Van vs Truck Camper

[tomtaylz]

I know through the years there’s been a fair amount of discussion on this but thought I would get some more modern advise.

I currently have a chevy colorado with an Alucab canopy camper which I love, but it’s not the right rig for me to live in full time for a year.

I’m planning a years long trip around North America with my partner and dog and deciding what type of vehicle to be home. I want to do it right and am considering between a 1 ton truck with something like a FWC flatbed hawk or OEV Hudson Bay vs a high top camper like a sprinter or transit.

I am slightly leaning towards gas due to concerns with ULSD in Mexico and the extra headaches which come with owning a modern diesel.

Right now I live in a more urban area, after the trip I don’t see a world where i’m taking off a camper and using a 1 ton truck on a regular basis, both would be dedicated camping rigs for their life with the slight edge that a van is more likely to fit in my driveway. I’ve test driven a couple of 1 ton trucks now and between the limited sight lines and size the truck feels very big in my current home environment.

The main downside of the van i’m seeing is it’s going to be harder to get places, between low tree limbs and what i’m sure is quickly sketchy off camber situations it makes me nervous about going all in. As an opposing viewpoint though both vehicles would be my home and I’m not sure I would do anything too aggressive with either.

The pros of the camper in my mind is the ease of repair, flexibility if I switch trucks in the future, hopefully longer driving range and more water storage and more off-road worthiness with the cons being daily setup and 4-season climatization.

Especially interested in hearing front those who have done both! I understand that these sort of things are all about trade offs. I’m thinking about renting a van on outdoorsy for a trip soon to get a feel for it. I’ve been leaning a lot more Truck Camper but recently thinking more about the long term use of the vehicle in an urban setting has me considering a van more.

I don’t want to go over $200k budget and prefer something a bit more modern for some driving creature comforts

 

[colierar]

Just my 2 cents, I've had a truck/camper combo, never had a van. It is definitely a hard choice between the 2. The van is nice since you don’t have to get out once you park, you just slide on back and sleep or eat and you don’t have to go into the weather. Lots of pluses. The truck is nice since its more off road capable. It’s also easier to sell in the long run I in case you decide that you want to get out of overlanding. I would really think about how much real off-roading are you going to do? That would steer me in the right direction. Good Luck in your decision!

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Rent the van, you've answered your own question.

 

[tomtaylz]

Rent the van, you've answered your own question.

Yeah being able to spend a week with one will definitely help! With how hard it is even test driving vehicles right now i’m excited to have it as an option.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

To each their own, no system is perfect for everyone. It depends on how you will use it. Check out all you can, and think about things like serviceability.
I am a truck camper, and truck(gas) user. For the reasons already mentioned.

A few other things for thought, squeaks and rattles. With the van, you will hear everything as your driving down the road. Like silverware, or if you have bikes/toys in the back.
If the truck needs work, and you have a camper on the back it can be unloaded and still slept/lived in. Even if the truck is in the shop. Van, if the camper, or van need work. You are out your house, and vehicle.
I have been in a lot of pop up campers. Including (extensive) FWC flatbed Hawk, and the OEV Hudson Bay. OEV makes a great camper.
I have spent thousands of miles in trucks, and vans (Ambulance type, Sprinters, and F550 chassis).

edit* Check out all you can, and crawl all over and inside. Things like cooking, brushing teeth, etc. Sleeping, having to make up a bed evryday. What about bad weather days? *

 

[tomtaylz]

To each their own, no system is perfect for everyone. It depends on how you will use it. Check out all you can, and think about things like serviceability.
I am a truck camper, and truck(gas) user. For the reasons already mentioned.

