living in a camper

[Blacksmith]

Craig's List. For everything.

- If you want to expand your cold food storage run a power line out to your shed and put a chest freezer in there. A chest freezer is cheap and cheap to run.

- For laundry if you are running to the mat you are likely spending a small fortune. Put up another shed and use it as a laundry room. Get a good used working washer and put a cheap laundry sink in there. You can hang up inside the shed to dry when raining and outside when nice. Also keeps the dirty clothes out of the way. Drain the water into the garden if possible. The plants will love it.

- Put lots of garden plantings right outside of the home and mulch if possible. Keep back the growth of plants and grass to cut down on vermin infestation

- A picnic table outside is nice, even if it is just a piece of 3/4" plywood over some cinder blocks covered with a table cloth. (attach to something so it does not blow away).

- Keep your yard and area as free as possible of junk and debris. This will also cut back on vermin and rodents. If you have junk you don't need try to trade it for stuff you do need.

[Brekar]

Craig's List. For everything.

- If you want to expand your cold food storage run a power line out to your shed and put a chest freezer in there. A chest freezer is cheap and cheap to run.

- For laundry if you are running to the mat you are likely spending a small fortune. Put up another shed and use it as a laundry room. Get a good used working washer and put a cheap laundry sink in there. You can hang up inside the shed to dry when raining and outside when nice. Also keeps the dirty clothes out of the way. Drain the water into the garden if possible. The plants will love it.

- Put lots of garden plantings right outside of the home and mulch if possible. Keep back the growth of plants and grass to cut down on vermin infestation

- A picnic table outside is nice, even if it is just a piece of 3/4" plywood over some cinder blocks covered with a table cloth. (attach to something so it does not blow away).

- Keep your yard and area as free as possible of junk and debris. This will also cut back on vermin and rodents. If you have junk you don't need try to trade it for stuff you do need.

This...

I just moved back to Mo after living in Az for the last 10 years. The last year I lived in Az I lived with my wife and 2 toddlers for close to a year in our 30 foot travel trailer, all of this due to job loss for both of us. I bought the travel trailer with the intent of using it for a hunting trailer, but instead it turned out to be home for a bit. We parked it on some land we had paid off, and lived just fine. We parked it on a concrete slab, leveled it, then had it hooked to the water and sewer already on the land. The land had a shed next to the slab that had a coin operated washer and dryer in it when we bought it so I sold the set for $1,000 on Craigslist and got a cheap matching washer and dryer for $200 on Craigslist. I installed a cheap laundry sink in it, put a shower in it, and a deep freezer for food storage. All bought used off of Craigslist.
We learned how to live simple, w/o a lot of extra unneeded items, but we still had a good time. We used digital T.V. antenna for TV. if/when we wanted to watch T.V., my PS3 for DVD's, and Books or board games for entertainment. We never cooked inside the trailer, due to the fact that it became far to hot if we did, so we used a gas grill to cook our food, we canned fruit, veggies, eggs, and hotdogs for later, we ate at a picnic table, and if the Durango broke, I fixed it. All in all we made the best of it with what we had.

And honestly once I figured out how to cool the trailer w/o buying an expensive ass Travel Trailer/RV AC Unit, it wasn't that bad in the Az heat.

I also ended up building a carport over the top of the trailer, and ran a used RV awning the length of it for extra shade. I did this mainly because the roof started leaking around one of the vents and the cost for repairing the roof was more expensive than just building a simple carport over it. With a bit of mechanical/building know how, fixing anything on it was pretty simple.

If you want to know any other things about how to make life in a trailer easier, take a spin around where ever Snow Birds (a.k.a. old people who travel with the weather a lot) congregate, and you will see quite a lot of ingenious set ups.

