Things to watchout for buying Used Fuso/NPR etc

4671 Hybrid

Adventurer
On the asking price, have you made any headway? What I've found to be most effective is the "cash in hand" offer such as, "If I came over right now with $3,000, would you let it go?".

If it's been sitting a while, you might get a deal out of it. I know that's still $500 over your budget but with some creativity (hauling a couple things for Craigslist people) you could turn a quick $200-300 and not be that much over your budget.

On the diesel MPGs, I'm leaning more towards 14.5mpg...maybe 15. Loaded and running a reasonable speed I don't think you'll see 17 very often. That's coming from my general knowledge of diesels, weights, and MPG's, and from my limited knowledge of the FUSO's from what I've read here on Expo (loaded models with low boxes getting 14.5 mpg)

The last point about a diesel is that virtually all diesels can tolerate 1:15 filtered used motor oil to diesel ratio with no modifications or detrimental side effects to the engine. Even if you just use a gallon per tank, that's still $4 you're saving every time you fill up and drops your price to $3.92/gallon on a 30 gallon fillup. Experiment a bit and you could probably increase the savings even more.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Thanks,

ANd thanks to everyone.

Talking with my wife, and out search going to very poorly in finding what I want, she feels like if I buy one of these things it is "never going to be finished" ie never going to be a fully furnished camper, ergo she would like now to persue a pop up camper...

SO... as for now anyhow, it looks like I am out of the fuso hunt and now looking for a pop up camper.

Sigh... I had such high hopes too! I was really excited to get in there and start.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the advice.

Brian
 

4671 Hybrid

Adventurer
Maybe a good compromise for the wife would be a pop up camper or short 5th wheel mounted on the FUSO bed. There's a new trend of putting 5th wheels on goosenecks and leaving 10ft of open bed space, they make for nice toy haulers. BUT, a FUSO with a pop up/short 5th wheel already mounted would make for a nice, ready-made, excursion rig. Figure $3,000 for the truck, $2000 for a pop up, and you're ready to roll. If she doesn't like it, you can always remove the pop-up, sell the FUSO, and you're back to where you would've been anyway.

I've thought about doing the same thing with my cargo truck, I could remove the 24' box and put a nice fifth wheel in it's place. If I could find one with a bent/wrecked frame and the price is right, I still haven't ruled it out since that'd be much easier than converting my box.

Just a thought..
 

4671 Hybrid

Adventurer
Here's a quick example...it's not the prettiest so you have to visualize a bit and bear with me.

Craigslist camper
Since the bed on your truck is 17'8, I don't think 19' would hurt. Plus, many of these campers count part of the tongue as the overall length so you're probably looking at less than 19' for the camper portion anyway.

So on this one, you could remove the axles, cut off the tongue, forklift it onto the bed, bolt it down, wire up the lights and battery, and off you go. To dress it up, I would reskin it with straight sides but aluminum rolls aren't that expensive, it could basically be made to have straight sides like an aluminum cargo trailer. Down the road, you could cut through the cab of the truck and make a pass through, and there you go, all done.

I'd estimate a weekend to swap it over, maybe a 3 day weekend if you're working slow. To reskin it would only take a couple days, I helped a buddy do the same thing awhile back and it looks better than the commercial units that roll off the line. Fuso for $3,000, camper for $900, and miscellaneous for $500 and you're good to go.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Yes, but with the camper fuso concept, I would have to have four seat belts from the off. I have two little boys, and I could not get a truck unless I could make it into an acceptable set up right away.

Otherwise I like the idea a lot. We have a LOT of free slide in truck campers here, so I figured I could pick up a couple free campers and put the stuff inside the truck, my wife did not think it would work out though...

I think if I were going to put a trailer on the truck I would want something a little nicer than that, just because I would fear that with the age of that camper it might simply fall apart.

The other requirement my wife absolutely has, it must have beds made up full time. IE she does not want to have to turn the dinette into a bed and back every day.

If I already owned the fuso, then I could convince her, but as we do not...

Besides, this way I can afford a bike as well I think. :) Such is life.

Thanks for the ideas though! I did like the camper, and with new skins it sure would look good.
 

4671 Hybrid

Adventurer
Ahhh, I forgot about the two boys, my bad.

As for the camper falling apart, people rag about the weak construction (and in many cases rightfully so) but when I came back from deployment in 2003, my wife and I hitched up my parent's old '76 Wilderness camper to our truck and pulled it all over the US. Aside from new tires, water pump, batteries, and drapes that had rotted from the sun, it was pretty much good to go even though it had been sitting for almost 15 years! I was expecting something to happen along the way but aside from a shackle that let go and a bumper that was hanging on for dear life from rust (we stopped and fixed it when we noticed), it was solid.

We had to do the dinette to bed thing but after 3 or 4 nights, it was second nature and took all of a minute. We also had our baby with us and had to do two tables into beds plus set up the porta-crib. It probably won't change her mind but it really does become second nature after the third/fourth time doing it.

That Wilderness camper is the same camper that I'll be gutting for my upcoming project.. Maybe when I'm done with mine you can show your wife the thread and give her a nice, "I told you so" :)
 
Last edited:

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Perhaps.

