Other Vehicles You Are (Fo' Real) Contemplating...

[Fummins]

If they are still there I will get some close shots of the trailer.
I have yet to see the owners. The pics I posted have the rig parked in the parking lot of a decent size church down the street from me. They may be here for a religious event.

The trailer is smaller than I envisioned. It might only be 12-15ft long, I think a Mirage will fit but it would be a tight squeeze. I don't know how you would get out once you drove in and parked it.

Adapt the rig with the eco-toilet, put in a closed circuit water system with purifier. 100 gallons would likely be enough for 2 people. That is 1000 lb. of dead weight though. Still, not having to deal with grey or black water would free you from so many constraints. You could find a nice place to park and not worry for 3-4 weeks about water. (People groan when I mention this idea then I remind them every drop of fresh water that we drink has likely been p*ssed out by thousands of dinosaurs over the millions of years they were here)

ETA: hmmm. I wonder how a recirculating hot water system would work to heat things in the winter? You can power the water heat via wind/solar/fossil/combos and perhaps have heating costs in the tens of dollars per month. I wonder if trying to cool this pig in 90 F weather would use less or more energy than trying to keep it at 70 F when it's -20 F outside?

We usually go boondocking a couple times a year for 10 days straight with our camper. It's got a 120 gallon fresh water tank and usually lasts the entire time. I don't think we've run this trailer low on water yet, if we ever did we're usually near the headwaters of a bunch of rivers so as long as we have jugs were fine. If the pooh tanks gets full I have a little turd tank on wheels in super duper emergency situations. Otherwise dumping the pooh tank is pretty easy. I like the idea of the not having to deal with rv dump stations. My shat doesn't stink but I don't want to have to smell or see anyone else's though.

As for heat and hot water goes, we have the typical propane water heater and rv furnace(and fridge) but I'm wanting to install a couple diesel heaters. The biggest power draw is the furnace motor. And the heat distribution sucks. I believe they have diesel fired water heaters, and I think they have air heater/water heater combo units too.
Recently the all in one diesel heaters have been as cheap as $75 on the jungle site, I don't know how legit the seller of them was/is though.
Maybe the ideal setup would be one or two of those electric minisplit/heatpump units? Fill the roof with solar panels and have a good sized battery bank. Ideally shouldn't need to run a generator or get propane/diesel. Power a fridge off the magic solar too.
I'm always trying to figure out the perfect setup. I'd like a woodstove in the trailer but have nowhere to put one.

[Wallythacker]

Those little diesel heaters have my attention. I think they burn 0.1l/hr or something equally miniscule like that. That equates to 1/2 gal. IMP /day or about $3.50-$4/day

So $120 monthly or so to heat the place seems pretty darn good to me. Even cheaper if you can source diesel compatible waste oils. If you can't get paid to cart away their waste oil at least you should be able to work something out where you take it away for nothing for the effort to drag it away. Ideally you cover the roof with the most efficient solar array there is, have a small country lot with a hydro line in and a system to feed into the grid and get paid for it. At one point Ontario paid 56c/Kwh. I don't know the current scenario.

It might pay to install some supplemental panels and have a small solar farm. If you have a closed loop water supply and no grey/black water I'd like to see any municipality make a case you have established a permanent residence on your lot. I've been looking around and here in Ont. I have not located a park where you can have your RV accessible year round. The very few I know of all force you to take at least a 2 month hiatus, usually during the winter when they haven't contracted to have the roadways plowed.

I may not feel like taking hitting the road for two months in winter every year. Hmm. Seems I have lots of jresearch to do.

[Wallythacker]

Ya, so now I'm having dreams each night of owning a diesel pusher and hitting the road. It sure seems exciting and trouble free. None of the "Hills have Eyes" vibes at all, nor "RV" type Robin Williams horror shows.

[7milesout]

My my limited understanding of them, I think you could find some really great deals on 10 year old units. I'd shoot for either a Cummins or a Caterpillar diesel. Single rear axle. And the guys on the pusher forums seem to suggest that those with the side radiators tend to a) run a cleaner engine bay and b) get a touch better mpg. That's from my memory. They didn't know why they would see better mpg with the side radiators, but that's what they said. By side radiator, in case you're not following, some or most maybe, of the diesel pushers had the radiators on the rear most wall, louvered. Easy to distinguish. The side ones mounted the radiator on the side of the coach at or very close to the rear. They also preferred the side cooling because if they carried bikes on the rear, they tended to obstruct the cooling somewhat, not so with the side radiators.

