Keep the important critical stuff in the vehicle towing the trailer. If you have to abandon the trailer for whatever reason, your most critical supplies would be in the towing vehicle. For example, keep 3 days of food and a sleeping bag in the towing vehicle. Have more food, etc, in the trailer.

Bo,
Knowing your situation as I do, I would recommend a twin axle camping trailer that you could modify to fit some very needed things in. A camping trailer would give you a toilet (makes women happy), usually has hot shower and a reasonable cooking area, along with built in lighting. Built in water heater, water and black water storage would be far easier to use than jugs in a truck. Most have heat and AC, some have their own generators.
My personal feelings are over the long term, it may be more workable than a rental truck. If TSHTF while you are on the boat can the wife load what you want in the truck alone? You could move some of the stuff you have stored in the garage and store it in the trailer, ready to go, if needed.
Camping trailers are very reasonable right now price wise.
Stu

More camping trailer/special needs to follow later PM

"...Keep the important critical stuff in the vehicle towing the trailer..."

That is what we do, the goodies are in a cross-bed tool box...

Just a couple of thoughts wildman:

A large truck though providing space for the necessary stuff also uses a lot of fuel.

Given the bug-out scenario described (diminishing fuel) a large truck or large trailer could prove to be a liability.

I don't have a better answer, just more questions.


Would renting a small , el-cheapo storage unit between home and bug out location be feasible? A place to stash some supplies.

Re-evaluate what would want to be brought along. Books can be scanned or notes taken on pertinent info.

I don't have an answer for the hospital bed. That's a toughie. But if the total load could be decreased then the size of transport can be decreased.

You got me thinking...

Hospital bed? OK, will the hospital bed have a person in it while driving? Can you get by with something smaller like a stretcher? If you need a full hospital bed your going to take some time loading it, maybe a toy hauler trailer would be better, you can drop the rear ramp and roll it on in. You can get those in shorter lower profile for smaller vehicles.

Renting a storage unit will have issues, some don't even have people there all the time so you have to go through an automated gate, but what if the situation your bugging out from has power down to the gate? Any storage facility easy enough for you to break into will also be easy enough for someone else to break in to and take your stuff.

Okay, let me clarify. What I'm speaking about is temporarily converting a 1 or 1.5 ton rental box truck into an instant temporary camper.

After I arrive at my destination Bug Out Location, I would set up a campsite, with:

cooking and toilet facilities (campstove and bucket on a table, a porta-potty in a tent) outside.

set up DD1's hospital bed up front, athwartships (behind the stacked/secured books,
run the sofa bed (sleeps 2 but would fit 3) down the port side,
place Armory on port side aft (between rear door and sofa),
store food and other supplies down starboard side,
fit folding chairs around to be used as needed.

DD1's wheelchair would be stored in our lift equipped van at night.

Have you considered a used school bus instead of a truck?

Old buses seem to go fairly cheaply still.
One of the medium sized ones might meet your needs, be wheelchair accessible and not require any special license or storage.
Rip the seats out and you have what amounts to a truck on a 2 ton or 5 ton frame with the bonus of windows and through access from the cab.
They are also big enough and heavy enough for holding tanks and a washroom to be fitted.
(they tend to be better maintained than rental trucks too)

Depends on where you get the school bus from but some places dont maintain them as well as they could. Your also going to have to make a door ig enough to fit a bed into.
I assume a lift equipped van is a full size van, I don't think I've seen any of the smaller ones equipped with lifts so its most likely good to pull a trailer. Sounds like the hospital bed bound person is able to travel via wheelchair in the van so that helps, you can get a small trailer and roll the bed up the ramp into it and hitch behind the van and go. a small enclosed trailer where you could sit in one side or stand partly up could hold other supplies like you say in the back of the rental truck.
There are more issues with a rental truck, first is availability, if a situation is bed enough that you need to leave then chances are a bunch of other people are going to need to leave as well and there will be some of them wanting rental trucks as well. You have to think about there being 200 people wanting the 100 trucks in the area and thats even if the rental place staff hasn't aleady left. I think it best to not rely on being able to get a truck.

Also keep in mind that in many US states and in some Canadian Provinces, finding an insurance company who will insure an old bus are not that plentiful...and these rates can be prohibitive in cost.

There was at one time, a Yahoo group devoted to old school buses that I used to subscribe to, the group which was called "Schoolies" IIRC.