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A Follow-up on Ox-Bikes.

This morning, I had a rare chance to prattle to a couple of my friends here about the ox-bike and a tiny home on wheels. My opinion of needing solid walls (e.g. wood, metal sandwich) on the home to resist an animal attack was nixed by a hunter-turned-Buddhism practitioner who made a practical point:

  • As a person with a criminal conviction, I can usually not own a firearm, but possession of items such as bear mace is permissible.

While I would be potentially causing pain or harm to a creature with bear mace, should I deploy it, it does provide me with potential benefits:

  • a way to run off the attacking animal without grievous injury
  • a chance to get out to the bike itself and kick it into gear, lowtailing it out of the area
  • a defense mechanism where I would have been otherwise personally defenseless for this long cruise across hills and dales

Without this, an animal may keep me trapped in place for several hours, or may snooze nearby until it hears curious noises to scoot over and investigate. This can become a Big Problem when I'm trying to make it to the next township.

It was also suggested that having a gray water system may be a bit much: as I alluded to in the previous post, that's water weight to carry that I would prefer not to if possible. Both the former hunter and another fellow practitioner of Buddhism made the same suggestion I leaned toward: acquire a membership at a national gym of some sort. This would give me some access to hot showers in the absence of, say, a Flying J, Pilot, TA, Love's, or other travel stop that caters to long haul truckers. Granted, a gym membership feels a little silly when I have a home gym and can never skip leg day :rimshot: but it is logical in the absence of a business whose sole thing is nationwide traveler showers and bathrooms. The mention of couch surfing as shower access came up, and while I appreciate it, I do not know the ramifications of surfing on sofas when you have a felony conviction on your record.
This becomes harder to figure out still if someone happens to also have to submit to a registration requirement after incarceration (like my little brother, JJ): if he's passing through a town on this proverbial ox-bike, and will only be in town limits for the day and maybe the next -- long enough to eat, rest, restock on vital supplies, and shower at some gym that he has a membership at before he moves on down the road, would he be required to register that he is passing through on his bike with his home behind him? Or will he be allowed to pass through unmolested?

Those are curiosities that come with the ground of traveling by ox-bike, but it would be nice to figure out.

Next, because my solid walls were nixed, the recommendation for canvas or another material that resists or repels water and blocks wind for the walls was brought back up. This has a benefit or two, at least:
I'm concerned about the width and height of this unit. Personally, 2 meters is plenty enough interior height for me: I'm a few cents shorter than 1m 83cm (6' US); I would like a little room to remove my tops while standing, but I don't need a vaulted ceiling. Width, however, is a concern, because I have a need to not feel like 10kg of sausage in 5kg of casing. :') The former hunter suggested pop-out sides, like one would see on some of these campers. If I can make it work without a lot of moving parts and weight, and have it reasonably waterproof, wind resistant, and able to keep in heat in cooler climates, that would be a great idea to run with. I'm certain I'll be told about some kind of pocket-sized space heater that vents to the outside later when I bring up my "I don't want to be cold" concerns.

The plan is to also carry solar panels on the home for passive charging of the battery system. I would need to do some numbers, figure out what the total system draw for the electric motors would be, see how much power I could then input from solar -- how many panels can I carry before it becomes a weight issue?
Also strongly wanted is either a J1772, CCS, or NACS connector to allow me to plug in for grid power as an option when I'm in places that allow the faster options.

But, changing from wooden walls to other materials then makes me question what my wall posts are made of. Do I use PVC and run with the idea of a mobile Conestoga hut? I could technically store potable water in the wall pipes if I did that, especially when coupled with a water pump to draw the water up for use into a mini sink, but that complicates things -- a 25 gallon tank would likely be easier on me overall.
Do I then use tarps, or something else? How do I account for a screened window if I use tarps for walls? Should I make my ceiling out of something more solid, like felt-backed tin on thin plywood (to resist hail, should I encounter it on my ride with no cover)?

My brain runs around in circles on this, because I can run in so many directions with ideas.

Thankfully, our elephant (that is, our senior Buddhism practitioner of the group) has sent an ask to his people on the bicycle portion of this: can we get the bicycle portion of this idea to work, and figure out what it might be able to haul before we try to figure out the tiny home portion? It makes sense to know the vehicle before building the home that goes on its butt.

But I'm dreadfully overthinking this today. :)