Is an RV the Best Bug Out Vehicle? (Pics) - www.ofINTEREST.net

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Is an RV the Best Bug Out Vehicle?

By Pat Henry on June 30, 2014

When it comes to planning for the end of the world as we know it, thoughts generally turn to Bug Out Vehicles sooner or later. For most of us, our BOV of necessity will be whatever we can get our hands on in the moment. For those of you who have a little extra time or money, I wanted to discuss the concept of using an Recreational Vehicle (RV) as your dedicated mode of getting the hell out of dodge. The idea for this came to me from a reader named Alexander who asked the following:

I’d like to hear what you have to say about using an RV for a bugout vehicle. What would you stay away from and what would you do to get it ready?

Great question and I am happy to give my thoughts and opinions, this is a blog after all. For the record, I do not have an RV, so my thoughts will be centered on an analysis of aspects of both the RV and the practical needs for bugging out. I welcome anyone who does have experience to comment below and give you own side of things.

In thinking about the question of whether an RV is the best Bug Out Vehicle or not, I think it makes sense to start with a shared understanding of what exactly I mean by RV. For the purposes of this article, let’s say an RV is any vehicle you can drive or pull behind another vehicle that has living quarters built into it and was designed for one or more people to live in temporarily. Don’t get hung up on the temporarily part of that description. Essentially everything from Motley Crue’s tour bus to a truck camper fits into this category of RV. I’ll even add some photos below.

So now we know what an RV is lets discuss what Bugging Out is. From my perspective, Bugging Out is when you need to leave your home quickly to avoid a natural or man-made disaster. This can be a flood, hurricane, Tsunami or Wildfire. It can also be rioting, war, chemical gas leak, nuclear plant melt-down, zombies, ethnic cleansing, slow moving lava or any one of hundreds of other possible scenarios. You are bugging out hopefully with supplies you need to live for three days at a minimum and you may or may not expect to ever go home again.

Unless you have a fully stocked mountain retreat tucked into the woods within walking distance away from your home, you are going to need to get there somehow, so we developed this term of Bug Out Vehicle to describe our conveyance that could help us avoid the calamity we were leaving and be tough enough to navigate the terrain in a post-apocalyptic world. It is my contention that most of us do not have even a partially stocked retreat anywhere so if we are forced to bug out of our homes, we won’t have any place to stay or we will be lucky to shack up with friends far enough away from the catastrophe that we won’t be affected.

The RV seems at first to be a logical vehicle to consider when you are looking into what can take you down the road in style and offer some of the comforts of home at the same time. Some of these comforts can work against you and I’ll describe some thoughts I had when I considered if an RV was the best Bug Out Vehicle for my family.

How are you planning to use this RV in a bug out situation?

The first thing I think of when I consider RV’s as a bug out vehicle is their obvious ability to take a pretty big chunk of the conveniences of home with us on the road. Even pop-up campers can comfortably sleep 5 or 6 people and isn’t that better than sleeping in the woods? Larger 5^th wheel campers have 2 bedrooms a full kitchen (for a camper) and even a living room! Worried about going to the bathroom in the woods or taking a shower? Have no fear because most RV’s have this covered too. In terms of roughing it, RV’s do their best to make that a non-issue.

Campers have their own sets of problems.

So, we would buy one to live in if the grid went down, right? Or else you have one already or were considering the purchase because you genuinely want an RV to tour around the country. Nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, if you were away from home and the grid went down for whatever reason, having a stable place you could stay would be a huge advantage. However, if you were planning to fire up the old RV after a disaster was announced, or people were already fleeing from (insert your reason here) an RV could have a lot of liabilities.

Maybe the question shouldn’t be is an RV a good bug out vehicle, but rather, is an RV a good replacement for a survival retreat? If you have an RV parked in the middle of the woods away from society and we have some type of grid down disaster I think that you would consider yourself one of the luckiest people in the world. However, I think if you were trying to navigate the roads with one of these vehicles right in the middle of mass panic, you would not feel the same way.

