Every day, I search around for awesome vintage RVs and new campers that might be worth considering. Along the way, I also try to find what is the most ridiculous camper you could spend your money on. Well, I think I found it and this thing is a mind-boggling monster. The 2024 Living Vehicle HD Pro has stats that’ll make you faint. It weighs 16,000 pounds, has up to 6 kW of solar panels, a 72 kWh house battery, and sets you back $639,995 before options. This may be the most camper on the market right now.
This camper popped up on my radar last night and my brain is still processing all of the information it has taken in. I’ve seen and toured my way through multimillion-dollar Prevost motorhomes in the past. You can also buy fifth-wheel campers that cost the better part of a half-million dollars and nearly as long as a 53-foot dry van meant for a semi-tractor. One company will even sell you a camper that’s longer than a semi trailer. If you’re rich, you can get practical palaces on wheels.
Those luxury rigs tend to follow a similar theme. They’re all super long, packed to the gills with luxury features, and often look like a casino inside. The 2024 Living Vehicle HD Pro is different than that. For the price of a few Midwestern houses you get a 30-foot bumper pull travel trailer that weighs 16,000 pounds, has a 72 kWh house battery, and so many solar panels that they can be used as awnings. When I call this the “most” camper on the market right now, I don’t mean that it’s the biggest, but that there’s just so much going on inside of this thing. It’s sort of like how Zach Snyder’s Justice League may not be Snyder at his best, but it’s certainly at his most.
A Camper For Full-Timers
California-based Living Vehicle was founded in 2017 by husband and wife team Matthew and Joanna Hofmann. Matthew is an architect while Joanna is a designer. The pair say that they have spent years living out of buses, vans, and travel trailers while running a business called Hofmann Architecture. The Hofmanns say that they’ve been living out of small mobile spaces for over a decade and they came to a realization that none of their tiny homes catered that well to full-timers. They couldn’t find a camper that did the job to their liking so they decided to build an off-grid camper of their own.
Since 2017, Living Vehicle has sold out its small production line every year. The company builds about 25 units a year and given that the company’s cheapest option starts at $359,995, it’s definitely a vehicle for those flush with cash. Living Vehicle is also trying to reinvent the RV itself, saying that its campers aren’t “RVs” but “LVs,” or the company’s name in initials.
The 2024 Living Vehicle HD Pro
The 2024 Living Vehicle HD Pro is largely the same as the 2023 model, but the company has pumped up the off-grid gear. Previously, the Living Vehicle HD maxed out with 3.4 kW of solar power and 57.6 kWh of lithium energy storage. This year, you can option your Living Vehicle with as high as 6 kWh of solar power and your house battery can be a chunky 72 kWh unit.
All Living Vehicles start with the company’s chassis and structure. The company says that its trailer has a chassis of aluminum, a structure of aluminum, and a floor of aluminum. This includes the walls, which are finished on the outside in anodized aluminum. Living Vehicle says that its all-aluminum welded construction should ensure that the camper stands the test of time. The company also says that the camper should be able to be dragged anywhere you want it to be off-grid.
Helping it move along is a set of three 7,000-pound torsion axles. These can be optioned with mud tires. This is one of the few trailers that I’ve encountered with clearance measurements. Living vehicle says that the ground clearance under the trailer’s skin is 16 inches and the “departure ground clearance” is 22 inches. While Living Vehicle says the trailer can go off-roading, a 30-foot, 16,000-pound trailer probably isn’t the best rig to take into the wilderness. I can’t imagine getting this stuck in some of the mud I’ve driven through.
Aside from its construction, Living Vehicle also boasts the camper’s massive solar array. In the Pro model, you get 4.4 kW of solar panels on the roof. In order to accommodate the panels, the equipment that would normally be on the camper’s roof had to be moved to the camper’s basement storage compartments. Nearly the whole roof is covered in solar panels and when you set up camp, you can flip a switch to extend two 48-inch aluminum awnings. On top of those awnings? More solar panels.
Those awnings feed a 72 kWh lithium house battery that powers most of the camper. If you somehow run out of battery, the camper also has an onboard generator. If you’re really hurting for power, you can deploy 1.6 kW of portable solar panels, kicking the total up to 6 kW. And if all else fails, the trailer can feed from up to 158 pounds of propane to run its systems.
This battery could also be used to charge an electric car. Though, it’s unclear what EV you would be charging since this trailer weighs far more than any EV truck on the market could tow.
