Converting vehicles to moderate stay campers?
 

Anybody ever tried to live out of their vehicle? Scrolling through trying to find camper shells and quality of life improvements to them (mostly for weekend camping at the lake) and came across this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiY...o6RHE2rcjGAHRg

I really think this would be a sweet way travel cheap and not have to pay rent when traveling and working in areas for short periods of time. Brainstorming moving to an area like Dallas after college, and trying not to spend $2000 grand a month on renting housing and thought this would be a fun and quirky little way to live and travel.

not happy with his bed locking latch, not safe while driving. but cheap, I would see about a rock and roll frame for a VW bus, and build my own cushions & wood to fit the metal rock & roll brackets.

I never done this, but been a VW person all my life, & owned a bunch of VW busses with camper interiors.

are you planning to cook? an unusual stove fuel is look for marine stoves, to use alcohol, non pressurized, something you can find on road anywhere & is relatively cheap, relatively safe to transport.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...=prius+camping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQyAIyyYV70

Lots of young people have been doing this in recent years. Seems like an adaptation to housing crisises in many regions. I have done it for short periods in cars and vans. It is dodgier than it might seems: louder at night than you might imagine and sometimes not entirely safe on the streets, even in a vehicle. I think there are lots of testimonials available on youtube if you search for 'em.

I "live" out of my car for up to 2 weeks at a time during my summer travels; it's much, much cheaper than using hotels, I get to see interesting places, and there's a feeling of freedom travelling that way when you aren't tied down to a fixed physical location.

I don't bother with cooking; I just eat cold food on the road, like yogurt, fruit, vegetables, sandwiches, etc. Shower at truck stops ($10-12 for a shower, and national chains like Pilot are always impeccably clean) or, now, I have a Planet Fitness Black card so I can go to any PF nationwide and shower.

Finding a place to park is the hardest part. I like to use Walmarts--3/4 of them allow overnight parking (google "no park walmart")--or campgrounds. I've never tried stealthing it on the street; that seems like inviting hassle from the police if you're discovered.

One of my projects over winter break is to add some thermal insulation to the cabin to make it more comfortable to sleep in, and revising my window blocks. They're currently just Reflectix cut to fit the windows, so I'm going to back them with 1" XPS board (R-5.0). In the doors and behind interior panels I'm fitting 1.6" denim insulation (R-6.7) and Reflectix radiant barrier. This should slow the rate of heat transfer at least a little--better than what's there, which is nothing.

The first year I camped this way, I took along a cooler, but last year I bought a 12V cooler/heater. Much easier; I don't have to bother with buying ice and draining water. The Prius' 12V socket will run up to 10 amps, more than enough to run the cooler and charge my cell phone and laptop with a little 100W inverter plugged into it.

http://i1047.photobucket.com/albums/...psxrkyfg7p.jpg
(Glacier, 2016)

Honestly you're not wrong. I'd say the Prius is a little more basic than I would like for anything over just a weekend stay, but personally but as a weekend vehicle, it isn't all that bad. All personal preference on how much of a minimalist you consider yourself.
What cooler do you have? Have you measured amp draw on it? I've heard a lot of the cheap ones really use a ton of Ah's to stay running. I've looked at alpicool. I think one of those wrapped in more R rated foam would be a sweet option to use.
Do you use any of the insulated winter sleeping bags to help with the temperature control?

I've not slept in my 2011 Prius, but I did in my 1990 CRX. Head at the tailights, feet on the gear shifter. OK for one person and a dog. VERY Minimalist!

I've done that. One month in a 1961 VW panel van in 1972. I worked downtown and drove up into the hills each night.

More lately it's road trips, like to Bonneville. The Superbeetle had an L-shaped deck that was six feet long down the right side. It had a Koolatron in the rear storage compartment and a 12V outlet above the battery. It had a 110V converter but I never used it.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...-salty-bug.jpg

My latest acquisition is a little 12V coffee pot. $4 at Goodwill. I can sleep in the Dasher, as when I went to the Darko wind tunnel, but it's much harder to get in and out.

I use a Wagan 24L, not large. It only draws 3.5 amps, and it only cools something like 30 degrees F below ambient.

I use a 20F Slumberjack bag that I've had forever. It's plenty warm, but I think the added insulation to the car itself will both make it more comfortable to sleep in, and also reduce heating and cooling load when I'm driving.

I discovered that I like enough headroom to at least be able to sit up in "bed"; something I couldn't do sleeping in the back of Moon Unit. Also it sure would have been nice to be able to open the rear hatch from the inside.

P.S. It would be good to have screens for at least one window too.

