Homeless in 30 days!

[Roland of Gilead]

Well, we finally did it.  We listed our house buy owner on craigslist and accepted an offer the 2nd day.   We priced it below market but our time is worth more to me than being on the market for months.  No realtor fees to deal with either.  The house has passed inspection and now awaits bank appraisal but hopefully that will be a non issue considering our price point.

So end of May we are going to be homeless.   We built our own RV from scratch and will be traveling in that pulling our little 17 foot sailboat.  No real direction except eventually hit the Florida Keys around December.   I am thinking we go from Seattle to Idaho and sail Coeur d'Alene then head over to Montana and spend a few weeks around Flathead lake.   From there, maybe sail on the Great lakes?   Maine in the early fall, then perhaps head down to visit our parents in Georgia in November.   Then waste some time in margaritaville searching for some salt thingy from December to maybe March and head up to Alaska in late April (not sure of the route).

Honk if you see us on the road.   Here are some pics of the RV and sailboat...quite recognizable since there is no other RV like it.

[Lifestyle Deflation]

Very cool! Can you go into more details on the RV? What is it like inside and how do you get the "modules" on and off the trailer bed?

[2Birds1Stone]

Very cool!

Do you have a journal here where you would care to share some of your journey with us?

[JZinCO]

If you don't have a name printed on the RV how will passengers on the road play word games with inappropriate prefixes?

[HAPPYINAZ]

Sounds like a great adventure!

[coffeelover]

I would love to see pics of the inside of your RV?

How did you figure out how to build this? Also what were the separate costs for each part of the RV?

Thanks for sharing!

[One800mom]

If you can sail the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior in the hot summer months, that is an awesome trip. I was lucky enough to go for a week every summer as a kid. My favorite island was Raspberry Island.

Congratulations! Have a fabulous adventure!

[Sofa King]

Sounds like a great adventure!

I concur!!!!

[Roland of Gilead]

Hey, sorry for the slow response.  30 days to cram a 4000 sq ft house contents into a RV + sailboat doesn't leave much time.

We do have a start of a blog but not sure if it is ready for prime time (plus we have not even really GONE anywhere interested yet except a test trip from Seattle to Disneyland this past December).

I have to wire up the trailer hitch (I welded that up from scratch too!) to connect to our boat and then do a test trip or two to the Port of Everett boat launch to see how easy/hard it is going to be to launch the boat with our RV.

I have to finish building the cnc 3 axis milling machine that is going to go into the garage/workshop pod.  Well, mostly finish the wiring on the controls...it uses brushless servomotors and there are a lot of wires for the halls, encoders, and limit switches.

Of course also we have to clean up the house a bit more, sell everything we are not taking, and figure out where we are going to go.   I just found a website called boondockerswelcome which seems to have some good potential (sort of like RV couch surfing).   Not a lot around Flathead lake but a few places here and there.  I want to keep the costs down when we travel, knowing that some places will be very expensive (Florida Keys for one!) so other places need to be cheap/free.   Casinos are great but seem to peter out as you go east from Washington/Oregon.

I need to shoot some more pictures of the inside of the living pod, as we have now finished off all the cabinets and it looks pretty spiff.  Here are a few earlier shots and pics of the garage/workshop pod inside (very old pics of the inside, but you can see where we put the water/holding tanks and how the cabinets were built into the walls):

[BeautifulDay]

Posting to follow. 

I want to live in an RV but my DH doesn't. One of his chief complaints is that he wouldn't want to leave his workshop behind. So cool that you've found a way to take a workshop with you.  I can't wait to hear more about your journey. 

[shadowmoss]

I know I keep posting websites, and apologize if I've put this one out there too often:

https://www.campendium.com/

Lists free/low cost campsites reviewed by RVers.

[Wekeeprollingdowntheroad]

Nice! And congrats!  First tging I would recommend is a membership to planet fitness. It's 20 bucks a month as is good at all locations across the usa. We are in there about every other day, sometimes just to use the massage bed :) We stay in hotels, but for you guys having a nice shower available wherever you are is worth the cost alone! We will likely be gone from FL by the time you get there, but who knows? We'll look for ya!
We enjoy the water ourselves, but have gone for a little more packable watercraft  😄 🏄

We left Oly Wa, a little over a year ago and if you are going through Montana check out the hot springs near lolo pass, as well as north of Butte!

