Do you want to be independent for a long time, travel with the whole family or take a lot of things with you?
If so, you will be grateful to have an 11t empty weight and still be able to take 5t with you. Yes of course the factory motorhomes are also very spacious, but are we sure we can achieve the same weights?
The advantage of having the ability to load a lot of things, the ability to stay for a long time without infrastructure, groceries and drinking water.
Let's take the water tanks, we have 280L, plus 600L of Diesel, that already makes 800Kg, plus the food, various things we take for the journey and we definitely reach 1,000Kg. With this small consideration, motorhomes NOT trucks, are already out of reach.

What is the advantage of carrying 600L of diesel? where do we want to go? to the moon?
take the case of a country where Diesel costs a lot, with 600L, the saurer should be able to do 1700Km this means, you can cross the country and fill up where it costs a little less. This, however, depending on the destination and behaviour during the journey, can be quite relative.

Which vehicle?
In most cases, trucks or heavy-duty vehicles with a few kilometres behind them or at least a few years old are used, why? then the advantages and disadvantages of the technology are well known, the possible solutions developed and you only have to inform yourself and make your own experiences.
Old vehicles, they are available, have a very simple technique that allows even the layman to get an idea of how to repair his own vehicle.

What would it mean, first having to connect a PC to the vehicle to find out what's wrong with it?
Deleting errors from the ECU, keys that are no longer recognised, repairs that have to be approved by the bus system, not really optimal if you are in the middle of nowhere.
Where there are no electronics, you can't create non-existent errors, where robust and simple technology is used, it should also be oversized enough to withstand any journey. And if there should be something, it should be able to be repaired without too much trouble.

Why buy a truck from a military environment?
Those of you who have travelled in the Saurer (seats aside) have certainly noticed what material was supplied with the vehicle to be able to repair it "on-road" - well, a piece of wire, a couple of screwdrivers and a couple of spanners for bolts, that's a good prerequisite for long journeys.
Of course, in cases of 'big' problems, the weights are different from those of a car.

Diesel quality?
In an article in the magazine 'magazin-explorer' (you can find the link on the dedicated page), a solution is proposed to the problem of temperatures being too low for diesel. In fact, by mixing diesel with petrol, thus changing its consistency, one can simply change its solidification point (diesel loses a lot of viscosity), which leads to it no longer flowing in the pipes. With petrol, this problem is overcome.
What engine of today allows us to add petrol to diesel? None! Well for old engines, a mixture of 50%/50% is tolerated!
This also brings us to the qulity of the diesel itself, which, if it is not more than suitable, is no longer accepted by new engines, or in the worst case, this leads to damage.

How many kilometres could we cover with an old iron?
Today we find second-hand trucks with 300,000Km and they are 'unwatchable' then there are old irons that are close to a million and some that pass them by.
The vehicles of the fire brigade or the military don't have many problems because they have to work and that's how they were conceived, that doesn't mean that nothing will ever break down, but all this combined with technical simplicity, maintenance is easy, even on the road.

The purchase cost?
Being 'old irons' in most cases they do not have a high 'euro' grade, they are rather leaning towards 0. for this reason they are not at all interesting nowadays as work vehicles, in fact they are much more expensive than the new euro5 or euro6 models, plus for public contracts state-of-the-art models are desirable.
For this series of reasons, their price should be considered in relation to other models, not just affordable.
With what you have saved by buying an old iron, you can now devote yourself to the interior design as you see fit, whether you want to further devote yourself to saving money and therefore 'limit yourself' to the finish but remain on the functional and simple side, or whether you want to devote yourself to all possible details and take care of everything, the choice is yours.

Space?
Calculating my small house, I have 11m2 at my disposal, it is almost a studio apartment, combined with the ability to take additional material with you, there are absolutely no compromises.
Comfort during bad weather is also something that should not be underestimated, as staying inside for a couple of days still gives us our freedom to move around.

What are the contra points!

Consumption?
What is the fuel consumption of a vehicle like this? Well, the Saurer is between 35 and 45 litres per 100km on asphalt, while off-road, which has yet to be tested, I think it can reach an average of 70/80.
Again, fuel consumption should be put into perspective, because if you have to drive a route where diesel is particularly expensive and you don't have the option of doing as described above, your costs will rise, whereas if you can fill up where it costs less, your costs will remain lower.
Of course you cannot expect to fill up in Luxembourg and then head for the Nordic countries, here we have the exception that does not however confirm the rule.

Dimensions?
Of course, the size of a lorry, even if it becomes a camper van, is still a lorry, we will not be able to go everywhere, plus some European cities have introduced driving bans for certain categories of vehicle. In this case, a truck GPS certainly fits the bill.