How to Choose an Expedition Vehicle: Van, Unimog or LMTV
The base always depends on what you want to use your rig for. Before you look at a single listing, be honest about where you are actually going to drive it.
If you're staying mostly on pavement
If you'll be in cities with not much off-road, the Sprinter, the Transit and the ProMaster are all fantastic options. You get better fuel economy and a better ride. What they don't really have is the capability to take you to the unknown rock climbing or rock crawling spots at the end of a bad road.
If you want a 4x4 build like mine
There are a couple of different routes.
The Mercedes Unimog. For off-road capability, it's the best vehicle you could possibly put a house on the back of. But the model decides how much weight it can carry. The U1400 series is very small, which is awesome if you want something lightweight. Personally, I'd be looking at a U2400 or something in that realm. It still has portal axles, but the frame is designed to hold significantly more weight. That's the biggest issue I find with a lot of Unimogs out there: they're fairly flimsy for a heavy habitat, because of the way the frame is designed. It adds a lot of twist.
The Stewart & Stevenson chassis. This is my personal favourite and what I built my vehicle on. It's American military, the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, or LMTV. These trucks were designed for full off-road capability at their GVWR, which means they can carry a tonne of weight. They're also very, very heavy.
- The M1078 is the cargo truck version, a four-wheel-drive truck with an open cargo bed.
- The M1079 is the van-body version, and that's what mine is based on.
- If you want a larger habitat, there are also 6x6 versions, the Medium Tactical Vehicle, or MTV. The turning radius is worse, but off-road they are incredible.
Other chassis. A few people build on a civilian truck chassis, like an International or an Isuzu. A lot of people also use the Isuzu four-wheel-drive delivery truck, which I believe is the NPR. You have to build everything yourself, because it won't come with a box like the LMTV does. The engine and transmission options are absolutely incredible, but as a chassis it's more expensive than an LMTV.
Why I chose the LMTV
The price-to-performance is almost unbeatable. You can find an M1078 for as low as $7,000 at a government auction. I paid $35,000 for mine, but it had a lot of custom work already done: the habitat, the extended frame rails, and the pass-through into the cab.
The short version
It always depends on what you want to do with the vehicle. The Sprinter and the Unimog are going to be the two most expensive options in their categories. The important thing is building it and getting out there. You can follow my own LMTV build on the Destination Daily page.
