Anyone here live in these trailers out of necessity ?

[EddiePA78]

First hello I'm a newbie here just found this forum yesterday. I'm curious does anyone here live in these trailers out of necessity not just for recreation? Reason why I ask I am planning on converting an enclosed trailer to live in fulltime.

[Wolffarmer]

Welcome to the forum. Several years ago there was a person that lived in a converted cargo trailer over a winter at least. Some where back east, Connecticut i think. Name of Russ. I do not know just how long he lived in it or what has happened.

Randy

[jeff0520]

We built ours for recreation, bit if the economy doesn't improve soon.... :-(

[KCStudly]

Russ' (southpennrailway) "How You Doing Russ" thread is here.

[mikeschn]

I also saw a photo of a guy in a teardrop at Quartzsite.

This wasn't the one I was looking for, but interesting none the less...

You heard about the Tear Drop RV and how kool they are. Not much room but if you have like a VW bug might be just the ticket.
Now this one is a little worn and has ended up like many people and things in Quartzsite. This burg tends to grew after the winter seson as some just don't have the funds to get out of town.

Mike...

[mikeschn]

Ah, here is the one I was thinking of...

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=298789#p298789

Mike...

[rowerwet]

bobhenry is planning/is living in his caboose

[bobhenry]

I'm not in it full time yet but it's getting close.







The interior of the caboose is about 7'6" wide by 19' 4" so a good sized cargo trailer would not be much smaller. My only suggestion is to abreviate your kitchen area as much as possible so you can have a larger living/sleeping room. Stow away sinks and a movable cooktop will give you more room to live in. I live and love to cook so my kitchen space is actually too large for the area I had to work with. In the warmer months an outdoor cooking area would still allow for great cookouts and give you more space to kick back. Depending on your climate remember you may need to add insulation for heating as well as to cool economically. This will cost you square footage. Visit the tiny house sites and look at the space saving ideas that abound there. There are lots of great thoughts about storage and space saving dual purpose furniture.

P.S. watch out for the zoning gestapo they don't like us living on the cheap they lose too much of their tax base.

[Betsey]

We have a couple of our customers who live in their teardrops full time...one is a gentleman who is going on 8 years full time and the other, a gal who is in her 3rd year. They travel all over the U.S.

Betsey

[mikeschn]

Betsy,

Do either of them have a web page, a blog, a facebook page, anything where they might have photos?

I did find a girl by the name of Mary Morton, aka the blonde coyote. Here's her blog: http://theblondecoyote.com/

Mike...

We have a couple of our customers who live in their teardrops full time...one is a gentleman who is going on 8 years full time and the other, a gal who is in her 3rd year. They travel all over the U.S.

Betsey

[Weirdnerd]

I live in mine when I go contracting out of town, so far I have slept in it for more than 15 months, summer or winter, usually I get to BLM land and the teardrop is light/small enough to tow it to work, so I don't need to hook/unhook and to leave it unsupervised, sometimes I even warm my lunch on the parking lot to the surprise of unaware coworkers, the other contractors are talking about getting small trailer campers after making numbers on how much money I save monthly not living in a motel. It just makes sense.

[EddiePA78]

I live in mine when I go contracting out of town, so far I have slept in it for more than 15 months, summer or winter, usually I get to BLM land and the teardrop is light/small enough to tow it to work, so I don't need to hook/unhook and to leave it unsupervised, sometimes I even warm my lunch on the parking lot to the surprise of unaware coworkers, the other contractors are talking about getting small trailer campers after making numbers on how much money I save monthly not living in a motel. It just makes sense.

This is almost the same position I am in. I'm also a contractor but things are slow at times for me and it gets rough with money. I want to live in one of these for a couple years and build my customer base more so I don't have to worry if I'm going to be homeless if I don't have the rent money. I have no problem living in a cargo trailer and I can see myself actually enjoying it. I'm a single 35 year old guy with no kids. I have nothing but freedom plus I can go where the work is if I have to and not be locked down to one area.

I want to convert a cargo trailer and be stealth about it so it looks just like a regular contractor trailer. This way I can park it in places and not really have to worry about being kicked out because I'm "camping" If I ever do get approached by someone I will just say I'm a contractor doing a job in the area which most likely will be the case anyway.

[S. Heisley]

The couple that own and built the trailer pictured below were at the 20th Dam Gathering. They choose to travel and live full time in their homemade "L'Escargot". The unit doesn't have a galley in it. Instead, they built their galley in the back of their tow vehicle, a mini-van. They have lived in their trailer for at least 2 years, as they were also at the 2012 IRG gathering and had lived in their trailer for quite a while even then. They said that they absolutely love their lifestyle.





The snapshots, above, were taken from Jon Weinberg's collection. (Thanks, Jon.) I think Jon may have gotten a picture of every trailer at the 20th Dam Gathering. His complete collection from that gathering can be seen here: http://www.jonweinberg.com/DamGathering2013/

There was another lady at the Dam Gathering that lives full time in her CampInn, I think; but, I can't remember much about her or her teardrop as I only met her in passing.

[Betsey]

There was another lady at the Dam Gathering that lives full time in her CampInn, I think; but, I can't remember much about her or her teardrop as I only met her in passing.

Yep, that would have been Jenn. She was the gal I mentioned in my previous post. She doesn't have a blog but does post updates of her travels, as well as helpful hints & knowledge gained, under the topic "Jenn's Odyssey" in the "Adventures & Excursions" section of the Unofficial Camp-Inn Forum.

Betsey

[GerryS]

Look over at the camp-inn forums...there are at least two people there who live in theirs full time....I'm not sure if they still both do, but it's been done. Look for Jen and Bear.