Curious and eager but very green

[Drifted_Cowboy]

My wife and I have decided to live full time in an rv with our three kids. We're looking at a class c mainly for the bed space and I feel it will be easier to adjust to driving. We're going to start around the 5000 range and hope to make some shrewd offers pay off in our favor. We carry no debt nor do we intend to. Currently the car we have is not ideal for towing and would be traded in on a wrangler which fits our style the most out of what we want to tow behind. Eventually we want to convert a bus to our lifestyle...dirt bikes and jeeps, fishing and hunting but hold true to our values of reusing and modest lifestyle. I'm a touch of a scavenger and prefer a custom solution to a shiny one.

Our kids are still young at 6, 3 and almost 1 and we plan to continue homeschooling. It doesn't seem like there are very many other families in comparison to the overall population of full timers but we're hoping to meet some cool folks on the road.

We just returned from living on the open Pacific Coast of Mexico and normal life in my numbered and labeled box just seems SO boring. It's stealing our energy. So we're out to hit the road and one day convert a bus of some sort. We are definitely more the boondocking type but being tethered to the need for Internet I'm really not sure how many options that leaves us as far as places to camp but a mom and pop off a county road is mighty fine too.

We bought some books about living in an rv but the majority is geared towards retirement. Helpful in most ways to be sure but not as applicable to us as most. To balance this out I will be staying in a Holiday Inn express for an entire two weeks becoming an expert on a variety of topics.

I look forward to learning from you all and gleaning as much wisdom as i can from your experiences. Feel free to suggest anything to help me and us prepare mentally and physically for this change in lifestyle. The more we learn the more we find out we don't know anything.

Drifted Cowboys

 

[akrvbob]

Welcome Drifted Cowboys!! I think you have a wonderful plan! You've come to the right lace because our purpose here is to live both cheap and well. Most traditional RVers consider those to be opposites but we believe they go together very well!

The key to this life is boondocking and all the potential problems can be worked around including the internet. I run my websites from some amazingly remote locations all with the use of a Verizon hot spot.

The only problem I can see in your plan is doing a bus build once you go full-time. It's actually illegal to do it on public land and you would have to hide it and most RV parks won't give you enough room for the Class C, the Jeep and the bus and room to work on it.

Beyond that you need lots of access to supplies and hardware and that's hard to do boonocking while you are hiding what you are doing from the Rangers.

If at all possible, do the bus build while you are still in a home.

I know it isn't what you had in mind but you might want to consider a toy hauler. They are mostly big and open so they are a blank slate and yet they already have all the necessities of home.
Bob

 

[Drifted_Cowboy]

Thank you, sir. While I was unaware of the legal challenges of converting a bus we had planned to do it in my dad's shop up in ND. Do folks have issues with toy haulers smelling like fuel from the toys?

 

[wagoneer]

Yah if you go to one of those uppity RV "resorts" People will complain. I have done some low-key work boondocking and depending on your neighbors and the local law it varies. I have one inverter a really old one I can run a small circ-saw with no complaints. Otherwise a handsaw and good cordless set will help a lot.

 

[Drifted_Cowboy]

I see recommended tool box lists and repair kit guides frequently in researching but I rarely see brand names suggested for power tools. Are there any brands you would suggest that seem to not only travel well but are light on the power consumption? I have a set of actual non powered hand tools (drill/auger, a few saws of varying use, plane, clamps, etc) but they don't always work best when time is critical.

 

[wagoneer]

I use a Milwaukee M12 system a 12 volt impact light and reliable with limitations. A small professional 5" skillsaw with a very good blade. The rest hand powered and very silent.

 

[katelyn]

I think raising your kids in this lifestyle would be fantastic! Even if the time is limited, giving them the experience would be priceless. I happened to watch an older documentary this weekend called Arctic Son. A family moved to the Arctic with their young son in an off grid cabin for a year. The kid went through 3 grades of math in a few months! Good luck and enjoy

 

[Lucky mike]

its Very doable!!!............as far as building if you plan a few ahead , you could get material and take a few hours to do it area by area without notice..

I built my first bus by starting out basic....found a junkyard that had a camper to strip for parts....Bathroom/shower/ holding tanks/stove /fridge and a converter......he let me hang out for a few days while I did what it took to get it transferred over..and gave me a fat deal on top of it!!!

I now fulltime boondock....internet is not a problem....Milinecom is 69 a month for 20 gigs..from that I use skype or magic jack for phone and a Tracfone for 7 a month for emergencies.....
there are several fulltime RV groups that can help with schooling curriculum that you can find on RVvillage.com...

good luck on your endevor!!!.....there are plenty just like you out here your not alone so plenty of help is here

 

[Drifted_Cowboy]

Thanks ks for sharing that documentary. I'm downloading it now. The main reason we want to do this is to be with our kids in a setting we feel is more natural. Learning hands on about life, nature, history, and people seems so much more logical than learning by memorizing a book. I do realize we have a rare opportunity in our ability to do this with relative ease. But I'm also just wise enough to know I'm capable of screwing up terribly without the right approach i think. I'm glad i found this forum. I was beginning to think the only things available were 300k dollar coaches and rv resorts.

