17 ms·

Living in a Van

210 points by rohin 14y ago

mahyarm 14y ago
Tynan lives in his van RV in SF and works on his startup full time. He's been living in it for years. If I was going to do this, I would get a roadtrek and remove the decals. They stand out the least. http://tynan.com/community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction http://tynan.com/community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction
systematical 14y ago
I had this idea a while back to just travel the United States working on freelance ideas, but geeze...
ChuckMcM 14y ago
I met Steve Roberts [1] at a conference when he was riding his bike around the country (pedal power). And he was living this life by choice. When I moved to the Bay Area it was in the midst of a huge recession (chip companies were dying, fabs were closing). I thought a bit about it, and wondered what it would be like. I've always wondered if, when flying high, folks might put together a 'bug out plan' which included mobile accommodations. [1] http://nomadness.com/ http://nomadness.com/
kurtvarner 14y ago
I lived from my car for 4 months in Silicon Valley while working on my startup. I got along just fine in a two door Honda Civic. I posted the details in an answer on Quora (even included a couple videos). http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strategy-to-cut-costs-1/answer/Kurt-Varner http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strat...
mikegirouard 14y ago
> Actually, you’d break even much sooner because your camper van is an asset. If you bought a used camper van from the 1980s, it’s unlikely to lose much more value under your watch. If you fix it up, it may even have appreciated in value when you look to sell it. If you resell it for anywhere near what you paid for it, you break even in just a couple of months. If you found a great deal on a van, you’d break even sooner. If you drove it around a lot and had high fuel costs, you might not. Random, slightly OT thought: I never thought about buying used vehicles from this perspective. I've always thought of an auto as purely a liability.
- sukuriant 14y ago
  When talking with a lamborghini dealer, I was informed that some exceptionally rich people will purchase one of those, keep it for 3 years, and then sell it back at a profit because they depreciate so slowly. I thought this was interesting.
  - salgernon 14y ago
    Unless they just leave it parked, they are unlikely to recoup the cost of maintaining it over that time: http://www.secretentourage.com/lifestyle/autos/cost-of-ownership-of-an-exotic-car/ http://www.secretentourage.com/lifestyle/autos/cost-of-owner... I was bit by this in my early 20s when I bought a really nice BMW, I hadn't considered that dealer servicing would end up costing so much. But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
    - pdog 14y ago
      They do just leave it parked. Exceptionally rich people who buy Lamborghini and other exotic cars usually have several or even dozens of them. For the most part, they just sit in the garage.
    - sukuriant 14y ago
      for what it's worth, dealer servicing is now free for 3 or so years on BMW's... makes that pain ... much more bearable.
    - MrMember 14y ago
      I'm not much of a car guy, why are oil changes on exotics so much more expensive than on your average car?
      - lgbr 14y ago
        Exotics have large oil pans. Your typical Murcielago requires 11 liters of oil to change, and that's synthetic, not dinosaur oil. Add to that an oil filter that is shipped from Italy. You're also changing the transmission oil, which also must be synthetic. There may be some other maintenance that the dealer likes to perform (brake fluid? spark plugs?) at the same time as an oil change. Add dealer markup and insurance to all of this and you're easily over $500.
danielna 14y ago
I saved a link to my pinboard a while back about a couple who sold all their possessions and took a VW van through North/Central/South America and in and around Africa. Super interesting read: http://www.vwvagabonds.com/ http://www.vwvagabonds.com/
aandon 14y ago
I just finished living the van life while running a company for two months. My goal was to wake up with a new view (and sunrise if I was ambitious) every morning and there are some fantastic ones in the SF Bay Area. (Little secret: the parking lot next to Chrissy Field is wide open and gets epic sunrises over Alcatraz.) It becomes naturally easy to go for a morning swim or hike before work. At least in San Francisco, there are a lot of people living out of RVs and vans and you start to follow their lead and find the good places to park. I bought a cargo van from an electrician and built a full size bed that converts into a seat and some shelves for my stuff. Coincidentally, I just put my van up for sale on craigslist yesterday, so if anyone wants to carry the torch, hit me up! http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/3316494260.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/3316494260.html
sharkweek 14y ago
If you think you can handle some sweaty palms, Alex Honnold, one of the best free solo climbers in the world, lives in his van so he can easily get from park to park and seems to absolutely thrive off the lifestyle -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ There is something that appeals to my personality to live out of a van and just move on a whim but I don't think I would ever have the guts to go for it.
- cgh 14y ago
  Yes, this sort of living is pretty normal in climbing circles. I live in my truck part of each year while I'm on the road. I know guys who have been living in their vehicles for years, one guy for nearly two decades.
  - bmj 14y ago
    Yep. My family spends ~2 months a year living in our VW van, travelling to various climbing areas. Though I do enjoy our time on the road, I also really enjoy coming back to my home.
rdl 14y ago
My favorite "living in a van" story is http://www.hobostripper.com/ http://www.hobostripper.com/ (I wonder how much worse a van is than a military trailer. Those range from 40x12 with private bathroom and nice furnishings down to 10x8 with a roommate and no bathroom. It's probably a lot easier due to everyone else around you doing exactly the same thing, and there being portapotties, shower trailers, etc. freely available.) I lived in a car for a month or so around the Bay Area (mostly because it was easier than finding an apartment); I'd do a hotel once or twice a week (and stay from 6am one day to 4pm the next day), and a 24h fitness membership (showers, etc. nationally) is $10-12.50/mo through Costco. I really wouldn't recommend car living, though.
- GFischer 14y ago
  Would that scale for someone who wanted to do an extended visit to the Bay Area? (say a month or so) I'd like to visit San Francisco, but, apart from the US Visa and airfare, accomodation doesn't seem cheap (I haven't researched much but it comes up all the time here on HN). Food, oddly enough, sounds cheaper than in my 3rd world country.
  - Cass 14y ago
    Have you researched hostels? They're still not cheap by the standards of developing countries, but when I stayed in SF a few years ago, a bed at a hostel could be had for a fifth of what a hotel would have cost me, and certainly beats sleeping in a car. On the other hand, I found food shockingly expensive, and I come from Germany.
    - GFischer 14y ago
      Interesting. I've stayed in hostels, and they are indeed cheap, and no, I haven't researched at all, it was just a thought. I haven't seen AirBnB either :)
  - rdl 14y ago
