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150 days of living and coding in a van

ruby-on-wheels.github.io

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Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#371

Post by superJoy »

beebmam wrote: post #367

This is cool, but honestly I think there's a bigger problem that people don't seem to want to address: Housing affordability. Why do we allow home prices to be so expensive? Simply no one from my (millenial) generation can afford to buy a house. Home prices are so beyond insane, and it's crippling my generation. I make $200k a year and I'm unable to buy a house where I live. That's how fucked it is.

Maybe this is not brought up because this is not a universal problem. In the two metro areas I am most familiar with, Houston and Detroit, plenty of my millenial peers can afford and do in fact own homes. Admittedly, these are often starter homes well outside the urban core. But owning a single-family home close to the city center is a fairly delusional goal regardless of income, in my opinion.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#372

Post by alphadog_78 »

driverdan wrote: post #344
irrational wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has living in a shuttle bus at all affected your relationships or love life?

I haven't had a partner while owning the bus so it hasn't been positive or negative. I've encountered very few negative reactions to it, mostly positive. I've had a few people respond with shock, as if they didn't understand it at all. People who would be negative about it are not people I want in my life. I expect friends and family to support my decisions, even if it's not something they're interested in themselves…

Where do you park ?. I love to explore this idea considering how high the bay area rentals are. I guess this could be a faster way to payoff your student loan. -N

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#373

Post by tomatsu »

majewsky wrote: post #190

> The amount of water that I used in Berlin to brush my teeth is probably enough for a whole day in my van. Maybe 80% of the water just flowed from the tap right into the drain without even touching my body. I hear things like that time and time again, and I can literally not understand it. Why would any sane person leave the water running while brushing their teeth? When I brush my teeth, the water runs for one seco…

> Why would any sane person leave the water running while brushing their teeth?

Because turning it on and off all the time is inconvenient.

Operating the faucet with a foot pedal fixes this. People are too lazy to push it down if they don't need water right now.

With a pedal, you can also turn the water off in the middle of washing your hands. It's like a small-scale navy shower.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#374

Post by driverdan »

alphadog_78 wrote: post #372
driverdan wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had a partner while owning the bus so it hasn't been positive or negative. I've encountered very few negative reactions to it, mostly positive. I've had a few people respond with shock, as if they didn't understand it at all. People who would be negative about it are not people I want in my life. I expect friends and family to support my decisions, even if it's not something they're interested in themselves…

Where do you park ?. I love to explore this idea considering how high the bay area rentals are. I guess this could be a faster way to payoff your student loan. -N

Parking depends on your location. I currently live in Austin and can park anywhere I want. Since my bed goes across the width of the bus with the head on the passenger side I have to find fairly flat places to park. Many of the streets here have a steep slope at the edge for drainage so I have to be careful. Sleeping with your head lower than your feet is a great way to get a headache. I often park in store lots (eg Walmart).

Some cities have NIMBY laws that ban living in vehicles. This is especially common in the south bay area. You'd have to lookup your local laws.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#375

Post by FooHentai »

wallace_f wrote: post #342
driverdan wrote: post #268

Nice writeup. I also live in a vehicle. I have a 25ft (7.6m) former airport shuttle bus I've converted to my home. It took me over six months of full time work and it's still not complete. I've lived in it for a bit over four months. Overall it has been good but not without challenges. I'm currently busy working which has led to neglecting stuff I need to finish on the bus. I can't travel far until I finish these thi…

That's a cool van! In Australia I built a van out of something like a Toyota Hiace for less than $500 + the cost of the van. I travelled in it for a year, living in it for well over 6 months of that, and sold it at the end. I actually didn't really need $500: I made money building the van as I bartered a deal to help out a carpenter with some basic office IT stuff, and ended up learning and helping a little bit aroun…

>It is pleasant to drive rather than worrisome

That resonates. I scaled down my daily driver to a beater Toyota because every time I drove the amount of anxiety around the car getting stolen, broken into, dinged in a parking lot, or any number of other small injuries became unbearable. I ended up not enjoying driving, so what was the point?

After a year, I still enjoy driving this beater more than the one that cost forty five times more to purchase.

I guess it's a lesson about things you own ending up owning you? :)

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#376

Post by poorman »

mvanbaak wrote: post #13

This is exactly what I'm planning to do, but instead of a van, use a sailing 'yacht' big enough to live on. As soon as I have enough funding to get the gear, I'm off!

