Trucks are pretty mediocre cars though, shit efficiency, they don’t have a rain-proof trunk, and their « I can get shit from Home Depot I don’t have a trunk for » and « I can use a trailer with it » are 0.1% use cases kind of things. They’re mostly a cultural phenomenon, not a real practical vehicle, ask anyone in France who owns a normal car and a trailer.

Trucks have shit efficiency in part because of retarded federal standards like CAFE which make it effectively illegal to sell a compact efficient truck and partially because competition was killed by the chicken tax.

You can buy a 25 year old import control exempt tiny truck from Japan without issue in the US; If you want efficient truck you basically have to wait for it to age 25 years so it will be legal to import it into the US.

Or you can just buy like a 10 year old Ford Ranger for less than the cost of shipping a truck from Japan. They made them up until 2012. Parts availability and mechanics to work on them are everywhere. You don't want to wait weeks to fix your rig because it's Japanese-only, and the part you need isn't available here.

Also, you could even consider a new Ford Ranger. Sure they are bigger, but the gas mileage they get is really good. They can get 26 on the highway, and carry a lot more than a 25 year old Toyota. And it's brand new, so if that's your thing you have options.

Or consider an S10 or Colorado. The latest Colorados can get near 30mpg highway. The S10 was made up until 2012.

If you move around a lot, its better without a trailer. I regularly spend nights in urban areas. Towing a camper limits you to typical campgrounds.

Exactly this. You quickly find that you want to be “nondescript” as much as possible, and a van works great where a truck/trailer wouldn’t - unless you want to be stuck with campgrounds and Walmart parking lots.

Or you can use a truck like the guy in this video and make something completely stealth and can park pretty much anywhere. https://youtu.be/py4zetCEYzA

You keep assuming that the people buying these and living out of them are doing it for no reason. There are a whole slew of reasons why that form factor is growing in popularity.

It's hard to beat the ratio of fuel efficiency, to living space in a good van conversion.

A trailer, even a short one, is a massive problem to park in urban areas and to turn around on remote forest roads. That said, teardrop campers have also been skyrocketing in popularity, as have rooftop tents.

Actually these new Ford vans do no get great gas mileage at all. I've owned a 2016 (lived in for 2 years), a 2022 and soon a 2023. The AWD High roof model gets 14-16 mpg before you mess with tires. I'm guessing this Trail model with the 3.5" lift and 30+inch tires will be 12mpg or less. 12-15mpg is a really easy target to hit with lots of massive vehicle platforms...

You just can't get around the fact that it's a brick with wheels going down the highway. The brick shape is what makes it so versatile and useful for a lot of things... but they're not the most aerodynamic.

And let's be real, this thing isn't going to be THAT off-road worthy. 30 inch tires are basically nothing these days. The wheelbase is too long... And what's the 3.5 inches of lift going to get you over? I doubt this thing will have enough power without a low-range to climb up any steep obstacles anyways. Especially once all the batteries / solar panels / and the rest of the "camping" gear are loaded up, these things are going to be too heavy to do much more than hit up some random logging roads on a dry day.

Ford's marketing team is doing a great job selling them though.

Those tradeoffs don't seem worth paying thousands to tens of thousands extra to me though. If vans were more competitive in price with trucks/trailers, I'd be all for it, but right now it seems massively inflated. It seems like paying many thousands for conveniences that have work-arounds or solutions.

Well, everyone has a different set of priorities and there is no perfect solution for everyone. It's all about what tradeoffs you want to make (even within the category of "van conversions").

Van conversions, in general, provide an pretty good balance between maneuverability, living space, gas mileage, amenities and price.

There are very expensive 6 figure conversion vans, but also simple ones for 4 figures. Again, it's all about what your priorities are and what tradeoffs you wanna make.

I would not discount the value of manueverability (even if you aren going to just be be moving between RV hookup locations )

It's worth noting that the people using these setups as actual living quarters are few and far between. Generally people who use them for something other than instagram fodder have a larger RV or tow-behind setup because they want something livable, or they have a cheap DIY setup because they want something cheap. Generally the people paying 300k for these #Vanlife setups are not particularly interested in living in them exclusively.

I think people also underrate that you can then detach the camper and use it as a normal truck whereas with a van, you are bringing your whole house with you no matter what.

Because you can't legally park a truck and tow camper in many cities, and many people like to spend some or all their time doing vanlife in cities.

I would strongly prefer van for moving around or parking then tow camper.