    I think it would suck if you were not actually familiar with the area first. I'd just do a hostel or cheap hotel or crash with friends (couchsurfing, etc.) Also, hotel rates now are a lot higher than they were in 2002-2003 (which was the middle of a tech recession). Craigslist used to have short-term sublet inventory, but now it's pretty weak.
cma 14y ago
It can go horribly wrong: http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless.html http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homele...
markerdmann 14y ago
This reminds of a good friend. He got a job making six figures at Google straight out of college, and then lived in his van--in the Google parking lot--while saving every penny he earned. He took showers on campus and only ate free Google food. After a few years, he went into a mini-retirement and devoted his time to traveling around the world and volunteering.
- psychotik 14y ago
  That's about the most justifiable reason I've heard for (temporarily) living in a van/car.
  - jat1 14y ago
    I lived in the van Monday-Thursday while working in London (my home is around 130miles to the east). Not a problem and not uncomfortable. I sometimes used the showers at the office but my van is fully equipped with shower,toilet heaters etc. I wasn't the only one doing it either, and after a while you spot other likely vans.
- Osiris 14y ago
  I would have loved to save money right out of school, being as frugal as I am, but I was married when I graduated and the first thing my wife wanted after I got my first (low paying) full time job? A house. So much for the life of a cheapskate.
  - Cass 14y ago
    Putting money into a house you'll presumably be able to live in rent-free once it's paid off may not be a drastically worse choice than putting your money into savings. Unless it was an impractically huge house, or otherwise somehow not a keeper, I wouldn't consider that a frivolous/non-frugal purchase.
    - Dilan 14y ago
      You could always take a mortgage out on the house, rent out the house and live in the van.
icebraining 14y ago
It seems to me that a water reservoir with a tube going near the engine (for heating) and a small water pump, coupled with an inflatable bathtub could solve the shower problem. I've never lived in a van, but my family used to go camping and we used a similar system (inflatable bathtub inside the tent) so that my younger brother could take a bath even if it was too cold outside for him.
- krschultz 14y ago
  It's far simpler than that for most of the year, solar powered showers are $20 and work really well (often, too well, I've been burned by one camping). http://www.amazon.com/Stearns-SunShower-showers-Capacity-gallons/dp/B000NVC1JY http://www.amazon.com/Stearns-SunShower-showers-Capacity-gal...
gavanwoolery 14y ago
Not quite a van or RV, but I have always found the tiny house movement interesting. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ Many of them are small enough that you can legally tow them anywhere.
- vijayr 14y ago
  Wowwwww !! These look absolutely beautiful. But one still needs to own a piece of land. What would be interesting though, is a bunch of people buying a piece of land (sharing the land/electricity/water costs), and living in half a dozen of these on the land. Don't know about the legality of it, but it would be awesome
  - mdbennett 14y ago
    Actually, many of the tiny house floor plans are designed to fit on a flatbed trailer. Not as easy to manage overnight parking as a van, but pretty feasible. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/5912813-trailers http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/5912813-tra...
  - pilom 14y ago
    I think what you're recommending is called a trailer park. A trailer park with a very strict community guidelines.
    - dwiel 14y ago
      kind of. A typical trailer park trailer is easily 800-1000 square feet compared to these which are 80-120 square feet. Similar relationship to neighbors though. Im actually founding a community similar to this right now. We have2.25 acres of land, and each house can have no bigger than 400 square foot footprint (though can be 2 stories tall). Land not occupied by houses will be shared.
  - gavanwoolery 14y ago
    Yeah, certain types of land are zoned for multi-residence accommodations, and many RV parks are not too strict on their guidelines (higher-end RV parks are often very strict, and often only permit diesel/class A vehicles). Many lots of land are cheap enough that the cost could be split easily (in many remote areas, land can be bought for (literally) a few dollars per acre).
patio11 14y ago
This seems like a romantically bohemian way to approximate a pampered middle class kid's idea of how poor people live. If you want to save money, you can try what they actually do, which is move to a less desirable neighborhood and spend one third what you do on rent for an apartment. You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. There's old folks on social security and single mothers in your town. Most of them don't shower with wet wipes. I can't tell if my revulsion for this idea is class disdain because I'm too well off to consider it or class disdain because when I wasn't well off we had too much pride to ever stoop to anything like that.
- tgrass 14y ago
  Patrick, he does write "it’s worth noting that we are talking about people that want to live in vans." I was a lower middle class kid with a lackluster middle class education and good manners so I was able to scrape by on $17K a year and "live" off my motorcycle and later out of my truck in between stints at a lodge in back country Alaska. It was privileged. Sure. And there were before the crash many of us doing it. None of us had any responsibilities. Why the disdain? No one ever claimed it was more than it was. There's a leisure class at both ends of the economic spectrum. For the most part, there were very few Trustafarians. We were middle class kids who wanted to climb/write novels/surf/snowboard/insert your interest here. We all sacrificed future income for those days. No need for disdain. We all make our own choices. [EDIT] Here's a current stream of a couple living the dream: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drive-Nacho-Drive/218388858200902?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drive-Nacho-Drive/21838885820...
  - mturmon 14y ago
    Thanks for this counterpoint. I've met various beach bums, ski instructors, and summer resort waiters, from all social classes, who were taking a break in this way. Compare also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_year and the concept of a wanderjahr.
- GladHatter 14y ago
  I'm not sure if the allure is necessarily the bohemian way of feeling poor. I think much of it has to do with the minimalism of the experience. The ability to pack up and move on at a moments notice has 'starting over' feel to it, which can be quite nice. Kind of like refactoring crufty code.
carlsednaoui 14y ago
Not receiving data on my end - here is the cached page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:blog.priceonomics.com/post/32944888191/living-in-a-van http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:blog.pr...
kqr2 14y ago
My favorite is this RV built by 3 Japanese students: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/tiny-transformer-rv-camper-turns-from-truck-to-two-storey-house.html http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/tiny-tr... More details: http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~gyo/English/index.htm http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~gyo/English/index.htm
- thirdtruck 14y ago
  I could see a whole market for those.
- pirateking 14y ago