A few other things for thought, squeaks and rattles. With the van, you will hear everything as your driving down the road. Like silverware, or if you have bikes/toys in the back.
If the truck needs work, and you have a camper on the back it can be unloaded and still slept/lived in. Even if the truck is in the shop. Van, if the camper, or van need work. You are out your house, and vehicle.
I have been in a lot of pop up campers. Including (extensive) FWC flatbed Hawk, and the OEV Hudson Bay. OEV makes a great camper.
I have spent thousands of miles in trucks, and vans (Ambulance type, Sprinters, and F550 chassis).

edit* Check out all you can, and crawl all over and inside. Things like cooking, brushing teeth, etc. Sleeping, having to make up a bed evryday. What about bad weather days? *

Good insight thanks! I would definitely lean towards OEV with their automatic lifting top, as all the small things get annoying when doing them daily. Just wish modern full size trucks weren’t so darn big and had proper sight lines

 

[rruff]

I think it would be good to provide more info on exactly how you want to live. Will you be exploring and camping on public land in the boonies for long periods... or driving around, seeing the sights, and stopping at a campground or RV park for the night? If both, then about how much of each, do you think?

 

[Darwin]

I own a truck camper. Get the van (for your situation and options listed)

 

[driveby]

Disclaimer, I currently own neither. But I did have a 1 ton as a daily driver when we had our travel trailer. It sucked in the city. Too wide for most parking stalls to get in and out of the doors. Vans are big cars, about as wide as a SUV etc. Much more doable for urban settings. Off road... how off road do you mean? I took my Jeep into places I'd have never taken my truck. Turns out a stock Sprinter 2500 4x4 with a good driver can do some pretty stupid things and survive. Since I currently am in the market and currently own nothing I have the freedom to waiver like you. I don't need a truck, so if I go either way it's still a single use purchase. Vans tend to have better bathrooms than TC (especially OEV ones like your talking about). More gear/toy storage in a van too. You can put boxes on the hitch/doors to extend storage outdoors for BBQ/firewood/recovery gear etc. So I'm leaning Van. Jayco Terrain in my case. Small enough to get into small spaces, big enough to live inside on crappy rainy days and cheap enough I don't have to sell my actual house and be homeless But I'm only doing week long or multi week trips with actual house in between. TC tend to have bigger sleeping spaces and you have a crew cab for storage. I can see both ways but it will be a van in our case.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

A few other things for thought, squeaks and rattles. With the van, you will hear everything as your driving down the road. Like silverware, or if you have bikes/toys in the back.
If the truck needs work, and you have a camper on the back it can be unloaded and still slept/lived in. Even if the truck is in the shop. Van, if the camper, or van need work. You are out your house, and vehicle.

This This This

 

[kga1978]

I came from a Jeep with a RTT and creature comforts built out in the back and I spent the last 9 months going through the same decision process - van or truck camper. I was heavily leaning towards the truck camper for quite a while because it's more modular and significantly better off-road. We're not full-timers - just taking the van out on trips, day excursions, etc - and almost always off the beaten path.

However, we ultimately ended up with the van and I'm glad we did for a few reasons:

• The van feels much more like a 'home' than a truck camper. Kit it out, park, done. The truck camper is much more utilitarian (which can be a good or a bad thing).
• Built vans like Revels and Terrains have become much more 'affordable' as of late - new units are now just around $140k or below. Add additional cost for upgraded suspension, larger fuel tank, mattress, and a few other items - easily $10-20k.
• The Sprinter van is quite a bit more off-road worthy than I had expected. Visibility is much better than our Jeep (a Grand Cherokee) and while you absolutely have to keep your foot in it to get through obstacles, it's surprising where it can take you. Once you're stuck though, you're bloody stuck...
• Rattles and shimmying can be taken care of - our Terrain is pretty quiet after I went through and nailed rattles, etc.

Other things to consider that I don't really have insights on (yet) - build quality of vans such as Revels and Terrains is pretty terrible (Terrain in particular, although, overall, it's a significantly better package IMO) and you need to know how to make repairs to plumbing systems, electrical systems, etc. I expect this is less of a problem in the truck campers (but I have no experience). Owning a diesel is indeed quite different and gives me pause, although I have not run into any issues so far.

 

[skrypj]

To each their own, no system is perfect for everyone. It depends on how you will use it. Check out all you can, and think about things like serviceability.
I am a truck camper, and truck(gas) user. For the reasons already mentioned.

