Home is where the heart is, as the saying goes. But home can also be where you park it, which is the case with Das Getüm, an overlander slash home that has parked all over the world in the past 7 years, helping the two owners make new friends and enjoy new experiences.
Das Getüm, which Google translates to "The hustle and bustle," is an overlander turned into a very cozy home suitable for long-term living, whether on or off the beaten track. It's a 2016 Mitsubishi Fuso FG converted into an off-grid and very comfortable tiny house for two people, though it can sleep three persons on an occasional basis. It's also a beautiful example of downsizing, allowing for a more nomadic lifestyle, though owners Harriet and Olly don't live in it full time.
Das Getüm doesn't have a very strong social media presence, which is strange considering that every traveler and downsizer out there is trying to capitalize on this appealing lifestyle. Not these two, though. During a recent stay in Baja, California, Harriet and Olly opened the doors to their rig for a popular YouTube channel, and we have that to thank for the chance to see it. Otherwise, Harriet and Olly are content with traveling without oversharing on the socials – an unheard-of thing with the younger generation.
To us watching or reading at home, Das Getüm can serve as inspiration and proper eye candy. Olly says they bought the rig and had it customized ahead of the maiden journey 7 years ago. They wanted something that was small enough on the road but big enough at camp, and tough to go off-road and off-grid whenever they wanted. The Mitsubishi Fuso felt like the right choice, and they've received proper confirmation of it through their travels.
Photo: Instagram / fusso_olly
The overlander is 24 feet long, 11.5 feet high, and almost 7 feet wide (7.6 x 3.5 x 2.1 meters), and weighs 15,000 lbs (6,893 kg) when fully loaded. There's an 8-gallon (30.2-liter) propane tank for the 3-burner range, a 79-gallon (299-liter) of water in a tank under the bed, and 700 W of solar on the roof, allowing the couple to go off-grid for extended stretches. The propane lasts them months; they can go without a water refill for a maximum of 3.5 weeks if they watch their consumption and can rely solely on the solar panels if they're in sunnier areas.
No wonder then that Das Getüm has been all over the world, from Iceland to all over Europe, Canada, and the United States. It's capable of handling the roughest terrains and the most surprising or extreme conditions, and it's also specced to double as a very comfortable, if not exactly spacious, home.
The box is 115 square feet (10.6 square meters), sheathed in 2-inch fiberglass reinforced plastic with polyurethane foam core for resistance and insulation. It holds a kitchen and a dinette that converts into a single-person bed, a large bathroom, and a queen-size bed at the rear. Styled in white paneling with wooden accents for a more homey vibe, it offers plenty of storage options and multi-functional furniture to compensate for the compact footprint.
Photo: Instagram / fusso_olly
The interior is an excellent example of the creativity of this type of mobile homes, from the side garage with room for various tools and two folding Brompton bicycles and the high number of windows that Harriet wanted to create the impression of an airier space to the way in which the dinette converts into a 4-person area, from a standard 2-person. The kitchen is almost residential in size as far as storage and appliances go, while the bathroom is utilitarian without compromising aesthetics.
The bathroom doubles as connection to the cab area through a lockable pass-through. Olly explains that a permanent pass-through wouldn't have been possible since the Mitsubishi is a cab-over and the engine is underneath. The locking door also comes in handy when they have to send the overlander by ship ahead to their destination because this allows them to hand over only the keys to the cab, not to the house itself.
Das Getüm is described in the full-length tour as a tiny house on wheels, but it's not of the kind that sits on a trailer and is towed from place to place. You know the type, they're trendy right now. For the comparison to hold, we should add that it's the beefier, tougher, and more badass cousin of a standard tiny house.
Photo: YouTube / Tiny House Giant Journey
But it is a "home" in every sense of the word, with accent on comfort, functionality, and aesthetics. As it happens, it's a home that represented a $200,000 initial investment in 2016. It's definitely more expensive than one of those towable tiny houses, but it's also more mobile and goes where those won't.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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