Migrating to the marina. Is this feasible?

I bought MY jeep.
Then i built a camper and moved into it.
Then i drove to the coast.
Then the land stopped.

Now i am thinking about the idea of a boat.

Preferably a landing craft style boat that can hold my jeep and my camper (camper is 12 feet long) and can handle as much ocean as possible.

Maybe with a nice solar panel awning over the "garage" and a kitchenette at the back with the wheelhouse above that.

Is this even possible?

 

You are talking money. A landing craft for truck and camper trailer is not a small cheap boat. As far as ocean capable, certainly. With varying degrees of preparation, from shackling your vehicles down to the deck so they don't go overboard, to a ship so large you can just drive on and off. What's your budget?

 

Yep, even a used LCM-8 (a Mike boat) is not cheap.
Used Landing Craft - for sale https://www.oceanmarine.com/catalog.cfm?Landing-Craft&category_current=1&category_current_sub=8

 

Lcm-6 would fit anything a jeep can tow plus a jeep, but not many around anymore. Actually of all the ones from my childhood one remains, and its been reskinned at least once.

The lcm 8 seemed to be built more for longer term use, but all I'm familiar with have also had significant replating.

Seems like you would need longer than 50 feet but not a lot more, don't think many aluminum rigs were made in that category. Buying a better boat for travel and parking the jeep and trailer in an off the beaten path storage seems like the better all round option.

 

Sigh, here I go again haha. It's a crazy but fun idea that is unlikely to make sense, but I imagine it should be possible.

Instead of a camper you'd take a 32' trailer and build a flat bottom boat around it. Build some living space and a "garage" so you can both pull it with your Jeep, or drive your Jeep onto it and motor around. The boat becomes your camper.

I'd think a boat with a transom that can fold down would be easier for this. But this would require some proper boat design and engineering. Like for the center of gravity when in boat mode, and the weight you put on the hitch. And you'd end up with a camper that is very long, and a boat that wastes a lot of living space for a big garage.

PS: I'd love to see some pictures of the camper you build!

 

Ok let me flesh out my fun vision a little better. I saw a boat on alaskan frontier or something like that that could motor up on the beach and drop the front open and an excavator could be driven on or off the boat. It was wayyyy too big though lol.

Im imagining a very simple life.

There is no point in having a camper AND a bedroom. So it would only need to have a kitchenette, a pilot room, and enough deck space to park my 8 foot teardrop camper and jeep. Because the camper can also be my bedroom on the boat. So maybe it should be called a modular amphibious jeep accessory. But i dont want to deal with leaving the jeep on shore.

 

Can this forum do photos? Ill draw a picture!

 

Here is prototype 1.0 on my ultra minimalist camper design. Im currently working on 2.0 in a storage unit near work. I live in it so if anyone was wondering..... No i dont need much space lol.

 

Wow very nice, that is very minimalist! How much does the jeep weight? How much the camper? What is the length / width of it?

 

Jeep:
74"x165" @ about 4200 pounds
Camper;
74"x135" @ 2000 pounds

 

That is your problem. Landing crafts are usually not long voyage boats, so you have to decide how seaworthy you want it to be. The basic box like you drew is not exactly suitable for ocean crossings.

 

That's why I mentioned an LCM-8; that is the smallest I'd consider going coastwise in the Gulf of Alaska. The Navy still uses some LCM-6 for dive boats in the Puget Sound, but they don't go into the Straits (excuse me, Salish Sea).

 

How about loading from the back? You'd need a transom that can be flipped down and would need to remove the outboard motor. Then somehow maneuver backwards on a beach. Your pilot house would be at the front.

So your jeep and camper are about 25' long. So you'd need a considerably longer boat probably 30' to 32' at least. Probably longer.

Look at something like a relatively simple 32' Kodiak Offshore Pacific Power Dory or 30' Key West Carolina Dory. These are flat bottom boats which are generally not seen as very seaworthy, but these have a fine entry. The designer writes they are stable (which is logical) and do not pound too bad if you don't go too fast. The seakeeping (movement) is probably pretty bad in choppy water because of high initial stability.

In any case it's a messy, expensive and potentially dangerous affair with 2.8t of cargo. You could ask the designer (Spira) what he thinks of the idea. But also consider the materials needed (see study plans) and how much work, time and cost that will be. And you'll have a boat somewhere that you need to pay storage fees for and can't easily take with you.

 

Much as I try, I can see no reason to own a landing craft. All places where one would want to go with a land vehicle already have some form of water transport available. For places that don't there usually is a reason, either it's not allowed, or it's impractical to use it there.
For short distances, there is always a ferry or other local operation able to transport vehicles for a fee. For long distance ocean crossings there are Ro-Ro vessels connecting all continents, plus the pictured rig fits into a standard container with room to spare, so it really can go anywhere.

The price of an outboard capable to power a landing craft along the coast, easily covers the fee to ship the jeep and trailer to Australia and back, plane tickets for four people plus a month in a cheap hotel to wait for it to arrive. I won't even mention initial boat price, insurance and monthly marina fees, or the actual running costs involved.
The last thing against owning a boat is that you must always return to it. If you take the boat to Siberia then drive down to China, next time you need the boat, say for going to Japan, you have to go back and get it, it does not magically follow you along.

If you run out of land, turn left or right, follow the coast to the nearest port and ship the rig to its new destination, its cheaper than owning a boat.

 

Is that the weight of the Jeep from specs, or the actual weight? Modern Jeeps are not light.