Life on wheels
A MAN TGM with Bliss Mobil housing box body as a living and working space? For several months, that is how Marcus Esser has been using a vehicle that is known to most for mail forwarding purposes. In order not only to live and work in the MAN TGM Bliss Mobil, but also to be able to drive it, the physicist first obtained his truck driving licence.
Living and working wherever you want to go – even for long-distance drivers that is not necessarily possible, if only because they are firmly bound to their scheduled routes. For Marcus Esser, however, it is much closer to being the case. After a radical change, he turned his old life upside down, rearranged it and discovered a new way to approach life and work. Alongside him in the leading role: his MAN TGM 18.320 4×4 with Bliss Mobil housing box body.
In short, Marcus Esser’s vehicle is a ‘tiny house’ on wheels. But that is not the end of the story, because what the 11.2-ton vehicle offers in the housing box goes far beyond the normal motorhome standard. The standard of a regular household was the yardstick that Marcus Esser wanted to achieve in the development of his modern living concept. The doctor of physics worked for many years in industry, in the field of technology innovation management, a role which included worldwide development of innovation laboratories, responsibility for many employees, and up to 100 nights in hotels and 150 flights a year. Then, in 2016, everything changed: a serious illness forced the then 45-year-old to rethink his previous lifestyle: ‘It was one of those moments in life where you ask yourself if you are really going about things the right way.’ He decided that from that point on he only wanted to travel privately. In addition, he began to give more and more thought to the topic of mobile life – a process that he optimised to a large degree at the beginning of the year with the purchase of his MAN TGM Bliss Mobil.
Previously, he had experienced life in a normal motorhome with all-wheel drive. He used that time to find out what he would need to be able to lead such a life permanently without it becoming a burden. With the new vehicle, Marcus Esser has done everything possible to bring his small living space up to a household standard that allows a pleasant way of life in the long term. This includes the usual everyday items, such as a porcelain toilet with water flush, a normal shower with fittings, a heat pump for heating and cooling, and standard kitchen appliances such as an oven, microwave, induction cooker and washing machine.
Before he was ready to exchange his old apartment for the new, 12-square-metre home, he first had to learn to focus fully on the essentials. An important step in this process, he explains, was to sell all superfluous possessions. ‘You have to part with many things,’ says Marcus Esser, ‘but it quickly becomes apparent that you don’t need them for a happy life anyway. The labour-intensive process of throwing the ballast overboard has now been completed, and I’m very happy about that.’ He is also happy he made the right choice with the combination of MAN chassis and Bliss Mobil housing body. Here, too, a labour-intensive phase is now behind him, one which he describes in retrospect as particularly impressive and productive thanks to the good cooperation with MAN salesperson Marco Clemens and his contact partners at Bliss Mobil, because everyone demonstrated full commitment to the project and great synergies developed.
One of the big challenges was getting the weight that the standard equipment of a household brings with it onto a vehicle. In addition, Esser knew that he would need all-wheel drive in order to be able to head for more exotic destinations at a later date. And he wanted a relatively high degree of independence between the housing body and the vehicle in order to remain flexible for the future, especially in terms of technical innovations in the vehicle sector. When it comes to being able to switch from diesel power to an alternative drive in years to come, for example. ‘In a few years’ time, MAN’s technology might include an all-wheel-drive chassis with fuel cell drive – then the cab could be fitted,’ says Esser.
The end product of the detailed planning phase is a MAN TGM 18.320 4×4 with permanent all-wheel drive, gear reduction, three mechanical differential locks and the longest possible axle ratio. Additional comfort is provided by an air-sprung cab, a navigation system, auxiliary heating, comfort seats with reclining function and additional air filters for the cab. The living cabin from Bliss Mobil could theoretically also be parked in a garden and used as a ‘tiny house’. All the vital functions of the residential unit work on electricity, with a 20 kWh lithium storage unit in the living cabin, its own 1400 Wp solar power system and a powerful 5 kW inverter to allow all the electrical devices to run in parallel at times.
Marcus Esser has been on the road with his MAN Bliss Mobil since the beginning of June – an intense period during which he has been able to familiarise himself with the complex technology of the vehicle. ‘That phase is still ongoing, but is slowly coming to an end. Everything quickly became very clear to me. In the meantime, I’ve covered almost 9,000 kilometres and I’m very happy with how everything is going.’ Of course, he also had to get used to driving himself. Having only received his truck driving licence last year, he still describes himself as a newcomer behind the wheel. Above all, the dimensions of the truck took some getting used to at first. Nevertheless, his summary of the situation is entirely positive: ‘In terms of the vehicle, it’s just great for a layman like me to see how easy it is to drive,’ he says.
‘The truck matches the driving comfort of a large car, the support provided by the assistance systems is very helpful and it is pleasantly quiet in the driver’s cab.’
And the way of life is also exactly as he had imagined: ‘Although you only have 12 square metres to live on, which would usually sound like a small space, it works really well, with everything you need and no restrictions in terms of comfort.’
The story of Marcus Esser and his MAN TGM Bliss Mobil might not be the classic trucker’s life story you would usually expect to read on the Trucker’s World by MAN website. But that makes it all the better that we became aware of it, as it shows how changeable and surprising life can be if we dare to do something different.