|
|
|
|
MUST HAVE CONVERSION BOOKS |
Even though the Internet has
numerous websites where you
get to see some interesting
House Truck & School Bus
conversion pictures , mostly
you'll find very few
pictures of Classic 60's &
early 70's house trucks &
buses ,instead you find a
lot of pictures and info on
newer conversions that tend
to look like somewhat modern
& ugly motor homes.
But luckily there's an
alternative to that sort of
thing, there are 4 fabulous
books available for us
lovers of Handcrafted homes
on wheels.....
Below you'll find info and
pictures about these
wonderful books we love
.... |
|
 |
|
( Important Note
:Since the whole
point behind
building a Rolling
Home is really all
about Individuality
, this means you
won't find the books
below containing
much how to build a
rolling home
information. What
you will find in
these books are Many
pictures showing how
unique and varied
Rolling Homes truly
are. .These books
are mostly
celebrations of
Creativity &
Individuality and
will help any
builder come up with
ideas on how they
want their Rolling
Home to look....for
the actual HOW-TO
stuff you'll be
thinking in moving
house terms . This
means you build
everything to take
the stresses of
being jounced about
.So if you're
building a House
Truck , rather than
just nail your
framing together
like you would in a
House , it's a much
better idea to glue
and screw the frame
together and it
wouldn't hurt to
throw in some angle
bracing for good
measure ...same
applies to doing a
School Bus
Conversion. We
always glue and
screw everything
together in our
buses and never had
anything loosen up
much or even worse
come undone ) |
 |
If I was given the
awful option of only being able to keep one of my
Housetrucking & School bus conversion books , I
wouldn't think twice about which book I would pick . Roger
Becks , Some Turtles have Nice Shells is a
masterpiece of this genre. ...I highly recommend
this wonderful Book for anyone
interested in alternative rigs , tiny houses and
pretty things in general.
It's also a History book , containing over 192 pages
of pictures that showcase a time when we were all
quite a bit nicer.
Even though Roger has a very good section ,with
step-by-step photos showing how he constructed his
last beautiful House Truck , most of his book
contains a multitude of photos showing all sorts of
hand-made houses on wheels ...which is exactly what
us builders need for our concepts. |
I used his book when
I needed ideas for converting our last bus over to a
House Truck Trailer hauler .
This Classic only costs $29.95 which is a great deal
for any book encyclopedic in scope ...Powell's
has it and their shipping is very fair......
Below you'll find some pictures from Rogers amazing
book. |
|
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROGER BECK
...THANK YOU ROGER |
|
|
 |
"Rolling Homes : Handmade Houses on Wheels" by Jane
Lidz was written back in 1979 .... it's out of
print , so try eBay or
Powell's to get a
copy of this Classic Must Have book.
This was the first book we picked up on this subject
many years ago and we love it now just as much as we
did when we first saw it.
What makes Rolling Homes so special is Jane's
beautiful photos captured both the Art & the
whimsy of the time perfectly ....
These were very artistic people and Jane's gentle &
almost ethereal photos show that very nicely.
We truly Love this little book and feel very
thankful that Jane Lidz wrote such a lovely book. |
| PHOTOS
COURTESY OF JANE LIDZ ....THANK YOU JANE |
|
|
 |
Anyone who remembers the first Whole Earth Catalog
and the very early editions of Mother Earth News
will recognize the Format and feel of 'Roll your
Own' right away....this 190 page book written in
1974 by Jodi Pallidini & Beverly Dubin is full of
old 60's & 70's black & white photos and how to get
by on the road information ....
Unlike the 2 books above ,which focus more on the
Artistic types of Rolling Homes ...Roll your Own
contains many pictures of the more typical types of
homes on wheels you would see all over the west
coast at that time.
This is not to say they were ugly , they were just
more utilitarian .
Some might feel this book is so dated it's useless ,
but we don't feel that way at all , it's full of all
sorts of good & timeless information for those
interested in getting by on very little ....
it's out of print , so try eBay or
Powell's to get a
copy of this Must Have book. |
|
|
 |
Many of us who lived
on the road back in the heyday of the American
Gypsies miss those times and sadly know we'll never
see a rebirth of that again... unless we happen to
move to New Zealand that is.
Over there the Gypsy lifestyle is alive and well
...they still build their own rolling homes and live
a nomadic and somewhat communal lifestyle .
I've known about the New Zealand House Truck scene
for many years and had seen some pictures of how
they go about building their rolling homes ...but a
few months ago I truly lucked out and found a link
over on
Mr. Sharkeys Bus & Housetrucks
forum to Abe's Books where I could get a
copy of one of the rarest books on this subject
there is ....HOME FREE.
This book brought tears to this old nomads eyes.... |
This 123 page book
doesn't just contain a bunch of pretty pictures of
unique rolling homes ...it's full of stories about
the people living in them. It's an amazing read
,they get to travel about at times in groups ,go to
fairs and sell their wares and do all sorts of fun
stuff together.
The New Zealand style of Rolling Home Building is
amazing too....those people sure love to build
slide-out in their rigs which is HIGHLY unusual in
the American breed of Rolling homes....just those
pictures make this a must have book for any rolling
home builder.
Like many of the Great books on this subject
....HOME FREE : Housetrucking in New Zealand is out
of print ....
You could try EBay or
Powell's ...or buy
it from
Abe's Book in New Zealand
like we did. The price fluctuates ...they
have a somewhat ratty copy for around $30.00 plus
postage . We paid $59.00 plus postage for our copy
which is in great shape and worth every penny for a
book of this nature.
|
|
|
|
The RV Repair &
Maintenance Manual isn't a How-to manual on building
a beautiful Rolling Home.... but if you want to
build one with comfortable amenities in it ,you'll
need this book.
It's principally designed for people who want to
know how to repair the stuff in their RV's ... at
the same time since they show you how to uninstall
the stuff , that means you get to see how to do an
install of the various bits and pieces you might
want to add to your rolling home.
We used this great book over & over again when we
needed to understand how things work and how you go
about hooking them up in our Bus Latcho Drom.
This is a fabulous Must Have book that all
converter/builders need in their library's.
|
|
