooking and cleaning appliances, too.
Tell us more! OK, the monster of a motorhome included: a fully functioning kitchen; an external kitchen; two induction cooktops; two ovens; two microwaves; a fridge and freezer; a washing machine; ducted heating and aircon; sound systems and ‘enough TVs to ensure there’s no movie arguments’.
SLRV ExpeditionsAnd, according to Warwick, it’s powered by a unique battery system that charges as the truck is being driven. There’s also a solar panel on the roof to soak up the Australian sun.
Warwick said: ‘People want to take the path less travelled, they don’t want to take the usual routes along the usual roads. They are looking for something they can live in and have unique experiences in, that’s what expedition vehicles like this one provide.’
The outback never looked so good.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.