Living in a Van?

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rgomez

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This might sound strange but while surfing the web for cheap ways to live on the road I found some sites of people who lived in vans. The type to buy for driving not living in Vans. Do not know how but is it possible to survive like that? I know its cheap since some new ones go as low as $20K and have enough room for 1 person to 'live' in if (s)he removes the back seats. Another site I found was from a gypsy type girl who bought a used van and lives on the road doing small jobs like retail or food to pay for expenses and after a month or 2 leave and go back on the road.

I wonder about this since I plan to ride solo and am frugal about stuff and might just buy a new van with 4WD to try it out. Said something on there about using baby wipes and such for cleaning yourself and some type of non wash shampoo and soup to save as much water as possible. For those on a dime it seams like a good but nor comfy thing to do. Another point it brought out was that you would not need to stay at RV parks since parking a van at a store like walmart won't get much attention even in city's that ban sleeping at stores.

http://wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com/ongoing-added-to-description-of-how-to-live-in-your-van/ <-one of the sites I found but did not save the others.
 
A couple of winters ago I met a guy in AZ that lived in a van. He was spending the winter there.  He said there were a number of people in CA doing it but the police were wise to them and were clamping down on overnight stays in parks and so forth. He complained bitterly about  the police "harassment".

In any case over the years I have seen people living full time in a various types of things - slide in pickup campers, an Airstream mounted on a flat bed truck and one in a bicycle trailer even.

It doesn't sound like fun to me though.
 
I lived in a van for 5 years. It is doable and the police rarely hassled me once I figured out where I could spend the night. The van I lived in cost under $1000 and only had a bed. I got me an old used Class A motorhome with a shower and a stove and all the trimmings and it is 1000 times better than living in a van. Cost me only $2600.
 
I agree, it's do-able to the degree of your own comfort...  I plan on going full time this summer and decided when I bought my vehicle that a van would be a little too small, even for a single guy.  I decided on a 23ft class C and I think I'll have enough room to move around..
 
http://cheaprvliving.com/index.html <- Another site made for people in vans and such.

I would like to try out a Van such as a Ford Escape or Honda Element for living I wonder what you do if you are snowed in up north at -4 and your battery dies cutting off your 12V heater  :-\. I'm going to be 19 in a month so I thought about saving up for a Van since I won't be doing any full-timing for years to come and just need a vehicle for driving and working where I drive. From what I read I should put all the money I would be spending on rent + utilities into a savings account. If lets say if I spend $700/month on rent+utilities thats $8,400 I will be saving a year making a small little nest egg to use on the road. No one really notices cars or vans parked at busy stores that are open 24/7 while parking in a lot that will be empty come night-time is not a good idea.
 
Ever since Saturday Night Live did a comedy bit on ?Living in a van down by the River? (which was hilarious), some people assume that it's a pretty shabby way to live. In reality, if a person doesn't have a problem with small spaces, you can turn a cargo van into a very pleasant little micro-RV that?ll go just about anywhere.

Mine is a Ford E-150 cargo van. It's fully equipped with wi-fi, pro photography gear, a mountain bike, an inflatable kayak, a very comfortable chair and bed, cooking capability, a toilet, and a solar system. I wash my body (just like you would your face) with a soapy microfiber cloth, using a plastic dishpan for a sink and gallon jugs of water refilled at Glacier water machines. It may be unconventional, but it gets you squeaky clean.

I?ve been van camping for a year now, in the western U.S., and I wrote a book about putting my little camper together. I took a ?casual? approach to the interior, so it?s not so much ?house-like? as it is practical and reasonably priced:
Roger
 
If your looking for a stealth camper van. I'd go with a high top convention van.    That few extra inches of high make a world of differance
 
Yep, it sure does make a difference. It makes cops and thieves think your van is full of stuff (like dope or weapons) I've lived in a mini-van for many months at a timeand nobody notices you.  Simply put the dark, "privacy tint" sheeting on your windows. The side windows do not need to be transparent at all, so you can block those very cheaply.

Remove the rear seats, of course, and the passenger seat too. Install, in their place, 3-4 low chests of drawers (cut down some tall ones if need be) and have 3 of the large plastic storage containers from Dollar General.  anchor them in place with bungee cords stretched to  eye bolts in the sides and floor. The cords also keep the drawers shut. When you need room to sleep, simply set the containers atop the chests. One chest for your week's worth of clothes. One for food, food prep gear, food storage gear, and utensils.  One for miscellanously useful stuff. I also keep a toolbox to help me repair the old $1000 van. :) It's 15 years old, with 240,000 miles on it (Dodge caravan V6) Living like that only puts on about 100 miles per week, and at  20 mpg, it costs very little for gas.  Park near where you work (or hang out or attend college). 

If you havent used up your college loans and grants, there's 26k waiting for you, for just a year's worth of easy classes (jr college level). if you've got  3.25 gradepoint average, there's 6k more available, in that same time span.  Add in 2k for a year's food stamps and 3k for a year's sales of blood plasma, "flying a sign" at intersections, a bit of day labor, some small "gigs" on craigslist, and you're talking 35k in a year. Cash in your hand, basically.  Your first loan will be only about  6k, but there's no background check, no credit check, and you don't owe on it until 6 months after you leave school (which can be 6 years, they'll pay towards your master's degree for  2 years and it's twice as much per year. )  your actual school expenses for this time period can be as low as 8k. the textbooks are in the school library, so don't blow $600 per semester buying books!
 
your actual living expenses, for this sort of thing, run under 10k per year. so you can get-together on helluva grubstake pile of money, pretty quick and easy. If you know what to do with that 20-25k, it can set you up really nice.  What you do is spend 5k or so getting a third worlder here, who is an engineer, physicist, MD, etc, and who can/will pay you 40k per year, for 5 years, for making it possible for them to make 150k+ per year here. It takes them 5 years to become citizens, you see. If they divorce you sooner than that, they must leave the USA.  That aint gonna happen.  Then you need not care that the Dept of Education wants back $400 per month on your school loan, eh? Repeat the 3rd worlder if need be, but don't push it any further than that, cause Immigration will say that your marriages are "shams", which is then a Federal crime.
 