---

Thanks for the tips and seconding the connectivity mike. A year ago I didn't even know boondocking was available. Now it seems like the home I've been searching for.

My wife is a wonderful woman. She set off into the heart of Mexico to renovate a house on the coast in exchange for free rent. She has been able to overcome most materialistic fluff and we've been TV and relatively ad free for almost a decade. She makes her own bread and is learning to make our clothes. That being said.

She would really prefer if we took our time and did it all in one go. And she could hang with my family while we winter in dry dock more or less. I'm all about doing it your way. I think if this is going to work I'm going to have to meet in the middle on some stuff.

But having done this zero times before I am clearly not sure what the hell I'm doing!

 

[SoulRaven]

Greetings!

While most people here favor a lot of built ins, the most comfortable bus's, camper van's, and utility trailer's I've built simply used house style furniture, cabinets, and everything.

Re-purposed household kitchen cabinets work great. The uppers can be supported via supports run up from the bottom cabinets rather than being built in.

One strong advantage of not having built ins, is if you decide upon a better layout once you've moved in, it is easy to accomplish.

Run your wiring and your hot/cold/drain/sewer pipes the full length of the coach, on each side, with outlets and plumbing tee's every 2 feet. Run both 120v & 12v wiring, so you're covered for any future decisions without having to do any major re-wiring or re-plumbing. Use circuit breakers for both 12v & 120v, so you never have to go hunting for fuses, and have a few spare circuit breakers of each type for spares. I would do a circuit breaker for each 12v & 120v outlet, extra protection never hurts...

If you're going to run propane pipes, do them the same way, with tee's every 2 feet.

All of this will easily fit in a 6 inch corrugated pipe running along the floor, the full length of the coach, on each side. Cut access points in the corrugated at each 2 foot interval.

Once you have completed this step, everything else is relatively easy, simply move in, just like you would any other bare walls house that has been wired & plumbed.

You should have room underneath to mount barrels for your fresh water, grey, and black water. I try to mount 4x 55 gallon fresh water, 2 on each side, and 2 x grey & 2 x black water 55 gallon drums, again, one on each side. Basically, I run 4 barrels end to end along each side underneath. I run small equalizing tubes between the two sides of barrels to keep the weight equalized for better handling while driving.

Hope this gives you a few good ideas...

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

 

[wagoneer]

My van is totally modular always in a state of flux fresh and easy.

 

[SoulRaven]

My van is totally modular always in a state of flux fresh and easy.

Greetings!

Oh, I totally agree, pick a van, move your furniture & personals in and go. I like all of my stuff totally self contained and portable, so I don't have to mess with the vans wiring, or cutting holes, drilling, etc. Plus if it's portable to start with, it's easy to move out into a bigger campsite if desired, without the need to have duplicates of everything. Like the tent trailers with their indoor/outdoor stove rather than needing to lug around 2 of them.

Sometimes I meet up with friends at Quartzite or Slab City, and they have a 20' x 40'/50' tent they set up, so I just move my kitchen, & run a power line into their tent, and we're ready to rock & roll. I keep my own living room, bedroom and private bathroom in my van, so I still have private space if I want it, since they crash out a lot earlier than I do.

With a little thought, you can be prepared for almost any eventuality, and without the need to lug around tons of unneeded junk.

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

 

[akrvbob]

CamperVan_Man, you try to carry 1600 pounds of water around with you? Why?
Bob

 

[SoulRaven]

CamperVan_Man, you try to carry 1600 pounds of water around with you? Why?
Bob

Greetings Bob!

No, no, not me, I was talking about how to build his bus for off gridding.

Normally, I only carry 14 gallons, but if I'm headed out for a long boondock, I try to take 1 gallon per days worth with me. When I did Mexico for 6 months, I did take 3 x 55 water drums in my spinner hitch hauler though, along with 1 x 55 gallon gas. Back in the 60's & early 70's you didn't want to put Mexican gas in an American car because it would clog up your fuel filters within 40-50 miles. Just far enough to get you into no mans land...

For the OP, he was going to be converting a bus for 5 people, so 220 gallons of fresh water, would probably only be a 30 day supply. If they're boondocking and out a ways, I figured they wouldn't want to drive to refill/dump more often than once a month or so.

