If IKEA 'puts together' a vehicle for the masses

[botsapper]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I would like an OX. Did I miss somewhere the expected price? I hope they do a US kit car or UTV version, that is assuming they don't want 20k for it.

Very basic turbo diesel engines, inadequate safety structure, missing safety equipment, kei cars and mini trucklets; the US EPA and DOT regulations will not approve and will not allow them here. OX primarily marketed to the Third World.

[freebeard]

I'd take mine too.

Suppose it never touched pavement. Suppose the gov'mnt never knows it exists.

Back maybe the sixties the Mary Worth[less] comic strip had a bizarre episode that involved a cackling maniac with a car hidden in a barn, that he only took out on moonless nights, with a blinding Cyclopean headlight. Good thing I wasn't an impressionable kid. I might have grown up an anarchist.

Anyway, replace that house-of-cards cab with a Citizen Safety Podule™, and try again. I'm sure a guy who designs carbon-fiber cockpit tubs has some ideas.

If he knows what he's doing, [insert title here] Murray will enter a team in the Baja 500.

[Hersbird]

Why wouldn't it be OK in the US the same way a Polaris RZR (or similar) is OK in much of the US? That said no 3rd world countries can afford $15k+ for a 2wd box on wheels.

[freebeard]

2WD buggies kick 4WD b*tt up and down the Baja peninsula. And this is a box as big as a truck or bus. The low load-height bed is full width between the wheelwells.

Ars Technica did a write-up.

Ox: The flat-pack off-road truck which could revolutionize African transport | Ars Technica

Ars do good work, so we get this:

[Fingie]

I am a huge fan of modular designs. This particular truck reminds me of the now-dead Multicar.

[Hersbird]

I just don't get the price. Tata makes a 3.0l Direct injected turbo diesel truck with a 4 ton payload in this size for about $11,000 USD. Going to 15 or 20k gets you a 6-8 ton payload Izuzu with a 3.5 TDI. To me, it looks like an under $10,000 truck. Heck you can get a new Dodge passenger minivan right now for $18,000 after rebates. Just rip all the carpet and seats out, put a handicap van lift on it, cut out the fenders, and you have one of these but with almost 300hp, A/C, ABS, PW, PS, PL, PB, cruise, tilt, keyless, cd bluetooth radio, that goes 65mph down the highway getting almost 30 MPG.

[freebeard]

Fingie -- Herbird's comparison is more to the point, until he gets to the tilt/cruise/air. Given the race-bred suspension's leading/trailing arms I see a cab-forward version of the Shadow Hawk armored car concept:

[Hersbird]

My comparison gave me the bight idea to shop some used Caravans on craigslist. Armor plate the transaxle, remove the front fenders, and cut out the rear, put it up on lift blocks, and put some AT tires on it. I could even do a AWD version. This might come in 4th place in my unstarted projects behind my hi-lo camper rebuild, electric mountain bike, and home sown teepee projects. This project list itself is about 10th place behind my actually started and not finished projects, project list.

Oh, I just figured out I wouldn't need to cut the rear fenders, just put a longer I-beam axle back there so the tires are outside the body, no side sliding doors, but heck I don't see any on the OX either.

[freebeard]

home sown teepee

Ooooh, do they sprout up like mushrooms?

Seriously, I'm interested in the details.

An I-beam axle would not be an improvement. AWD would not be an improvement, the drive is already on the engine end. Unless you're rock crawling.

[Hersbird]

I thought it looked odd when I posted it LOL! Sown, sewn. It does take about 30 years around here to get a lodgepole pine tall enough once it is sown.

There are plans online. The key is the inner liner, teepees (or is it tipis?) are worthless without the inner liner that makes the draft for the fire work. I may just use a painter's canvas drop cloth and waterproof it with equal parts of beeswax, odorless turpentine, and linseed oil. Then melt it in to the canvas with a heat gun.

I want to be able to pack it in on my Honda trail, then cut poles on site. I can't find a regular tent I like for under $1000 and those ones are too heavy to pack. Then they need a contained woodstove rather then just a ground fire ring inside.

http://www.canvastentshop.ca/images_...structions.pdf