Need a place in your recreational vehicle to store your other recreational vehicle?
Whether you're preparing for the zombie apocalypse, a weekend festival, or a long scenic road trip with the family, then having something to run around in at the destination is a huge bonus. Often people tow their car along but that's not ideal, particularly when you want to also take something fun along to play with. Toy-haulers with a drop-down ramp at the back are a common enough sight on the roads of big continents, but these motorhomes are a different breed.
Up at the high end of the market, where you're not trying to sleep on a piece of wood hanging above the pinging of a cooling engine, the Germans are king here. Part of that is the common use of the chassis from big Mercedes trucks. That is, if you can call these luxury homes on wheels common. Minimum buy-in is generally half a million, although some of these are not publicly priced and if you have to ask then you probably can't afford it.
The products Volkner Mobil Performance offer at the high end are less recreational vehicles and more luxury condos on wheels. The garage sits underneath the main cabin floor where luggage would usually be stored. The panel on the side opens, the floor drops to the ground, and then the floor moves out so the car can be driven away. The size of the car that can be stored depends on choosing either the 34 or 40 foot option. It's the slickest storage solution on this list, and it just gets better inside. You could sell your home and a couple could live in one of these and happily spend their lives touring a continent.
You can get into a Mobile Performance for a little over $1.2 million, and we wonder if it would feel wrong to park anything but something fast and German in the garage underneath.
What if you want to get off the road into the wilderness where four wheels aren't going to be enough? Action Mobile has the answer with the first six-wheel drive motorhome. The Global XRS 7200 was the brainchild of a couple of advertising executives that liked to travel through Africa on photography expeditions. It uses a lifting ramp on the back for the large exploration vehicle that will also house motorbike when up. It'll cost over $1 million to get one, but there's probably nothing better as a tool for the job of exploring a hostile wilderness.
Action Mobil does make an "entry level" model with just four wheels, but that's still a half-a-million dollar vehicle. Some time ago we claimed the best way to explore South Africa is with a BMW M235i. Now we wonder if a BMW M235i would fit in the back of this.
Now sadly defunct, Travel Supreme was at the high end of American motorhomes. They still command high prices on the used market and, before they went out of business in 2009, made just seven a week with the entry-level model costing $254,000. Select editions were well north of half a million, and the 40DS04 pictured is 40 feet long with a small garage at the back and in front of the 400-horsepower Cummins diesel engine that pushed its power out through a 6-speed Allison gearbox.
Ketterer is another German brand that makes moving homes equipped for motorsport and travel, and even offers a stable for equestrians. The Continental is built on a Mercedes Actros truck chassis and features a full-size bedroom and a jacuzzi. If you go for the custom line there's pretty much no limit to the design options, but do make sure your bank account features plenty of zeros before you go shopping.
This is yet another one from Germany, also based on a Mercedes track platform that benefits from three axels and air suspension. There's also room for, very specifically in the literature, a Mercedes-Benz SL cabriolet. Inside is pure luxury all the way down to lighting for the draw handle recesses in the kitchen. If you want your luxury motorhome to have something American about it, you can get the interior decor featuring American walnut wood.
As we are learning, there really isn't a lot to touch the Germans when it comes to extravagant motorhomes, but this particular model uses an Iveco chassis rather than Mercedes. The technology used for the Empire Liner is breathtaking from the solar system on top, trough the suspension system underneath, to the crazy level of insulation created to keep out noise and to keep the temperature as consistent as possible. It has a 300-horsepower 6.6-liter 6-cylinder diesel engine and the size of the car that can be stored is dependent on the floor-plan that's chosen.
Unfortunately, it appears MOST has stopped building the Futuria Sport + Spa and now the Futuria line, like all of the company's other lines, are roadshow trucks for use at large events. Maybe the inspiration for the Sport + Spa came from the company being based near the Nurburgring because it had a specific sports car garage. And as the name suggests, a spa. Inside there was also a mirrored ceiling and an integrated starry LED sky. MORE appeared to be after a very specific and decedent track weekend warrior. We're fine with that, along with the fact it's more of a trailer home than a motorhome.
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