60k Budget truck and camper

I should have pointed out the '04 Dodge I bought had no warranty and it was not a bare bones truck.

In California smog tests are grandfathered till MY 1998.
Spending your money is one of the biggest wisdom one can learn in his life.
Lot of people learn to make big money, but only few how to keep them.
Find how many Football millionaires are ending in shelters.
With my mechanical skills buying new in the past was wasting money for something I did not need.
Years ago I bought GMC dually dump bed for $2500. Used it for about 8 years and parted as hydraulics went to newer truck, chassis got sold for $500 and flatbed made good garden shed.
But for my retirement, having money I figured out some luxury is needed.
With new truck not only I have extreme comfort, excelent GPS, TPMS, 360 cameras, lane departure warnings etc, but 5 years warranty with roadside assistance.
Engine runs at 1600 rpm no matter what freeway grade I am taking, so I can listen to Elvis, or Hard Rock on my Sirus radio without turning volume up.

For full time towing and camping I would not buy a gas tow vehicle. For 25-30k there are many, many drw common rail Cummins available that will give you decades of relatively trouble free ownership. It is very doable.

Redwoodcamper wrote:
For full time towing and camping I would not buy a gas tow vehicle. For 25-30k there are many, many drw common rail Cummins available that will give you decades of relatively trouble free ownership. It is very doable.

All depends on the miles you'll be putting on and how much/where you're hauling or towing it primarily.

Gas vs diesel, all your changing is the engine and about 10grand in resale if you care about resale. Very few will want a 150kmi used gasser dually for any real $. Few will bat an eye at a 150kmi diesel. It's perception, it is what it is.

Either way, $60k will net you a very nice setup. Trucks aside, $40k give or take will get you a fairly new dually, our last 2 campers were/are 10year old full featured, slide out, big tanks, 4 season blah blah blah, in very good condition for $12k and $10k respectively. They will have a similar service life as a new or almost new camper with a few repairs along the way, if you choose wisely when buying used. (If you're handy and don't think every thing that needs fixin on a camper requires a trip to Camping World!)

Redwoodcamper wrote:
For full time towing and camping I would not buy a gas tow vehicle. For 25-30k there are many, many drw common rail Cummins available that will give you decades of relatively trouble free ownership. It is very doable.

While I agree with this, $25-30k gets you a 10year old truck with 100k miles giver take.
This is nowhere near the end for these trucks and 200kmi I believe is the new 100kmi for vehicles.
What I do know, is that, in general, between 100k and 200k, regardless of brand, one has the large possibility of dropping $5-10k just in parts to keep a big truck 100%. As well, now you're dealing with a 10-20year old vehicle for 10 years compared to a 0-10 year old vehicle. That doesn't bode well for someone full timing, having to crawl under the truck in the dirt with a basic set of tools only EVERY time something goes wrong......oh, then it's rusted on and could use an impact wrench or torch to get it loose because the truck has been sitting out side for the last ___ years in a row.

Point is old trucks are great for some of us, myself included, but if I had the means, I would not want that hassle while "camping."

If I had $60k not a penny more that I had to drop on a full time TC setup, I'd be looking at $45-50k trucks that were either DEF diesels or deleted and low miles, <3 years old and a $10-15k camper. And with my experiences, I'd have a hard time looking past Arctic Fox unless a screamin deal.

With older campers, if in good condition and light use (a real possibility with a camper, not so much with an older pickup truck), the required repairs for long life will be mostly "tinkering". Some caulk here, fix some screws there, replace a faucet or pump, etc. Easy stuff mostly save for replacing a fridge or slide out assembly. AND very few things go wrong w a camper that render it inoperable. And even if it was, you still have a TRUCK.
By comparison, there are MANY things can render a truck inoperable, simple or not, that can't be remedied in the woods with some gorilla glue and a couple stainless steel screws, lol.
Thinking from worst case scenario working backwards, it makes sense to buy a top notch tow rig and a less expensive camper.

I found my loaded 2015 RAM 3500 SRW Laramie Longhorn Mega Cab Cummins Turbo Diesel (in 2016 one year old) with 28,000 miles on it and purchased it for $48,000.00 with FCA 8 year 120,000 mile warranty (from a dealer with 1.9% financing). This truck is not the IDEAL camper truck (it is for us with our Outfitter Apex 8), but just to show you what you can find for the money. I think you'd be able to find a really fine 2013 or later RAM 3500 CTD with all of the bells and whistles in the 40's range and a really descent used camper for about 20K. That will get you all of the haul/tow capacity you'll ever need. JMHO

Something worth considering that I don't believe has been discussed is that IF you are going used, don't overlook the cost of SMOG repair bills if your used truck ends up without a warranty. I'm not an expert and others will have better suggestions but when I went shopping for my truck, I initially started looking at used trucks ranging from 2009 to 2014. What I found was that most of the trucks in that range (and were in my budget) had between 120k to 200k+ in miles. The mileage didn't bother me at all but it seemed that the newer engines with the more complicated smog requirements could be costly to repair / replace (especially the catalytic converters). The thing about Smog repair is that even if the truck is running just fine, if the check engine light is running, the nanny state won't let you register till it's fixed.

I ended up going with a 7.3 specifically because it was pre-smog. I don't have all of the bells, whistles and power the newer trucks have but I'm not worried about future smog repairs either. (I believe in 30 years the 7.3s will be sought after similar to how the 60s and early 70s muscle cars because of the lack of smog equipment).

Back to the camper section... If you are full timing and plan to put a LOT of miles on the road, don't underestimate the benefit of simplicity and light weight. Trucks today are built to handle the heavy loads pretty well but the stress put on your truck from a 3000lb camper versus a 5000lb camper will eventually show up. Also, though slides are nice and give lots of extra space, they also introduce failure points and areas for water penetration to occur. Again, this comes down to the number of miles your putting in on the road. A couple of hundred miles a year, no big deal, but full timing consider the use of those mechanical components and the exposure to the elements the seals will have to endure.

These considerations led me to conclude that I wanted a fiberglass camper because I anticipated being on the road a lot and though I really liked the space a slide(s) provided, I was concerned about how long it would last with the mileage I intended to travel.

I have read a couple post mentioning the smog stuff. This I totally agree with on diesels and totally disagree with on gassers.

There is always lot of scaring myths on new stuff.
I hear lot about DEF engines before buying onw. Now closing 10,000 miles I filled the tank 3 or 4 times...... At $1.49 a gallon and whole tank is 8 gallons.
It is bigger deal on my Mercedes, where DEF tank deleted spare wheel and you should not use pump nozzle to refill it.
New truck come with warranty and that is all you should worry about for few years.
What will happen in 3 years? Why would I worry about it now?