  This is so cool. Will be great training for living on a spacecraft someday soon.
exabrial 14y ago
Obligatory Chris Farley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhgfjrKi0o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhgfjrKi0o
daveman 14y ago
Regarding the topic of internet access, I wonder how many van dwellers resort to piggybacking on nearby homeowners' unsecured wifi networks? Seems like if you're trying to minimize costs, rolling up alongside an open network is a great way to get your Hulu and Netflix without going over your data limits.
- timmaah 14y ago
  Granted I've been in campgrounds the last few months and not near many residential neighborhoods, but my experience is that its more trouble than it is worth. We have a wifi extender on the roof of our travel trailer. Finding an open wifi is fairly rare these days. Even campground offered wifi is hit or miss on speed. Our 3g data card rocks. 20gig a month gives us a little leeway on streaming. We make due with local news and a stash of Seinfeld and Sopranos.
pclark 14y ago
never thought i'd get a chance to promote foster hunting on hacker news, but et voila: the polar opposite of this article – something that would inspire you to want to live in a van – can be found on this fantastic blog: http://www.arestlesstransplant.com http://www.arestlesstransplant.com
- threejay 14y ago
  I concur. This is one of my absolute favorite blogs.
- mturmon 14y ago
  Beautiful. Reminds me of so many people I've seen at beaches and campgrounds out west.
timmaah 14y ago
Great time to be living. My wife and I sold most of our stuff and have been living nomadically the last 4 months while continuing to work full time. Though we are in an Airstream, not a van. Started in Vermont and currently beach front on the Oregon coast. Truly awesome http://www.watsonswander.com/ http://www.watsonswander.com/ It is turning out to be just slightly cheaper than when we owned a house. Averaged $27 a night the last two months for campground fees and $20 a day on gas.
- brc 14y ago
  Hey, I love your Airstream. Been thinking dirty thoughts about one for a long time, but I've been reluctant to pull the trigger because of a lack of time to really put the work in. There are so many around to pick from it becomes bewildering which way to look. You do know you've lowered the value by taking out all the original kit, right :)
United857 14y ago
This guy goes one step further; living in a Honda Civic: http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strategy-to-cut-costs-1/answer/Kurt-Varner http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strat...
- GFischer 14y ago
  He's on HN and posted his link :) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4617792 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4617792
  - astine 14y ago
    I have a friend who lived in a Honda Accord for three months. He says his goal was to save money but his friends (including myself) are convinced that he was just too lazy to look for an apartment.
tiramisu 14y ago
When I worked in Palo Alto and lived in SF, the daily commute felt tolerable for three days of the week and then became intolerable for the last two days of the week. After quitting my job and getting a trailer to travel the country, I figured out that a solution to the commute would have been to buy a trailer/van while in SV and park it permanently in one of the huge lots at work and overnight there when I didn't feel like driving back to SF. Like vans, some trailers, like Airstreams or vintage "canned hams", don't depreciate if taken care of.
skulegirl 14y ago
For the frugal traveller who wants to live in a van but move around (perhaps while developing your web app or similar), we've started a community where fellow RV'ers (or people who just like RVers) offer their driveways to others to camp on for a night or two for free - http://www.boondockerswelcome.com http://www.boondockerswelcome.com. We're going to start charging a small annual fee to cover our costs, but for $25/year you can travel all over the continent and park your van for free. Of course, this doesn't solve the bathroom or showering issue, as most people aren't opening up their bathrooms to their guests. But my mom (who has a small Roadtrek RV, which is really no bigger than a van and has no shower), has travelled for 5 months at a time getting by with showers in the occasional truck stop or an outdoor shower that she uses when they're parked in the forest. (There's also tons of free parking for RVs in US National forests BTW, plus lots of other spots. My mom writes e-books all about the free "boondocking" locations she's discovered complete with GPS co-ordinates and interesting nearby attractions - find them at http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com. http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com.) I know that this comment reads like a big advert, but if hackers here are actually interested in living on the cheap while launching their bootstrapped startup, these are actually viable options.
marshallp 14y ago
This will get much easier when robocars come out. You won't have to worry about police and zoning laws, the car can move every once in a while or continuously be moving. If robocar renting takes off you don't even the cash up front to pay for one. Showers and toilets can be separately moving robocars so this can all be done in small vehicles rather than large RV's. The fuel would electric (robocars recharge themselves from electric gas stations) so the costs of all this would be minimal as well. If this all plays out well, apartments, and even houses should see a drop in value (a good thing because too much of wealth is being plowed into the unproductive economy of land owning - it can instead shift to purchasing engineered products).
- pyoung 14y ago
  That would be an interesting future. Go to a bar at night (dropped off by your robocar/house). Get really drunk. Get picked up by your robocar/house. Wake up really hungover, shower, change and then walk out of your robocar/house that is parked right in front of your office. Go to work. Not sure why this was the first thing that came to my mind, but it would be pretty damn cool.
rohin 14y ago
Author here. In the article I link to a 60 Minutes segment that follows around families in Florida that turn to living in their cars as a last resort. Worth checking out as it offers a very different perspective on the experience: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389750n http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389750n
- timmaah 14y ago
  Your article is a good one, but the tone towards RV's and living in campgrounds is oddly negative. >>An RV is basically a house on wheels and isn’t particularly inexpensive or minimalist. Our was pretty inexpensive, is more minimalist than most US based folks and will hold its value just like the camper vans you mention. >>If you pay to stay at a campsite, it’s most certainly legal, but then this lifestyle ceases to be inexpensive. $25-$30 a night is most certainly cheaper than most mortgages or apartments.
  - prodigal_erik 14y ago
    I wouldn't say "most". $800/month may not go very far in SF or NY, but it's about what I was paying for a large two-bedroom apartment in Seattle, and flyover country is cheaper still.
  - Cass 14y ago
    You can get a pretty decent apartment for $900 per month in most parts of the country.
jonstjohn 14y ago
