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How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

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Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#151

Post by scotty79 »

Or you could just move to Poland. $33,750 could buy you studio in any medium town in Poland, even in sub-million population cities.

You'd get: no mortgage, apartment with a toilet, clean running water, wifi and all the electricity that you'll ever need. 5-10 times more area for your stuff. Monthly cost of utilities, tax and fee towards building maintenance of about $150 in total, access to a lot of young, English speaking people you could hire for cheap to help you with your projects.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#152

Post by tedmiston »

ryandrake wrote: post #150

I always read these stories with a sense of awe and wonder. "I took 2 years off of my totally boring office job to X" where X is something that is 1. expensive and/or 2. not generating income or not nearly as much income as Boring Office Job. How the hell does one live without their salary for 2 years without going into debt or depleting savings? Don't you people have student loans to pay off, medical bill payments,…

Pretty simple — reduce their living expenses to the bare minimum. And I do think most people in this position are depleting their savings to cover said living expenses, at least until they have a profitable side project and/or part-time gig.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#155

Post by ggregoire »

Nice writeup and awesome build!

On the other hand, I can't follow you on your motivations. I mean, living in car in my opinion is the opposite of freedom. And you did it because of the crazy housing prices in your country. What about just moving in another country where the cost of living is cheap? As you said, you are developer, you can work from anywhere and you like travelling.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#156

Post by scotty79 »

patcheudor wrote: post #119

A couple comments for your own safety and the safety of the vehicle: 1) Those batteries should be in battery boxes. You can find them at any marine supply store. Note that for boats where batteries are commonly stored like you have them there, it's the law. For RV's it's a good practice and may be required by some insurers and in some states. 2) H2S also known as hydrogen sulfide. It's explosive and it's possible for…

I read somewhere that higher H2S in the environment is correlated with higher suicide rates in those locations so sharing air with a bunch of h2s leaking batteries might affect you.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#157

Post by ggregoire »

scotty79 wrote: post #151

Or you could just move to Poland. $33,750 could buy you studio in any medium town in Poland, even in sub-million population cities. You'd get: no mortgage, apartment with a toilet, clean running water, wifi and all the electricity that you'll ever need. 5-10 times more area for your stuff. Monthly cost of utilities, tax and fee towards building maintenance of about $150 in total, access to a lot of young, English spe…

Or south america, asia, etc.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#158

Post by PaulRobinson »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #66

I would love to do this. Last year after getting made redundant from Cisco I was looking for work but there was nothing for 4 months as a Devops guy near where I live but there was plenty in London. I was actually considering either getting a van to sleep in, or a narrowboat, and working in London with London rates, then coming home at the weekend. I'd love to know a cheap way of converting something liveable, bearin…

Canal boats in London are not much cheaper than apartments. Nor is anything else.

I used to work Monday-Friday in London and head home (Manchester) for the weekend for about six months. During the week I'd stay in the cheapest hotels I could find (£50/night average). It was horrible, and after six months I ended up doing super cheap Air BNB just so I could cook some food once in a while. Still not great.

Eventually we just moved here. It's fine if you look for beyond zone 1, ideally near where you're working, and get paid London rates.

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#159

Post by tdobson »

jdpigeon wrote: post #11

This would have appealed to me about two years ago, but not that much anymore, and I'm still close to a decade away from paying off my student debt. I'm more interested in 'settling down' and 'getting to work' these days, realizing that my sense of personal success is mostly dependent on quality relationships, productivity, and a sense of community belonging. Now, I've done my fair share of living life on the road, a…

I live in a van.[1]

I started out in the van with a girlfriend, then our relationship came to an end (the van probably helped it last a bit longer) and so I got back into dating.

I'd say dating with the van was easier than before I had it.

You must lead with it. You have to make sure it's upfront with everyone - you don't bring it up last - it said it all over my OKC profile - and you know - nothing starts conversations like something unusual. It's not for everyone - but the people who opt out - it would't have worked with anyway. The ones that opt in, it's good. Probably the most dangerous people who fetishise your vanlifestyle above the reality. Reality is that there are ups and downs, good things and tradeoffs.

Anyway, I'm now happily in an awesome relationship - and yeah - the van isn't a big deal. It kind of helps - cos she lives a good distance away from many of my friends. :)

[1] https://www.instagram.com/tdobsonnet/

Re: How I Built a Custom Camper Van (2015)

#160

Post by sliverstorm »

icantdrive55 wrote: post #101
jdpigeon wrote: post #11

This would have appealed to me about two years ago, but not that much anymore, and I'm still close to a decade away from paying off my student debt. I'm more interested in 'settling down' and 'getting to work' these days, realizing that my sense of personal success is mostly dependent on quality relationships, productivity, and a sense of community belonging. Now, I've done my fair share of living life on the road, a…

Girlfriend? I don't know--maybe it gives off the right advertising. Meaning, if you don't want all the trappings of a conventional lifestyle; I'm that guy. A great opening line, "Do you want to avoid hiring a lawyer in the future to fight over assets? Do you want to avoid sitting in a cubicle the rest of your life? Do you want to never have this thought, "Would I be with him if we didn't have that house, and kids?" I…

I think this is an untapped way of living, but society/cops seem to discourage it by ticketing excessively.

It gets to be a mess when too many people try it.

Sometimes it's totally unrelated to vandwellers- in college, the town was only twice the population of the school, so there was a massive shortage of parking.

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