Deadwood, you have put words to my thoughts. A van is so much easier to drive and park. Even a rusty old van seems more solid. We are mainly stealth camping for now. Well as stealth as you can get in a rusted peeling paint van but we are in Indiana for now an it isn't uncommon unless you are in a ritzy area... Our old van does have things we like. It has a 350 engine, high ceiling beefed up suspension and so on. If we were just going for a week end here and there a class c might be fine. As it is, i mentioned it to my daughter and she said she would love to have a class c and if we aren't too far they could bring the grand kids to see us and camp... I think it would sleep 6 but they need 9 so she thought a couple of them could use their van or a tent. I think occasional use might be ok after any leaks are patched up. So we are back to the original old van/buy newer when it dies plan for now.
If you were given a choice between a 1980s van with 200000 miles and a 1980s class c
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Deadwood, you have put words to my thoughts. A van is so much easier to drive and park. Even a rusty old van seems more solid. We are mainly stealth camping for now. Well as stealth as you can get in a rusted peeling paint van but we are in Indiana for now an it isn't uncommon unless you are in a ritzy area... Our old van does have things we like. It has a 350 engine, high ceiling beefed up suspension and so on. If we were just going for a week end here and there a class c might be fine. As it is, i mentioned it to my daughter and she said she would love to have it and if we aren't too far they could bring the grand kids to see us and camp... I think it would sleep 6 but they need 9 so she thought a couple of them could use their van or a tent. I think occasional use might be ok after any leaks are patched up. So we are back to the original old van/buy newer when it dies plan for now.
I think a big difference between them is that if you look a a UHaul truck for instance the box is usually made of aluminum where the Class C RV is usually made from wood. I'm not sure there are too many older C's that haven't had some sort of roof leak at one time or another. With the wood comes the chance for rot, mildew, mold, you name it. The box truck is a blank slate which is good for some and not so good for others.
There is a reason when people are looking at vans that the Class B's are always so expensive. It is because they are built on a solid frame van and the RV is built inside of it. My van is my daily driver. It's 19' 5'' long. It fits in any parking spot. I wouldn't want to be driving a Class C as my daily driver. Again, it would be great for weekend trips but I plan to full time starting this winter.
The Box truck would make for an interesting build. It gives a lot of options to make basically a tiny house that is stealth.
There is a reason when people are looking at vans that the Class B's are always so expensive. It is because they are built on a solid frame van and the RV is built inside of it. My van is my daily driver. It's 19' 5'' long. It fits in any parking spot. I wouldn't want to be driving a Class C as my daily driver. Again, it would be great for weekend trips but I plan to full time starting this winter.
The Box truck would make for an interesting build. It gives a lot of options to make basically a tiny house that is stealth.
For a couple years we had a real old formerly UHaul van. It was orange and white you could see UHaul was painted out... it might have had a working 8 track. Around the wheels, it had rust everywhere... A true eye sore. We drove it until it died but I don't remember what it died of. The driver's door would open but eventually wouldn't shut but the window rolled down. I can remember going to the junk yard with a load and having to climb out the window. The sliding door some times worked. The rear door worked fine but if the van was loaded there was limited means of escape. The radio worked. I think the passenger door worked. There wasn't any rear seats so my husband bolted a car seat in the back when we weren't hauling junk... I'm thinking we had a camper at that time so never tried to camp in it.
My son wrote a song called Dad's truck
https://www.reverbnation.com/calebhawkins/song/21295279-gasoline
https://www.reverbnation.com/calebhawkins/song/21295279-gasoline
AbuelaLoca
Well-known member
Very cool!! Love a deep voice singin' country!
If he plays that song in the rural area he sells albums every time. If he goes back they won't leave him alone until he plays it. And they want to sing along. He said one place he played one table full of guys really liked that song. Made him do it again. Turned out to be a bunch of mechanics. He based that song off a lot of old vans we've had over the years. At one point we had 4 or 5 cars in the drive way and only one worked at a time so my husband would call up the insurance and change which car to insure. So one day the insurance agent called up and gave us a different van. That was the one that blew the engine. I think he actually got a ride home but he did walk a good ways. If my son is around rich college students they just don't get it - goes right over their heads.