I lived in my van for about 6 months after I graduated from college in Portland, OR. I spent part of that time up in Alaska, working in the fisheries (unloading fish from boats with a great group of guys) and the rest of my time in Portland trying to find places to park overnight in the city and trying to get back to a more stable life. There were good things and bad things. It definitely simplified my possessions and when I was in Alaska I could basically park my van anywhere overnight. But when I got back to Portland, it was a lot harder to find places to park where I wouldn't get harassed. I used my college (as an alum) gym showers and spent time in parks. This was 1996 so I wasn't too worried about internet connectivity and there definitely weren't any free wifi hotspots ;)
socalnate1 14y ago
A friend of mine did this in LA for a couple years and paid off his school loans. He worked for a company that had a full kitchen and showers, so he was able to use the office frequently for those necessities.
twotwotwo 14y ago
Lore Sjoberg, all-around awesome and hilarious guy (anyone remember the Brunching Shuttlecocks?), is in a van. A random recent post: http://loresjoberg.com/view/monkeyconversation/ http://loresjoberg.com/view/monkeyconversation/
grecy 14y ago
I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina, feelancing website design and code along the way. For the entire trip, my monthly expenses were less than they were in the 2 years prior just going to work every day. Yes, that includes gas for 40,000mi. I lived in my Jeep/tent the entire way. I plan on doing something similar (but bigger) again, and I'll be building a more livable vehicle with a sink, stove, fridge, better sleeping, etc. etc. http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure
phil 14y ago
This is common in the kayaking/climbing community. Every paddler I know living out of a van gets an old Toyota Previa. Why? They're cheap, fuel-efficient, readily available, easy to gut the back, and deal with dirt roads fairly well.
OldSchool 14y ago
The van thing should resonate with a lot of entrepreneurs. As a bootstrapped 20-something entrepreneur I couldn't help but secretly think "live in a van" was my backup no matter how well things were going.
Rickasaurus 14y ago
Don't worry honey, that "creepy" guy living in front of our house is actually just an entrepreneur!
mashmac2 14y ago
Completely doable; even in a smaller vehicle. I spent the second half of grad school living in a Hyundai Elantra - take out the back seats, sleeping between the trunk and the back seat. Not the most comfortable living, but completely doable. Mostly, the flexibility and minimalism appealed to me, the $ savings were a secondary benefit (and weren't that beneficial, as food costs go up without a refrigerator).
protomyth 14y ago
Plenty of people living in vans and cars in western ND since housing is such an issue. Heck, I have relatives renting spots on their front lawn and an electrical cord for $900/mo to people with campers. Their are plenty of interviews on the web about what that is like.
Tichy 14y ago
We spent our holidays as kids in such a VW and it was fantastic. That article made me miss those days. The holidays where always just a couple of weeks, though, so not like living in a van for good.
gogetter 14y ago
Didn't Chris Farley have something to say about living in a van, down by the river?
brc 14y ago
I spent 3 months travelling in a 1978 Dodge RV, which I bought in LA for about $3000, and spent maybe $500 on parts for. It looked much like the one pictured in the article. I tore out the broken toilet and put in a chemical one, repaired the plumbing for the shower and got it going, replaced the batteries and bought a new charger. They key to buying one of these is take your time, and try out all the stuff. While fixing engines is something any mechanic can do, you can't turn up to a mechanic with a malfunctioning water heater. I dumped the 'black' water from the toilet at public dumping stations (many towns have these) and stayed in state parks, which are not only beautiful in most cases, but are also usually just $10 or so a night. When I needed to fully charge, replenish supplies and so on, I would pay for an overnight in a RV park. I was on an extremely limited budget on the time, so free camped whenever I could, particularly so in expensive places like Monterey (bind : the most expensive places also have the most restrictive overnight parking laws). I never once got moved on. My tip is to find a public building that is empty at night to camp in front of. Pick a school, a local sports club, a library something like that. Something that won't have a ton of security but is also likely to be deserted. Don't park in front of peoples houses, you never know when you're going to get a paranoid who will call the cops. But at the same time, don't drive down lonely roads and park up, you're asking for trouble. You can always do the wal-mart thing, but only out of desperation. They aren't great places to stay, and because they are well-known, it's not a great idea if you're the only one. Be prepared to packup and move on early in the day, and most of the time you'll be OK Using this method, I saw 38 states & provinces, covered 11,000 miles and spent less money than most would spend on the average Las Vegas trip. A couple of buddies pitched in and filled up one of the storage areas with beer for me as a goodbye present. When I was done I donated the camper to one of those charity car collection companies and they drove it away. I think most young people should do something like this - living a frugal and simple life while enjoying travel is a great learning experience. Having since done a lot of travel in the 'modern' way of nice hotels, rental cars and the like, I still get wistful when I see a couple of scruffy looking youngsters making their way on a shoestring cash budget but a burgeoning enthusiasm supply.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  stayed in state parks... usually just $10 or so a night. So, $300/mo? covered 11,000 miles I'll be generous and say your 1978 RV got 10mpg. That puts you at around $4,000 in fuel costs, assuming this trip was in the past couple years. 1978 Dodge RV, which I bought in LA for about $3000... When I was done I donated the camper spent less money than most would spend on the average Las Vegas trip. Good lord. Based on my estimates, you racked up $7-8,000; how much do people spend in Vegas?
mathattack 14y ago
I thought this type of living went away with the Grateful Dead. I can see it as some sort of strange counter-culture, but to do it for financial reasons just seems absurd. Unless you are truly destitute, it ultimately carries so many other burdens that will add to the costs.
gadders 14y ago
I've never tried living like this, but we had a similar VW camper van that was our main car and also our holiday accommodation. One thing to remember - when you stop in a layby for the night, you will get on average 2-3 people think it is HILARIOUS to drive past with hand on their car horn.
allbombs 14y ago
all i can think about is chris farley "living in the van down by the river"
jat1 14y ago
I'm currently living in a van! Me and my long term girlfriend have taken some time from the 9-5 to travel around Europe for a while. Been on the road for almost three months now and it's done wonders for my mental state.y mind is clearer, I'm calmer and I feel better. I'm still trying to work on small projects and I have an osx utility I wrote entirely on the road using my MacBook Pro and the solar panels on the van to power it. It's not cheap, we are able to live on basically half of what we were living on before, but that's not the point of this journey for us. If your interested in our travels our blog is here http://www.wanderingeurope.co.uk http://www.wanderingeurope.co.uk

