Hello

[rruff]

I have a lot to learn. I am wondering what upgrades i should do to the truck (cheap) to make it comfortable and livable. I will most likely be on blm lands. I will have to survive through the winter. Any advice is appreciated.

As a youngster in 1990, I started fulltiming on public land in a 84' Toyota 2wd pickup with a cab height camper shell. Did it for 13 years and a average cost of $3k/yr, which would be ~$6k in today's money. That includes insurance, maintenance, repairs and depreciation... not the typical "what I spent last week" BS.

I had savings before I started, but towards the end I worked as a waiter at Bryce Canyon Lodge for a couple seasons (7 months each). Even after paying their required apartment rent plus income and payroll tax, I netted ~$17k each season, so I was getting rich, basically.

I never had heat... just bundled up on cold nights... which tended to occur all year, since I liked to camp 9-10k ft in summer. For gawd's sake don't camp in OR in the winter, unless you are a glutton for punishment! The winter living is easy in southern AZ/CA. Forget LTVAs (10 gal poop tanks, wtf?!), just camp for free on the BLM land.

No way to advise you on modding your truck until we know what you have... but I think a truck is a fine platform to start with.

If you don't like living in the boonies in nature and "away from the things of man", my experience might not be very valuable to you...