Interesting. I’d never looked at my “lifetime” numbers before; I am keenly interested in daily harvests to understand the power budget but haven’t thought about the overall harvest.
Caveat: mine are higher, relative to size, because I live in the vehicle and so place more loads on the system. The rig has had two setups
I physically damaged one of the 3x 190w in that array. Since the originals were obscure NOS I couldn’t find another one to replace it. It was summertime so I was able to get by with 380w but that would not be sufficient to meet needs during other seasons.
So I started looking for replacements that would fill the available space. I ended up with 3x of the Trina 250w that flooded the market, the ones that Will Prowse would make famous in his video.
I made the swap on BLM land outside Las Cruces, NM and donated the 2x 190w to a family in a skoolie the next camp over. They had a 2x 100w set out so I figured they could use them. The deal was they had to come over and carry them them, I wasn’t going to deliver. :-)
Since the R’s are going to take away my social security at the last possible second, I/we need a plan B.
Florida aint’ it, for a host of reasons.
Not that we’re not happy in our current location. We are. But We’re paying mid-$700 rent today and I’m still 20 years from retiring. Just dont’ see how the math could work, so vanlife it is.
Hi I’m late to the discussion but I’m a little closer to Barbie than a goth vampire but either way I don’t have the energy to analyze, categorize, or compare myself with anybody because I’m too busy surviving out here full time. Living the real thing. That’s the reality.
He appears to live in a house. The description says “Follow me as I convert and modify vans on my driveway” and the build vids show him working in a driveway in a residential area.
Folks interested in full-timing might drop in at /c/houseless@lemmy.sdf.org if they haven’t already
Oh! That looks so good. I never really understood van life or living in your vehicle, but over the last few months have become sort of infatuated with the idea of living in something like this.
The idea of being able to move almost anywhere is so interesting to me.
I absolutely can’t say. There was a lot of rework done so this is like conversion 3.0. also the budget is really depending on your needs. From a few hundred $ / € to multiple 10 thousands.
My conversion cost (without paintjob) was around 9K so far.
I’ve never plugged into shore power or been to an RV park. I live off lithium batteries a generator and solar power.
Same, only no genny. I’ve been away from shore power for the past (checking…) 1.787 days.
Many of my nights are spent on the side of a road or a Cracker Barrel parking lot.
I boondock on BLM/FS land mainly, but do stealth in towns at times. I’ve heard the term “wallydocking” for dry camping at places like Walmart and Cracker Barrel.
Hot Take: I think WM should offer $5 overnights with water, dump, and dumpster in the back corner of the lots. $5 waived with a >$5 receipt from the store that day. Make some money off what people are already doing. :-)
Does this community welcome people like me or should I wait for the old farts to figure out how to create /c/RVlife?
I imagine it’s cool here. If not, come over to this community that explicitly welcomes folks that live in RVs: the description there is “Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc”
Thank you very much for your response. That other community looks suitable as well!
And yeah I would gladly do a deal like that with Wally World. I dream of BLM land but for now I’m in the South East where that’s not a thing. I’ll be heading north soon, fuck this heat!
This is IMO and I don’t intend to gatekeep. Since you asked…
What does the term “Vanlife” mean to you?
It used to mean living in a van; the term was used that way back in the 90s on yahoo email groups, IIRC.
/cynic mode ON
Then it blew up and was co-opted by carbetbaggers and the van-curious. Now it means influencing, watching influencers, posting bikini and/or foot pics, spending way too much money on a conversion then saying “hashtag-vanlife is overrated” and bailing. Most people on popular YT vanlife channels, forums, etc, do not own a van and will never spend a night in a van.
/cynic mode OFF
Speaking generally, and not about present company.
Personally, I align more with being a weekender, despite having traveled extensively for several months
Still working on coffee, but I’ll suggest a spectrum of approaches/attitudes
dreaming <-- most people are here
weekending
weekending in a rig that is capable of longer outings. An underrated option, since it gives us the ability to deal with life challenges, natural disasters, etc.
traveling for months - practically indistinguisable from fulltiming since it presents many of the same challenges: power, water, food, etc. The only things missing are exposure to both summer and winter, and the sobering realization that this is home and there is no other home to return to.
fulltiming
TLDR
Vacations and campouts are fun. Living off-grid fulltime is serious business. I am reminded of the joke about different animals’ contributions to breakfast: the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.
“extended trips” rather than a “for months” timeline. Once you’re past about 3weeks you’ve had to deal with power, water, food and etc. And you’re absolutely correct that this is a significant milestone.
“4 season extended trips” for the next level up? Its absolutely harder in winter; and especially an extended trip in the winter. These are the trips where I invariably fuck up and end up redoing the sink because I let it freeze. Or did a 20F exterior shower because eventually my wife really needs to wash her hair. (Someday I’ll have an interior shower option).
Fulltiming - I think the defining factor here is your “this is home” point. This isn’t something I’ve done since I was a kid. I can’t say I’m in a rush to do it again, although I know I’d be fine. Interestingly I did an extended summer recently when between homes and yet I didn’t think of that as “fulltiming” because I had a deadline. It was just a long vacation.
Working remote is a huge difference that this list doesn’t capture for me. I’m at my computer 8hrs a day when I’m working and combining that with living in the van is rough – its just too much time in the same little space. Especially when I need to keep normal hours.
vanlife
Hot
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