{"id":9265,"date":"2016-09-09T11:22:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T11:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=9265"},"modified":"2016-09-09T11:22:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T11:22:13","slug":"flat-packed-ox-van-is-ready-to-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9265","title":{"rendered":"Flat-packed OX van is ready to roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2013 we reported on the OX<\/a>, a flat-pack truck\u00a0designed for Africa. Fast-forward three years and the\u00a0OX is ready to go into production.<\/p>\n

\"GVT

The Global Vehicle Trust OX, designed by Professor Gordon Murray<\/p><\/div>\n

THe OX is the result of several years of hard work by Sir Torquil Norman’s Global Vehicle Trust and designer Gordon Murray.\u00a0The flat-pack design means that six flat-packed OX’s can be shipped in one 40ft high-cube shipping container.\u00a0Three trained technicians can put together an OX in approximately 12 hours, so assembly time is fairly minimal.<\/p>\n

The OX is only 4.3m long —\u00a0significantly less than a\u00a0short wheelbase van or a pickup.\u00a0Despite this, the\u00a0load area is big enough to hold eight 44-gallon drums, three Euro pallets or\u00a013 people.\u00a0Maximum payload is 1,900kg — roughly double most medium vans and pickups.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Global Vehicles Trust OX, designed by Gordon Murray.<\/p><\/div>\n

As it’s primarily designed for Africa, the OX has to be able to perform well off road. Although it’s two-wheel drive, the OX has been engineered to ensure that a\u00a0the front (drive) wheels are always\u00a0well loaded with weight, providing good traction in all conditions. GVT believe that the OX’s all-terrain ability is\u00a0“as good, or better, than a four-wheel drive across a range of surfaces”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The OX is powered by a 2.2-litre diesel engine that’s taken from a Ford Transit. The engine and running gear should be reliable and relatively straightforward to service,\u00a0albeit not as simple\u00a0and indestructible as older non-turbo diesel engines might be.<\/p>\n

GVT founder Sir Torquil Norman\u00a0says that feedback from aid agencies and contacts in Africa has been positive. Sir Torquil is now focused on finding funding to put the OX into production. There’s no word on the likely price, but low cost was one\u00a0a key element of the design brief, so I’d expect the price to be significantly lower than a\u00a0European van or pickup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Global Vehicles Trust OX is a lightweight, off-road cargo vehicle for Africa which can be flat-packed for shipping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[1708,1707],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9270,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions\/9270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}