BigFox is the nickname lovingly given to our tiny home and is the amalgamation of BigFix & Arctic Fox. While that may be a little cheesy for some... it makes me smile. In any event, the BigFox is based on a fully-customized 2016 Northwood Arctic Fox 31D travel trailer.
To set the stage, we lived tiny for the 1st time between 2018 and 2019 after selling our home in Hidden Valley Lake outside Cincinnati, Ohio and while looking for a new "sticks & bricks" home. After spending two years in what we thought was our "sticks & bricks" dream home, we ultimately realized that we missed living tiny and decided to make the change permanently.
Our previous rig - a 2018 Keystone Montana High Country 385BR
After selling our "sticks & bricks" home in mid-2021, we moved back into our 2018 Keystone Montana High Country 385BR camper. While it's a decent camper... it's over 40-feet long, 13.5-feet tall and has 4 large slides, which makes getting into national and state parks almost impossible. Plus the MHC-385BR is heavy (GVRW 16,500lbs) and about as aerodynamic as a lego... which sucks for MPGs!
So we started looking at alternatives and originally believed we'd need to commission a custom coach via ATC Trailers or similar. However, once we got a rough price tag... we had to reevaluate our options. I started looking for used bunkhouse travel trailer models that had the potential to be converted to meet our needs.
Fortunately I stumbled across a RVTrader ad of the one and only Northwood Arctic Fox 31D for sale in the entire lower 48 at Broadmoor RV Superstore in beautiful Pasco, Washington. My wife and I worked with Marta at Broadmoor RV Supercenter and in December 2021 I made the 4,700+ mile round trip to & from Washington state to pickup our new tiny home in just 5 & 1/2 days! It was a daunting and exhausting experience to say the least!
Prior to making the trip out to Washington state to pickup the BigFox... I started designing the new king-size-bed platform that also serves as storage and where our off-grid power systems from Battle Born Batteries is located. We were fortunate that Battle Born was having a CyberMonday event when I ordered our Battle Born Batteries and Victron Energy components.
The 2016 Northwood Mfg Arctic Fox 31D travel trailer
Minus a few odds and ends, I purchased all of the cabling kits from the Explorist.life store as they really have their stuff together with respect to breaking out everything that you'll need to successfully install your expensive, shiny, new off-grid power system.
I also designed a custom, dual desk setup that replaced the sofa & bunk in the secondary slide that's across from the IT & storage center that used to be another bunkbed. So now that my mobile office layout was solid... this is where PepLink, Starlink and T-Mobile for Business all come into play in order to work full-time from the road.
mobile_office.png
So that's it? Well of course not... the BigFox is a work-in-progress... and we're just getting started! However, the above is all that I've been able to take pictures of and document thus far. Presently we're wrapping up the first of several rounds of upgrades to BigFox. Up next is a partial bathroom remodel to give me more room in the shower and switching to a composting toilet for less water usage & greater ability to boondock for longer periods.
Stay tuned for more updates & pictures... or follow me on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter (no... I will not call it X!) and don't forget to follow the #BigFoxTravels hash tag.