Mostly all wheel drive and the ability to use normal parking lots. My mom bought herself one as a retirement present and has been living out of it for the last three months while working at a national park. Hers is also 4 seasons rated with no modifications, so we’ve taken it to the mountain before for snowboarding.
300k seems silly for this because my moms is made by Winnebago and she got it at the end of the year for 150, that’s about 70 off of msrp.
I have a ford transit that was converted into a campervan. The real win, is that they are much nicer to drive, you can navigate most US forest service roads, and a much better MPG. It serves as a daily driver for our family of 4 in a pinch as well.
Mine is not nearly this nice, but all in was about $45k. $30k for the van brand new, and $15k build out. That was back in 2018, so would probably be more like $60k today.
Yes, but the appeal of these vans is that you can take them off-roading to spots you could never dream of taking an RV. That’s assuming you get the 4WD version. Raise it a bit and throw on some large off-roading tires to have good clearance then upgrade the suspension and you can take it on truck trails to spots most people can only access if they’re willing to hike for days at a time.
If I had one of these, I could park it at my house and occasionally use it as a tow vehicle for my little trailer. It’s even small enough that I could use it as a spare vehicle if my daily went down for a couple days.
Ironically, I do have a shitty RV (that I hate) and wouldn’t dream of parking it at my house or using it for anything beyond its intended purpose. But I bought it in a moment of weakness when I should have bought a pop top minivan.
The RV technically has a full kitchen, bathroom and more space. But it sucks at everything else.
Also 4-7 mpg means I don’t drive it anywhere.
And it’s an RV, so I can’t get to the cool campgrounds that are cheaper. Or just park it on the road for a stealthy sleep.
And it’s so wide, it’s a pain in the ass to drive in traffic or construction.
And when it breaks down (because it’s a shitty RV that I bought in a moment of weakness) it’s too big for car dealers to look at, so I have to hunt for a shop that’ll touch it. And I have to pay for the big tow trucks.
A newer one would probably suck much less, but given the choice I’d rather have the van.
Yep, I've seen videos like this that debate a lot more about prices and the economy of it, the idea is that you're either have a lot to spare and do this completely because you want it, or you really are just homeless or about to be and instead of trying to ever own a home you own one of this and make it look as good as you can cause it's the only home you're going to get.
Something like this is cheaper than even the crappiest houses but it's also just not a house and it's a whole different lifestyle.
4.6k
u/InternationalRead925 16h ago
I'm guessing that cost a bit of cash.