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Colorado-based adventure company EarthRoamer enjoys a reputation even larger than its goliath overlanders, which the company calls “Xpedition Vehicles,” or “XV” for short. The company recently gave a 30-minute tour of it’s XV-LTS, based on the Ford F-550 Super Duty and the most junior offering in the product range. At a starting price of $490,000, the VX-LTS is the least expensive product in the range, but the walkaround makes clear that EarthRoamer builds every vehicle to the same set of standards. What’s more, it can closely enforce those standards because builds take place in the company’s in-house, 44,000-square-foot workshop where everything — down to the stitched leather cushions for the salon couches — is made.
EarthRoamer starts with an F-550 in Lariat trim and the 6.7-liter PowerStroke diesel up front. The motor retains its stock configuration, producing 330 horsepower and 750 pound-feet of torque at 2,000 rpm. The rig has a gross vehicle weight rating of 21,060 pounds, and can still tow 12,500 pounds. With a 40-gallon main tank and a 55-gallon reserve tank, range is about 900 miles.
All the changes made to the chassis are to improve off-roading prowess. The stock suspension is upgraded with custom-valved King shocks and adjustable Kelderman airbags. Those bags are individually adjustable, say for leveling the XV-LTS at the campsite. New, angled fender flares lord over 41-inch, military-grade Continental MPT 81 tires on 20-inch Hutchinson aluminum beadlock wheels. A 40-inch curved light bar from Baja Designs sits in a bumper and brush guard combo designed to mimic the Ford’s lines, additional fog and off-road lighting located lower down in the bumper. There’s a 16,500-pound Warn winch in front with Factor55 hardware and wrapped in synthetic line, a mirror image of the same winch setup hidden in the back bumper.
The truck interior’s been fitted with four captain’s chairs and a pass-through to the camper shell. A second control panel on the center console manages the Air Ride suspension, monitors the tanks, includes a HAM radio controller, and toggles for the front-facing FLIR camera, rear-view camera, and underbody camera to check on the ground beneath the rig.
The camper shell is made from fiberglass sandwiching a balsa wood core, molded in one piece to reduce seams and cuts that could leak. The only openings are for the vents in the ceiling and the side windows. It’s fitted to the ladder chassis with two fixed mounts near the cab, a third flexible mount at the rear allowing the shell some movement over rough terrain. With five floorplans to choose from, customers have about all the options here that they’d get working with Bentley’s Mulliner division. The Breckenridge layout in the video is the most popular, with highlights like the electronic slide-out couch, 10-inch stainless sink with touch-activated faucet and separate drinking spout, induction stove, convection microwave, a five-bottle wine rack, king-sized memory foam mattress, gun rack, wardrobe with six drawers and a hanging closet, tons of storage, and a wet bathroom with a medicine cabinet and cassette toilet with a five-gallon tank.
Powering all this are four 8D Lifeline deep-cycle marine batteries with a combined 1,020 amp-hours running through a 3,000-watt Xantrex inverter to make 120-volt AC. The 12-volt system needs no external generator, and the batteries get charged by the diesel engine’s 300-amp alternator, the 1,320-watt, four-panel solar system on the roof, or 30-amp shore power. The diesel-powered heating units can keep the interior warm and water flowing down to 30 below.
And this is all just the beginning. Check out the vid for a thorough look-see.
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