This Overlanding Truck is the Ultimate Expedition Vehicle

Alex Jackson is the proud owner of this 1990 Leyland DAF T244 Expedition Truck House, called Welly. For a number of years, Alex had already been building rigs, starting with a Tacoma rooftop tent, moving onto a Bowler, a Toyota Heist Van – we filmed him back then, you can check the video out here – eventually sold it and got himself this truck. He got inspired when he saw a Leyland DAF sitting in a car lot, did some research and found that this vehicle checked all the boxes on his wish list.

Initially, the truck had just a flat deck and cost Alex 16.5K CAN$ – with the built, it all cost him between 60 and 70K CAN$. The ex-Military Transport Truck has a 6BT engine, which Alex loves for its reliability, power and good fuel mileage which lies at 30 miles per gallon. It weighs around eight to nine tons and came with two half bumpers at the front called "the moustache".

In order to have a maximum amount of storage, Alex built in boxes out of steel all around the truck to store things like hoses, electrical stuff, tools, propane and more. At the back he installed a stable tire carrier, since one tire of the truck weighs 250-300 pounds. Right beside it are a few old ammo boxes from antique stores which he uses for wood storage.

The whole house structure is built by Alex himself: steel frame with aluminium skin. It is all built around being able to carry bikes, holding up to four bikes as Alex' wife is a professional cyclist. For this, Alex additionally built in a whole "garage" area – a big space towards the front of the truck that also carries their 65 gallons water tank and the Isotemp 6-gallon heat exchanging water heater, which mainly heats through the inverter while Alex drives.

At the front, a ladder leads get up to a small deck above the truck front: for yoga, hangouts or storage. On the rooftop are 460 Watts of solar panels, conntected to a Noco G15000 Battery charger. Alex also installed one skylight above bedroom and one above the bathroom, two Maxx Air fans and a small chimney.

The ladder that leads into the house is stored between the living area and the cab, ready to be hooked in. As the garage is in the lower front area of the vehicle, the bedroom is slightly heightened – it consists of a full queen-size bed with shelves toward the front of the vehicle. Everywhere in the house are small storage spaces, nooks and shelves to be found, made out of barn wood. The wood stove is in a corner right beside the entry: Alex built the stove himself, putting on a special cast furnace door his grandfather gave him.

The bathroom in front of the entry looks beautiful. Alex tried to use as much repurposed material as he could and got the siding out of an old barn and just treated it properly. The whole bathroom is completely watertight and the adventurer also designed the composting toilet himself, which he says works with an 80 percent efficiency as there is still a noticeable earthy odour he doesn't appreciate too much – that's why he has an Air Head Composting Toilet on order right now.

All the doors inside have been pulled out of an 80 years old house, cut up to size and treated. In the kitchen he installed a small Nova Kool 12V refrigerator. For a lot of his railing for small shelves he used Canadian copper. The counter is made out of repurposed barn wood. A Camp Chef stove oven, intended for outdoor use (disclaimer), taking the regulator off its back and plumbing it right off the propane tank, which is also why Alex installed a gas detector in the corner beside. Right underneath the kitchen counter is a lovely dog nook!

The seating area beside the kitchen is built exactly in the dimensions of the window. However, Alex still wants to change it a bit, in order to have more leg space.

"The biggest lesson that I learned when I started to have to repair stuff, is taking the time to do things properly. I literally built the entire thing myself and it's a massive time commitment, and I wanted to get it done in a certain time, so I rushed a lot of things. Take your time, do your research, pick your materials, that's really important.”