It is not only the mainstream shows like Intersolar 2015 (München, Jun 10th – Jun 12th) that Victron Energy attend to spread the Energy, Anytime, Anywhere, word – there are also a range of niche shows that Victron are actively involved with. One such recent event is Abenteuer & Allrad.
Abenteuer & Allrad
Translated from German this means ‘Off-road & All-wheel’. The event covers all sorts of rough terrain and expedition vehicles. Whilst such events don’t get quite so much press as the larger shows, they are to my mind far more interesting.
Ever since I was fifteen years old I’ve been an off-road competition motorcyclist and in fact even saved up enough and planned to ride the Paris-Dakar in the early 80s, but instead when it came to the crunch I spent the money on a deposit for an apartment, moving from Brazil to Scotland to accept a promotion at work. A missed opportunity to compete in the Paris-Dakar or possibly and more likely – a life saving decision? I’ll never know, but one thing that has endured to this day is a love of deserts and mountains.
In those intervening years I’ve manged to ride motorcycles and drive Land Rovers in such fabulous places as Baja in Mexico, the Atlas mountains in Morocco and the Sahara desert. Over that time I’ve often pondered what would be the ultimate expedition vehicle for such terrain? Going by the headline image above and the one below, I think I’ve found it! It is called a UNICAT and she can easily carry a motorcycle on the rack at the rear.
UNICAT expedition vehicles
Besides being a remarkable vehicle it also turns out that UNICATs are equipped with every conceivable Victron Energy product it seems. In fact it is so extensive and the system so well proven, that one will feature in a future blog.
Victron Energy at Abenteuer & Allrad (And is that a KTM on the back of the UNICAT?)
Show report
Here is what Bob Hopman had to say about the event, which was held near Munich last week.
“The sun was shining and it was 30 degrees in the shade, providing the perfect backdrop for expedition vehicles and to explain Victron Energy’s products. This was especially so as we were located next to UNICAT who are one of our customers which meant people could see our products installed in a vehicle, besides our own display shown above. Over the two days I was there, it proved an excellent fair for us with lots of visitors and interesting conversations as to how products are used and integrated into vehicles. We are planning to expand the booth next year.
I also spoke to somebody who took a Victron PV system to 6,600m+ in Chile on a truck – which must be a height record for Victron usage (with possibly the exception of the Everest expeditions) and I’m looking forward to seeing the report and photographs soon.
Other customers and users like Bliss (www.blissmobil.com) and Bocklet (www.bocklet.eu), plus other installers were present too. All in all a great event and I’m already looking forward to next year.”
Conclusion
Thanks to Bob Hopman for the photos and information.
As a result I’ve now been in touch with Thomas Waas of UNICAT and I’m looking forward to learning more of their vehicles and travels, plus which Victron Energy products are fitted and how they have performed in extreme conditions. As soon as I have all that information together, you’ll be the first to know – right here on the Victron Blog.
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