Def. get a pop up.

I've got a 26ft toy hauler and its just right with the 4 of us. A slide in would be too small.

 

POP-UPS ROCK!

A buddy of mine found one for sale for 100 bucks. It needed to be cleaned up, and it had a couple/few holes in the netting, but that was no problem to fix.

Scan the paper, look around. If you see someone has one parked out back and it looks like it hasn't been used in awhile.....stop by and ask if they'd sell it.

 

Hey! I'll give you $5,001 for that...


I'm curious... what are you driving now??? I say pop-up trailer also. The wife and I hope to get one someday to pull behind her Element.

I remember going on fishing trips with my uncle, cousin and grandpa when I was a kid. My uncle had a long bed slide-in camper, and it was VERY cramped. We took along a 2 man tent for sleeping arrangements...

 

We went to look at a 1996 F250 4x4, listed for CD$4000 -- it's much newer than we were expecting within our budget, but ran well and didn't seem to have any major problems; we didn't pursue a more thorough mechanical checkout for reasons listed below. Around Vancouver, we've found good, undamaged inserts for ~CD$1000, so I'm not worried about meeting the budget.

I am impressed by the concern about cost of parts and repairs. It seems that most Fords we've checked out (1980-1991, F150's & F250's) have been to the shop recently for various things (brakes, computer, steering, suspension, etc.). And most people who own them like them, but they do take them to the shop much more often than I would have expected for "reliable" transportation. One friend even told me he bought a load of spare parts to take with him on a month-long trip to California, knowing that he could refund the unused parts upon return. Maybe that's why one needs a big bed and a camper trailer: so the "spare truck" can be carried in the pickup bed! I've done many thousands of miles of open ocean sailing, but haven't carried that many spares, and it seems more remote out there than on the various cross country journeys I've made.

But we now realize that traveling long distances in a truck, with kids, will not be comfortable unless (possibly) it's a SuperCrew; and given reliability issues, we've changed our focus to "non-truck" options.

>I'm curious... what are you driving now???

We've been traveling around the world for over a year (not including our sailboat travels), so we don't have a vehicle -- mass transit was sufficient for us until we arrived in North America. I've never owned an expensive vehicle and am quite content to follow the bleeding edge by 10-20 years.

Thanks again for everyone's advice!

 

I just did a search and found many Dodge Caravans with 78,000 for around $5000. Plenty of room for the family, equipment, and it should be able to pull a pop-up. Front wheel drive and fairly reliable. Also better on the gas milage.

tim C.

 

http://www.recycler.com/recreation/d...ip=&class=4210
I'd get one of these.^^^^^^^^

 

You'll find the same thing with anything (Ford, Chevrolet or Dodge or anything else) that old.

That was what we were trying to tell you.

Even a 1991, that is still 16 YEARS OLD and a truck in that low of a price range regardless of age, likely has over to 200K miles on it. Thats it's expected life, it's either a farm truck becasue it cant be trust it to leave the property with out breaking down. Or it's ready for the junk yard. (except for a diesel, you can get 300K out of them before they are worn out).

I curently have 2 Fords and a GMC in my driveway, I do not bleed ford blue, I have owned several from all domestic makers and a few imports as well. It's merely coinceidence that I have 2 fords... ohh and that my boat is powered by a Ford V8 too... One thing I found that they all have in common... Is that they are all machines and all machines break. Another fact no one can escape, is the physics, the older a machine is, and the more hours of use or miles they have, the more likely that something(s) will break, short out, come loose, and/or fail.

200,000 miles is equal to about 3333 hours of use on every part of the vehicle. Give or take a few hundered hours. Combined with heat and friction of use and deterition from time, most parts that have not been replaced already are bad and ready to fail at any minute.
To make it reliable for a trip like you talking and be confident that you are protecting your family, regardless what brand, it would need to be tore down to frame and every nut, bolt and weld replaced with new. Complete new drive train, suspensionm brakes and steering.
Basically all your looking at buying in your price range is a body and frame and those may need work too.
By the time you have it ready you could have bought 2 dependable vehicles for less money.