"VanLife" is just "glorified homelessness"....who would have thought?!
- Thread starter Oillover
- Start date
I'm always amused by all the vanlife youtube channel and their popularity. Actually I know why their popular but I might get booted. In our RV I can stand up, has a full shower, bathroom, and kitchen.. I'll stick with our RV any day! Even in a RV it has limitation, I do love the endless shower when I get home.
If you are interested in what real van life is - check out the book, or documentary "nomad land". Its supposedly an honest look at the real people that do this.
Most of this started after the housing crash in 2008. Lots of people lost their jobs and didn't have a lot of options. Many of the people are those that are at or nearing retirement or were injured and are unable to work full time anymore and get a small amount of social security, so there options are a miserable apartment in a bad part of town, or live on the road.
The youtube glamorization of this never surprised me. Its like those survival shows, where the supposed survival expert supposedly spent the night outside yet wakes up looking clean and refreshed - like he stayed a the Holiday Inn Express last night.
Most of this started after the housing crash in 2008. Lots of people lost their jobs and didn't have a lot of options. Many of the people are those that are at or nearing retirement or were injured and are unable to work full time anymore and get a small amount of social security, so there options are a miserable apartment in a bad part of town, or live on the road.
The youtube glamorization of this never surprised me. Its like those survival shows, where the supposed survival expert supposedly spent the night outside yet wakes up looking clean and refreshed - like he stayed a the Holiday Inn Express last night.
If I had the means and wanted to retire right now, I could think of worse ways to spend my time than on a semi-permanent hunting, fishing and dirt biking trip. Just more of the things I like to do already.
Seems like a dangerous thing for someone like that to do these days with all the sycos running around in society. Maybe she's packing heat - ?.
And like one of the Donner Party survivors said, "Don't take no cut-offs."
I know someone who did the van life for a few months (6 months I believe). She did it before covid in her late 20's. An avid hiker and outdoors person who wanted to see all the national parks, and previously only worked jobs with no time off or a week of combined PTO (which is more common now). She took time off working while she was still young enough to be able to do it with no financial obligations and went and saw most of the major national parks.
I get around 3 weeks off a year, and I still think it will be awhile before I can do something like that, so I totally get why people do it. Better to do it now than when they have financial and family obligations later on in life, or if they are retired. Most companies now it seems 2-3 weeks vacation time is viewed as a lot. My previous employer I had 2 weeks total for PTO (combined work and sick time) and I had been there 5+ years.
I get around 3 weeks off a year, and I still think it will be awhile before I can do something like that, so I totally get why people do it. Better to do it now than when they have financial and family obligations later on in life, or if they are retired. Most companies now it seems 2-3 weeks vacation time is viewed as a lot. My previous employer I had 2 weeks total for PTO (combined work and sick time) and I had been there 5+ years.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2014
- Messages
- 4,117
You can do the same, during your vacations, with a rental RV, and even post pictures/videos of your free yolo outdoorsy nomadic hippie homeless hiker OCD whatever lifestyle online. Get better youtube checks if you keep put wife in skimpy clothing too for all the followers tuck working 9-5.
Its just as bad as the mega boot, carhartt pants, flannel shirt, grizzly adams bearded wannabe's that can't last a few days working in trade or industry. Lost generation!
Its just as bad as the mega boot, carhartt pants, flannel shirt, grizzly adams bearded wannabe's that can't last a few days working in trade or industry. Lost generation!
The girl I'm talking about doesn't do any youtube, but hey I can't knock those people when you see the money they are pulling in. Vacation is a foreign word to me, when I'm not at work I'm usually just "working" somewhere else.
From McMansion to being on the sidewalk, we are all somewhere in the middle of the grey scale.
There's some overlap between vanlife and sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with 7 other day labor plus a 4 hour daily commute. You have to decide which one works better for you.
There's some overlap between vanlife and sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with 7 other day labor plus a 4 hour daily commute. You have to decide which one works better for you.
I much prefer “trucklife” and a decent paycheck that comes with it.
There can't be too many of those COE trucks on the road in the US these days. Rare to see IMO.
Used to see a lot of them for sale but the truck market being what it is has dried up the market. Many people want older trucks now. I would have to be in a really tight spot to get rid of this old girl.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
LA vanlife.
If you had a decent “work from home” job and excellent satellite internet, I could see it working out. I would probably invest in a machine a little newer than a mid 70’s van though.
I worked with a guy who lived in a little 15’ camper. Stayed at friends and parks around the area. Seemed to love that over a rental or house payment. Had 2 dogs. A pit and a GSD. I can’t imagine.
Definitely not for me.
I worked with a guy who lived in a little 15’ camper. Stayed at friends and parks around the area. Seemed to love that over a rental or house payment. Had 2 dogs. A pit and a GSD. I can’t imagine.
Definitely not for me.
They had much more common sense and the ability to survive than most millennials who depend on social media..
We have 3 RV's and 2 homes. To us, 2 weeks away at a time is all we get. To be in one for 2 weeks is an island respite from our usual responsibilities. Light the campfire and watch the flames. Have a cold sweet tea and just lay back.
I became an OTR truck driver this year and effectively live a similar lifestyle as the "van life." I don't mind it at all as I am not having to pay any housing expenses and that is saving me lots of money. I have a late model Freightliner Cascadia which is decent and it has plenty of space for the stuff I need to travel with. I have multiple places I can stay for free across the country be they company related, family, friends, etc.
Did many of you even read the article? That was a 33 year old woman that thought this would be for her. Definitely not some young and impressionable kid as many of you think.
If anything, it shows how sheltered her life really was and how out of touch with reality as well. Dumb people are not a modern invention. The difference is that today we read about it or see it on YouTube, back in the day she would’ve been munched on by a pack of wolfs or a bear.
If anything, it shows how sheltered her life really was and how out of touch with reality as well. Dumb people are not a modern invention. The difference is that today we read about it or see it on YouTube, back in the day she would’ve been munched on by a pack of wolfs or a bear.
Somehow I started watching videos about people camping in their vehicles at Walmart, so now Youtube is recommending a lot of those videos to me. Some of the tips the people make are clever, like the guy who disguised his plain white van with ladder racks on the roof, and now no one bothers him at Walmart even when they are closed because it just looks like he's a contractor there doing some maintenance on the store. Then there was the guy living in the back of his Ford pickup, and he just parks in the back lot at the local Ford dealer and stays there overnight if he can't find a better, more "traditional" spot to stay.
Then I started watching this one couple who set off in a vintage RV to see all fifty states in it.... Several months later they've only made it to about five or six states and they went through a whole series of breakdowns on the old RV and have moved on to two different, newer ones. Now the trip is on hold because they have left on a long-planned (and postponed due to Covid) trip to southeast Asia. I am trying to wrap my head around how much this all must cost.... It can't be cheap.
Then I started watching this one couple who set off in a vintage RV to see all fifty states in it.... Several months later they've only made it to about five or six states and they went through a whole series of breakdowns on the old RV and have moved on to two different, newer ones. Now the trip is on hold because they have left on a long-planned (and postponed due to Covid) trip to southeast Asia. I am trying to wrap my head around how much this all must cost.... It can't be cheap.
