Overlander Interview - Karla & Heiko Weber

dhackney

Expedition Leader
Karla & Heiko Weber

Interview date: 21 Feb 2008
Location: Ushuaia, Argentina

Extensive world travel. Decided to move from Germany to Colorado Springs 13 years ago after spending time in CO.

Current Trip:

Departed 1 July 2006 from Co Springs, CO to Alaska. Arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina 2/2008.

Shipping back 4/2008 from Buenos Aires

Plan to work a while to buy an updated pickup camper and then keep traveling. Currently planning on a Bigfoot, so they appreciated the opportunity to check ours out.

Rig:
1996 Ford F250
  • Diesel 7.3
  • 5 speed manual
  • 117,000 miles / 188,293 kilometers

1989 SC100 Six Pac pickup camper
  • 5 times to Alaska
  • 4 pickups under it
  • sealed all windows and main longtudinal seams with silicon when new
  • no leaks
  • original refrigerator - no problems
  • replaced toilet with porta-potty
  • added catalytic LP heater
  • very clean interior
  • stock fridge - no problems

Range: 500 miles on normal roads; 200 in Bolivia and Peru on bad roads; 1st and 2nd gear

Use their camper jacks regularly, has bent them a few times banging into things or getting bumped into.

Carry two standard camper sized LP bottles. Use an adapter hose with POL fittings in countries where that is the standard.


Route comments:
They shipped from Panama to Cartejena, Columbia.

Had good things to say about Columbia. Just need to be security concious and find secure places to camp at night.


Vehicle storage resources:
Buenos Aires - www.andeanroads.com

Cordoba:
Villa General Belgrano
Camping La Florida
31 51' 21.0"
64 32 42.3"
Ruta 5 @ KM 78


General:

A very delightful and enjoyable couple.

This interview is so sparce because we spent almost all of our time talking about things that really matter in life. Only when we ran into them at the grocery store on our way out of town did I think to gather some of the hard data for this and then forgot to get the dimensions and weights.
 
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dhackney

Expedition Leader
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kerry

Expedition Leader
Thanks again.
I find it interesting that they're returning to the US to get a new vehicle. Given the fact that they are Germans, and there seem to be a much wider choice of expedition campers in Europe, I'm surprised they don't just buy one in Europe and move on from there.
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
kerry said:
Thanks again.
I find it interesting that they're returning to the US to get a new vehicle. Given the fact that they are Germans, and there seem to be a much wider choice of expedition campers in Europe, I'm surprised they don't just buy one in Europe and move on from there.
Good observation. I also thought it was interesting after seeing nothing but Mercedes, Unimog, Toyota, Isuzu, Iveco, etc. on these long expeditions that a German couple would be driving a Ford.:eek:

Pretty cool to see 2 people doing 117K of overlanding without a winch, custom bumpers, snorkel or even Aux lights. Puts things in perspective... K.I.S.S.
 

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