Greetings Wanderer, While i do realize it has been over a year since you have posted on this forum, i send well wishes and hope your adventure continues!
I just found this and your other related thread (tips for stealth...) just before dream time so i'll be back tomorrow to read through both. I'm thinking both will be good reads. I lived in a 12 foot chevy cube van in 1979-1981 in the San Francisco Bay Area and luved the experience.
Cheers,
Thom
ZZzzzzzzzzz
OK, back from dream time and read through this "Build" thread.
I feel like you and i are somewhat kindred spirits (my wife also). When i built the home on wheels back in the late 70's it was to get more mobile for the company i was working for. They had ~500 record stores (Musicland) located in malls across the US. The fastest way to rise in the ranks was to be mobile. The cheapest ways were to rent an apartment/home OR live with wheels under you.
I found a used 12' cube van at a dealers lot that had been traded in by two guys who used it as a hunting base camp. I stripped the inside (they had cots and such) and started to do a simple build that included a day bed with storage under (bike, skateboard, seasonal clothes in duffles) and kitchenette area on the street side, then table, closet, cupboards (including one for a "bucket" loo) on the curb side. I used a foot pump that took water from a 5 gallon jerry can up to the sink and then drained into another 5gJC under same area. I did have a roof vent/escape hatch as well as cab access (with a standard window blind roll down as the "doorway" to cab), and this rig had the two full width swing out rear doors. For showers i would drive to a local health club, play some hand-ball and shower.
Other than my work in the record shop (i managed three different locations during the time i lived in this rig) my time was spent flying RC Slope gliders at the cliffs south of San Francisco or sailing a class IV landsailer on the salt flats in the south bay. The side table was ~7' long so i could build & repair
my gliders which were hung from the ceiling. The landsailer stayed at a co-workers house's yard and i had free access to grab it and place on its side in the aisle.
As for lifestyle i really liked the freedom. And many of my flying buddies strapped to their condo/home payments envied me as i pulled up to the airfield/cliffs for a day of fun. My only lighting back then was a battery powered camp lantern and a couple of 12v reading lights which was fine. Cooking was primarily raw-diet stuff and i was (still am) a happy healthy guy living on minimal calories and now ~70% or so raw foods.
OK so where am i now with this sort of "Lifestyle"?
Back in 1983 i married a gal that would end up really liking the idea of a KISS rig also.
Our current rig, though not "Stealth" in any way (peeps actually come over and visit in parking lots or camp sites...it's both good/bad. HaHa). BUT and here is my point, that rig is a modern day compromise of what i had in ~1980. Outside it is attractive enough looking that my wife is more than happy to call it her daily driver.
Inside it is (and she helped with all design/ideas) so basic it would be categorized as a "tent on wheels". We have friends we gold prospect with and camp with that have the typical american rv with holding tanks, power this and that... and while we all have a wonderful time boondocking at some remote location their rig's abilities are usually what puts a limit on our stay (other than work).
Our rig has no need for electricity (though i do have a waterproof 110 outlet and outlet inside if we do end up in a park. then we pull out the small ceramic heater and cook plate/tea pot).
It has no need for "tanks", we use 5 gallon JCs for water/gray use, a bucket-loo (yes my wife actually prefers this over having a black tank setup). Now we did go out and purchase a bunch of "Wag-Bags" just in case we have a nosy ranger asking how we do-it...some areas don't like the idea of our DIY wag bag in the bucket...so we have the real wag-bags ready to show just in case. For liquids we do keep them separate from solids. She uses a fancy little stainless steel ice box and i use...drum roll...a 64oz Stanley thermos. You can see all this in action in these two shots of the bathroom "closet" _
closed_ and _
open_. And,
we can shower inside also as shown in the image. We use a contractors cement tup (~20" x 30"??) and a shower curtain and the "shower" is from something my wife found at home depot, an
electric garden sprayer. Hot water comes from a 12,000 btu single burner butane stove. We can take two nice showers out of ~1.5 gallons total water with this set up.
Anywhoo.... on lifestyle... even _some_ ladies can enjoy it. Cari & I live full time in
a luxury 38ft fifth wheel but are chomping at the bit to punch-the-clock for the last time...at which point we fully intend on selling the fiver and heading down the road in our simple set up (which now includes
a 15ft fiberglass TT.) The current set up is basically utilizing the van as a bed (
Froli sleep system is amazing!) & night-bathroom, and then the trailer for our _
kitchen_/_
great-room_/_
shower_/_
dinette_.
Enough rambling on my part. I wish you the best in your travels!!
Thom