Enjoy!

[Cassie]

i will enjoy hearing about your adventure. We bought a used RV -27 ft that we thought we would travel for about a year at a time. WE found out that about a month is all I can handle. But we also have 3 tiny dogs and a big one (80lbs) so that probably makes a difference.  I get sick of the cramped quarters especially when you can't be outside. However, I had some friends that easily did it for a year and we met people on our last trip that live in them f.t. and love it. Having a boat to enjoy will make it that much better.

[JZinCO]

We left Oly Wa, a little over a year ago and if you are going through Montana check out the hot springs near lolo pass, as well as north of Butte!

Jerry Johnson is great too but I'm not sure if they'll swing that a-way.
I'll make a recommendation for OP if they enjoy fishing. If you're on the south or east side of CDA, bypass the interstate by following the St Joe from St Maries through to St Regis MT. I think the asphalt drops off after the Montana border but it's a reliable trip through some of the most remote country in the lower 48.

[Bateaux]

I love your plans.  Can't wait to get rid of the housenburden.

[PowerMustache]

Wow! I really can't wait for more updates about how you built that yourself. It looks superb!

[ahoy]

Awesome.  Sounds like a dream.  Do you need any extra passengers?

[saving_dutchman]

That's awesome, loving the pictures. Congratulations on making such an unconventional plan and following up on it.

[AZDude]

Building your own RV is very badass. Looks like fun, congrats!

[big_slacker]

So awesome, I gotta agree that building your own RV is awesome! What was the driver behind that? Cost? Nothing out there did what you wanted? Weight/simplicity?

[cautiouspessimist]

That's pretty sweet! have fun!

[Roland of Gilead]

Thanks.

The main driver for building the RV was the unavailability of anything meeting our desires.   It is certainly cheaper (if you value labor at more than a buck an hour or so) to buy rather than build although our RV is of much higher build quality than anything on the market (Prevost might be ok).

[CmFtns]

That RV is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while...

If your travels take you down the east cost of Florida on your way to the keys I can possibly offer you a FREE driveway for a couple days.

[Roland of Gilead]

That RV is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while...

If your travels take you down the east cost of Florida on your way to the keys I can possibly offer you a FREE driveway for a couple days.

Thanks.  It would be fun to meet up with a few people from MMM as we travel but my wife and I would not want to impose on anyone.   If we go down the east coast of Florida, my wife is going to be magnetically drawn to Disney World. (I do realize Orlando is not on the coast, but it pulls from pretty far away).

I have relatives in Tampa, but we don't know a soul down in Miami or on the Keys.

[FrugalZony]

Awesome!!
Congratulations!
That looks like a badass self built!

I have been houseless since October last year, living in an RV in anticipation of
travelling full time later this year!

I totally hear what you say about built quality!
We "upgraded" from a small 4x4 custom built RV, to a standard class A and after having lived in the custom one for a while,
I complain about the crappy quality of the Holiday Rambler all the time.
Our friends still travel in their custom built and I am so jealous. But the small one we have would just not have had enough space
for both of us and the pets.

I am in FL often for work, until I FIRE later this year, so I'll keep an eye out for you!
It will be fun to trade travel stories with fellow MMM folks.

Our RV's both are currently in AZ. getting the custom one ready for sale as I type!

It would be great to run into you guys somewhere on the road, although that may be rather unlikely, as
we'll be heading up to CO first from AZ to get away from the heat this summer.

[Dicey]

Hitchitch.com is a clearinghouse for scores of RV bloggers. Lots of great blogs from folks who have been there and are doing that. Best of luck to you in your new adventure.

[forummm]

If you have time (whether before you leave or once you're on the road) I'd love to learn more about your RV creation. Are the frames metal boxes that you got somewhere? It would be cool to detail all the stuff you put in it, why you went that direction, what you omitted, etc. And once you're on the road, what you realize is not needed and what you wish you had put in.

