STEPSOVER WORLD TOUR

EXPLORING THE WORLD WITH A 4X4 MAN TRUCK

We are Simone and Lucia, an Italian couple of just over forty years old. We met approximately ten years ago when we enjoyed the holiday season, and the strange thing is also that we married while travelling, in Manali, India five years ago. As you can imagine we love travelling, and for many years our dream was to start a world tour. We have travelled a lot in the past with our motorcycles. Africa was our primary destination followed by Asia and Europe.

After many years of travelling during the holiday seasons, we felt that three or four weeks a year weren’t sufficient to give fuel to our passion. We were once ‘normal’ people with regular jobs. Simone was in charge of computer security for one of the leading Cyber Security Command Centers in Italy, while Lucia worked for a major French multinational. But even the fact that we really loved our jobs we didn’t see ourselves living that life for multiple years ahead. We only wanted to fulfil our dream of long-term traveling around the world. We opted for a radical change of life and decided to quit our jobs in order to give more space to our life, to our passion. Actually, we are living the dream, we are trying to live as much as possible our present, without thinking about what we want to see tomorrow. But, Hey, we already know your first question: How did you earn money? Our past jobs were completely different from what we are doing today on the road. We are nowadays content creators, bloggers, writers, and video-makers.

We start to travel with motorcycles, after many years and many different destinations we came to the conclusion that two wheels can't give to us full dependence in the remote area of the world. For that reason we change our style of travel, we opted for something bigger and more independent. We choose a 4x4 Motorhome with a chassis of a big truck for its versatility. We can drive off-road from the worst desert trails to the paved highways. The truck was born to work. It has a robust and reliable construction.

When travelling the way we do it is pretty common to have problems with the vehicle and usually a truck like ours is more easily repaired. The truck has given us more space to be autonomous: 700 litres of water, 1.5 KW of solar energy, a 5KW inverter, an induction cooker, and a really useful washing machine of 7kg. Yes, we need a lot of energy in order to run all these devices and that’s why after some years of traveling we changed our battery bank. Now thanks to Super B we have 10KW! of energy stored in our Lithium iron phosphate batteries (also known as LiFePO4 or LFP). That’s a lot of energy that we can use every day in order to be really self-sufficient.

We chose Super B and lithium after we have used standard AGM batteries for some time. To be honest that was not the best choice for us. Replacing our old AGM batteries saved 400kg! of weight in our truck, and using the Super B NOMIA lithium batteries now we can use 80% of the capacity of the entire battery bank without any problem. Energy is one of the most important things for independency. We cook with electricity because in our truck there is no propane.

Lithium batteries are the best solution for an overland truck like ours. Our truck is equipped with a useful Domotic system that controls everything inside the truck, from the ventilation system all the way to the water pressure inside the plumbing system. This is really useful in order to prevent damages on the road and to manage every function of the interior with just a click on our tablet. We successfully integrated the new Super B lithium batteries in our truck and now we really feel more independent.

Why do we want to be independent? Because we want to discover the DNA of a place. We don’t want to stop where the road ends, we have to go further. Where the tarmac ends there are landscapes and people who survive to artificial and forced contamination of our cliché of civilization. Is it possible to discover a different point of view of the same country? It doesn’t have to be necessarily better, truer, or more beautiful. As long as it is simply different. Of course, if we leave the paved roads we can get in trouble, it’s part of the game. But these moments could offer occasions of learning and connect with populations that live their lives in a completely different way than we are used to. People that follow their hearts in a world without. We think that the understanding of these contradictions is an important element of our journey.

To archive that goal we have to travel for several days before getting to the desired destination. Imagine what it means to have a technical issue that interrupts your journey in these places? You can't expect technical assistance in a place without people, or if someone coincidentally passes by doesn't mean that he or she can help us. Safety, independence, and autonomy become really important. For example, we brought with us a welding machine for repair purposes, and now with the NOMIA lithium batteries, we can use our 5KW Inverter with ease. This for us is independence.

We are travelling with our truck for several years now. We left Italy in April 2017 with our self-built motorhome. We went from Genoa to Morocco and then we travelled to Senegal where we have taken a cargo ship to South America. We travelled for approximately two years in South America. After we crossed the infamous Darien Gap we started our adventure in Central America where we stayed for one year before entering Mexico. Now we are in the U.S. and we are exploring this new amazing country. Our journey aims to make us more aware of the world around us. We do not pursue a precise goal. Not having to reach a destination at all costs allows us to fully devote ourselves to what we encounter on the way. And the lithium batteries from Super B are essential for us to live independent, off-the-grid for a long period of time. We are grateful for that!

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