In fact, Living Vehicle says that you should be towing this trailer with something like a Ford F-450, Silverado 4500, or Ram 4500. In another departure from the average RV manufacturer, Living Vehicle also offers an upfitting service so you could give your tow vehicle a lift kit and color match your truck to the trailer.
Moving inside, this camper is more luxurious than your house. Living Vehicle is big on this trailer being able to sustain itself, so you get 100 gallons for fresh water, 62 gallons for gray water, and 45 gallons for your waste. An option for the trailer is a composting toilet, which deletes the black tank and makes the gray tank 107 gallons. To help keep the fresh tank filled, the camper has an optional atmospheric water generation system.
This system, from Watergen, extracts moisture out of the air, cleans it, purifies it, and deposits the water into the fresh tank. The system is able to generate around 5 gallons of water a day depending on the conditions.
From here, this interior features the amenities that you’d expect from something in this price range. The shower has a skylight and a waterfall head, the kitchen is residential-style with a stainless steel range and oven, and you even get an island. Living Vehicle also offers automation options like powered window shades, an automated drop-down bed, a flip-up table, and an electric table base in the dining room.
Other luxuries come in the form of a combination washer and dryer, a dishwasher, and a central vacuum system.
Living Vehicle also says that the camper is equipped and insulated to camp in all seasons, but you can option it with a package that upgrades the windows to dual-pane glass, adds an aluminum radiant floor, adds independent electric heaters to the interior, and a thermostat to control them. This allows the camper to be comfortable down to -4 F temperatures and heat up to 120 F.
There are still more options to go and they include Starlink capability, a home theater, and hi-fi audio. I think my favorite feature of the whole camper is the deployable patio deck, which is standard.
I wish more campers had these, but I usually find them with toy haulers.
Bring A Bank
Overall, this camper is certainly a beast. It’s a trailer that can camp in below zero temperatures, weighs 16,000 pounds, has a 1,600-pound tongue weight, has a 24,000 BTU air-conditioner, 100 gallons for water storage, up to 6 kW of solar, a 72 kWh house battery, I could go on. Living Vehicle pitches itself as a company that isn’t selling a camper, but a house that you could take anywhere. I’m not sold on the anywhere part, but I bet you could live a pretty darn good life in this trailer. At $639,995 before options, it could very well be your house.
The options list is practically endless and includes stuff like a bed that sits on a suspension ($9,995), a mobile recording studio room ($23,995), the 6.5 kW Cummins generator ($21,995), a special alternator for your tow vehicle ($15,995), the water generator ($25,995), the home theater ($13,995), off-road tires and better brakes ($14,995), and the four-season package ($13,995).
Weirdly, the four-season package is supposed to be standard on the Pro, but it allows you to choose the option, anyway. I configured one of these and was knocking on the door of a million dollars before I finished.
If this is all too expensive for you, Living Vehicle does sell lower-end Core and Max models. The $549,995 Max knocks you down to a 43 kWh battery, and 3 kW of solar while the $459,995 Core nets you a 21 kWh battery and 2 kW of solar. Going with the lower models means most of the above features are options, but you can at least get it down to 14,000 pounds. Living Vehicle also sells a compact version of the trailer that’s 24 feet long, but that one is still $359,995 and at minimum 11,000 pounds.
I love what I’m seeing here. This kind of technology can allow you to stay out in the wilderness for an extended period of time. I bet someone could camp in this thing for weeks without ever needing to head into civilization. But at these prices and this exclusivity, sadly, most people will only be able to appreciate the work from afar.
(Photo Credit: Living Vehicle)
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I’m a bit confused by the battery size, honestly. I’ve added 6KWh to a travel trailer and would have added more without size and cost constraints, but past about 20KWh I’m just not sure what you’d use it for unless you were ditching the propane entirely.
IMO, a patio is only useful if you have a pet and you want an outdoor place for it to be without it being leashed. Or basically the same kind of space for a toddler. I mean, it’s an trailer…for the outdoors. You need a space that’s outdoors but not quite outdoors?
This is not how I would design a luxury trailer though. I would put slides in it for one. I would put the awning on one side–because that’s how people use them. Unless there’s something special about this one, RV composting toilets are almost always terrible–look up youtube channels of people using them. The shape of the trailer looks like just a regular utility trailer–now I know it has special axles and is all aluminum, but it sure doesn’t look like anything “designer” to me–I can’t unsee “utility trailer”. That all said–the solar PV and batteries are certainly nice. Not for that kind of money, but they are nice.
