Re Pick-ups and continuing discussion because fun group of folks here and seems several have same types of interest. Plus, who doesn’t like trucks?
I drove a 1991 Toyota 4x4, extra-cab with the small 4 cylinder motor (22RE) and a bed cap for the better part of 20 years living in four different states. It was the perfect vehicle for that period. Could move stuff, go pretty much anywhere I wanted to on and off road and it was 100% reliable. I replaced it with a new Tacoma with the 6 cyl motor. It was a nice truck but not the same. The '91 had a go do it feel while the later model was more plush and less capable but more comfortable on tarmac.
We bought the Element and my wife loves that box on wheels.
Short of it is I’m ready for a new vehicle and want something capable of doing 2-4 day trips, multiple bikes, light off road. I’d also like it to be medium size for daily driving and electric or hybrid. Simply can’t find the right vehicle.
The newer pickups are more like SUVs with a small bed tacked on. I want an extra cab with a long bed so I can put bikes straight in and also sleep in it when desired. The space lost to Crew Cab seating I want in a longer bed. The Honda Ridgeline is close but the bed is short and the mileage kinda stinks.
In vans, maybe you guys have insight, but am looking for something like a 25% bigger transit connect, decent front seats, 18" or so wheels and AWD. I’ve looked and doesn’t seem like anyone makes that golidlocks size and equipment.
We have a Pacifica that we bought used that has more bells and whistles than we need but it is great in every situation except deep snow. Our seats stay down most of the time but the fact that they come out of the floor in 30 seconds is a great feature. I have not started customizing it for van living yet but I have some ideas.
The prices of just a decent conversion camper van is pretty crazy. Seller’s market right now, wait lists over a year. A winnebago revel is like $175k and they are cheaply built (like most mass produced RV’s). It almost makes those unimog rigs look like a bargain. $300k is a bunch of $ for sure, but those unimogs are serious machines and most of the custom builds I’ve seen seem to be very high end.
I’ve got a buddy who bought one of the storyteller overland vans last year. It was about $150k and the build quality is pretty good. It’s the one van I’ve seen that is somewhat mass produced and reasonably priced, but doesn’t seem like the typical old school RV build quality. If I had liked the floor plan and size, I might have gone that route. You’d spend over $100k building something like that yourself and it would take hundreds of hours of labor. The empty van alone is ~$70k before your start building.
It adds up. I’ll have close to 40k in parts into mine. I’m going w high end stuff and some might not be considered diy, but I’m not doing anything to the outside (no custom wheels, no roof rack, no awning, no off-road lights, ladder, winch, etc). You could definitely spend $50k without trying hard. That storyteller has ~13kwh in battery capacity and a 6000 watt alternator. Those 2 items alone are way over $10k if you are buying at retail. My bed was $4k, toilet over $1k, window coverings over $1k, etc. I put everything in a spreadsheet, crazy how it adds up.
Didn’t say it couldn’t be done, just said it was hard. Yes, that battery pack and inverter are the big ticket items. You need those to achieve the holy grail of battery powered AC. Very, very few DIYs go to that level. I do wonder how they plan to recharge that pack.
I declined to keep a running total of my costs. IT was too scary.
I am looking forward to more photos of your build.
I have a Pacifica too although the base model. It’s a fantastic vehicle, so capable when it comes to easily and securely hauling your stuff around. Easy to drive, easy on gas, not super expensive. Mine has been flawless for 70,000 miles and it’ll go 30mpg on the highway too.
It does lack the macho image though, if you need that you need to look elsewhere.
You actually see more DIY folks with the huge battery packs compared to mass produced stuff. I’m not aware of anyone besides Storyteller doing these huge electrical systems on mass produced vans (or even full sized RV’s). The storyteller has a secondary alternator that can charge the 12kwh battery bank in a few hours of driving. Otherwise, you can plug into shore power to charge. Solar isn’t going to dent it.
My van will have about 14kwh of battery capacity, but I went the cheap route by building my own batteries. I bought the raw cells and BMS’s and fabricated some battery boxes. Total cost ~$2,500 for the 4 batteries I built vs. over $10k if I had bought off the shelf batteries. I’ve just wrapping up thae battery project now and hope to have my electric installed and running in the next couple weeks.
@Dr_Alex_Harrison , would you be willing to speak to how it has been finding places that are not camp grounds to park and live from? My wife and I both have 100% remote jobs so doing something like this for substantial parts of the year is interesting. My issue is that camp grounds are pretty awful places to be for very long. If we went the van direction finding off grid spots seems simple enough but from the outside it looks like once you get into a class A with a toad your options drop off a cliff. 40+ foot, fergettaboutit. I would be really curious to hear how this has been in the real world over a longer period of time from someone actually doing it.
TLDR: It can be a challenge… but maybe not as much for you, as for us. People vastly overstate how much of a challenge large size rigs can be.
Longer answer:
For context: Bolded text = our typical driving length
There are loads of awesome places we fit into. I’ve squeezed the rig up into the camping at Gooseberry Mesa, and it was an absolute dream. Places near Sedona too. Usually we’re the biggest rig wherever we go. I think most folks who own Class A’s are older, and more cautious than my wife and I.
The reason we have any location frustration at all is: we often want to be near enough to a city so that Michelle has pool access 3d/wk for her triathlon training. Most BLM land (free dry camping) is more than 30min from city centers where pools are usually located.
If it weren’t for wanting regular pool access, we would almost never stay in an RV park. As it is, we spend about 2 months per year in an RV park. Plus 2 months per year on her parents farm in Arlington, WA. The rest of the time we’re bouncing between boondocking locations, usually once every 2 weeks. Most places have a stay limit of 7, 10, 14, or 15 days. The vast majority are 14-day stay limits. Usually that’s all we’d prefer to stay anyway because it’s always nice to get new road scenery.
Internet is rarely an issue. Verizon hotspot. Data limits apply. Nix your vid watching habits or downgrade vid quality substantially and you’re fine.
Water and sewage management is our biggest issue, other than location vetting within 30min of a pool.
We tend to live a bit as if we were not camping. As in, wife takes 10 minute long showers a few times per week. I tend to shower quick. We both shower daily. I installed a low-flow head on every faucet. We just transport water and sewage semi-regularly in the jeep when on BLM land.
Are you using satellite internet (like Starlink) or how do you have reception in remote areas?
If Starlink, how are you dealing with the limited mobility of being assigned to a certain satellite (and with that, region).
