brightbluejim
Active member
I just bought a '93 Toyota chassis/cab with cargo box (i.e., a small cargo truck). It's like a box van only a pickup chassis instead of van. The box is self-contained, i.e., you can't get from the box to the cab without going outside first.
This is my third house on wheels.
The first was in 1989, with a 3/4-ton pickup truck I first converted to a flatbed, then built a simple box house on top of, using appliances and other fittings from a broken four-star truck camper. Box was 7' wide x 10' long x 7' high. Had a shower stall, water heater, kitchen sink, 2-burner stove, and crawl-through port through the cab's back window. Lived in it for about six months, September through February. With emphasis on the February. That was when I let it get too cold one night and all of the pipes and the water pump froze. Learned a lot about what was and was not necessary in a camper.
The second was 2010 in a Dodge Grand Caravan with very little in furnishings, put together in a hurry. Moved in in May, transmission failure forced me to move into conventional housing eight months later. My efforts to avoid plumbing problems resulted in going too far the other way, which involved parking where I'd not likely be seen and taking sponge baths. Discovered that not being able to stand up was a major drawback. Also learned how much power is needed by a laptop computer, even when it's used mostly during the day at the public library.
The "new" truck is just tall enough for me to stand up in (I'm 5'9"), and I'm outfitting it with a couch which will initially be my bed, a worktable, a filing cabinet as a set of self-latching drawers, and a wooden rack to hold plastic storage tubs in place. Have separate 12V power, inverter, propane tank, 2-burner camp stove, LED strip lighting, and a portable generator. I'll be looking to add solar panels later, in order to make a refrigerator practical, but that's a bit too lavish for the moment. I'm going "stealth" in two ways: first, from the outside there will be very few clues that this is a residence, and second, even when I open the back door, the inside looks more like a work area than a home. The worktable is large enough to hold all of the equipment necessary for use as a mobile TV production control room, for doing multi-camera video shoots on-location, for which I'll be hiring out my services.
Stumbling onto www.cheaprvliving.com is one of the best things I've ever accidentally done. Lots of great advice (I know this from the many observations that agree with my own), and lots of ideas about alternative ways of doing things.
This is my third house on wheels.
The first was in 1989, with a 3/4-ton pickup truck I first converted to a flatbed, then built a simple box house on top of, using appliances and other fittings from a broken four-star truck camper. Box was 7' wide x 10' long x 7' high. Had a shower stall, water heater, kitchen sink, 2-burner stove, and crawl-through port through the cab's back window. Lived in it for about six months, September through February. With emphasis on the February. That was when I let it get too cold one night and all of the pipes and the water pump froze. Learned a lot about what was and was not necessary in a camper.
The second was 2010 in a Dodge Grand Caravan with very little in furnishings, put together in a hurry. Moved in in May, transmission failure forced me to move into conventional housing eight months later. My efforts to avoid plumbing problems resulted in going too far the other way, which involved parking where I'd not likely be seen and taking sponge baths. Discovered that not being able to stand up was a major drawback. Also learned how much power is needed by a laptop computer, even when it's used mostly during the day at the public library.
The "new" truck is just tall enough for me to stand up in (I'm 5'9"), and I'm outfitting it with a couch which will initially be my bed, a worktable, a filing cabinet as a set of self-latching drawers, and a wooden rack to hold plastic storage tubs in place. Have separate 12V power, inverter, propane tank, 2-burner camp stove, LED strip lighting, and a portable generator. I'll be looking to add solar panels later, in order to make a refrigerator practical, but that's a bit too lavish for the moment. I'm going "stealth" in two ways: first, from the outside there will be very few clues that this is a residence, and second, even when I open the back door, the inside looks more like a work area than a home. The worktable is large enough to hold all of the equipment necessary for use as a mobile TV production control room, for doing multi-camera video shoots on-location, for which I'll be hiring out my services.
Stumbling onto www.cheaprvliving.com is one of the best things I've ever accidentally done. Lots of great advice (I know this from the many observations that agree with my own), and lots of ideas about alternative ways of doing things.
