Sentinelist
Adventurer
Hi folks- recent prowler for the last month or two but first post here. Tens of thousands of forum posts on other automotive forums. I'm looking into my first potential foray into the ExPo lifestyle for me and my family with a full-size rig and build over a few years. A small, amateur EarthRoamer kinda thing on a budget that would be used pretty sparingly (not daily), at least during the build. I'm looking at a very clean 1993 Chevrolet K3500 quad-cab 6.5 mechanically injected (important, to me) turbodiesel 4x4. Not too big, but not too small. At least for Texas! It has 275k mi, is a local find in my county but I haven't seen it yet, and is said to run and drive 'excellent'. I just spoke with the seller on the phone and seems to be worthy- might go look at it Sunday. Recent, but not much needed maintenance recently since he bought it in 2007 and drove 25k mi, including to South Dakota (hoses, injectors, battery, etc). Looks to be a good price, is entirely stock except for some newer GM HD wheels, and the 20 photos show a clean truck for what it is. But I have no idea what to look for technically. I had otherwise been casually looking for comparable F-350 quad-cab 4x4s with the IDI until I came across this. I'm a garage mechanic and happily (therapeutically?) comfortable turning wrenches on anything short of pulling engines or transmissions. Occasionally. Most of my experience is with European sports cars and sedans, which comprise my workday persona. This would be my first outdoors/weekend/preparedness/Home Depot rig. On a more frequent use basis, while amusing, it gets old hauling bags of mulch in an old Porsche. Oh, and liability-only insurance added to our policy is dirt cheap- just checked that as well.
A little about my ambitions here... I'm a husband and father of two young boys I'm looking forward to get them into camping and scouting in the next few years. I'm smitten with the idea of a simple, but very stout, 'bug-out' vehicle that my family and I (and perhaps the mother-in-law as well) can use to get away on long weekend trips around the region. Big Bend, Ozarks, etc. More than the core truck, I would be planning to do (and document) a proper build on here, to include potentially swapping out the bed for a utility box, and finding a cab-over pop-up camper that would fit it. Buying good used components for this along the way. The overall rig would only then start to become ExPo-ready/worthy, but will likely be a high-tech (for me) and semi-luxury (for her) vehicle that the missus and I can find common ground on to go 'camping' with. She is NOT a backpacking type like I am/once was. Trying to reclaim that as our toddler boys grow up fast! My wife is at least entertaining the idea, but isn't sold on any of this yet. But she happens to love big trucks (daily drives an Escalade ESV, had an old red '72 Chevy longbed big block in college), so I think I can pull this off. And I think my net budget over the next few years if I take the plunge is $10-15k, keeping in mind that I would be buying all good quality used components along the way with some exceptions where new makes more sense. With time, I can find an ex-commercial utility bed for a song. And then the cab-over camper, hopefully with a lavatory (long-bed truck remember), to fit it- I know these are hard to fit in this application so that's probably my biggest challenge (no standards TMK). I would paint the whole thing light tan to blend in and look decent. So, would the described truck be a good platform for my ideas? I love the modular functionality to it all that would never get old, otherwise I was going to go with a similar diesel Suburban, but that's too small.
I've done a lot of research on here in hundreds of pages of threads to see what you full-size guys are up to with your own rigs (man, is that whackchili guy still here? I went through the entire full-size photos thread) with similar projects and have some inspirations; wish I remembered a couple names. If your rig is similar to my description, it's probably you. Thrilled to find a group of folks like this with similar mindsets, unlike the average pickup forum. Great stuff. Thanks for the help and cheers!
Heck, here's a photo. Repainted about 5 yrs. ago, came from south Texas, no rust. DIBS if good...
A little about my ambitions here... I'm a husband and father of two young boys I'm looking forward to get them into camping and scouting in the next few years. I'm smitten with the idea of a simple, but very stout, 'bug-out' vehicle that my family and I (and perhaps the mother-in-law as well) can use to get away on long weekend trips around the region. Big Bend, Ozarks, etc. More than the core truck, I would be planning to do (and document) a proper build on here, to include potentially swapping out the bed for a utility box, and finding a cab-over pop-up camper that would fit it. Buying good used components for this along the way. The overall rig would only then start to become ExPo-ready/worthy, but will likely be a high-tech (for me) and semi-luxury (for her) vehicle that the missus and I can find common ground on to go 'camping' with. She is NOT a backpacking type like I am/once was. Trying to reclaim that as our toddler boys grow up fast! My wife is at least entertaining the idea, but isn't sold on any of this yet. But she happens to love big trucks (daily drives an Escalade ESV, had an old red '72 Chevy longbed big block in college), so I think I can pull this off. And I think my net budget over the next few years if I take the plunge is $10-15k, keeping in mind that I would be buying all good quality used components along the way with some exceptions where new makes more sense. With time, I can find an ex-commercial utility bed for a song. And then the cab-over camper, hopefully with a lavatory (long-bed truck remember), to fit it- I know these are hard to fit in this application so that's probably my biggest challenge (no standards TMK). I would paint the whole thing light tan to blend in and look decent. So, would the described truck be a good platform for my ideas? I love the modular functionality to it all that would never get old, otherwise I was going to go with a similar diesel Suburban, but that's too small.
I've done a lot of research on here in hundreds of pages of threads to see what you full-size guys are up to with your own rigs (man, is that whackchili guy still here? I went through the entire full-size photos thread) with similar projects and have some inspirations; wish I remembered a couple names. If your rig is similar to my description, it's probably you. Thrilled to find a group of folks like this with similar mindsets, unlike the average pickup forum. Great stuff. Thanks for the help and cheers!
Heck, here's a photo. Repainted about 5 yrs. ago, came from south Texas, no rust. DIBS if good...
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