spoon059 wrote:
As soon as I read your post, I thought Sprinter 1 ton diesel van (or similar style) pulling a nice travel trailer. One other poster mentioned it, but it got glossed over. I looked at Sprinter, even with dual wheels it only has a max 7500 lbs towing.
I did a quick search and found the Chevy Express 3500 van. MSRP of around $44K gives you a 2014 1 ton diesel powered extended wheelbase van with 4,000 lbs payload, 10,000 lbs tow rating and 9900 lbs GVWR. Plenty of interior room in the van for your merchandise (and kept cool enough in summer with van's AC), gear for the conventions, dog, etc. You can find a lot of nice bumper pull travel trailers under 10,000 lbs. Ford doesn't seem to offer a diesel in the van, but they have the V10. Ram only offers 5,500 lbs towing in their vans. Nissan has vans, but without the diesel yet and I don't know the tow ratings.
Figure you can drive out of the dealership with this new van for under $40K, buy a nice camper for $40K new and you are in this brand new rig for $80,000. This is substantially less expensive than the Class A or toyhauler route others have priced out. Your van is already loaded with your gear, so you won't have to constantly be unloading your toyhauler to get to shows, you won't have to run a generator and install an AC unit in your toad. I don't know rules of commercial rigs... but you could mark your van with your business logo and use it year round, not just when camping.
This sounds to me like the best of all your worlds. You have plenty of conditioned space to store your merchandise, can tow a nice size travel trailer, don't have to constantly redistribute your merchandise and convention setup gear, don't have to worry about parking a big rig at the convention center, don't have to worry about maintaining 2 engines (motorhome and toad), plenty of vehicle for your money (and substantially less money), potentially about to put advertising on your van and not be held to commercial tow standards. Lets not forget that most Class A's aren't available with additional beds...
Consider this option.
http://www.chevrolet.com/express-work-cargo-van.html
Yeah I mentioned it up above. I wouldn't even go $40k into a travel trailer. $20k - $30k will give a great option. I still think it's the best valued option and makes the most sense.
