I wanted to share my comprehensive summary on which vehicle is best (for you) to hit the road in for long term living or just weekend getaways. In order to save you from going down the endless rabbit hole that I’ve been on for the past two, probably more like 5, years. I’ve compiled my countless spreadsheets, notes, and blog posts to show you which vehicle will work best for the various situations, budgets, time, etc. Of course, there is no one solution that works for everyone. Some people need size for a family, others need off-road capability, all while most are satisfied with just a tent under the stars. Having started out with hand-me-down tents and a Walmart sleeping bag, to building out a camper van that we’ve lived in for a year; here is what I’ve learned along the way.
JUMP to the Following: Campervan | Class A RV | Class C RV | Trailer | Slide-In | Shell | Tent
Overview & Breakdown
Camper Van (DIY, Pro-Built, or Class B RV)
Highlights
Beyond the romantic draw that #Vanlife provides on the internet, the campervan is a fantastic vehicle to live in for short term or long term. The main reasons why we went down this path was primarily for the availability of 4WD or AWD options on the Ford Transit & Mercedes Sprinter. Once built out, these tiny homes on wheels can pretty much go anywhere, park anywhere, and not have an issue. No need to look for extra parking, or worry if your campsite can fit a massive rig. If you can drive there, you can fit. This also means you do not need additional parking spaces to store the vehicle when you’re not on the road, which can be a big issue.
Even though vans lack the space, there is still sufficient room for a full bed, kitchen, dinette, and storage. There’s enough space there really to live fully on the road, with some rigs having full electrical systems, water, shower, toilets, and plenty of windows. Speaking for myself, my wife, 45lb dog, and I have manage to live in this comfortably for months at a time. From the vehicle side, most camper vans are very reliable, get decent gas mileage 12-20mpg and they drive on the highways really well.
Lowlights
These are not the cheapest option on the block, especially since I already had a Toyota Tacoma that I could’ve pulled a trailer or fitted out with a slide-in for significantly cheaper. It’s hard to find an empty cargo van, under 30,000 miles that doesn’t cost over $50K. And that’s not including the buildout to make it a true camper van. To include electrical, furniture, water, kitchenette, etc. you’re looking at a minimum price of $4,000. To do it well, you’ll be closer to $10K-$20K. But as you can imagine, the price-tag is endless, because some rigs, prebuilt, go for over $180K.
Being realistic, and having personal experience, the amenities of normal life are often sacrificed in the campervan, or Class B RV. Adding a shower with hot water or a flushable toilet is a luxury and will take up a ton of precious space for daily living. Every compartment and bit of furniture will double as storage for both food, clothing, gear, and tools. You will undoubtably have difficulties with multiple people in the vehicle navigating normal routines without running into each other.
Class A RV
Highlights
It’s a home on wheels, legitimately. Class A RVs are the big boys you see at campgrounds, stadium tailgates, and in the National Parks. The highlights are simple, these rigs have everything. Full kitchen, full bedroom or bedrooms (plural), storage for days, warm showers and flushing toilets, and you can probably even have a full office to remote work. I have no experience with these, but I’m very envious of these massive RVs when I walk by them at the larger campgrounds. Mostly retirees drive these rigs around as they spend their winter months in the warmer climates of Florida. But with the size of this vehicle, between 250 and 400sqft of interior space, they are rolling apartments that would be plenty sufficient to spend many weeks and months living in.
Lowlights
If you thought camper vans were expensive, don’t even look at the price-tag on a new RV. You might as well be looking at another home when they routinely cost over $150K, and used ones still cost over $50K. Fuel tanks can be 50-80 gallons, resulting in a whopping $300 to fill up with an efficiency of 6-10mpg. If price isn’t a turnoff here, lucky you, but best of luck trying to park this vehicle anywhere besides a campground, national park, or the corner of a Walmart parking lot. In all of our travels, I can count maybe 5 times we’ve seen one of these rigs pull up into a trailhead, brewery, or a local restaurant in town.
Class C RV
Highlights
The Class C RV, think Cruise America, is a great sweet spot between the massive Class A and a camper van. You have all the space you could really ever want inside a vehicle, standing room, a place to cook, eat, shower, and sleep. I mean they have a dedicate bathroom and kitchen that seamlessly fits into the floor-plan without giving up the necessary living space, is unmatched at this size. I went down the rabbit hole and really found that these RVs would solve the problems for 99% of the folks looking to hit the road for longterm travel. I can say this having rented one and compare it to living in our current van, the Class C RV would be much better 90% of the time. This rig has all of the creature comforts, with dedicated spaces that separate sleeping from the dinette, kitchen from bathroom, and even added storage.
