18 Ft Step Van Build

[wildOG]

This is still in the planning phase. Im looking to convert an 18ft Freightliner MT45 into a sort of tiny home. It's a medium term plan like 5 year sort of project that I'm just in the planning phase of. I don't even have the truck at this point, but I've been working out some ideas with the layout and features etc.

I'm getting older and thinking about semi retirement in the next 10-20 years or maybe sooner as I'm 50 now.I've worked as a graphic designer for the past 20 years and with rent in Southern California, I've lived kind of paycheck to paycheck. I've built up a pretty impressive shop as my current living situation is a bit unorthodox, a sort of artist studio where I live with a bunch of projects that I've been working on.. vintage automobiles, old arcade cabinets, a lot of home improvement, industriial design and fabrication going on in my spare time. Well my landlord is getting old, and I worry about what I would do without this place.

I have this dream of saving a lot of money (for me) and putting this on land that I would buy in the desert. I've been looking at the Anza Valley/Aguanga Valley. I think with the way lending/banks/mortgages work it seems unlikely that I could get a mortgage to do what I want to do. There's a slim chance maybe a land loan would be an option. But building the truck is core to my vision so that's what I've been thinking about and it makes me happy.

I'd like to mostly use it as a house, but with my limited income and not being able to get a mortgage for what I want to do, I am factoring in that this would be mostly off-grid at least to start. For that, the ability to move the "house" in order to fill up and empty water tanks makes some sense. I'm open to the idea of taking it boondocking though. It would be awesome to be out on the open road. Since covid, working remotely becomes more and more possible, and I would love to get away from the bustle of being in Orange County.

I'm making a 3d drawing to work out the layout. Here's an elevation of where I'm at with it.



Plannig this out, a lot of the requirements are from my partner, Carey. She is a bit more accustomed to the niceties of "normal" living perhaps. She has a lot of clothes, insists on having a freezer and a refrigerator (I don't have a freezer in my loft even presently). Currently my loft is 8 ft wide by 20ft. 2 feet of that length is a stair landing/stairs, so it's about what I've got now. But Currently I live alone, so I'm working to make this more space efficient, to make sharing that space with someone not drive us mad. I'm trying to maintain an openness in the plan that makes it feel bigger than what I have now. The planned use of a Happijac lift bed does a lot to create space. I played with the idea of reinforcing the roof and creating a sort of patio above, but I am leaning toward creating more space by having a sort of wrap around deck that would act as a sort of dock for the van.

Here are some other screenshots of the drawing as it is currently to give an idea of the layout maybe.











I'm working out the details of the plumbing. There's a lot that needs to be worked out yet. But I thought I'd post and leave this open for input.

 

[Sky King]

If you want to use it as a tiny house they make a box that rolls off with a hydraulic arm & sits at ground level. Many places require a septic system. Good luck

 

[bullfrog !]

Weight distribution with water tanks is a problem if they are of any size and if planning on being in freezing temps need to be insulated and in a heated space. The shorter and easily drained plumbing systems are the better. Putting the kitchen and bathroom so they share a wall that contains all the plumbing and is easily opened up really helps. I built a small utility trailer that has two 55 gallon tanks one with a fresh water pump, battery and solar and the other uses a macerater pump for black and gray water that way I don’t have to move camp to drain and fill and minimal plumbing is necessary inside the trailer. We have a second vehicle with a hitch so it makes it easier to drain and fill than breaking down camp. There have been some really good builds like the one you are attempting here in the captains logs and conversations and modifications forums. Tttnt.com has some cargo trailer builds you may get some ideas from as well. Welcome!

 

[wildOG]

Thank you for the responses, it's helpful.

I think the hydraulic arm is a bit overcomplicated for what I want.

Bullfrog, that's very insightful. I was relying on the heavy duty weights these trucks are designed to carry, but it is a lot of weight doing the calculations. I want at least 40 gallons of fresh water, probably 40 gallons of gray and 20 minimum of black water storage. If all that was full it would be about 1000 lbs of water.

I've been thinking about what you say about freezing temps. It gets just cold enough where I want to be to make that a factor.

Here's a cool shot of an MT45 chassis.



I have been rethinking the design to plan for water tank weight distribution and proximity of the kitchen and bathroom. Limitations that led me to that initial design were around the wheel well boxes. I have basically 6 areas — the closet, the bathroom, the kitchen, the dinette, and the living room is kind of in 2 sections, seating and a sort of additional cabinet. The living room 2 sections have to stay together on account of the bed lift needing to be clear above.

So, noodling around with the drawing, I'm thinking to raise the floor up to the height of the wheel well boxes in at least the middle area. I've shifted the bathroom and closet from the back to the front of the rig to make the plumbing all adjacent. It is nice to have the living room/lounge area near the back doors. I'm thinking of building stianless steel tanks that would be about 8 inches tall by 14.5 inches (to fit between 16 inch centers of floor supports). They need to be about 80 inches long to be 40 gallon. I am thinking about whether to raise the bathroom and closet and hallway in between. I do see the problem of the shower drain being lower than the gray water tank how it is here. Possibly I could have a step up to the bathroom and the middle section from the hallway and closet, but it might be simpler to raise the whole front.

To make this feasible with the plan for the roof, I am looking at MT55's instead of MT45's as the interior space is 4 inches higher.

I'm still tinkering though. I raised the arms of the couch and the cabinet by 10 inches to match the floor drop as the bed wouldn't need to come down as much if you step onto it from the raised middle section, but then hitting your head on the bed when it's up is not good. I can move the bed back and lower the cabinet and couch arms I think to make that work better at the cost of some storage space.

 

[wildOG]

Thinking more.. the sink will need to be at the front of the kitchen to be nearer the bathroom. I wasn't keen on having thee bed so close to the refrigerator, but I am going to move the bed back some anyway. I'll need to make the upper cabinets shorter to accommodate the floor raise. Still working on it...

 

[tx2sturgis]

It looks good overall, and I admire those who can make use of the 3d CAD software. I could never figure that stuff out. I just used graph paper and a pen!

Two comments regarding your design:

One: you will almost never have all 3 tanks full at the same time. Water moves from the fresh tank to the other two tanks. Often, those holding tanks will be emptied before you have a chance to refill the fresh tank, for example, by using a 'blue boy' at a remote site. So you will (usually) end up with less onboard weight than you started off with. Under some situations, this can get flipped, as when you don't (or can't) break camp to dump the black and grey, yet you are adding fresh water to the system thru the use of potable water refilling with bottles, jugs, etc. Even in this rare situation, we would not expect the rig to haul this much weight for hundreds or thousands of miles.

Two: The dinette table and opposing bench/chairs is (in my opinion) a bad design as it's used in most small RV's because it lets a couple of adults or 4 kids sit in terribly uncomfortable seats for meals and the space is unusable and wasted the other 23 hours of the day.

There are options for that area that make better and more comfortable use of the space. A nice comfortable swiveling barrel chair with a flip down table or desk mounted to an adjacent cabinet comes to mind. But you are free to imagine the space as you see fit.

Good luck and thanks for sharing this with us.

 

[Sky King]

I was curious as to the 18' box. In my experience with box trucks we bought 20' boxes as they came in 4' increments same as building material sheet goods come in 4' increments. 2' extra might come in handy. Just a few thoughts.