The 1988 Toyota-Based Hippy Shack Ski Chalet Is a Dirt-Cheap Dream RV

The Hippy Shack is the dream motorhome, a ski chalet like no other, in that it offers warmth and comfort, and all the basic amenities, but it was dirt-cheap to built. It’s not just the fact that it cost Mark Rislove under $2,000 to make it that stands out, but the fact that he was able to do it mostly with salvaged materials, and still maintain the project’s integrity.

These days, we hear a lot about downsizing and intentional living. The idea of reducing one’s carbon footprint is admirable, for sure. The more clutter we remove from our hectic lives, the more likely we’re to reconnect to the things that matter – Mother Nature too, among those.

Downsizing and intentional living have concretized in the booming trend of tiny houses, trailer-based mobile units that promise a reduced carbon footprint for the sake of the environment, of our wallet and our well-being. The jump from theory to reality is a difficult one, though, and most of these tiny houses come with not-so-tiny house prices, which means their appeal remains limited to high-earners.

You could call the Hippy Shack a poor man’s version of a tiny, but this wouldn’t be an insult to Mr. Rislove. This mobile ski chalet is the very essence of intentional living, since it was built mostly with reclaimed or salvaged materials. It is a labor of love, out of a desire to build the perfect, dream motorhome that wouldn’t cost an arm (and a leg, and a kidney, and whatever other bodily part you could dispense of).

Rislove completed the Hippy Shack sometime in 2014, but even after all these years, it still gets attention. It was recently present at the 2021 Colorado Tiny House Festival that ran for two days last July, where it earned due praise for the smart use of materials and of space, and the high degree of comfort it offers.

The Hippy Shack is based on a 1988 Toyota truck Rislove found on Craigslist. It was in really bad shape but it was still running, so he offered the owner $500 for it. He didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the largest expense he’d make in the entire build. Initial repairs to the truck consisted of replacing a timing chain, a head gasket and all four tires.

Rislove then set out to build the chalet, for which he needed wood. To his luck, he found another ad on the same website, asking if anyone wanted redwood leftover from a demolished deck, free of charge. From the wood, Rislove built the floor and the walls, which were then lined with 2-inch Styrofoam salvaged from a demolition site for insulation. On top of the redwood boards, he placed reclaimed bamboo in the interior.

Rislove bought the metal sheets for the roof from Home Depot because it was “raining on my bamboo floor” so he didn’t have any time to spare. Everything else, from the skylight, the stove, the sink, the door and the windows, he also got from Craigslist.

Inside, the sky chalet offers 98 square feet (9.1 square meters) of living space, and sleeping for four people. There’s a double bed over the cab and another twin bed in the rear, right next to the sofa that also serves as seating bench. There’s a traditional wood-burning oven for heat, with Rislove taking all precautions to reduce fire risks. A propane heater kicks in on especially cold days. The skylight offers natural light and warmth on sunny days, and ventilation during the summer. It also makes for memorable moments of stargazing, when you sleep in the guest berth.

Though tiny, the Hippy Shack includes a full galley, with a three-burner stove, a sink and an ice box, and some space to throw together a hasty meal or some refreshments. There’s also storage for several pairs of skis and a heated box for boots. The basic amenities are covered, but you could still live (and eat and sleep) here comfortably for an entire week.

The Hippy Shack is not incredibly fast uphill, but it is reliable and does exactly what it was meant to do. The fact that it cost between $1,000 and $2,000 to build makes it all the more special.

“I’m not a carpenter, and I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I did a lot of things twice… but I did accomplish much of what I intended,” Rislove told Do It Yourself RV a while back. “Most of all, it’s impossible to go anywhere in it without making new friends and having a great time.”