210 points by rohin 14y ago

Tynan lives in his van RV in SF and works on his startup full time. He's been living in it for years. If I was going to do this, I would get a roadtrek and remove the decals. They stand out the least. http://tynan.com/community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction http://tynan.com/community/living-in-a-small-rv-introduction

systematical 14y ago

I had this idea a while back to just travel the United States working on freelance ideas, but geeze...

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I met Steve Roberts [1] at a conference when he was riding his bike around the country (pedal power). And he was living this life by choice. When I moved to the Bay Area it was in the midst of a huge recession (chip companies were dying, fabs were closing). I thought a bit about it, and wondered what it would be like. I've always wondered if, when flying high, folks might put together a 'bug out plan' which included mobile accommodations. [1] http://nomadness.com/ http://nomadness.com/

kurtvarner 14y ago

I lived from my car for 4 months in Silicon Valley while working on my startup. I got along just fine in a two door Honda Civic. I posted the details in an answer on Quora (even included a couple videos). http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strategy-to-cut-costs-1/answer/Kurt-Varner http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strat...

mikegirouard 14y ago

> Actually, you’d break even much sooner because your camper van is an asset. If you bought a used camper van from the 1980s, it’s unlikely to lose much more value under your watch. If you fix it up, it may even have appreciated in value when you look to sell it. If you resell it for anywhere near what you paid for it, you break even in just a couple of months. If you found a great deal on a van, you’d break even sooner. If you drove it around a lot and had high fuel costs, you might not. Random, slightly OT thought: I never thought about buying used vehicles from this perspective. I've always thought of an auto as purely a liability.

sukuriant 14y ago
When talking with a lamborghini dealer, I was informed that some exceptionally rich people will purchase one of those, keep it for 3 years, and then sell it back at a profit because they depreciate so slowly. I thought this was interesting.
- salgernon 14y ago
  Unless they just leave it parked, they are unlikely to recoup the cost of maintaining it over that time: http://www.secretentourage.com/lifestyle/autos/cost-of-ownership-of-an-exotic-car/ http://www.secretentourage.com/lifestyle/autos/cost-of-owner... I was bit by this in my early 20s when I bought a really nice BMW, I hadn't considered that dealer servicing would end up costing so much. But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
  - pdog 14y ago
    They do just leave it parked. Exceptionally rich people who buy Lamborghini and other exotic cars usually have several or even dozens of them. For the most part, they just sit in the garage.
  - sukuriant 14y ago
    for what it's worth, dealer servicing is now free for 3 or so years on BMW's... makes that pain ... much more bearable.
  - MrMember 14y ago
    I'm not much of a car guy, why are oil changes on exotics so much more expensive than on your average car?
    - lgbr 14y ago
      Exotics have large oil pans. Your typical Murcielago requires 11 liters of oil to change, and that's synthetic, not dinosaur oil. Add to that an oil filter that is shipped from Italy. You're also changing the transmission oil, which also must be synthetic. There may be some other maintenance that the dealer likes to perform (brake fluid? spark plugs?) at the same time as an oil change. Add dealer markup and insurance to all of this and you're easily over $500.

danielna 14y ago

I saved a link to my pinboard a while back about a couple who sold all their possessions and took a VW van through North/Central/South America and in and around Africa. Super interesting read: http://www.vwvagabonds.com/ http://www.vwvagabonds.com/

aandon 14y ago

I just finished living the van life while running a company for two months. My goal was to wake up with a new view (and sunrise if I was ambitious) every morning and there are some fantastic ones in the SF Bay Area. (Little secret: the parking lot next to Chrissy Field is wide open and gets epic sunrises over Alcatraz.) It becomes naturally easy to go for a morning swim or hike before work. At least in San Francisco, there are a lot of people living out of RVs and vans and you start to follow their lead and find the good places to park. I bought a cargo van from an electrician and built a full size bed that converts into a seat and some shelves for my stuff. Coincidentally, I just put my van up for sale on craigslist yesterday, so if anyone wants to carry the torch, hit me up! http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/3316494260.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/3316494260.html

sharkweek 14y ago

If you think you can handle some sweaty palms, Alex Honnold, one of the best free solo climbers in the world, lives in his van so he can easily get from park to park and seems to absolutely thrive off the lifestyle -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ There is something that appeals to my personality to live out of a van and just move on a whim but I don't think I would ever have the guts to go for it.

cgh 14y ago
Yes, this sort of living is pretty normal in climbing circles. I live in my truck part of each year while I'm on the road. I know guys who have been living in their vehicles for years, one guy for nearly two decades.
- bmj 14y ago
  Yep. My family spends ~2 months a year living in our VW van, travelling to various climbing areas. Though I do enjoy our time on the road, I also really enjoy coming back to my home.

rdl 14y ago

My favorite "living in a van" story is http://www.hobostripper.com/ http://www.hobostripper.com/ (I wonder how much worse a van is than a military trailer. Those range from 40x12 with private bathroom and nice furnishings down to 10x8 with a roommate and no bathroom. It's probably a lot easier due to everyone else around you doing exactly the same thing, and there being portapotties, shower trailers, etc. freely available.) I lived in a car for a month or so around the Bay Area (mostly because it was easier than finding an apartment); I'd do a hotel once or twice a week (and stay from 6am one day to 4pm the next day), and a 24h fitness membership (showers, etc. nationally) is $10-12.50/mo through Costco. I really wouldn't recommend car living, though.

