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Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Originally Posted by MyVan
I started posting here over three years ago and I still free-sleep in my van. Check it out if you like and I'll be checking back here to see if anyone comes out of the woodwork. Living in my Van | An Adventure in Free Sleeping
Looks good ..... I wouldn't fondle that plant though, if I were you. It could be an atypical California poison oak. They have all shapes and colors of leaves, and while they almost always have "leaves 3, let it be", it's not always so.
Poison oak is about the most common wild shrub in California, so be cautious and don't make love or crap in the bushes if they even vaguely resemble it.
youtube has many videos by people who are living the "van life". Just pick times of the year and places to be that optimize the weather. your home has WHEELS, so use them, man. If it's a mini-van, nobody will notice it/you, as long as you stick to basic rules of when and how to do what, to avoid attracting attention. You don't show a light or hang curtains or do anything but sleep in your sleeping spots. dont' sleep any one place 2 nights in a row, or really, more often than once a week and don't repeat that place on the same night per week (ie, every saturday). You can do a lot of things in places where you don't sleep or stay long, as in convenience store or Wally's parking lots.
I've read this thread once, then spot read it over the weekend.
My retirement dream is to buy a travel trailer or 5th wheel. Regular motorhomes are way too expensive. RVs have issues though.
1. I don't think I'd be happy dragging along something so big! I can't imagine driving through a big city hauling a 30 footer behind me. I would freak the h*ll out!
2. They're big, and there are size restrictions on the length of camper you can have in the National Parks. There would be nothing so disheartening as driving to the National Park of your dreams and you can't stay, because your rig is so big.
3. There are issues with toxic chemicals used to build RVs. There are people who have to give up their RV because the formaldehyde just about...pickeled them.
4. RVs have so many confusing systems. I go to the RV forums and I hear talk of "just fit this doo-dad into that doo-dad, and make sure your running XXX amps/volts/btus/psi," ect. Yeah, and your new doo-dad springs a leak, sprays 4 inches of water all over, and your RV now needs thousands of dollars worth of repairs.
I haven't thought of a van, but no way, those are for destitute people living "down by the river." (I'm being facetious here, don't take offense.) Then I thought, "Why the heck not?"
Vans are smaller, easier to drive, will fit into National Park campgrounds. I'm thinking of one of the Ford Transit cargo vans, they come in differening lengths, roof heights, and even engines. Going to wait a couple of years and see how the reliability on those vans are though.
I have plenty of camping gear, propane stove, and good stout oak furniture that would fit. A twin bed, rocking chair, and camp kitchen gear. Find a carpenter to build me some cedar overhead bins to mount on the walls, like the ones on airplanes. *Sniff*, mmmmm, pure cedar. Work out the health and sanitation issue and yeah, I can turn on the Daniel Boone in me.
My ideal would be to live an outdoors lifestyle. My living space is the outdoors, but I have a hard-shelled sleeping area, so I'm not cramped in a van, unless I'm weathering out a storm. There's plenty of dispersed camping on National Forest land, BML land, campgrounds, Workcamping. When I need supplies, just go into town, dump garbage, take on water and food, "stealth" it for a few days, and I'm off to the woods again.
I'm glad I read this thread again. Gives me some direction. This is a almost a 10-year plan.
Hope Mac_Muz is doing ok. He's fun to read. MyVan, glad to see you're doing ok. Good to see you.
Vans are smaller, easier to drive, will fit into National Park campgrounds.
Yes, they are, and although we have both a 30' camper and a 5th wheel, we have not done any real travelling or camping in them. I have a couple of nice pickups, though, and spotted this on Youtube (below) about a guy who built himself a one-man camper on the back of his pickup for almost nothing. It's surprisingly roomy and can be removed whenever he wants to remove it.
There are other options to the traveling mcmansions in their homage to overindulgence and ostentatious overconsumption.
Many "camp" trailer RVs are bigger and nicer than some apartments or houses
If you want just basic shelter with some amenities like refrigeration and heat, and in my country, a hard sided place to sleep safe from bears, there are a lot of what are called "mini-campers" or lightweight campers out there. Palomino RV - Manufacturer of Quality RVs since 1968
This is just one brand.
If you want to make it a way of life, having a warm safe place to sleep and cook and shelter from the storm, these are a good option.
For long term living they offer a comfort that smaller vans and pickup shells don't really provide, however, they are a camper so not as under the radar as the van or pickup shell.
I will say though, being married, having a shower, bathroom and refrigerator make life a lot easier if you're sharing your space with a wife, and as I get older, a soft bed is becoming more and more welcome than sleeping on the cold hard ground.
I've been looking at the mini trailers, (not the teardrop style), for extended hunting and fishing to places in the far ends of my state. As most of the hunting seasons are during inclimate weather conditions, and the wife comes with me, having a lightweight trailer that I can park at a campground or public land site, and use as a base camp is a very viable option as a trailer leaves room in the pickup for hauling game and mobility that a pickup camper doesn't offer.
Yes, they are, and although we have both a 30' camper and a 5th wheel, we have not done any real travelling or camping in them. I have a couple of nice pickups, though, and spotted this on Youtube (below) about a guy who built himself a one-man camper on the back of his pickup for almost nothing. It's surprisingly roomy and can be removed whenever he wants to remove it.
I used a pickup shell on one truck I had to make a camper similar to the one in the video. The wife and I camped in it at -30 degrees.
I found out I needed a lot more insulation, and cooking outside in those conditions wasn't pleasant, and water was a real issue due to freezing.
In a temperate place like Arizona, it would be fine, but in my country, you need a lot more to be livable all year round.
Granted; also true where I live (and where Mac lives). But the poster expressed an interest in a smaller unit, indicating that cost was a factor, so just wanted to show that such a thing could be done inexpensively.
We used our camper and 5th wheel while building the house, in summer of 2013. It sure beat sleeping in a tent with 2 other guys! We use them now for family and friends who come to visit. I also took the 5th wheel out to our other woodlot nearby, for lunches and resting when spending the day over there. We're still cutting wood; BIL and I got out about 20 cord of wood this winter. Guess I'll leave the 5th wheel over there.
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I don't know
Guess I'll leave the 5th wheel over there.