Learn how to maximize your limited space potential to it's max. In my trailer I removed the shower because we used the one in the shed instead, and I put in a pantry in its space. The trailer came with a twin bed set up for the sleeping quarters, I removed it, extended it to fit a queen sized Serta mattress, added several dresser drawers from an old dresser that had broken. In the main closet there was a area that was largely unusable due to hanging cloths, but left me enough room to buy those gun racks that fit in the rear window of a truck, hang them in that unused space and have a storage space for my deer rifle, .22, and my 12 gauge. It came with a small RV refrigerator in it (basically a 3/4 version of a regular fridge), but above the refrigerator was a large cabinet for dishes that wasn't being used, so I moved that fridge to the shed as a back up, removed the excess cabinet space above it, and slid a regular sized on inside that spot. All of this extra stuff I did was bought off of Craigslist, traded for, or given to us to help keep the cost down for us since we were living off of our savings, school money, and what money I earned from odd jobs.

Living in a trailer isn't horrible, but there is several things that are vastly different from a home. There is no privacy, no room for extra's (you quickly learn what you can/can't live without), and they require constant maintenance.

[ElevenBravo]

Sure beats living in a debris hut!!!

We lost our house about 4 years ago (foreclosure), super lucky to rent a house in the same neighborhood!

I feel ya bro... Its likely for the better, may take some time to see it that way, but hang in there!!

Best of luck!
Andrew

[KnightoftheRoc]

My wife and I live in a 25ft travel trailer and have for over a year now. It was a choice we made so that our son who has a new family will not need to worry so much about keeping his head above water.. We pay him rent to stay in his yard. Works for us, and it takes a bit of the load off him while he juggles work, going to college, and being a husband and a father.

Anyhow, we had the same problem with our roof leaking. We have a EPDM liner roof that was trashed by the time we hauled it back to my son's house. It's a pretty nice camper, but it only took a couple of rainstorms before we ended up with ceiling damage.

To fix the roof temporarily, we put a tarp over the roof and are building a new roof that'll be fastened with rafter ties. For the roofing material, Lowe's has some pretty nice 2'x8' galvanized sheeting for around $15 a sheet and it will not take so many sheets to cover it. It'll provide a leak proof roof with extra insulation and a vapor barrier that'll last forever. We just have to make sure the new roof stays under 13ft if we ever want to take it out of here.

The nice thing about a camper is that because of the size, you can remodel one with really nice materials and it still remains affordable. We're decking ours out with ceramic tile, upgrading the bathroom fixtures, and changing the layout so it's a little more 2 person friendly. For example, the back near the bathroom has bunkbeds that aren't exactly usable for just the 2 of us so we're changing that space into something we can use. Right now, we use them as shelves, but my wife wants to build a computer desk back there. If you get creative, there's a lot you can do.

Suprisingly, the space factor doesn't phase my wife which I thought it would. We're loving it and the things we worried about, like the two of us being cramped together and getting on eachother's nerves hasn't happened.

I always wanted to build a house that had some of those self-sufficient options in it and now we have a small home to make it a reality. Since our home is already 12vdc or 120vac, we only have to hook up modest solar panels and we'll be able to power up the house completely. Things like our water heater works on an as-needed switch and since it's only 6 gallons, we only turn it on when we need it so we really have a lot of energy savings in our little home. Most of the appliances are gas or electric as well so we have lots of options. We yanked the rooftop AC off it since it wasn't working when we bought it and installed a small window A/C unit and it's enough to freeze us out of here if we ever turned it up. So we're both happy that we've reduced our carbon footprint. At the same time, we're hardly roughing it since we have HD cable with a DVR, high speed wireless internet, computers, and a nice HD tv.. albeit, only a 21" screen.

The only difference in our lives, besides the kids growing up and moving out, is that we are more careful on what we purchase now. We aren't just collecting things just because we can and now we find ourselves doing things outside the house more often than we used to. With all the money we save by living here, we go out to eat more often than we used to. We go to the movies whenever we feel like it. We take trips. All in all, it's been a pretty great decision all around. In my case, what made this work was making sure I continue to make this place just the way my wife wants it. She affectionately calls it the 'mini-mansion' and if you are able to both be happy despite the size, then you've pretty much won half the battle in life. No more big mortgage payments to worry about. It's a state of mind I suppose that you have to get used to, but it's definitely doable.

