Help me with my math

[u/SwordsAfar]

I bought an old box truck last year for 2000. It’s a 2011 Chevy express with 238,000 miles. I put an additional 5000 into it, including tires, transmission lines, tie rods, alignment, and a few other things. It still has some sort of coolant leak so it may need a new radiator. Wanted to at least get it drivable.

Really my question comes down to: should I continue with this unit or should I unload it and find something with lower miles? This unit has the wire and tear you’d expect for this many miles, plus a fair amount of rust being from the Midwest.

I plan to convert the box into a living space with all the accoutrements that we all want to include in our builds. What worries me is putting all that effort into building out a nice box only to have the chassis fail or for rust to eat you alive and then you have to transfer the box or start over on something else.

I suppose part of that is just the reality of living in your vehicle. But one wants something one can depend on lol

[u/AppointmentNearby161]

The nice thing about a box truck is you can unbolt the box from the chassis and move it to a new truck. It is not as easy as a slide in camper on a pickup, but it can be done.

[u/SwordsAfar → u/AppointmentNearby161]

That’s got a cost of fortune

[u/AppointmentNearby161 → u/SwordsAfar]

The box essentially just bolt onto the frame. It probably costs a couple of hundred bucks in new hardware, a couple of hours of youtube university and a generous supply of beer for your friends as it is not really a one person job. You can might be able to do it in a weekend, but I would give yourself extra time.

[u/hivemindnotalwaysrit]

You are paying others a lot to do the work. So sounds like you should go newer. 2. You can take your tires to your next van.

[u/SuqaCoq]

The newer you get, the less problems but the more costly those problems become. Alternator goes out? Gotta dive under the entire engine and have someone check boxes on a computer so the car recognizes the new alt and doesn't fry the system assuming it's still bad. If your afraid of rust, go take a look with a screw driver lol. 2006-2014 are probably the better years for someone who wants newish stuff that's still fixable themselves but not so old it's in disrepair, as well as not riddled with electronic gremlins waiting for midnight

[u/Lex_yeon]

you haven’t replaced transmission and engine, which are going to fail too. That’s the problems of buying a cheap old car

[u/SwordsAfar → u/Lex_yeon]

Probably a whole bunch of other stuff to go through before I even get to those