Our rig -- 1997 Ford CF8000 commercial truck we converted to our concept of an ExpeditionVehicle.
Cummins 8.3 mechanical, Allison 3060, air-locker axle.
Our situation -- full-time live-aboard, boondock exclusively.
Remote forests, winters on Baja beaches.
Twenty-four months twenty-four thousand miles around south America.
Alaska, Panama, all over north and central America.
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2003, my Very Significant Other got sick.
We quickly wrote our Requirements Statement.
Essentials include:
* common off-the-shelf (COTS) components.
* compatible with Third World fuels and repair capabilities.
* ground clearance so we can avoid hang-ups on boulders and stumps
* a 'million-mile' commercial chassis
* cheap enough to abandon.
Naturally, we acquired a commercial truck for exploring.
Our conversion took less than a week... while selling everything.
Less than a week after getting the diagnosis, we left Oregon with the vague goal of 'south!'.
Instead of fussing with computers to fit our needs into the available interior, we built cardboard-box mock-ups to represent cabinets, counters, furniture.
By changing their shapes and sizes, we arranged these for access, utility, traffic.
After we established our interior design, we placed mock-up windows so we could see outside.
We have 3x1 dual-pane stand-still house windows centered at our eye-level while standing inside.
This puts the windows about eight-feet above ground level.
Unless peepers are up-hill or on a structure, nobody can see in.
My peeve with factory RecreationVehicles is yuge picture windows.
With increasing jealousy from the slackers, I imagine a big window on a fancy rig could be a tempting target.
My suggestion:
* avoid believing 'this rig is our forever rig'.
After nearly two decades of full-time live-aboard, our rig is constantly evolving.
With our modular interior, we can modify at-will... or empty it to return to commercial use.
Another suggestion:
* shrink your needs.
Quit them tuba lessons, take up harmonica.
Our interior is seven paces long, three paces across.
Our GVWR is 29,000#, our weight across the scales is 14,000#... giving a nice cushion for cargo.
Compared to a Sprinter van or other factory RecreationVehicle, that would be more now, wouldn't it.
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I have experience with educated degreed individuals with exceptional abilities to consider stuff from every angle.
I also know van-dwellers in the getting-ready-to-start to build state.
If your Requirements Statement goals include 'hitting the road':
* Might you be over-thinking this?
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