Which of these trucks should I choose for full time living?

[Deleted member 9101]

Also...a 1990s diesel truck will be an absolute money pit.

 

[jbaucom]

If you're committed to a slide-in camper, get a modern 3/4 ton gasser. You need the payload of a 3/4 or 1-ton truck, and you've got to check the payload sticker inside the door to make sure you aren't saddling yourself with a 3/4 ton truck that has the payload of a HD half-ton. If you're going to live in this full-time, then you won't have a facility for wrenching on an old truck, and an old truck will require more upkeep than a late-model truck.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Have you considered getting a trailer and keeping your Tacoma? If I was young and by myself I could see living in my Escape 17B, which is easily towable by that vehicle. Add a cap on the truck for storage because you will need a lot of it.

I've gone the slide-in hardside camper route before and if you are living in it I can't imagine you would be under 3,000 lbs. They are really short on storage so most people who full time in a cabover truck camper pull a cargo trailer anyway.

This is a great suggestion.

 

[workerdrone]

I like hardside for the coziness and sound insulation / security but also maybe consider looking for utility body trucks - they can pop up for sale pretty cheap as companies refresh their fleet...at least they did before this supply chain market mayhem

Adds a ton of solid lockable storage if you want to carry a slide in camper

 

[dole]

Have you considered getting a trailer and keeping your Tacoma? If I was young and by myself I could see living in my Escape 17B, which is easily towable by that vehicle. Add a cap on the truck for storage because you will need a lot of it.

I've gone the slide-in hardside camper route before and if you are living in it I can't imagine you would be under 3,000 lbs. They are really short on storage so most people who full time in a cabover truck camper pull a cargo trailer anyway.

Yeah, I have been strongly considering getting a camper trailer to tow instead. But I have a lot of hesitations with it. It would make boondocking in an urban city incredibly difficult because a trailer takes so much more space and is more conspicuous than a camper sitting inside a truck bed. It's also a whole other set of maintenance items that have the potential of making me immobile such as tires and axles, whereas with a slide in truck bed camper nothing on that can break realistically that will make me immobile as long as the truck itself is still good. And it would also limit where I can go offroad a lot more than a truck camper.

So as just a single guy who owns no more physical belongings than what can easily fit in my truck bed anyway, it feels like the extra space and luxuries of a trailer would not be worth the difficulties it would bring. Although I do love my Tacoma and would love to keep it if I could.

 

[dole]

Which of these trucks should I choose for full time living?

None. The only truck you should choose for full time living is a van.

I can only give a pass to Mak and Owen (@bound.for.nowhere) because their Tundra is uber cool.

That was my first thought too since a van is the "default" option everyone goes to when doing this. But I am pretty certain a truck is what I want. Besides stealth and the simplicity of having a van all be one package versus a truck with a separated camper, why do you say a van would be better?

 

[dole]

I am with "skyfree" a trailer has the advantage of leaving every out and set up when you need to run to the store. Your fuel cost should only go up when you change locations.

Yes, but with that comes significantly more fuel consumption when pulling it than a slide in camper would take (I should clarify again that I will be going with a fairly small camper. Not GFC small, but nowhere near as big as some can get). Also, much harder to boondock in a city with a trailer than with something in the bed of a truck.

 

[dole]

I'd get a gasser 3/4 ton. You can get a nice one a lot cheaper than a Diesel.

Also... I'd definitely use a trailer. No sense in lugging your house around with you everywhere you go.

A trailer would make more sense if I was going to have a consistent place to park it, but seeing as I will most likely be forced to boondock in cities 90% of the time, that would be a much more difficult thing to be moving around all the time than a camper in the bed. A small truck camper is less conspicuous parked in the corner of a 24hr grocery store parking lot or behind a home depot than a whole trailer - not to mention a trailer would prevent me from utilizing a lot of offroad spots.

 

[dole]

I like hardside for the coziness and sound insulation / security but also maybe consider looking for utility body trucks - they can pop up for sale pretty cheap as companies refresh their fleet...at least they did before this supply chain market mayhem

Adds a ton of solid lockable storage if you want to carry a slide in camper

This is a good idea! I've thought about doing a flatbed conversion for whatever truck I get to save weight and allow for more fitment options of campers but a utility bed would probably make more sense

 

[jbaucom]

A trailer would make more sense if I was going to have a consistent place to park it, but seeing as I will most likely be forced to boondock in cities 90% of the time, that would be a much more difficult thing to be moving around all the time than a camper in the bed. A small truck camper is less conspicuous parked in the corner of a 24hr grocery store parking lot or behind a home depot than a whole trailer - not to mention a trailer would prevent me from utilizing a lot of offroad spots.

