Not gonna turn this hello into a whole thread on building a custom RV. Just gonna tell you folks a little about myself.
I'm a retired race car fabricator. Although I've worn a few other hats in my day too. Water system consultant, surveyor, plastics R&D, race car Tech & Safety Inspector, carpenter, custom home construction, I've designed million gallon community water tanks,16" water mains, Baja winning race car chassis and road race car aerodynamics. I've made sets for 'A' movies and developed the technology to ensure that small pieces of children's toys can be seen by x-ray in case kids swallow the pieces (and they DO). LOTS of stuff.
I'm in my early 60s and have a retired nurse wife of 35 years and a son of 23 who makes a living manufacturing RVs.
I like smallish lightweight RVs like teardrop trailers. The guy who was my Best Man at our wedding had a 1946 teardrop trailer for many years and we camped with them many times. So I'm quite familiar with them and like the concept. We have a tent trailer and an old crank-up 8' slide in camper.
I'm not a trend follower nor a sheep who follows others. I prefer to take the path less traveled. I would far rather drive a dirt road than a freeway. Don't like crowds and far prefer my small town to a big city.
We last took our tent trailer out last weekend. It's getting pretty tired and either needs an infusion of money and youth (one buys some of the other), or a replacement. I COULD build my own. I have the knowledge and skills, but a bout with cancer last year left me not very energetic or driven, and not so capable of doing hard work. So I doubt that I would finish such a project in a reasonable time frame. My son is not likely to want to come home from long hours of overtime (often gets into double time) to work on another RV at home.
Some years ago, I took my wife along to a shop that I dealt with in building off road race cars. A sideline of that shop was converting old school, transit and tour buses into motorhomes. She fell in love (more accurately "lust") with the 88 passenger school bus that the guy was nearing finishing for himself. Beautiful oak cabinetry, stainless steel stove, fridge front and sink all custom built, roof raised 20" except over the cab area, so it was like a 1960s Greyhound bus with a slanted upper windshield. My wife has judged all other RVs against that ever since. There's a REALLY pretty converted bus across the street from my Doctor's office that had a 4 sale sign on it a few days ago, but they understandably want a really pretty price for it. We saw a 1970s International Class B school bus for sale down the road a couple of days ago. But there again...I know how, but getting the work done....
Who knows, maybe I WILL get my stuff together and build my own compact RV some time?