A few other things for thought, squeaks and rattles. With the van, you will hear everything as your driving down the road. Like silverware, or if you have bikes/toys in the back.
If the truck needs work, and you have a camper on the back it can be unloaded and still slept/lived in. Even if the truck is in the shop. Van, if the camper, or van need work. You are out your house, and vehicle.
I have been in a lot of pop up campers. Including (extensive) FWC flatbed Hawk, and the OEV Hudson Bay. OEV makes a great camper.
I have spent thousands of miles in trucks, and vans (Ambulance type, Sprinters, and F550 chassis).

edit* Check out all you can, and crawl all over and inside. Things like cooking, brushing teeth, etc. Sleeping, having to make up a bed evryday. What about bad weather days? *

This was so annoying with my mother in laws class C. Everything rattles and shakes and its generally just a loud experience. Spending a long day in that thing would be taxing.

Meanwhile, I hook up my F150 to my travel trailer and am cruising pretty silently at 75 mph and its far more relaxing.

 

[Hackopotomus]

I've been going through this same debate. My needs are a little different though as it is just me and my dog traveling and I'm doing shorter trips through the USA (maybe 30 days max).

Because I already own this truck and have built it up over the years, I will be sticking with it. I will be building a custom flatbed with side boxes and then re-install the camper shell on top. One of the most desirable feature of a van for me is the ability to get up and walk in the back without having to get out. Because of that, I will be cutting the back of the cab and making a full height pass through. This will turn the truck into pretty much a dedicated camper but I already use it as such and am not concerned about using the bed to haul stuff (I have a few trailers for that).

This camper shell is probably too small for your needs but there are tons of custom builds out there (look on this site on hard sided campers) that are larger. If you build something similar you can incorporate pass through and build it to the size you require. With your budget, you can find a good truck (I would recommend low mileage used) and have plenty of money for a custom build.



If I didn't already own my truck I would probably go with a van but it would have to be a longer wheelbase with a high top or at least a pop up.

My sister and her husband just picked up this one. Technically, it is a class C RV but basically a big van. Something like this might work well for you.

 

[Trestle]

I’ve pulled a trailer with a truck, living full time for a year and a half. I owned a 140” wheelbase sprinter before that, and a 170” wheelbase after that. Both vans were self builds. I’ve had a few people pay me to do builds for them when I had a shop. I am not building out a 1 ton ram diesel with a flatbed 4WC on the back. I have spent weeks to months in the vans. The truck is new, so I’ve only spent a few weeks at a time in it.

Some observations:
If going van, I would go gas and go Ford over the Promaster or Sprinter. I would consider a gas Sprinter as an option, but they are hard to find. The Promaster is front wheel drive, and has a very low rear axle. You will have a harder time pushing it into most terrain than a rear wheel (or better yet 4/AWD) van such as the Transit or Sprinter. Run into any issue with the Sprinter, or just need a service, and you have fewer choices that are further apart. I cannot count on only one hand how many times I had to limp somewhere when their systems would go into limp home mode and it ranged from frustrating to infuriating every single time. If you rely on the dealer for maintance vs. self performed, then plan on $1k or more every 10k miles to do standard preventive maintenance. There is a Ford dealership seemingly everywhere. They may not be able to fit you in right away, but they are relatively everywhere compared to Mercedes dealerships that are authorized to work on Sprinters, Non-dealer mechanics are also much more available with the Ford than Mercedes due to their expensive proprietary software systems for diagnosis and repair. The 4we system on the Sprinter is a joke. It may as well be called AWD. Low range is not a significant drop, and the center differential is not locked in any way. The AWD system on the Transit while limited, ends up working in practice as well or at times better than the Sprinter. The Transit otherwise is not as robust as the Sprinter, but they are good enough if comparing the two. Your mileage is going to suck either way, so may as well not deal with either brands issues with their diesel variants.

In a van you will have the benefit of pulling over, swiveling a seat or two, blacking out the shades, and climbing up into bed, cooking, etc. This is the biggest advantage of a van.

