Good morning and welcome to the vlog! We are here on the Oceano Sand Dunes in
Pismo Beach Central Coast of California. We are gonna try to get back in the
groove here of vlogging. We popped over here to the coast to pick up some photos.
I had the opportunity to do some recording with my grandma last year. And...
Ben is going to use that, along with the pictures we picked up, to make a really
special video for my grandmother's memorial service in the celebration of
life! So.... While we were here, we spent the night on the dunes..... I don't know what it
is about the sand but man!... Some people say the grass grounds you, for me it's
the beach sand! So we're feeling rejuvenated and ahh...
We also did a review of our Yokohama tires. That video will be coming up next...
Be sure to check it out because we went and did the sand highway and played in the
dunes.... We had fun before before.... We had fun!.... So ahh... While we're driving today, we're going to
answer the most commonly asked questions we get about our expedition vehicle!...
So before we get started, I need to do a plug for our new website....
hisandhershub.com . It's going to be a central location for everything in
relation to our community and our travels and.... We're really excited! I'm
just gonna say; The part I'm super excited about it's called: Outliers
overlanding and we're gonna be launching... That's gonna be my favourite channel! Like
right now but.... We're gonna be launching like our own version of like a His and Hers
Netflix! It is gonna be an amazing player. You know, good easy to browse... It's not
gonna be like just little embedded videos... It's gonna be so awesome guys!
We're almost finished and I know this video is gonna have long legs. So by the
time most of you see it, just go to: hisandhershub.com
Any time you take your truck out to play in the salt water you got to rinse it
off if you want it to last! So we're gonna jump right in with question number
one: And that is.... It is seriously the number one question we get asked: How
much did we pay for this thing.. Sometimes it kind of feels a little awkward that
people ask us that. But at the same time, it's such a unique vehicle that I think
people really don't always have any concept of what a vehicle like this
would potentially cost you. And they're genuine genuinely curious about it! We
think we got a pretty great deal at $88,000.... Okay!
Before we hit the highway, we need to air up these tires. And Medina's tire shop
here in Grover Beach is nice enough to let us use a real air compressor!...This
question gets asked a lot with people just kind of aimlessly staring up at
either the cab of the truck or the camper or it in its entirety! But to
start off with, I am going to talk about: "The chassis" itself.... So our Expedition
Vehicle has a 2007 Mitsubishi truck FUSO FG 140 Factory four-wheel drive chassis. The
truck is intended for industrial, commercial uses like mines, construction
sites.... It is a work truck! And that's what we needed. It was something that's going to
work as hard as us for the type of traveling we have intended!
So very basic systems: Manual locking hubs, manual transmission... Not too many
whistles and bells. But just great systems that are going to just be
durable and prove the test of time!.... Not to sound like a commercial but a stop on
the Central Coast is not complete without picking up some strawberries!.... Now
for the people who aimlessly stare at the camper and wonder: "What what is that?"
It's a camper!!... It's a Motorhome!.... So our box is ahh... It's a homemade build not by any
manufacturer. The actual box itself was designed by a company in Georgia..
Where the third owners.... The first owner was a sailor and so you find a lot of....
Well first off it's incredibly well thought-out, organized, put together... The
longer we live in it, the more we realize how well he built it and how thoughtful
he was in his process! But it has a lot of nautical features to IT...
Like the way that the things open up. And the look to the interior is very
much what you would see on a sailboat... Also.... Clearly designed to have a very
small electrical footprint. We have 12-volt fridge, 12-volt freezer, LED
lights.... All of those sorts of things and.... It's also single source fuel so.... We
have a diesel heater, we have a diesel stove... Diesel hot water... It's all
connected as well.... So we can heat our water, heat our interior and heat our
engine.... All at the same time! Highly efficient! It is teeny tiny but uhhmm... We're
learning to really embrace that. And once we figured out what we really didn't
need to have anymore.... I would say that we're finding ourselves
to be very comfortable in our little home!... So once the ice has been broken, a lot of
people will get a little more bold and comfortable. As if asking the prices isn't
bold enough!! And they asked like... Can I take a peek inside?... And you know what.. As
long as we're not in the middle of something or it's destroyed.. We're
usually generally pretty cordial when it comes to that. Because we are fascinated
by these machines as well. And ultimately it's just curiosity because it's a
really intriguing looking machine!.... The next set of questions we get them in
person. But we also get them often on our videos from subscribers and people who
come across our videos so... First one I'm gonna tackle has to do with fuel...
How much fuel do we hold and what kind of fuel economy do we get?...So we hold..We
have two 30 gallon tanks. We typically run off of all of our, you know driving miles...