I pulled into a $6 per night RV park in Oklahoma in my CRX. I pulled out the cover on the inside back of the CRX, so I could reach the linkage, and open the hatch. Sometime during the night a ferocious wind storm blew in, and I was instantly jolted wide awake when, in my sleep, I unconsciously pulled the linkage, and my hatch violently snapped open! You might want to guard against that.

You should slap some R-10 pink foam all the way around it from Home Depot and see if it will go lower.

Avoiding high overhead isn’t that hard, it’s that one becomes yet MORE dependent on a vehicle. It continues the trend of city destruction and suburban sprawl underway since the late 1960s.

For the pair of centuries preceding, one rented a room from a family or, later, at a boardinghouse.

Drugs ruined boardinghouses. Call that 1971. Men becoming violent on alcohol was one thing, but drugs another entirely (and; gee, when did we close mental institutions; voila, same exact era). And the ethnic neighborhoods were busted up by a variety of schemes to enact just that. The place we’d have gone to rent a room from a congregation member. And walk the city.

Now we’ve added debt via “education” (really, sloppy indoctrination) and artificially-high housing prices. And absolute dependence on cars. Not optional for forty years or more.

Plus, all the remaining decent jobs have disappeared to a handful of cities. The de-population of the countryside continues.

How’s a young man supposed to form a family?

I’m at the other end. Children grown and parents deceased. Wife broomsticked away. The quaint notion of “retirement” still appeals. So a high cost fixed overhead is unattractive.

An answer for me has been an aircraft-quality, all-aluminum, fully aerodynamic travel trailer. An indefinite lifespan.

I can move where I want WHEN I want (no lease), and while outside the boundaries of town (meaning longer commute) the individual private vehicle need not be a pickup truck. But it won’t be a Prius either. Somewhere in between.

One does have to be willing to learn to maintain, repair & upgrade. (There are few things in life as satisfying as these), so that seemingly formidable aspect is a win-win.

There’s no substitute for warm & dry. And then, hot water. No passenger vehicle large enough is ever really a substitute as it’s primary function of transportation is burdened by higher than necessary operating costs.

What I checked off above is “the war”. Understanding that it is so, is the first step.

An American high school graduate circa 1960 could find work adequate to making a marriage proposal as sole provider contingent also on the affordable housing of the era.

What has happened since isn’t due to, “impersonal global forces”, or other such claptrap.

How to look upon future prospects is NOT to count on debt forgiveness or asset bubble punctures, but being able leverage tools with a lifetime or half a lifetime of use (50 or 25 years, say). In my opinion. What money I may have needs to cover more than making others yet richer than they are.

I’ll cut this short by saying the vehicles in my sig were chosen this way. Longevity, reliability & low cost of ownership were paramount (today I wouldn’t buy a pickup; had an applicable business way back when). A quarter-century use of them (they need to fully operational at sale) drives what plan there is. That I’m third generation in this made it easier (travel trailer type; a lifetime of acquaintance).

For a young man it’s looking toward a home for a family. For this old man it’s that I might actually get to travel for pleasure, and inevitable decrepitude. Plans

But I ALWAYS have a home. (The details of “ground rent” are another subject). That (a house) should be what drives investment of time.

If one says, “well, I can always live with a relative or friend”, consider that this may not be possible. In fact, they are looking to you.

A young unmarried man is expendable, per se. He is also the only one who can stand up to the rigors of war. It’s a two-edged sword.

Sharpen your half.

Be other than the 22% of twenty-something men foregoing work altogether in order to sponge off their parents (playing video games) with no acquisition of skills or developing sense of responsibility as counterweight.

Not half steps (“hmm, live out of car”).

Outside of Special Forces, the US military has been turned into a giant welfare scam. But even that would be FAR better than a crap job with no future when even basic living expenses are prohibitive.

The taxpayer revenue stream has been the only source of “profit” for an eon. (Public jobs expansion since 1960, and “privatization”; past War Department budgets). But as white men are the sole demographic to generate a tax surplus before leaving this life, that, too, is on the way out.

Your mind is the whetstone.

.

Without getting too in-depth on conversations, man you aren't wrong. I had a long reply typed out, but I can probably just sum it up with people my age are taught convenience is above all, keeping up with the Jones' with someone else's money is cool, and dependency is normal. I'm afraid of most women for that reason lol.

Back to car talk: I have a 2010 Prius and a 1996 Ford Ranger for that exact reason with maybe 5100$ invested between the two. They are both extremely reliable and cheap to fix. (yes even the Prius...). The Prius has been knocked around a little with other people's cars, but I have just been fixing it myself and putting the insurance check towards the note.

