Engineering challenge (Home made RV/Rape van)

[rightisright]

http://paxattack.files.wordpress.com/20 ... e-rico.jpg

[evan price]

I once bought- and recently sold- a Toyota 4x4 pickup that was outfitted with a high-top bed cap. The previous owner had built a platform of 2x4s and 1/2" plywood that sat about the top of the bed wheel-wells. When the tailgate was down, this gave a perfect storage area about like Aesop describes- duffel bags and milk crates underneath. The top of the platform was covered with indoor-outdoor carpet. The windows were all tinted dark black. The cap was also black. One accessed the bed area through the slider window on the back of the cab, which mated to a window opening in the front of the cap- there was a rubber gasket between the cap and the back of the cab where the two slider windows mated up. The owner would spread a sleeping bag out and put another one on top. There was a skylight window in the roof to be cracked open for ventilation.
On the whole it was about as roomy and comfortable as the sleeper compartment in an old-style cab-over-engine semi-tractor from the 1970's.

[Termite]

'zackly.
A car with a trailer is an illegal camper.
A parked van is just a van.

Well, I wasn't really considering stealth.

BUT, know that a Ford F-150 LWB with Lear fiberglass shell makes a decent cool-cold weather sleeping pod.
Make sure you have sliding windows on the shell with bug screens, and put a bed liner in the truck.
Other than that, bling it to your heart's desire.

[HTRN]

BUT, know that a Ford F-150 LWB with Lear fiberglass shell makes a decent cool-cold weather sleeping pod.

Turtle Expedition - my personal favorite is Turtle IV..

[Weetabix]

I used to have an International Harvester Metro - looked like a bread truck. Some people in Alaska and Canada lived in them. Mine had been lived in but had been stripped.

Get a bread truck, Fedex truck, something like that. Insulate it by furring with 2x2's and blue board in the cavities.. Build a bunk on one side with storage above and below. Camper kitchen on the other side and a table. Build a partition between the front seats and the rear with a heavy curtain over the doorway. Put a Newport P-12000 propane heater in it. Solar panel on the roof with a deep cycle marine battery for lights and charging devices (not those devices... ipods, phones, and such). And Bob's your uncle.

[Mike OTDP]

I knew a guy who had done something like that. Get a delivery van, fit the back as a camper. Worked OK - and you could customize it as required (e.g. gun case under the bed).

[Weetabix]

Here are two possibilities for starters. The yellow one has a 20' box. You could do a lot with that.

[Aesop]

The only thing that stopped me getting one of those for exactly that purpose when the Astropig died after 179K miles was that they're too tall to fit in most parking structures.

Otherwise, the half living quarters/half Mission Impossible truck would have been a "go".

[Yogimus]

... ask em how they would make a canoe, and they design you a hovercraft. I love this bar.

[Weetabix]

... ask em how they would make a canoe, and they design you a hovercraft. I love this bar.

Well, then. Getting back to your original question...

a) It wouldn't take much effort to fit out.
b) I'd think it wouldn't be comfortable for very long unless you had significant breaks outside since you can't stand up out of the weather. If you're working and have a recreation area or something to hang out in in the evening, and you're just sleeping in it, it could last a long time, though.
c) With that small a space, get the little-bittiest vented RV heater you can find or park next to 110 and plug in an electric heater. Don't use vent-free - no point CO'ing yourself to death. Air-tightish and cold, you'll have condensation problems unless you heat a bit.