For one thing, RV’s stick out like a sore thumb. Anyone who sees one knows that you most likely have room in there and you are driving around shelter. An RV would make a tempting target to anyone looking to better their position in life during a disaster, but that’s assuming you are actually moving. If you are one of the lucky ones who made it out of your town before the rest of the crowd, you might not be stuck on the highways but any plan involving bugging out in a vehicle faces the risk of traffic jams.

RV’s this size offer a ton of luxury, but not a lot of feasibility off road.

If you find one route blocked, quickly detouring to an alternate route could give you a better way to reach your destination. Most RV’s aren’t going to be able to quickly do anything. If you are pulling a trailer, turning around may be impossible if turning means leaving the road even slightly.

Another aspect of RV’s that my friend Captain Bill covered in a post he wrote for another site is the ruggedness of your RV. I think it’s fair to say that RV’s aren’t meant to haul tons of equipment and go jostling down country roads and over boulders. They are really just nice mobile homes and as such, loading them down with all the supplies you might need for an extended time away from home could cause mechanical issues. Captain Bill had purchased a 5^th wheel and almost immediately saw the need to enhance the suspension to carry his extra weight and provide stability. I know there are extreme campers out there that can go off road like the Ford EarthRoamer, but starting at over $300,000 that is a little out of the scope of this article.If you have that much money you aren’t listening to me anyway…

Ford EarthRoamer – Closer to what I think would be necessary to handle SHTF.

So what’s the bottom line? I think if you want to purchase an RV to have fun, they are great. For bugging out, unless you are the first ones out the door you will run into problems. Even if you do leave before everyone else, RV’s aren’t designed to be highly maneuverable and off-road capable. For the cost, I would personally sink a lot less money into a Quad Cab – 4 wheel drive truck, add a cap to cover the bed, cargo rack on top, beef up the suspension, add winches and call that my Bug Out Vehicle. If I had to bug out, I would leave the RV at home and hit the trail in my truck first. I know there are a million different scenarios that each of us have that could make an RV a better choice, but for me they aren’t the most versatile vehicle I can think of to get me and my family out of dodge. What is yours?

 Another Vehicle of INTEREST: http://ofinterestnet.blogspot.com/2014/06/zetros-2733-mercedes-66-provides-luxury.html

Is an RV the Best Bug Out Vehicle? (Pics) - www.ofINTEREST.net

Via

Is an RV the Best Bug Out Vehicle?

By Pat Henry on June 30, 2014

When it comes to planning for the end of the world as we know it, thoughts generally turn to Bug Out Vehicles sooner or later. For most of us, our BOV of necessity will be whatever we can get our hands on in the moment. For those of you who have a little extra time or money, I wanted to discuss the concept of using an Recreational Vehicle (RV) as your dedicated mode of getting the hell out of dodge. The idea for this came to me from a reader named Alexander who asked the following:

I’d like to hear what you have to say about using an RV for a bugout vehicle. What would you stay away from and what would you do to get it ready?

Great question and I am happy to give my thoughts and opinions, this is a blog after all. For the record, I do not have an RV, so my thoughts will be centered on an analysis of aspects of both the RV and the practical needs for bugging out. I welcome anyone who does have experience to comment below and give you own side of things.

In thinking about the question of whether an RV is the best Bug Out Vehicle or not, I think it makes sense to start with a shared understanding of what exactly I mean by RV. For the purposes of this article, let’s say an RV is any vehicle you can drive or pull behind another vehicle that has living quarters built into it and was designed for one or more people to live in temporarily. Don’t get hung up on the temporarily part of that description. Essentially everything from Motley Crue’s tour bus to a truck camper fits into this category of RV. I’ll even add some photos below.

So now we know what an RV is lets discuss what Bugging Out is. From my perspective, Bugging Out is when you need to leave your home quickly to avoid a natural or man-made disaster. This can be a flood, hurricane, Tsunami or Wildfire. It can also be rioting, war, chemical gas leak, nuclear plant melt-down, zombies, ethnic cleansing, slow moving lava or any one of hundreds of other possible scenarios. You are bugging out hopefully with supplies you need to live for three days at a minimum and you may or may not expect to ever go home again.

