I've been struggling with this decision for a few years now. The plan is to get rid of my daily driver (Tundra) and purchase a high roof Dodge Promaster. Outfit it for over night stays and to haul kids/bikes or whatever. Drive the van for a few months until I find second car to commute with. .
Thoughts?
I have only owned trucks my whole life.
I've had about 3 trucks and 8 vans searching for the perfect moto vehicle too. Walk the pits and check out how everyone else has solved this problem. A few brave souls try the truck/tent model. Some do the truck trailer combo. Usually for races it's a crappy old camper with a trailer for the bikes and they use a truck for the daily driver and local practices. One moto van can do it all. Put the rest of the money you save by not having a depreciating truck, trailer, or camper and storage costs in to your retirement.
You can buy a conversion van or buy a cargo van and do the conversion yourself. You're going to need about $5K and a crap load of time if you're going to try and convert cargo van in to a good moto van. I'm on my third conversion and I'm just starting to figure it out (power, ventilation, heat, lighting, insulation, diesel engines, etc).
I have my eyes on the Promaster for my next one but the used ones are still too expensive ($20K). A used Promaster will be about $20K with 70K miles on it. Add $5K for the conversion and you're at $25K and you'll get maybe another 100K miles on the gas engine. The numbers just don't add up yet but they do look sweet. I've settled on the older Sprinters as the perfect moto van. You can pick up an old Sprinter for $5K and put another $5K in to it and have a moto vehicle that will run for and additional 300K miles or so at 22mpg. To own a Sprinter you must have patience and the willingness to accept you might not get where you're going all the time
You'll also need to be your own diesel mechanic.
One last thing to consider. If you're coming from a truck to a van you'll have to get your ego in check. "check out that hot dude in that sweet van" said no chick ever. A daily driver or a street bike helps if you ever want to date.