A lot of good tips there for energy savings, BUT- keep in mind that your entire home is a shell with an R rating of about 1-1.5, if it's a trailer over ten years old. Newer units are better, but only marginally. Your heating and cooling costs will only be higher if you remove the windows and door entirely, and even then, the difference is minute. If you can, spend the hotter months somewhere cool, and the colder months somewhere warm, or be prepared for heating bills that compete with a home 8-10 times the size of your trailer. Of course, this is also one big reason that house came with wheels on it in the first place.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

I hear you on the "fun" of RV living. I've recently been at roughly the same situation where you are now. Our house got foreclosed on, after I was unemployed for over 9 months. Thank God we had the motorhome - without that it would have been a bear.

My wife is a home-schooling mom (former certified teacher) and at the time our kids were almost 10 and 7. We sold just about everything we had, shoved the rest into storage, and climbed into the RV to live & find work wherever we could. That was a 2007 Fleetwood Jamboree 31' class C motorhome we bought brand new in July 2007, although this is April of 2009. We had looked into selling the RV (even at a loss) when I didn't have income so that could help our financial situation, but the economy had cratered so badly, the RV manufacturers were practically giving away new ones - we didn't have a chance to get out of it without adding an additional $20k liability to an already really bad financial situation. So, we made sure we weren't late paying on the RV instead of the other way around.

There were four of us in there for about 18 months at the longest stretch. And because it's a MH not a travel trailer, you get a lot less space out of the sq feet you have. Linearly, we were looking at 8x31 = 248 sq feet divided by 4 people = sardine can status. The bumpouts help a little, but mostly that's running-into-each-other space anyway. My kids looked at it as an extended camping trip. My wife and I a bit less so, but we kept a positive attitude.

We had bought the RV about 2+ years earlier, when we moved to Texas for work. That was after Katrina, and tons of people were still displaced, and there wasn't even a single room to rent in all of Austin when I accepted the job while in Southern California, let alone a house or apartment or condo. We had been eyeballing an RV for years prior to that, and what with the cost of living difference, we could swing it esp once our CA house got sold. Arriving in Texas, we stayed in it for about 4.5 months - while we got our CA house sold and found one to buy locally. So we were cramped, but not awful, and it was temporary. The kids were smaller then - 8 and 5 at the time, and our stuff was in storage locally so we had everything close by and swapped out stuff easily between the RV and the storage place.

Fast forward to leaving TX after being unemployed, I found work that would keep us afloat (barely!) in a small apartment in North Carolina for a year. Living at an RV park way far out from work with just one car wasn't in the cards - we had to pony up for the apt close enough to work that I could walk/bike there. We were razor thin on getting all the absolute essential bills paid.

About a year later, a more lucrative role opened in Northern California. This is where the real fun began - really good job, and low costs since we didn't rent an apt in NorCal, but we were majorly squeezed in. We lived in an RV park in Mountain View - which is a concrete jungle not a forested one. So great hookups etc - even got cable & cable internet! But, space was at an abject premium. Thankfully we had laundry on site, but there were no showers / bathrooms at this park - everything relied upon your rig that way. So, that got really annoying after a while - especially with the kids being bigger. We also didn't have a laptop but a desktop and big ole printer taking up space. And because we didn't own the site, we couldn't expand the area around the RV with diddley. It was a tight squeeze, especially with the tow dolly and towed car taking up room outside. All of that was better than paying $2000 a month for a tiny apartment as the alternative.

The biggest problem we encountered was fridge space. I would have LOVED to convert one of the bigger storage lockers underneath into a refrigerated unit, or a freezer. It wouldn't be practical if you are boon-docking, or even while on the road, but would have tripled-quadrupled our food space while hooked up. As it was, my wife had to grocery shop every single day just for the essentials. That doesn't usually make for a happy wife. lol Second least favorite part was dealing with grey & black water tanks - with four people, and all plumbing happening in the motorhome, emptying tanks became a real chore. Would have loved to install the ability to open & shut the tanks remotely from inside, as well as an automatic rinser. We put in a manual tank rinser - which was way better than the grab-a-hose alternative, but not quite ideal.