Unless you have a fully stocked mountain retreat tucked into the woods within walking distance away from your home, you are going to need to get there somehow, so we developed this term of Bug Out Vehicle to describe our conveyance that could help us avoid the calamity we were leaving and be tough enough to navigate the terrain in a post-apocalyptic world. It is my contention that most of us do not have even a partially stocked retreat anywhere so if we are forced to bug out of our homes, we won’t have any place to stay or we will be lucky to shack up with friends far enough away from the catastrophe that we won’t be affected.

The RV seems at first to be a logical vehicle to consider when you are looking into what can take you down the road in style and offer some of the comforts of home at the same time. Some of these comforts can work against you and I’ll describe some thoughts I had when I considered if an RV was the best Bug Out Vehicle for my family.

How are you planning to use this RV in a bug out situation?

The first thing I think of when I consider RV’s as a bug out vehicle is their obvious ability to take a pretty big chunk of the conveniences of home with us on the road. Even pop-up campers can comfortably sleep 5 or 6 people and isn’t that better than sleeping in the woods? Larger 5^th wheel campers have 2 bedrooms a full kitchen (for a camper) and even a living room! Worried about going to the bathroom in the woods or taking a shower? Have no fear because most RV’s have this covered too. In terms of roughing it, RV’s do their best to make that a non-issue.

Campers have their own sets of problems.

So, we would buy one to live in if the grid went down, right? Or else you have one already or were considering the purchase because you genuinely want an RV to tour around the country. Nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, if you were away from home and the grid went down for whatever reason, having a stable place you could stay would be a huge advantage. However, if you were planning to fire up the old RV after a disaster was announced, or people were already fleeing from (insert your reason here) an RV could have a lot of liabilities.

Maybe the question shouldn’t be is an RV a good bug out vehicle, but rather, is an RV a good replacement for a survival retreat? If you have an RV parked in the middle of the woods away from society and we have some type of grid down disaster I think that you would consider yourself one of the luckiest people in the world. However, I think if you were trying to navigate the roads with one of these vehicles right in the middle of mass panic, you would not feel the same way.

For one thing, RV’s stick out like a sore thumb. Anyone who sees one knows that you most likely have room in there and you are driving around shelter. An RV would make a tempting target to anyone looking to better their position in life during a disaster, but that’s assuming you are actually moving. If you are one of the lucky ones who made it out of your town before the rest of the crowd, you might not be stuck on the highways but any plan involving bugging out in a vehicle faces the risk of traffic jams.

RV’s this size offer a ton of luxury, but not a lot of feasibility off road.

If you find one route blocked, quickly detouring to an alternate route could give you a better way to reach your destination. Most RV’s aren’t going to be able to quickly do anything. If you are pulling a trailer, turning around may be impossible if turning means leaving the road even slightly.

Another aspect of RV’s that my friend Captain Bill covered in a post he wrote for another site is the ruggedness of your RV. I think it’s fair to say that RV’s aren’t meant to haul tons of equipment and go jostling down country roads and over boulders. They are really just nice mobile homes and as such, loading them down with all the supplies you might need for an extended time away from home could cause mechanical issues. Captain Bill had purchased a 5^th wheel and almost immediately saw the need to enhance the suspension to carry his extra weight and provide stability. I know there are extreme campers out there that can go off road like the Ford EarthRoamer, but starting at over $300,000 that is a little out of the scope of this article.If you have that much money you aren’t listening to me anyway…

Ford EarthRoamer – Closer to what I think would be necessary to handle SHTF.

So what’s the bottom line? I think if you want to purchase an RV to have fun, they are great. For bugging out, unless you are the first ones out the door you will run into problems. Even if you do leave before everyone else, RV’s aren’t designed to be highly maneuverable and off-road capable. For the cost, I would personally sink a lot less money into a Quad Cab – 4 wheel drive truck, add a cap to cover the bed, cargo rack on top, beef up the suspension, add winches and call that my Bug Out Vehicle. If I had to bug out, I would leave the RV at home and hit the trail in my truck first. I know there are a million different scenarios that each of us have that could make an RV a better choice, but for me they aren’t the most versatile vehicle I can think of to get me and my family out of dodge. What is yours?

