Introducing Marvin
It’s 13 Septembre 2022. We have a brand new expedition truck and plans to travel to errrr… well… everywhere really! It’s going to be our home for all terrains, all conditions, and it’s going to become a proper team member with his own personality. Here’s (a short version of) the story of how ‘the Truck‘ became ‘Marvin‘…
Marvin is an expedition vehicle prepared for all terrains and conditions (or at least, that’s the theory…).
The basic vehicle was made by Iveco Defence, a company headquartered in Bolzano, Northern Italy, specialising in military vehicles and who became part of the Iveco group in 1975. It consists of the new Daily cab, engine, main gear box, transfer gearbox and axles, which gives a great combination of rugged military running gear and chassis, with the comfortable modern Daily cab and efficient Euro 6d engine.
The vehicle has been specifically designed for working off-road from the outset. It even has as standard fit, a switch to turn off the engine cooling fan whilst driving through deep water! It is a permanent 4×4 with a 68% rear and 32% front torque distributing centre differential, which is lockable and also has front and rear differential locks. The transfer gear box has two hi/lo selectable ratios (1:0,9 and 1:2,15 respectively). Coupled with the 6 speed main gearbox, this gives 12 forward and 2 reverse gears!
The base vehicle is capable of climbing 35 degree slopes, traversing 40 degree slopes and wading through 66 cm water when at the maximum mass of 7 tons. The engine has a maximum power of 132 Kw (180 Hp) between 2500 and 3500 rpm and 430 Nm of torque from 1500 to 3000 rpm.
The fuel consumption at max weight is in the region of 16 L/100km (14 mpg), for a (relatively small) fuel tank of 90 L. Marvin also comes with a 25 L AdBlue tank for its selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emissions control system, as well as with a power take-off which we are not using for now. The vehicle has ABS and the really nice thing is that it is turned off when a diff-lock is selected; so no messing about with juddering brakes when off-road.
Meet Marvin the Truck…
7 t
L = 6,3 m
l = 2,20 m
h = 3,30 m
16 L/100km
180CV – 14 gears (12 forward + 2 backward)
170 L
(UV purified for a
4-5 day autonomy)
440 W
PERC solar cells capacity
Iveco Daily 4×4 70S18H-WX
Euro VI(d) emissions standard compliant engine
SCR 4th Generation exhaust gas depuration
Eco-efficient living space (insulation + energy production)
From truck to expedition vehicle…
As a matter of fact, Marvin was initially supposed to be a Mercedes Sprinter… But thanks to various reasons and delays in Mercedes’ production chain, we luckily came to the realisation that an Iveco Daily 4×4 would actually be better suited to our needs (and, objectively, 200% much nicer…).
After an exhaustive research (Daily 4×4 are quite rare around here…), we found what we were looking for a few kilometres aways from the Iveco Defence factory, near Bolzano, in the Italian Dolomites…
While the truck was transported to Barcelona where it would be transformed into a fully fletched expedition vehicle, the body (the living area) was built by a specialised company near Madrid, before being shipped to Barcelona as well.
Import and homologation…
For various complicated reasons linked to the fact that our truck would be registered in Andorra and that Andorra is not part of the European Union, we actually had only 3 months to make sure everything (transport from Italy, bodybuilding and export from the EU) was done.
On the last day of these 3 months (28 July 2022), another truck was bringing Marvin to the Andorran border for him to start his homologation (and registration) process.
After 2 more (intense) months, we finally were able to get Marvin through the ITV (technical pre-homologation control) and get the approval from the Andorran Government to register him.
Building a home…
Because of all the considerations that need to be taken into account, and for obvious security reasons, the body of an expedition vehicle needs to be designed and double (triple?) checked by an engineer, but the interior of the body is something more personal that we really wanted to build ourselves, and make our own…
This is how to the next 6 months of Marvin’s life were spent: creating tailored-made furnitures (thank you Atelier S. ! 😁), designing the electrical and water schemes, installing the various tanks and fixtures, testing and, many times, redoing many of the elements, to finally get to something we could proudly call a home !
The making of Marvin…
In January 2023, our expedition vehicle was ready to hit to the road. We still needed to test it in real conditions, but all the main features were there and working fine. There was still one important detail for this vehicle to more than “a truck”, though. It had to have its own personality…
The exterior painting reflects our willingness to blend as much as possible in our surroundings (bearing in mind that some parts of the original white background could not be covered for technical reasons). We also wanted to root our design in nature while implying the idea of travel. Our design relies on a kind of camouflage pattern based on silhouettes of parts of the 5 continents, complemented by more abstracts pattern. The main logo and complementary 4 symbols represent our home country (Andorra) and its mountains, as well as the 4 elements of nature (earth, water, air and fire).
With its new outfit on, we looked at our truck, fell in love with its rounded shapes and took our decision: Marvin would be his name!…
So, here we are… Two people purposefully travelling in an expedition truck.
This blog is about our adventures, our feelings and anything we’d like to share as we wander in wonderland…