“If you want to travel through a country on a budget and still sleep in a dry place while it rains, a small camper is perfect. However, I wanted to have a fuel efficient car that could be used as well on a daily basis. I decided to go for a used white Renault Kangoo 1.5dci mini van. It’s highly fuel efficient (5.2l/100km – 45.2mpg / effective range around 1000km – 621 miles), pleasant to drive and if you take the seats out it is an astonishingly big transporter for sport or daily use.
I planned everything to be modular:
While camping you take the back seats out and are left with two seats and a camping mobile.
You can leave the back seats in the car and install the kitchen box and you have your kitchen with you if you want to go climbing with your friends.
Or you take both boxes out and your car is a normal mini van again.
The main goal was to build a small camper that is very fast and easy to put into a sleeping position.”
Click here.
From Anonymous
Great selection of models here from Flying Tortoise Blog
I got a ton of comments to my post of a few weeks ago about turning off automobile warning bells. Lew was able to turn off his Ford’s bells by following instructions in the user manual (as had been suggested in a comment). A few days later he came up with the “seat belt extender,” which I ordered and installed— voila!~and it works! So great to not be nagged by bells.
I do buckle up, but when I want to, and if I’m going to drive 10 mph going downtown, I sometimes don’t use the seat belt—irresponsible, I know.
Click here for the link to the extender for Honda Fits. Click here for link to seat belt extenders in general. The only caveat is that you have to depend upon the extender to be strong enough to not disconnect in an accident.
Now to figure out the keys-in-ignition/door-open bells, which I believe is more difficult.
I asked a local mechanic, who has helped me with my trailer lights, and disconnected the seat belt warning bells in my ’88 Toyota truck. “I can’t do it, it’s a computer,”he said. “These cars, they want to drive you.”
I believe in wearing a seat belt and I want to put it on when I fuckin want to and not be nagged by 6 — count ’em –6 bells. One-minute pause and 6 more bells. Sheee-it. Plus I don’t need to be hassled about leaving keys in car. Panicky continuous loud beep beep beep. (I’ve got spare key in magnetic box under car.)
Anyone know how to circumvent this audio bullying?
I took off Tuesday in my car (Honda Fit, such a pleasure to drive) heading north along the coast. Overcast day, the colors best then (blue-sky sunny days wash out the color). Visual treat as i headed along the country roads, subtle colors, summer gold of the hills, green patches where there’s a bit of moisture; bales of hay, sheep grazing.
Gotta admit, I like driving (Calif. boy, started at age 14). With Sirius radio. Away from office and phones, mind can wander.
Turned on Outlaw Country for truckdrivin music — bingo! The Meat Purveyors singing “Burr Under My Saddle,” all the reasons she’s (they’re) dumping this guy… next song, “Zip-i-dee-doo-dah,” — “wonderful feeling, wonderful day.” Upbeat. The Coasters doing fabulous version of “Zing Went the
Strings of My Heart.”
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart by The Coasters on Grooveshark This all put me in my best polyanna mode. Glass half full. Acc-en-chu-ate the positive. Can’t help it, optimism’s part of my m.o.
There must have been 100 boats out along the coast. The salmon are back in a big way. They’re fat and large. Best in a dozen years. Guys catching them out of kayaks. Good news in this bad-news-filled world. The ocean here is healthy.
“The QUQUQ is a European-designed camping box that transforms a regular passenger vehicle into a fully equipped camper for two. Within just one minute, you can be sleeping, cooking or just hanging out in your QUQUQ camper van.…”
Click here.
It’s expensive, only fits certain vans, but it’s a plan for building your own.
Someone, can’t remember who, sent this in as a blog comment.
A few pics from yesterday. Photogenic redwood by roadside. A little farther up the road, I saw a bunch of what looked like green leaves under a pine tree. Getting closer, they were wings (believe that’s the right word) of a pine cone, and lo, they were sailing down from the tree. Aha! Stopped under the tree, looked up and here was a bushy grey squirrel at work, getting pine nuts and jettisoning the wings.
I’ve been admiring this beautiful field of artichokes for a while. Creek bottom soil.
Feels so good to be mobile again.
Our new book Tiny Homes On the Move is popping right now. It’s about 80% together. Lots of great last-minute material. I love watching it come together. Like sailing in unknown waters. We never know what form it will take until the parts are all assembled. Exciting to see a book getting born.
From Make Magazine here.
“If you want to travel through a country on a budget and still sleep in a dry place while it rains, a small camper is perfect. However, I wanted to have a fuel efficient car that could be used as well on a daily basis. I decided to go for a used white Renault Kangoo 1.5dci mini van. It’s highly fuel efficient (5.2l/100km – 45.2mpg / effective range around 1000km – 621 miles), pleasant to drive and if you take the seats out it is an astonishingly big transporter for sport or daily use.
