I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere.
Couple of tricks:
1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang.
2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use it as a urinal unless you decide to go for a crazy hot curry
3) Find a local sports centre (not gym) with a sauna. Go for a swim in the morning, spend the evenings working out or hanging out in the sauna (you get regulars).
4) Bank of leisure batteries in your van (to drive the heater and give your laptop power), can give you the power to live for weeks inside your van. Luckily I went home every weekend to recharge them. If you can't get a power source connection (friend etc.), then consider covering your roof in solar power cells.
5) Unlimited mobile data plan that allows tethering.
6) Clubs/Meetup/Work social groups (CRITICAL).
7) No it's not 'hot' to invite a girl back to your van in a car park.
8) Scout the areas and work out where to sleep. Sleeping on a road can mean you get traffic buzzing you from 5am. Go find a really quiet road or lay by. Use retail park car parks if they don't have security patrols. Remember you're parking up at work during the day. You only really turn up after the gym at 8pm or later and leave by 8am.
9) It's quite liberating. Want to wake up next to the sea and go for a swim....yes you can.
10) Be proud of what you are doing. The limited space you have frees you from clutter.
11) Do crazy things...like continue to run an ebay magic card sales business inside the van!
12) Cold is your enemy. When winter hit hard, the issue was the driver cabin and the rear doors. Two cheap double duvets insulated the rest of the van from those cold spaces.
13) Go stealth mode if possible. No windows on the sides of the van, roof windows are perfect. You want somebody to think there is no one in the van.
14) Layout can be interesting, but I prefer bed at back on a removable platform, storage under neath, rear door 'insulated'. Sliding door opens into a space with bench and toilet under bench. Blackout curtains between driver cabin and rear area. Lockable from the inside.
15) Always go for a van you can stand in.
16) Check your drinking laws. In the UK sleeping in the back of a van is legal if drunk.
17) Going to repeat this. Scout out your area and work out great un-disturb-able places. A quiet car park in the centre of town may have a lot of pedestrians walking through it at 2am going back from clubs. Go for those parks/spaces that are not natural through routes. You will get into a routine. You'll end up parking in the same place on the same night of the week.
18) Be social. Get out of that space. Do not go back to the van and lock yourself away and watch stuff on the internet. GET OUT.
Slightly on the big side, but it worked at the time. If I was going to do it again, I would custom build. Height for me being 6'2 is always going to be an issue. I would consider a normal height van but bending over all the time is not my thing.
Hey Tomp - I wrote that post. I cited the author, linked extensively, and gave credit in multiple places. If there had been a contact on his HN bio, I would have reached out that way as well.
You're preaching to the choir - I wish all IP law was either abolished or changed significantly so that it actually promoted innovation.
However, that's completely besides the point. That's not how copyright works, what you did is most likely illegal, and the organization you represent would most likely not condone such behavior if the tables were turned.
As long as it's treated as a block quote, it's a legal gray area. There's a concept called Fair Use in America that may often cover cases like this. It's possible the UK laws are more strict in this regard.
For 16, does this mean that you can't ordinarily sleep in the back of the van, but they allow it if drunk to discourage drunk driving, or that you're not considered to be drinking and driving if you stay in the back?
I'm just amused at the idea of keeping a bottle of around for emergency legal compliance.
In some places (including much of the US, I believe), you can be arrested for drunk driving even if you're not in the driver's seat. Here's some info on California's laws [1].
The idea is that you are in the car and capable of driving it, even if you're not in the driver's seat yet. According to the urban legend, the trick is to get rid of your keys if you need to sleep in the car while drunk (i.e., swap keys with a friend who's in a different car), since you can then argue that you did not have the ability to drive the car.
Germany seems to be more lax. When I started to drive I got this advice: Always keep a half-empty bottle of vodka (or anything) in your trunk. If you have an accident while driving drunken. Get the bottle before the police arrives. Tell them: That accident was such a shock, I had drink something.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. I never tested this. Do NOT drive drunken!
In the UK, there was concern that people asleep in camper vans could be 'got' as in charge of a vehicle. I do still believe being in the back of a van drunk parked on the road would be putting yourself in a 'legally' risky position.
To be honest just be sensible. Use parking lots, lay-bys, and quiet roads, oh and have a couple. In the morning you are driving again!
