Gidday!

[Indyflies]

If you've seen my first post, you know that I'm 5'4" tall

But there's SO much more to me.  I've been hankering after van life for a couple of years now.  I found after I moved down into our newly built 340 sqft basement apartment for six weeks, that the itch went away for a while.  I LOVED living tiny for a while.  But that itch is back!  Clearly I want a REALLY small footprint!  So I'm back on the hunt for the right balance of size, flexibility and price.

I love camping and bike touring and just love the simplicity of the life.  And with this "maximum telework" thing, I'm looking to build something out for longer road trips where I don't want to have to set up and break down a campsite every night, as well as parking myself somewhere to work for a few days at a time.  

I want inexpensive since this is essentially a proof of concept before retirement in about 10 years time when we hope to travel around the county for a few years.  I want to be able to stand up inside, and room for my gorgeous Dutchie, Gypsy.  

Anyhoo, I think that's enough.  Except to say that I live in the DC area (in case there's anyone out there with an older model conversion high top who wants to give me a tour), but I'm originally from NZ. Happy to talk anyone's ear off about NZ and why it's vastly superior to Australia.

 

[landyachtman]

Welcome to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[eDJ_]

My Ford E 350 high top allows me a couple of inches of head room when I'm standing up straight and I'm almost 6 ft tall.   But there are high tops that aren't nearly as high as mine.  Call them a mid top if you will.
And that may be enough for you. 

My rig is a long wheel base with extended rear so it has loads of space.  You may not need that much. 
I have a bicycle carrier I can put on the front to carry my motorized bicycle.  Or use an extended carrier that mounts in the receiver hitch.

It's just going to be a matte of you figuring out what you need to live & be comfortable on a long tour.

There are some small or short wheel based Step Vans out there.  Aluminum bodied ones are choice as they are light weight.  Many inner city delivery trucks are based on these. But in some cases there isn't a large after market for them due to their small size.  Still they are built like Trucks and are rugged.  One of these may be right for you.  They could be easier to build out too.

You may find these with 4 or 6 cylinder inline engines that operate economically. Automatic transmissions  may have a longer life expectancy.  If I were to sell my Van in years to come, I'd look into a Step Van to build out.

If you added an awning to one side you could set up some camp furniture & table under it to expand your living space.  Some of those awnings offer mosquito nets so you could have a screened in living space.  Thus the minimum of set up for overnight and striking camp the next morning.

Just some thoughts for you.

[img=629x433]http://www.captkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/TRUCK_adspace.jpg[/img]

 

[crofter]

Welcome to the forum! And you will want to check out a few threads on east coast travel.
-crofter