I bought a 33' sailboat and lived on it for two years in Wilmington, NC while we were starting NextGlass (now Untappd).

It was by far one of the best experiences of my life. The soothing rocking motion, loose halyard clanking, and salty ocean air at night certainly helped get me through the 60-70 hour weeks.

P.S. A little hack for anyone who might try this, put your wifi router and modem in your dock box. That way you can shove off any time without having to unscrew the coax cable.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#377

Post by thatcat »

clort wrote: post #355
rbritton wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do for internet? I don't have any intention to live full time in a vehicle, but I want to be able to take off for an arbitrary amount of time and work while away. I've done a few test outings but generally end up reinforcing my conclusion that cellular is not overly reliable when you're more than an hour or so outside a moderate-sized town. I currently have to carry equipment for two separate carriers (AT…

You have to let go - I got 4G mobile wifi earlier this year, its fast as heck and sometimes when I don't get a signal.. I don't connect to the internet! Can always read a book, or go for a walk. I'm kind of extreme though; I've been using cellular data almost exclusively since 2001 so its nothing new. I've spent plenty of time out of range. I think that if you are out of range and you need to connect; its time to mov…

How do you handle sms and voice over data or do you forego it all together?

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#378

Post by icebraining »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #100
grecy wrote: post #24

I am doing something somewhat related. I built a Jeep Wrangler into a house on wheels [1], and am driving around Africa for two years. I am freelancing for Magazines, and earning money through my website and social presence. I have not done any coding on this trip, mostly becuase I find it hard to get remote work that meets my flexibility needs - i.e. weeks off-grid and only occasional checkins/calls. Last time I dro…

I didn't know there were mall parking lots in Africa XD

Where did you think they parked their cars when visiting the mall?

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#379

Post by binarysolo »

mod wrote: post #350
intoverflow2 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder what the harmful emissions from my flat and walk to work were vs the van. /s Smug statements about how wasteful people not living in these fringe conditions are always remind me of the Soylent founder lecturing about how doing laundry wastes water while also reordering all his clothes from china when they get dirty. [1] [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/op-ed-how-i-gave-up-...

I was incredulous that someone could be so obtuse, so I went and eventually found the quote. You've done a really poor job of paraphrasing him. He reorders his clothes on what we can presume is a similar time scale to normal folks', and he washes them with "less water", "thanks to synthetic fibers." It's interesting that you've included your source and managed to totally misrepresent it.

I remember reading the article awhile ago and came across the same passage (and remember having a similar reaction):

"I have not done laundry in years. I get my clothing custom-made in China for prices you would not believe and have new ones regularly shipped to me. Shipping is a problem. I wish container ships had nuclear engines but it’s still much more efficient and convenient than retail. Thanks to synthetic fabrics it takes less water to make my clothes than it would to wash them, and I donate my usedgarments, helping out those in need."

To me that reads like the author just buys a bunch of clothes new, then donates them when dirty because the cost of washing the clothes exceeds replacement value.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#380

Post by rbritton »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #357
rbritton wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do for internet? I don't have any intention to live full time in a vehicle, but I want to be able to take off for an arbitrary amount of time and work while away. I've done a few test outings but generally end up reinforcing my conclusion that cellular is not overly reliable when you're more than an hour or so outside a moderate-sized town. I currently have to carry equipment for two separate carriers (AT…

i worked remotely for 5 months in a class C RV, in some really remote areas, across 36 states total. in my experience, internet was great 90% of the time. it was faster in rural/small town rather than metro areas, i'm assuming because there's less load on the towers. the worst parts were actually in national parks, which had almost no service. some mountainous areas were bad depending on which side of the hills you w…

I live in a fairly mountainous area of the country and prefer the more secluded spots away from major highways, which has been the main reason for the very limited cellular service. I'm pretty much the opposite of you -- I was actually more optimistic about cellular service before trying it and am now questioning its availability.

A week ago I was in northern Idaho on Priest Lake. Within my camp site I was unable to get a usable cell signal with the phone alone, but with my booster and a directional antenna I could get up to around -90-100 dBm. This worked until the rain came. That tower and other rural towers seem to frequently use microwave backhaul links to get connectivity, so the rain fade was sufficient to make that connection unusable for a couple days.

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