GFischer 14y ago
Would that scale for someone who wanted to do an extended visit to the Bay Area? (say a month or so) I'd like to visit San Francisco, but, apart from the US Visa and airfare, accomodation doesn't seem cheap (I haven't researched much but it comes up all the time here on HN). Food, oddly enough, sounds cheaper than in my 3rd world country.
- Cass 14y ago
  Have you researched hostels? They're still not cheap by the standards of developing countries, but when I stayed in SF a few years ago, a bed at a hostel could be had for a fifth of what a hotel would have cost me, and certainly beats sleeping in a car. On the other hand, I found food shockingly expensive, and I come from Germany.
  - GFischer 14y ago
    Interesting. I've stayed in hostels, and they are indeed cheap, and no, I haven't researched at all, it was just a thought. I haven't seen AirBnB either :)
- rdl 14y ago
  I think it would suck if you were not actually familiar with the area first. I'd just do a hostel or cheap hotel or crash with friends (couchsurfing, etc.) Also, hotel rates now are a lot higher than they were in 2002-2003 (which was the middle of a tech recession). Craigslist used to have short-term sublet inventory, but now it's pretty weak.

cma 14y ago

It can go horribly wrong: http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless.html http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homele...

markerdmann 14y ago

This reminds of a good friend. He got a job making six figures at Google straight out of college, and then lived in his van--in the Google parking lot--while saving every penny he earned. He took showers on campus and only ate free Google food. After a few years, he went into a mini-retirement and devoted his time to traveling around the world and volunteering.

psychotik 14y ago
That's about the most justifiable reason I've heard for (temporarily) living in a van/car.
- jat1 14y ago
  I lived in the van Monday-Thursday while working in London (my home is around 130miles to the east). Not a problem and not uncomfortable. I sometimes used the showers at the office but my van is fully equipped with shower,toilet heaters etc. I wasn't the only one doing it either, and after a while you spot other likely vans.
Osiris 14y ago
I would have loved to save money right out of school, being as frugal as I am, but I was married when I graduated and the first thing my wife wanted after I got my first (low paying) full time job? A house. So much for the life of a cheapskate.
- Cass 14y ago
  Putting money into a house you'll presumably be able to live in rent-free once it's paid off may not be a drastically worse choice than putting your money into savings. Unless it was an impractically huge house, or otherwise somehow not a keeper, I wouldn't consider that a frivolous/non-frugal purchase.
  - Dilan 14y ago
    You could always take a mortgage out on the house, rent out the house and live in the van.

icebraining 14y ago

It seems to me that a water reservoir with a tube going near the engine (for heating) and a small water pump, coupled with an inflatable bathtub could solve the shower problem. I've never lived in a van, but my family used to go camping and we used a similar system (inflatable bathtub inside the tent) so that my younger brother could take a bath even if it was too cold outside for him.

krschultz 14y ago
It's far simpler than that for most of the year, solar powered showers are $20 and work really well (often, too well, I've been burned by one camping). http://www.amazon.com/Stearns-SunShower-showers-Capacity-gallons/dp/B000NVC1JY http://www.amazon.com/Stearns-SunShower-showers-Capacity-gal...

gavanwoolery 14y ago

Not quite a van or RV, but I have always found the tiny house movement interesting. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ Many of them are small enough that you can legally tow them anywhere.

vijayr 14y ago
Wowwwww !! These look absolutely beautiful. But one still needs to own a piece of land. What would be interesting though, is a bunch of people buying a piece of land (sharing the land/electricity/water costs), and living in half a dozen of these on the land. Don't know about the legality of it, but it would be awesome
- mdbennett 14y ago
  Actually, many of the tiny house floor plans are designed to fit on a flatbed trailer. Not as easy to manage overnight parking as a van, but pretty feasible. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/5912813-trailers http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/5912813-tra...
- pilom 14y ago
  I think what you're recommending is called a trailer park. A trailer park with a very strict community guidelines.
  - dwiel 14y ago
    kind of. A typical trailer park trailer is easily 800-1000 square feet compared to these which are 80-120 square feet. Similar relationship to neighbors though. Im actually founding a community similar to this right now. We have2.25 acres of land, and each house can have no bigger than 400 square foot footprint (though can be 2 stories tall). Land not occupied by houses will be shared.
- gavanwoolery 14y ago
  Yeah, certain types of land are zoned for multi-residence accommodations, and many RV parks are not too strict on their guidelines (higher-end RV parks are often very strict, and often only permit diesel/class A vehicles). Many lots of land are cheap enough that the cost could be split easily (in many remote areas, land can be bought for (literally) a few dollars per acre).

patio11 14y ago

This seems like a romantically bohemian way to approximate a pampered middle class kid's idea of how poor people live. If you want to save money, you can try what they actually do, which is move to a less desirable neighborhood and spend one third what you do on rent for an apartment. You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. There's old folks on social security and single mothers in your town. Most of them don't shower with wet wipes. I can't tell if my revulsion for this idea is class disdain because I'm too well off to consider it or class disdain because when I wasn't well off we had too much pride to ever stoop to anything like that.

tgrass 14y ago
Patrick, he does write "it’s worth noting that we are talking about people that want to live in vans." I was a lower middle class kid with a lackluster middle class education and good manners so I was able to scrape by on $17K a year and "live" off my motorcycle and later out of my truck in between stints at a lodge in back country Alaska. It was privileged. Sure. And there were before the crash many of us doing it. None of us had any responsibilities. Why the disdain? No one ever claimed it was more than it was. There's a leisure class at both ends of the economic spectrum. For the most part, there were very few Trustafarians. We were middle class kids who wanted to climb/write novels/surf/snowboard/insert your interest here. We all sacrificed future income for those days. No need for disdain. We all make our own choices. [EDIT] Here's a current stream of a couple living the dream: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drive-Nacho-Drive/218388858200902?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drive-Nacho-Drive/21838885820...
- mturmon 14y ago
  Thanks for this counterpoint. I've met various beach bums, ski instructors, and summer resort waiters, from all social classes, who were taking a break in this way. Compare also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_year and the concept of a wanderjahr.
GladHatter 14y ago
I'm not sure if the allure is necessarily the bohemian way of feeling poor. I think much of it has to do with the minimalism of the experience. The ability to pack up and move on at a moments notice has 'starting over' feel to it, which can be quite nice. Kind of like refactoring crufty code.

carlsednaoui 14y ago

Not receiving data on my end - here is the cached page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:blog.priceonomics.com/post/32944888191/living-in-a-van http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:blog.pr...

kqr2 14y ago

My favorite is this RV built by 3 Japanese students: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/tiny-transformer-rv-camper-turns-from-truck-to-two-storey-house.html http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/tiny-tr... More details: http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~gyo/English/index.htm http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~gyo/English/index.htm

thirdtruck 14y ago
I could see a whole market for those.
pirateking 14y ago
This is so cool. Will be great training for living on a spacecraft someday soon.

