Bus Living, Truck Living, Boat Living. You name it, if you live in a home that is capable of moving by itself, or have the desire to, then this is the place for you.
Built this housetruck in '78 in Coos Bay Oregon. Lived in it for a few years while attending the Univ. of Oregon in Eugene, studying computer science. It was probably the first housetruck with a computer connected to the outside world. Sold it in mid-80's to a lady at the Country Faire.
It was a 16' bed '53 Chevy with a 235 6-cylinder and 2-speed axel. Took it on a road trip to Moscow, Idaho, then up to Snoqualmie Washington, before ending up in Eugene, where everybody fits in (or did at that time). It was pretty slow going up the hills, but a lot of fun everywhere else.
It is a half-moon-on-the-door outhouse, with a portable toilet we dealt with appropriately. The bins underneath were firewood storage for traveling. I think it would be fun to make another one.
Those are great trucks, Mark! Some years ago I had a '55 Chevy 1-ton with the pressure lubricated 235 inline-6, and I was always amazed at how good of a job that 6-banger did. Did your truck have a later 55-63 engine, or the original splash-lubricated one? The earlier ones wouldn't turn many RPMs and were real dogs on the hills.
As far as I know it was an original 1953 engine. It was a 2-ton. While the bed was 16', I extended the cabin floor out to 20'. The last 4' was a closet on one side and I'd planned to make the other side a head, but just couldn't bring myself to do that in the house. I'd been working in a Coos Bay boat yard as an apprentice carpenter - doing cabinet work. Framed the house with 2x3s using standard framing techniques; had 1/2" plywood on the outside and 1/4" inside. All in all, it was a pretty heavy puppy for that little 6 cylinder. On the flat road, I did great, the hills took awhile.
Took the road once from Coeur D'Alene, thru St. Maries, to Moscow, Idaho. They were doing some road construction, so it was 1-lane going up this long, long hill. There was no place to pull over and by the time we reached the top there were probably many miles of cars behind. I had to pull over to let some steam off and many of those folks also let some steam off as they drove by.
Turned out Moscow wasn't a very friendly town to "out kind" so with winter coming on, we only stayed a couple months. There was a guy there with a welding/art shop who built fire-breathing dragon cars - saw him years later in a parade in Eugene.
That makes sense. IIRC, up through '54 the engines were pretty anemic compared to the '55 and later. And my truck may have been a 2-ton. It certainly looked like yours, except for having a one-piece windshield.
