This is a companion post to a similar one I posted in the Mercedes-Benz / Unimog forum to
hopefully get input from both camps:
Executive summary:
Folks in North America who have rigs based on "Heavy Duty" commercial domestic trucks such as Ford 450/550 or Dodge
Ram 4500/5500 and have taken them on forestry roads or similar rough tracks - have you been
happy with their durability and reliability? If you could do it again, would you choose something
else? Any models/years/features to avoid like the plague?
Background:
My wife and I (early-50s) are planning in the next few years to retire/transition from occasional
seasonal camping trips in our current "starter" rig to a more "secondary overlanding lifestyle"
situation, spending 3-5 months per year away from our brick-and-mortar house on much longer
multi-week trips in a more substantial setup. (Very much inspired by @Healeyjet's adventures in
their Dodge 5500-based rig!)
We are located in Canada, and we realistically expect to make the majority of our foreseeable
overlanding travels within North America.
Our current "starter" rig is an older, off-the-shelf cab-over camper on the back of a first-gen
Dodge 3/4 ton diesel 4x4 truck with an 8-foot bed. Our travels in it have allowed us to see both
what is and what is not important to us.
In particular, I feel my current rig is a bit... "fragile" for many of the forestry roads we travel. My
camper's wet weight is right at the GVWR for my pickup truck, and it makes for very delicate and
unenjoyable white-knuckle slow travel over the rough stuff, trying not to break the vehicle as it
trundles along at jogging speed with the camper attached with four Torklift tiedowns and a prayer.
We want our next 4x4 setup to be durable enough to survive long stretches of the corrugated gravel
and forestry-service roads we love to explore at a reasonable clip, and compact enough (say ~25-ish ft. or so) to be
comfortable in urban environments and on long stretches of highway travel at or around 100
km/h. We do not envision doing serious trail-work or rock-crawling.
I'd like to be conservative in weight allowance for durability's sake to make a very sturdy habitat
that is not at or near the weight limit for the truck.
To me, this excludes most N. American "consumer-level" 4x4 trucks (Ford/Dodge/Chevy
1-ton trucks and lighter) as the GVWR isn't quite large enough for my liking - too many
overloaded truck campers like mine out there. "Super-duty" work trucks such as Ford F-450/550
and Dodge Ram 4500/5500 would seem to be much better domestic choices.
That said, some people have instead chosen to go the import route and build a rig around an
older Mercedes-Benz 4x4 commercial truck. Countless Youtube videos and other online
testimonies demonstrate how these trucks are virtually indestructible, even after decades of
(ab)use in Third-World countries, and I have to admit - that sort of rugged dependability and
simplicity of engine/transmission is very attractive to me.
But I recognize that such vehicles were never sold in North America, and there is a whole
laundry list of reasons why owning a 30+ year-old European truck in Canada would bring along
extra headaches, not to mention that once all of the import costs are added up, I can get a 10-
year-old domestic truck for a similar price (and 6 months quicker!!) plus I can add nifty local
features like a Kelderman air ride.
I also realize that I was in my twenties in the mid-90's when Mercedes (and Japanese) vehicles
were at peak-quality compared to their North American counterparts, and I might still have an
unfair bias against domestic vehicles. This might be doubly true when comparing the build quality
and durability of commercial-grade North American trucks versus lighter-grade "consumer"
pickups.
Still - I'd hate to be stranded 30 miles up a service road because a broken sensor on my modern
truck decides to put the automatic transmission in "limp" mode. My 30-year old Dodge might be
short on features, but something can't break if it isn't there in the first place, and whatever does
break I can usually fix with a hammer, a multidriver, and some curse words.
So... folks out there with rigs based on domestic commercial trucks - are you happy? Would you
do anything different? Are there model years or specific features to recommend or to stay away
from?
hopefully get input from both camps:
Executive summary:
Folks in North America who have rigs based on "Heavy Duty" commercial domestic trucks such as Ford 450/550 or Dodge
Ram 4500/5500 and have taken them on forestry roads or similar rough tracks - have you been
happy with their durability and reliability? If you could do it again, would you choose something
else? Any models/years/features to avoid like the plague?
Background:
My wife and I (early-50s) are planning in the next few years to retire/transition from occasional
seasonal camping trips in our current "starter" rig to a more "secondary overlanding lifestyle"
situation, spending 3-5 months per year away from our brick-and-mortar house on much longer
multi-week trips in a more substantial setup. (Very much inspired by @Healeyjet's adventures in
their Dodge 5500-based rig!)
We are located in Canada, and we realistically expect to make the majority of our foreseeable
overlanding travels within North America.
Our current "starter" rig is an older, off-the-shelf cab-over camper on the back of a first-gen
Dodge 3/4 ton diesel 4x4 truck with an 8-foot bed. Our travels in it have allowed us to see both
what is and what is not important to us.
In particular, I feel my current rig is a bit... "fragile" for many of the forestry roads we travel. My
camper's wet weight is right at the GVWR for my pickup truck, and it makes for very delicate and
unenjoyable white-knuckle slow travel over the rough stuff, trying not to break the vehicle as it
trundles along at jogging speed with the camper attached with four Torklift tiedowns and a prayer.
We want our next 4x4 setup to be durable enough to survive long stretches of the corrugated gravel
and forestry-service roads we love to explore at a reasonable clip, and compact enough (say ~25-ish ft. or so) to be
comfortable in urban environments and on long stretches of highway travel at or around 100
km/h. We do not envision doing serious trail-work or rock-crawling.
I'd like to be conservative in weight allowance for durability's sake to make a very sturdy habitat
that is not at or near the weight limit for the truck.
To me, this excludes most N. American "consumer-level" 4x4 trucks (Ford/Dodge/Chevy
1-ton trucks and lighter) as the GVWR isn't quite large enough for my liking - too many
overloaded truck campers like mine out there. "Super-duty" work trucks such as Ford F-450/550
and Dodge Ram 4500/5500 would seem to be much better domestic choices.
That said, some people have instead chosen to go the import route and build a rig around an
older Mercedes-Benz 4x4 commercial truck. Countless Youtube videos and other online
testimonies demonstrate how these trucks are virtually indestructible, even after decades of
(ab)use in Third-World countries, and I have to admit - that sort of rugged dependability and
simplicity of engine/transmission is very attractive to me.
But I recognize that such vehicles were never sold in North America, and there is a whole
laundry list of reasons why owning a 30+ year-old European truck in Canada would bring along
extra headaches, not to mention that once all of the import costs are added up, I can get a 10-
year-old domestic truck for a similar price (and 6 months quicker!!) plus I can add nifty local
features like a Kelderman air ride.
I also realize that I was in my twenties in the mid-90's when Mercedes (and Japanese) vehicles
were at peak-quality compared to their North American counterparts, and I might still have an
unfair bias against domestic vehicles. This might be doubly true when comparing the build quality
and durability of commercial-grade North American trucks versus lighter-grade "consumer"
pickups.
Still - I'd hate to be stranded 30 miles up a service road because a broken sensor on my modern
truck decides to put the automatic transmission in "limp" mode. My 30-year old Dodge might be
short on features, but something can't break if it isn't there in the first place, and whatever does
break I can usually fix with a hammer, a multidriver, and some curse words.
So... folks out there with rigs based on domestic commercial trucks - are you happy? Would you
do anything different? Are there model years or specific features to recommend or to stay away
from?