[Roland of Gilead]

If you have time (whether before you leave or once you're on the road) I'd love to learn more about your RV creation. Are the frames metal boxes that you got somewhere? It would be cool to detail all the stuff you put in it, why you went that direction, what you omitted, etc. And once you're on the road, what you realize is not needed and what you wish you had put in.

Yes, time is getting tight right now, having to sell and throw away 15 years of house accumulation.  We will try to detail the build on a web page soon.
 
The boxes were drawn in Rhino CAD and welded up from rectangular tube steel with a Miller 211 MIG welder by us.   There is a welding thread on here just now where I posted a picture of the frame, but here are a few construction pics from the start.   The sides are 0.063 aluminum sheet which are bonded to the steel frame with industrial Sikaflex 252 adhesive.  The roof is a continuous coil of 0.040 aluminum over marine plywood and has zero holes or penetrations (so it is a never caulk 30 year RV roof!).  We then coated the aluminum roof with truck bed liner for protection and grip.  The roof has 1100 watts of solar which is mounted using brackets bolted to the side of the living pod.

[Roland of Gilead]

A few more pics (posting limit per message):

[jordanread]

That is ridiculously bad ass. Announce here once the blog is up, and I'm super interested in the build itself.

[BigHaus89]

That is awesome! Way more badass than anything you could buy. One slight detour I recommend is sailing on Lake Pend Oreille and launch at Bayview. Only about 20 minutes north of Couer d'Alene. There are much better views and less people. 

[Allen Farlow]

I have lived 'on the road' 24/7/365 for more than 20 years, beginning with my very first (of a total 7 over the years) used cargo van that I outfitted as a camper to the 27' Winnebago Class A I currently have. I have seen a lot of different rigs in my travels and I must say I am laughing and smiling at this one. Sheer genius! I love it! If nothing suits your fancy, make one that does! Why not? I would.

I would be interested in knowing how much it cost you overall, though. You did a great job, it looks fantastic but I bet it didn't come cheap. Of course, a frugal person could find quite a bit of the needed materials for free or barter or trade, as opposed to spending the money to purchase them new.

Keep in mind that most Wal Marts allow overnight parking in their lots. Just leave the parking space as you found it when you pull out. It disturbs me to no end when people 'trash' the place. Many large urban areas have numerous Wal Marts where we can park. I would park at this one tonight, that one tomorrow night, another one the next night and just bounce around between them for a few months and never become a nuisance to anyone bu parking at the same one every night.

Truck stops are another alternative but try not to park among the big trucks - truck drivers are very tired when they park it for the night, which increases the risk of one of them bumping into your rig, and truck stops fill up fast, leaving nowhere for the truckers to park. Plus the noise of the trucks idling all night might be bothersome and Heaven forbid a bull hauler with a dirty trailer should park next to you! The smell will keep you up all night!

I parked at the Indian casinos in the Phoenix, AZ area when I was out there. Stayed for weeks at a time and security never said a word to me. We'd even wave at each other. Very friendly people.

And thanks to whoever posted about hitchitch.com (sorry, I forget who mentioned that.) I never knew about that resource and know it will come in very handy, so thanks!

[Threshkin]

I know I keep posting websites, and apologize if I've put this one out there too often:

https://www.campendium.com/

Lists free/low cost campsites reviewed by RVers.

Here is another good website for RV or tent campers.  It includes free and low-cost sites.  https://freecampsites.net

[Dicey]

And thanks to whoever posted about hitchitch.com (sorry, I forget who mentioned that.) I never knew about that resource and know it will come in very handy, so thanks!

Um, that was me, and I'm honored that I could make a useful suggestion to someone as experienced as yourself, Allen Farlow! I enjoyed your story and wish you many more happy miles on the road.

And just because it bears repeating: Check out hitchitch.com, people! Someone, somewhere is doing what you want to do. Or in Allen's case, the same thing.

[EngineerYogi]

posting to follow!

[theadvicist]

What a great RV! Can't wait to see finished pictures and hear about your epic trips. Congrats on selling the house.

[Irishtache]

This is my favourite thread, along with Jon Snow's journal. Kudos on the self build Roland. I too await your blog with eager anticipation. I 've motorhomed all over Europe in a Coachbuilt motorhome and we(well, I) love the idea of building another in future.

