just thinking about it .... hope I don't offend anyone ..... a diy project measured in years would probably be as over priced for me as an off the shelf .... the only way it makes sense to me is to plan and build using some basic project management and budget disciplines. Sorry, I spent a lot of time with IT and Engineering projects, the hands on skills are secondary.
No offense taken, LOL. The time taken depends a lot on whether you do it full time or part time, and whether you do it all yourself or get other people to build most of the parts and you just assemble it. I think I have spent way too much time planning, so much so that I often change my mind a few times before settling on what is right for me. For example, I have three 240V inverters, why, because I had one fail in the Land Rover and we realised how dependent we had become on it, so I have some redundancy, in fact every system on my truck is dual redundancy.
I've seen builds done in a few months, then the owners spends years getting it right, or finds they can't live with it and sell it for something bigger/smaller/better. I originally planned something simple, but after looking at some of the other builds, which, sorry to say, look like refrigerator vans, I decided to go with something a lot different, and what I knowingly went with something that was pretty complex in order for it to look "right". The interior of the camper has taken forever, and to be honest, getting the subcontractor I did was the worst mistake of the whole build, over budget, years behind schedule, but I really like the end result. I know I have gone over the top, but it will be my home for a few years and in the end, it is the luxury items that make things special, not the normal stuff. Things have taken a lot longer, and through personal problems where real life interferes I have not had as much time as I would like to.
I could have bought a second hand Unimog all kitted out from Europe for less money now, but when I started they were EUR 80K, which would be around $250K landed which I could not afford them. When I started, the AUD was only $0.60 to the USD, and unimogs were selling for $80-90K for rust buckets. Now they are a lot cheaper, and with the military ones on the market now, easy to get hold of. Cost wise I suppose it all depends on what you value your time at, I like to think my build is as good if not better than anything on the market.
In the years of research I have read about professional trucks breaking apart, that includes the Unicats, GXV etc. I like to think that mine is over-engineered as I can without adding weight. Time will tell if I am right, but at least I should be able to fix basically everything on the truck, and since I put it together, I made sure I can take it apart again. I should have started with a better truck, but now I have something that has had everything overhauled, whilst not a new truck, there is a lot of it that is new.
Back to the topic of whether the professional trucks are overpriced, not really, you get something that has been tested, and with a bit of research you should be able to find all the known faults with each brand, and decided whether you can live with them. In the end, a good quality well built truck will cost you a bit less if your do it yourself, providing your labour is for free, and If you build it yourself, then if something goes wrong, you only have yourself to blame. A cheap DIY build will fall apart just as quickly as a cheap professionally built truck, and probably be so heavy you are at max GVM or above when loaded up. Doing things right cost money, regardless whether you DIY or buy retail.