Most places aren't too bothered about you sleeping over night (and will state if they are on the parking lots). What they dislike is you staying in the same spot. Not an issue if you are driving to work in the morning. ;)
I love that social groups are critical and so it seems that swimming and saunas, but when taking a piss, or having a kitchen are ``irrelevant'' topics.
Well technically your clothes are hanging up in the space your are cooking in. You don't really need to be known as "Mr. Bacon".
Toilet is critical. You will need it (knew a friend that decided to not install one and rely on public loos while staying at a ski resort...lasted two weeks.) It's just that you don't want to take a dump unless you absolutely need to. This is less to do with then, but more when you need to 'empty' the waste. You will be peeing and you can either do that in a lay by, but with snow on the ground and 3 in the morning....then somewhere to pee in the van that also can be 'sealed' to contain the smell is critical.
As someone else who lived like this for a few months (except out of the back of a much smaller Land Rover Series III), pissing is done in hedges (and the odd beer can), shitting in public toilets or food restaurants and cooking on a gas bottle outside.
Sounds like your set up was more rural. I was doing it in the middle of a city mostly, so really had to have everything self contained. Definitely would consider having the rear doors open and ability to pull out a cooking area and pop up an awning for those times when you are sitting on a beach and need coffee and a bacon roll.
Must admit it's a pretty good way of living but not sure I would do it for years on end.
Now canal boats....now that I could see myself doing one day.
I was doing it in Leyton/Woodford in East London so borderline city/suburbs.
I'd do it again, 100% of the time but the three children, wife, mortgage and inevitable responsibilities that come with these things make it difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Narrow boats and widebeams are horrid. I lived in a narrow boat for a month. They rock very slightly, smell awful, are damp as anything (even the nice ones), cost a fortune to keep afloat and the neighbours aren't particularly nice people I've found. Very clicky, suffer from a major superiority complex and are terribly bureaucratic. Thames barge perhaps but narrow boats; never again!
Dammit you ruined the canal boat dream! Must admit, renting one for a month or two would probably be worth considering before buying one. I hear it's all about finding a mooring space.
With regards to taking a dump, you could use one of those self contained composting toilets - maybe even using the digested remains as methane gas for cooking ;)
I was of the impression that in the UK sleeping in the back of your car when drunk could still lead to a charge of "drunk in charge of a vehicle". Could you elaborate on why it's different with a van, please?
UK caravan club got the clarification from the police years ago. The driver cabin is considered separate to the rear. They are two distinct 'rooms'. Unsure when you have a swivelling captain chair, but in my van the seats were fixed.
Great article. My ex and I refurbished an older GMC bus with a fully functioning everything years ago.By that I mean an actual toilet, kitchen, bath, etc. which is different and more difficult to park. We moved it here and there so we didn't get ticketed or worse. It was basically an RV...A couple of suggestions that apply here:
Visibility of activity can get you ticketed or worse in SF where I live. Cover back and side windows with silver Mylar. It lets light in,you can see outside fine, but it is opaque from the outside.
Also, you need to address dampness so you don't end up mildewed and moldy! A small heater, even Coleman lanterns help dry the air. Check camping stores or sites for the latest developments for that problem.Good luck!
So you only did this as an experiment? If it was a forced thing, do you think it would be any different? Also, this could be amazing to go camping or short vacations with friends. Thanks!
Well, I'd bought a camper van in the summer, and a contract came up too far away to realistically commute. So I could have stayed in a B&B during the week, however I felt that this would work out. My wife was not quite in love with the idea of the camper van as much as I was. It would save a lot of money which we needed at the time.
So I went down there in September for a 3 month contract that got extended by another 3 months.
The most complicated issue was that the Webasto diesel heating system (2kw heater and amazinf) required leisure batteries to be at a certain level to work safely and would shut down. So I started off with an 80w battery by the middle of December I had added another two 110w batteries and bought a industrial strength battery charger to enable me to top the batteries up within a 24 hour period.
If I was living in the van permanently I would have mounted two 250w solar panels on the roof. Complete independence would have been worth it.
One thing, having a home base also gave me a place to empty the chemical loo.
Of note, it completely changed my view of sealed sachets of ketchup and coffee. As you are in a box, you can build up a lot of moisture during the night (easy to remove during the day) but just means windows are dripping or even frozen with moisture.
I can remember firing up the heater and directing the heat into the driver cabin via a funnel to help melt the ice that had formed over night on the inside of the screen, leaving the van and going for a walk along the beach while it cleared itself.
