This Old Ford 4×4 Fiberglass Motorhome With A Power Stroke Diesel And A Manual Transmission Is A Durable Camping Beast

The American RV has a reputation for not being very capable, engaging, or particularly everlasting. The average motorhome might look nice, but you won’t get very far once the pavement runs out. Here’s a motorhome that checks so many boxes. This 2003 Ford F-350 Xplorer Xcursion has four-wheel-drive, locking hubs, a six-speed manual transmission, a Power Stroke V8 diesel engine, and a fiberglass camper body. It’s like pickup truck enthusiast catnip, and also has some interesting history behind it.

This motorhome was first reported on by our friends at the Drive, and I agree with Caleb Jacobs, this is a real beast of a rig. Now, I think how you see this motorhome might depend on your perspective. Yes, it’s supposed to be a go-anywhere adventure rig. However, I actually do not think that off-roading is its strongest suit. Instead, I see a 22-year-old motorhome that, with only a few modifications, will probably outlast many of the rigs getting cranked out of Indiana right now.

If you’re an RV history nut like me, the name Xplorer Xcursion should also ring a bell. Why? This motorhome is a descendant of the coach built by the man who popularized the term “motorhome.”

The Frank Motor Home

For much of RV history, the vehicles that we call motorhomes today were known as “house cars.” While there were production RVs, the burgeoning RV industry was very much a Wild West. There wasn’t much in the way of standardization, and everyone pretty much just built what they bought people would buy. Many house cars were just camper trailers bolted onto a truck chassis, and not a proper purpose-built self-propelled RV. If someone did make a purpose-built house car, it usually wasn’t mass-produced.

Raymond C. Frank changed that. Here’s what I wrote about the pioneer of the “motorhome” in the past:

As the story goes, Frank was the owner of a trailer manufacturing company. In 1958, he decided to take his family from their Brown City, Michigan abode down to Florida for a family vacation. While there were certainly many campers to choose from, Frank decided to design his own take on the house car formula. Teaming up with his son, Ronald, Frank custom-built his camper in a barn.

Vintage camper club Tin Can Tourists notes that at first, Frank’s camper–called the Motor Home–was built solely for his family to travel in. Frank’s coach was also distinctive for the day. It wasn’t a motorized trailer or a camping unit bolted to a truck. Instead, it was designed from the ground up to be a camper. This isn’t the first time that someone purpose-built an RV–it could be argued that J. Roy Hunt did the same two decades earlier with the Hunt Housecar–but it was still outside of the norm for the day.

Frank then took his Motor Home on the road, driving it around the country with his family. Along the way, the RV proved to be popular, and people asked where they could get their own. Of course, at the time there was just the sole example out there. There was enough interest that Frank decided to put his Motor Home into production. He teamed up with his son and wife to make a business out of building the Frank Motor Home. They were able to make six more units in 1960 from the trailer manufacturing business, but Frank soon looked for outside help.

Some sources say that the Frank Motor Home was America’s first production motorhome. I’m not sure I would go that far, but it just goes to show just how important Ray Frank is to RV history.

The Frank Motor Home and its successors marked an important point in RV history. Frank’s design was easy to produce hundreds of examples of, and “motorhome” would become the default term for a self-propelled RV. Today, pretty much every motorhome follows a formula similar to the one established by Frank Motor Home.

Xplorer Motor Homes

The story about Frank and his motorhome matters because he decided to continue innovating after PRF Industries bought out his business in 1963 or 1964. Here’s what Xplorer Motor Homes says of its own origin story:

Subsequent to his sale to Travco, Mr. Frank pursued another vision he had for a small, self-contained, 2-person motor home. He developed and produced 7 units on a Chevrolet chassis he called Cruiseaire; however, it didn’t work. Back to the drawing board, Ray Frank expanded his idea to create a small motor home, but to make it garageable. Voila- the Xplorer 21! He created the Xplorer moniker, the company, and the product in 1967, and was off and running again. Over the course of the next 35 years, numerous models were developed; Class Cs, Class As, but primarily, Xplorer has been a Class “B” product manufacturer, number one for all of these years.

Ray Frank retired to warmer climes in the late 1970s and his family took up the operation of his company. In late 1995, the company was sold to Joe Murray and Dave Bockstanz. Joe spent all of his working life in the motor home industry, including a 12-year stint as Xplorer’s National Sales Manager. Dave spent many years in the commercial furniture business, and since the early 1990s, owns and operates a full-time Chrysler and RV dealership. They are both committed to the continued production of unique, high quality motor homes in the Xplorer tradition. The all new Xplorer “Xcursion”, a 25′ molded fiberglass Class “C” product, produced on a Dodge chassis/cab, is evidence of their commitment.

When Frank created Xplorer, Class B camper van motorhomes were a thing. However, many were not self-contained, some were small inside, and some could not fit in garages. A motorhome that’s self-contained has all of the equipment necessary to sustain itself without being married to a campground. It’ll have holding tanks, cooking appliances, HVAC, power, and water.

Xplorer was sold again in 2004 to Startracks Custom Vehicles, a company owned by Robert Helvie. The Xplorer website was still live as recently as 2024, but its latest update was 2005. The site is offline now. Xplorer might be gone, but its motorhomes can still be found all around America today.

