We’re honored to have one of our very favorite overlanding icons as this week’s Overlander Spotlight. It’s the epic and inspirational Beelzebus. We’ve followed this particular rig for some time and now we get to go a bit behind the scenes.
Thank you so much for chatting with us. First, tell us a bit about yourselves.
We are Katja, Björn and Balthazar. Katja is a photographer and graphic designer. Björn is a carpenter and electrician and is generally a very handy man who can build or fix anything. Balthazar is an Irish wolfhound and our best travel companion.
So what exactly is Beelzebus and how long have you had it?
It’s a Mercedes 508D from 1984. I believe it was used as a truck in the beginning but eventually it was rebuilt into an RV. We’ve had it for about 3 years now. When we bought the bus, it was very rusty and the interior was completely water damaged. So we had to tear the interior out, fix all the rust holes, do the bodywork and build new interior. It took us about 6-7 months of full-time work to finish this build.
Can you tell us about your favorite mods and features?
Our favorite mods probably are our solar system and the roof rack. So, a little bit about our electrical system: we have two 360W solar panels and two big 250 Ah batteries, we can also use 3000W of 230V power, which is enough to power a small cabin. We never run out of electricity and can charge our laptops and cameras and etc pretty much any time we want. We get a lot of solar power even during very cloudy and rainy days. The only time we didn’t have enough electricity was when we were staying above the Arctic Circle during autumn-winter season. Days were very short and the weather was very stormy most of the time. Luckily we have a charger that charges up our batteries while we are driving or another good alternative is stay at campings sites overnight where we could borrow a power outlet and also take an opportunity and wash the laundry.
The roof rack is another favorite mod of ours. Björn made it himself and we are very happy with the way it turned out. We could add some extra lights, since original lights are very weak. We have more space so we could add a couple of storage boxes up on the roof and we got a cool “terrace” we can hangout on.
What’s been your favorite trip with Beelzebus so far?
Norway without any doubt. It’s a fairy-tale country. There are forests, mountains, quick rivers, and waterfalls around every corner.
What’s your dream expedition?
Our dream expedition is visiting Canada and Alaska one day. But for now we are hoping that the borders will open and we can continue exploring Europe.
Follow all of Beezlebus’s adventures on Instagram.
