RV Recommendations

[jacob]

@theanimal - Excellent, thanks!

I think I was sold on the "big tent" idea some years ago when I watched Dave Canterbury's Journal of the Yurt.

[C40]

Thanks for posting that, theanimal!

I may end up doing something quite similar.

[jennypenny]

That's very cool. I think I would build a big greenhouse and put the tent inside it. It would help with climate control and give me a place to garden year-round.

[C40]

ERE TENT CITY!

[jacob]

I think the biggest issue with the wall tent is that you'll likely only be allowed to build a platform on private land lest you can convince the camp-manager that you can dismantle the whole setup in an hour (maybe pallets or a bunch of 8x4' plywood that's kreg jointed together and which you burn when you leave?), lest it look like you're building a permanent installation. AFAIK, wall tents don't have bottoms, so you'll be in direct contact with the wildlife (think ants, ticks, snakes).

[Stahlmann]

There was a guy a few years ago who lived in a wall tent full time in Virginia, iirc. He kept a blog of his lifestyle and musings on tent living for a while. I think he had a friend with vacant land who let him put his tent there. His whole set up looked really nice. If I lived in a warmer area, I'd give serious consideration to doing something similar.

Here's the blog:http://dshillingtentliving.blogspot.com/2012/04/

My fellow students used to "live" (squatting style, on campus) in tents in Hamburg when they traveled for Erasmus exchange. They changed mind as winter started, though.

I heard this as the joke yesterday during millennial's exchange on cost of rent (good to live with parents near work; #rentistheft), anyway experienced peak in HR). Of course, I wanted details and didn't laugh, because I was mentally like: "Bringing 200 EUR for each month from this project to home country. Wow, nice trick!". They spent it on alcohol probably, so - meh.

[jacob]

#students

[luxagraf]

Already looking at these:

https://montanacanvas.com/product-category/wall-tents/

Met a guy in Utah, or maybe Colorado I can't remember now, but he traveled on a Harley with one of these (or very similar). His name was the Lonesome HillBilly. He stopped by our fire one night for a while, really nice guy. He wrote some books on motorcycle camping if I remember right.

[SavingWithBabies]

Another thing to consider with wall tents is that they aren't exactly insulated. My brother has one and he has one of those stoves. He uses it to camp up in the mountains in Colorado when the goes Elk hunting. I went one year. It was really nice and warm when we went to sleep on our cots with our sleeping bags and the fire going. When I woke up in the morning, the water bottle right next to me on my cot was frozen (I think solid, don't recall). Point is that light stove might not be quite enough. Maybe a pellet one would be better?

[Mister Imperceptible]

I’m RV hunting. In the end I value the fast mobility and the FU factor that comes with it.

Regarding tents, I have an aversion to insects akin to Augustus’s aversion to fecal matter. It’s perhaps because I perspire a lot, but one such camping trip involved me serving as a kind of bug magnet. We compared and while everyone else had a few bites, my entire back seemed to be covered. My colleague’s friend who stayed in the tent nearly froze to death and got sick in winter.

Looks like it’s on someone else to be ERE’s resident Tent Man.

[Jean]

I lived one year in a car like this

It was ridiculously easy, but the coldest I had was around -15°C. It was smaller than most modern car, but I had the room to sleep comfortably in it and move my friends stuff around. I was and am still in a relationship the whole time. With such a car, you can park anywhere, and no one will suspect you of sleeping in it, you'll have a reasonable mileage, it will be easy to drive.
I don't see any reason to upgrade to a RV, you will only get more trouble

[mferson]

I lived one year in a car like this

It was ridiculously easy, but the coldest I had was around -15°C. It was smaller than most modern car, but I had the room to sleep comfortably in it and move my friends stuff around. I was and am still in a relationship the whole time. With such a car, you can park anywhere, and no one will suspect you of sleeping in it, you'll have a reasonable mileage, it will be easy to drive.
I don't see any reason to upgrade to a RV, you will only get more trouble

Interesting. So did you customize the interior?

[Mister Imperceptible]

It will be interesting to see how a cloistered booknerd troubleshoots the inevitable maintenance problems, so I will likely take it to a campground with hookups and get myself acclimated before taking it to hard tops for rent-free living.

[SavingWithBabies]

Congratulations! Are you going to post updates about your experience with it here, on your journal or perhaps in a dedicated thread? Just asking because I'm definitely curious how it goes for you. That sounds like a great find.

[Mister Imperceptible]

@swb

Thank you. I’m probably overdue with many details and will likely be sharing them shortly.

[jacob]

Water was definitely the bane of my ownership existence although it takes A LOT to destroy an RV. Get a ladder (if one is not built in) and get on the roof. Use a finger to poke everywhere on the roof. If it's soft, you got problems! In that regard, don't walk around, crawl around methodically as if you're clearing a mine field lest you put your foot through a damaged spot. Also note if the rubber is flaky. Do the same thing on the ceiling from the inside. Pay particular attention around vents.

Is the roof flat or curved so the rain falls off?

[SavingWithBabies]

Also consider cutting some pieces of plywood not too big but bigger than your feet that you can move around with you and put your weight on to spread it out more instead of just in the area of your feet. I think most RVs are built better than the ultra light travel trailers I'm looking at but I'd still proceed with caution.

The ultra light travel trailers like to make a panel with thin luan plywood on each side and foam in the middle bonded by glue. The foam can crack and over time, with repeated flexing, the bond can break and make things feel spongy (and then presumably, the plywood starts to break down). This reduces the weight but then they went so far as to use this approach for the interior floors of some of the trailers! And this was within the past 10 years. Apparently, the failures were mostly due to using that build approach and then having long unsupported spans of flooring. One fix was to weld in more support beams (presuming you have access to the bottom of the floor). I read one persuasive argument that basically this type of panel and approach is best suited for vertical applications but not horizontal and certainly not horizontal with load and poor support.

[Mister Imperceptible]

I picked it up in a monsoon rainstorm and there wasn’t a drop. No stains on the ceiling whatsoever. The roof appears to be *slightly* curved. It has a ladder. I looked at the roof but did not get on it yet. I have it parked behind a bar, the owner is a friend of a colleague. I rented out a spot at a local campground with full hookups for $500/mo starting Sunday. I plan to pick the brains of the fellow campers in exchange for whiskey and beer. Perhaps will put on solar panels. By the end of the month I hope to be parking for free. I’ll get on the roof and get back to you.

[Mister Imperceptible]

\

[Jean]

@mferson
Not much. I removed seats on one side, lined five identical crates for my stuffs, and put some planks on it to sleep on. A friend borrow it and added some velcro tape to add curtains.