You are putting the cart before the horse. I would spec out the RV and pick the truck according to your constraints.
I would disagree with the order in which to choose. Personally I find the vehicle to be more important than the cab/ living arrangements. Size wise both trucks are fairly similar. Basically I am looking for something that can house two people and remain self sustained for a few weeks at a time. Water carrying capacity, genset power, living arrangements etc are IMO secondary at this point.
SO much aftermarket support for the Mitsu I'd lean that way, but scottmandu is 100% correct.
True. Lots of aftermarket support. The reason for it is also because it's needed. In stock form the Fuso is not very off-road-capable. Suspension work and bigger wheels are needed for sure. Then you can get fancy and install LSD's or diff locks. Also keep in mind that once you up the wheels on the Fuso you will have less effective torque at the wheels which will bog down the car even more over difficult terrain unless you change the gearing. This is one of the big drawbacks of the Fuso. I am not even sure it can negotiate sandy terrain without bogging down with some big wheels. 300 ft/lbs of torque is really nothing compared to the 630 ft/lbs of the M1078 + the 2 additional gears.
The appeal of the M1078 is that it does not require any of these upgrades. It should be far superior off road without any modifications. At least that's what I am thinking unless others here tell me that I am wrong.
I looked at both and chose the Lmtv. Lmtv is reliable, easy to maintain, large cab, regeared top speed 74mph, 8 mpg...
How does the re-gearing affect off road capability? As far as I know the transfer case on the M1078 is single speed so there is no low gear option. Have you ever tried driving through sand post re-gearing?
As far as your perception of reliability, I am glad to hear it. You seem to be one of the few who have that experience.
Based on what? Solely reliability?
First, welcome to the site from California.
I don't share lmtv772's angst against you weighing your options - if I wanted an honest opinion about a specific truck I'd ask people likely to have had one IMHO... and in a differing position to that which lmtv772 presented "...we have what you dream of..." I have several friends in the military who ardently tried talking me out of a CUCV or HMMVW based on their service experience. YMMV.
I'm sure you already know:
The LMTV's were built by Stewart&Stevenson - a company more used to servicing trucks than building them. It's actually based on a
European Steyr truck (Austrian), so think of it this way: A company that's never built a truck before got the U.S. domestic production rights to copy a foreign design since they didn't have any design expertise in-house, and built them on an assembly line with people who had never done vehicle manufacturing before, with a management team that had never handled vehicle production before, and without any experience in-house engineering...
So it's as "merican" as a Toasters's Strudel built by the lowest bidder, and about as well built as that sounds.
After 2012, production moved to Oshkosh - a heavy vehicle manufacturer with about 100 years of vehicle manufacturing experience... personally I'd want to wait for one of those FMTV's to come out of service (and since most are being ordered with a low signature armored cab, you likely won't be able to get your hands on one).
Next thing to think about in an RV is that you are changing the purpose a lot - there was little to no sound deadening in any of the military vehicles I've ever ridden in - even the planes I rode from Hawaii to the mainland had the bare minimum sound treatment just to keep passengers and service-people from getting physically sick from the vibrations - we still had to wear earplugs the whole ride.
I do kind of agree about thinking what you want to carry then picking a chassis - however you can also start with a chassis and figure out what you want to do with the constraints of your chassis. I'm doing this with a transit bus...
- First question is what kind of camping are you trying to do?
- Next question is how much of the conversion work and maintenance are you planning to do?
- Final question would be what's your budget (time/fiscal)?
I have a different take on the question of reliability based on how something is assembled. S&S might very well not have a resume in the business of building trucks but I think the assembly part is only one of may aspects in the production of the truck. You can somewhat bodge the assembly but if the major systems are based on quality components you can still have a long lasting product. I read on one of the threads here a member who claimed to work for Allison and he stated that the 3700 series transmissions on the M1078s were bulletproof. You couple that with the proven reliability of the 3116 Cat engines and it should provide a solid platform. Where I don't have a clue is on the quality/reliability of other major components such as transfer case, axles, hydraulic system etc. How prone are these components to fail? How expensive to fix?