I really think that it would be a perfect platform for building on. Parts everywhere, and they seem to hold their value pretty well. If I just had a little more to spend... sigh.

I found a four door for sale for only 13K last night. Said it only had 60K miles on it. (Makes me wonder what is wrong with it) It sure would be a nice truck if it were all in good condition. Then I would not need a pass through, just plop the thing on there.

I have also thought that a fifth wheel camper placed on a lift/dump bed would be really nice. Again more money... oh well. :) Maybe in a few years we can try again.
 

kerry

Expedition Leader
With a need for 4 seat belts, in your situation if I wanted a cabover truck, I'd go with a 2wd Fuso or Isuzu crewcab and put a camper on the back. One reason I chose a service body truck and a pop up slide in camper was that going from concept to reality only takes a short amount of time.
 

kjmickelson

New member
2 Boys=Crew cab

Just throwing in my 2 cents. I have been trying to find a way to get the best of all worlds with a cabover. Take an FE or NPR crew and put a 5th wheel on the back. The 176" wb model would be needed. I found most 26' units with bunks, no slides, weigh about 7000lbs. If your truck weighed 6000 you have a 1000 for fuel/water etc with the 14500 GVW. You remove the goose neck (it just unbolts) so the bed sits over the cab. Depending on overall height the unit might just sit on its wheels on a flat deck, or you might have to lower it by 4-6" to get under a 14' max height.

Pushing a 5th wheel forward utilizes the space over the cab which I find for my needs (family camping unit) is strangely ignored in many of these builds. I do realize access to the cab via tilting is stopped. But the idea would to put 4 camper jacks on the 5th wheel so you could drop it off any time.

All you have to do now is convert the crew to 4x4 and PERFECT VEHICLE!
IMO

Kevin in Canada
 

mog

Kodiak Buckaroo
Take an FE or NPR crew and put a 5th wheel on the back.
Pushing a 5th wheel forward utilizes the space over the cab which I find for my needs (family camping unit) is strangely ignored in many of these builds.
I do realize access to the cab via tilting is stopped.
Kevin in Canada

No need to worry about the 'cab tilt' on the crewcabs (4 doors), they do not tilt. Access is via a 'hatch' inside.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
No need to worry about the 'cab tilt' on the crewcabs (4 doors), they do not tilt. Access is via a 'hatch' inside.

I didn't know that! Dang, I was wondering how that worked out. I thought perhaps the cab split in two and only the front have lifted forward.

Nifty.


SO as for the Crew cab, well yes I would certainly agree that this would be the ideal way to go, and with a crew service body truck and a slide in bed camper, or a fifth wheel (I would only get a very small 19' fifth wheel,). I also have no desire to have a 4x4 truck. I can drive really well, and I figure with a winch and a locker in the rear I could easily get to anywhere I would want to go. Heck, guys do it in Africa all the time with commercial 2wd trucks.

The MAJOR concern for me with the crew cab is money. You can pick up several trucks for the price of one crew cab truck. I would be able to easily outfit a super nice fuso for the price of buying just the truck with a crew cab on it. I saw one that had 300K on it, made in the early 90's and the guy wanted 25k for the blasted thing! What, does he figure it is made of gold?!?!

So, yeah, no crew cab for me any time soon. I did find a camper that would be perfect to slip onto a crew cab truck, but... oh well.

Cheers
 

kerry

Expedition Leader
. I saw one that had 300K on it, made in the early 90's and the guy wanted 25k for the blasted thing! What, does he figure it is made of gold?!?!

I think that's an anomaly. I've seen a lot of crew cabs on Craigslist or Ebay at reasonable prices.
 

snowcat

New member
Hi, I thought I would throw my 2 cents in. I've had all the trucks you are looking at- I've built them into campers and wildland fire trucks. The Mitsi doesn't hold up (if you 4x4 and off-road much) and parts can be tough to find in the West. The majority of the cab-overs have a bad ride and don't handle all that well. If it were me, I would look at the Chevy/GMC C4500 or 5500s. Only buy one with the Duramax and the Allison, 4x4 is nice and reliable as well as the crewcab. I bought one (a 2004) with 4x4 and a 8' wide by 12' long box, no liftgate, 74,000 miles for $14,000. Buy pre-2007 and you can use it in Mexico- doesn't require ultra low diesel fuel. Parts are available around much of the Planet. The 2400 tranny is better than the 1000 Allison tranny, both are great trannies.
 

DEFENDERBEAM

strategic command
Hi, I thought I would throw my 2 cents in. I've had all the trucks you are looking at- I've built them into campers and wildland fire trucks. The Mitsi doesn't hold up (if you 4x4 and off-road much) QUOTE]

just curious about what aspects of the 4x4 mitsu do not hold up in your opinon?

I know the chassis is thin, but what else?
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
None the less,

the four door trucks are all at least in the area of 15-25K. That is all of those trucks that I can find. I am still looking for a vehicle under 4.5K.

So, yeah, no chance that I could buy something like that. I DID see one go for 13K and it was not that old, but really, I have seen nothing in my range and certainly not expecting to see one with four doors that has anything other than been totally trashed.

I would still prefer a four door, don't get me wrong, I just can not afford one.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,533
Messages
2,875,597
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top