Considering building camper from scratch...
Looking for opinions on building a new camper from the ground up, to bolt down to a flat bed. 99% of my camping is boondocking and involves going off road in the southwest desert, I haven't so much as...
Forum Discussion
Hahaha...my life has been one never ending project after another for as long as I can remember. No one wants to deal with the fallout of my mind running wild with free time on my hands, lol.
I also learned at a very young age that buying/making things with future resale in mind is a guaranteed way to greatly limit my enjoyment of said items, and I stopped doing that a long time ago. If I decide to sell something at a later point, and get something out of it, great. But if it becomes scrap, that's OK too. I also learned a long time ago that anything custom built tends to have little to no resale market anyways, as I'd have to find someone that wants something set up exactly the way I wanted it, and modifications tend to have a habit of destroying resale value as well unless it's modified just like every other cookie cutter whatever out there.
Frankly, I could not even begin to care less about how things look. These are tools to me, not status symbols or garage art to sit and stare at. I don't sleep any better at night because something looks fancy, not does it make my meals any tastier. But oftentimes, the things that look goofy tend to perform better at the task at hand. Such as the angled front on many campers. I get that part of it is aerodynamics, and I'm sure most people will agree that it sure looks better than a flat front too. But that also sure cuts into sleeping space, or storage space in that area. I've never once found myself thinking "yeah...it sure sucks getting crammed into that curve because my wife hogs the whole bed..but it's OK because it looks so much nicer on the outside!" :D
As I mentioned earlier, there hasn't been a single camper I've found out here more than a few years old that doesn't have some level of existing water damage, and those few that don't come with asking prices close enough to new that I'd just buy a new one. This is a large part of what's driving me towards building rather than buying.
Truck is a crew cab long bed F350 diesel dually. Tons of wheelbase on it. Bed is 8ft wide, 8.5ft long. It's a biggin'. Taking advantage of that space is definitely part of my thinking, by moving heavier things up front, having room for larger water tanks, more batteries, better general storage, aux fuel tank, etc.
I also learned at a very young age that buying/making things with future resale in mind is a guaranteed way to greatly limit my enjoyment of said items, and I stopped doing that a long time ago. If I decide to sell something at a later point, and get something out of it, great. But if it becomes scrap, that's OK too. I also learned a long time ago that anything custom built tends to have little to no resale market anyways, as I'd have to find someone that wants something set up exactly the way I wanted it, and modifications tend to have a habit of destroying resale value as well unless it's modified just like every other cookie cutter whatever out there.
Frankly, I could not even begin to care less about how things look. These are tools to me, not status symbols or garage art to sit and stare at. I don't sleep any better at night because something looks fancy, not does it make my meals any tastier. But oftentimes, the things that look goofy tend to perform better at the task at hand. Such as the angled front on many campers. I get that part of it is aerodynamics, and I'm sure most people will agree that it sure looks better than a flat front too. But that also sure cuts into sleeping space, or storage space in that area. I've never once found myself thinking "yeah...it sure sucks getting crammed into that curve because my wife hogs the whole bed..but it's OK because it looks so much nicer on the outside!" :D
As I mentioned earlier, there hasn't been a single camper I've found out here more than a few years old that doesn't have some level of existing water damage, and those few that don't come with asking prices close enough to new that I'd just buy a new one. This is a large part of what's driving me towards building rather than buying.
Truck is a crew cab long bed F350 diesel dually. Tons of wheelbase on it. Bed is 8ft wide, 8.5ft long. It's a biggin'. Taking advantage of that space is definitely part of my thinking, by moving heavier things up front, having room for larger water tanks, more batteries, better general storage, aux fuel tank, etc.
