I'm pretty sure we've made our decision...

The other day, our blog post went over some of the different types of vehicles that we were looking at as possibilities for our South American motorhome or campervan.

Well it didn't take much research to narrow the list of possibilities.

I'm dealing with a guy who owns the company that will actually build the living space. He's been really helpful, and gets back to me quickly. He has a great reputation with previous customers, and I'm learning why. It's odd that he doesn't have much of an online presence, but I think it's because the company is fairly small and he doesn't need more business!

Long story short, two of the chassis we were looking at are out of the running. The Hyundai Solati 4x2 is no longer available in Chile, and the Ford Transit has a dodgy history with some mechanical issues regarding fuel injection and turbo systems. The Ford is also not available the way I want it without special ordering and dealing with possible delays that way.

That essentially leaves the Fuso Canter truck chassis. It ticks a lot of boxes, although the downside is that it's a truck... not a van. So it drives more like a heavy duty truck. But there are many positives.

This is what we would be buying.

The cost including tax for the cab and chassis alone would be about 53,000,000 CLP ($80,000 CAD, $57,000 USD). 

To build the living space on the back would be about another 25,000,000 CLP ($37,000 CAD, $27,000 USD). But there are a lot of variables to this part and could be more or less.

And this is something like what the finished product might look like. 

Although ours would be a little less tall.

The finished product would be about 6.5 meters (21') long x 3.0 meters (10') high. And the total cost would be about 78,000,000 CLP ($117,000 CAD, $84,000 USD).

So, the downside is that the vehicle would drive like a truck.

The upside? It will go anywhere. It has heavy duty components. It's literally built for rough roads. It has a high payload capacity. The engine is reliable and as a strong history. And the service network is all over South America.

I'm pretty sure we've made our decision...

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