I think the American dream isn't totally in the ****ter though. People just go about it wrong these days. Airbnb is a good way to travel. I Airbnb one of my bedrooms this summer, and besides dealing with SJWs or older folks who expect too much from the cheapest room on Airbnb it has been a great experience.

I have found a couple more interesting topics: 600W microwaves, converting mini freezers to run as a refrigerator decreases power use a ton as well with extra insulation, and other things like in the video would all make the idea more possible. I think I'm going to start with pieces here and there and get them setup to start testing and measuring power consumption and use for when I finally decide to build one. Goal really is to be more camper like, and not more camping like. That is too bare bones for me long term. lol

https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/comments/4efrgd/

I lived in my Subaru Legacy for almost 2 years. My job had me doing 13hr days for half a week, and I couldn't see myself paying rent just to sleep.

I'd pack my clothes for the week, work my 13hr shift and then grab dinner from the McDonalds $1 menu. Then I'd head to a nearby abandoned hardware store parking lot. They had cut the power to the street lamps so it was nice and dark. I'd brush my teeth and listen to the radio briefly before putting the rear seats down and crawling into my sleeping bag. I left my car doors unlocked because I'd rather not have smashed windows, and I could more easily tackle anyone trying to enter that way. Never had an issue.

Police would ask what I'm doing about once every 2 months. I'd just say that I'm sleeping on private property, and they'd leave.

In the morning I would get a workout and shower at my 24HR gym, which I pay $8/mo for.

KCF used to have full meals for $3, and Safeway used to have JoJos, a corndog, and a pop for $2. Not sure what the cheapest quick food options are these days, but the McDonalds app has deals. I had a medium fry and McDouble for $2 yesterday.

Yup thats the right idea. I'm looking into the most efficient way to cook rice energy wise currently since rice seems to be energy intensive to soften. Currently right now my microwave pulls 1800w for 15 minutes to cook it which is a ton. lol
But without energy cost rice is about 2c per cup.
Needless to say once I figured this out I eat a lot of rice.

Pressure cook rice?

Mom gave me an expensive rice cooker. I'll calculate the electricity cost to do a 40min cook.

I imagine cooking rice doesn't take much more energy to do a larger batch, so you could just cook more at a time and store the leftovers.

I was able to save 90% of my paycheck back in those days. Car was paid off, work provided my cell phone. My only expenses were gasoline, food, $8/mo gym membership... I'd stay at my parent's on my days off and do laundry. This allowed me to save up enough to buy a house in 2010, get roommates which offset the mortgage cost, and continue saving. I paid cash for a wedding, wife's CC debt, student loans, 2 years of a medical program, and have a lot saved up now after having our first baby.

I don't budget. Budgeting is for people who aren't naturally frugal (dislike spending money). Spenders need a budget.

We camped around "living out of our car" and sleeping in a tent on several occasions during the last couple of years simply so we could save on hotels in both our Nissan Leaf and now our Toyota Avalon. We just carry around a cook stove for cooking. From time to time camp at a paid campground that has showers.

I've thought of getting an insulated tent like one made by Crua, but don't know it would be worth the hassel in the winter when hotels are much cheaper in some areas during that time of year.

For now though we don't plan on moving out of our actual home. We just travel a lot is all. I do know someone who took his wife and kid and moved into a four season fifth wheel (camping trailer.) Rent around here has nearly doubled in the past couple of years for most people. And the price of land is outrageous. Apparently prices are going up everywhere.

I was calculating what it takes to live in the United States of America for most people. This is what I found in my research:

What an average family of 4 would spend per month with a single used car and a 2 bedroom apartment:

• Average cost of 2 bedroom apt: $1,180
• Average cost of healthcare for 4 people (premiums, plus deductions, copays, etc.): $2,347
• For a single, 5 year old, Toyota Camry (payments, maintenance, repairs, insurance, fuel, etc.) at 15,000 miles per year if you keep it for 5 more years (could be cheaper if you keep it for more years or drive it fewer miles per year): $533
• Clothing: $150
• 2 Cellphones $100
• Tax: At least $503

At that rate, if only the dad works, he has to make $32.18 or more an hour full time all year long just to pay for the above. That doesn't include any money for internet, diapers, school supplies, cable, college funds, money for savings, money for past debts or money for anything else! Note that the average wage is $23 an hour. So basically you either have to make considerably more than average, or both parents have to work full time at $16 an hour or more, or you need to get on Wellfare. OR...