The size of this vehicle, especially for the amount of amenities inside, is fantastic. The Class C fits into most parking paces, any trailhead, and pretty much any restaurant parking lot. The overhead height isn’t too tall either, making it easy to access most tricky places. And if your RV is configured better than the average, you have plenty of space on the rear wall and roof to mount gear, solar panels, bikes, and anything else your heart desires.
Lowlights
Being honest, we were very close to going down this path, if it wasn’t for one simple feature it lacked: AWD or 4WD. It’s very hard to find a Class C RV, reasonably priced, with AWD or 4WD. For what we need, accessing our snow covered roads and backcountry dirt roads, the 2WD is just too much of a risk. And unless you want to shell out over $100K for a new camper, you’ll find the used market is still pretty pricey for anything with lower miles.
Similar to trailers, and unlike the large Motorhomes, the construction of the Class C leaves a lot to be desired. In order to save weight, most of the vehicle’s construction is very poor. The walls are made from thin 2×1 studs with a thinner piece of fiberglass on the outside. Usually, all of the furniture inside is also made from very thin plywood. And quickly, a minimally loaded RV is close to the Max Gross Vehicle Weight. For those looking to travel long term with clothes, water, gear, and food, you’ll be driving around at MGVW. Not the end of the world, but just be aware, do the math, especially if you want to add in the weight of a full buildout with more batteries and full water/grey/black tanks.
Trailer (Travel/5th Wheel)
Highlights
A travel trailer was actually going to be the option we were going to go with, if it wasn’t for having a Tacoma and the mountains of the West. A travel trailer is the perfect option to have the full living space, as described above, especially when you already have a capable towing vehicle. With the best of both worlds, you can tow the trailer everywhere, park, leave it behind at camp, and use your tow vehicle to do some off-roading, drive into town, or do some traveling without the trailer. Simply put, if you have a capable enough tow vehicle (truck/SUV), you won’t even know you have a big trailer back there.
Because trailers aren’t limited in size or length like van or RV, you get a lot more, functional living space inside. There are almost no compromises as with a van or slide-in. You get the bedroom, table, kitchen, storage, and even a bathroom to varying degrees. Depending on how much you spend, you can get off-road capable trailers like the NoBo or Jayco Baja edition. Since trailers come prewired and ready to go to run off one or two batteries, converting them to fully off grid is much easier. And best yet, if you have the money, you can buy a trailer and be on the road in a day, with no build time. And when you’re done, park it on your property and be back to normal with your vehicle. For the occasional traveler, this is the perfect option.
Lowlights
In order to save weight, most construction of travel trailers are very poor. The walls are made from thin 2×1 studs with a thinner piece of fiberglass on the outside. Usually, all of the furniture inside is also made from very thin plywood. In the event of even the smallest crash or vigorous maneuver, most trailers are completely destroyed and torn apart. Most travel trailers are not setup for 4-season living either. The water storage tanks are usually below the trailer, making them susceptible to freezing. With that being said, even though they try to save weight, at the end of the day, they are still extremely heavy. Dry weights are regularly over 5,000lbs. Add gear, living items, water, etc, you quickly add a 1,000lbs which commonly exceeds the safe towing capacity of an empty mid-size pickup truck, let alone the save Max Gross Vehicle Weight of the trailer.
Beyond the construction, a trailer extends your vehicle length by 2x or even 3x to 4x. This greatly restricts where you can go, not just where you can camp. If you’re into exploring towns, good luck trying to find a parking spot at a popular restaurant. Most trailheads even can’t accommodate trailer parking let alone to be able to turn around in one. Trailers are also inherently obvious in the sense that you can’t easily go from vehicle to trailer at night if you’re trying to quietly camp somewhere (or spend a night in a place you’re not allowed to be). Over our year in the van, we cannot count the number of times we thought about how a trailer simply would have prevented us from being able to enjoy life on the road in some cities and towns.
Slide-In Truck Camper
Highlights
Of all the options, the slide-in truck camper is the most compact, feature-full option on this list. Assuming you have a capable truck to carry one of these backpack campers, you can go from dealer lot to the the mountains in 24hrs. Though I don’t have any person experience, I’ve done a fair amount of research into these, because I’d love one of these one day. The idea that you can take your full-sized truck, or heavy duty truck, back up onto the slide-in, and be off and running for days, weeks, months, or even years at a time is wild. And based on a handful of people I follow on the internet like Bound for Nowhere, they can go anywhere your truck can go with is hard to say for most other campers on this list.
From the smallest of 4wheel-campers pop-ups, to the massive Northern Lite Truck Campers, you can carry most of the comforts of home in the back of your truck. No matter how big or small, multiple people in the back of one of these will definitely be tight compared to the similar sized campervan or trailer, but that’s obvious since it will have to fit in your 6ft bed. The benefit of the truck-bed campers is that you are able to maximize the space by having the bed over cap layout, which allows for much more space in the truck bed to be used for the dinette and kitchen. Some of the bigger rigs, that hang over the edge of the truck-bed have standing showers and bathrooms.
