Welcome to The Off Grid Skoolie

Let Me Breakdown My Life On The Road In One Page

Why Live On The Road In A School Bus?

I have never experienced the freedom that I currently feel traveling in my bus. This is coming from someone who has lived in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The school bus allows me to have a luxury apartment that I can bring anywhere. Also, being that the bus has a 36k pound carrying capacity, I am able to live completely off the grid for over a month without resupplying.

How Difficult Was It To Build The Bus?

Luckily, I have some talented friends! Also, I was lucky enough to have a mobile income that allowed me to work from 5 am to 10 am. After work, the rest of my day was devoted to working on the bus. Without these two factors, my bus building experience would have been MUCH more difficult.

I tell everyone that building a skoolie is like climbing a mountain that grows 5k feet per day. Some days you feel as though you are building the most beautiful piece of artwork ever created, while other days you feel like you had a terrible mistake. Yes, building a bus is difficult. However, the satisfaction that comes from working on one of these projects far exceeds the heartache.

Below I have linked an 8-minute video that covers the build progress thus far.

How Did I End Up Living This Lifestyle?

I was not born with wanderlust, but once I got a taste of travel I was hooked. It started for me with a study abroad trip to Australia. The 6 months I spent overseas radically changed my worldview. Once back in the U.S. I knew I would do whatever it took to live the nomad lifestyle.

My first tiny home on wheels was a 1995 Ford Econoline van that I purchased from eBay for $1.8k. Since then I have lived in a 1989 Class B motorhome, a 2008 Class A motorhome, and the skoolie conversion I currently live in. During those 10 years, I learned how to make a MOBILE INCOME and what I would include in my ideal rig. Without learning these hard lessons I would not be where I am today.

The moment I knew this lifestyle would be my main mode of living was when I broke down outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. My Class B camper van was having some mechanical issues and the engine shot a giant fireball at me. This had happened before this time the fire remained burning my direct injection fuel injectors. Thankfully, I had a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. However, once the dust was settled, I had to take the upper intake off the engine to clean out all of the spent extinguisher dust. To make the situation even more fun, I was broke down on the side of the interstate at 3 am.

I got to work with a flashlight in my mouth trying to figure out how to take my upper intake off. The engine was hot and I kept dropping bolts/sockets into the engine bay and spent most of my time trying to find them in the dark. I lost my cool at one point and just walked to the side of the road completely defeated. But, in that moment of pure frustration, I looked up into the cloudless night. Being that I was in the middle of nowhere the stars shone so bright I could make out the Milky Way. I laid on the side of the road with a smile on my face knowing this was the life for me.

Listen To This PODCAST For A More Deeper Dive Into My Personal Philosophy.

Why Build A Skoolie?

Yes, it would have been more simple to just buy a purpose built RV. However, after spending 8 years living and traveling in other rigs, I felt as though the skoolie build was best for my needs.

Simply put, the skoolie platform allowed me to build a mobile home/office that could carry the weight I would need for off grid living. For example, my 200 gallons of freshwater capacity weights 1.6k pounds. Most purpose-built Class A motorhomes only allow 1k pounds of carrying capacity past the original vehicle weight.

There are many more reasons for the build and I wrote a BLOG about it that goes into further detail.