Welcome! - Even though you may be tempted to buy local, the better truck may be some distance away from you. Find the right truck for you, wherever in the US it may be. I bought an FG in CA and drove it back to the east coast because it was the right truck.
As you know, buying an FG is not an impulse buy where you decide to buy one today and get one tomorrow. Get to know the market, what the prices are like, and watch inventories around the country. When the right truck comes up be ready to jump on it.
I bought mine the same day it came on the market - but it was after a lot (months) of market research and knowing exactly what I was looking for. Because I was ready, I think I was able to react more quickly than others that were interested.
Good luck!
Thanks for the sage advice, Pugslyyy. I've been obsessively reading this forum and other sources for about 4 months now, checking CL and ebay several times a day, and staying up too late most nights scouring all over the web for parts, tips, and build stories. My fiancee is starting to get a bit worried, but she's been through this before when we bought our sailboat
There's still plenty to figure out; SWR conversion (and hopefully not having to register as a commercial vehicle as a result) being top of the list, the design and fab of the flatbed and camper shell (I'll save that for the summer when its above freezing here in MA)....
The one thing we keep flip-flopping on is the 4x4 question- Micklongley and others seem to have build pretty awesome rigs on 2wd Fuso platforms, and going with FE or FH or Isuzu leaves about $10K more in the pocket for upgrades and exploration than a comparable FG. Also, Rebecca is pretty keen on staying away from a manual transmission (what they call "standard" here) (and, I know...) so an automatic tranny is, perhaps somewhat unfortunately, a must-have and that narrows the field down pretty quickly, FG-wise, and limits the options to the 133" wheelbase models. I'm on the fence as to whether that's a good or bad thing- the 109" WB is certainly appealing for overall daily driver use (which the truck will be with a flat- or stake- bed) but as i'm thinking a 13-14'ish camper build perhaps the medium WB is preferable.
This community is amazing, and besides being a wealth of info and ideas, it's ultimately inspiring to see such a large and diverse set of folks sharing a broad yet common passion for a different way of living and experiencing the world. Moving onto our sailboat brought us into contact with this dream- we're excited to expand it with our expedition rig project. Thanks for the warm welcome.
Joshua
