Soon to be first time RV owner and full time dweller

[debear]

I have a friend with a Tiger Bengal , composting toilet . He actually goes NORTH in the winter for ice fishing.

I have an old , regular class C .
I have just survived my 2nd winter in Maine  in it.
I drain my water and refill with 100% pink RV water system antifreeze . I don't use it for drinking or run the water heater but I can flush and dump toe black tank!
It is a little expensive but I CAN use it !
I use other facilities whenever possible to minimize but I DO use it with no worries of a "BLACK ICE CUBE" in my tank......
I have jugs for drinking and washing and use the stove to heat water.
And some well placed pieces of 1" foam insulation and my Big Buddy heater keeps me toasty ( well not cold anyway). Temps down below zero 10*-20*!

Where there's a will................

For sure, honestly sounds like the exact approach we may take, thanks

 

[debear]

I am in Colorado as well! In any factory built RV - even a so-called "four season" or "arctic" rig, it will be very difficult to keep plumbing from freezing. (How much do I know about this? Well, I've been in the wood stove/fireplace business, built off-grid solar systems and am now in the spray foam insulation/two-part polyurea lining - as in truck bed liners - business.)

I'm not a skier (one less car in your way on I-70!) but have spent plenty of time in ski areas doing fireplace/stove work and hangin with friends.  The only rigs that really work well in that weather are the million dollar custom coaches.

You can build your own far simpler rig within (or at least sorta close to) your present budget, and you can incorporate enough of the things the expensive coaches use to accomplish the same thing.

Hands down the best platform for a winter capable conversion is a school bus. I own one, and it will be fully winter capable when converted.  This is far too big a subject to cover here, but you can have what you want for far less than a manufactured "four season" rig and be far more comfortable while spending a lot less to live.

Quickly, the basics would be 1) good double pane RV windows - and not many of them, 2) spray foam insulation, 3) Webasto diesel fired heater combined with a wood stove, 4) a composting toilet, which is far less expensive than a winter proof black water system, 5) a roof covered with PV solar and 6) all fresh and gray water systems built completely inside the thermal envelope created by the spray foam insulation.

PM me if you'd like to get together and discuss!

Neither I nor Alison are super comfortable with a large DIY project to that scale. And within our set time frame to be on the road makes it even less possible, but we will certainly keep all those specs you mentioned in mind while shopping. There's always a chance of finding relatively similar setups, maybe we'll get a little lucky

 

[akrvbob]

Neither I nor Alison are super comfortable with a large DIY project to that scale. And within our set time frame to be on the road makes it even less possible, but we will certainly keep all those specs you mentioned in mind while shopping. There's always a chance of finding relatively similar setups, maybe we'll get a little lucky

It doen't have to be as hard as you think. Here is a video of a friends home-built conversion.If you watch it you'll see all does is buy used furniture and very heavily insulates it. I didn't show it but he has a full water system, but no shower. You could make this very comfortable quite easily. An Eco-temp on-demand hot water heater and a shower stall is all you need.

If I were you I'd think of a box van step van or shuttle bus and build my own. You're more capable than you think. 

[video=youtube]

 

[cognitive dissonance]

It doen't have to be as hard as you think. Here is a video of a friends home-built conversion.If you watch it you'll see all does is buy used furniture and very heavily insulates it. I didn't show it but he has a full water system, but no shower. You could make this very comfortable quite easily. An Eco-temp on-demand hot water heater and a shower stall is all you need.

If I were you I'd think of a box van step van or shuttle bus and build my own. You're more capable than you think.

This is good advice.  I'd add a mid-length (but full size chassis) school bus to the list of possibilities, for a number of reasons. Bob's same advice for the box van or step van idea would apply to a bus. 

Thing is, box van and step van prices are so high that you can generally buy a bus for a lot less while ending up with more room and FAR more weight capacity.

For where/how you want to live, the key to the whole project is insulation. In factory built RV's, you just won't find the level of insulation you need to be comfortable in the price level you're talking about.

How about a simpler bus build than I suggested earlier by 1) removing most of the windows, covering holes with sheet metal 2) spray foam insulation, covered with cheap luan or paneling 3) well insulated curtains for the windows you kept 4) wood stove 5) composting toilet and 6) water jugs/ecotemp water heater/shower stall as Bob suggested?

In terms of comfort, building something like that beats the hell out of the alternative. I think it would just suck to spend all that money on an RV and then have to either winterize it and not have a usable bathroom, or else plug in at an RV park and pay for the space plus a bunch of electricity to keep things thawed out. Would you really be happy with that when you could be off-grid capable for the same or possibly less outlay and have the adventure of building it yourselves?

Speaking of RV parks, have you priced them in Colorado yet, and are any parks near ski areas open through the winter? I'm guessing the money you save by not renting in a park and paying electric on top of that for an entire winter would buy you a really nice solar system the following spring!

Whichever direction you go, we will support you.  We're just trying to help you consider a bunch of things that you would otherwise have to learn through experience!

 

[jerman9069]

I am in Colorado as well! In any factory built RV - even a so-called "four season" or "arctic" rig, it will be very difficult to keep plumbing from freezing. (How much do I know about this? Well, I've been in the wood stove/fireplace business, built off-grid solar systems and am now in the spray foam insulation/two-part polyurea lining - as in truck bed liners - business.)

I'm not a skier (one less car in your way on I-70!) but have spent plenty of time in ski areas doing fireplace/stove work and hangin with friends.  The only rigs that really work well in that weather are the million dollar custom coaches.

You can build your own far simpler rig within (or at least sorta close to) your present budget, and you can incorporate enough of the things the expensive coaches use to accomplish the same thing.

Hands down the best platform for a winter capable conversion is a school bus. I own one, and it will be fully winter capable when converted.  This is far too big a subject to cover here, but you can have what you want for far less than a manufactured "four season" rig and be far more comfortable while spending a lot less to live.

Quickly, the basics would be 1) good double pane RV windows - and not many of them, 2) spray foam insulation, 3) Webasto diesel fired heater combined with a wood stove, 4) a composting toilet, which is far less expensive than a winter proof black water system, 5) a roof covered with PV solar and 6) all fresh and gray water systems built completely inside the thermal envelope created by the spray foam insulation.

PM me if you'd like to get together and discuss!

You sound like a seasoned RVr and well, I am just about to start.  Got the house for sale and will be buying an RV to pursue the life as we just retired.  

I have a technical question.  What do RVrs do about their driver's license and RV registration if they are wandering all over the Great USA?  I have read some places online that mention getting a mail forwarding box and street address and then use that street address to change the address on the driver's license; drag along small car's registration.  Is this true?

[Mod's note:  Please respond to jerman9069's questions here:  https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-jerman9069-introduction?pid=196460#pid196460]