Most people say van life is cheaper, but when I ran the numbers, that was definitely not the case; the only way I could see someone claiming that is if they don't include the cost of replacing the underlying vehicle, or assume it will last forever. So I was doing a little bit of reading Sunday night, and came across another option: box trucks. I can get a used box truck for half of what I can buy a van for, used vans too. While I am not too high on Mitsubishi, they are one of the biggest players (Isuzu is the other big one), and depending on how old I am willing to go I can find them for as little as 10k, though most are around 20k. The used vans I was looking at though were in the $25k-30k range. From an overall vehicle length perspective, most of the smaller ones are comparable to my current truck, which is perfectly acceptable, but they are more compact in the front, so you get a lot more interior space. You can get used U-Haul trucks even cheaper, but those tend to be abused within an inch of their life, and U-Haul is not known for pristine maintenance records, but U-Haul at least publishes gas mileage figures: 12-14mpg in their small 10', 10-12mpg in the slightly larger ones.
This idea also breathed new life to the truck house idea: the basis for a lot of these box trucks and other smaller class C RVs is the Ford E series. I believe this used to be the Econoline, but regardless, it starts at $38k brand new, which is nearly $20k less than an F-150. I for the life of me don't really understand why (it is a 1-ton chassis not a half ton which surely outweighs the cost of a pickup bed), but it certainly makes it a lot more palatable from a cost perspective. It does force some trade offs though: they don't appear to come in 4WD (it does have a standard locking rear diff though), if you want gas the only engine option is the 7.3L V8, and their features/options are very limited (though I didn't want most of them anyways). But still, I prefer new (this way I know it hasn't been abused for the last half-decade), and this provides another opening that is more financially acceptable. I didn't see any official gas mileage numbers, but in general I would expect it to be equivalent to a 1 ton truck, so in the 13-15mpg range. 3-5mpg is a large delta (I anticipated the van would get 16-18mpg). For reference, the fuel consumption of my most recent trip at 13mpg would be ~615 gallons, at 16mpg it would be ~500 gallons, and at 18mpg it would be ~445 gallons, and gas was just over $3 per gallon on average, so fuel would cost ~$510 more at 13mpg vs 18mpg, on a trip that was $6300.
Before Winter:
- Back yard drainage.
- Close up tiny home. Seal up plumbing.
- Clean off driveway at top.
Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.- Winterize equipment
Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:
- Build shelving for second room
- Insulate the water lines
- Take scrap metal to Buffum. Clean up trash.
- Storm doors
- Gravel the driveway
- Side yard drainage
- Eliminate cap.
Winter Projects:
- Design deck
- Install whole house filter.
- Access panel upgrades in master closet
- Cut trails, or at least mark paths.
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