Better than a Hummer

[Severus Snape]

Oh, I'm gonna go with an APC. Multi-passenger AND it's got guns. Big ones. And who doesn't find fun in blasting zombies from the comfort of the drivers' seat?

[Wooly]

Wheeled "light" chassis armored vehicles are notorious maintenance hogs and the tires/suspension remain the weakest link. Tracked vehicles (like APCs) are even worse. Most of my experience is with up armored hummers, and LAV-25s. I have logged some time on M113s and have watched plenty of tankers go through the labor intensive process of changing tracks in the motor pool.

If I was making my pick it would be a Toyota tacoma with light armor (multiple hits of AP 7.62 x 51mm NATO).

[azazel1024]

That is the complaint I hear about a lot as well on armored vehicles is that maintenance is just horrendous, especially on tracked vehicles, and wheeled vehicles tend to have weakish suspensions. By weakish I just mean you probably aren't going to get nearly the same life span as a typical consumer auto, especially when punishing it.

An APC isn't something you do the 5,000 mile oil change service on and forget about. You'd probably be lucky getting away with a 500 mile service (and more than just an oil change then).

I'd go with a Tacoma or other pickup with a heavy duty chasis as a starting point, diesel for flexibility (can run on vegetable oil with minor modifications, or as an addition to diesel fuel) and then find/make a good camper bed for the back and make it so that I can crawl between the camper bed and the front cab. Armor it all up with light steel panels and poly cabonate panels.

Shouldn't take to much to up armor it to withstand zombie beatings pretty easily and even rifle caliber weapons while still maintaining a good off road ability and a frame and suspension that can take the abuse mile after mile after mile.

Can't fit 10 people in it (not really), but you can tool around with 2 or 3 in decent comfort and be safe and secure sleeping and cooking in your vehicle and not worrying about some zombie's tripping over you in your tent/sleeping bag or the discomfort of trying to sleep in your seat or on the back seats of your vehicle.
-Matt

[Severus Snape]

Wasn't thinking about the maintenance aspect of things when I chose the APC. I guess I'm dead after a few miles.

I'd like to retract my statement and go with one of these right here.

[azazel1024]

Suburban. .. They break a lot less than a Hummer and it’s a lot easier to find parts. Diesel is probably a good idea for gas mileage and like someone else said you can add Bio diesel. Then the only debate is do you use a new one for power or an old one for ease of maintenance.

Toyota Tundra with custom powerplants.

The camper cab in back like I mentioned. I'd rip the engine and drop a Chevy 305 in to it up front and a disel generator in the rear powering hub motors on the wheels. The Diesel can act as an APU for the vehicle (actually generating more power than the alternator would) and can power the truck at low speeds and when fuel economy is of the utmost importance, plus the multifuel capaiblity of a diesel. The Chevy 305 is for when more power is needed and you can find parts for it pretty much anywhere.

A good 10kw diesel generator could probably get the truck up to 30-35mph (10kw is about 14hp, with conversion losses in the hub motors and wiring maybe more like 13hp to the wheels).

Alternately if you could rig up the mechanical complexity of it, you could just run an I4 turbo diesel off the transmission in addition to the 305, but it would be mechanically very complex.
-Matt