To me the real story here is the Core model that comes in below half a million and still has immense battery capacity (for comparison, the group 27 battery that comes with most normal trailers is around 1kWh). The top-level model is full of obscene markups, but I could easily see full-timers buying the base model. These are people for whom the trailer is literally their house, so dropping house money on one is not unthinkable. In fact, they tend to shy away from the cheaper options because basic trailers are not built to withstand constant occupancy (mine literally says that in the manual).
If this is legitimately built to higher quality than 99% of the trailers on the market and is as well-designed as it seems to be at first glance, I could easily see it making a mark.
Incidentally, it’s interesting to note how different this one is from that crazy swingout trailer you posted a while back. Not surprised that this one was built by people who actually full-time as opposed to a designer who has never been in a camper before.
I’m unlikely to ever spend this much on a trailer, but, crazy as it sounds, this might not be unreasonably priced for its target market.
Nice vehicle. It’s really an “Airstream Denali Ultimate.”
Weight, size, are not not outrageous, but the pricing is beyond obscene.
#wantonewhenkeystonemakesit
Folks, usually I’d be grabbing a pitchfork with you, but I’m okay with this. I understand who this one is actually for. This is for Peter Jackson on a long term movie set in New Zealand. This is for a person with fuck you money to put on their building lot in Aspen or Montana so they can still ski for a season and not have to rough it too badly. I wish it cost 200k and then a normal “rich” person could get it, but I understand it’s very limited, probably commands extra on its name alone at this point and well…nice things are nicer when everyone can’t have one. Just a fact.
So nice trailer, decent solar power and yeah it isn’t for bringing to the local spot, but it has a use case in my mind for a certain type of client. I am someone who appreciates opulence on levels I’ll never achieve or have the money to experience. I love big gilded age mansions and this is the gilded age trailer. I love it, and I accept it’s not for me.
One thing I never read was about security measures? Could someone hook up and drive off with this?
For an additional fee you can have an assassin posted in the nearest tree, ready to strike.
But does it come with a droid that understands the binary language of moister vaporators?
I can’t be the only person who went there when reading about reclaiming moisture from the air.
I can’t believe no one else has mentioned this yet, but what the hell is a $16,000 alternator for the tow vehicle???
Yeah, that’s a real head scratcher, I’d love to know!
It’s gold plated with gold wiring.
You know, for superior conductivity which allows the dollars to flow more easily from the Sucker into Living Vehicle’s bank account.
For some reason, I just had to know more and went down a rabbit hole.
The largest 12V I found easily is something like a Delco 55SI, rated to 430A. But it’s for Medium Duty commercial trucks (which still generally means Ram3500 / Ford350 or larger). $2,500 – $4,000
Is that 3350W at idle (5800W peak) not enough?
If you have a 24V system you can get a Prestolite 24V 600A alternator for $8,700 (MSRP, but I found it on sale for $5,400). So that’s around 16kW ouput. That should do it, right?
You can equip a Ford Super Duty with dual alternators rated to 410A for $115.
Living Vehicle doesn’t fully explain the details on the alternator aside from the fact that it charges the trailer. Secondary alternators aren’t anything special (camper vans have those) but the package is $16,000 for the alternator and the wiring. Maybe it’s in the labor?
It’s odd for sure.
Between the generator and the solar panels, it’s hard to understand what more would be needed, but when “off-road tires and better brakes” are $15,000, I think there just might be some markup involved.
This is not for actual camping. This is for an A-list actor working at a wilderness site for 3 months. It’s in their contract.
Agreed, this is a Hollywood trailer for Tom Cruise.
God damn, this thing sure speaks to me. I would love to live out of something like this as my main or only home—something minimalist, portable, self-sufficient, durable, comfortable, and cleverly designed. It presses so many of my buttons. It’s too expensive for me even if I sold my actual house (especially after factoring in the tow vehicle) but if I had a well-paying job that featured a lot of travel to off-grid locations… I could probably make this happen.
If I were a site super for a company that did a lot of utility-scale solar, I’d be making good bank and my job would send me to all kinds of random locations for months at a time, with a per diem stipend to cover living expenses. I can absolutely see rolling up in this thing, and just parking my ass on the jobsite for the whole time I was there. It would be awesome. That may even be my life eventually, depending on how my career goes. I imagine there are more cost-effective ways to do that than by buying an F-450 and a million-dollar trailer that would work just as well, but the idea of it really works for me. God damn.
$640k?! FFS! (You knew it was comin’)
The Venn diagram of people who can afford this and the people who would camp in a trailer must have a very small ovelap.
