New to site. Converstion question.

[MastercraftX1]

First I'm new to this site. I've had a great time looking around at the all the cool rigs and projects. I live in DFW (texas) area and I'm looking to find/build a small toy hauler RV that I can haul a motorcycle or two and tow my wakeboard boat. My motorcycles are fairly light WR250F and Ducati Monster 696 (about 350lbs) and my boat is about 3000-3200lbs with a single axle trailer. So my towing weight is probably about 4000 or so. We currently use a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2wd with 4.7 V8 as our tow vehicle. Live about a 1/4 mile from the boat ramp so the Jeep doesn't get used much. Have taken a couple trips witht the boat to Arkansas, Broken Bow, Austin, etc...

Thinking a diesel is the way to go. We currently have two VW tdi cars, love diesels. I'm thinking something in the 16-17' box truck would be plenty big enough for us and shouldn't too hard for putting in the boat. Saw the Uhaul 17' box truck, but not sure if a Uhaul is the way to go. Granted I haven't seen a diesel 17' Uhaul, but I'm not totally against a truck that runs on gas.

I saw a Ford F-550 with 16' cab over box on-line that looks pretty good. It has the powerstroke 6.0L diesel. Would this be a good truck to use for my needs? We would be doing trips anywhere from 100 to 500 miles and camping, boating, mountain biking etc. We don't have kids, so it's just two of us a Boston Terrier and all the toys.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Love the site.

 

[Doc Weaver]

I don't think you will need a class 8 truck and engine. A business class truck will give you plenty of power and still have decent fuel mileage. I would recommend that you look at some of my posts in the building of my truck Grande Rojo. I originally built it for about 20k including buying the truck with 53k miles on it. It may not be the design that you need, but you can get some ideas. If you want to talk sometime, message me and I will either call you or you can call me. I am about to redesign some of the interior and have been looking at some new ideas. .... oh and welcome

 

[MastercraftX1]

Thanks for the response. Sorry for the mistake in my post title, I was trying to do several things at once and hit enter or something and it got posted while I was typing on the title. Yeah I was thinking I didn't need a Class 8 truck, but they do look like it would be great to have. I used to have an old Eagle bus that had an RV conversion done, it was really not the right fit for us.

I thinking maybe the Ford f-550 6.0L diesel truck front with a 16 box (with the extended over the cab portion) might be the a good start. I also found an older Uhaul with I think a 14' box and a 7.3L diesel. The Uhaul is much less expensive, but I may be in for a lot of repair costs with the older truck.

I looked for your Grande Rojo posts and I didn't see any of the building of the truck, saw the one with the new paint job. It looks great. Can you point me in the right direction to see some of the building posts and pics?

Thanks,
Boyd

 

[Doc Weaver]

Truck Conversion & Toterhome Community - Search Results try this and see if that helps.

I had a Golden Eagle (if you remember those). They ride like a dream, but don't fit my needs at this time. I carry some large pieces at times and also have to traverse construction sites. Eagles are too low to the ground for that. I did love my bus though.

you are correct about the uhaul trucks are pretty worn out when they sell them. If you look often and bide you time, you can find the perfect truck for the right price.