Choosing the Right Van for Me

     Deciding which cargo van to build out in the very beginning of my campervan journey was a very difficult thing, even if I didn’t realize it in the beginning. At first, I thought I could only dream about owning a Medium-Roof Extended Wheelbase Ford Transit van, because, even used, they were very expensive. Or so I thought at the time.

     I decided then that I would buy a very old low-roof van off of someone locally. I would have to commit to replacing the engine and raising the roof so I could comfortably and safely. The van itself would cost between 2,000 to 3,000, relacing the engine would cost around another 3,000 to 4,000, and rasing the roof would cost between 2,000 and 3,000. So, best case scenario, I would end up spending 7,000 on this van before I even started to build it out, not including any complications that came up with the rest of the van while I was working on it or even after. Worst case scenario, I would end up spending over 10,000 on this van choice. The fact that it was an old van gave me anxiety, because that would mean there was a very high chance of things breaking down even after I repaced the engine.

     On top of the physical cost of the van, there was also the time and effort and stress it would take to make all of these changes before even making the van livable. I had time, but not years, which this may have taken if I had chosen this option.

     This first option that I had chosen did not seem like the best choice in the long-term, but I did not want to wait very long to buy my van, so finances were the reason this choice was the best at the time.

     However, at one point during quarantine, I was thinking about all this work that would have to go into this van to bring it to the state that a much newer, but still used, van would be. I decided to look up prices of some newer vans that would need much less work. These vans that I was looking at were between 2017 and 2019, high-roof, extended vans for the most part. Looking at these perfect, dream cargo vans nearly made me sweat with anticipation.

     I decided to talk to my dad about which maker I should be focusing on, and decided on Ford Transit vans.

     These vans, used, would cost me between 20,000 and 30,000, which was at least double the amount I would be spending on my first choice of van. This is the main thing that had been keeping me from even considering these kinds of vans in the beginning, but since I would be working full-time over the summer, I decided that waiting a little longer and spending a little more would definitely be worth it in the long run. There wouldn’t be nearly as many repairs to be done, less chance of it breaking down in the middle of nowhere, I would be able to build it out faster, and It would look less conspicuous than a low-roof van where the roof was ripped off, raised, and welded back on.

     I decided to finally lust after a used High-Roof Extended Ford Transit in the end, because even though I didn’t want to spend that much money, it would be worth it. Especially since I plan on living in my van for at least a couple years.

     Very soon in the future, I was planning on contacting all of the Amazon warehouses in my area, and asking them if they have any vans that they were planning to get rid of soon. This is because these vans are both my dream van, and Amazon might be trying to get rid of some soon, since they have been in commission for a few years already. Honestly, this seems like a really great option considering that there aren’t many vans of the exact type that I want available in Las Vegas at any given time.

     However, very recently, I have decided that this kind of van would be very hard to manuver in small spaces that I might want to go, and it would not really fit in parking spaces. I really want my van to be as easy as possible to move and fit in places, so I have decided to find a van that was a medium-roof Ford Transit instead of the high-roof that I originally wanted.

    Investment over convenience.

Thank you so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey!