SNOWBOARD PRO Converts FIRETRUCK into TINY HOME to Live at Mt Bachelor
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Austin Smith thinks that his fire truck, or Micro Dojo, is totally ridiculous. It kind of runs like shit, Screams for way too much attention for him, too much character, too much kinda too much everything. But his brother bought it and then it fell Into his lap. Now he wouldn't change a thing. Goodluck finding another 1953 GMC fire truck, he doesn't know if these ones can be mass-produced. He never lived in a vehicle before, never lived in a parking lot before. He wasn't sure if I'd like it. There were a lot of variables. So he finished the truck New Years Eve, December 31st, and then he was up there at Mount Bachelor for the following six weeks.
He started snowboarding when he was twelve years old. He started doing it professionally when he was like seventeen or eighteen? So that's what he’s been doing for the last ten years, that's essentially his whole life. So for the last ten years he’s just been traveling kind of non-stop. He's either traveling or injured.
He was ready for a change of pace. He moved to Mount Bachelor when he was fifteen and he loved it, but he doesn't get to spend very much time there anymore 'cause he's just traveling. He built this little Micro Dojo to give him a reason to stay at home and to not travel. He built a house on wheels to stay put.
It's a 1953 GMC fire truck. On one side he has his ladder. While it may look like it's just an accessory for looks, he uses it to access the roof to clean off the solar panels when they get covered in snow. So he uses the ladder almost every day. For his solar setup, everything is Gold Zero. It's two 90w Panels and the Goal Zero Yeti 1250 underneath his sink. Even in January/February he never ran out, never had to plug in anything else. It was totally sufficient for off the grid. On the other side, he has six snowboards for whatever the day is calling for.
The chassis is actually just like the U-Haul box, but the porch is the best part. Usually, he has a cooler out there as well as a little lawn chair.
In his kitchen, he has a gravity-fed water tank to his sink. Most of the time it just drains out onto the ground, but there's also another tank down there that it can drain to. The Cubic Mini wood stove is definitely the best investment. He went with the bigger Grizzly model, and it heats the place perfectly. He even has a grill that's on a Cubic Mini wood stove, which allows him to grill food over the fire. To dry his boots, he put some old snowboard bindings on the ceiling. Just screwed directly into the ceiling and it works fantastically.
To keep food cool, he uses a big Yeti cooler which doubles as one of his benches. He also has a couch which folds flat into another bed. On his bed he went with four inches of medium density foam, and it's super comfy.The guest bed he went with just two inches of foam so it's comfortable, but not too comfortable, so people don't overstay their welcome. You don't want any move-ins in your Micro Dojo.
To preserve space, everything folds. Chairs fold, table folds. Eat your food, do whatever you need to do and then it folds back down because then there's like a pretty good amount of floor space. He can do yoga, he can have dance parties. He thinks it's like 90 sq ft with the loft, so making good use of the space is important.
His countertops and his table are a material called paper stone. If you go to http://greencountertopsdirect.com you can buy their salvaged pieces for super cheap. It's a super good product, super durable. So they're kind of fancy but also super cheap.
His advice if you want to buy a camper vehicle? Don't like get caught up on the details. He got the wood stove the day before he brought the truck up. He got it installed, and decided to figure out the rest bit by bit. He thinks that's the best way to figure out. Try it out, trial and error, see what works before you. You can try to build it to perfection, but then you move into it and realize "This is on the left when it should be on the right.” Cause it's all the little things in tiny spaces. It's the little things that make a big difference.
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