In 2000, Xplorer saw a hole in the American Class C motorhome market. The company noticed that most Class C coaches were either built on domestic van chassis, or, if they were a Super C, a commercial chassis. Xplorer believed the market was ready for a Class C motorhome built on a heavy-duty pickup truck. In Xplorer’s eyes, planting an aluminum and fiberglass body on a Dodge Ram or Ford Super Duty made total sense. Using a big-boned truck meant getting access to legendary diesel engines, manual transmissions, four-wheel-drive, and unrivaled dependability.

Xplorer chose to build its Xcursion trucks on one-ton trucks like the Ram 3500 and the Ford F-350 Super Duty. The Ram-based Xcursion came first, then the Ford arrived in 2002. I’ve written about a Ram 3500 Xcursion before. Today, we take a peek at a Ford F-350 Xplorer Xcursion. This one, I think, is leagues better than last year’s Dodge.

This Xplorer Xcursion

This truck started life as a 2003 Ford F-350 Super Duty DRW. This truck does have a Power Stroke diesel, but you might have noticed that I didn’t say “iconic” or “legendary.” That’s because the diesel under the hood is Ford’s infamous 6.0-liter Power Stroke.

As mounted to a 2003 Ford F-350 Super Duty with a manual transmission, you’re looking at 325 HP and 560 lb-ft of torque. In my experience, the 6.0 is more responsive than the 7.3 and gets better fuel economy to boot. The 6.0 feels like a modern diesel and isn’t burdened with unreliable accessories.

Sadly, the 6.0-liter engines have a reputation for stretching head bolts and blowing head gaskets, especially when tuned. The rate of failure appears to be much lower in stock trucks, but the risk is still there. The bolts weren’t the only problem, as the 6.0’s oil cooler was known for plugging up. Other weak points include the injectors, the high-pressure oil pump, and the fuel injection control module.

All of this helped the 6.0 earn a bad reputation. With that said, there are known bulletproofing paths out there that, when completed, can make the 6.0 a beautifully reliable engine. So I wouldn’t make the fact that this is a 6.0 steer you away. It also has 78,000 miles on it, so you’re not looking at something that’s been to the ends of the Earth.

Aside from the engine, other goodies onboard this truck are a ZF S6-750 six-speed manual, a Gear Vendors under/overdrive auxiliary transmission, a two-speed transfer case, and manual locking hubs. The seller notes that, thanks to the auxiliary transmission, you have six more ratios to choose from.

The truck part of this rig is a total beast. Now, I know that some folks don’t like manual transmissions in heavy-duty pickups because truck transmissions aren’t exactly fun, and I get that. However, I also know that Ford’s automatics of this era weren’t the greatest. I see the manual as a choice for durability, not exactly fun.

The other part of this equation is the Xplorer Xcursion body, which is made out of fiberglass and has an aluminum superstructure underneath.

The seller doesn’t provide a full list of amenities. However, they do note that the rig has proper four-season insulation. It also has heated holding tanks. That means you can camp in this thing in a snowy winter. We’re also told that there’s an Onan diesel generator with less than 100 hours on it. Using my eyes to fill in the gaps, I see a two-basin sink, a three-burner stove, an air-conditioner, a furnace, a bathroom, and wood cabinetry. It also looks like you can comfortably sleep five adults in the rig, or more folks if some members of your crew are kids.

According to a spec sheet I found, the 26.5-foot rig has a 36-gallon fresh tank, a 19.5-gallon gray tank, and a 19.5-gallon waste tank. The truck’s gross weight rating is 15,000 pounds.

All of this is wrapped up in a package that, when new from the factory, sat 8 inches off the ground at the rear axle and had 32-inch tires. The truck now has 33-inch off-road tires. This rig has a lot of off-road gear and bits that sound like they should be good for off-roading, but I don’t see this as something you’re going to hit the trails with. This 15,000-pound motorhome is just too big and too heavy to fit in countless trails. That’s bad enough, but its departure angle can’t be good, either.

Instead, I see this rig driving around wide and open expanses like the desert, or maybe wheeling down roomy fire roads. That’s still better capability than the average motorhome, at least.

A Price To Pay

Sadly, I was not able to find original pricing data for this exact model. Xplorer’s slightly smaller Xcursion 21 model had a list price of $62,050 in 2021. The seller of this rig, who is based in Rancho Viejo, Texas, wants $69,000 for it on Small Truck Campers, a classifieds platform. That’s a lot of money to pay for a 22-year-old motorhome that rides on an old diesel truck. However, the overland crowd has been found to be willing to spend six digits on motorhomes that are just as capable as this is. So the price is definitely high, but I’ve seen worse. I’m not sure how to feel about that, but there we are.

What I like about this motorhome is that it has all of the off-road gear and the burly diesel, but it still has the soft interior of a typical motorhome. Look at that nice wood and presumably soft seating! I also like how this motorhome’s exterior has not been ruined by someone with an addiction to bedliner coatings, hasn’t been jacked up to the sky, and isn’t wearing a ridiculous bumper. This motorhome is pretty close to how it left the factory. Dare I say, it almost looks tasteful.

At the same time, between the Ford platform and the fiberglass camper body, I have no doubt this thing has lots of years left in it. Countless RV owners are dealing with so many quality headaches right now. Of course, I would not expect a 22-year-old RV to be perfect, but I have a feeling this motorhome will still be around long after other, newer models have been retired.

Topshot graphic image: Small Truck Campers Listing