You've gotta be pretty well-off to make van life feasible if you're not doing it out of desperation.
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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Yeah. I have a destitute extended family member who, in a move the whole family cautioned them against, spent most of the last money they had on a "partially" completed conversion van.
The money and collective effort that it has taken to get it to basic habitability killed any remnants of my college-age desire to set up a van myself.
To be fair, people spend WAY more than they should on those conversions. People have it dead set that they must use RV parts or they must stick to 12 volt because it's a vehicle for the electrical or they must use certain types of this or that and they end up spending 10 times more than if they just looked elsewhere.
Let's talk about electricity first, one of the most common names you're going to see is battleborn for batteries and victron for inverters. They are not bad companies, but they are like the apple of that world. Wildly overpriced for what you're getting, they might be nice, they might be shiny, and they have a good ecosystem but you're paying out the ass for it.
I can get almost 4x the capacity of a battleborn battery for the same price by just looking at 48 V home solar batteries instead. You don't need to be 12 volt just because you're in a vehicle, the solar / 120 power doesn't need to be connected to the vehicle's power they can be entirely separate.
You don't need an RV AC cartridge, you can just get a MRCOOL DIY mini split heatpump, pay a fraction of the cost AND be easier to install and seal. The list here goes on and and on, I have actually done multiple conversions and trust me you don't need to spend the $60k-$100k+ on it like you see a lot of people do. 8k-10k for a good stepvan (the old ups/FedEx diesels are great and reliable, but if you can find a propane motor JUMP ON IT, avoid the ford gas motors) and about another $20k on getting it all setup for actual daily living.
Yes 30k is still a lot of money, but this is for full offgrid life with solar and battery as well to live like normal with normal appliances and daily use. If you can survive more limited electric you can lower the cost a lot as the solar/battery/inverter/mounting to fit that many panels (has to be a stacked fold out awning if you want a full 16 panel 6kw array) is about $13k of that.
All the rest, water tanks, heater, lights, plumbing etc, can be had practically for free if you know what to look for. Mainly the pull behind mini popup campers. The tarping on them goes bad all the time, people sell them on Facebook Marketplace for like $200 to $500 you grab it, rip out all the goddies for your build, take the rest to the dump (or scrap yard if it's an aluminum build)
I'm not saying it's luxurious or even that it's particularly super cheap, but it's very doable it's just that everyone is getting their information from the rich kids doing it for clout
Rich people LARPing as poor people. Also see tiny homes.
Tiny homes is a good idea.
But people buy prefabs rather than build their own.
Tiny homes are not a good idea. They're an inefficient use of materials, and a poor use of land. If everyone lived in a tiny home the infrastructure to support them would be too widely spread.
If you want to live in a small house, live in a well built apartment or town house.
Tiny houses are way more efficient than single family homes. They just aren't better than triplexs, townhouses or apartment blocks.
I think he means that, a lot of small houses together would lead to infrastructure problems, while an apartment complex was designed for that
Lots of tiny houses aren't an issue. They used to be called "trailer parks," but have trendier names now like "tiny house village."
Hookups are simple and direct, with water/sewer/power at each assigned lot. Water in hose, sewer out hose, 30A or 50A "shore power" plug. You can easily fit 3- 5 tiny houses in the same footprint as 1 SFH, so you get a similar density to a triplex or small apartment building.
Building 5 independent tiny houses is more expensive than a 5 unit apartment complex, but that is only relevant if its goverment financed housing. If it's zoning laws letting people build more efficient homes, tiny houses have a real place in that roadmap.
Consent!
It now costs $45,000 a year to live in a van down by the river.
There's a difference between being forced into a situation and willingly getting into it yourself.
There's a big difference between having no choice but to live in your car, and having a bunch of money in the bank and living in a van while you travel the country.
This is the second image I've seen today that has incorrectly added an apostrophe to a decade
Not a jab at OP, just a funny coincidence
But... This was a thing in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, and the 2000s too.
How is this NSFW?
Genuinely curious because if this is NSFW then I need to adjust my expectations for when I post.
Where's the rest of it?
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Lmao on connect I can't see any of it, there's not even a link to click