Family overland vehicle suggestions?

[bjm206]

Good luck, but remember- just get out there and go!! You can always change rigs, but don't let the rig be the 'deal', let the trips be what it is about!!
Cheers

Well said

 

[oc357]

Halligan thanks for the clarification, my experience with the 5.4 has been in the F-150 so the info about the F-250 is helpful. What kind of experience did you have with the 6.8 as a daily as far as MPG, Reliability etc?

 

[Sentinelist]

Check out my build thread in my sig link. I think I may have it nailed for you.

 

[Halligan]

Halligan thanks for the clarification, my experience with the 5.4 has been in the F-150 so the info about the F-250 is helpful. What kind of experience did you have with the 6.8 as a daily as far as MPG, Reliability etc?

Fuel mileage was dismal. Around 9 mpg city maybe 12 highway. The V-10 was reliable for the 30,000 miles I had it. Triton Engines from 2005-2009 had a very poor spark plug design which are prone to breaking off in the head which can get costly to fix. Overall I was unimpressed with my Super Duty. I had lot's of odd issues that would of cost's thousands of dollars to fix if the truck was not under warranty.

 

[Acetylene]

OK, I'll throw in my .02. I was in the exact same place you are. I needed room for 5, reasonably capable offroad, capable of handling a decent payload, and reasonably affordable as it would not be used as a daily driver. I also had some other criteria as we were planning to take the rig over the border and into the great beyond. It had to be dead nutz reliable. It had to be easy to fix for a backwoods mechanic in a foreign land with limited experience. Parts had to be readily available, even in foreign countries, and they had to be affordable. Also, it had to be able to run on questionable fuel. After a tremendous amount of research, interviews, soul searching, etc. I came up with the perfect rig FOR ME - so please no flaming. I chose a 1992 Ford F350 Crew Cab 4x4 long bed with the 7.3 IDI engine. It isn't the fastest vehicle I've ever owned, but it met ALL of the requirements perfectly. A nice one can be had for a few grand. There is plenty of space both in the cab and in the bed. It can handle a camper no problem. It has a D60 straight axle front end and a limited slip rear end so it is reasonably capable offroad. The 7.3IDI is about as simple of a diesel engine as can be found. Parts for the truck are ubiquitous even in other countries as Ford produced more than a few OBS trucks through the years. This also means that everything is super cheap in the rare instance that something does break and parts are available everywhere including just about every junk yard. For example, a full set of injectors cost me about $275 including the install kit and took less than 2 hours for me to replace myself with simple hand tools. Finally, the 7.3IDI will run on almost anything - mineral oil, old motor oil, jack oil, vegetable oil, less than water-free diesel, etc. The simplicity, parts availability, affordability of both the vehicle and parts, size and capability made this thing the perfect expo rig for us. Oh, did I mention that I get 16-18MPG on the highway? Just food for thought.