After many, many, many years of daydreaming, my wife and I finally found our travel vehicle. It's a 1998 Roadtrek Versatile 200, built on Chevy Express 3500.
I got it at 166,000km. The transmission has been re-built (as a preventive measure) and is still under warranty. The inside is really clean. I'll post more pictures later on.
Background
Just to give a quick background, I'm from Montreal and was lucky to have parents that loved to travel with their RV (trailer). We went all over the Canadian Maritimes (except Newfoundland), driven across Canada to Vancouver and travelled back through the Northern states, roamed around all the eastern states all the way down to Florida (but not the Keys). So it's no surprise that I have the travel bug.
My vehicle of choice has always been a van. '93 Safari AWD, '91 Lowered Astro and finally a '79 Ford (pictured below). I enjoyed a 10 year phase of
Vanning but the level of perfection that was necessary just drove me crazy. And the constant tinkering alone in the cold humid garage ended it for good. It just wasn't my thing. But we loved travelling with it and want to focus on that!
After following several blogs (
Drive Nacho Drive,
Desk to Glory,
Song of the Road,
Our Bigger Picture, etc...) we took steps to make this dream a reality. We downsized our life from a bungalow to a condo (and sold tons of stuff...) and now we're itching to go.
We evaluated several possibilities including a flatbed Four Wheel Camper on a Tacoma, a Palomino on a Ram with service bed, but in the end, we came back to my original dream vehicle: a Roadtrek. The main factors were because I live in Canada (rusted vehicles and crippling exchange rate).
My wife, Alfie (12lbs. Chihuahua) and I are planning the following for now:
- Summer 2017: 3 weeks in Newfoundland (trial run)
- Summer 2018: Go across Canada and Yukon
- Summer 2019: Start going south... then keep going south... until we don't feel like it anymore. The objective is to eventually reach Ushuaia.
- Someday: Ship to Europe and keep going...
The vehicule will need to be updated to ensure we have a good trip. So I'm going to start a build thread in this forum (which section would be best?)
I also have a few questions because some things aren't what I expected. I'll post them in the appropriate section and appreciate any help that can be provided.
Thanks for following along or if you're a fan of Instagram you can find me at
@matsirois .
Mat Mobile's Roadtrek Versatile 200
Linear Mode
