Would you live in a wedge camper full time?

[dole]

Say you’re a 27 year old guy. Single, no kids. No ties to anything in life except just working on making enough money to buy a house.

You live in Utah where people come from all over the country for the outdoors that surrounds you, with access to endless public mountain land and rivers with free camping just a 15 minute drive from the office. But it also snows and gets cold as hell in the winter.

Would you live full time in a wedge camper (think GFC, super pacific, vagabond, etc) on the back of a 6 foot Tacoma bed?

 

[jadmt]

I had a full size GFC on a Ram and no way could I have lived in it full time. it would start to smell like a dump.. We did live in a jayco 195RB for 6 months while we were building our house and that was doable. Buy a small trailer so you have a shower and fridge etc.

 

[Bergger]

No.

 

[Hegear]

Just my opinion…. But you could do 7 days at a time, then maybe stay with friends or motel for a few days to regroup.

Sounds fun though.

 

[Cummins_expo]

People live in cars - I say go for it and live out the adventure until it doesn't work anymore !

 

[reaper229]

Yes of course,with a diesel heater or another heat of source...you can subscribe to a gym so you can wash yourself (or use a geyser system)...you can if you want at 100% The bonus: it will make you stronger and know yourself better.

Envoyé de mon Pixel 4 XL en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[simple]

In the 90's I met a guy who was a kayak guide in the San Juan Islands in the summer. The rest of the year he went to school at WSU and saved rent living in his blazer. WSU is in E Washington and cold as hell. He said once the ice and snow built up on the outside it was more cozy. He paid for a meal ticket and showered at the gym. Maybe also spent more time in the library studying. He did it for at least a couple consecutive years so it must have been working.

 

[Billincamo]

I owned a GFC, It was great but not a chance in hell I would full time in that. I own tents with more room and would rather tent it full time.

 

[rruff]

But it also snows and gets cold as hell in the winter.

I lived in cab height shell on the back of a '84 Toyota for years. But the "cold as hell" part was not on my itinerary. If it was, I'd like a larger and warmer space.

 

[bryce0lynch]

Would you live full time in a wedge camper (think GFC, super pacific, vagabond, etc) on the back of a 6 foot Tacoma bed?

Maybe a hard sided camper shell, that you could insulate. Sleep time should be ok, but where you gonna hang out before bedtime when its cold out?

Uh ... asking for a friend ...

 

[plh]

But it also snows and gets cold as hell in the winter.

Would you live full time in a wedge camper (think GFC, super pacific, vagabond, etc) on the back of a 6 foot Tacoma bed?

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.

 

[1000arms]

How long would you need to save up money for your house? Months/years/decades/?

Are you comfortable winter camping in your local conditions?

Maybe save up money for a vehicle that you would be comfortable "camping" in all weather and health? Then save money for your house? (Being sick and expelling stuff from both ends simultaneously is bad enough indoors. It is even less fun outdoors. I've done it overnight in a cold pounding rainstorm while "camping" under a truck cap.)

Would a tall truck cap be much cheaper for you to start with? Would it work for you? Perhaps an insulated DIY cap plus something insulated for bellow the bed rails and floor?

I have lived for a winter in Maine in a trailer made from a long-bed pickup truck frame, truck-bed, and cab-height truck-cap. Un-Insulated. No heater. Urine bottles for overnight if needed. I usually defecated at work. I slept with my water bottles inside my comforters to keep them from freezing.

I've also camped a lot at -20 F, including "camping" in the bed of a pickup truck with a cab-height truck-cap, and found that a simple mattress frame made from placed flat 2x6 rails crossed by flat 2x6 slats was quite useful. I put comforters on top of my futon-mattress, then sheets, and more comforters. Using lots of layers above and below kept me warm on the coldest nights, yet allowed me to easily remove top layers to adjust for warmer temperature.

I've also "camped" a lot in platform tents heated with wood-stoves where I regularly saw -40 F (and colder).

I wouldn't want to deal with a wedge-camper every night in cold weather. I think it would be much easier to unlock a truck cap, strip, and crawl between the sheets rather than setting up the wedge camper plus remaking the bed every night (as there probably isn't enough to room to leave the bedding needed for -20F (or -40F) in place when the camper is collapsed).

 

[Todd n Natalie]

No way.

Why would I put myself through that?

But that's me.

The only question is, would you?

 

[MR E30]

I am in the process of getting ready to live full-time in a wedge camper (AluCab Canopy Camper) on a DCLB Tacoma. The truck is basically done, I am just organizing some life things prior to setting off.

Compared to you, I will not have to stay put in a single place due to a physical job location. So I can simply leave cold weather behind. I'm not sure about you, but feeling cramped, rarely feeling the 'right' temperature, and constantly being outdoors is not an issue for me personally. I love the outdoors, and fairly continuous suffering is just a part of life.

All that being said, I would seriously question my ability to live full-time in a wedge camper in those kinds of temperatures, day after day, especially when I had to travel to an office everyday.

20 degrees, or even 10 degrees in my ACCC is not undoable, or even really unpleasant. The right bedding, hot tea, and a Dickinson fireplace keep the house habitable. This also keeps my house battery from getting too cold, and my water lines from freezing. But the truck very rarely spends any significant amount of time in single digit temperatures. That would introduce far too many headaches. It wasn't built to be in below freezing temperatures for any length of time.

It can definitely be done, but there may be better ways to do it, many offered in this thread.

Outfitting my ACCC to full-time house duties was not cheap either. That part of my build was ~$30,000 (no labor costs) and took ~1 year to complete (I was not in a rush).

Best of luck with whatever avenue you choose.

 

[rruff]

Being sick and expelling stuff from both ends simultaneously is bad enough indoors. It is even less fun outdoors. I've done it overnight in a cold pounding rainstorm while "camping" under a truck cap.

Me too... whew... the memories.

For this sort of duty, a bigger truck and better camper is not going to cost that much more and would be much more viable.

I love how we go around in circles, while the OP apparently lost interest after his initial post... ?