RV build for a foodie my 95 GMC Topkick box truck

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nomoreusmc

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Oct 24, 2024
134
140
Sw Missouri
I'm a disabled veteran with a limited income and a love of good food. After my last divorce I had both of my knees and both of my shoulders replaced and a small tumor in my neck treated for cancer. They told me that I shouldn't work and I had to come up with a plan to live cheap and eat good and hide in the woods for up to 90 days at a wack. So I found a 95 GMC topkick 7500 a 26ft box truck built on a school bus chassis. She has a 366ci big block Chevy and an Alison tranny 130k miles. Retired Penske truck.
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First thing I did to her is put an insulated floor in her. So r18 ridged foam insulation with locking single layer floor on top.
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I decided not to put anything in the walls except insulation so the next step was spray foam insulation walls and ceiling.
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Went with purple and gray stained fence pickets for the walls and ceilings. Cheapest strong walls I could come up with. Left the spaces in them on purpose. I'm rough around the edges so is my rig.
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Garage started getting put together
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And then solar power
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That is really great looking. Great creativity.
I hope TNJake’s suggestions help out.
 
I'll get some more recent pics up soon. This month is tile in the living quarters, bed build (bed with 200 gallons of water) washer\dryer install and the door that separates the garage.
 
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That is really great looking. Great creativity.
I hope TNJake’s suggestions help out.
Ha ha ha. I looked at all the ones on YouTube and stole the ideas I liked and puzzled it together! Stole some ideas from RVs. What's an original idea is actually very small. I love it anyways! 😹
 
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I'm a super proud papa today. I made 1.7kw\hr on solar only. Did some rewiring and I added some solar optimizers to my setup. My max before today was 342 Watts! Which honestly worked for me. Let me run the mini split for about 10 hours a week so when I was working in there it was working in air conditioning or heat whichever was required. Weird time in the Ozarks right now, AC during the day, heat that night!. Also while it was making and logging power I installed some tile in the living portion so I can build the rest of it on top of a waterproof membrane.

Current pictures
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You'll be off grid in no time...
If it was ever on grid..... Lol 🤣 🤣 🤣

Starting to feel like a house more than a truck. Kinda felt like a truck with air conditioning. Starting to feel more like home. My vision is hopefully about to appear in front of my eyes 👀. Keeps heat well, all the spray foam keep heat well but you can hear right thru it. Me and my puppy spent the day in there today. Soon..... Days soon.
 
If it was ever on grid..... Lol 🤣 🤣 🤣

Starting to feel like a house more than a truck. Kinda felt like a truck with air conditioning. Starting to feel more like home. My vision is hopefully about to appear in front of my eyes 👀. Keeps heat well, all the spray foam keep heat well but you can hear right thru it. Me and my puppy spent the day in there today. Soon..... Days soon.
Sweet rig, and impressive craftsmanship.
 
That is awesome I’m jealous. Pretty cool how you have the living area separated. Any plan for a fridge/freezer?. Nice work!
 
That is awesome I’m jealous. Pretty cool how you have the living area separated. Any plan for a fridge/freezer?. Nice work!
Yup regular GE fridge\freezer in the living area cuz I need ice and a chest freezer in the garage. I've designed her to survive 90 days in the woods with food\water\supplies. And no cell phone. Hate having an electronic leash shoved up my a$$ all the time. I don't know what people think of me but I am a shut in. I generally don't go into public but to get supplies. People generally disgust me, dirty, smelly, disrespectful, and generally awful. And while a lot of people think I want to get rid of my phone so the government won't watch me. But I have a security clearance higher than the president of the United States, so I really don't mind the government watching me. I don't like it with Google watches me. Yahoo and shows me an ad about something I was talking to my daughter about in real life. I know the government's watching me, and rightly so. And whatever government agent watches me is so bored out of his mind...... I might post a gun review or target practice but that's about as controversial as I get. Besides growing cannabis. I'm too broken to go deer hunting anymore (which sucks because I never really enjoyed hunting but I sure love eating wild game). But all in all I'm building her to live in full time, not camping but living. I've never found a community that I felt like I was "home". Still looking for that place.

A conventional wall with a door will be right there where the power inverter is the other side is just framing.

I'm going to be moving the truck to it's final build and test living location (where it's at now is super unlevel) and I will be living in there I hope before Christmas ⛄ 🎁 ⛄ 🎁 ⛄ 🎁!
 
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Might have done a thing or two
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Found a $60 exterior metal door at habitat for humanity. Started building the bed frame. Really excited! Man I'm sore.
 
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