Foster Huntington

I just put up a substack admitting to being a marketplace camping vehicle daydreamer.  My addiction dates back over 15 years to when I found my 1987 Vanagon on the Samba,  and flew to Reno Nevada to pick it up. Since then, I’ve owned a half dozen different camper setups and have continued my near-constant daydreaming about what’s the best solution for a road trip. I tend to ping-pong between very capable off-road vehicles and more sized and fuel-efficient vans. The reality is that there is no perfect vehicle, just a balance of priorities, and thus, I am constantly looking on Marketplace.  
The write up is more or less a breakdown of vehicles and camping setups that intrigue me and some basics of what I look for when buying a used car, sometimes sight unseen. The saying goes that “Some stuff catches fish, and some stuff catches fishermen.” Lots of vehicles out there catch fishermen. This breakdown is a list of setups that I would personally buy that are a balance of mobility, living space, fuel efficiency, reliability, and price. By and large, the price is really correlated to size. The smaller and more simple the setup, the less expensive it will be to buy and maintain. Transversely, the larger and more capable the setup, the more expensive it’s going to be. I break the discussion into three basic price categories: 10-25k setups, including vehicle and setup to camp with; 20k-45k for a vehicle and camper; and lastly, 40-60k for the most capable and largest setups.  Sure you can get a set up for cheaper, and I have owned multiple in the 1-2k range but none of them, without a serious amount of wrench time, were reliable enough to take on a 10k mile road trip.  Head to the link in my profile to read it.