The Build
BigMog the Fire Engine
BigMog was a real life fire engine. If the blue lights and sirens weren´t enough to convince you, his V5 log book confirmed it.
He spent his life rescuing animals and had been well looked after by the fire service. When we bought him we were given a print out of every service and every item of maintenance that had been done over the last 22 years. So we already knew him quite well from the start…
BigMog the Overlander
A U1550 is the ideal UniMog for an overland vehicle – no complicated electrics, no ad blue, just basic mechanics. As James says, he can fix it on the side of the road with a chopstick!
But it took a lot of work to convert an old fire engine to a shiney new overlander
Stage One
The basics were done by South Cave Tractors in Hull, servicing and checking him over, adding a couple of new fuel tanks and de-plating him to 7.5 tonnes
They also designed and built a new sub frame ready to take the box
Stage Two
The second stage was carried out back in Birmingham once we had returned from Africa. We stripped everything out of the cab, treated any small bits of rust in the cab and on the chassis, sealed the 17 holes in the roof from the blue lights and sirens and sound proofed the whole cab
He had new carpets made and all his upholstery was re-covered along with an overhaul of the dash. To finish it off, two new top of the range air seats were fitted
The final step in this stage was taking BigMog to Redditch where he was re-painted by Pegasus Bodyshop who did an amazing job. He was almost unrecognisable
Stage Three
Whilst all of this was going on, we made contact with Off Grid Customs in Canada who design and build habitation boxes for overland vehicles. After a bumpy start, lots of design decisions and another horrendous experience with container shipping (never, ever again!) our fabulous, state of the art box arrived in the UK at the end of October 2024
Stage Four
BigMog in all his glory was driven up to Durham where the fit-out of the box was completed. It took four months to install plumbing, electrics, kitchen, bed, wet room, storage units, flooring and lighting
A detailed specification of everything is set out on the ´BigMog Completed´ page here
For more details about the build process see the blog post here
It had been a long haul but, over a year after we first bought him, BigMog was looking very special indeed!
The Sidetracked Sagas 