Off of the one on the passenger side. And then the one on the driver's side is
connected to all of our diesel appliances, heaters things like that... And
so it's a backup for driving as well but we try to leave it alone just for our
appliances! As far as fuel economy goes... Typically on the highway, we get 11 to 12
and that's because we're going higher speeds. When we were down in Baja, we were
averaging maybe like 45 miles per hour. And we were getting upwards of 14 to 15
miles per gallon. So a lot of factors playing into it. But I will say it is far
more fuel efficient than our old class A Motorhome.... Since we're talking about the fuel
system it made me realize that: I didn't tell you anything about the engine!...So
this is an actual Mitsubishi engine. Not like a Fiat engine or Mercedes engine.
It's the 4m50. So it's a four-cylinder, turbo diesel 4.9 litre. And
it puts out a hundred and seventy-five horsepower and 350 pound feet of torque..
There you go!... Alright next series of questions... Number one: How does it ride?
Number two: How does it drive and Number three: Do you drive it? Because you're a
girl..hahaha... I'm not bitter at all!,,Ahh... But first question: How does it ride?
Honestly, way more comfortable than we expected it to be! It does have an
upgraded suspension, so it probably is a little better ride than it would be from
the factory... But ahhh..And the seats maybe could be a little bit more comfortable...
But honestly, way more comfortable than we expected it to be when we purchased
it!.... Question number two: How does it drive? It is easier to drive than our F-150
pickup... The turning radius on it makes it, makes parking incredibly easy!
It's short. We're only 21 feet long.... So no problems in terms of backing up and
things like that. It's actually really enjoyable to drive!
Third question: Yes I do drive it all the time! Not just in emergencies....
I drove our 32 ft. Class A with the 16 ft. trailer behind it as well... It is
of our opinion that if you're riding in the car and you are of driving age, you
should be able to drive the vehicle!...Ahhh... But I like driving it! And I drive it all the
time. And ahh...You're a girl...I'm not bitter at all about the fact that everybody asks me that
question....Alright! We're hopping on to the 101 South to start our journey back to the...
high deserts. The next question has to do with our license plates! They tend to get
people's attention. And they ask: Are you from Alaska?.. Yeah, yeah we are! About you
know, 2007 is when we moved up there!... We are Alaska residents still! We maintain
it as a home base. It's beautiful! It's our home. We love traveling, this is
also our home! So, that question also leads into like... Did you drive straight
here or where are you going?... Well, technically we didn't drive it straight...
You know, we do a lots of zigs and zags... But we have intentions of driving this
vehicle around the world! So it was very well thought out on our behalf of what
we needed in terms of a vehicle that didn't have ultra-low sulphur diesel
issues or DEF fluid.... Was serviceable around the world because.... Mitsubishi
truck is owned by Daimler. Which is Mercedes, which is kind of like Ford is
in America to the rest of the world! Mercedes is everywhere and sourcing
parts is difficult enough... You don't need to be making it more difficult than it
already is going to be!.... While Ben fills up with fuel, I thought I'd answer the
next two questions: Where did we find it and where did we buy it!... So... It took about
18 months from the time that we started telling everybody we were gonna buy an
Expedition Vehicle until we actually made the purchase. Because we were very
particular about finding just the right chassis in particular! But we used
expedition portal here in the United States and over in Europe they use
mobile,...mobile.demobile.de Those were the two main websites that we were
just scouring all the time looking for the right truck! And ahhh...This one came up on
expeditionportal.com....So where did we buy it?... We picked it up in Montana. The
second owner lives there and he is a photographer. And had used it quite a bit
in the local area to go out on photography trips and camping trips. So
it's spent a lot of time in the winter, which was really important to us! We
wanted to know that it was a good for a season rig!... So this question comes from
our long-term viewers who know us from 32 Ft. Tiffin Allegro Motorhome that we
had. And they ask: Do we like it better than the Class A Motorhome?... You'll
probably get a different answer out of each of us. But let's see if I can wrap
this up!... Yes we do! We like it a lot better than the Class A Motorhome but...
That does not mean that we don't miss 32 ft. of space and all the ample storage!
But this new camper is so liberating.And the places that we can go and the things
can we do, we can do, it's just hands-down worth it! And we are much happier with
this than the Class A Motorhome.... Last question to tie up this video...
Is it fun?.... And I think we've probably already made that pretty clear! If you go
back and look at all of the amazing things we've got to do in this rig! And
all of the things that we have planned! And as long as we can adventure and have...
And be active and be out camping and....And enjoying the rig as it was meant to be
used, it is absolutely fun!.... Occasionally, the weather gets a hold of
us or we argue over whether we should keep that entire basket of dried fruit....
But when we're out doing what we intended to do in this vehicle, we have
the most fantastic time and the greatest adventures.So.... Thank you for joining us!
Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about our truck and our life in
this truck! Be sure to hit that SUBSCRIBE button so you can join us on our future
adventures and.... Don't forget to check out.... hisandhershub.com ....We're getting that
puppy up and running and.... We're just gonna keep rolling out new content and
new things for you to check out over there!
Thanks for joining us.... Bye!