Travel a lot with my TT around the US – I meet a lot of “rich” people who love their setup and freedom. Because my TT is quite large (but not expensive) my neighbors at campgrounds/RV parks are usually very, very well off – luxury RV’s with very expensive sports cars/toys.
Fenton is right, I’ve shared campgrounds with RVs that are easily >$500K in truck+trailer/bus, towed vehicle, and toys.
Yup, it’s 25 people per year.
This is for rich people to house guests at their ranch at Jackson Hole or similar.
Each 5kW LiFeO4 server rack battery weighs roughly ~100lbs.. 72kWh is ~1500lb rounded up, that’s a significant amount of weight to be dragging around. It doesn’t look like they are putting low on the chassis or between the axles. I wonder where they put them?
The hi-po battery pack is in the floor near(ish) the axles. I watched a YouTube walk through of one.
I’d rather have a small used private plane. No towed trailer could possibly ever be worth that kind of scratch to me. Maybe a bespoke classic GM 4106 conversion or something. But it would have to be hand crafted and machine work clean enough to eat off of. This kind of excess rivals tEarthRoamers, and isn’t nearly as capable.
Look on Youtuber called Low Buck Garage.. he is working on his dad’s bus. I think David had interview him before. I would say for that kind of money, I want one of those Euro off road road the world conversions.
I have a family member who has a small plane. He’s not rich but it costs a lot more money than most people think to buy, fly and store. And his plane is ancient (which he prefers)
It would take a lot of nights in a nice hotel to make this look economical.
Over a half a million dollars. Forget self propelled this bitch better convert to a VOTL. Where is the helicopter, hell where is the Flux Capacitor? Hey for this price give me a Malibu Beach House with a real live Barbie for cleaning, cooking, and sex. Okay no Barbie a block or two in from the beach Berta as a housekeeper and a 2nd level porn star. My favorite Julianna Kincaid.
You and I must be thinking of different Malibus at that price point…
But really… TMI.
Maybe the Rockford Files trailer Jim used to have in that beach restaurant parking lot in 1974?
But you would need to get beat up at least once per week.
Beautiful… and absolutely stupid.
I noticed the husband is an architect. I’m going to guess he’s either an architect who is a talented designer that has _zero_ actual building experience (meaning he doesn’t have any idea how to actually build something)… or he’s gouging the hell out of people.
I’m sure I _could_ spend $600K for someone to fabricate something like this. I’m also sure I could do it for $200K.
– An Architect.
I can’t find “edit” on my phone… so I’ll use “reply.”
– 6kw Cummins generator – $10k-ish if you bring your own.
– Watergen system – looks like around $4000. Yours here for 6 times that.
– 1kw solar looks like about $700-1200
– I don’t know what “bed sitting on suspension” means… but I found a “Magic Fingers” bed kit for about $80 bucks. I’m pretty sure 125 of them bolted under the bed is _way_ better than what these guys are offering.
This is worse than wine bottle markups at a restaurant.
Even with all-aluminum construction and its own electric brakes, I have a bad feeling this thing, once fully outfitted, will be pushing the limits of even an HD dually pickup’s braking capabilities.
Everything in this trailer can be obtained in, or upfitted onto, a higher-end Class A diesel-pusher motorhome. (A lot of which come equipped with double-pane windows standard. Just sayin’.) Dinghy tow a car, or get a compact enough car-hauler trailer and tow a vehicle plus some extra stuff. Plus you’ll have the safety factor of a vehicle with serious engine braking plus proper air brakes for that kind of loading.
Be really thrifty and buy a used Class A diesel-pusher — I’m thinking Newmar or older Monaco — and you can basically strip it and outfit it as nicely or better than this trailer, on a platform meant for long hauls and full-timing — and you probably still won’t spend more than the cost of a house. And that doesn’t look like a converted cargo trailer…
I agree with most of your post, but HD pickups are astonishingly capable, and have no problem bringing 30,000 lb trailers to a halt. TFL Truck regularly loads trucks to the max and tests their braking down a mountain pass. Most diesels can basically maintain speed with the exhaust brake alone.
Honestly at $639995.99, it’s a great deal. For 640k, I’m out.
In all honestly, I think it’s hilarious the Walmart priced a 6 figure trailer
$650k, touted as being livable down to below zero, but you have to pay extra for dual pane windows. Yeah, right. They’re apparently finding a couple of dozen suckers a year, but I want some of what they’re smoking! CP