Another option is if you find a job that offers healthcare for the whole family that will help reduce health care costs by quite a bit (but not eliminate the out-of-pocket expenses of course.) One person would still have to make about $25 an hour to pay for the rest, which is still more than average. Or both parents have to work making at the very very least $12.5 an hour. And that's only if the own one car together and don't pay for any other transportation. Hopefully they work at the same place or make more money to pay for more transportation costs.

But if you don't make much and still want to have things like healthcare and can't get on Wellfare for some reason, then the next biggest expense is housing. So living out of our cars can seem appealing. Or like my friend did and get in a travel trailer, put your family in it and move it every 14 days some 20 miles so he's ok with the forest rangers.

I just remembered my father's camper. That's it behind my first car. It was a 1948 Chevrolet Sunbeam Bread delivery truck. He painted it Oxide red and bolted the rear doors shut. It had double bunks across the back and a cabinet down the driver side that had a sink (fed from a 5-gallon milk can stood in the footwell) and a recess for a Coleman stove. And a Buick AM radio bolted to the ceiling.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...studebaker.jpg

With some generic commercial signage for urban camouflage it would make a tolerable low-key rolling home. It definitely wasn't an Interstate cruiser.

Lots of quotes I agree with here, and I love the topic.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices. I have one acquaintance who is pulling down $1800/mo from the military, for life, for vague health complaints like a sore back. He wasn't even in combat, he worked a desk job.

Awesome! Save 90% for a few years and you're set.

I don't think the American dream is dead, either. You just have to work relatively hard and always look for opportunities to improve your situation. For example, a lot of people pay $100/mo for cell service. A tiny bit of shopping will get that down to $50/mo.

That might be the average, but there is certainly tons of room for improvement for the frugal.

Most people concentrate their thinking almost entirely on the income side to deal with their financial problems, and give little thought to the expense side of the equation.

I don't spend $150 on clothes for myself in a year. If you're poor, you buy your clothes at Goodwill anyhow. Heck, if you're wealthy there's no reason not to buy clothes from Goodwill. I basically get all mine via gifts. This year I asked for white undershirts for Christmas. That will last me a decade.

I've bought brand new smartphones for as little as $10, and had plans for as little as $0/mo (Freedompop). My wife has a $200 previously used Nexus phone and $20/mo Google Fi service.

Tons of ways to save on housing. When I was single I bought a 4 bedroom house and rented out 2 rooms, which covered the mortgage.

Delayed gratification. That's probably the #1 predictor of financial success. If you can deny yourself something you want temporarily, the savings compound and greatly reward you later on.

Just a little bit more shopping will get it down to the $7/month I pay. Likewise, while I've never worked out the exact monthly cost of the 16, 18, and 30 year old vehicles I drive, it's way less than $500/month.

For the original question, I lived out of my Austin-Healey Sprite for a year or two, way back when. And have spent anywhere from a week to a month living out of small cars and sometimes motorcycles while travelling. Mostly with a tent & backpacking gear, and I never spent any time in cities. An actual Forest Service campground was the upper end of the scale.

Well, you certainly couldn't live in one. :)

My wife and I both grew up camping. Our daughter was interested in a used conversion van while in college. Zoning codes here require staying in a trailer park for more than a few weeks. We have usually used a tent at a campground and used the canoe as a car top cargo carrier. I have been on winter camp outs with the Boy Scouts in winter (5 degrees F) but don't make a habit of it. I have seen pictures of an enclosed one person bike trailer.

I've stood next to one. Painted silver, in the Whitaker neighborhood.

There's a logo I've lost with backups over the years, I've never found online. It was for an early Porshe Camp-out at Eola Village, north of Amity, OR. It was a side view of a Porsche 356 coupe with a canoe upside down on the top, parked in front of a teepee. It was iconic. [sniff]

But wait... There was a 5th year reunion in 2017!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1484681058.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...e-campout.html

The journey is the reward:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcLU1jK8ODk

4:32— We used to vacation at Detroit lake when I was a pre-beard
4:48— Last time I took the Superbeetle over the Wheatland Ferry, the operator rammed the bank to drive the ramp further up so it wouldn't drag getting back off
10:35— the Porsche 3-cylinder diesel tractor is all restored. It sold new in the Salem, OR area in 1957

That oaken hand truck on the left in the Youtube thumbnail is like the one I drove while I was at a feed & seed company while I was in high school. 6ft high handles, 5-600lb load.

I'm perplexed. The Emories moved their business in 2012, but the barn is still filled with unobtainium. It's like a time warp. And they reproduced that early logo:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...ut-reunion.png
Good times.

The bot copied the incorrect "crisises," since its algorithm couldn't find that word and hence, no synonym. You got him! You got the Tater!