exabrial 14y ago

Obligatory Chris Farley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhgfjrKi0o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhgfjrKi0o

daveman 14y ago

Regarding the topic of internet access, I wonder how many van dwellers resort to piggybacking on nearby homeowners' unsecured wifi networks? Seems like if you're trying to minimize costs, rolling up alongside an open network is a great way to get your Hulu and Netflix without going over your data limits.

timmaah 14y ago
Granted I've been in campgrounds the last few months and not near many residential neighborhoods, but my experience is that its more trouble than it is worth. We have a wifi extender on the roof of our travel trailer. Finding an open wifi is fairly rare these days. Even campground offered wifi is hit or miss on speed. Our 3g data card rocks. 20gig a month gives us a little leeway on streaming. We make due with local news and a stash of Seinfeld and Sopranos.

pclark 14y ago

never thought i'd get a chance to promote foster hunting on hacker news, but et voila: the polar opposite of this article – something that would inspire you to want to live in a van – can be found on this fantastic blog: http://www.arestlesstransplant.com http://www.arestlesstransplant.com

threejay 14y ago
I concur. This is one of my absolute favorite blogs.
mturmon 14y ago
Beautiful. Reminds me of so many people I've seen at beaches and campgrounds out west.

timmaah 14y ago

Great time to be living. My wife and I sold most of our stuff and have been living nomadically the last 4 months while continuing to work full time. Though we are in an Airstream, not a van. Started in Vermont and currently beach front on the Oregon coast. Truly awesome http://www.watsonswander.com/ http://www.watsonswander.com/ It is turning out to be just slightly cheaper than when we owned a house. Averaged $27 a night the last two months for campground fees and $20 a day on gas.

brc 14y ago
Hey, I love your Airstream. Been thinking dirty thoughts about one for a long time, but I've been reluctant to pull the trigger because of a lack of time to really put the work in. There are so many around to pick from it becomes bewildering which way to look. You do know you've lowered the value by taking out all the original kit, right :)

United857 14y ago

This guy goes one step further; living in a Honda Civic: http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strategy-to-cut-costs-1/answer/Kurt-Varner http://www.quora.com/Would-becoming-homeless-be-a-good-strat...

GFischer 14y ago
He's on HN and posted his link :) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4617792 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4617792
- astine 14y ago
  I have a friend who lived in a Honda Accord for three months. He says his goal was to save money but his friends (including myself) are convinced that he was just too lazy to look for an apartment.

tiramisu 14y ago

When I worked in Palo Alto and lived in SF, the daily commute felt tolerable for three days of the week and then became intolerable for the last two days of the week. After quitting my job and getting a trailer to travel the country, I figured out that a solution to the commute would have been to buy a trailer/van while in SV and park it permanently in one of the huge lots at work and overnight there when I didn't feel like driving back to SF. Like vans, some trailers, like Airstreams or vintage "canned hams", don't depreciate if taken care of.

skulegirl 14y ago

For the frugal traveller who wants to live in a van but move around (perhaps while developing your web app or similar), we've started a community where fellow RV'ers (or people who just like RVers) offer their driveways to others to camp on for a night or two for free - http://www.boondockerswelcome.com http://www.boondockerswelcome.com. We're going to start charging a small annual fee to cover our costs, but for $25/year you can travel all over the continent and park your van for free. Of course, this doesn't solve the bathroom or showering issue, as most people aren't opening up their bathrooms to their guests. But my mom (who has a small Roadtrek RV, which is really no bigger than a van and has no shower), has travelled for 5 months at a time getting by with showers in the occasional truck stop or an outdoor shower that she uses when they're parked in the forest. (There's also tons of free parking for RVs in US National forests BTW, plus lots of other spots. My mom writes e-books all about the free "boondocking" locations she's discovered complete with GPS co-ordinates and interesting nearby attractions - find them at http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com. http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com.) I know that this comment reads like a big advert, but if hackers here are actually interested in living on the cheap while launching their bootstrapped startup, these are actually viable options.

marshallp 14y ago

This will get much easier when robocars come out. You won't have to worry about police and zoning laws, the car can move every once in a while or continuously be moving. If robocar renting takes off you don't even the cash up front to pay for one. Showers and toilets can be separately moving robocars so this can all be done in small vehicles rather than large RV's. The fuel would electric (robocars recharge themselves from electric gas stations) so the costs of all this would be minimal as well. If this all plays out well, apartments, and even houses should see a drop in value (a good thing because too much of wealth is being plowed into the unproductive economy of land owning - it can instead shift to purchasing engineered products).

pyoung 14y ago
That would be an interesting future. Go to a bar at night (dropped off by your robocar/house). Get really drunk. Get picked up by your robocar/house. Wake up really hungover, shower, change and then walk out of your robocar/house that is parked right in front of your office. Go to work. Not sure why this was the first thing that came to my mind, but it would be pretty damn cool.

rohin 14y ago

Author here. In the article I link to a 60 Minutes segment that follows around families in Florida that turn to living in their cars as a last resort. Worth checking out as it offers a very different perspective on the experience: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389750n http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389750n

timmaah 14y ago
Your article is a good one, but the tone towards RV's and living in campgrounds is oddly negative. >>An RV is basically a house on wheels and isn’t particularly inexpensive or minimalist. Our was pretty inexpensive, is more minimalist than most US based folks and will hold its value just like the camper vans you mention. >>If you pay to stay at a campsite, it’s most certainly legal, but then this lifestyle ceases to be inexpensive. $25-$30 a night is most certainly cheaper than most mortgages or apartments.
- prodigal_erik 14y ago
  I wouldn't say "most". $800/month may not go very far in SF or NY, but it's about what I was paying for a large two-bedroom apartment in Seattle, and flyover country is cheaper still.
- Cass 14y ago
  You can get a pretty decent apartment for $900 per month in most parts of the country.