I like the toaster strudel metaphor though. May be that's what I'll name the truck if I get one.
- First question is what kind of camping are you trying to do? Utah and Arizona mostly. Off road. No RV parks. Rock and sandy terrain. May be Alaska in the future. Need to be self-sustainable for up to two weeks.
- Next question is how much of the conversion work and maintenance are you planning to do? I plan on doing it all me lonely self.
- Final question would be what's your budget (time/fiscal)? Up to 15K for the truck. The cab- not sure yet.
This is a fun exercise. Would like to hear more about what you have in mind for the project.
I searched a bit and saw a couple of Fusos modified for adventure camping. They seem like cool rigs. But looking at one next to the other, I am having a hard time putting them in the same universe. I share the concern of military vehicle lacking in, shall we say, modern comforts.
Seems like the Fuso is the more practical choice, where the 1078 is just flat cool.
Keep us all posted.
Here is a good thread on 4x4 Fuso RVs.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/9299-Mitsu-Fuso-Camper-examples
Modern conforts are very low on my priority list. I could bivouac on the bed of the truck if necessary.
The top priorities for me are reliability and off road worthiness.
I know of two companies that produce campers based on the 4x4 Fuso chassis. One of them is Australian and just recently started production here in the U.S.
http://earthcruiser.com/ delivers a complete truck. They call it the Outback. Costs almost $175K for the final product. Definitely out of my budget.
The other one is in Utah.
http://www.hostcampers.com/subs/Expedition/outback_explorer.html also delivers the complete truck. They call it the Outback Explorer. The cab comes with slide outs which is nice. Don't know how much they go for but I know its for **** sure out of my budget.
What I am saying is , you may want to lurk some more or ask on a Mitsubishi Fuso forum if they think an LMTV is better
Anyhow, I think you ask the wrong questions to the wrong people. We have what you dream of. And We would never dream of a Mitsubishi.
Oh and most of us refer to this vehicle as American made and not 'Murican'. Maybe not the right kind of language in order to make friends on a forum called steelsoldiers.
I am on it.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/152277-M1078-vx-Mitsubishi-FUSO-4x4
But I don,t think anyone there knows what a M1078 is.
The Expedition portal has a few members with Fuso based RV's. There is also at least one of them that I know which is in the process of building himself an expedition RV based on the 6x6 MTV. The man got his 6x6 straight from Oshkosh and plans on building a custom cab. Not really the way I want to go both financially and time wise.
I learned about this forum from reading his thread.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/116121-I-ve-been-doing-a-little-design-work
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Now don't wrap your panties in a bundle about the Murica thing.
Go with the Japanese product. The pros out weigh the cons.
Ok. Would you mind sharing more info on you come to your conclusion?
After watching an LMTV with the box on the back I think I would go with anything that wasn't so unstable. Yes, we had people at the GMVR this year that worked on them and basically said they roll too easy. Not necessarily all the way over but man, watching them go over a little dip in the road and seeing how far they go would keep me puckered up all the time.
If it were me I'd use a M939 truck. To me it seems far more suitable for off-road camping. Heck, you could even bob the thing and just have 4x4.
Great point. Never thought about the whole safety aspect of it as far as roll over proneness. How can the LMTVs be worse than the old 2 1/2 ton trucks?
When you say an M939 would be more suitable for off road camping, do you mean it is more off-road capable? Or just better suited to carrying a cab?
I had the same experience when asking buddies (Army) about LMTV or M939-series trucks. After disregarding their advice, my M929 experience has been a blast...BUT that's because it fits my plans of hauling scrap metal to the junkyard and stealing manure from local farms. I would be very interested in the FUSO's civilian accouterments if I were looking at an off-road RV.
If you were specifically looking at a surplus truck for an RV, though, I'd ask why you'd limit yourself to the M1078? Other trucks have boxes and any truck can be cleaned down to the frame and have a box or camper bolted on.
I am certainly open to recommendations on other MIL spec platforms. I like the M1078 due to its power and the cab-over design. The ground viewing angles from the cabin going off road are great but if I am not dead set on a that type of truck.
