BlackNBlue
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 11, 2016
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 0
Howdy!
What a GREAT site Bob put together! I've spent the last week or two reading all the articles and a bunch of forum posts. Looks like a pretty decent community here, too, so I got inspired to join.
My story is typical (maybe even cliched) in some ways, unique in others. Seven years ago, I got laid off from my Silicon Valley tech job, and ended up pressing my restomodded BMW wagon into service as a micro-RV. I ended up living and traveling in that car for about a year, everywhere from Florida to the Northwest Territories, slept in all kinds of weather from AZ in June to interior BC in January... got completely hooked on the lifestyle but quickly realized the car's shortcomings.
A couple of years later, I decided to keep the Motorized Nomad lifestyle, but to do it right. Take Two was an old Toyota 4x4 with a scratch-built aluminum box on the back. The idea was to sacrifice what I didn't need in Take One (the ability to go well over 200kph), keep what I liked (decent fuel economy and car-like size and ride comfort), and fix what didn't work (heat, insulation, bad/off-road ability, cooking facilities). I went to great lengths to make highly detailed plans involving riveted aluminum framing, weight distribution calculations, hours poring over technical details of various alloys for the frame and the skin... and five years later, never managed to have a stable enough workspace to actually build it. I did end up doing a partial frame-off restoration on the truck, but right now it's just a truck with a shell on the bed.
In addition to enjoying mobility, I've struggled with stable and affordable housing for years, and things came to a head a month or two ago. I got a fresh burst of energy towards trying to meet my need for shelter without relying on ridiculous rental markets, so here I am with Take Three: an old step van that I am picking up this weekend. In this iteration, I am sacrificing grocery-getting size and economy, off/bad-road ability, and focussing on having as much space as I can reasonably move around and park. Having a ready-made box with flat walls is a big part of the decision as well - I figure this summer is more than enough time to install heat and insulation, and I can finish the rest of the interior at leisure later on.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned for a build thread!
What a GREAT site Bob put together! I've spent the last week or two reading all the articles and a bunch of forum posts. Looks like a pretty decent community here, too, so I got inspired to join.
My story is typical (maybe even cliched) in some ways, unique in others. Seven years ago, I got laid off from my Silicon Valley tech job, and ended up pressing my restomodded BMW wagon into service as a micro-RV. I ended up living and traveling in that car for about a year, everywhere from Florida to the Northwest Territories, slept in all kinds of weather from AZ in June to interior BC in January... got completely hooked on the lifestyle but quickly realized the car's shortcomings.
A couple of years later, I decided to keep the Motorized Nomad lifestyle, but to do it right. Take Two was an old Toyota 4x4 with a scratch-built aluminum box on the back. The idea was to sacrifice what I didn't need in Take One (the ability to go well over 200kph), keep what I liked (decent fuel economy and car-like size and ride comfort), and fix what didn't work (heat, insulation, bad/off-road ability, cooking facilities). I went to great lengths to make highly detailed plans involving riveted aluminum framing, weight distribution calculations, hours poring over technical details of various alloys for the frame and the skin... and five years later, never managed to have a stable enough workspace to actually build it. I did end up doing a partial frame-off restoration on the truck, but right now it's just a truck with a shell on the bed.
In addition to enjoying mobility, I've struggled with stable and affordable housing for years, and things came to a head a month or two ago. I got a fresh burst of energy towards trying to meet my need for shelter without relying on ridiculous rental markets, so here I am with Take Three: an old step van that I am picking up this weekend. In this iteration, I am sacrificing grocery-getting size and economy, off/bad-road ability, and focussing on having as much space as I can reasonably move around and park. Having a ready-made box with flat walls is a big part of the decision as well - I figure this summer is more than enough time to install heat and insulation, and I can finish the rest of the interior at leisure later on.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned for a build thread!