jonstjohn 14y ago

I lived in my van for about 6 months after I graduated from college in Portland, OR. I spent part of that time up in Alaska, working in the fisheries (unloading fish from boats with a great group of guys) and the rest of my time in Portland trying to find places to park overnight in the city and trying to get back to a more stable life. There were good things and bad things. It definitely simplified my possessions and when I was in Alaska I could basically park my van anywhere overnight. But when I got back to Portland, it was a lot harder to find places to park where I wouldn't get harassed. I used my college (as an alum) gym showers and spent time in parks. This was 1996 so I wasn't too worried about internet connectivity and there definitely weren't any free wifi hotspots ;)

socalnate1 14y ago

A friend of mine did this in LA for a couple years and paid off his school loans. He worked for a company that had a full kitchen and showers, so he was able to use the office frequently for those necessities.

twotwotwo 14y ago

Lore Sjoberg, all-around awesome and hilarious guy (anyone remember the Brunching Shuttlecocks?), is in a van. A random recent post: http://loresjoberg.com/view/monkeyconversation/ http://loresjoberg.com/view/monkeyconversation/

grecy 14y ago

I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina, feelancing website design and code along the way. For the entire trip, my monthly expenses were less than they were in the 2 years prior just going to work every day. Yes, that includes gas for 40,000mi. I lived in my Jeep/tent the entire way. I plan on doing something similar (but bigger) again, and I'll be building a more livable vehicle with a sink, stove, fridge, better sleeping, etc. etc. http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure

phil 14y ago

This is common in the kayaking/climbing community. Every paddler I know living out of a van gets an old Toyota Previa. Why? They're cheap, fuel-efficient, readily available, easy to gut the back, and deal with dirt roads fairly well.

OldSchool 14y ago

The van thing should resonate with a lot of entrepreneurs. As a bootstrapped 20-something entrepreneur I couldn't help but secretly think "live in a van" was my backup no matter how well things were going.

Rickasaurus 14y ago

Don't worry honey, that "creepy" guy living in front of our house is actually just an entrepreneur!

mashmac2 14y ago

Completely doable; even in a smaller vehicle. I spent the second half of grad school living in a Hyundai Elantra - take out the back seats, sleeping between the trunk and the back seat. Not the most comfortable living, but completely doable. Mostly, the flexibility and minimalism appealed to me, the $ savings were a secondary benefit (and weren't that beneficial, as food costs go up without a refrigerator).

protomyth 14y ago

Plenty of people living in vans and cars in western ND since housing is such an issue. Heck, I have relatives renting spots on their front lawn and an electrical cord for $900/mo to people with campers. Their are plenty of interviews on the web about what that is like.

Tichy 14y ago

We spent our holidays as kids in such a VW and it was fantastic. That article made me miss those days. The holidays where always just a couple of weeks, though, so not like living in a van for good.

gogetter 14y ago

Didn't Chris Farley have something to say about living in a van, down by the river?

brc 14y ago

I spent 3 months travelling in a 1978 Dodge RV, which I bought in LA for about $3000, and spent maybe $500 on parts for. It looked much like the one pictured in the article. I tore out the broken toilet and put in a chemical one, repaired the plumbing for the shower and got it going, replaced the batteries and bought a new charger. They key to buying one of these is take your time, and try out all the stuff. While fixing engines is something any mechanic can do, you can't turn up to a mechanic with a malfunctioning water heater. I dumped the 'black' water from the toilet at public dumping stations (many towns have these) and stayed in state parks, which are not only beautiful in most cases, but are also usually just $10 or so a night. When I needed to fully charge, replenish supplies and so on, I would pay for an overnight in a RV park. I was on an extremely limited budget on the time, so free camped whenever I could, particularly so in expensive places like Monterey (bind : the most expensive places also have the most restrictive overnight parking laws). I never once got moved on. My tip is to find a public building that is empty at night to camp in front of. Pick a school, a local sports club, a library something like that. Something that won't have a ton of security but is also likely to be deserted. Don't park in front of peoples houses, you never know when you're going to get a paranoid who will call the cops. But at the same time, don't drive down lonely roads and park up, you're asking for trouble. You can always do the wal-mart thing, but only out of desperation. They aren't great places to stay, and because they are well-known, it's not a great idea if you're the only one. Be prepared to packup and move on early in the day, and most of the time you'll be OK Using this method, I saw 38 states & provinces, covered 11,000 miles and spent less money than most would spend on the average Las Vegas trip. A couple of buddies pitched in and filled up one of the storage areas with beer for me as a goodbye present. When I was done I donated the camper to one of those charity car collection companies and they drove it away. I think most young people should do something like this - living a frugal and simple life while enjoying travel is a great learning experience. Having since done a lot of travel in the 'modern' way of nice hotels, rental cars and the like, I still get wistful when I see a couple of scruffy looking youngsters making their way on a shoestring cash budget but a burgeoning enthusiasm supply.

sliverstorm 14y ago
stayed in state parks... usually just $10 or so a night. So, $300/mo? covered 11,000 miles I'll be generous and say your 1978 RV got 10mpg. That puts you at around $4,000 in fuel costs, assuming this trip was in the past couple years. 1978 Dodge RV, which I bought in LA for about $3000... When I was done I donated the camper spent less money than most would spend on the average Las Vegas trip. Good lord. Based on my estimates, you racked up $7-8,000; how much do people spend in Vegas?

mathattack 14y ago

I thought this type of living went away with the Grateful Dead. I can see it as some sort of strange counter-culture, but to do it for financial reasons just seems absurd. Unless you are truly destitute, it ultimately carries so many other burdens that will add to the costs.

gadders 14y ago

I've never tried living like this, but we had a similar VW camper van that was our main car and also our holiday accommodation. One thing to remember - when you stop in a layby for the night, you will get on average 2-3 people think it is HILARIOUS to drive past with hand on their car horn.

allbombs 14y ago

all i can think about is chris farley "living in the van down by the river"

jat1 14y ago

I'm currently living in a van! Me and my long term girlfriend have taken some time from the 9-5 to travel around Europe for a while. Been on the road for almost three months now and it's done wonders for my mental state.y mind is clearer, I'm calmer and I feel better. I'm still trying to work on small projects and I have an osx utility I wrote entirely on the road using my MacBook Pro and the solar panels on the van to power it. It's not cheap, we are able to live on basically half of what we were living on before, but that's not the point of this journey for us. If your interested in our travels our blog is here http://www.wanderingeurope.co.uk http://www.wanderingeurope.co.uk