I"m 62, just started SS, and have a (small, but exandable) vet's disabilty. I got a jr college degree without using my loans/grants, so now it's time to get mine. :) I've got a lovely 22 year old Asian wife who has a Bachelor's in Nursing (in her home country) So she has to take  30 hours of nursing in a US college, in order,to have a Degree here. Then it costs her 10k per year for graduate studies, but  she'll get  40k per year (2 years) of loans and grants towards her master's degree.  Then she'll start out making  $80 an hour. Half of what she clears is mine for 5 years.  What's left over after her expenses, I will invest for her, in apartment buildings (big old houses, converted) bought with my VA home loans, divided up into small rooms, rented out for  $100 per week (20 or more per house) as "sober-living' contracts.  :) HUGE return on investment, that sort of deal.  She'll own several of them by the time she's a US citizen, and be clearing 20k per year each.. So will I, of course.  If she wishes, she'll be retired at age  30.  So it's a great deal for both of us.
 
I just feel the need to post a response to this latest turn.  I think that this is just wrong on several levels.  I should probably just keep quiet but it does bother me and morally I have to say I disagree with this scenario.
 
WOW...Talk about using the system. No wonder taxes are getting higher

HueyPilotVN said:
I just feel the need to post a response to this latest turn.  I think that this is just wrong on several levels.  I should probably just keep quiet but it does bother me and morally I have to say I disagree with this scenario.

I will assume you are talking about getting college grant money while living in a van? How is that either immoral or the cause of taxes that are alleged to be "getting higher?"

I'd rather see people striving for a GPA above 3.25 than many, many other things that really do raise your taxes.

I call for lock down of this thread.  LOL
 
Nothing to do with living in a van.......I think the problem is getting grants for education and then only using part of it for that...and pocketing the rest. The 1st of his posts are more of the same.  Thats the way I read it anyways.
 
if you move the vehicle, morning and night, and have no living features showing in it (no sink, toilet, shower, clothing, etc,) you are legally parked and there's nothing the cops can do about it.  harass you, tell you to move, but that's it. guys are too stupid or lazy to do this, use high top vans, or get noticed in other ways, they have trouble. But I did it, with a mini van, for the better part of a year, never had a problem.

A clue, tho, is to take at least one class (a very few hundred bucks per semester) at a small town college. You'll have access to a shower, microwave, library, charging-power for phone and laptop, cheap, fresh food, etc  A major benefit to this is that the local cops will have been told to be very nice to all  the students. :) You'll have a parking pass for business hours on campus, too. :)
 
smept said:
if you move the vehicle, morning and night, and have no living features showing in it (no sink, toilet, shower, clothing, etc,) you are legally parked and there's nothing the cops can do about it.  harass you, tell you to move, but that's it. guys are too stupid or lazy to do this, use high top vans, or get noticed in other ways, they have trouble. But I did it, with a mini van, for the better part of a year, never had a problem.

A clue, tho, is to take at least one class (a very few hundred bucks per semester) at a small town college. You'll have access to a shower, microwave, library, charging-power for phone and laptop, cheap, fresh food, etc  A major benefit to this is that the local cops will have been told to be very nice to all  the students. :) You'll have a parking pass for business hours on campus, too. :)

For what it's worth, you may be wrong on the bolded above. In my understanding, more locales than not have laws expressly banning sleeping in vehicles. I can't cite more detail on the laws or locales for you, and RVs must somehow be exempted but people are regularly arrested for sleeping in cars. At a minimum, you will be shaken down for possible DWI.

This may be my last post in this thread because it really has turned into a topic astray from the board's intent.
 
I agree that many places are trying to solve the homeless problem by making the laws more and more and more restrictive.

I will not post my opinion of that.... Other than to say that I feel there must be a better way to go about it.
 
One option is "Wally Docking", like boondocking/dry camping, but using WalMart, Flying J/Pilot truckstops, and other stores with large parking lots amenable to overnight camping.  Some do over-stay their welcome and get booted, but if one is careful to not cause a problem, it's an option.  Just ask the management if it's alright to sleep overnight - most will say 'yes'.
Another option is a night job allowing you to park at night there, then you can park elsewhere during the day like any other patron.
Do some Googling and Youtubing on 'van dwelling'.  "It ain't rocket science"......    8)
 
I lived out of a backpack for one week when I was 25. Could have done it for a year, easily, but chose to get a job.
Probably, thinking back, could have delayed that job a year.
I'm 62 now and could do it again, but there are other interesting options. To imagine is to find ways.
I'm married now and frankly would like to have her company, but I'm not convinced she would follow me living out of two backpacks.
One backpack too far.
It's really about available dollars and relationships. What one man can do, another can not do or would not want to do.
If the idea of living in a van appeals to you, it would probably work for you. Actually, besides sleeping, you don't need much more if you put your mind to it. Mosts exits have restrooms and there is always the bushes. You don't need anything more than a pot and cookstove to get buy. Water is quite available, so are relationships.
 
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