thinking of switching from truck to wagon

[skateparkdirtbag]

Ive been traveling out of a yr2000 2.5l mt 2wd ranger with a campershell for a few years 
I really wanna travel a lot more and want higher mpgs, i dont mind the small space.
Ive been looking into wagons  to increase my mpg from ~26mpg to 35+

my concerns are:
will i be able to sit upright on a mattress in a typical low roof wagon like  the ford escort?
what models could i sit up-right in?
are there any suv's that get higher than 30mpg?
....i also want to limit my search to vehicles older than 2010, so they will be simpler to work on

with under ~90hp, will i be able to drive up steep, rutted forest roads?
how much of an issue is the low clearance when travelling these roads? i swear ive seen a honda civic almost everywhere i have seen my truck go, but i imagine wagons are a little longer than the typical sedan

how much is condensation an issue? ive never really had that problem with the camper shell (though it did leak but also just drained out the edges)

I met a skater with a 90's honda wagon who said he was getting easy 40's mpgs, but the only mpg guides stated much lower mpg
that wagon looked like it had a super high roof.

 

[bullfrog]

My son used my old Honda Civic hatchback to explore maintained gravel roads and its suspension and drivetrain were completely worn out in about a year. In my opinion it would do great on asphalt but not loaded on gravel roads. There are not too many light weight vehicles that would carry a full timers load and last on gravel roads in my opinion, especially ones that get over 25 miles per gallon loaded. I have considered an older Toyota Camry wagon and the Honda Element but loaded I think the gas mileage just wouldn’t be worth the amount of increased maintenance they would eventually require. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic are the only two that come to mind that would get over 30 MPG.

 

[Uncle Todo]

Could look at older Honda C-RVs.
I'd look for a manual for reliability.

 

[bullfrog]

My 1986 Honda Civic hatchback was a special order 1300 4 speed transmission and if I remember correctly was rated 44MPG city and 54 MPG highway. It did fine loaded on asphalt doing 65MPH but you had to skip the clutch to get it moving from a stop. Even with perfect maintenance the transmission and cooling system started giving us problems at 150,000 miles. Our 1988,1989,1990,1991 and 1997 Civic Hatchbacks got less gas mileage as they got bigger and more powerful. The last one was around 36 MPG average. All required starters, radiators, distributors and timing belts/ water pumps between 90,000 to 120,000 miles and all ran over 350,000 miles each. The station wagons were offered in an semi four wheel drive but had transmission problems as parts and repairs were difficult. Most common failures were overheating/ blown head gasket and timing belt failure. You don’t see many on the road for a reason, they wore out the suspension, rusted or broke around suspension mounting points and were taken out of service. If I could buy a new 1986 today for the $6,000 I payed for it then I would have more than one and be totally happy getting 44 mpg putting around town on asphalt.

 

[maki2]

You want to know if you can sit up in bed without hitting your head. Then sit on a bed of the height you want the bed to be and measure wherre the top of your head is.  Next go to some used car lots and take inside measurements in the area wher you would be sitting up in a bed.  It wont take you long to come up with a list of conteders that you can narrow down further by mpg and ground clearance.

 

[user 423]

....i also want to limit my search to vehicles older than 2010, so they will be simpler to work on

There may be vehicles built before 2010 that might be simpler than newer models in some ways but in general you would have to go a lot farther back than that to when they were 'simple' to work on.

 

[DLTooley]

I have a 2000 Ranger with the 3 liter and torsion bar suspension under a canopy, 310k miles.

Yes, lower mileage, but it’s tough. No, I can’t sit up in it but the camps I can access give me much better outside ‘headroom’.

The simplest answer to saving money on gas is to move less, but I understand everyone has unique needs.

 

[Uncle Todo]

I'm new to all this, and yet to live in my van, I have crashed in my car for a month or so a couple years ago in a Volvo wagon.
If you're looking to trade off due to mileage, my $.02 would be if your looking to live in it, go with comfort, if your just looking to crash in it, go with MPG.
But seldom do comfort and MPG go hand in hand.

Not sure what kind of or how much research you've done on this, but this may be helpful:
https://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/the-30-mpg-club-cars-that-get-30-mpg-epa-combined.html

 

[nature lover]

I often think about what it would take to make the most fuel-efficient vehicle to live in. At this point I’m sort of leaning towards a small truck and a very very lightweight trailer. Not to get too political and get knocked off here but with the change in administration I can’t see any way that gas is going but up drastically. And it won’t be in relationship to my Social Security check. I struggle now to have gas to go anywhere and wonder what will happen in a few months and years. I’m not siding with either administration on this, I like that we value our environment and try to protect it. But I also value our energy independence and wish we’d be spending a lot of effort on developing better and cleaner ways to use fossil fuels. If we can kickstart and develop a vaccine in less than a year think what we could do with the same kind of effort in fossil fuel technology for cleaner air.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]My experience is living for 3 years in a 2006 Subaru Forester.[/font]
 . . . Ive been looking into wagons  to increase my mpg from ~26mpg to 35+
Loaded with all my stuff I never got better than 28 mpg.

my concerns are:
will i be able to sit upright on a mattress in a typical low roof wagon like  the ford escort?
Not unless you are less than 5' tall.  It is awkward to pee during the night.
what models could i sit up-right in?
I couldn't sit up in any of the small, high mpg vehicles I looked at.
are there any suv's that get higher than 30mpg?
The question you really want to answer is are there any SUVs that will get better than 30 mpg loaded with all my stuff, with my driving style, on terrain that I will be driving.
....i also want to limit my search to vehicles older than 2010, so they will be simpler to work on
Depends on what you want to work on.  Engine systems started becoming complex in the late '70s.  How many tools are you carrying?

with under ~90hp, will i be able to drive up steep, rutted forest roads?
That has more to do with gearing and driver skill.  How much recovery gear to do carry?
how much of an issue is the low clearance when travelling these roads?  i swear ive seen a honda civic almost everywhere i have seen my truck go, but i imagine wagons are a little longer than the typical sedan
Yes ground clearance is a limit, driver skill and recovery gear can modify that.
how much is condensation an issue? ive never really had that problem with the camper shell . . .
Condensation is always a problem when the dew point is higher than the temperature of the vehicle glass.  It gets really bad when you have a cold rain for a couple of days.
I met a skater with a 90's honda wagon who said he was getting easy 40's mpgs, but the only mpg guides stated much lower mpg
that wagon looked like it had a super high roof.
A lot of guys will claim a high gas milage when they get it driving downhill with a tail wind.  I have found the EPA estimates to be close for the vehicles I have had when driven empty.  Mileage goes up a little if you drive carefully and down a lot if you drive aggressively.

 

[Uncle Todo]

Yep, it's a fine balance here it is, hard to achieve perfect balance.

While we'd all like better mileage, I frankly have no idea what I'm getting, and not really too concerned as long as it gets me to my next fill up.

 

[barleyguy]

I'd actually be thrilled to get 26 MPG like the OP. My truck gets about 17 by itself, and towing my fifth wheel I get about 10.5 . I'm actually pretty happy with that, because it's as good or better than many Class C's or Class A's.

I generally stay a week or more in each place, so diesel fuel isn't a significant expense even at 10.5 MPG. (I'm not currently traveling. Right now I'm at the sticks and bricks for a few months.)