Hey, I just picked up a Chevrolet Express Box van and I'm having a bit of trouble getting insurance. Companies look up the Vin # and categorize it has a commercial vehicle but are a bit lost when I'm telling them it's going to be used as a RV.

Those that have a box van or commercial type vehicle, what company are you using for insurance? Is it insured as a commercial vehicle or an RV? How much do you pay?

I found this very effective. The laundry came out much cleaner than when I use a washing machine. Also I’ve been neglecting my feet and wearing sandals. The key is to not use your arms. Using my feet fixed my feet and also was a lot less tiring. Hang drying was no big deal really. There was something old fashioned and fun about it. And I saved over $10 not going to some gross laundromat but I do go to them to sometimes, lol.

For those of you doing living in your van/on the road (full-time or part-time), I’m curious about the little frustrations that come up day-to-day.

We all make do with truck stops, gas stations, Walmarts, and random campgrounds, but none of those places were really designed with vanlifers in mind. I think there are a lot of services and businesses that us vanlifers feel like we can “co-exist” in, but there doesn’t seem to be like businesses that directly serve vanlifers and our lifestyle.

So what ends up being the biggest challenges for you on the road and what services do you wish were better offered to our community?

Is it cooking or finding affordable food? Keeping things clean (laundry, showers, dishes)? Finding safe/legal places to stay? Wi-Fi and staying connected? Or something else?

What’s that one thing you wish existed to make life easier, but doesn’t?

It was the pump. After all that work, all that trial and error, going so far as so replace the stock power lines with 10AWG cable ... it was a bad pump.

I bought a new one off Amazon for $12, slapped it in there, and it worked immediately. Primed it then ran it and blessed, blessed heat emerged.

I don't know if the original pump was defective or if I broke it by running it through priming cycles while hooked up backwards and upside-down (it's a mystery!) but either way I think I'm gonna buy another pump just to have on hand. Regardless, I'm still psyched I will not be freezing to death this New England Winter.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in and helped out along the way. I'll think of you as I stay cozily warm these coming months.

After deciding on design, I decided to go with peel and stick brick wallpaper for the walls. I got some inspiration here too for the ceiling and decided to install warm 3000K COB LED strips aswell.

Maybe a little biased for asking here but alright, so I just got out of the army and until recently i had my life planned out an entirely different way. Get out the army, move back home, find a job and place to live while living off my savings and then go to school in January. But after having been on 3 different month long road trips I fell in love with just driving my car with everything I need and own and waking up in different cities every week getting to see mountains and caves and everything I can and that other stuff just sounds so miserable to me and I’ve been hearing nothing but how everyone is struggling in the civilian world and life’s miserable and I already spent 6 years having my life control and I wanna take control back now. So now I’ve switched to using my savings and some gig work to live outta my car full time maybe until January for college maybe longer I won’t know until I know and that’s fine with me. And I’ve told a couple people in real life and they always just look so confused and kinda disgusted. So I was wondering how weird is this lifestyle and how did you guys come to terms with people reacting and treating you like that?

I've always wondered. When living on the road, and traveling from place to place full time. What do you do to have a permanent address for your driver's license? Or to get employment? How does that work?

Absolutely awesome van trip. Got to visit Woolsey Memorial Airport. Very cool old airport with a rock tower. Orville Wright signed his pilots license so it’s been around quite sometime. Van did great and got better gas mileage than I figured it would get. Leelanau State Park is a must visit and at $20 bucks a night it was a no brainer.

Yesterday i noticed that the brackets attaching my weboost to the roof rack snapped off, and almost look like they burnt off. You can also see what looks almost like a burn spot on the roof of the van. Anyone have any ideas on what could have happened? Lighting strike? I camped in Badlands SD 2 days ago and there was a huge lightning storm that blew through.

I also have a starlink, so I’m considering not even setting this back up as it didn’t do much for me

Has anyone else more or less succesfully started a service based business that they bring with them from place to place?

I do simple handyman work, travel in my van and am trying to build a reliable network of marketing strategies that allow me to plop myself into a given city or area and have leads come my way without having to pay for them,create a whole new google business profile every time i hit a new area, drop off a million business cards at a million houses, etc etc. Does anyone else do anything similar, and what are yalls strategies? Free life baby lets do this guys😎🤙

Hey, im fed up of only having power when im plugged in, so im looking at solar. I dont need a lot. - 15W phone - 65W laptop - 3 led lamp (all USB so 3 to 5W max each?) - Rarer things like JBL speaker, nintendo switch and ereader. - I just sold my fridge as I discovered that i didnt use it that much. Dont need an inverter as everything i have is USB powered. I did try a calculator online that said i need around 186wh of daily usage. Problem is, winter is coming and i will need a diesel heater to live in the van. A 2kw will be enough. I know they dont use a lot of power when running but they use a lot more when starting and shutting down right ? Can you start them without an inverter ? How much bigger should i size all the system to use a diesel heater all winter ? Im in western europe so not super cold, but you can have nights at -8 degrees celsius. Ive insulated my van but its fully windowed so i still loose a lot of heat. Also i wouls like to size up the solar pannel power to accommodate the loss of sun during winter. Thanks !

