Would you live in a wedge camper full time?

[vintageracer]

Would you live in a wedge camper full time?


Could I and Would I are two things.

Sure "I Could". You and I both can do anything we set our minds to doing including living in a wedge camper full time.

"Would I". Hell No!

Not even when I was young.

 

[dole]

I lived full time out of my 5 foot bed Tacoma and a Vagabond Drifter with a 50lbs dog for about 6 months. I’d say it would be pretty doable if you could follow the weather, but once those temps start to drop and your only way to cook is outside and there’s not much “hanging out” room inside you start to think about something bigger.

I went to a FWC after.

do you live in your FWC? Have you used it in cold weather? I've been thinking of putting an FWC on my tundra to live in full-time in Utah, but not sure how I would get through the winter without freezing through those fabric walls.

 

[dole]

You don't need that much money to buy a house. So, assuming you are gainfully employed, you could reasonably have a down payment on a house for the cost of a wedge camper built up enough to live in full-time.

That said, it depends on where you want to buy a house and the market there. A FWC could be lived in full-time easier than a wedge for sure.

Could I do it when I was 27, probably for a year working full remote. After that, a home base is appreciated. What you need to look into then is a home base. Think big garage with a bedroom, bathroom, laundry, and kitchen built onto it... Something like this young guy did: https://create208.com/

I would love to have a house with a garage, but that is getting further from a possibility every day. The industry I work in is going through a major downward spiral with the direction the economy is going, and I don't know what other career field to start over in. This is off-topic anyway. I don't like to be in debt, and if I do buy a house one day, it will be when the time comes that I have secure work. I work in tech sales and if anyone is remotely familiar with that industry, they know exactly what I'm talking about right now.

 

[dole]

No, it is the cold part. Have you spent any time in an uninsulated tin can during a "cold as hell" moment? I've car camped during hunting trips into the low 20Fs. One or 2 nights in a row is enough of that silliness.

of course I have. I live in Utah and read this forum lol. I've slept many nights in a truck/tent in the single digits fahrenheit and hated it.
The coldest night of my life, I crawled out of a tent in the morning after sleeplessly moving and shivering all night to stay as warm as possible, and my boots were so frozen solid that I had to break through the ice in the river I was next to and soak them in the water to make them malleable enough to get my feet in.

 

[dole]

I don't know that I am so much considering a wedge camper anymore, but before the end of May, I have to figure something out. I could easily continue to afford living in an apartment, but I refuse to get deeper and deeper into this trap. I own both a tacoma and a tundra, and part of me thinks I should pick up an FWC, but the other part of me knows that is still going to be too cold in the winter. I've also tossed around the idea of selling the tundra and getting an old used Chevy express instead, but that opens up a whole new door of having an unreliable vehicle. I am very torn at this point on what route to go and I only have a month and change left to figure it out.

And yes, I am doing this to myself. I would rather go through this struggle than continue to give up the authority and freedom over my own home to a commercial real estate company who owns half the homes in my town and treats the people in those homes with no respect or dignity. I am not a victim, and I don't claim to be, but I just won't live in so far from my ideals and values anymore. If that means trading one struggle for another, that's life. I have spent many years of my life living in a motorhome full time when I was a kid, so I am familiar with much of living on the road. But I've only done stints of a few weeks at a time in such a tiny space as what I'm talking about here, back when I lived in a Subaru hatchback for a bit as a teenager with nowhere else to go.

 

[1000arms]

I don't know that I am so much considering a wedge camper anymore, but before the end of May, I have to figure something out. I could easily continue to afford living in an apartment, but I refuse to get deeper and deeper into this trap. I own both a tacoma and a tundra, and part of me thinks I should pick up an FWC, but the other part of me knows that is still going to be too cold in the winter. I've also tossed around the idea of selling the tundra and getting an old used Chevy express instead, but that opens up a whole new door of having an unreliable vehicle. I am very torn at this point on what route to go and I only have a month and change left to figure it out.

And yes, I am doing this to myself. I would rather go through this struggle than continue to give up the authority and freedom over my own home to a commercial real estate company who owns half the homes in my town and treats the people in those homes with no respect or dignity. I am not a victim, and I don't claim to be, but I just won't live in so far from my ideals and values anymore. If that means trading one struggle for another, that's life. I have spent many years of my life living in a motorhome full time when I was a kid, so I am familiar with much of living on the road. But I've only done stints of a few weeks at a time in such a tiny space as what I'm talking about here, back when I lived in a Subaru hatchback for a bit as a teenager with nowhere else to go.

Could you camp out cheaply for the upcoming warmer months in to the cooler months, and during that time, come up with a plan for the cold months?

Put money aside and buy/build something in those months before the cold comes around again?

 

[dole]

Could you camp out cheaply for the upcoming warmer months in to the cooler months, and during that time, come up with a plan for the cold months?

Put money aside and buy/build something in those months before the cold comes around again?