In a van you will hear everything you own rattle, squeak, clunk, vibrate, etc. There is no way to get it fully quiet. As compared to a truck (without a pass through) being relatively quite to drive, even in rougher terrain, as the sound is “back there in another compartment”. This is one of the biggest disadvantages in a van or pass through truck situation.

The vans will be more top heavy than a truck, and you will experience significantly more head toss in nearly all scenarios. We added specially valves shocks which helped, but not enough for our taste. Between the noise, head toss (that makes more noise for anything in upper cabentry), and small hard tires (see next section) they are unpleasant to drive once you leave the highway as compared to a truck.

You are limited to tire size, which means you will have to leave tire pressures higher in most cases. Sprinter factory is about a 31”. You can go up to a 32” with minimal modification. (Substitute 30 and 31” for a Transit) So 65 psi in the rear vs. factory 70 psi, and about 54 psi up front. Compare this to say a 3500 that you can put on 37s with a 2” lift. Then go from factory 80 psi front/rear to 40psi front/50 psi rear with the 37s. You could actually go up to 41” if you wanted to. I cannot tell you how much nicer the ride is even on gravel roads with the lower street pressures of the truck vs. the van. Yes you can air down, but how many times do you go 1 mile on a rough road where airing down just isn’t worth the effort? You WILL go further with the truck for the plain reason that it is so much less unpleasant to do so.

A van, or permanent truck system is a full system. A truck with flatbed (or regular bed) and appropriate camper is three separate systems that can all be modified, abandoned, upgraded, etc. If you have an old van, and the tranny goes, is it worth the $10k to fix it? $10k sound ridiculous, but remember it’s a Mercedes product vs. a truck. Truck take a dump on you, find another platform. Wear it out, find another platform. Get tired of popping up the top and want to go hard sided, get another camper. Get into an accident that totals the truck, move the camper and hopefully tray over to a new chassis. With a van you do not have these options.

A 3500 truck is over engineered for the weights and use case vs. a 2500 van. Body on robust frame with solid axles front and rear vs. unibody with a solid axle rear and independent suspension up front. They take more abuse OR last longer if not abused…though the Sprinters do quite well…to a point.

The van will most likely drive much more like a car unless you put everything up top as many do. In reality, my truck is much more pleasant on the highway than any of the vans. In town or in heavy traffic, the van is more like a car.

Forward visibility on the van is WAAAY better than on the truck. Having said that, my wife and I got used to both fairly quickly. It’s amazing what you can adapt to with time, so it should not be the most important factor.

With the vans, we had a big aisle in between the cabinetry where we could put in full sheets of plywood and carry large items. You will not be able to do that with your pop up flatbed camper.

The reality of flat beds is that they are not as easy to divorce from the truck than a slide in. It’s just a slower process. Full timing it, not a problem. Actually getting them off is easy. Getting everything lined up perfectly and buttoned down is tedious and takes time. Perhaps I am a perfectionist and it could be faster for most…but not by much.

The indoor space in the vans has more length because you can co-opt the front seats via a aftermarket swivels to turn them into useful interior furniture. Not so with a truck.

The indoor space in a truck camper is wider, has square walls, and is genarally better in the width directly. I’d call it a draw between the two.

For us, two adults with a single 55 pound dog, we went truck and have no regrets. OK, we actually want a hard sided flatbed, but knew this going in so lets put an asterisk on that statement.

Given the choice between an OEV flatbed vs. the 4WC flatbed we have I’d say the OEV has worse storage, but better build quality and is better built. We bought a used 4WC, and would buy a new OEV if staying in the pop up realm.

If you want turn key, and a van, there are some good builders out there. We would consider Rossmonster, TourRig, and a few others if we couldn’t do it ourselves. Having said that, we haven’t been comparison shopping (for research) for a few years so that landscape may have changed.

if you want turn key and a truck, you have a few options. Plan on around 170 to 200K depending upon how much money you want to put into it…assuming going new or nearly new. People balk at those numbers, but they are real numbers based upon actual experience.