I had precisely one water problem from the roof. It was actually a condensation problem in the back corner of the RV - inside the master closet. If a tiny amount of moisture got behind the corner rail outside, and the temperature dropped, it would make the interior wall actually wet to the touch. Finally figured out where that was coming from, sealed it, and haven't had a problem since, although we do keep a dehumidifier in the RV. That's a must-have just because the insulation is so bad in the RV. The big variance in temperature in NorCal along with its tendency to rain didn't help.

Eventually, we had saved enough that we could not only move back to TX, and had paid off all but one bill besides the RV itself. Hallelujah! We could also properly weather a lack of income when we got back to TX while I was looking for several months.

All in all, for a place to live, it saved our bacon. I feel blessed that we had it. It is now my BOV and mobile BOL, and it is very well taken care of. I just added a solar panel trickle charger - which is a must if you are going to stay in place for an extended period of time, even with electric hookups. Even starting it once a month, my starter battery was always toast.

ZAG

[hard2kill]

Well guys, I know its been a while since any activity on this thread and this probably won't be seen but I'm gonna post it anyway so as to (atleast try) keep you guys up to date. We have successfully moved into the camper and its actually going better than I thought. Its been an insane few months with me choosing to come off the road, moving, sorting what stays and what goes (a lot went) , changing jobs to be home and stop traveling and the biggest thing is that we have a our first baby on the way. Anyway, I was thinking and needed to, yet again, reach out and pick your brains. Obviously in this camper, we don't have much room for extras so most of our stuff has gone in the storage building we bought. I was wondering what you had to say about keeping preps, mainly food in a non climate controlled building? Is there a way to keep things from going south? Can I do climate control myself cheaply and effectively? Suggestions and advice are encouraged because I'm out of ideas aside from running an extension cord to the building and putting a space heater in there.

[LBB]

The small storage shed is pretty high on the list. Just have to find one big enough/cheap enough to hold a good food storage and have enough room keep our other crap we dont want to get rid of. As far as privacy, I was wondering about that. Thick curtains are the best we can do I guess.

Only a thought, but you might want to look at small cargo trucks that had ahead on collision. You could take the cargo area off the bed and use it as a shed.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

Congrats on the baby on the way!!

That's awesome that you found a way to stay home with your family to be. That makes prepping much easier, and simpler. At least you'll have the luxury of prepping for the camper while at the camper much more of the time.

One prep for the camper itself would be to put insulation around the base. Some sort of foam board or even other thick-ish material to keep the wind out from underneath the camper will be very helpful re: comfort when it starts to get colder. That's an couple hours spent or thereabout, and a small overall expense and it will make a big difference. Just be sure to secure them properly and they will serve you well.

That, and make sure you have a big tarp - big enough to go all the way over the camper width-wise at least, and still able to be tied down well. If you develop a leak, particularly at night when it's much harder to diagnose & fix, you'll be glad you did. Fast fix to get you through the night, and maybe for a few days while you diagnose and juggle schedules to get it corrected.

What's your bug-out plan for a storm? In the camper, just a heavy rain or moderately strong winds can be disconcerting. Have you got somewhere sturdy you can get to quickly & easily even while groggy, wet/cold and stressed? We had a couple medium level storms in the RV, and being in the camper does mostly magnify how dangerous they FEEL because you don't have the "solid" walls of a house. We never had to evacuate, but we definitely considered it once. Be ready.

Have a plan to get out of the camper regularly for psychological benefit. As in daily. Cabin fever is real, especially in such tight quarters, and you'll do yourself a huge favor by preparing for and combating against that.

I know what you're going through. Keep the faith - you'll come out of it stronger as a family from the time spent literally closer together.

ZAG

[Blacksmith]

I was wondering what you had to say about keeping preps, mainly food in a non climate controlled building?

Absolutely dig a 7' deep hole, put your items in, cover and insulate well. The temperature should stay between 45-55 F year around (so long as the cover is insulated well. Mankind has been doing this for tens of thousands of years.

Make sure the stuff is vermin proof first though!

