Living Vehicle is founded on the philosophy of freedom. To them and many philosophers, freedom revolves around the ability to choose. Living Vehicle creates travel trailers that abound with choice. From a design standpoint, this means that the interior is customizable with many different options in order to optimize the space for the specific needs of the client. From a traveling standpoint, it means creating a trailer that is four season, off-grid, and built to last.
Living Vehicle has been around for two years and comes out of a decade of design for small spaces by owners/husband and wife team, Matthew and Joanna Hofmann. They are based out of Santa Barbara, California.
"We are architects by trade and have been doing mobile space renovations for a decade," explained Matthew Hofmann, "Living Vehicle is our segue into the RV realm."
On doing design and experiences with living in small spaces, Hofmann found that there was a need for a camper that is truly meant for the full-timer. "Most everything we found was for recreational use and short-term," Hofmann said, "So we decided to design a place for full-time living and it evolved into a luxury brand that pushes how far you can travel with as little reliance on the grid as possible.” Living Vehicle has a goal to become a Net-Zero product, meaning they hope to have their travel trailers leave zero carbon footprint on the environment.
Luxurious setting on the deck of a Living Vehicle travel trailer [Photo/Living Vehicle]
The 2020 model of Living Vehicle is 28 feet long. It weighs 9,500 pounds dry and has a unique feature of a self-supporting deck that can support 1,500 pounds. It sleeps 4 in the base model, with an optional upgrade to 6 with an automatic drop-down bed for 2 guests above the dining room table. Windows, skylights, and a sliding glass door make the living space full of natural light and integrated with the outdoors. The bathroom has a rainfall shower and skylight and looks more like a shower in a spa than in a camper. 1320 Watts of solar panels come standard on the Living Vehicle, however there are options to configure up to 3080 Watts. The roof is a single sheet of aluminum, which helps avoid potential water infiltration by cutting out extra seams. The interior is sleek, comfortable, and meant for full-time living. The base costs about 200k and options can push that price to about 500k.
Some of the options that clients can have are geared towards specific needs of clients. For example, there is the Chef's Kitchen Option, which include a marine grade oven, countertop grill and wine cooler.
There is also the luxury housekeeping option which has a dishwasher, central vacuum cleaner and washer/dryer combo. "We found when RVing that time is extremely important and can be wasted easily," Hofmann explained, "For example, if you are spending all your time at the laundromat, you don't have time to enjoy the outdoors or do work if you are full-timing."
The space is optimized both for storage and living. "We have a thoughtful approach to the liveability of the space," explained Hofmann. In a video tour of their personal Living Vehicle, Hoffman talks about how dark it can be when you are out in the middle of nowhere. He says that we get used to all of the little blinking lights of technology, from our routers, phones and other electronics, and how distracting these can be from enjoying the peace of the night. In Living Vehicle, they put all of the electronics, such as charging stations, router, stereo, etc, in one compartment above the refrigerator. This ensures that all the lights are out of view, as well as provides easy access to everything when needed.
Another example is the self-supporting deck. It can be used, of course, as a place to sit above the ground and enjoy the beautiful surroundings or it can be used for entertaining, such as when you have a campfire and want to use the deck as a table space for food and drinks.
The company is not interested in growing quickly, but committed to making sure the quality is the best that people can get. "In 2019, we made 25 trailers and we will probably make a few more than that this year but not much," Hofmann said, "Our focus is the best quality unit, period.”
Living Vehicle is a luxury trailer. Luxury, as Hofmann explains, is not about being the most expensive, but allowing people to have the most freedom of choice. Whether that be in the interior design or where you want to go, Living Vehicle is there to make it happen. "We want to empower people to live their best life and create a product to create a Net-Zero product," Hofmann said.