We chose a Ram diesel, even with the bad experienced we had dealing with the Sprinter diesel systems (2nd van, not first…it was pre 2007 to current emissions requirements). Why…100k warranty on the chassis, and they adjust the GVWR up on the diesels so there is no loss going from Gas to Diesel with a RAM. Remember, sell the truck when you no longer want it, and put another chassis under the other components of your system…can’t do that with an integrated system.

Why did we pay the premium for diesel over gas? Fully loaded…all the time…the diesel starts to make the experience better for us. You’re battling a lot of constant weight, wind (yes even with a pop top, but not as much), and we knew that eventually we‘d be pushing a lot more wind with a hard sided camper.

I hope this gave you some things to think about that are useful to you. You are dead right in that it is all a decision on compromises. What I have listed above are based upon our experience with our criteria pitted against those compromises. Whatever you decide, perhaps we will see you on the road one day can can share a beer, coffee, whatever you’re drinking, and riff about why and how you ended up where you do.

Best of luck.

 

[tomtaylz]

I’ve pulled a trailer with a truck, living full time for a year and a half. I owned a 140” wheelbase sprinter before that, and a 170” wheelbase after that. Both vans were self builds. I’ve had a few people pay me to do builds for them when I had a shop. I am not building out a 1 ton ram diesel with a flatbed 4WC on the back. I have spent weeks to months in the vans. The truck is new, so I’ve only spent a few weeks at a time in it.

Some observations:
If going van, I would go gas and go Ford over the Promaster or Sprinter. I would consider a gas Sprinter as an option, but they are hard to find. The Promaster is front wheel drive, and has a very low rear axle. You will have a harder time pushing it into most terrain than a rear wheel (or better yet 4/AWD) van such as the Transit or Sprinter. Run into any issue with the Sprinter, or just need a service, and you have fewer choices that are further apart. I cannot count on only one hand how many times I had to limp somewhere when their systems would go into limp home mode and it ranged from frustrating to infuriating every single time. If you rely on the dealer for maintance vs. self performed, then plan on $1k or more every 10k miles to do standard preventive maintenance. There is a Ford dealership seemingly everywhere. They may not be able to fit you in right away, but they are relatively everywhere compared to Mercedes dealerships that are authorized to work on Sprinters, Non-dealer mechanics are also much more available with the Ford than Mercedes due to their expensive proprietary software systems for diagnosis and repair. The 4we system on the Sprinter is a joke. It may as well be called AWD. Low range is not a significant drop, and the center differential is not locked in any way. The AWD system on the Transit while limited, ends up working in practice as well or at times better than the Sprinter. The Transit otherwise is not as robust as the Sprinter, but they are good enough if comparing the two. Your mileage is going to suck either way, so may as well not deal with either brands issues with their diesel variants.

In a van you will have the benefit of pulling over, swiveling a seat or two, blacking out the shades, and climbing up into bed, cooking, etc. This is the biggest advantage of a van.

In a van you will hear everything you own rattle, squeak, clunk, vibrate, etc. There is no way to get it fully quiet. As compared to a truck (without a pass through) being relatively quite to drive, even in rougher terrain, as the sound is “back there in another compartment”. This is one of the biggest disadvantages in a van or pass through truck situation.

The vans will be more top heavy than a truck, and you will experience significantly more head toss in nearly all scenarios. We added specially valves shocks which helped, but not enough for our taste. Between the noise, head toss (that makes more noise for anything in upper cabentry), and small hard tires (see next section) they are unpleasant to drive once you leave the highway as compared to a truck.

You are limited to tire size, which means you will have to leave tire pressures higher in most cases. Sprinter factory is about a 31”. You can go up to a 32” with minimal modification. (Substitute 30 and 31” for a Transit) So 65 psi in the rear vs. factory 70 psi, and about 54 psi up front. Compare this to say a 3500 that you can put on 37s with a 2” lift. Then go from factory 80 psi front/rear to 40psi front/50 psi rear with the 37s. You could actually go up to 41” if you wanted to. I cannot tell you how much nicer the ride is even on gravel roads with the lower street pressures of the truck vs. the van. Yes you can air down, but how many times do you go 1 mile on a rough road where airing down just isn’t worth the effort? You WILL go further with the truck for the plain reason that it is so much less unpleasant to do so.

