Why choose a cab over truck for an overland vehicle?
10 reasons cab over trucks make sense for overland travel
Normally, we get blank stares when people ask what truck we are using to build our adventure vehicle and we respond with “Chevy 4500 LCF (Low Cab Forward)”. In fact, most people don’t know the truck at all and we have explain “it’s like a delivery truck.” We understand why, it’s not a conventional choice. Here is why we think it is an awesome, and often overlooked, option! In this post we’ll talk about our truck chassis, how we chose it, why we chose it, and 10 considerations that influenced those decisions.
Rufus on the car dealer lot, while he doesn’t look like an overlanding rig yet, watch us transform him into something special!
The options for overland chassis are vast, from full size trucks, Jeeps, SUVs, vans, small trucks, medium duty commercial trucks, there is a viable option for most any plan and budget, but there is no one vehicle that will do it all. No one truck that will get 25mpg, go 90mph, have a bed, bathroom, kitchen, run level 7 trails, all while being under $25k. We knew we wouldn’t check all of these boxes with an off the lot vehicle but wanted to get close. Overland and Expedition trucks are about compromise and optimization to get just what you are looking for. Below are 10 reasons we think cab over trucks made sense for overland travel.
major features we were looking for in our overland camper:
4x4 – We want every opportunity to use our overland camper in any situation, skiing in the snow, rough forest service roads, or an un-forecasted rain storm in the desert.
Reliability – We want to travel all over North and South America with this truck, we need a truck with a known reliable engine and transmission.
Maintainability – We are both pretty handy, but when you are far from home it’s nice to know that a break down isn’t going to stop you in your tracks. We wanted a platform that could be maintained by anyone and didn’t need a highly-trained, specialized mechanic to do the work.
Seating for 4 – Travel is more fun with friends and long periods alone can get lonely! With seats for 4 friends can fly in and spend a week with us.
Comfort – Days on the road are long and hard! An easy-to-drive, quiet, comfortable truck helps immensely with the fatigue.
Payload – Our truck has to be able to carry the weight of a camper and all of our gear.
Off road capability – Ultimately we want our overland camper to perform as well as stock pickup, remember this is a house, not a rock crawler.
MPG – HA, yeah right! But of course, this is a consideration and effects the cost of travel immensely.
Global availability – Here in the U.S. parts are easy to come by, but that’s not always the case. We wanted major components to be available anywhere we might travel.
Size – This is a bit of a Goldilocks situation, while we wanted more space than our previous van, we also wanted to keep the footprint and height as small as possible to fit in tight spaces and make driving easier.
Meet Rufus: our ultimate overland truck chassis choice
We chose a Chevrolet LCF 4500 and named him Rufus. The Chevy LCF 4500 is a GM badged Isuzu NPR HD. It’s optioned in many different cab, frame, and engine configurations. We chose the short wheelbase (150”), crew cab, gas engine. In his stock available form, he’s not your average choice and probably not even in the top 10 for most. But we knew with a bit of work we could morph him into what he is today. Taking on this project meant we would have a ton of work to get exactly what we want.
Rufus, after the 4x4 conversion and subframe build.
While not 4x4 to begin with, we converted Rufus to 4-wheel drive, swapping out both axles and adding transfer case and drive shafts — this was a huge task, but not something we were willing to compromise on. Since these trucks are not available 4x4 in the U.S., self-conversion was our option! The gas engine is a proven GM design, offering the reliability we were seeking while also being commonplace enough for easy maintainability. This platform has global availability of parts and we paid special care to ensure parts we replaced with the 4x4 conversion would be the same.
We specifically sought out a crew cab truck, which was no easy feat! They are not particularly common, but this allows seating for 4, providing space for us to grow or bring friends along on adventures. As an added bonus, this also allows for a more useful pass through from camper to truck. Since these are commercial trucks, they not particularly known for comfort; however, we did our best to make the cab of the truck ready for long drives. We swapped out seats (yes, we have heated seats!) and added sound/heat insulation. What it lacks in comfort, it has in driver vantage! The high-up seat position with huge windshield makes the view unbeatable.
Rufus needs to perform well on and off road, to carry the weight of the camper and handle in a responsible manner. Although not needed, we went with a 4500 series truck to take the extra weight, ensuring we had no concerns with payload. The 150” wheel base keeps turning radius down, providing good maneuverability, while the lift, tires, and overall clearance help with off road capability. The cab-over-engine style keeps total length short while still having enough space for our camper. The size will be shorter than a long bed pickup, and about the same height as a 4x4 sprinter van, with way more space! MPG was certainly a compromise we made with this vehicle choice. After putting some miles on Rufus, we average ~ 10mpg. While, of course, we would like to better gas mileage, it is close to what we expected. We figure its probably more efficient than most other houses out there! We’ve put 8k miles on Rufus and so far we are happy.
Rufus in his (mostly) finished form!
Still need more convincing? Follow along as we document the 4x4 conversion and build out - hopefully we can help determine if a cab over truck might be an awesome option for you, too!
