Full time offroad living pics wanted!

Greetings fellow Taco owners, Im looking to spend a good bit of time offgrid in my tacoma while touring north and south america. I plan on traveling in the nicer weather and finding work in a village with a ski resort or a farm to make up for money spent in the warmer months. I will be hauling majority of my belongings and my girlfriends such as snowboards, Inflatable SUP board, clothing, my mass collection of tools(because I'm a truck&coach tech I can only fix the problem if i have the tools to do so). Along with your basic necessities, probably just a cooler for fresh food as the old lady only eats a handful of foods, cookware, and most of the bigger items will either have to be loaded in the box or on the roof. so my question is, Has anyone considered their setup suitable for full-time living(either a shell with attached storage,GFC/Vegabond, RTT, or box camper) or am i the only one that lived out of their 91 toyota liteace van for 9 months in some foreign country(New Zealand in my case). If you think your setup is capable of full-time living while hauling few extras items id love to see what you've done to make it a capable rig! also overseas experince accepted. I plan on doing so with as limited budget as possible but a decent amount will have to be spent in the right areas in order to achieve my goal. Thanks for advice and experience in advance!

 

@danneskjold

 

I live out of my Tacoma "full time." I put that in quotations because I do sleep in hotels when works calls for it, and stay at friends houses occasionally. But I have no apartment to my name and the vast majority of time is spent in my truck, which I use to travel for work.

Camper is a Vagabond Outdoors Drifter which, IMO, is the best camper out there for Tacomas.

 

I definitely do NOT full time in my truck, however it’s set up to be FT capable and I can do two weeks or two months in mine with no real change.

Check out the Vagabond Drifter thread there’s some almost “RV” builds on there. I know of at least one person who “lived” for an extended period in a short bed Tacoma with a soft topper and cooler so depending on your tolerance it doesn’t take that much...

Personally I’d opt for a sprinter Van if I was going LONG term but a GFC, Drifter, or TreeHouse make the Tacoma pretty livable depending on your local.

Should be an interesting thread if it gains traction. The member linked above is FT in a Drifter I believe.

-Yota

 

That’s a pretty Rad buildout...

 

Uhhhhh... This x1000 or a full size truck.

I love my truck but there's a lot of compromises you have to make when your living space is 5x4

 

Both great builds guys, A van is ideal for living out of but the lack of 4x4 vans without serious cash and major modification made me push towards a tacoma. I enjoy aiming for a gcc or vagabond but a rtt is closer to my realistic budget.uf

 

OP- If this is a serious need and or desire maybe you could lay a few more parameters on us. Are you going to #Vanlife it because you just finished High School/ College and you want to "Jack Kerouac" around the country and see some shit before you start life, or are you doing it out of necessity, like you live in SoCal and can't afford 5K a month rent? What time of year do you want to do this in? and Where? I see you're in Canada so I'm assuming you don't want to live in your truck in February in Nakina, ON? What is your actual budget for this build? What are your requirements? How tall are you?

That all said I get that a GFC, or Drifter is "expensive" but a RTT suitable for full time living is too, a James Baroud, Autohome Maggiolina or other comparable tents cost $3500 +++ Not to mention an appropriate cap to mount them too. If you're thinking about "living" in a $900 Smittybilt I'd rethink that to be honest. Not that they're "bad" tents but I camp with a couple guys with them and I promise you they will not hold up for a 6 month jaunt.

To be 100% honest you're best bet would be a long bed truck with a glass cap on it, build a platform to sleep, and go. There was a blog I read a LONG time ago by a kid/guy called "Trooper Dan" who fell on hard times and lived out of his truck for a very extended period of time. It was a great read and I truly enjoyed his story.

Final thought from me but do you have a plan on where you're going to park every night? #Vanlife has sort of romanticized this idea of being a modern day Nomad, and it's cool, I get it. In truth though most people and police are not all that kind to "Bums" living in their trucks, you can't just park it anywhere you want and wake up looking at the beach everyday. A lot of places have made it very illegal to live in a car (complete with LARGE fines). My final advice would be to go "stealth" while my build looks pretty "insta-lander" opened up I'd like to think it's pretty under the radar closed. I have no stickers, patches, or other "camper" things on the outside. If I was really going to push it and try and live out of my truck (not just vacation) I've mentioned this before I'd probably strap an older extension ladder to the roof and toss on some nice Vinyl saying "Uncle Bob's Roofing" or something of that nature. A RTT basically eliminates your ability to "stealth" in areas that do not allow camping.

