I love the road. More especially I love living on the road for extended periods of time; and even more than that, I love having a place of my own to bring with me. Growing up I was lucky enough to enjoy a Westfalia, Bounder (identical to the one in “Breaking Bad”), Toyota Dolphin and lastly a Dodge Econoline conversion with a Jayco tent trailer in tow. That was the last rolling-home rig we had and it’s the one that hauled us along on my family’s transcontinental road trip, an adventure that took us through 28 states, lasted 10 months and the rest of my life.
My parents took my sister and me out of school, put us in the back seats and hit the gas. I was 7 at the time. We proceeded to live at campgrounds, learn school lessons at picnic benches surrounded by trees, meet people from all over and visit so many incredible places. I saw Yellowstone, The Badlands, Niagara, the Twin Towers, Autumn in New England, Washington D.C., I even saw it snowing in the high desert of New Mexico which was completely mind blowing for a 7 year old boy from Southern California. But the best part about the whole things was that the entire time I was at home and with my family.
That is why I have embarked on this incredibly foolhardy undertaking. I am now 27, starting a little family of my own, and I want to create amazing memories of the road for them too. I want us to meander along the rivers of asphalt and concrete that weave throughout this amazing land, and what more I want them to feel at home while we do it. The biggest problem is that motorhomes never really look or feel like a home.
I am a big fan of the Tiny House trend that has been blowing up over the last few years (though it’s always been around) and how this attention has brought a lot of creative thinking, innovation and mass acceptance to the scene. With this in mind, as well as the countless conversions that have come before, “Some Turtles Have Nice Shells” being a huge source of inspiration, I am setting out to build “My Tiny House Truck” out of a beat up and left for dead 1977 Toyota pickup with a Royal Holiday camper that was slapped on it around the same era.
The 4 reasons why I chose this vehicle, in ascending order:
- The cab looks cool
- When it’s running right it should be getting in the high teens for mpg
- I’m familiar with the engine (20R & 22R are all I’ve worked on)
- I was able to get it for $500 because it wasn’t exactly running
After putting in two days and under $200 into a mild tune-up it is purring like a kitten. Now I’m not saying that’s what’s always going to happen, far from it, but I know this engine and I had a good feeling it just needed a little love, but I also knew that absolute worst case I could pick up a replacement engine for less than $1000. A simple tune-up and carb cleaning has gotten it from hardly starting/spastic idling to firing up on the first key turn running at about 80%.
Next I plan to gut the living space and see what kind of framing is in there and how bad the mold situation is. I expect to tear it all the way down to the axel and put in all new subfloor, but also try to reuse as much as possible like windows and appliances to cut down on cost and unnecessary waste. I also plan to use a lot of reclaimed materials from demo sites, Craigslist Free, Habitat and I already have a friend who said he might be able to salvage a lot of old redwood 2x6s from a deck he’s tearing out, like what Mark Rislove used to build his Hippy Shack which has been a huge inspiration to me.
No time to waste, no time at all.