I’ve never been a camping person other than the trips I took with my son when he was in Boy Scouts. But the thought of getting a camper van seemed like it might be fun. I had never really thought about it much, but I came across a You Tube video last year that some bass pro put out. He was launching his big bass boat with a van, and I thought that seemed strange. But after I looked up the van, it was a model called the Beast I believe, I found that the base van is a 4×4 diesel from Mercedes. I was surprised to learn that these things cost about $200K or more.
We went to the Camping World RV show in Minneapolis last weekend to look at camper vans and other smaller RVs to get a feel for what’s available. Dang, camper vans are just plain expensive, especially when compared to a slightly larger RV. A Thor camper van build on a Ram ProMaster was listed at $120K. A Thor build on a 4×4 Mercedes diesel was $140K. But a little larger RV build on a Ford 350 was only $70K. The dealer said they make so many more RV and the construction process is simpler and hence the lower cost.
It seems like the used camper vans hold their value pretty well. Either that or they’re so expensive to start off with that even after depreciating, they’re still pricy. If I didn’t want to tow a small boat behind the camper, I could just get a smaller camping trailer and tow that around.
I’ve looked into a pickup camper for my Ram 1500 with a 6.5-foot bed, but even small ones look like they’d tend to max out the payload capacity pretty quickly. I see that there are companies that sell “install-it-your kits” for various vans. Some of them look pretty nice. But I’m also thinking maybe I should just get a Ram ProMaster 2500 and throw a couple of sofas in the back, a couple coolers, and little propane cook top and call it good. For as much as I’d probably use it, I’d probably be better off just staying a resorts or VRBOs.
Anyone have any experience with camper vans? I might not be looking to get one real soon but maybe the fall of 2025 or sometime in 2026.
