Finally finished our homebuilt RV!

[Fermion]

Today we pulled the garage pod out of our house garage where we had been working on it. We elevated it using the plug in jacks (same as the main pod uses). Everything fit perfectly and I think it looks reasonable.

Now just need to ride our dual sport motorcycles up the ramp, activate the twin 3500 pound winches to close the ramp door and go on some adventures! Oops, forgot, toss in the bicycles, put our canoe and kayak on the garage pod roof rack.

Oh, maybe hook the sailboat up to the trailer hitch too

Here is what we had 2 years ago when we started (a pile of metal and this CAD drawing):

And here is how it looks now:

 

[NW-Bound]

Congrats. Are you fully retired, to be able to take off?

 

[Fermion]

Congrats. Are you fully retired, to be able to take off?

Define retired. We quit working for wages in March 2015 but have been slaving over this RV all of April and May.

We really can't take off though until we sell the house, which is the next big step.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

That is so cool that you guys have the skills to build something like that for yourselves. What a great ER project and future lifestyle.

 

[bld999]

Looks very professional, must have taken a slew of work. Did you have some local help, or do most of it yourselves?

 

[Calico]

Congratulations!! What an amazing accomplishment.

Do you have a "bucket list" of places you want to see, or will you just travel with the seasons - go where the whim takes you at any given time, that sort of thing?

 

[Fermion]

Looks very professional, must have taken a slew of work. Did you have some local help, or do most of it yourselves?

No help, we did ALL of it ourselves. Welding, painting, woodworking, cnc machining, and wiring.

And yes, it was a slew of work But hey, I don't expect to see another one on the road...like ever.


Here is an example of how ridiculously custom it is. We wanted small outlet plate covers for the electrical outlets at the garage pod workbench, but the outlets were the GFCI type (squareish) and they don't seem to make small plates for those. Instead of settling for bigger plates, we bought the small plain plates with no holes and popped them on the cnc mill to cut the rectangular holes for the outlets.

 

[Telly]

I think that's the neatest RV I have ever seen!

A modern industrial look.

And a configurable pods concept. Cool!

 

[NW-Bound]

Define retired. We quit working for wages in March 2015 but have been slaving over this RV all of April and May.

We really can't take off though until we sell the house, which is the next big step.

OK. If you made an announcement, I missed it. A belated congrat on the ER then.

 

[HFWR]

The best part is the "Not for hire" logo on the door!

 

[Christine]

It looks very professional! And it will probably outlast my ordinary motorhome.

Now if there were a car ferry between US and Europe...

 

[Jack_Pine]

Inside pics?

Is the detachable pod thing a part of the living space, or for toys?

Can/would you pull a toad behind it?

 

[Ronstar]

Wow! Very impressive!

 

[samclem]

Fermion,
Very cool. I know you've told about this "little' project before. Have you got a spot where you've collected more details, pictures, etc? What did the final weight of each pod and the flatbed truck turn out to be? Thanks.

 

[Retch The Grate]

That is really cool, and yes, construction pictures, pictures of the internal structure, wiring, plumbing, etc., please?

And grats on retiring.

 

[chris2008]

I would so much love to look inside!
Many great advantures with the RV and drive safe!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Amazing! I've only seen a couple of homebuilt ones and yours is by far the best looking!
Congrats on finishing up and getting ready to get out on the road. That is a massive achievement for sure.

 

[photoguy]

This is awesome. I wish I had enough mechanical skills to do this.

 

[easysurfer]

Very impressive! Nice job.

 

[MBAustin]

Very impressive! I hope you enjoy it for many years to come and look forward to hearing about your adventures!

 

[Big_Hitter]

good job! that's rad

 

[Car-Guy]

That looks pretty cool. Also looks like a tilt cab model. Do need to remove the pod(s) to tilt the cab for engine access or does it clear the overhang or is this built on a lift bed?

 

[38Chevy454]

Good job, all your hard work is done. Now take that first trip with everything completed and enjoy the freedom.

 

[Walt34]

Wow. Just... wow!

 

[Fermion]

Thanks for the nice comments. Eventually I will collect all of the build in some sort of organized list but I will attach a few inside pics to this message.

Sam, we are heading to the scales tomorrow to get axle weights. Our calculations have the garage pod helping out the front axle weight which was getting close to max capacity because of the overhang of the main pod. Overall weight we estimate to be about 15,500 empty, with a GVWR on the truck of 19,500. It will be interesting to see how close our calculations are to reality. There is a similar model heavier duty truck with a GVWR of 25,950 but it does have a higher base weight so you don't gain a full 6500 pounds of extra cargo capacity. Probably more like an extra 2000 pounds of cargo gain. There is some possibility of lightening the flatbed of this truck by 600 pounds (it adds 2000 pounds to the truck by itself).

Car-Guy, yes, this is a tilt cab. I have found you don't really need to access the engine that often (most fluids can be checked with the cab un-tilted). In order to tilt the cab you need to either raise the main camper pod on the jacks a few inches (about 8) using the plug in jack stands, or slide it back on the flatbed (if the garage pod is not there) or remove both pods. A trade off for trying to get the maximum living space in the shortest length vehicle possible while maintaining headroom for a very tall person yet keeping the height of the whole rig reasonable.