Choosing the Right Van for Me 2.0

    Hello! This is another 2.0 post, where I take an old post of mine and update it with everything I have learned since then. This one will not be much different, but a lot more thought has gone into the van that I want, so I hope you guys find that interesting.

    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 High Roof, Extended Wheelbase Ford Transit van, because, even used, they are very expensive. Or so I thought at the time.

    From the start, this was my dream van. But, as the pandemic happened and vans became more and more popular, the price of all vans increased exponentially. These kinds of vans that I want have gone up over 10 thousand dollars since I started looking over a year ago. This is a big hurdle, but I now think that I will be able to get over it eventually.

    In the very beginning, 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.

     When I started looking, 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.

     Now, the price has gone up to at least between 30,000 and 40,000, and sometimes even higher. Just the other day I decided to build my dream van on the Ford website just for fun, and that would be about 55,000. I really hope the price of these vans will go down soon, because I really do not want to spend that much on a van even though it is my dream van.

    I finally decided to 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. I wanted to invest in something that would be a reliable living space for myself.

    Very soon, I plan on going to all of the Amazon distribution centers in my area and asking them if they are getting rid of any vans in the near future. This is because Amazon has most of the vans in the city that I want to buy, and they are getting to the end of their life span for Amazon. I’m not sure how well this will work, but I do think it is at least worth a try.

    Another option I have recently been considering after doing the dream van build on the Ford website is actually just customizing a van and ordering it in the near future. I almost have enough money for that, and I would get all the cool options that I want.

     Also, I talked to my dad about a lot of the options, and some of them we can install by ourselves, so it would be considerably cheaper than the original 55,000 I estimated on the website. This is really exciting, since a lot of the options on the website would really help me out a lot.

     At one point, I did decide that this van would be too difficult to maneuver in tight spaces, and was going to look at medium roof vans. However, I have now realized that I would much rather have the extra standing space inside my van, and have settled on a high roof, long wheelbase van. This is not as long as the extended wheelbase, and I am much more comfortable with that. I am glad that I could compromise with myself.

     I thought that I would be able to buy my van before I graduated in May, but the rising demand and prices for the van that I want have prevented me from buying the van so far. I want to pay for the entire van as a whole, and not have payments on it, so I do have to make some more money before I look for vans again, and maybe by then the prices will have gone down.

    Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and joining me on my van journey. I know it has been a long time coming, and it might still be a while, but I am working as hard as I possibly can to make this dream a reality for myself. I am so excited for when I finally get my van, and I will keep you guys updated for every step of the way.