sleeping pod

SLEEPING POD

A minion touched on this in a guest article.  Basically, you are making a tent out of waterproof flexible panels ( think of it as plastic cardboard ).  The YouTube instructional is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRCZilWwWKk

There are similar videos where this material is used to make super light-weight bicycle trailers.  Such as here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiejAhol4Ps

This is your upgraded homeless cardboard box for those that plan ahead, but my thoughts are more along the lines of a cheap and quick shelter for your junk land.  Before, I’ve always said you should move out there and build a small cabin, rather than a tent.  Here is an alternate step.

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Buying a tent is in almost any scenario except bugging out, a complete waste of money.  They are good for little else than keeping the bugs out.  If you spend the money on a quality expedition tent, you might as well go ahead and build two lumber cubes instead, for the same money.  If buying a cheap Wal-Mart tent for a few months use, why not just build yourself a sleeping pod for the same money?  You only need one sheet of the material, which is about $22, a couple of sticks of lumber and some plywood, gorilla tape and screws- for under $50.

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Before, I thought it no big deal to arrive, and then construct either a lumber cube ( 46 2x4’s, 12 sheets plywood, about $350.  If poor use rocks for a foundation, but $50 in concrete blocks would be much easier.  Worry about weather-proofing later ) or a Stromberg Chicken  connector set ( $110 plus 25 2x4’s, an additional $70 ) for a dome.  Buy cheap ratty blankets at a thrift store, soak in a watery cement mix, and drape and dry for the roof/walls.  Not too much more than half the price of a lumber cube.

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Later, you can go back and add a better chicken wire and ferrocement roof, but in the meantime the cement blankets let you climb up on the structure.  And provides SOME weather resistance.  With either of these, you didn’t have to live in there indefinitely, but after upgrading you did still have a storage unit.  The initial money didn’t go to waste, like a tent would.  However.  There is just one little problem with that idea.  It did force you to build something quickly, and perhaps NOT what was ideal.

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This is what happened to me, to a degree.  I was looking for a junk RV to use as additional storage at the same time I was digging my B-POD pit.  When I found the Suicide Trailer for a few hundred bucks, I wasn’t done with the pit just yet.  If I had another month, I could have dug a ramp and had the trailer lowered into the hole, then built a roof  over it ( not having a truck, I had to take the offer to haul the RV when it came, and I didn’t want to offend by asking him back ).

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I think I would have saved enough money not constructing walls ( but rather posts ) to have paid for the trailer, PLUS the added insulation would have made it even more comfortable down there.  Not to mention it would have been far more homey and bearable on cold overcast days.  Alas, I was in a hurry and ended up just using the RV for storage rather than living.  Sad trombone!  I did try digging another pit next to the trailer but the ground was cement.  Just what everyone needs, TWO underground lairs.

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So, let that be a cautionary tale on the advantages of not being rushed.  Perhaps if you have a sleeping pod to get out of the weather you can take your time deciding what kind of cabin to build, and then wait on good deals with construction supplies. Or, hell, even waiting for a really cheap RV or mobile home to appear ( I had to wait several years to find an affordable travel trailer, the location being rather high cost of living, full of Yuppie Scum vermin thinking their used goods are worth biggest bucks ).

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We just got done discussing RV’s.  Yes, the new ones are made for crap.  I’d buy 80’s or before, and only 90’s if a great deal.  Turn of the century up are Avoid As Plague quality.  It gives you a place to live before upgrading or even adding on with lumber cubes and enclosed porches as funds allow.  They have a lot of issues but are fine stop gap shelters.  A new roof overhead and stripping out the walls with replacement studs and fiberglass insulation provides wonders of increased value and comfort.  Like any shelter, they are compromises, not perfection. 

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Now, these sleeping pods are going to blow monkey member.  They are a small closet turned on its side.  You won’t be comfortable except to sleep and I imagine it will make car camping fun again ( which you didn’t think possible ).  But they are quick and cheap and relatively durable, at least far in excess of a tent.  Although, if you don’t mind the cramped conditions, you might just be in training for a similar underground home ( cutting way down on your digging and materials ), so you could look at this as a trial shelter.

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This could also be re-used when you are done, by digging a similar size hole in the ground and lowering the pod.  Cover with a bigger overhanging roof ( the four foot wide pod pit can be covered with panels of 2x4 reinforced plywood, turned to overlap the hole two feet either side.  Obviously, your soil may vary ).  This isn’t exactly high speed low drag camouflaged spider hole bunker material here, but if damp soil and bug infested holes freak you out, this might be an idea you could tweak.  Yeah, I’m one of those leery of creepy crawlies.

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This might also give you ideas on stashing construction materials in the boonies, ready to construct a shelter upon arrival.  It could be something as simple as an upgraded doghouse.  Or a kids fort.  What I would HATE to do is use it as a homeless shelter as advertised on the video.  But even then, better than nothing I suppose.  Which brings to mind using this as a mother in law house in the back yard J

( .Y. )

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