What I posted on that was what I do standard on all bus conversions though, the weight isn't as important as the center of gravity enhancement on those. On some bus's I've added 2 x 55 gallon fuel tanks for extra range too, especially if they were planning on doing Mexico, where it can be 1k miles between fuel sources. Most of the Mexican 18 wheelers & cross country bus's carry 2 x 250 gallon fuel tanks. If they travel through bandito or drug country, they outfit them with 8-10 x 55 gallon tanks to make it harder to shoot them all out to stop them.

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

 

[blkjak]

welcome from s.w. florida .... blkjak

 

[Drifted_Cowboy]

Thanks for the info on the bus. It will come in handy down the road. Here in Colorado (and being willing to travel) there are a lot of class c rigs priced just outside my price range I'd like to make an offer on when the time is right. Right now I'm pretty focused on researching enough so I don't get too screwed. I'd love to sit down and plan and build a bus but the city life is driving me crazy. A cheap motorhome I can buy in about a month and be boondocking by June 1st. That puts a very very significant chunk of my budget right into savings for repairs and a road worthy rig. Then I want to sit tight on the budget while we search for a bus. I'm gathering anything Fleetwood is a no. Any water damage is a no.

My thoughts are this will give me time to learn what I'm doing and as my knowledge and ability grow so does my investment. If we can't hack it I still have a place to live while I build a house. This also gives me a chance to figure out what I want where and what I don't need as well as implementation of neat ideas we see on the road. And plenty of time to absorb the tricks of experience like how much water to stow and where.

 

[SoulRaven]

Greetings Drifted_Cowboy!

I you're thinking of getting an interim motorhome, forget about being picky about the brand, or whether or not it has leaked. They all either have leaked, or will leak at some point in time.

Try to go cheap, I've seen some pretty nice rigs in the $800-$1500 range. Higher price doesn't mean higher quality, or higher reliability. Motorhomes typically get very little use, so even one from the 70's might be like new.

After price, layout means everything! Get one with a comfortable layout for your needs. VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Try to get one which has all working appliances.

Does it run/drive good? This stuff can be fixed easier than the layout, but can still run into money. The older it is, the more likely you can do some repairs yourself.

Tires!!! MH's are notorious for having bad tires, not from mileage, but from sitting. Check those sidewalls for cracks/weather checking. Good tires are needed to keep you and your family safe. They are easily replaceable but can be spendy.

Don't be afraid to dicker, the more wrong with it, the lower the price should be. Don't be bashful in telling them that it needs $2k worth of tires before it will be safe to drive.

Check with your state DMV to find out whether you have to pay for back license fee's, if you do, that could add up quick.

Make sure that once you find a rig that you put in smoke/carbon monoxide/propane leak detectors, these can save your lives!

Carry a tarp big enough to cover your entire roof in case of leaks, carry another big enough to give you a covered space outdoors. Simple tent poles and rope/stakes can support it.

Get tow insurance, this can save your day, and keep you clear of predatory towing practices in some area's.

Make up an exceptionally good first aid kit. Accidents happen...

Before you actually hit the road, spend a couple of days in a local campground, with everyone. This can help you figure out what you need that you forgot, while you're still close to home.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

---

Greetings!

And don't forget fire extinguishers!!!

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

 

[decodancer]

I agree with CamperMan. I had a 70s Leprechaun that I got for $1000. It had the best floorplan of all I looked at and that was most important to me. A full bathroom as apposed to one that you sit on the toilet to shower was a big priority to me. Also a bed that I didn't have to convert every day. I wanted a stove with an oven as I enjoy cooking, for you that might not matter. It had leak issues but I think they all do and a good caulking helped a lot. I drove that thing all over New England and sold it for more than I paid to get a TT which was better suited for workamping.

 

[Drifted_Cowboy]

It helps a great deal. I feel pretty comfortable being able to spot bad tires or a leaking transfer case but i was putting a lot of focus i to the reputation of the make and model. I'm not getting blood work on a pos motorhome lol.

As far as a floor plan we love to cook, don't like a can in my shower whether in a motorhome or not and i can imagine using our kitchen table as as bed is a pita.

what do you think of doing most of our living outdoors? Apologies if this is customary but I'd like to be able to show up at a spot and deploy a neat and tidy outdoor kitchen, bathroom, solar array and a few hammocks and be inside the mh a very minimum.

Also. Where do you guys think we should boondock for the summer? I found some 5 acre or so spots for rent down in AZ for about 150 or 2 a month with water and sewer included i would like to winter on but I'd rather avoid summer heat there Iif possible. It seems like a bad idea, having no driving experience, to jump on 160 and head to Montrose or even i70. I drew up in ND and very little mountain driving experience anyway. Rather not drive off a cliff on the maiden voyage.

 

[wagoneer]

Flagstaff area is good if you prefer a not too hot summer day.