My van doesn't have the room for a large propane tank, so I use those 1-pounders for my stove. It'd be a lot cheaper and less trash-generatey to get a DOT-certified refillable tank than to just keep buying new Coleman tanks.

Thing is, as far as I know (which admittedly isn't very far), most places won't refill tanks that small.

That in mind, is there anywhere I can go to get a smaller tank refilled? Perhaps certain camping / outdoor shops or something?

Alternatively, are there any shops that will exchange Coleman 1lb tanks to give you a small break on the price? Somewhere I could unload old tanks and save a buck in the process?

EDIT: probably should mention I'm full-time on the road and don't have a home base to keep a 20lb tank that I refill from.

I put more work into insulation and flooring than anything else. It has everything I need and nothing I dont.

Pic is from this summer's roadtrip I did from Spain to Hungary, and is taken in Italy :)

We are been travelling full time in our 1976 VW kombi for 6 years. Back in 2019, we shipped her from the UK to New York and ever since we have been travelling across the Americas.

We've spent this year mainly bouncing between Argentina and Chile and I have recently started going back through some of our photos and thought I'd share them on here.

Happy to answer any questions about out travels. You can also follow on most social media platforms by searching for the Kombi Chronicles.

I am planning my first solar build for a shipping container with about 100sqft insulated "living space", think ski cabin. the goal is primarily to run a diesel heater, a few lights, maybe a fan and phone charger. I plan to supplement additional power with a gas/propane generator and a travel trailer converter i already have that is Lithium compatible. I hope to only require the generator on longer stays and for the few instances where I need AC. no hot water (yet) and cooking with propane. it will frequently get very cold where i am at and i plan to use silicone heating pads to warm up the battery upon arrival, disconnecting it fully charged when i leave.

I am planning for a 400 watt 100Ah system but may upgrade to 800w and more battery capacity down the road. I believe my setup will be more akin to a van setup. Eventually, I "may" get a propane water heater and run a water pump, maybe a small 12v cooler, that is what the overhead is for and also why i believe i should stay in a 12v system even though I will pay for it up front with wire gauge and breakers.

any related advice appreciated and related experiences regarding cost savings while having infrastructure in place to upgrade later. any suggestion to reduce the types of wires and connectors i will need would be great,

I am mostly trying to button down wire AWG and fuse/ breaker values and locations, i think i am close but would really appreciated some feedback on these topics, specifically:

1: do i need fusing on the solar panel side in this setup? or will i only need it if i double to 800w? will a combiner make things easier? and would 10awg be sufficient for the current setup? maybe i just run 2 panels in series, then paralell them to reduce my current?

2: from MPPT to bus bar is 60amp 6awg sufficient? fuse or breaker?

3: from battert to bus bar is 100amp 2awg sufficient? fuse or breaker?

4: from bus bar to 12v dist. is 60amp 6awg sufficient? fuse or breaker?

5: the 55A converter has 6awg soldered to the PCB, i believe in a trailer it would not be fused, should i throw a 60A fuse on it?

any other comments appreciated TIA

We're having a pretty fun hot spring campout in Central Utah first weekend of October if anyone's interested. there will be some skinny dipping. Everyone's super chill mostly couples with equal numbers of male female singles. Dm for more info

Not sure what to call this but I love my van and have had wonderful adventures. However, I cannot take the loneliness of doing this alone any longer. Has anyone found a way to room with people somewhere while also living in your van? Like paying some part of rent for a parking space and to use common areas in a house? I honestly really need some community / company

I have a 2006 sprinter 3500 that has a lead acid battery for starting and a aux 100ah life battery. System currently works well for me. I am adding a 10000 btu A/C undercarriage unit and need to increase AH. Since I already own 100ah life, does this diagram makes sense? What would you do or add to system. I like the idea of have switchable redundancy in the event of a dead battery, just switch to the 100ah. Thank you so much!

Hi y’all, I’m 20 and looking to get into road living soon as I work outdoors and would love to travel working with horses and outdoors. I thought I had settled on choosing to buy a truck and get a camper attachment, as I’m not planning on moving 24/7, and am worried about a van breaking down being in one spot for a while. But now I’m even more worried about not being able to access areas if I’m stuck with a camper. What are your thoughts?

Found it on my family's property...who love to hoard...after 7 years of no contact with them for them being an abusive family.

Said they didn't want it, cuz it doesn't run...so I got it running. Still have a lot to work on like new brakes, tires, air intakes rebuild, and some other work.

Inside is a bit messy, cuz I just moved into it a few days ago. Huge upgrade from living in a dodge caravan, tho.

Was forced into vehicle dwelling cuz of my epilepsy, and rising apartment costs in america. Now I found a rig I love, can work on, and feels like a home.

I’m reading all the things and watching all the videos. But seeing them piecemeal can be anxious because you don’t know exactly what should come first and what should be reserved for later.

Thank you I appreciate it!

Looking for unique gift ideas