Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
I don’t really know anything about this beautiful rig but I like what I see. A converted mower in front as a tow vehicle and it’s pulling a little trailer of it’s own behind. If anyone knows any more about this one please let me know! I found it on Tumblr but was able to image search it back to this source:
http://www.archipanic.com/burning-man-exploring-black-rock-city/
I always enjoy hearing from others who have built their own caravans, especially when accompanied by photos and descriptions. If you follow this blog you probably saw Kevin’s original photos here recently with a short post about his build. If not, you can read about it HERE.
The promised follow-up is finally here as I have posted the images and text he sent. Honestly, this is my favorite kind of living wagon where old and new technologies are melded into a practical, yet affordable dwelling whether for long-term living or just overnight luxury travel. As shown here, there is a great use of fine woodworking and joinery combined with modern materials and hardware to create a rugged and practical living space that is road (and off-road) worthy.
Here is the rest of Kevin’s mighty fine vardo project (his original text in italics).
This shot offers a view of the short bench with built-in AC/Heat ducts, one for cooled/heated air (right), and one for return air (left). As well as accommodating air circulation, the bench provides handy storage. Also shown is a 110 volt outlet that provides power to the interior when the Vardo is attached to the generator or some other power supply. There are three interior outlets (the other two are hid pretty well), and three exterior outlets on the camper. There are also 12 volt power plugs inside the camper that are tied to the vardo’s battery. These are great for charging phones and running fans at night. It gets pretty hot along the Texas/Mexican border.
You can see a top view of the access doors to the under-bench storage provided in the long bench. You can also see the flip up section that turns this bench into a single bed. On the side of the door, if you look hard, you can see the hinged corbel that provides some of the support for the flip-up section. At the top of the photo you can catch a glimpse of the bungee net that provides overhead gear storage. This works very nice for carrying fishing poles and a broom.
This is how the “chuck box” (cooking box) is stowed when traveling, or when not in use. The small counter top is very handy when brushing your teeth and emptying your pockets at bed time. Underneath, as can be seen, typically is stored a pickers stool, a larger folding camp table, and a folding chair.
This wagon can haul a whole mess of Hunting gear. A trip to the desert requires a lot of ice and water. Everything is packed for travel, keeping the weight forward and the trailer stable on the road.
A photo of our south Texas hunting camp, with the Vardo set-up. We always get a bunch of comments and compliments along the way. The wagon provides comfortable accommodations for 1-3 hunters.
The chuck box gets unloaded and set up for use in camp.
This vardo looks very familiar to me and I think I’d be right at home in it. Thanks so much for sharing this with us and the community.
I always appreciate getting mail and comments on the blog; especially when someone is able to take information away and create something of their own. I recently received some fine photos from Kevin with his own Vardo build. I emailed back for more information but haven’t heard anything yet.
The wagon is a lovely and familiar design and it’s great to see it out in public alongside the more normal modern camp setting.
Kevin also builds beautiful coolers that I hope to see more of in the near future. One is visible next to the vardo in the image above. 
Here’s the email I received and I hope to hear (and see) more from Kevin soon:
George:Hello. I have been following your blog for a few years. I’m writing to you directly as I want to share some photos of the Vardo that I built, using yours (and a few others) for much of the inspiration. I wasn’t sure how to go about posting the photos to your blog, so I figured I would send them directly to you.I live near Houston and own property in Buffalo Wyoming, home to a historical population of Basque sheepherders, and many currently rolling sheep wagons. Living in two extremes, I have had some issues with changes in humidity affecting the performance of the wagon and would likely do a few things differently, if I were to do it all over again (but wouldn’t we all).I haven’t seen any updates on your Vardo-make-over in quite a while. Hopefully there’s more coming. I know the work on mine is never done. There are always items hanging around on the list of future improvements.Let me know if you have any questions about the construction and performance of the wagon. I’m happy to carry on a discussion if your interested, and willing to send more photos if you request. You’ll notice in the photos some glimpses of one of my hand made coolers. They’re marine fiberglass coated wood on the inside, and out; built sort of like a cedar strip canoe. I built the chuck-box in the first photo as well. It travels in the rear of the wagon to be set out for camp cooking. I figured these were both items that might interest you.Kevin
It looks great Kevin. I can’t wait to see more.
