We were camped in Death Valley a few years ago next to a Dutch couple in this truck. It's much smaller than the rolling Mongolian, and I had an interesting chat with the guy about the size of his truck. They've had larger ones and trekked the world (Pan American Highway into South American and in North Africa). He said the problem with bigger trucks is that they sink. You have to park them on very good pavement, or the trucks wheels sink into the pavement or ground when you've parked there overnight. He also had problems with side to side clearances in villages and overhead clearance with bridges, trees, and electric wires. So this smaller truck was a compromise for the couple - smaller than they wanted but not so big they were limited in where they could go.
The rolling Mongolian looks great in the drawings, but I suspect it's too big for most of us to use even as a bug-out vehicle.
I'm reminded, by the way, of our camping trip in the Southwest at the time of the
Rodeo-Chedeski fire fire in Arizona. People had bugged out over several hundred miles. The motel we stayed at was nearly filled with people who'd left their homes, farms, and ranches.
The neighborliness was just what I remember from my growing up on a farm in Texas - people took care of each other and their livestock. Volunteers came from miles around with their stock trailers to haul off cattle and horses and care for the animals till they could be returned to the owners.
I assume similar actions in the
current Arizona fire, where people are evacuating, hoping their homes survive.
My recollections of farm life in Texas, at least in the 50s and 60s, was that everyone needed help at one time or another and could be counted on to give help when others needed it. It's just what you did as a neighbor.
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