When it comes to getting ready to make the change from a regular home to living full time in an RV or tiny home, the hardest part for many is choosing what kind of van or RV you will live in. You can buy off the lot with a pre-built RV ready to roll, but that doesn’t meet the needs of a lot of people. The couple in this video started with a traditional camper van but realized after a couple of weeks it just wouldn’t work and started the search for something else. They ended up building a custom camper based on a Ford F-550 flatbed.
The first part of the Ford F-550 build involved the custom fabrication of a bunch of storage containers and a frame that sat on the flatbed to hold the aluminum camper shell that they chose for the living quarters. The amount of storage that is contained on the outside of the vehicle is impressive.
To power the rig no matter where they might roam, the couple added fiver solar panels to the top of the rig to power what they need for cooking and living. Each of the five panels is a 180W unit giving them 900W total. The power is fed to six batteries of 120 amp hours connected in parallel for a total of 720 amp-hours.
The couple pulled all the propane out of the camper when they bought it out of fear of a fire risk. The heater and water heater were changed over to a diesel system. The car uses an S power water heater tucked in a bin with diesel for the furnace. The camper uses a compressor fridge, which they say is a marine style fridge that runs entirely off solar and looks to have an impressive capacity. The amount of customization done for the diesel heat and hot water system and the camper, in general, is impressive. The video is well worth a watch. Check out this cool DIY camper that used to be a city bus.
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