Practical DIY Tiny House Overlander
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Koda and Angela have been living full time for two years in their house truck Iggy, and three years on the road. Koda has always been traveling with either work or for climbing. He was a climber for a really long time, so he's lived in a lot of different vehicles and been a little bit nomadic. He was working up in Alaska in the summers and Angela was living in Bend, Oregon where they both lived. And she said, "I never want to spend another cold winter again. they can move to California, Florida or Hawaii." Koda chose Hawaii, and when Angelea started doing all the paperwork for it while looking for jobs, two months later he called her and said, "I think they should just buy a van and drive to Baja" and so that's what they did, and they've been on the road full-time since then. They are able to afford this lifestyle by working about ten weeks a year in Alaska in the fishing industry. That affords them to travel the rest of the time.
The housetruck ‘Iggy’ is a 2001 F-350 with a 7.3 liter diesel engine, four-wheel drive dually. They originally paid $8,000 for the truck before the build-out. The build-out was originally budgeted at $18,000, so that's kind of where they quit counting. If they had to really do an actual estimation, they would say they were probably about 24 to 25 thousand dollars into it over the span of two and a half - three years. Iggy started his life as a work truck up on the North Slope of Alaska. They use the Gruman Olson refrigerator box up there because you can heat it. It has an inch and a half of spray foam all the way around it. Koda welded up all the racks, all the roof rack, did the bumper, everything that makes it pretty. They have a 13,000 pound winch, which is just barely enough for the size of their rig.
They’ve got solar panels on the cab over and two more up top for a total of 450 watts of solar. They power two 6v golf cart batteries with it in a 400ah battery bank. On the side they have an ARB Touring awning. It's definitely a game-changer, they can have it out in any wind storm that they've encountered so far and no damage. They fill two water tanks on the inside, 15 gallon tanks on each side to keep the rig balanced, with additional storage for hot water, which gives them 33 gallons of water on board total when they're full. This allows them to go one and a half to two weeks between refills if they make an effort to conserve.
They run a propane heater and propane stove inside. For fuel, they have a standard 20lb propane canister that is bolted to the bumper, which makes it easy to fill up where it might be difficult to fill a dedicated rv propane tank. Koda made a bike rack which works great for their fat tire bikes. When the rig is parked and set up at camp they use electric RadRover power bikes to get around. They’re still pretty new and only have about 60 miles on them, but they're big fat tired electric bikes, with a 20mph top speed which is a fantastic way to explore the places they’re visiting. The bike rack swings out which gives them access to the garage area of the rig. This houses their water tanks, battery bank and tools which allows them to address any mechanical issues while on the road.
Beside the back door they have their Maxxtracks and outdoor shower system. It goes up and it goes through a copper coil that's inside of a black box with a Plexiglas lid that passively heats the water with the sun. It works so well that they’ve had to add a mixing valve to cool down the water slightly to stay comfortable.
Under the rig they have a pvc inlet that they use as a vent for airflow. It has an inline bilge fan which is normally used for a sailboat, so if it's raining outside or if they’re somewhere where they don't want to leave the windows open, they can run the van and it takes the air from the coolest spot, which is underneath the truck, and blows it in. That's definitely one of the lessons that they've learned in all this is, you have to have your airflow and you have to get it from the right spots. Taking air from under the truck acts almost like passive air conditioning.
For grey water storage, they just have a simple jerrycan that collects water from the hose coming out of the rig. They can easily pull this out to dump it, and if they want they can just let the water run onto the ground. The tank blends in perfectly with their other jerry cans which store 10 extra gallons of diesel.
On the inside they have 96 square feet of living area. 8 feet across, 12 feet long and 8 feet tall, so tons of headroom which allows for a lot of storage. The door was one of their bigger challenges. The first one had a metal skin on the outside that would warp with the heat, so this second version was made by Koda.
Right by the entrance they have a high table with an IKEA chair that it folds up. They can easily sit three people there. They have a build in bench that lifts up that stores their laundry, as well as office supplies. There's a little shelf in there that they keep paperwork on. They love having a fixed bed. Even though it gives the space a little less flexibility, transforming the bed everyday is a tiring task when you’re on the road. Since the truck is pretty wide, they have a couple of extra feet at the foot and head of the bed for cabinets and storage. They even have a TV for watching movies from bed.
They have an inverter mounted under the bed which they use for running AC appliances like their blender which they use to make bulletproof coffees in the morning. They also have tons of storage underneath the bed, they use big Rubbermaid totes for all of their clothes and some toiletries. Underneath they have shoes and gear and one is usually full of all the canned salmon that they bring back from Alaska.
They have a Berkey water filter on the counter, which is great for cleaning their drinking water. The cupboards are the only thing in there that Koda didn't build. They were originally Home Depot cupboards that they put in, and in all their travels they've held up. They use gear ties for a lot of things while they’re rolling down the road, and that's been really key. They have the truck fridge that runs on 12v. It’s side opening like a conventional fridge, which they find much more convenient than top loading options, and it even has a freezer. If they’re plugged in, it’s able to run off AC. They have a Marine pump for running water. They cook on a propane stove that they’ve built right into the countertop.
They ended up cutting a pass-through into the cab which makes getting from the living space into the truck very easy, especially for the cat. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze so they don’t use it super regularly, but it’s nice to have. For heat they use a propane Wave 3 heater. They’ve only used it three or four times, but so far it’s been working great.
As far as the nomadic lifestyle goes, they’ve been really big fans of taking advantage of seasonal work. There are so many opportunities in different places year round that make seasonal circuits very doable, no matter your skill set. Angela thinks that a lot of people prioritize their work over lifestyle when it comes to finding a place to give. She was that way for a few years, but found that when she finally decided to put her lifestyle first and move to Alaska to support it, finding work wasn’t as big a hurdle as she thought it’d be. If there’s one thing she’s learned it’s that if you put your own well being first, the rest will follow.
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