 Another Vehicle of INTEREST: http://ofinterestnet.blogspot.com/2014/06/zetros-2733-mercedes-66-provides-luxury.html

Surtshellir: the longest lava cave and a fortified outlaw cave in West Iceland (VIDEO/Pic) - Place of INTEREST

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Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland

By Medievalists.net

– June 22, 2014Posted in: Articles

 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland

 

By Guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith and Thomas H. McGovern

The Viking Age: Ireland and the West – Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 2005, (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010)

Introduction: In recent years, c.500 icelandic lava caves have been discovered, explored and mapped. more than 200 of these have produced some form of evidence for human occupation or activities, dating from the time of iceland’s initial settlement to the present day. While many caves appear to have been used as animal sheds, archaeological remains in others suggest that these were used for human occupation over longer or shorter periods of time. Hidden entrances, fireplaces, sleeping alcoves and middens suggest that some may have been temporary hide-outs for outlaws. A smaller number have internal fortifications or other structures that suggest larger, more permanent or more contested occupations. Only two such caves had received some archaeological attention prior to the investigations discussed in this paper.

Gísli Gestsson’s pioneering cave research at Hallmundarhellir, in the inner reaches of the western icelandic Hallmundarhraun lava flow, demonstrated the potential for intact and unusual archaeological deposits to exist in the forbidding subterranean environments of iceland’s lava tubes. At Hallmundarhellir, Gestsson recorded dividing walls, partitions, hearths and a small assemblage of artefacts and bones hidden behind a massive wall that blocked the mouth of this sand-choked lava cave.

Further west in the Hallmundarhraun lava field, near its terminal end, investigations in the Víðgelmir cave in 1993 documented ephemeral features and a small assemblage of artefacts and faunal remains suggestive of a short visit by a small number of occupants intent on remaining hidden. These investigations, presented at the fourteenth Viking Congress in 2001, also provided strong evidence that charcoal from the settlement period, apparently gathered from very old standing trees or well-preserved logs and branches, could be up to 200 years older than the actual site they were taken from, providing an explanation for mysteriously ‘old dates’ from the Settlement period of iceland.

Click here to read this article from Academia.edu

Surtshellir: the longest lava cave and a fortified outlaw cave in West Iceland (VIDEO/Pic) - Place of INTEREST

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Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland

By Medievalists.net

– June 22, 2014Posted in: Articles

 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland

 

By Guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith and Thomas H. McGovern

The Viking Age: Ireland and the West – Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 2005, (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010)

Introduction: In recent years, c.500 icelandic lava caves have been discovered, explored and mapped. more than 200 of these have produced some form of evidence for human occupation or activities, dating from the time of iceland’s initial settlement to the present day. While many caves appear to have been used as animal sheds, archaeological remains in others suggest that these were used for human occupation over longer or shorter periods of time. Hidden entrances, fireplaces, sleeping alcoves and middens suggest that some may have been temporary hide-outs for outlaws. A smaller number have internal fortifications or other structures that suggest larger, more permanent or more contested occupations. Only two such caves had received some archaeological attention prior to the investigations discussed in this paper.

Gísli Gestsson’s pioneering cave research at Hallmundarhellir, in the inner reaches of the western icelandic Hallmundarhraun lava flow, demonstrated the potential for intact and unusual archaeological deposits to exist in the forbidding subterranean environments of iceland’s lava tubes. At Hallmundarhellir, Gestsson recorded dividing walls, partitions, hearths and a small assemblage of artefacts and bones hidden behind a massive wall that blocked the mouth of this sand-choked lava cave.

Further west in the Hallmundarhraun lava field, near its terminal end, investigations in the Víðgelmir cave in 1993 documented ephemeral features and a small assemblage of artefacts and faunal remains suggestive of a short visit by a small number of occupants intent on remaining hidden. These investigations, presented at the fourteenth Viking Congress in 2001, also provided strong evidence that charcoal from the settlement period, apparently gathered from very old standing trees or well-preserved logs and branches, could be up to 200 years older than the actual site they were taken from, providing an explanation for mysteriously ‘old dates’ from the Settlement period of iceland.

