Driven: 2025 Krug Bedrock XT2 – From Kyiv With Love, an Overlander 6x4 Like No Other

Right off the bat, what would you peg as the perfect place to test drive what's touted as the most capable six-wheeler overland truck in North America? Maybe the tundras of Alaska or the high desert of California, right? Well, how about smack dab in the middle of suburban Connecticut, a place known for its low-hanging commuter rail bridges and archetypal New York metro area traffic? For one afternoon, the sprawls of Greenwich, Connecticut, and the surrounding New York County of Westchester were our impromptu desert oasis.

The point was hammered home when I pulled into the train station parking lot, where I was told to meet the Krug team. Only to find the truck towered high above and extended well beyond the other vehicles in the lot. Frankly, it was astounding how the XT2 even made it through the parking lot. Outside the truck, my Krug contact, Dmitri, greeted me with a warm smile and a delightfully thick Eastern European accent.

Admittedly, I'd been strapped for time before making the trip out for this assignment, so this was a convenient segue into learning about this truck's origins. Right off the bat, we agreed a crowded train station parking lot was a silly place to check out an overland truck.

So, I followed closely behind to find a relatively secluded place where we could both begin and end the test drive. With that settled, I finally got to soak in the enormity of the vehicle sitting in front of me. On the face of it, what we have here is a 2025 Ford F-550 cab and chassis paired with an extra back axle, a completely over-the-top suspension setup, plus a 6.7-liter Powerstroke diesel V8 and ten-speed automatic transmission.

In the back is what can broadly be described as a high-quality overland camper compartment. In truth, it's more like a fully-fledged habitation module. But before you step even one foot inside the Krug XT2's apartment on wheels, its striking, downright jaw-dropping appearance invites you to look at this machine as it passes by. It's only through a joint venture with the Arctic Trucks team of Cheyenne, Wyoming, that Krug was able to find a cab and chassis capable enough to accommodate their world-class habitation module.

The Arctic Trucks team is best known for their custom cold weather overlander builds and went to great lengths to ensure the chassis paired with the Krug habitation pod matches the ruggedness within. We're talking massive boulders of three-piece 20x12 aluminum wheels, an Arctic Trucks three-inch suspension system lift in the front running Old Man Emu internal bypass shocks, and an eight-link air-ride rear suspension. It also has a bespoke subframe for better off-road capability, and it's all supported by an extended and boxed body-on-frame architecture.

It's all tied together aesthetically by a set of 365/80R20 Continental MPT tires that look more like something an army truck would employ. At this point, it's hard not to get the impression what we're looking at is a modernized deuce and a half-military truck concept, brought into the 2020s and fitted with a home away from home out back. It was while scanning the XT2's exterior that I noticed a decal for what appeared to be three flags along the roofline. Alongside the obligatory American flag sat one red and white flag of Austria and the blue and yellow of - Ukraine??

That's right, the Krug habitation module is manufactured at a facility outside of Kyiv and shipped to the US by way of Schladming, Austria, for assembly on an Arctic Trucks chassis. The company also manufactures bespoke overlanding trucks based on the chassis of a Euro-centric Mercedes-Benz for sale on its home continent. How it manages to do this while constantly being attacked by Russia's offensive war of attrition is nothing short of astonishing. One can only assume that if the restaurants, bars, and hotels that haven't been bombed yet are still open across Ukraine, there's no reason Krug has to close down either. It would certainly explain the accent of my dear new friend Dmitri. But this was just the start of what he had to show me.

Just beneath the side door to Krug's habitation pod, a small lever controls an actuating set of folding steel running boards that lead inside. Once there, you're transported into a space that feels almost like a New York City studio apartment on four wheels. One that comes complete with a roughly king-sized bed, tasteful shelving covered by polished aluminum and varnished wood, plus a small kitchenette complete with a sink and induction stovetop. Across from that, a Vitrifrigo C270DP freezer and refrigerator set and a Miele convection oven/microwave combo device completed a well-rounded dinette area. Behind the kitchen, a set of comfy wrap-around couches and a varnished wooden table make up an especially unique place to spend time.

Meanwhile, durable vinyl floors should stack up nicely to repeated off-road trips. The wooden shelf covers in this area open and close with the slightest of ease, and the contents inside didn't shift around during driving as you might expect. The integrated toilet and shower area that make up your small bathroom looks roomy enough without actually getting squeaky clean inside right then and there. But you do get a separate 7.5-gallon dry containment tank for your liquid waste to make the disposals of numbers one and two a slightly less harrowing affair. Blessedly, the ventilation in this room was solid, as well as throughout the rest of the pod.

The module is constructed of composite sandwich panels held together by a metal inner frame with GRP laminate linings inside and out. These allow for a layer of gel coat material in the middle, increasing positive insulation properties without increasing material thickness. The high fiberglass content of this laminate keeps the pod's weight to an absolute minimum, as do the lightweight wooden countertops and shelves. It also means the walls of the pod have the insulation capability at just 2.36 inches (60mm) thick of a wooden panel that's 11.8 inches (300 mm) thick. Even if the pod gets hot in the desert sun, a Nomadic Cooling X3 AC system with 11,830 BTUs of power is more than capable of putting a stop to that.