That is seeming like the most likely situation. Either put an FWC on the Tundra for the summer or just rough it in my Tacoma softopper, and then either find an apartment for just the winter/buy a chevy express to build out/get lucky and find a hard walled camper my tundra can carry/stay in a motel when the cold becomes too much for fabric walls. Even the least resourceful of those options, the motel, is significantly cheaper than renting even the cheapest apartment in my town. Worst case if everything just fails miserably I can go back to just living in an apartment like a normal person, but any step out of the rat race is a step in the right direction to me.

Also I just want to say thank you to everyone who has chimed in on this thread in a positive way, I kind of got on a soapbox here just because I know that there are probably more of you who can relate to me in here than anywhere else given that you're all some resourceful folks who value the outdoors and living free too. You guys are great on this forum.

 

[Ozarker]

You must be out of your freaking mind! But, I'd live on a 50' Sea Ray Sun Dancer full time

 

[danneskjold]

do you live in your FWC? Have you used it in cold weather? I've been thinking of putting an FWC on my tundra to live in full-time in Utah, but not sure how I would get through the winter without freezing through those fabric walls.

I lived in the FWC - definitely a better option than the wedge camper for full time living but pop top life ain’t no life IMO.

 

[dole]

I lived in the FWC - definitely a better option than the wedge camper for full time living but pop top life ain’t no life IMO.

What kind of climate did you live in it in? How long did you do it and what did you do after? Why did you end up not liking it?

One of the best years of my life I spent sleeping outdoors on a military cot near the beach every night. So close to the ocean that I would wake up wet in the morning from the mist. I would give up almost anything to go back to that time. But some people may hate that. I think the exposure to the elements in a pop-up would be nice when the temperature is anything above maybe 60°f, but now I have to deal with the downsides of living in the high mountains.

 

[JCliftonB]

I would love to have a house with a garage, but that is getting further from a possibility every day. The industry I work in is going through a major downward spiral with the direction the economy is going, and I don't know what other career field to start over in. This is off-topic anyway. I don't like to be in debt, and if I do buy a house one day, it will be when the time comes that I have secure work. I work in tech sales and if anyone is remotely familiar with that industry, they know exactly what I'm talking about right now.

Makes sense. I am in tech as well. Smaller, local business but I have my ear to the ground in the industry.

I lived in a van in 2021 in all types of climates during my circumnavigation of the country. A van may be a better option for you if you plan to do this for a while. Build it right, and you can comfortably live a normal life. I built mine out in about 6 months and it was a self-contained, comfortable way of life.

 

[Ozarker]

Well, storm hit Hubbard Lake, stern of the Sea Ray submerged by damage, boat totaled, small personal items salvaged, insurance is paying, lake vacation/living is over!

Did someone say pop up camper? Second thought, maybe a class A?

 

[AmericaOverland]

You don't need that much money to buy a house. So, assuming you are gainfully employed, you could reasonably have a down payment on a house for the cost of a wedge camper built up enough to live in full-time.

The catch is, you have to be protected against job loss from bust to the next bust. We went from the tech bust to the housing bust in quite less than 10 years, and then from the housing bust to the plandemic-induced bust in less than 15 years. No thanks. I'm not going to hold a mortgage with this kind of exposure to economic instability. You also have to think about increased interest rates and the fact that the price of a house is inflated by 1.6 times on a 15-year loan, depending on interest rate, property taxes, and home insurance plus other things, and by over 2.5 times on a 30-year loan. A lot of people would have to go to a 30-year loans because they would not be able to handle the larger payments on a short-term note. Not doable, especially since corporations refuse to reshore better paying jobs from China back to America, but instead to OTHER Asian countries.

 

[AmericaOverland]

I would rather go through this struggle than continue to give up the authority and freedom over my own home to a commercial real estate company who owns half the homes in my town and treats the people in those homes with no respect or dignity.

Actually, nobody owns those homes, not if banks can confiscate it for failure to pay on bad times, counties can confiscate it for nonpayment of taxes on hard times and/or excessive property valuations, and HOAs can confiscate for noncompliance with their requirements. As long as conditions are like this, I refuse to participate in "home ownership" that is really renting from these entities, and I particularly refuse to participate in the America economy as long as demons like that are in control of the country. I flight my money out of the country every single month. This is all part of a larger trend of moving money to safer and cheaper havens. About 95% of my assets are out of the country.

Also, the whole idea with real estate taking advantage of the plandemic is to keep collecting more and more properties to sell them to housing corporations so that these will be removed from retail-level real estate forever. We would become a nation of renters, all stuck in big cities with the rich living in small towns and countrysides. As CheapRVLiving said on his channel, the idea of living far away from civilization is to regain control over your person, over your life (at least until the government tells you to move after 14 days) and maintain safety to your person. At least you can DECIDE where you want to go next. You at least retain this much control over your life.

I'm staying out of America for as long as I can and will overland India as much as I can on a budget until things change and I'm forced to go back.

 

[AmericaOverland]

Worst case if everything just fails miserably I can go back to just living in an apartment like a normal person, but any step out of the rat race is a step in the right direction to me.

What will management say if they see that you move around a lot or haven't had a permanent home base for a while?