New to vans and need advice on what to buy

[indecisivebrad]

I'm in a quandary and need help from some veterans of this world. I'm looking for a 15 passenger 1 ton van or box truck to convert into a camper and am getting stuck narrowing it down. It'll spend most of its life on the highway being a home on wheels so I can't sacrifice fuel mileage or reliability too much. I figure about 20% of it's life will be spent hauling cargo and a handful of times a year it'll be pulling a trailer so it needs to be pretty tough. That's about as specific as I can get though. I know the future plans are based on travel and adventure so I can safely assume it'll see time parked on the beach and also in muddy fields. With that in mind should I go 4x4 or 2wd dually or would a base 2wd setup work with a locker and good all terrain tires? I'm trying to avoid a situation where my big heavy camper ends up buried to the axle, but I don't want to take on unnecessary expense and weight considering it's mostly a highway cruiser.

Also before anyone links me to those amazing conversions, I'm going with a cheap old van (or box truck) as a starting point.

 

[86scotty]

Keep reading here and find yourself a 5.4 or v10 Ford van to build out. I would go 2wd and convert it if you decide you need it. Ujoint is probably the easiest way to do this. If you're going for a cheap old van as a starting point, you probably aren't going to find a 4WD van. Good luck.

 

[indecisivebrad]

I'm not even committed to a make at this point. I have pet peeves with Ford, Chevy and Dodge. That basically makes me an open to anything sort of shopper :********:

 

[Paddy]

My only suggestion re: box vans is make sure you can have free passage between cargo area and cab. I didn't have that on my first build and it made for a very clunky feel when camping. So, that pretty much rules out all the wonderful flip cabs like Isuzu and etc. they ride like **** on the hwy anyway so that's two strikes.

I love my sprinter even though it's a bit of a labor of love, but she returns 25mpg in comfort and style at 75mph so that's a BIG plus for me.

And, as far as getting stuck goes, I can get anything stuck, so I'm trying instead to rock a 2wd van, horrible off road, understand its limitations and always carry appropriate recovery gear. You can always get unstuck, maybe you can't get to that special spot, but it's a van after all, so make accommodations and do without 4x4 if possible. It basically just means more time wasted getting unstuck, or putting on chains etc. but you save a bunch of money on the hardware initially, or in the case of sprinter, you can't have 4x4 at all because Mercedes are jerks. If skiing or snow use was a big concern for me I would place more value on 4wd but I gave that's stuff up when I started paragliding so I pretty much stay where snow isn't these days.

 

[Bbasso]

If you're going to tow anything then imho you should have the V10 or diesel. Better to have excess power then not enough.
If MPG are a concern diesel powered without a doubt.

Of course these are my opinions but based on first hand experience.

 

[indecisivebrad]

Great advice everyone. I really need all these first hand accounts. They help alot.

So far I'm leaning more towards a regular 2wd and bringing along some sort of sand recovery device for getting out of trouble. Not really possible to use a winch on a palm tree down here in florida. I will mount a winch too for when I venture back up north to see family. That should cover me in most situations I hope.

 

[Paddy]

Watching "Alaska off-road warriors" this spring I learned two things about wheeling. One was that those folding land anchor things really work well for winching, and the other was the traction mats for under tires are a must! Again, not helpful for trips to the ski lodge but for those oops moments on the beach could make for an easy extraction without begging dudes for help.

I had been down on winches for years because for me here in the Nw a winch mounted on the front of a stuck vehicle is usually going to either get you farther into a stuck place, or pull you toward a tree and not into the road where you want to be or even worse, not be within reach of a tree that will help. The land anchor could change that especially in soft ground which is where we usually get stuck of course. So, for self extraction I feel a rear mounted winch makes more sense, however it's not as pretty of logistically easy to accomplish.