[KnightoftheRoc]

I assume you mean keeping the preps in your storage building. That said;

Insulate the storage building- good insulation and sealing of air leakage will go a long way in maintaining a steady temp in it. As many have lighting, use the fact that you have power if you can- install a sleeve unit AC high up in the wall, and an infrared space heater down low- you'll only need to power one at a time. Replace the standard light switch with a single two-way switch, and power the outlets for the heat and AC from the upper post, the lights from the lower post. This will shut down the units when the lights go on, and power them up when the lights are turned off as you leave. A second outlet, always on, can be used if you're in there for an extended period, and have the need for either unit. this will make it into a climate controlled space, on the cheap.

If there is no power, insulation becomes even more important, as does leakage sealing. The only thing you can do after that, it to try and increase the space's thermal mass- store as much water in it as you safely can- water has a tremendous ability to retain it's temperature, and will keep the space steady for quite a while. If you store LP in there, don't run the tank in the space during colder weather- the tanks absorb heat from the air around them as the LP vaporizes, which will cool the space, even if you're running the tank's line to a BBQ outside the storage unit.

When insulating, the higher the R value, the more efficient the insulation, so work accordingly given the wall thickness you have to work with- consider adding thickness to the walls if you can and have the need. Don't forget to insulate UNDER the space if possible- sheds are often built off the ground, set on pillars or blocks, allowing a LOT of air circulation underneath them. insulating, and sealing off the bottom from air circulation will help a lot.

btw, the reason I suggest an infrared heater, is that they heat ITEMS, not the air, so your preps will do the actual heating of the air. the surfaces exposed to the IR can become quite warm, so I would point the heater at the water barrels, and then let nature take it's course. This prevents your Cheetos supply from becoming over baked, your Twinkies from melting, etc. and it puts the heat on the water, which needs it the most to prevent freezing. There are also IR light bulbs on the market, but they tend to draw a lot more electric than a standard bulb. They can be used to heat anything the light falls on, but again, you'll want to shield your Twinkies.

[Ad'lan]

This Thread chronicles some of my experiences living in a trailer.

I still live in that trailer, and it's a lot easier the second winter than the first. Partly because the weather is milder (pipes underground not freezing, so our lagging was able to make a difference) and partly the amount of work we've been able to put in over time.

Under new flooring we laid good insulation, it makes a lot of difference. We replaced the old and damaged gas heater with an electric fan heater, we found the whole build unsuited to the winter (perhaps because it's a british static trailer, probably designed for summer holidays) with air vents that couldn't be closed and open holes in the floor. Rat infestation was a problem, until we found they resided under our shower and had tunnels going through the insulation.

My advice is prepare for the worst conditions when you first move in. Water proofing, access points set up safely, insulation and lagging for pipes, that sort of thing, then you won't be scrambling under the trailer taping on lagging as best you can.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I'm thinking it's a matter of slang not "translating" but what do you mean by 'lagging'? It's not a term I'm familiar with (and I'm a plumber).

[Ad'lan]

I'm thinking it's a matter of slang not "translating" but what do you mean by 'lagging'? It's not a term I'm familiar with (and I'm a plumber).

Insulation wrapped around a pipe is called lagging.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I'm thinking it's a matter of slang not "translating" but what do you mean by 'lagging'? It's not a term I'm familiar with (and I'm a plumber).

Insulation wrapped around a pipe is called lagging.

thank you!

[Shadowsbane]

Did this very same thing not long ago. Have the pictures to prove it too.

Had to do it on the cheap and the damage was comparable to what you described.

Need any advice or help, just send an email to me at

Lonelymountainleather at Gmail.com

[desert fox]

as others have said, weather proofing as much as possible. make sure everything is sealed and then sealed again. extra insulation will also help a ton, especially underneath and wrapping/burying your pipes will save lots of hassle.

i would also recommend setting up good outside spaces, like seating, firepit, grill etc. when you get tired of being inside, having a nice exterior will help morale.

energy efficiency will be a problem too. i would replace any bulbs with h.e ones, and research building a windmill. do as much as you can, using propane gets expensive. a small chest freezer will cone in handy too, those rv fridges suck lol.

i lived in one for almost a year

[KnightoftheRoc]

as others have said, weather proofing as much as possible. make sure everything is sealed and then sealed again. extra insulation will also help a ton, especially underneath and wrapping/burying your pipes will save lots of hassle.

i would also recommend setting up good outside spaces, like seating, firepit, grill etc. when you get tired of being inside, having a nice exterior will help morale.

energy efficiency will be a problem too. i would replace any bulbs with h.e ones, and research building a windmill. do as much as you can, using propane gets expensive. a small chest freezer will cone in handy too, those rv fridges suck lol.

i lived in one for almost a year

Actually, I have to disagree with that last bit- RV fridges, at least the anhydrous ammonia ones, are EXCELLENT at their job. The only drawback I've seen with them is internal volume, but you learn to adapt, as EVERYTHING is smaller with an RV.

