Mmmmmm... what to get? Craigslist had an array of different options, but nothing that met our requirements. Our original plan, whilst dreaming and plotting many moons ago in London, was to aim for a Ford F-250, 4X4 (for the Baja roads), diesel (for fuel economy) with a cab over camper on the back. At that time there seemed to be heaps of them going fairly cheap. But now, as we began our search in the San Francisco hostel, the Craigslist pages were bare!

So the dilemma... do we just go for the next best thing, or do we wait around hoping that something pops up? Shay was keen on the first option but Ollie wanted to wait. After a few arguments we decided to compromise by arranging to see a couple of options and setting a deadline to achieve our goal.

The Dually of Los Banos

The first truck took us to Los Banos, two hours south of San Francisco. We hired a car for the day and set off on our first road trip in the baking hot sun.

Roses 94 Dodge Ram V10 with dually rear tyres (two in front, four on the back) and cab over camper was almost perfect. On budget at only US$5'000, Shay was impressed and ready to sign on the dotted line right there and then. Ollie wasn't so keen... it was 2WD (4WD is most important when impressing ones mates) and on petrol (gas guzzling monster with 350 HP), he also suspected a leak in the cab over roof and the dually tyres made for difficult driving on sand.

The House on Wheels

Next up, a bargain, 84 Ford F250 with camper for only US$3500. This one was located in Berkeley.

We took the BART train out to Berkeley to meet Steve and his camper. As soon as we saw it we knew it wasn't for us. It would have been nice as the 11ft luxury camper included a shower, toilet, oven, microwave and air-conditioning. It was a house on wheels and we would have been living the life of luxury! Unfortunately the bulky camper had an overhang that would guarantee a bottom out on rough Central American roads. To confirm this, we both nearly had heart-attacks when taking it for a spin around the block. It was so wide and long that it was crazy trying to manoeuvre around even the wide American streets. Shame, cause Steve (the owner) was a great guy who we would have loved to do business with, it even turned out that he had studied in Bergen.
　
Third Time Lucky
　
Our third option, fresh on Craigslist was a 1995 Ford F-250 4X4 Diesel 3/4 ton truck. We jumped on it to be the first in line. It was exactly what we wanted, except for having no cab over. Luckily it was all set up to put one on the back, it was already equipped with tie down brackets and the electrical hook up for a cab over camper. The F-250 was US$5'000 and located in Petaluma, just north of San Francisco.
　
We arranged to take the ferry to Larkspur and meet the guy (Wade) by the ferry terminal. When we took her for a spin (past San Quentin prison) we instantly knew that this was what we were looking for. The only downer was not having the cab over but we figured that once we had wheels of our own, finding a cab over would be easy as there was plenty of them on Craigslist this past week.
　
MAN-FACTS FOR KEV and JAKE:
-Ford F250 1995, 7.3 L (444 CID) turbo diesel V8 (DI Turbo, Powerstroke), 215HP
-Single cab with 8 Foot bed-4x4: Front Dana Axle, Hi and low gears. Front manual locking hubs (diff locks)
-4 Speed Auto with overdrive-Fuel filter/water separator to filter out water from dodgy Mexican diesel-140.000 miles on the clock-Dual fuel tanks, enough for 40 gallons of diesel (182 litres)
-Radio/Cassette player included-Camping ready Airbags mounted on rear suspension which inflate with air to support the heavy camper load + Camper tiedowns brackets mounted to the truck frame and electrical hook up to truck.

The Politics
　
It's actually a very intimidating experience to buy a vehicle in a foreign country. You've pretty much got to go with your gut instinct and hope that you are lucky. Back in London we naively thought the whole truck buying process would be much easier (and cheaper) than it actually is. It proved to be very stressful giving our lack of knowledge, time and our very different personal preferences; it could have ended up being a relationship breaking deal.

The next day is a very expensive one. First we had to get insurance (very expensive for a non-US resident with only three companies providing the service), then we had to withdraw our hard earned cash from the bank and navigate past some unsavoury people, trying to look like we didn't have a huge wad of cash in our pockets. We had hired a one-way rental car to Petaluma. The one-way fee can only be described as daylight robbery, especially considering that we only needed to go a mere 50kms up the road! But, by this time we were both feeling a little numb after seeing so much cash disappear in such a short time and we were keen to just get there and get it over with.
　
Thankfully we made it to Petaluma and made the transaction without any dramas. Wade was nice enough to supply us with two full tanks of diesel, a book for enlightenment on the long journey and also a set of binoculars, to see the banditos coming before they saw us! It was great to do business with such a solid and honest guy.
　
That night we checked ourselves into a nearby Best Western hotel and celebrated our purchase with a drink or two at the local Appleby's.