If there’s not a nomadic revolution going on today, there’s certainly a nomadic movement. In the last few years, either for reasons of practicality (high costs of rent or mortgages), change in lifestyle, or the search for adventure, people are customizing all sorts of vehicles for travel.

This book covers some 80 DIY vehicles, with most of them fitted out for the road by their owners. There are vans, sedans, trucks, buses, and trailers with a wide array of designs and styles. A number of the units are 4-wheel drive for off-road travel.

The book is not only fun to browse through, but is full of practical information (such as stoves, heaters, battery charging, solar power, refrigerators, and kitchens designed for the road) — for anyone wanting to create their own movable home.

There is a European minivan outfitted by a young German woman who just graduated from architectural school and took a sabbatical to go surfing. There are a number of camper truck shells, all completely different. There’s a converted school bus that is used in cold weather for skiing and in warm climates for surfing. A $200,000 Land Rover and a $300 pickup truck camper shell. There’s a converted horse trailer furnished with Victorian antiques that is used at Burning Man.

This is the the latest addition to The Shelter Library of Building Books, which started with Shelter in 1973 and includes Home Work, Builders of the Pacific Coast, Tiny Homes, and more.

This book couldn’t be more timely.

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me…”
–Jack Kerouac, On the Road

By Lloyd Kahn

272 pages / 8½” x 10” / 2022 / ISBN 978-0-936070-89-6