Anybody with a set of XY chromosomes dreams of ditching everything after high school or college, and taking an RV with some buddies to travel around the country in a massive road trip adventure. Few follow through on this dream of dreams, but these guys from Japan decided to build a two story, fully outfitted, transforming masterpiece of travel to do just that. The whole story and a video of the transformation below.
The idea was this, take a Toyota commercial truck and convert it to a travel camper fit for three buddies and a year of frugal travel. Over the course of two years, the friends did just that, starting with the main living space, equipped with all the modern conveniences like a rice cooker, refrigerator, storage, a bath tub in the restroom, and a nice fold out deck opened on by double doors.
The really cool part happens upstairs. To get an upstairs on a compact truck box cube, they created an ingenious hinged mechanism which lifts a large section of the outer skin upwards then folds a second layer under it, creating a fully enclosed living space. Entry is by a door in the floor and narrow steps downstairs which double as storage.
Its construction reminds us of the izakayas we saw along Nonbei-yokochō street in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. These tiny bars and restaurants barely have enough space for three people inside and feature super steep stairs to their more spacious, though also insanely tiny, upstairs.
When the guys were done with it they traveled all around Tokyo for a year, visiting some of the most beautiful and amazing places in the country. The complete build blog and travel adventure documentation is on their website, and if you happen to live in Japan and are interested in a lightly used, very custom, super cool RV, they're selling it! Only $5,500! Call us sentimental, but we'd keep that thing forever and ever if it were ours. [Two Story Camping Car]