At the end of a long day of overlanding, you can lounge in a king-ish-sized bed located in the cab-over portion of the pod. It's comfortable enough, especially if you usually don't stay at the Four Seasons everywhere you travel. The 32-inch dinette TV and a 24-inch TV in the cab-over bedroom make quick work of Netflix and Xbox sessions. There are also enough USB ports and power sockets to charge several devices at once while running all the appliances and electronics inside. This includes running a SpaceX Starlink dish on the roof if you'd like.

Though we always recommend you do, you don't even have to bring several cases worth of water with you on long overland trips. That's because the XT2's freshwater tank holds a healthy 118 gallons. There's also a 60-gallon grey water tank and a 17-gallon black water tank for less desirable liquids that empties via an exterior control panel in the bodywork. All these water levels are observable via an LCD panel inside the pod, so you'll never be stuck up you-know-what's creek if you remember to check periodically.

If all else fails, the Bedrock XT2's real party trick is an on-board automatic water filtration system. Its internals are accessible in another outer bodywork panel, and it uses a powerful PURION 1000 UV lamp and a thorough three-stage pre-filtration system to eliminate viruses, bacteria, and parasites that might infest fresh water sources out in the wilderness. As for tap water, that runs through a further General Ecology Seagull IV-X2 carbon-activated filtration system that goes the extra mile to make on-board water crisp and clean.

The pod is powered by a Victron High Energy lithium-ion battery pack with 23.7 kWh of capacity and can help jump-start the Powerstroke diesel engine's battery if it goes flat. The roof is a perfect mounting point for 1450 wp of solar panels, and you can charge up via 120-volt or 230-volt power sources thanks to Victron Quattro 5000 inverters and chargers that can handle both form factors. In every possible metric, the Bedrock XT2 really can replace your apartment for a few weeks or more if need be.

Can you believe we haven't even driven the thing yet? Inside the driver's area, it's pretty much just another F-550 SuperCab Powerstroke in here. A very nicely trimmed one, we must say. That 12-inch LCD center screen with iOS and Android connectivity is of far higher quality than the industrial applications this rig often takes on necessitates. Other niceties included plush leather seats with diamond pattern stitching, a heated leather steering wheel, and a Bang & Olufson stereo. For how tricked out the habitation pod is inside, the cab was just as nice in many respects.

But after what felt like all day detailing each aspect of this rig, it was time to take the driver's seat. Surprisingly, slow-speed parking lot maneuverability was solid for a vehicle so massive. But it didn't take long to run into the XT2's most glaring downside. It wouldn't safely pass under Greenwich's notoriously low Metro North Railroad bridges without sheering off thousands of dollars worth of sensitive equipment in its wake.

Sadly, that meant Dmitri had to dismount the cab and direct traffic around us while I painstakingly made a roughly five million-point turn to get us in the other direction. Luckily, we realized the truck was too tall for the bridge just in time to slam on the brakes. Which, I might add, took some considerable foot strength to bite down the way a normal heavy-duty truck would. This might be because this example is actually a prototype, but it'd be wrong to say the F-550's OEM hydraulic brakes didn't do the job.

The truth of the matter is you can't just drive a vehicle this colossal just anywhere. It's a problem limited to just a few places in North America, if we're being honest. But it's still something to consider if you live in a heavily populated area with road infrastructure designed for things far smaller than an XT2. Otherwise, this behemoth with a 176-inch wheelbase gets up and goes just fine for its size. Highway acceleration is about on par with other Class 5 and Class 6 applications to which the F-550 chassis cab is typically applied.

The 6.7-liter Powerstroke diesel V8's 330 horsepower and 950 lb-ft of torque is smooth and subtle across the rev range thanks to that ten-speed gearbox. Visibility was surprisingly okay thanks to large side-view mirrors and a high-fidelity backup camera. To be honest, the ride in this pre-production prototype example was a little bit bumpy. But Dmitri assured me production examples would work this out by having Arctic

Trucks adjust the front springs and shocks to make them softer. He also mentioned that work will begin on a 6x6 variant once one or two production-grade 6x4s are sold. A day driving out and about in a rig this nuts felt like sipping water through a firehose. Every time I thought the list of features was about to end, something new and exciting waited right around the corner.

One thing's for sure; we can't wait to take the 6x6 Bedrock XT2 out on the trail to see what it's really capable of. Ideally, a place where those high-intensity auxiliary front lights can shine in full living color.
But for now, we can say with confidence that the Krug Bedrock XT2 is worth every penny of its $690,000 price tag. However, the way it was outfitted this time, the price is more like $750,000.

In short, it's a pro athlete or celebrity's personal desert bugout vehicle. Trust us when we say there's nothing wrong with that at all. Many thanks to Dmitri and the Krug team for letting a pauper like me have a look. I only wish I could be the one to take it off their hands.