Hello all,
I currently live full time and occasionally travel in a 10,000# 5th wheel, but it is just too big for me to head off onto BLM land every weekend as I'd like. I am in the throes of research on how to address this.
I have run the gamut from 38' 5th wheels with designer interiors to Tab's and just about everything in between. What I am looking for is a reasonable space for full time living along with enough ruggedness to routinely take forest service roads into the wilderness and go just a tiny bit off the track to find that perfect spot. Since I can work from home one to two days per week, my objective is to leave for the mountains (from Las Vegas) after work on Thu. Work from my camp on Friday (see http://www.technomadia.com), then have Sat and Sun to myself, get up early Monday and head into work. I may be able to get two days work from home in which case I'll be in Vegas 3 days and 2 nights, and in the wilderness 4 days and 5 nights.
I've looked at:
- Tab... right now I'm thinking the shower might be a bit small... but http://gypsyteardrop.com/ did it! I'm only 5'3" so that might work.
- Tab 400... seriously? They added 1' to height and width and 3' to length and used it up for a two person dinette with (apparently) still no reasonable provision for wardrobe? Glamping at it's best yes, but fulltiming in a "tiny" home, no.
- Starcraft Autumn Ridge Mini 17XTH toy hauler... it's big and it's cheaply built like most RV's (except apparently the Tab).
What I'd like is:
- 4 Seasons as I like to go to the mountains year round, plus I'm a contract software developer. I was in Seattle for four months last year and who knows where I'll be next year.
- Rugged enough to get off the trail a bit. There are off road trailers (http://forum.expeditionportal.com/forum ... n-Trailers) but typically they aren't geared towards full time all the time but rather occasional tent camping.
- Small - I'm a small person. My 5th wheel has TOO much space. I'm thinking 6' x 12' would be good.
The Tiny House community no longer builds "tiny" - see https://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/. They start at 20' and 10,000 pounds and go up. I'm thinking about going to a tiny house workshop, but not sure how much use it will be to be the only person there interested in an actual "tiny" house that is rugged enough to be routinely towable onto remote roads and probably isn't going to look all pretty and "Cape Cod".
The Expedition Portal community thinks those of us that want anything larger than 5x8 with 38" of headroom are nuts (and perhaps we are!).
The teardrop community... hmmm, with the Tab 400, rPod, etc., maybe teardrops are an area I can fit and get some advice?
At this point I haven't decided whether I'm going to buy something I can live in now and modify for "solo adventures" or if I'm going to build from scratch, convert a cargo trailer, etc. I'm just gathering info and it looks like there is a lot here!
Kate