Good work.

We have apparently passed the Point of Inversion: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=the+inversion+of+internet

That bot is a little creepy.
Looking at something in the realm of a 2003 ish Ford econoline. The 4.6 v8 with mechanical fan and 3.73s and heavy load tires manages to get 14/19 mpg and 16 combined.
It would be interesting to see what improvements an electric fan, electric water pump, underdrive pulley, 2.73s could get.
Also it seems like the new options are just too expensive or too small and car like to get their better mpg numbers.

If your plan is to work temporarily in an area, your best bet might be to skip the electric accessories and invest that money in insulation to make the van a more comfortable living space, which wouldn't be nearly as expensive as the mechanical work. Then get a cheap bike and use that as a local commuter if needed.

I agree with you there. Goal is to get a white van that doesn't look to beat, and insulate it heavily with poly foam.
For the most part the mechanical work should be cheap. Like 100$ junk yard rear axle, 10$ electric fan etc... lol

Suzuki Samurai rock-crawlers put their roll cage on the outside to preserve interior space.

If you put your polyurethane foam on the outside you could carve it into something more aerodynamic. Just wrap it with vinyl or canvas for UV protection.

Very true. I too don't spend near average and am able to be a sole provider for my family with a part time job while still not living off of any welfare. And I owe that to holding a tight budget, instead of trying to work two jobs and insisting that my wife does the same.

But one thing is for sure. Housing is increasing much faster than wages and jobs are. Especially here where I live. Studios used to be $400 just a couple years ago, now most are over $1,000. One and two bedroom apartments used to be $600 to $800, and are now $1,400 and up. Less than 5 years ago my parents bought a decent two bedroom house for $60,000. Now you can't find a vacant lot for under $150,000, if that. I'm seeing houses for $400,000 and up! I bought my trailer for $500 less than a decade ago. Now the trailer next to me is up for sale for $150,000.

It's rather sickening and does have me a bit scared. Once my landlord kicks the bucket and her children get their hands on the lot I rent I'm not sure what will happen to my situation. Maybe it's time to sell and go somewhere else. But I have too many ties to this place to leave just yet, if ever. But if push comes to shove, either I'll have to move to another part of the country or make my Avalon into a camper car.

:eek: What is it, a Bolus or a Spartan Carousel?

I paid $900 for my R-license park model 15 years ago.

I don't know. But it's a fairly newer single wide two bedroom trailer home, not a camper trailer. But still, that's a lot of money for a used trailer home especially when you factor in you're paying lot rent on top of that!

Moving to where “opportunity” lays is the “answer”. But Lack of extended family means higher overall expenses (third-party) for those with children.

Thus welfare means better outcome. (And there are those who don’t believe this a war).

Or get the tribe to move. That’s the sensible decision.

Yes, but only to a degree. The worldwide tendency is that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Many experts say this tendency is here to stay.

A lot is to blame to the same thing that led to the creation of the middle class in the first place, the industrial revolution. Back when the industrial revolution began it created the need for many workers. It made many people rise up out of poorer conditions since it was still profitable to the rich to pay more to the poor. The standard of living rose in many parts of the world as a result.

But now the technology that we have built is actually making more jobs less necessary. Machines now can run themselves without the need for near as many workers. When cars can drive themselves better than humans can, who will need drivers? When robots can perform surgery better than surgeons, who will need doctors? Computers can already monitor bank accounts and keep records of transactions and make automatic payments with little help from humans. The world being ran by robots sounds like science fiction, but it's a reality that is already started.

Many are recognizing the trends caused by this. I read a recent article that said Millennials, who generally are stereotyped and are blamed for not buying enough new homes and cars, actually are on this trend because they can't make enough money, not because they prefer to living in Mom's basement playing videogames. The study stated that Millennials have basically the same working and buying habits that previous generations did and are even very comparable to the Baby Boomers. The difference is that Millennials are feeling the technology takeover in the world of labor and therefore simply have less opportunities to make as much money.

Sure, there still are those who can strike it rich. But you need more talent, skills, be willing to work more or to born in the right family more so than back in later half of the 20th century in order to make it into that higher standard of living.

I have theories about low-cost/high performance housing. If worse comes to worst, PM me for details.

What does everyone in here use for cheap hot spots and cheap smart phones? Anybody using freedom pop? 6$/mo for 1gb data call and text isn't half bad.

I spend $0.00 on any of that, so there's your baseline.

The downside is I don't have soulless corporations analyzing every twitch of my thumb. :)

Yeah its one of those millennial vs baby boomer things. lol