Yeah, just about to start for the hunt for the campervan, will get some quotes for insurance and other related costs over the next couple of days. I haven't even stepped inside one yet so I'm not sure what to look for. The camper in the link below is still the main contender; I want one with the 5.4L V8 rather than the bigger V10 engine.

http://www.cruisecanada.com/buy/modelDe ... odelNo=23A

I know the price is quite good. A similar sized unit in NZ was about $65k NZD. However most of the campers in NZ and Oz are built off Japanese 3-4 tonne truck and cab chassis with diesel engines so they are quite good on fuel.

We don't know what to expect with regards to fuel consumption from a lazy 5.4L V8 with a giant brick on the back; could range from 18.1L/100km to 33.6L/100km.

I drove something like that around the US for a few weeks. It was a supercharged V10 Chev. It went well when you put the foot down, but after the first gas stop I realised that you pay for putting your foot down

Once out on the open roads, it did good speeds with reasonable economy.. cruised through Nevada at 80-85mph

do they come with the powerstroke to?

I haven't seen one yet. You can get Dodge (Mercedes) Sprinter based diesel campers but they are out of my price range.

Been doing a lot of looking at motor homes. Still haven't found the one I want to buy yet here's a few of the contenders:

This '02 unit is the 6.8 L V10 and should be a 4 speed auto. Its sporting a fuel economy of about 9 mpg. It's the layout and size (24ft) i want and it ticks all the boxes but a dealer has it and want's about $5k CAD more than I want to pay for it. I does have an on-board generator and LPG oven which are on my must have list.

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This '01 unit is also a 6.8L V10 but only 22ft. It still only did about 9 mpg. A bonus of this one is it had a slide out for the dinette but the layout may not suit our needs. It's 10k cheaper that the unit above.

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Heres's a couple of units I looked at but had to reject to do their condition.

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This puppy was interesting. a '94 with a 460ci V8 and 3 speed auto. Capable of an impressive 5 -7 mpg It was really cheap but need a full set of tires, a new exhaust, new mattresses and an owner that had shares in an oil refinery.

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We decided that maybe we should look at smaller more fuel efficient units. I stumbled across this van conversion. Being a Mercedes Sprinter van it's good for about 20mpg. The missus liked the size as it would be easy to park. They wanted 39K for it so it was at the very upper limits of my budget. But it was 10k cheaper than the next cheapest Sprinter van converson.

It still had pretty much every in it but it was just a lot smaller, The dinette / couch in the back of the van folded down into the bed. It wasn't exactly what we wanted but we could make do and I could live with the fact I couldn't actually stand up fully in the back of it.

It was all looking good, looked tidy enough and everything worked; but then I went to pop the bonnet and saw the rust at the bottom of the windscreen. Rust bubbles along the entire length of of the windscreen. It would need the screen out and proper repair. I could have run the risk that I could hide the rust with a bit of bog but if I ever had to replace the windscreen the rust would need to be fixed properly before the windscreen could go in. A risk you can't afford to take on the road in-case it happens in a hicksville town miles from anywhere. Dam shame.

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Went to a little local muscle car show in Vancouver and was blown away by how well the cars were built and presented. Thought I throw them up as it not often you see so much american muscle all really well presented, I added a couple from the Vancouver Auto Show too.

Sorry about the quality but my ph just couldn't handle how shiny all the cars were in bright light.

Excellent photos there Arron All of those cars look to be in perfect show quality, well presented indeed.

That 2 tone black on silver mustang looks killer!!

My mate had some better photos so here's some more car porn:

After lot of looking at Motorhomes we decided to keep it simple and just get a van and kit it out. We plan to do 20,000 - 40,000km over the next couple of months an the big motor homes use about about 24L/100km and we could make do with something smaller.

This is what we are starting with:

2008 Ford E-150
4.6 V8 auto
11,400 miles

It's pretty basic but still has 2 years of the factory power train warranty so should be all good.

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I guess I should do a bit of an update... Currently in New York State where we are encountering the first decent amount of rain when have seen over the last 4 months on the trip.

Within the first week of getting the van I had the all the back windows tinted, built a bed in the back with storage underneath, picked up a little gas cooker and a little fridge that runs on 12v. Once that was done we tracked down a bike rack that would actually hold our DH/Freeride bikes properly and hit the road. No changes have been made to the van set-up since.

The van has been awesome; we have travelled over 15,000 miles (24,000 km) in the last 4 months and have visited 22 States, 3 Canadian Provinces and about 15 US National Parks.

There have been no real mechanical issues so far with the van and I have just been getting it serviced along the way. Of course there a few things have popped up over time like blown fuses, the odd screw/nail in a tire and steel posts that jump out of nowhere in car parks and attack the side of the van leaving big lime green streaks down the side of the van.

Some of the highlights have been driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California, driving to the top of Pikes Peak (14,100ft), Driving through Death Valley when it was 50 degrees and then having to turn the aircon off so we could drive up a hill without overheating the van. Also just seeing the most random s**t ever such as Walmart shoppers, trailer parks and epic thunder storms in between riding at nearly every (chair lift accessed) bike park in the States.

Still have a couple of months to go, travelling down the east coast to Texas and then heading back towards California. Don't regret going with a van over a camper but it would be nice to have a built in shower as occasionally it's a bit hard to find a shower while on the road. My GF must really love me cos after nearly 10 days without a shower she still let me sleep in the van.

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