Bob Wells - down sizing for FREE traveling

twomountainlions · Nov 29, 2024

bullfrog ! said:
lol!!! I had a Hondabago according to my son. A 1986 Honda Civic Hatchback we could easily take out the driver and rear seats and set outside to sleep inside the car at night. 44 MPG in town and 54 MPG on the highway pretty important when you are counting pennies for gasoline to travel!

One thing about camping out of a small vehicle, which I did a lot in the past is that sleeping space setup inside takes up and wastes a lot of room. I always just slept in the tent.
Can't beat the good feeling of sleeping on the ground and so much space is freed for storage.
Camping in rains - it wasnt super comfortable, but I wouldnt tent camp in really rainy areas anyway because it just always sucks, in a tent, in a truck, in RV or in anything else.
I ended up with great cheap no name pop up typical dome tent with full attached rain fly that performed no worse than any glorified brands in rains, and had super quick take down and instant setup and it had plenty of room.
Slept in grizzly bear country in a tent just fine too, my tent never had a bit of food in it ever of course to contaminate it.
Roof tent is another option but climbing up to it is not for everyone.
I would not want to waste small vehicle space on the sleeping platform.

LargeMarge · Nov 30, 2024

twomountainlions said:
...Cargo trailers aren't a good choice...

... pickup with a topper..., climbing into that truck bed...

.
a)
2003, I fabricated our toy-hauler on a commercial chassis.
Originally, I built it with a fifth-wheel hitch, but torched that off, then mounted a goose-neck hitch for greater articulation.
For us, our 7x16/2m x 5m cargo-trailer is the best decision.
.
b)
To get into the Dodge bed:
... I drop the gate,
... I set my tuchus on the gate,
... I swing my legs onto this raised platform.
.
If I was less nimble, I suppose I could fabricate long shallow drawers, and mount their frame into the pickup bed.
I guess I could stuff my stuff into the 'OUTED' drawers, then secure them in the 'INED' position for travel.
.
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[edited to add]
Our introduction with plenty of portraits, plus our reasons for our decisions:
https://vanlivingforum.com/threads/expeditionvehicle-build.44908/#post-576110

maki2 · Dec 11, 2024

I would say that Bob Wells’ downsizing choice from the ambulance was more “carefree” versus free

maki2 · Dec 11, 2024

I would say that Bob Wells’ downsizing choice from the ambulance was more “carefree”

I wish travel was free of costs. Hitchhiking would be about the closest to being cost free travel by vehicle.

twomountainlions · Dec 12, 2024

There are some youtube channels of people living out of landrovers and small army vehicles with pop up tops, pretty cool stuff, but they are broken down a lot and leak water a lot. New suv/minivan is a good choice. I heard it's hard to find good low mileage toyota now so may be that's why he didn't get a used RAV. I think he is tired of being stuck with repairs and unknowns of a used vehicle too

LargeMarge · Dec 12, 2024

eDJ_ said:
... Bob...'s about 70 now and if his health & logevity holds...But when you get up in years you begin to...

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a)
I turn 73yo in a few weeks.
We are frequent house-sitters, and we cannot, in our most lurid nightmares, imagine settling for a stand-still house [shudders involuntarily].
The darn things give me 'the creeps' [shudders involuntarily again].
.
Accordingly, I sure hope my health and logevity holds...
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b)
One day, I might get up in years.
I could begin to, and I might continue to...