[sisto]

Can you explain how you mounted the solar panels to the side yet they sit on top of the roof? I think it's great that you have a solid roof design. I am also really looking forward to seeing your blog/journal.

[soccerluvof4]

Awesome! Congrats!! wish I could do that but no way my DW would go for it. Not yet anyhow!

[Cyaphas]

My hat is off to you Sir and Mam. No one ever talks about what happens after the couple rides off into the sunset, but I'm pretty sure you two are going to have a really good time.

[retiringearly]

This is wildly impressive!

[Roland of Gilead]

Can you explain how you mounted the solar panels to the side yet they sit on top of the roof? I think it's great that you have a solid roof design. I am also really looking forward to seeing your blog/journal.

Sure.  Sorry I have not responded much, but when you downsize from 5000sq ft to 200, it takes 25 hours a day to do it in a few weeks.   We are getting close to having the house cleared out of stuff though.

When we welded up the steel frame for the pods, I installed captive 1/2" nuts on the steel frame members on the inside sides near the roof.   Later, I used my cnc mill to make aluminum brackets that bolt to these nuts.   The solar panels mount to 3/16" 1.5x1.5" aluminum angle channel which is only bolted to the sides with these hefty brackets (three per side).   The inside sections of angle channel rest on the roof with 3/4" thick rubber pads spaced every couple of feet.  It is a pretty rigid structure but we did run a GoPro up there for an extended high speed test drive to see if the panels lift or flex with 75mph wind.  They do not move even a fraction of an inch according to the HD camera view.  So 1100 watts of solar panels and no holes in the roof or anything that needs caulking.

Here is an early pic of the living pod with the brackets in view but before we had made the solar panel channel mount.  Might be a little clearer.

[Roland of Gilead]

Down to 1 week before our home is sold!

We loaded up the truck and connected the sailboat for the first time today!  Drove to the truck scales to see how loaded we were.   Relief to find out we are still under GVWR/GCWR (barely).  Boat was pissed off that it saw the ocean (sound) and yet was not able to get in.   It has been sitting in our garage for 2 years unused while we were busy building the RV.  Soon, baby, soon.

We built a 3 axis cnc milling machine and bolted it to the garage workbench (which is welded to the steel frame of the garage pod).  Not many truck campers will you see that have a machine shop in them :-).   It will involve pulling out the motorcycles to use it, but that is not really a big deal.

[sisto]

Loving your setup, its's so amazing. Looking forward to reading about your adventures on the road.

[Roland of Gilead]

Hey, it has been awhile since I have given an update.

We traveled through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and are now on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin.  Some great places were Flathead Lake, the Bighorn Mountains, the Badlands of SD, the beautiful FREE army corp campground right on Sakakawea in ND.

Our truck gave a cylinder 2 misfire in ND at Devil's Lake so we found a cheap $12 city park in Hannaford, ND with hookups and showers.  We off loaded both pods and put the motorcycles back on the flat bed truck and drove to a repair shop in Fargo, riding the motorcycles back along the corn and wheat fields to our pods where we happily camped while the truck got new injectors.  It worked exactly like we designed and expected.

With the truck fixed and running better than ever, we loaded the pods and headed to the Great Lakes.

I will get some pics in here in a minute when I figure out this new phone.

[Roland of Gilead]

Here are a few pics.

[jordanread]

That is such an awesome setup. Are you starting a blog or anything? I remember it's been asked, but I'm feeling way too lazy to figure it out. I've actually told a few people about you, and they were intrigued.

[frugalnacho]

Ridiculously cool.  Posting to follow.

[SJS]

WOW! So freakin cool!!  Would love to read of your adventures - any blog link?  Congrats - enjoy the ride & the sights!  Safe travels! 

[cab591]

This is, by far, the coolest design I think I've ever seen for a camper.

When you have time, I'd love to read a full write up on the construction, plus inside / outside pics. I've been dreaming of building an RV for years -- something big enough to full-time in, plus a separate garage area for a motorcycle / bicycle. This is pretty much 100% what I want in an RV. :D