A van, or permanent truck system is a full system. A truck with flatbed (or regular bed) and appropriate camper is three separate systems that can all be modified, abandoned, upgraded, etc. If you have an old van, and the tranny goes, is it worth the $10k to fix it? $10k sound ridiculous, but remember it’s a Mercedes product vs. a truck. Truck take a dump on you, find another platform. Wear it out, find another platform. Get tired of popping up the top and want to go hard sided, get another camper. Get into an accident that totals the truck, move the camper and hopefully tray over to a new chassis. With a van you do not have these options.

A 3500 truck is over engineered for the weights and use case vs. a 2500 van. Body on robust frame with solid axles front and rear vs. unibody with a solid axle rear and independent suspension up front. They take more abuse OR last longer if not abused…though the Sprinters do quite well…to a point.

The van will most likely drive much more like a car unless you put everything up top as many do. In reality, my truck is much more pleasant on the highway than any of the vans. In town or in heavy traffic, the van is more like a car.

Forward visibility on the van is WAAAY better than on the truck. Having said that, my wife and I got used to both fairly quickly. It’s amazing what you can adapt to with time, so it should not be the most important factor.

With the vans, we had a big aisle in between the cabinetry where we could put in full sheets of plywood and carry large items. You will not be able to do that with your pop up flatbed camper.

The reality of flat beds is that they are not as easy to divorce from the truck than a slide in. It’s just a slower process. Full timing it, not a problem. Actually getting them off is easy. Getting everything lined up perfectly and buttoned down is tedious and takes time. Perhaps I am a perfectionist and it could be faster for most…but not by much.

The indoor space in the vans has more length because you can co-opt the front seats via a aftermarket swivels to turn them into useful interior furniture. Not so with a truck.

The indoor space in a truck camper is wider, has square walls, and is genarally better in the width directly. I’d call it a draw between the two.

For us, two adults with a single 55 pound dog, we went truck and have no regrets. OK, we actually want a hard sided flatbed, but knew this going in so lets put an asterisk on that statement.

Given the choice between an OEV flatbed vs. the 4WC flatbed we have I’d say the OEV has worse storage, but better build quality and is better built. We bought a used 4WC, and would buy a new OEV if staying in the pop up realm.

If you want turn key, and a van, there are some good builders out there. We would consider Rossmonster, TourRig, and a few others if we couldn’t do it ourselves. Having said that, we haven’t been comparison shopping (for research) for a few years so that landscape may have changed.

if you want turn key and a truck, you have a few options. Plan on around 170 to 200K depending upon how much money you want to put into it…assuming going new or nearly new. People balk at those numbers, but they are real numbers based upon actual experience.

We chose a Ram diesel, even with the bad experienced we had dealing with the Sprinter diesel systems (2nd van, not first…it was pre 2007 to current emissions requirements). Why…100k warranty on the chassis, and they adjust the GVWR up on the diesels so there is no loss going from Gas to Diesel with a RAM. Remember, sell the truck when you no longer want it, and put another chassis under the other components of your system…can’t do that with an integrated system.

Why did we pay the premium for diesel over gas? Fully loaded…all the time…the diesel starts to make the experience better for us. You’re battling a lot of constant weight, wind (yes even with a pop top, but not as much), and we knew that eventually we‘d be pushing a lot more wind with a hard sided camper.

I hope this gave you some things to think about that are useful to you. You are dead right in that it is all a decision on compromises. What I have listed above are based upon our experience with our criteria pitted against those compromises. Whatever you decide, perhaps we will see you on the road one day can can share a beer, coffee, whatever you’re drinking, and riff about why and how you ended up where you do.

Best of luck.

Very helpful thanks! Agreed with a lot of your points.