It’s okay if you’ve never heard of Peter Dunkel. What’s important to know is that he’s a professional machinery mover and car collector who thought it’d be wise to invest $6 million in a Ford F-750 that could cruise the world, so to speak. That’s how the F-750 World Cruiser came to be, and the gargantuan creation was once listed by Mecum with a relatively cheap estimated sale price of $450,000 to $650,000. Let’s look at why it might’ve been worth that kinda scratch.
You can clearly tell from the photos that the crew cab truck has had a lot of length added to it. Not only that, but it’s 22 inches wider than a factory F-750, all so you can fit a vehicle in the bed. Now, most pickups can’t haul cars in the bed because they’re too heavy, but that’s not a problem for the World Cruiser and its 8,000+ pounds of carrying capacity back there. Handily, the base plate is made of half-inch-thick diamond plating.
If anything, that’s just an added bonus given all the luxury living features inside the rig. When the carpet’s diamond pattern matches the quilted leather seats, you know you’re in for a good time. The passenger-rear door reveals a step that’s similar to what you’d find on a city bus, maybe because this is about the same size as one. What a city bus doesn’t have, though, are full sleeping quarters, a bathroom with a shower that provides instant hot water without propane, a sink, a stove, and a living room with a flatscreen TV as the centerpiece.
You’ll notice the AC unit up top, as well as the two full-size spare tires mounted up there. And by now, you’re probably wondering what powers the World Cruiser. Simply put, it’s a 300-horsepower Caterpillar diesel that makes 1,200 pound-feet of torque. Thanks to that, it’ll cruise at 70 miles per hour, likely slurping through its 60-gallon fuel supply in a hurry.
It seems puzzling why someone would spend this much building a motorhome that does essentially the same thing as all the others. After all, Mecum says Dunkel dished out $20,000 on the wiring harness alone, which was necessary to run all the Kenwood entertainment, onboard air compressor, and so on. But the reasoning becomes a bit clearer when you realize this behemoth is actually a lot lighter than a regular RV—it weighs roughly half as much, apparently—and it’s able to tow more.
Really, this might be the most extreme example of buying someone else’s project, which isn’t always a good idea; however, this project is seemingly complete.
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on 11/22/2021: This article previously stated that the F-750 World Cruiser is for sale right now. However, it was auctioned by Mecum in 2013 and never sold. We’ve reached out to see if the truck is still available and the copy has been updated to reflect.
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