''Fletch'' the 7.5ton Prison lorry camper conversion.

[mercutio]

or german naval dazzle camo lol

[lewd lude lover]

as It happens that is the plan for my friends vsn. He called it HMS Transit because someone tore the guts out of a narrow boat to fit it. Dazzle patter is in the planning stage

[Sailor]

Adaptive camo? You know you want to.



Just don't forget to buy that lottery ticket first.

[lewd lude lover]

DoT would have something to say about that. It has to look like a camper van as its a converted cargo lorry as such. I wish though. I could do with some of that when the council come sniffing round

[simonc]

Weird, I was watching Series 1 of 'Porridge' on DVD last night. "Norman Stanley Fletcher..."

[simonc]

@lewd lude lover I hope you don't mind me asking but is this a kind "The Good Life" approach you and your good lady are aiming for? No rent, reduced overheads, growing what you need, a few chickens in the yard, barter for goods etc?

[lewd lude lover]

it was that or Mr Barrowclough


Kinda but no. but yes but no, but..... um.


Yes. We are both past an age where we fancy going into the housing market fresh as a greenhorn. We live in nice houses that belong to other people. Living in what we could get a mortgage for would be drokking shiteballs and we dont want to do it.
As such what can you do? Make your money work harder for you. At the moment there is a small chance we can live on a friends land come spring, help them out clearing the land and prep it for sale. Thats, after working it out properly, £1400 a month we are NOT spending on rent and horse livery...also most of pur meals would be with the family so food bill falls off the face. Thats £17000 a year that we are currently spending that we wouldnt.
Thats the first obvious gain. If this piece of land doesn't work out some other opportunity will present itself. there are a couple of things in the pipeline.

Growing your own food? Oh yes please. A few chickens? Sorted.

Being able to save that much of the money you already earned puts us in a position to buy packets of land. Small fields of about 5 acre that we then convert from basic ''field'' into what is alled a ''paddock paradise''. Its basically an equestrian field management protocol which improves the lot of laminitic horses (an endemic issue in the UK). people pay good money for them and its just starting to gain real headway.
While we are doing this we can live on the land with pretty much just gas,water and food as our costs. That means we have cash to invest in the land to improve it.


Sell a few of those and you have the cash available to buy houses and farmland....


Ok so its not an 'easy' route to farm ownership but it makes much more sense to me than getting mortgage after mortgage and paying most of your lifes work to interest to probably get caught out in one of the recessions and either get negative equity or maybe loose it.... I still know people in negative equity from the one before 2008 so...... you know?

[mercutio]

why not get a caravan then that you can hook up to the wagon?

[lewd lude lover]

How do you mean mate? One way sounds like adding a living space onto a living space, towing a caravan behind the RV as it were but the other is more of a why not get a caravan and hook it up ''to'' a wagon. Like a 4x4 or something. The first option is defo open to consideration but would be adding the same set of stuff that we already had but in a caravan. Much better a shower and toilet trailer and open up the seating in the RV or a nice big box for storage. The second option plays out like this. See if my logic is sound.

A/ And this is the main reason... because caravans make people twitchy. They get really worried seeing a caravan rocked up in a local field but the same cant be said for a bloody great wagon that looks like a horse lorry from a distance. Especially if there are a couple of horses in that same field and it has the word HORSES witten on it. We dont want to cause offence and caravans attact attention. You can park up anywhere and get in the back and draw the curtains and its just a lorry parked in a layby. A caravan takes setting up to stop, even if only unhitching and putting your legs down, people know you're in..

B/ caravans are thin and flimsy and built to tour in. The fittings will break in my big sausage fingers and the chipboard will get trashed. My missis is alergic to cold.This has a 2mm alu skin over 6mm ply with 50mm foam insulation then another ply alu sandwich. Thats the walls. The roof and the floor are 100mm of insulation with 18mm sandwich. This has full size proper house sink and storage etc. All fitted like a house. This still has the original 10 lever chubb locks if I want to slip them in the hinged from top to bottom security doors and a layer of some kevlar stuff that resists cutting in the walls etc. Its as safe a mobile vehicle as you could have I think. Made to stop scallys getting their mates out. Anything short of a disc cutter is just going to body lemonade it off.

C/ because its way 'er And I can rock up to a rave or a festival or a whatever and not look like a caravan club old bugger but instead have people greening my swag

D/ because with this I can attach a tow hitch and have a caravan, or a massive box trailer storage or a shower/toilet trailer or some other type of thing. Flexibility basically. This can do everything a tow vehicle can do and I can live in it. obviously not a 4x4 but still useful as a vehicle with 20mpg returned.

E/ This has fortified escape hatches on the roof...... need I say more...


Otherwise I just never really liked caravans. I am always so scared of breaking something. I hope either answered your question in some fashion. It certain crystalised it for me.

[simonc]

Morning Fletch, got any snout?...
Thanks for letting me know LLL and honestly, I think what you're doing is bloody marvellous. Good luck with the endeavour matey and trust we will be updated on progress from H.M.P Slade at regular intervals.