Pre-coffee, but my timeline was something like this:
travel trailer
From 1988-1990 I lived in a travel trailer, a 22ft (?) Holiday Rambler of late 60s or early 70s vintage. Looked like the one in the pic on the right.
I bought it while I was in the Army so I’d have a place to live on the family land when I got out. I think I paid $5k for it. I was glad to have it because I exited the army with a ready-made family.
Hotel Ranger
I traded a Suzuki DR650 dualsport for a Ford Ranger with 160k miles, title for title. Blue book prices were $40 apart so we swapped.
I found a Fiberine (?) fiberglass camper shell for $25 on craigslist because the guy’s wife was nagging him to get it out of the back yard. I replaced the locks (no keys came with it) and the gas struts that were dead. I did a minimal build in it:
- sleeping platform (3/4” scrap plywood over 2x6” slats in the bed supports
- 60w panel on the roof (~$250 at the time!) and a Genasun 5A MPPT ($100). The Genasun was early enough in their production that the serial number on it was hand-written.
- grabber pole made of 6ft of PVC with an L-bracket hoseclamped on the end. Great for pushing/pulling stuff into place without climbing in
- underbed storage tote, the kind that goes under your residential bed. Two fit neatly side by side and stored stuff nicely.
campervan retirement
planning
- 2015 - started thinking about a campervan retirement ~2028, reading forums, posting on /r/vandwellers (different username)
- 2016 - research intensifies, RTR.
bought a van
- 2017 - bought vehicle, started the build, RTR
I stopped buying physical objects (other than food and other consumables) to start reducing Stuff.
going full-time
- 2018 - transferred job to an area where I could live in the van and save money, RTR
snowbirding retirement
- late 2019 - work got shitty, realized I had enough $$ to retire early. I retired in Dec 2019.