Help Me Brainstorm My Ultimate Tow/Support/Adventure Rig

I want to build my "forever" tow rig- I've been cycling through GMT400 SUVs and, while that's fine, I'd like to build something that can do everything I need and be maintained for the rest of the forseeable future.  This can be a long-ish term project, but the end result needs to be something I can maintain and continue to use for decades.

Interior:  Must seat 4
Hauling Capability:  Must be able to tow an open car trailer, and occasionally a 2-horse trailer.  Must be able to carry two small motorcycles in the bed/back.  Must be able to carry complete pit setup, preferably including a generator/welder/compressor and decent number of spares
Offroad Capability:  Must be able to recover rally cars in sand/snow/mud/etc.  This probably means 4wd, and at a minimum means locking diff and winch.

What I'm thinking:  Something like a Baja chase truck.  I either want a highly modified utility body or a custom flatbed I can mount things on.

Bed/Body Ideas:  

I want to be able to tow down to the Mexican 1000 with this thing, run sweep at a stage rally, tow horses a long way, drive through 3ft of snow... you probably get the idea.  And I want to be able to keep fixing it and doing this stuff for years- no more replacing the tow rig every 3yrs.  Nothing is off the table, I would potentially be up for engine swaps, 4wd conversions, frame extensions, axle swaps, whatever.

The vehicles with good potential for this, I think, are the following:

1-ton Diesel Crew/Ext Cab 4x4 Truck- Probably the least work.  Build a flatbed, maintain everything else, that's probably all.  Typical "Baja chase truck" type deal.

1-ton Diesel Utility Body Van/Truck- Add 4x4 conversion, build out interior to suit more seats.  This already has lots of storage capacity, and occasionally a generator/welder already on board, but it obviously less offroad capable.

Smaller Gas 4x4 Truck- Trade some tow capability for offroad capability, but I don't plan on pulling/hauling a crazy amount of weight anyway.  Think Titan/Tundra here- are the larger diesel 4x4s that much more serviceable long term?

Platforms I'm thinking may lend themselves to this:
OBS F-Series
Newer 7.3 F Series
6.0 F Series, buy broken, fix engine
GMT400 K3500 (I know and understand these) either gas or 12v Cummins Swapped
Some sort of Duramax truck
Some sort of Cummins truck
Any 1/2 ton+ gas truck
Any diesel utility van

I don't know what my point is.  Throw some ideas at me.

7.3 Excursion lol

The absolute ultimate, but probably too crazy/impractical, to me, is a Jag Vanden Plas chopped down into a "crew cab" on a 4x4 Duramax platform, with a custom flatbed and a chase truck style roof rack- luxury interior, low load height (even for the roof), cool as hell.  Very Mad Max, very stupid.

In reply to yupididit :

I have had a couple SUV tow rigs now, and I keep ending up in situations where I'm going "I really wish a motorcycle fit in here" or "I really wish this huge heavy/dirty/smelly thing I just put in here was outside in a truck bed instead" so I'm fairly sure I want a truck bed or at least a tall separate box with a divider.

Ah... the debate I've been having for 20 years. 

Money-no-object option: 4x4 Sprinter 3500.  It'll do everything described, but at a price (over $50K, before fit-out). I would only buy a Sprinter if I could buy it new with a warranty and a known service life & history.

I can say from experience, the bed height of a Cummins 2500 4x4 is near stupid-high.  Getting a non-running motorcycle in/out of that bed was a bit of a bitch.

In reply to Ian F :

Everyone I know with a Sprinter has spent more time with it broken than working- one of them was even stranded in my driveway for a while.

4 door dually diesel gmt400 with solid front axle swap. And a Cummings. And a hydraulic flatbed. Punch a bunch of holes in the bed like a fab table to make it modular. Tgen you can bolt down task specific items like compressor and welder, and unbolt for motorcycles and horse stuff. The hydraulics make it useful as a dump truck as well.

Gmt400 is. About as simple as a modern truck can get.

Shouldbe useful until the cockroaches are driving. 

Seats four  - -  Check.

Hauls a big trailer  - - Check

Swallows two motorcycles  - -  Check

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I like everything you said there.
 

In reply to 914Driver :

Offroad capability is lacking but it checks the other boxes.

I've been bench-building a lighter-duty version of the very same thing, the big difference being that the heaviest thing it'll have to tow is a midweight car on a steel trailer (call it 6000lbs). I've been thinking the D40 Frontier/Navara looks like a good platform: Proper offroad powertrain, not huge, doesn't guzzle gas too badly, will do the job towing, cheap parts galore available.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Oh that is definitely what has stopped me from buying one.  Hence why I'll only buy one new.  Maybe the new US-built model will prove to be less troublesome, although I'm not holding my breath. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Seems like it wouldn't be too hard either. Find a wrecked Cummins Dodge with a manual trans and transfer case, an old dump truck for the bed and hydraulics, and a 4-door dually gmt400. Should be able to mix all three to get what you want for under five grand

What about medium duty trucks? Something along the lines of these:

I have nothing useful to add, but I'd want something like this. 

I too was thinking something built off a medium duty truck. 

Kodiak or TopKick 

Somewhere between mild and wild. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

A 4x4 Fuso or NPR could be an option for something like that, certainly cheaper than a Kamaz.  Needs to be less than 11ft tall if I want it to fit in my shop, though.

My beef with the Medium Duty stuff is the bed height is usually insane once you get a 4x4 axle under them.  Not a dealbreaker, but even on a 1-ton I'm thinking the bed would have a dovetail to allow easier loading of motorcycles.

In reply to John Welsh :

After a bit of Google curiosity, the tires on that beast are almost $1000 each. 

Another concern with medium duty trucks is even with a diesel engine, you're still likely looking at single-digit MPG. Low teens at best.

Crew cabs with service bodies are a nice do all. Can be had in 4 or 2 rear wheels.

Durmax diesel Express/Savana with the Quigley 4x4 dual-range conversion. Get the 3500 long wheelbase passenger model and put a divider wall behind the 2nd row for stinky/dirty stuff like motos. 

http://www.quigley4x4.com/Quigley-Products/Quigley-4x4-GM-Vans/4x4-Models

Dakar style sweep truck is the only answer

If you're willing to spend new truck money on this, you might want to wait and see what will be available next year with the Achates engine, so far it seems to be just the F150, which looks like it could meet your requirements.

GameboyRMH said:

If you're willing to spend new truck money on this

I am not.  Let's keep it under $10k, the further under the better.

Buy something like this for $10k

https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-ford-350-diesel-4x4/6766649921.html

Or this. 

https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/2002-gmc-sierra-2500-hd-duramax-diesel/6748997710.html

In reply to Toyman01 :

I wonder I can get one with half the miles that's been rearended and make a bed for it.  I need to start watching Copart more closely to see what they go for.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Maybe. The Ford will probably run 500k without too much work. The bed is probably worth pretty decent money if you sell it. Probably enough to buy the steel to build what you want.