Planning, gathering, leaving

[Anewbus]

Hi All,

We have a family of 4 and looking to get away for a while. We have looked into all the possible avenues and decided that the skoolie is the way to go. It will l be a purpose built rig, with as much quality as I'm able to put into it. I'm an electrician by trade and worked offshore for 8 years so I'm a capable guy.

We have for the most part, nailed down what engine we are looking for and the price we would like to pay for it. I'm sure I'll have more questions later but the biggest one so far is bus length. We plan on boondocking the majority of the time. We were trying to find out if say a 40' bus is too much. We thought about getting something shorter and doing a roof raise to make up for the shorter length. We do plan on pulling a trailer with our lil Fiat 500 on it.

We have a plant nursery that we will be converting to seasonal only. That will be our main source of income, we will be looking for other ways to make money while on the road. I'd prefer not to have to stop and look for electrical jobs to work to gain money here and there, but if that's what I have to do, we will!

There's will be numerous other challenges to consider.
Homeschool (Yikes!) We have done this before for a year when our kids were younger. We weren't the best at it then. I think that they are old enough now to do more of it on there on. Hopefully!
Finding places to Camp....for free. We have found a few sites with info on that. We'd really like to hear everyone's ways of finding sites also.

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of. I'll add questions to the appropriate sections as we have them! Thanks!

 

[Rusty-SKO]

Welcome !

It sounds like a daunting adventure, but I'm sure you all will make some memories.

Don't count-out 35' bus as they have plenty of room. You will need to leave quite a bit at home...

Home schooling is easier now that there is online and so much other support available.

Get reading, dreaming and planning !

 

[Anewbus]

Yes, I'm sure it will be. We have been working on becoming minimalists. I was looking for something around a 34' bus and thought that maybe with a roof raise to make the sleeping area just one area that it would work out fine. Homeschooling should be easier now that our kids love tech. I think with I-pads and computers we should be able to handle the home school part! We've also been working on floor plans for different size buses. We also plan to scavenge some of the local junkyards for rv parts. I've been noticing some newer motorhomes that have caught fire coming into the local yard, thinking about trying to get the water tanks and maybe a few other parts from there.

 

[Tango-SKO]

..."newer motorhomes that have caught fire coming into the local yard"...

Might be worth investigating the cause of said fires and striving to NOT build it into your own rig.

Electrical?...propane?...friction?

Interesting that there was a rash involving "new" units.

 

[Anewbus]

From the ones I've seen, they are nearly all electrical fires. Staple or nail through a 110v line. Actually my father in law's 2 month old travel trailer caught fire at a park a year ago. Electrical to the A/C unit got hot and caught fire. He was inside so he unplugged turned everything off and put it out, then fought for months to get a new travel trailer. He did not go with the same make camper the second time around.