I still love the idea of this thread and I hope more Full Timers jump in here to help you. Final note I will say my parents were Full Time in a very small RV after retirement for close to 2 years, they loved it though set yourself a realistic travel budget and be prepared to cook and figure out personal hygiene, even if you're camping at Wal-Mart for free you need to shower, cook, ext... There's a lot to it. I love the idea and wish you the very very best....

-Yota

 

As a FORMER Mercedes Sprinter owner I would offer a warning. Unless you can afford one with a full factory warranty, you better have a well stocked bank account.

The maintenance costs are very high. Just the oil change every 10,000 miles takes 12.5 quarts and it has to be a certain Mercedes approved oil or it will soot up the emissions systems.

Speaking of emissions systems, once they get some miles on them, the soot starts causing failures of the EGR, NOx sensors, DPF filter, intake swirl valves, etc. Many of these are tied into the computer and can't be replaced without having the dealer reconfigure the computer to match the new parts. Something as simple as replacing the NOx sensors ends up being $800+. Other stuff runs into the $1000's. Not a DIY friendly system.

You shouldn't use bio-diesel, shouldn't idle for long periods of time and shouldn't do a lot of stop-and-go city driving. These all contribute to the sooting problem.

Other than that, they are great vans with a ton of room. If I was to own another van I would look at Ford and Ram, although they reportedly have there own unique problems and no 4X4. The other option would be a 4X4 conversion from U-Joint Offroad on the older Ford E-series.

Okay, rant over. After selling my Sprinter I bought my Tacoma and have ordered a Vagabond Drifter. I'll build out the bed area and continue my long-term adventuring with 4X4 and a, hopefully, low cost of ownership.

 

Those are all VERY good points snd unfortunately true of virtually all modern (2007) and newer Diesel engine in the United States. Emissions standards have added some big time obstacles and costs. (I ditched a 2012 Cummins for all those reasons).

That said I sorta meant “Sprinter Van” like I say “Kleenex” or “Xerox” more of the most we’ll know name of a particular segment. All those issues would be a non-existent with a gas van (mileage suffers though). MB just announced a gasser, Nissan, Ford, ext.... lots of choices. Truth be told the Nissan looks awesome... no 4wd of course. Really there’s no perfect choice.

That said there’s some super cool camper builds going on with Tacoma’s, just don’t think you’re gonna get off cheap...

That’s some very good insight from a MB owner though...

 

If I had to full time it I'd do it in something like this. Parts could be found anywhere, inexpensive to fix IF it needed it and built like a damn tank. Plus it'll get somewhere near 11mpg. Which surprisingly isn't too far away from my Tacoma right now.

1976 Chevy Blazer Chalet
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/d/1976-chevy-blazer-chalet/6714036857.html

 

That might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I agree. OP just buy that.

 

That first picture is unbelievably beautiful.

 

A Four Wheel Camper or similar seems like a good option. 40k truck with suspension upgrades, 15-20 K for the camper.

 

It's not the four legged creatures you have to worry about it's the ones with two. Anyone camping should pack some heat

 

Thanks for the tips Yota, Ill update the Posting with some more info, it was late so i was light on info at the time

 

I love these old 4x4 campers, my old man always talked about owning a ramrunner with a custom popup tent attached to the roof. I owned my 89 toyota prior to my tacoma and always wanted to convert it to a sunrader or adding a custom build camper. needing a reliable vehicle for work sent me in the direction of a newer taco.

 

I don't blame you. Such an awesome truck.

 

I have nothing useful to contribute to this thread. Just bumping it because I want to see it go somewhere.

 

Nice.... OP, you do owe us some more info... would love to keep this going as well. For some reason despite living a comfortable life I yearn to live in a Tacoma, down by the river.... hahaha