So anywho - if you're gonna look, steer toward a single axle, side radiators, as many slideouts as you can get.

[Wallythacker]

My my limited understanding of them, I think you could find some really great deals on 10 year old units. I'd shoot for either a Cummins or a Caterpillar diesel. Single rear axle. And the guys on the pusher forums seem to suggest that those with the side radiators tend to a) run a cleaner engine bay and b) get a touch better mpg. That's from my memory. They didn't know why they would see better mpg with the side radiators, but that's what they said. By side radiator, in case you're not following, some or most maybe, of the diesel pushers had the radiators on the rear most wall, louvered. Easy to distinguish. The side ones mounted the radiator on the side of the coach at or very close to the rear. They also preferred the side cooling because if they carried bikes on the rear, they tended to obstruct the cooling somewhat, not so with the side radiators.

So anywho - if you're gonna look, steer toward a single axle, side radiators, as many slideouts as you can get.

So funny the timing of your post. I just located a 38' Cummins with multispeed Allison, single axle and 4 slide outs. It is older, like 2005/6 era but 100,000 km, (60000 miles) and super clean. Side rads as well. $39000. Up here that's a pretty good price. I don't want nor need fancy insides like granite countertops (but I would take them) and I would prefer a bunkhouse or over driver station loft bed. My kid is going to be 15 and what female that age doesn't want total privacy? I would giver her the master and ensuite whenever she comes to visit and I'll happily take the bunkhouse and make use of the guest lav. I would also install my radio shack in the bunkhouse and not clutter the living area with radio gear. Ya, I'm going to be an old curmudgeon ham! No way would I have predicted that 5 years ago.......

Many of the rigs I have looked at are capable of towing at least 5,000 lbs. Hmmm. Mirage weighs 2,000. A good solid AL trailer with AL skin would weigh in at 1,000 lbs. That leaves 2,000 for tools (500 lbs), 150 IMP gal. of diesel, (1500lbs including a processor/filter/tank) Maybe I should rethink the trailer as I would also like a small 4x4 AL trailer to pull behind the Mirage if I ever need to move something large/bulky like god forbid an 8 speed Allison diesel transmission. Heck, even to fetch tires for the rig a small trailer would be needed.

I got It! Eureka!!! I can hang the small AL trailer over the hood of the Mirage. It's wasted space anyhow. Ughhh. enough rambling.

What I can still do physically is weld. Mig/tig/arc. I have a beauty 210 amp Lincoln that might just let me spool feed aluminum. I really should have 275+ amps to spray AL (like from a hose, lol) but in the past with a decent spool gun I've made it work. Groan. This means I have to clear out my garage. you can't weld using gas outside. wind just blows it away. Unless things have changed radically in the welding world I still need argon, HE is too expensive.

[7milesout]

I thought we were talking about Class A's. But a bunkhouse over the driver is a Class C. So, you're talking about a Class C, right?

[Wallythacker]

I likely didn't explain it well

I know I've seen diesel pushers with bunkhouses, the upper/lower berths behind shutters or doors.

I'm sure I have seen diesel pushers with drop down sleeping areas over the drivers compartment. I never bothered saving the links at the time. Let me poke around. Ok, check out this one, a bunkhouse and over the driver, not dual lavatories but they do make that, ensuite + regular lav, bunkhouse and over the driver. https://www.thormotorcoach.com/hurri...loor-plans/34j

Can you say sweeeeeeet?

[Fummins]

I had to run around this evening and I spotted that dirty Bolt that I looked at the other weekend. The owner is a terrible driver! When he took me on the worlds worst test drive, he almost changed lanes into an suv. Tonight I watched him drive in a merge lane until it ended and turned into the shoulder then he cut off a cement truck

[MetroMPG]

By interesting do you mean, it would be a challenge in instances whether or not you made it back home?

Ha!

I live in a very small city or a large town, depending on who you ask.

Even if that Leaf's degraded range is half what's advertised in freezing winter weather, it would do two laps of the city before running out of juice.

A buddy and I once converted an old Geo Metro into an EV with 25 miles / 40 km range. It was fine for in town use around here. The lack of a functional heater was a slight inconvenience though.

[MetroMPG]

A buddy of mine once told his wife, "I'm going to the store to get a Bolt."

"OK", she said.

She didn't hear the capital "B", so didn't object.

He told that story a lot after he brought the car home.