I was heavily into SWOTOR at the time and that was a driver for an increase in my battery capacity, but honestly, the place I worked at was pretty chilled and I could sit and play after work if I wanted (on my laptop).
There is nothing to prevent you having one wall of your van being a white projector screen. You just need to consider how you power such an environment for a night of gaming.
TBH it's not that unfeasible to have a projector mounted on the roof and a pull down screen.....one worth thinking about.
1/ or you know,just find a housemate/roommate if you cant afford to rent a place alone... sorry but sleeping in a van doesnt "scale",and is not that economic.
EDIT:the downvote mob is out for blood,as usual.I just said that sleeping in a van for 6 month is the worse thing to do,nobody can to tell me with a straight face that one should do that,especially in winter.
I used it as a way to explore Exeter, Devon and the surrounding coast. It was fun. One hell of an experiment and life hack.
Would definitely do it again, but I would probably build my own van rather than buy off the shelf as I have that luxury to do that.
Note old camper vans can be realistically be bought for around £2k and they don't lose money. I sold mine for more than I bought it, but that covered the cost of the batteries I had installed.
If sleeping in a van wasn't all that economic and finding a housemate was so simple for everyone in every situation then we wouldn't have homeless people.
Of course they can. You provide no counter-arguments to the facts that it's cheap and convenient.
I sleep in a Previa fairly regularly, often with my kayak next to me. I only need it for sleep and charging gadgets so don't need a loo, heater washing stuff or a cooker. Never done more than a couple of nights in it but can't think of a good reason why I wouldn't if required.
>just said that sleeping in a van for 6 month is the worse thing to do,nobody can to tell me with a straight face that one should do that,especially in winter.
Once again, as I've written in my other post, known a bunch of people who did it, some very willingly and rationally. Far from "the worst thing in the world." Why don't you talk to some of these people and ask them their experiences. Perhaps not your cup of tea but don't speak about everyone.
Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang.
2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use it as a urinal unless you decide to go for a crazy hot curry
3) Find a local sports centre (not gym) with a sauna. Go for a swim in the morning, spend the evenings working out or hanging out in the sauna (you get regulars).
4) Bank of leisure batteries in your van (to drive the heater and give your laptop power), can give you the power to live for weeks inside your van. Luckily I went home every weekend to recharge them. If you can't get a power source connection (friend etc.), then consider covering your roof in solar power cells.
5) Unlimited mobile data plan that allows tethering.
6) Clubs/Meetup/Work social groups (CRITICAL).
7) No it's not 'hot' to invite a girl back to your van in a car park.
8) Scout the areas and work out where to sleep. Sleeping on a road can mean you get traffic buzzing you from 5am. Go find a really quiet road or lay by. Use retail park car parks if they don't have security patrols. Remember you're parking up at work during the day. You only really turn up after the gym at 8pm or later and leave by 8am.
9) It's quite liberating. Want to wake up next to the sea and go for a swim....yes you can.
10) Be proud of what you are doing. The limited space you have frees you from clutter.
11) Do crazy things...like continue to run an ebay magic card sales business inside the van!
12) Cold is your enemy. When winter hit hard, the issue was the driver cabin and the rear doors. Two cheap double duvets insulated the rest of the van from those cold spaces.
13) Go stealth mode if possible. No windows on the sides of the van, roof windows are perfect. You want somebody to think there is no one in the van.
14) Layout can be interesting, but I prefer bed at back on a removable platform, storage under neath, rear door 'insulated'. Sliding door opens into a space with bench and toilet under bench. Blackout curtains between driver cabin and rear area. Lockable from the inside.
15) Always go for a van you can stand in.
16) Check your drinking laws. In the UK sleeping in the back of a van is legal if drunk.
17) Going to repeat this. Scout out your area and work out great un-disturb-able places. A quiet car park in the centre of town may have a lot of pedestrians walking through it at 2am going back from clubs. Go for those parks/spaces that are not natural through routes. You will get into a routine. You'll end up parking in the same place on the same night of the week.
18) Be social. Get out of that space. Do not go back to the van and lock yourself away and watch stuff on the internet. GET OUT.
[edit] This was the van: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1....
Slightly on the big side, but it worked at the time. If I was going to do it again, I would custom build. Height for me being 6'2 is always going to be an issue. I would consider a normal height van but bending over all the time is not my thing.