I like seventeen, too. Its about his second wife. He should have married her in the first place. Yup he plays country and some blues, Americana and loves 1930s but it doesn't go over much. He plays all the instruments you hear on his recordings. He also does sound engineering.
I like seventeen, too. Its about his second wife. He should have married her in the first place. Yup he plays country and some blues, Americana and loves 1930s but it doesn't go over much. He plays all the instruments you hear on his recordings. He also does sound engineering.
We went to look at the class C today. It looks barely used. Our friends want us to have it. Everything works.... A bit of spit polish and it would be really nice. BUT we will have a budget of $30 a day. Realistically we can't afford to go very far in it. So we decided to stick with our old van And much better gas mileage for a while longer. In the future we may up grade (?) to something from this century. I know just ain't right......
Ballenxj
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Cammalu said:
Those newer Ford V10's are known for getting pretty decent fuel economy while moving a motor home. A friend claimed he got 17 mpg with his 30 ft MH, but he never proved that to me. I think his math was suspect. Still, 11 mpg in any MH is pretty good. Now try that with a 460 and I think average fuel economy dips into the mid single digits.
I would like to see a chart of real world economy for various motor homes, categorized by age, class, engine, and length. I think that would be very interesting.
Grey
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I have pondered the question of going with an RV or a Van for the last couple of months myself. From what I've seen of older RV's, I would probably go with the Van option. Simply because of the quality of construction that you could put into it. I know you could strip out an older RV and make it your own, but as far as saving on weight, not so much. If you put in quality cabinetry, beds, insulation, etc... you will add more weight than what the original manufacturer did. A piece of 3/4" plywood decking would weight twice as much if not more than the thin, flimsy material that was original equipment.
We looked hard at whether or not to gut it.
1) We just don't want such a bulky rig.
2) the out side doors full of outlets, propane, black tank, water, electric and what not would be darned hard to relocate where ever you wanted it. Even to push the kitchen down a few inches would be major work inside and out.
It seemed like a lot of space we don't truly need.
It would be spacious compared to a van but with so much storage no telling what all we might end up hauling around that we don't really need.
While a kitchen would be nice we can improvise as we do on our short trips. That said I don't know how a much longer living situation would with our minimal kitchen. We haven't been baking a whole lot so we don't really have to have an oven. We have a propane stove. An RV has the same sized propane stove.... ours goes away when not in use. We use a cooler and it takes up a lot less space than a refrigerator. I got a ton of cooler bags a few years ago and they work well for a lot of things. If not in use they fold up real nice. However if we are going to do an extended van living time we need to figure out either a refrigerator or a good source of ice. My husband built our main cooler. We had ice in it last 11 days in Florida one January. We have a dishpan and we can put stuff in it when not in use so don't really have to have a sink. We have a road pro cook box and I love it. The RV might be able to use a crock pot. That said we haven't done full time yet - just travels and of late some trial week end respites where we test out things we have learned from this forum.
I'd like to see gas numbers, too.
1) We just don't want such a bulky rig.
2) the out side doors full of outlets, propane, black tank, water, electric and what not would be darned hard to relocate where ever you wanted it. Even to push the kitchen down a few inches would be major work inside and out.
It seemed like a lot of space we don't truly need.
It would be spacious compared to a van but with so much storage no telling what all we might end up hauling around that we don't really need.
While a kitchen would be nice we can improvise as we do on our short trips. That said I don't know how a much longer living situation would with our minimal kitchen. We haven't been baking a whole lot so we don't really have to have an oven. We have a propane stove. An RV has the same sized propane stove.... ours goes away when not in use. We use a cooler and it takes up a lot less space than a refrigerator. I got a ton of cooler bags a few years ago and they work well for a lot of things. If not in use they fold up real nice. However if we are going to do an extended van living time we need to figure out either a refrigerator or a good source of ice. My husband built our main cooler. We had ice in it last 11 days in Florida one January. We have a dishpan and we can put stuff in it when not in use so don't really have to have a sink. We have a road pro cook box and I love it. The RV might be able to use a crock pot. That said we haven't done full time yet - just travels and of late some trial week end respites where we test out things we have learned from this forum.
I'd like to see gas numbers, too.
