[Ran D. St. Clair]

The Price of Stealth

Now that the Stealth Camper is done, and I am trying to get it insured, I need to demonstrate its value to the insurance company, at least in terms of what it cost me to build it. I don’t have a finance director to keep me in line like Bliz, so I don’t have every little receipt. I do have the receipts for most of the big ticket items, and I also have my credit card statements for the entire time I was building the truck. Unfortunately credit card statements don’t tell me whether I was buying paint or plywood, just that I spent a lot of money at Orchard Supply Hardware, Lowes, and Home Depot. Most of the on line purchases are a little more revealing as there is usually an E-mail trail.

The bottom line is that I spent just shy of $40K building the Stealth Camper. That’s just the money that went into the truck itself, not including taxes, registration, insurance, maintenance, or the things I bought that didn’t make it into the truck for one reason or another (mistakes). Here is the list of items over $150.

Stealth Camper Materials Cost
$ 39,743.03 Total
$ 14,000.00 1/24/09 Truck, Mitusubish FUSO, 2002, 14ft box
$ 4,688.24 8/27/09 ECOJOHN Propane toilet
$ 2,341.92 9/10/09 Alternative Energy Store, Sunfrost RF-12 Refrigerator
$ 1,504.19 12/29/09 Lifeline AGM Batteries
$ 1,092.49 8/4/09 Camping World, Honda EU300i Generator
$ 1,034.14 10/2/10 3 each NAXA 22" 12V TV w. DVD Player
$ 781.34 8/4/09 Camping World, Coleman Mac Air Conditioner
$ 575.72 10/6/10 Wallmart, Toshiba Laptop
$ 543.90 9/1/09 Qualtek Industries, Inverter Power Express 2,500W
$ 533.97 8/17/09 Platinum Cat Propane Catalytic Vented Heater
$ 465.34 11/3/09 Fry's, Gas Range
$ 396.06 9/10/09 Alternative Energy Store, Battery Charger
$ 365.44 11/6/10 Americas Tire - New Front Tires
$ 343.33 9/15/09 Radiolabs International, WiFi Antennas
$ 334.63 10/20/10 Walmart, PS3 Slim
$ 314.76 4/18/10 Lowes, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 302.62 3/14/10 Lowes, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 260.53 7/6/09 Camping World, TurboMaxx vent cover w Fan
$ 248.58 8/5/09 MRO To Go.com, Clamp on Current Meter
$ 245.84 10/4/10 R E Williams Contractor, expanding ladder
$ 227.60 7/17/10 Lowes, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 197.00 6/2/10 Matress Insider, Matress
$ 194.49 6/20/10 Lowes, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 180.96 3/6/10 Home Depot, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 178.95 9/3/09 Stark Electronics, TV Antenna
$ 174.10 6/4/10 Lowes, Plywood and misc. hardware
$ 173.95 6/22/10 Comfort House, twin mattress
$ 166.39 10/21/10 Rideout Plastics, Mirrors
$ 154.26 8/31/09 Improvement Direct, Stove Hood
$ 7,722.29 Total of items under $150 each

Here is a breakdown of where I spent the money for items under $150 each.

$ 3,021.66 Orchard Supply Hardware, Misc. Hardware, Plumbing, Paint, Materials
$ 1,551.61 Lowes, Misc. Plywood, Hardware, Plumbing, Paint, Materials
$ 828.65 Home Depot, Plywood Flooring and misc. hardware
$ 716.22 Fry’s Electronics, Microwave, Computer accessories, misc. electrical stuff
$ 222.71 Kmart, Misc. bedding and furnishings
$ 153.06 Camping World, 12V Lights, roof caulking
$ 1,249.12 Everything Else, Antennas, Cables, Mattress Pads, stools, stuff I can’t remember…

I also spent about $2,000 on taxes, license, and registration for the truck. There’s another $2,000 or so on insurance over the last 2 years. There’s also about $1,000 for things I bought and don’t need, like an Atwood 3 burner range. I may get a few hundred back by selling some of that stuff, but most of it will probably end up in the trash.

From an overall cash flow perspective the Stealth Camper has cost me about $45,000 in almost 2 years. If I compare that to the monthly rent on my sticks and bricks house, I will have to live in the Stealth Camper 28 months rent free to break even. That is entirely possible, but it also remains to be seen.

Someone could certainly build a fully functional Stealth Camper for a lot less. You could probably do the whole thing for under $10,000 if you had to. It wouldn’t be near as nice, but it would work. Then again, you could probably buy an older used RV of some sort and fix it up or modify it for a lot less as well. I never said my path was the cheapest. As a matter of fact I believe I said that it was not the rational thing to do from a purely economic perspective. Now I have proven it…

To be continued…