Click here to read this article from Academia.edu

Zetros’ 2733 Mercedes 6×6 provides luxury in any environment … even a zombie apocalypse - (PICS) - WWW.ofINTEREST.net

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Zetros’ 2733 Mercedes 6×6 provides luxury in any environment … even a zombie apocalypse

 By Joe Mahan   

March 2, 2014

The Zetros 2733 has three axles, effectively turning it into a six-wheel-drive tank. Have I piqued your interest? I hope so.

The engine alone is a torque monster of a 7.2-liter diesel inline six-cylinder. It pumps out 326 horsepower and a thumping 959 pound-feet of torque. Frankly, with that much torque, the Zetros should come with a warning sticker not to make full-throttle runs too often, as you might cause earthquakes on the other side of the globe.

You can either send that tectonic level of torque through a sturdy Allison-sourced six-speed automatic or a hydraulically shifted nine-speed. The nine-speed uses eight forward gears and a gear for crawling. All three differentials can – of course – be mechanically locked.

Now here is where the really cool part comes in. Two Mongolian businessmen hired Mercedes to build two copies of these brilliant trucks with a whole host of extra features.

These one-off versions include an RV like living space styled in a very luxurious fashion. This means two flat screen TVs, heated marble floors, Bose sound system, shower, and everything but the kitchen sink in order to survive whatever life throws your way. Oh, and it’ll be a life of pure extravagance, if you couldn’t tell.

 

Everything in the RV section is powered by a diesel generator or by battery. If those fail, the Zetros can use solar panels installed on the roof. If that isn’t enough, the owners can even bring  an ATV inside of the cargo space as well.

Although the businessmen claim to be using it for “fox hunting” in the deserts and forests of Mongolia, it sounds to me like they are actually testing it out for the end of the world. I might just have to request one myself, just in case the Zombies really do come.

What would you fit your custom, end-of-the-world 6×6 with? Consider going over to our Home section to see what extra toys you could stock up on.

More from Mercedes:

Mercedes-Benz_Zetros_GTF_6x6

Mercedes-Benz_Zetros_2733_6x6_Ru-stwagen

Zetros’ 2733 Mercedes 6×6 provides luxury in any environment … even a zombie apocalypse - (PICS) - WWW.ofINTEREST.net

Via

Zetros’ 2733 Mercedes 6×6 provides luxury in any environment … even a zombie apocalypse

 By Joe Mahan   

March 2, 2014

The Zetros 2733 has three axles, effectively turning it into a six-wheel-drive tank. Have I piqued your interest? I hope so.

The engine alone is a torque monster of a 7.2-liter diesel inline six-cylinder. It pumps out 326 horsepower and a thumping 959 pound-feet of torque. Frankly, with that much torque, the Zetros should come with a warning sticker not to make full-throttle runs too often, as you might cause earthquakes on the other side of the globe.

You can either send that tectonic level of torque through a sturdy Allison-sourced six-speed automatic or a hydraulically shifted nine-speed. The nine-speed uses eight forward gears and a gear for crawling. All three differentials can – of course – be mechanically locked.

Now here is where the really cool part comes in. Two Mongolian businessmen hired Mercedes to build two copies of these brilliant trucks with a whole host of extra features.

These one-off versions include an RV like living space styled in a very luxurious fashion. This means two flat screen TVs, heated marble floors, Bose sound system, shower, and everything but the kitchen sink in order to survive whatever life throws your way. Oh, and it’ll be a life of pure extravagance, if you couldn’t tell.

 

Everything in the RV section is powered by a diesel generator or by battery. If those fail, the Zetros can use solar panels installed on the roof. If that isn’t enough, the owners can even bring  an ATV inside of the cargo space as well.

Although the businessmen claim to be using it for “fox hunting” in the deserts and forests of Mongolia, it sounds to me like they are actually testing it out for the end of the world. I might just have to request one myself, just in case the Zombies really do come.

What would you fit your custom, end-of-the-world 6×6 with? Consider going over to our Home section to see what extra toys you could stock up on.

More from Mercedes:

Mercedes-Benz_Zetros_GTF_6x6

Mercedes-Benz_Zetros_2733_6x6_Ru-stwagen