Lowlights
Besides the obvious small floor-plan of these campers, they tend to weigh a staggering amount. Empty weights of the most compact options can be 1,500lbs, which would exceed the common F150’s payload if you include passenger weight and minimal gear. Add in all your gear, food, water, and any build-out additions like batteries, you will far exceed your truck’s payload and MGVW. Despite being able to tow thousands of pounds in the form of a trailer, a full size truck cannot really haul around a lot of weight in the bed. Which is why most dedicated slide-in campers tend to be on heavy-duty trucks with a payload capacity of around 3,500lbs.
To bring up the small floor-plan, this option would be perfect for one person, but quite cramped for a couple if they are spending a lot of time in it, especially if they work inside of it all day. If it’s just for extended weekends and vacations, I don’t see an issue when just sleeping, cooking, and hanging out in it. If you do go down this path, I highly recommend renting one or testing one out, because I think you will be surprised, both good and bad, about how small of a space this will be.
Lightweight Shell Camper
Highlights
The lightweight shell campers, like the GoFast Platform Campers or Explore Elevated, are one of the best options out there on the market. In 2 years, I camped over 60 days outside, and primarily out of my GoFast. This is by far the quickest, and cheapest option for most adventure seeking truck owners to have a semi-rigid living space to go further and out of the elements. Being able to load up all your gear into the truck bed, get to camp, pop up the tent, and be in bed in less than 60 seconds is unbeatable. Better still, being able to “break-down” camp by collapsing the tent just as quickly and be ready to hit the trails or trailhead with no extra sweat.
Beyond the camping, having a lightweight rooftop tent/truck camper that still allows you to use your truck as a truck, full time, is amazing. Especially since these truck shells have butterfly doors that allow you to access every inch of your truck bed when you’re hauling loads or packing gear. And even though they weigh a few hundred pounds, and stick out above the cab, they only affect your truck’s MPG by 1-2mpg.
Lowlights
At the end of the day, these are just camper shells with a rooftop tent, of course with some extra frills and features. For what you get, they are undoubtably expensive. Most people only camp a few weekends a year, and at $10K for one of these camper shells, you could spend a lot of nights in a hotel. Additionally, these tents are built to be 4-season rated, which means in the other 3 seasons, the tent is a bit overkill and can get quite hot. And though I touted how great these camper shells are to have on your truck full time, they are also extremely difficult to remove if you need to use your truck for truck things.
Stating the obvious, but these are not really functional for full time on the road. This is still camping, though very fancy, you can’t really live inside, cook inside, or hang out inside these rigs.
Tent
Highlights
Tents, where it all begins for 99.99% of you outdoorsy adventure seekers. The sole piece of gear that allowed us all to spend more time outside. Crossing over the threshold from a great day in the mountains, to multiple days outside connecting with nature and your friends. Whether it’s a borrowed tent, a garage sale Coleman tent from a decade ago, or a brand new 4 person 3-season tent from REI, you can be off to camp for under $200. There is simply no better bang for your buck way to experience nature.
Lowlights
No doubt, the downsides to a tent for long term adventures are obvious. You can’t really park a tent anywhere you want, nor is a tent the best tool when the weather is miserable or cold out. You can’t cook inside of them or spend extend periods time in them with multiple people. In horrible weather, you are at the mercy of mother nature. Every time you want to move, you are forced to pack up the tent and all the gear, load up, and head out. And once you get to your next favorite spot, you’ll have to do it all over again. Over a few weekends, this is very manageable, but weeks on the road, this can get very annoying, especially if it’s always raining.
Summary
The conclusion here is that there is no perfect option for every single person out there. My suggestion to you is to make a list of priorities and decide based on that. For example, rank where you stand relative to the following: Cost, Sleeping and Comfortability, Off-Grid, Efficiency, Creature Comforts, Vehicle Length, Weight, Drivability, Look, Floor-plan, etc. Then build two options, one where cost doesn’t matter, and another with the bare minimum of what you think you’ll need for your goals. Hopefully, within your budget, you’ll be able to find something that checks the boxes. The important thing is that the vehicle really doesn’t matter, but getting on the road and making experiences is what is truly important.
If you were wondering, we settled on an empty Ford Transit 350 AWD Cargo Van that we spent half a year building out to the dream rig we wanted. Of course, we could’ve spent more money getting it even better built out, but for our budget this was the best, biggest, most capable option. If money wasn’t an option, no doubt you’d find me in an Earth Roamer LTI. The spaciousness of a Class C RV, but the capability of the most rugged Off-Road vehicles. But I don’t have a million bucks to spare, so I’ll continue to be stoked on our campervan!
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based out of Park City, UT.
