This is not your grandma’s recreational vehicle.
Eight years ago, Michael and René Van Pelt set out to create a vehicle that could travel beyond paved roads, withstand the elements, provide the comforts of home and leave a minimal carbon footprint. What they came up with is part all-terrain vehicle, part motor home and part semitruck.
On a cul-de-sac in a small Nixa business park, the Van Pelts’ Global Expedition Vehicles LLC designs and manufactures off-road RVs for wealthy world travelers. Now, the small shop is drawing the attention of Travel Channel producers and viewers.
In late January, the custom work in the 11-man, 15,000-square-foot shop was featured in “Extreme RVs.” Global Expedition Vehicles also made a recent appearance in “Tricked Out Trailers.”
After receiving a call in August, camera crews from “Extreme RVs” visited Nixa to film a complete build in four segments September through November, as well as the customer turnover.
“We received a phone call from a producer saying they were doing a three-show demo for the Travel Channel,” says René Van Pelt, who handles sales and marketing for the company, while her husband serves as managing member and sole shareholder. “They were looking around for extreme RVs, and they found us by Google.”
Her immediate reaction: “Come on down.”
The TV exposure could be timely.
The company has yet to turn a profit, but the Van Pelts say production is rising. They say there are six vehicles in production right now, and orders are eight months out.
A typical build takes four to six months, but the entire sales process – from inquiry to delivery – could consume an entire year. Michael Van Pelt says the company built one vehicle in 2008 and has roughly doubled production and employment each year.
Most customers find Global Expedition Vehicles in Web searches, and the company, aka GXV, pops up in online travel forums, such as
ExpeditionPortal.com.
The price of luxury-on-the-go doesn’t come cheap. The midrange model pushes $400,000, and the base model is nearly $200,000, says Michael Van Pelt, who had a career in restaurant franchising in which he owned 16 Sonic Drive-In sites out West and operated Nixa-based Build Spec Inc. to construct franchise restaurants such as Braum’s, Applebee’s and Burger King.
The Van Pelts are tight-lipped about their customers and suppliers due to confidentiality agreements in place. They decline to disclose the number of vehicles sold but say half of them were delivered outside of the United States. They’ve shipped vehicles to Spain, Dubai and Chile – “to the customer’s port of destination” – often the starting point of an expedition, René Van Pelt says.
The company has quotes out to interested parties in Peru, Libya and Egypt, some for governmental use, and the company is now building for customers in Australia and China.
The Van Pelts are seasoned extreme travelers themselves.
In 2003, they drove a new standard RV to Alaska, a trip that served as the impetus to creating the luxury expedition vehicles. The RV didn’t hold up well, they say, and the unpleasant Alaskan experience, along with Michael Van Pelt’s National Geographic-influenced childhood interests in nature and travel, led the former restaurant owners and contractors to start building an expedition vehicle prototype a year later. In 2005, the couple took the prototype on a 36,000-mile “shakedown cruise” to the southern tip of South America.
“We put it on a barge and sailed down the Amazon River. We went all the way down to the farthest point you can drive in South America, in Patagonia,” Michael Van Pelt says of the yearlong trip with stops in Argentina, Brazil and the Chilean desert.
“We were testing the prototype in all kinds of environments, terrains and temperatures,” René Van Pelt adds.
Engineered for long-term excursions, Van Pelt says the maximum range for GXV units is 3,000 miles, and the vehicles can carry up to 300 gallons of water and 300 gallons of diesel fuel, which powers the engine, water heater and ceramic cooktop.
GXV products are built with marine industry supplies, such as wiring, plumbing and appliances, and most suppliers are stationed in Europe.
“It’s a lot of 3 a.m. phone calls to deal with the vendors,” René Van Pelt says, pointing to the composite-foam wall panels and double-pane windows ordered from Germany, and the refrigerators bought from Italy. “When I’m getting to work, they’re going home.”
The living quarters are built on truck chassis, ranging from a Ford F-550 to an International WorkStar heavy-duty. GXV’s smallest model, the UXV, is designed with a king or queen sleeper above the cab and a dinette that converts to sleep space, while its largest, the Pangea, features a hydraulic roof that lifts to create a second-story loft.
GXV sends its finished campers to Springfield Freightliner Body Shop for paint work.
Shop manager Darrel Johns says the jobs are some of the more unique and laborious.
“There’s quite a bit of work to them,” he says. “There is a lot of climbing involved. It’s a younger man’s job to paint one of these trucks.”
GXV’s custom orders sometime involve painting the cab and chassis to match to the camper.
Once out on the road, the vehicles are designed to be self-reliant with solar panels collecting energy and a diesel generator to run the furnace and lighting.
“You can go off-grid whether it’s the Mark Twain Forest or in Patagonia,” Van Pelt says.[[In-content Ad]]