If you're going to be in the city 90% of the time, I'd definitely reconsider going the van route. A nondescript (on the exterior) late model van will blend into its surroundings much better at night than a truck camper will. A truck camper in town, that isn't parked at a residence, draws attention to itself. A truck camper in the city is going to draw attention to itself anyway. A van, or if you must have a truck, a built out commercial topper, will be much stealthier.

 

[dole]

If you're going to be in the city 90% of the time, I'd definitely reconsider going the van route. A nondescript (on the exterior) late model van will blend into its surroundings much better at night than a truck camper will. A truck camper in town, that isn't parked at a residence, draws attention to itself. A truck camper in the city is going to draw attention to itself anyway. A van, or if you must have a truck, a built out commercial topper, will be much stealthier.

Totally agree, but I've given up on stealth. At first, stealth was my #1 priority. But after talking to a lot of people who live in vans, truck campers and RVs and considering it more, turns out stealth really isn't that big of a deal. So I'm going to give up the stealth factor in order to get other benefits that will come with a truck camper. I hate big cities and plan to avoid them, but I will need to spend lots of time around smaller towns because I will be needing to get work along the way to survive. This would be a whole different ball game if I was sitting on a load of retirement investments... That would be the life.

 

[cbattles]

I'm well into the build of a 2000 7.3 F250 4wd. I've been going through it and more or less rebuilding it piece by piece to make it into what I want. It now has a flatbed on it and I recently picked up a FWC Grandby that I'm redoing, etc. I do most of the work myself and still REALLY adds up. I camp and hunt, and somewhere along the line, I became dead set on the idea of driving into the wilderness and setting up camp. In reality, it's most probably total overkill for the kind of stuff that I generally do. But, I'm at a point in my life where I finally have a little money to throw at something fun, and it's been a cool project.

It sounds like your situation is begging for a more pragmatic solution. If I were in your shoes, I think I'd buy a nice, clean, extended, 2wd gasser van and call it a day. Realistically, I'd assume that you're not going to go intentionally looking for a place to seriously abuse your only means of transportation (and home). But, you're still working with a rugged vehicle and you can still get off the beaten path: bigger tires, a small lift (if even needed), a locker/limited slip (if it doesn't have one), and maybe even add a winch as a backup plan. If you're worried about winter, you might be surprised how well it will do with a set of chains.

 

[Porkchopexpress]

I'm going to vote none of the above. You are basically saying that you plan on becoming homeless. Unless you have already built passive income there is no escaping the responsibility of providing for yourself. Get roommates and start an LLC if you want to achieve personal freedom. Then you will be able to afford a practical "expedition vehicle".

Seriously, if you have the freedom to move anywhere and the motivation to build a business, there has never been more opportunities than now.

 

[dole]

I'm going to vote none of the above. You are basically saying that you plan on becoming homeless. Unless you have already built passive income there is no escaping the responsibility of providing for yourself. Get roommates and start an LLC if you want to achieve personal freedom. Then you will be able to afford a practical "expedition vehicle".

Seriously, if you have the freedom to move anywhere and the motivation to build a business, there has never been more opportunities than now.

Doesn't feel like there's many realistic opportunities like that right now. Sure, I could go start a pool cleaning business and work 10 hours days and technically own my own business, but I currently make more than that guy would by working less hours. And the whole "hustle culture" fad is just another way to get people to convince themselves that wasting your life away in the constant pursuit of getting rich by the time you're too old and feeble to even enjoy the fruits of it is an admirable feat. It's meant to keep people working themselves to the bone, because that's what makes other people financially independent. The point is I don't want to wake up every day in the same place, to do the same things, go to work at the same job, just repeat the same day over and over until I die having mostly lived the exact same day on repeat for 60 years.

 

[Old Tanker]

...The point is I don't want to wake up in the same, to do the same things, go to work at the same job...

On the one hand, I get that you don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.

On the other hand, a job pays the bills, and a hobby is a bill. The overlanding market is over-saturated with people who want to pay for full-time wandering by posting videos of the alpine passes on Youtube. Join the Army, and after 20 years of tax-payer funded travel, you'll have a small pension to put gas in an F-250. Or learn to weld, wire, or fabricate.