Traveler I
So after a year of full time travel, our family is planning to downsize before entering Central America and continuing on. We would like some input, especially if you have experience oversees.
I'll start with some background information. Prior to starting this trip, we spent the previous 13 years exploring 27 states by truck, plus 20 countries around Europe and Asia by planes, trains and rental cars. My wife and I were injured toward the end of our careers and decided to take our 10 year old out of school, load up the dog and try to explore the world for 8 years (the time our son reaches college).
Our vehicle: I really wanted a LC78 Troopy or Hilux but we obviously cant get those in the states. I designed a Sportsmobile van and truck/FWC for this trip before ultimately getting shot down by my wife. She felt we needed to go from our big box (house) to a smaller box (RV) and did not like the "floor space" of the van. She also thought the FWC on our Tundra had too little storage and we couldn't "stealth camp." RV boxes do not like rough roads and suck off road, so long story short, we built up a low mile 4X4 Ambulance. The Ambulance box was durable as hell, has a walk-thru and provided tons of insulation and storage. It worked great for US, Canada and Mexico. We loved exploring backroads, spending weeks in the backcountry all over the place. We also stealth camped in towns and cities, or went to RV parks when taking our kid to museums or historic sites. The ambo continued to work great in Mexico, but we noticed our way of traveling had evolved into something else.
Renting a house or apartment in ridiculously inexpensive once you leave the US. At $8 to $20 a day, renting a house was less expensive than most established campsites in the states. We still ended up taking backroads as much as possible and camping on remote beaches and forests. But, we also wanted to explore historical sites with our kid to learn history. This forced us to enter many cities and villages where roads were much smaller than the states and there was limited parking. Because our vehicle was a bit too big for these places, we would typically rent a place and use public transit during this time. If a week long heatwave or tropical storm was in the forecast, we could camp in a different area or just rent a place and catch up with our kids studies with better Wifi. We could never afford this in the states.
So that brings us to now. I am currently writing this from the Mayan Riviera. We were supposed to fly back to the US this week to visit family for a few months while the heat and hurricane season is in full effect. After camping with a bunch of world travelers who have already done Asia, Africa and drove up from South America, we found out that the Ford "Econoline" was not produced outside US, Canada and Mexico, so no parts would be available in the rest of the world. This is also the case with most of the vehicles in the US, but there are some options. We ultimately decided to drive back to the US, sell the Ambo and switch vehicles.
This is where I would like some input, especially from those of you who have traveled though South America, Asia and Africa. There are limited world vehicles to choose from. A Land Cruiser 100 would be great, but by my calculations, not enough cargo space or fuel economy with the gas version. Same with the Jeep Wrangler. RHD is now prohibited by four Central American countries so no Japanese imports. This pretty much leaves us with a short bed mid size pick up with FWC or RTT set up like you see in South Africa or Australia. I can already hear the Toyota people chanting. I love Toyotas too, but also found out Tacomas are relatively rare outside the US where people use a Hilux. The Colorado is actually an Isuzu d-max rebranded. Pretty awesome, except for US emissions and $40,000 price tag. After seeing all the Nissan Frontier police trucks everywhere in Mexico, I found that they are sold in every country in the world. The current US model is on a 15 year run. On the forums I see many Americans criticize them for being "outdated." I think of them as having a platform with 15 years of parts in over 180 countries. Because of their lack of popularity in America, I found a couple Pro4x manual transmission frontiers with under 20k miles for around $20k. I should be able to build one with camper (tool box sides), RTT, and annex for around $30k and drive back to Belize to continue south. We'll be starting our 67 mile drive Wednesday and have to be in Belize for Thanksgiving. Its crunch time!
Does this make sense? Are there any other possibilities we are missing? What would you do?
Thanks!
Bronson
IG@8yearsglobal
I'll start with some background information. Prior to starting this trip, we spent the previous 13 years exploring 27 states by truck, plus 20 countries around Europe and Asia by planes, trains and rental cars. My wife and I were injured toward the end of our careers and decided to take our 10 year old out of school, load up the dog and try to explore the world for 8 years (the time our son reaches college).
Our vehicle: I really wanted a LC78 Troopy or Hilux but we obviously cant get those in the states. I designed a Sportsmobile van and truck/FWC for this trip before ultimately getting shot down by my wife. She felt we needed to go from our big box (house) to a smaller box (RV) and did not like the "floor space" of the van. She also thought the FWC on our Tundra had too little storage and we couldn't "stealth camp." RV boxes do not like rough roads and suck off road, so long story short, we built up a low mile 4X4 Ambulance. The Ambulance box was durable as hell, has a walk-thru and provided tons of insulation and storage. It worked great for US, Canada and Mexico. We loved exploring backroads, spending weeks in the backcountry all over the place. We also stealth camped in towns and cities, or went to RV parks when taking our kid to museums or historic sites. The ambo continued to work great in Mexico, but we noticed our way of traveling had evolved into something else.
Renting a house or apartment in ridiculously inexpensive once you leave the US. At $8 to $20 a day, renting a house was less expensive than most established campsites in the states. We still ended up taking backroads as much as possible and camping on remote beaches and forests. But, we also wanted to explore historical sites with our kid to learn history. This forced us to enter many cities and villages where roads were much smaller than the states and there was limited parking. Because our vehicle was a bit too big for these places, we would typically rent a place and use public transit during this time. If a week long heatwave or tropical storm was in the forecast, we could camp in a different area or just rent a place and catch up with our kids studies with better Wifi. We could never afford this in the states.
So that brings us to now. I am currently writing this from the Mayan Riviera. We were supposed to fly back to the US this week to visit family for a few months while the heat and hurricane season is in full effect. After camping with a bunch of world travelers who have already done Asia, Africa and drove up from South America, we found out that the Ford "Econoline" was not produced outside US, Canada and Mexico, so no parts would be available in the rest of the world. This is also the case with most of the vehicles in the US, but there are some options. We ultimately decided to drive back to the US, sell the Ambo and switch vehicles.
This is where I would like some input, especially from those of you who have traveled though South America, Asia and Africa. There are limited world vehicles to choose from. A Land Cruiser 100 would be great, but by my calculations, not enough cargo space or fuel economy with the gas version. Same with the Jeep Wrangler. RHD is now prohibited by four Central American countries so no Japanese imports. This pretty much leaves us with a short bed mid size pick up with FWC or RTT set up like you see in South Africa or Australia. I can already hear the Toyota people chanting. I love Toyotas too, but also found out Tacomas are relatively rare outside the US where people use a Hilux. The Colorado is actually an Isuzu d-max rebranded. Pretty awesome, except for US emissions and $40,000 price tag. After seeing all the Nissan Frontier police trucks everywhere in Mexico, I found that they are sold in every country in the world. The current US model is on a 15 year run. On the forums I see many Americans criticize them for being "outdated." I think of them as having a platform with 15 years of parts in over 180 countries. Because of their lack of popularity in America, I found a couple Pro4x manual transmission frontiers with under 20k miles for around $20k. I should be able to build one with camper (tool box sides), RTT, and annex for around $30k and drive back to Belize to continue south. We'll be starting our 67 mile drive Wednesday and have to be in Belize for Thanksgiving. Its crunch time!
Does this make sense? Are there any other possibilities we are missing? What would you do?
Thanks!
Bronson
IG@8yearsglobal
