What would you do with a self-sufficient wooden house-truck like the one featured here today?
Ivan Morison built a tiny house on the back of this decommissioned 1954 Goddess firetruck.
1970s House-Truck Movement
During the 1970′s Roger Beck was one of the first pioneers of the house truck movement on the west coast of America.
He used them as a home during travels throughout the United States, according to his interview on Ivan Morison’s article Tales of Space and Time, where he interviews Roger.
According to Ivan’s article, he held a workshop in Eugene, Oregon, in January of 2007.
This house truck movement happened during the 70′s because of folks’ discontent with politics, war and the economy and today, the situation sound awfully familiar…
These wonderful photos were taken by Wig Worland who’s work you can find here and here.
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like: Rob Scott’s House-Trucks and The Lovestruck in Essex
Alex
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Love that truck-home…TOO COOL!
I know, isn’t it awesome? Thanks Susan!
Alex,
I thought your readers might like to know that they can buy surplus trucks that are heavy duty like the one in this story at the following two sites. I bought a 6×6 for almost nothing that was army surplus with low hours and miles. A steal. Check it out! No cost to look or buy.
http://www.govdeals.com/
http://www.govliquidation.com/
Thanks, John, I’ll take a peak at that later..
Terrific! Not only does it appeal based on my admiration for all things small, it embraces my wanderlust and is aesthetically pleasing as well. Well done!
Thanks Michele glad that you liked it!
hi alex
this is very nice truke home looks like asmul abartment
thank you
Thank you Naser!
Hi Alex, I have been following the tiny house “movement” since the 70′s. Glad that there are so many forums out there to peruse. I have built one tiny trailer 6×16 and several sheds one which is 9×16 and I call camp. My first love was inspired by the book Rolling Homes by Jane Lidz,1979. Beautiful pictures and descriptions of west coast mobile dwellings.
Emily
Thanks Emily, would love to see your tiny trailer and sheds. Rolling Homes book looks amazing, wish I could get my hands on a copy.
roger beck wrote one of my favorite books “some turtles have nice shells” highly recommended…
Glad you mentioned that Alan I added a link to his book on Amazon below the post so anyone can go check it out. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this story and thankyou Wig for the photos. Another character build on wheels…
Reminds me of one of my very favorite books from my impressionable teen years in the early seventies which was Rolling Homes: Handmade Houses on Wheels, by Jane Lidz.
I don’t know why these things capture me so completely, but they do. I’m a fairly handy woman and I’m beginning to wonder if I should build one of these. I can’t live in one- my husband and I have put way too much money into a very static 1400 sq ft house installing a new metal roof (rain harvesting), solar water heater and 4.5Kw solar PV system, but I’m trying to convince a very outdoorsy buddy of mine who’s recently been laid off and planning on moving to expensive California that something like this would be affordable and right up her alley (she just doesn’t know it yet).
I can’t help wanting one for my own though…
I feel you, Paula. I’m really happy in my 600 square foot apartment but I can’t help but want a tiny house on a trailer sometimes… I love where I live though! Thanks for stopping by, Paula! Glad you liked the house-truck. I think it’s awesome too. Hope your friend goes for it!
It seems more spacious in the interior than it looks from the exterior.
It says it’s self sufficient. Is there a bathroom somewhere in the scenario?
Not sure about bathroom, I wondered myself but haven’t found out yet
Hmmm….methinks this is like a Dr. Who’s Tardis; larger inside than the outside…*heh*^^
I had to look that up, hahaha
I think you have your wires crossed, Roger Beck did not build the housetruck pictured above, it was built by Ivan Morison, who interviewed Roger and posted such on his web site:
http://www.morison.info/talesofspaceandt.html
It’s a bit confusing because there is no introduction to the interview.
As far as I know (and I know Roger well), he’s never been to NZ (although we would both like to visit), and never built a firetruck housetruck, either here in Oregon, USA or in NZ.
Thanks, Mr. Sharkey. Embarrassing but I’m glad you pointed it out, haha. I’ll fix up the article right now. Thanks again, very much!
I’m enjoying site right now, too, by the way :)
*your site
There is a Park Model RV Housing Trailer in Canada made out of shipping containers that can be a form of tiny home.
http://youtu.be/DahMezIvvCU?t=9s
Awesome! Tang- thanks so much for sharing. I’ll see about featuring this on a blog post soon so more people can learn about it.
Here’s a piece by Eugene Daily News on housetrucker Roger Beck’s life on the road:
http://eugenedailynews.com/2011/08/07/meet-roger-beck-housetrucker-author-subject-of-lane-county-museum-exhibit/
I love Roger Beck’s home built on a Goddes firetruck. The size seems perfect and the interior is so well done. Love the books storage shelving. Would love to see more like this here in southeastern U.S.