~GTC
(from the Paleotool vault)
Here’s a great story I read years ago about being raised in a family of six in a sheep camp measuring about 7 x 8′! (I think that’s the floor space). I recently relocated the article in Mother Earth News.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The canvas-covered sheep wagon was roughly about seven feet wide by eight feet long. On the front end a door opened out of the middle and you stepped down onto the wagon tongue and thence to the ground. From the inside looking out, the stove was on the left of the door. On the right was a small wash stand with several wooden drawers for storage of linens, towels and socks. A bucket of water and washbasin were on the oil cloth covered top and a small mirror hung above the basin for shaving. Soap, toothbrush, razor and essentials rested on top of the stand when in location or were stowed in a drawer when moving.”
Read more here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/sheepherders-wagon-zmaz70mjzkin.aspx
(from the Paleotool vault)
Sheep camps from Wyoming from the Wyoming Tales and Trails webpage. Great photos and some good information concerning everything “western.”
A self-contained base camp in a sheep wagon provides a cozy home on the prairie.
A beautiful culmination of cultures a innovations created this iconic American living arrangement. We can learn a lot from these designs today.
The Wyoming Tails and Trails website contains a lot of other information about western history along with more than 100 photos. Have a look around and get a feel for the old west.
http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/
This is a follow-up to the previous post.
I say Vardo because that’s really what it is. You can sense that the presenter of this show isn’t too familiar with true rolling homes, caravans, vardos, or whatever you want to label them but his enthusiasm is real. I like this home a lot but there is too much gymnastic restructuring for my taste. I’m probably just lazy. I’m not knocking his aesthetic or design though; they are spot-on. Mr. Tagami fit a lot of useful ideas together to create a wonderful living space. Several of these innovations are being integrated into my future plans.
If you haven’t seen this yet, here’s a video detailing one of his creations and the happy owners who inhabit it.
Let me know what you think…
The original link was sent to me by Chris Beneke. Thanks Chris.
I do not read or speak Japanese so I’m at a loss over many details but the photos and videos exhibit a world of real innovation in design and construction. The builder, Haruhiko Tagami (製作担当 田上晴彦) has a spectacular web page highlighting some of his designs that are already giving me much food for thought for future constructions.
One of the first things that really caught my attention was the pop-up mollycroft which adds and enormous amount of light and circulation but folds flat for travel.
He has designs from the truly tiny (on par with my original design space-wise) to a very substantial house on wheels with pop-out rooms that are incredible works of engineering.
One of the problems with covering the extended space is having roll-up roofs along the lines of an old roll-top desk.
This allows for the modest-sized trailer to become a spacious palace; a big advantage when sharing with others.
This more than triples the available living space and in some of the photos there is even a third room extended as well. This would suit a lot of people as a truly long-term living solution that could be pulled by a relatively small vehicle; not the enormous white aluminum fifth-wheel monsters that haunt the freeways.
Enjoy this small overview of the design and please check out more of his work by clicking the LINKS.
Many more photos of his work are available on his Instagram Page as well. There is much to explore for the budding builder so be prepared to take notes!
It’s coming together…
A beautiful, dark, wintery day spent in the Vardo, getting things in shape and spending some quality time reading led me to thinking about shooting a few photos. The place is a bit unkempt but I think it shows how the space is used in real life.
I have not been entirely idle on the vardo project but have not had time to post here. Work life has been eating up my spare time with travel, and fun though that may be, it means nothing else gets done outside the work day. Cutting a hole in my nice, dry roof haunted me for several months but with the aid of a high-temperature silicone stove-pipe flange, I was ready to dive in. I didn’t want to remove the roofing panels so the cutting was difficult. I did what I could with the circular saw and gnawed the rest out by hand with a chisel. Not pretty, but it worked in the end. Then it was just a matter or cutting a hole through the steel and cleaning it up with a file.
I created a cover for the hole from an old, solid copper serving platter (see photo below) that looks nice, and will cover the ugly. The gap between the layers was filled with stove gasket insulation.
The upper pipe will get a coat of high heat paint while the lower portion will get stove polish along with the stove itself. In the background, the new juniper paneling is visible. Otherwise, the place looks like a wreck. The mallet is handy to solve all measurement problems.
Learning from experience, I created this new chimney setup so that the outside pipe could be easily removed, if necessary, for off-road travel. I will probably shorten the pipe by a few inches as it sticks up fairly high. Once this was completed, I could get back to the good stuff.
In order to maximize storage space a small shelf was created to hold soap. The size was determined by a standard Bronner’s soap bottle and it holds two comfortably.
Some scraps from the wood pile were recovered and planed down to rejuvenate them for use. Nothing fancy here, just utility.
Everything in the area has another coat of varnish so as soon as create a method of securing the Samovar, the washing-up area will be complete.
Finally, I have begun varnishing the floor. The new oak contrasts with the old but will darken soon enough.
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 