The Other Side: RV Life

First let me say that I am not a fan of tiny houses, or the fad. I think some of the designs are interesting, and I don't believe you need a house much larger than...7500 square feet, and you certainly don't need more than five bedrooms or bathrooms, but I'm not about to downsize into a 300 square foot house for long term.

That being said, short term - anywhere from 1 to 5 years - is more in my line of thought. And so with that, I introduce my travel trailer.

Why

Housing is expensive. Housing is limited. And when you're a coach on the move, surviving paycheck to paycheck on part time pay, you take every opportunity you can seize upon to stretch the dollar. This is a 2016 FR Vibe - more on this in a few - that has an overall length of 26 feet, and a living length of 23.6 feet. It also has cathedral ceilings - curved - a single slide, bathroom, etc.

When I graduated from the UW IAL masters program, I'd received an offer to return to Oregon State as a volunteer coach. Having interned the year before, I knew how much work that would mean, and I wanted to immerse myself as much as possible. This meant that outside work would be severely limited. Rent in Corvallis is not cheap. The 2-bedroom apartment I shared while interning through grad school ran nearly $700-750 a month including utilities, not including food, bills, etc. Single bedrooms in the same complex had jumped to just over $1000 a month. I found a nice RV park in Albany with concrete pads, two laundry facilities, propane, cable, and internet for $450+ electricity, so that combined with my low monthly payment on the trailer came to just over $600 a month. Done deal.

The Trailer

If I'd known more about trailers then, I wouldn't have bought this trailer. It's not a terrible trailer, but it has major drawbacks, and for a company that claims it's a "four season" trailer, and for a company located in Oregon, there are some seriously questionable design flaws. I won't get into them here because the company likes to scan the internet for people who complain about their products, and then call them out - dealt with that already - so let's say that if you're in the market for a trailer, and you decide to go with the company that makes this trailer, Godspeed to you.

The redesign

After getting all of the issues with the trailer fixed, or as many issues fixed as possible, I decided it was time to redesign parts of the trailer to better suit my needs. And that's what you're seeing below.

The mattress isn't so much a mattress as it's two pieces of cloth wrapped around cotton. This isn't a big deal because most trailers come with terrible beds to start with the idea that you will replace them. I haven't yet because there are other priorities. But I did by a 3" piece of foam that helps.

The table wasn't working. The seating wasn't built correctly - zero supports underneath the thin piece of finish paneling, so that was ripped out and replaced - thank you warranty. All trailers have a serious lack of storage, and while this trailer does have a surprising amount, I decided to purchase three of those cheap bookcases from Fred Meyer, and use them as places to store tools, extra shoes, cooking things, etc. They are designed to fit those fabric bins which helps keep the clutter down to a minimum.

I used the top of a desk that I'd found cheap at IKEA for grad school, and pulled out the table supports to make a flush floor for my chair. In a fortuitous turn of events, the bookcases, plus the old seats made for the perfect height for a standing desk. I'd like to say I planned it this way, but it was by sheer luck.

The stove will be the next part to go. I'm hard up on this because I love cooking over gas. Propane heats quickly, and more efficiently than electric does. However, the oven is a bit of a pain. It doesn't heat up evenly - yes, I realize it's a glorified camp oven - so I rarely use it, and it's simply taking up space. I plan to pull the unit out, and replace it with either a drop in, or counter top 2-burner induction cooktop. This will give me extra storage space for pots and pans where the oven used to be.

I also plan on replacing the shower. The shower that came with wasn't a good shower, with a poor tub floor. I don't want to get ambitious, but I do want the shower to be more user friendly than it was. I've yet to decide if I want to replace the surround, but I yanked out the glass doors, saving the glass, but losing the metal frame in the process - no great loss - and am now contemplating how I want to rebuild it. I believe I'm going to remove the entire pan, and put down something different from Home Depot. I'll also install the two pieces of glass I saved as walls to protect the vanity and toilet, and then use tiles to replace the cheap plastic surround. Or I'll leave the surround, and simply replace the pan. Options aplenty.

The final thing that needs to be done with the trailer is to cram as much extra insulation as possible into all the nooks and crannies. The bathroom has a large wardrobe so I'll line the walls with some extra insulation, and do the same under the kitchen counters, the back of the pantry, and under the new desk, as well as under the bed, and in the outdoor kitchen that pulls out.

All in all am I happy with my purchase? It's a 6/10, but I'm working to improve it. If I'd know now what I figured out over last winter, I'd say no, and I'd go with something else. But the trailer is solid enough, and working on it, and improving/remodeling it to be exactly what I need it to be will help. Resale isn't something I'm overly concerned with. The improvements I'm making will only increase it's appeal, and the original kitchen table, and cushions were saved so they can be reinstalled quickly.