[doc66]

http://www.andybaird.com/travels/

A great site about living in an RV. Not quiet the same situation as you, but he does have a lot of great stuff about making the space more livable and you might find some ideas you can use.

[desert fox]

as others have said, weather proofing as much as possible. make sure everything is sealed and then sealed again. extra insulation will also help a ton, especially underneath and wrapping/burying your pipes will save lots of hassle.

i would also recommend setting up good outside spaces, like seating, firepit, grill etc. when you get tired of being inside, having a nice exterior will help morale.

energy efficiency will be a problem too. i would replace any bulbs with h.e ones, and research building a windmill. do as much as you can, using propane gets expensive. a small chest freezer will cone in handy too, those rv fridges suck lol.

i lived in one for almost a year

Actually, I have to disagree with that last bit- RV fridges, at least the anhydrous ammonia ones, are EXCELLENT at their job. The only drawback I've seen with them is internal volume, but you learn to adapt, as EVERYTHING is smaller with an RV.

thats what i was talking about, space. my family of three made it work but more space would have been awesome

[desert fox]

and it was in the paragraph because i believe chest freezers to be the most effecient

[hard2kill]

Thanks for the links, im gonna check those out this evening. As for camper living so far, it hasn't been too bad actually, our 25 footer has reached its end and we are upgrading to a 32 footer with a slide out and with a salvaged title, so we got it for a steal and the only damage is cosmetic. The ideas that yall have shared has been a huge help, as well as living through almost a whole winter in this thing. we knew we were going to be getting something bigger so I never did any underpinning. that was a big lesson learned and will be one of the first things I do when we get the new one set up. Water lines will be dug this coming weekend when I can go rent a ditch witch. sewer lines will line up nicely with only slight modifications to what I already have. Since this new one has a slide out, it will obviously be out all the time so im goning to figure out the best way to put some supports up under that part as well. I don't know if its necessary or not but its more of a peace of mind thing. mouse infestation was one of the more trying things at the beginning of the winter, we went through so much Lysol and so many traps that I thought we would never get it under control. we finally did and I haven't seen one in a month or so. not much else to tell yet, the storage building is up and will be getting insulated at some point this summer, hopefully. the kid will be here in 8 weeks or less so needless to say its crunch time once again.

[RoneKiln]

Is the slide-out for a couch in the "living room?" If so, there's probably no need to put supports under it. Mine was about 20 years old, I lived in it for a year and a half, never had a problem.

Pulling the couch out of the slideout and building a daybed with storage under it gave me a lot of space I wouldn't have had otherwise. I built a hidden trunk in the back part where I kept my rifles hidden. The front part was deep shelves for board games. I then hung curtains in front of it that were usually kept pulled open and decorational. But I often hosted friends from overseas and we could just close the curtain and that daybed in the slideout became the "guest bedroom." Or when my Gal wanted some quiet to do homework, she took the cat in there, dropped the curtains, and hung a "no boys" sign up. It was just as comfortable as a couch but far more versatile. And sometimes a curtain is all you need to create psychological space.

In addition to fixing up and living in an RV, I've studied and helped build a lot of tiny residences, as well as custom built-in furniture. Feel free to PM me if you want someone to chat about it. If you're willing to share what year, make and model the new trailer is, I may be able to look up floor plans online and give you better ideas.

[RoneKiln]

In fact, my Mom claimed that daybed when I sold the trailer. So I could still get pictures of it if you wanted. Might have some from when it was still in the trailer as well.

[desert fox]

oh and septic safe toilet paper! but you probably already know that