Thanks all.
What a great set of photos with the rig.....looks just like the ones I have seen of my truck down there. What an adventure! I guess the buying of expedition vehicles already in the lands you want to explore is becoming more and more a route of choice for people. I really learned a lot about that at the Overland Expo last year.
Yes, several years ago we decided that after spending a couple of years motorhoming in Australia, it would be much smarter to spend time exploring the rest of the world while our health was good and then once we ended up just about worn out physically, we would see the small part of Australia we had missed. So after checking out the cost of hiring motorhomes in other countries, and the cost and inconvenience of shipping a vehicle from one country to another, we realised that the cheapest and most convenient way to do it was to just buy an older motorhome in whatever countries we were interested in and store them when we were somewhere else. At the moment we have 5 vehicles stashed in 4 countries and just fly from one to the other as the mood and the weather dictates.
No, not a rich-man's game. Sum total of all of the vehicles would not buy a mid level Class A, and the total storage costs are less than many in the US pay to store their RV.
The vehicle we currently have in S America cost us the princely sum of US$3000 and the cost of hiring an inferior (in size, capability and facilities) vehicle for 6 months is around US$100 a day, so when we walk away from this one we will be about $15,000 ahead, so spending $25000 on this next vehicle to be used for at least 12 months and possibly double that if we decide to keep heading north back to the US, will leave us so far ahead in savings that even that vehicle could soon be regarded as a walk-away just like the current one.
Same reasoning for the Airstream after the 12 months (3 x 4 months) so far in the US - which will be 18 months after this next trip - means that too is more than paid for several times over and is to the point where it is hardly worth the cost of washing it, let alone keeping up with expensive servicing.
Thanks for the info on the F350/Bigfoot. I've come across at least two down here and although they aren't the most agile of beasts in rough going, the hope is it will greatly improve our level of comfort over the current vehicle.
Also came across the Dodge RAM equivalent of a F250 sitting here at the ferry terminal with fuel pump troubles. Three weeks so far waiting for parts - so hope we never strike the same problem.
