22 Years of Van Life: The 5 Items I Can't Live Without!

hi everyone welcome back to my next video you know over the years people have as a lot of times people have asked me uh Bob what's your favorite thing they want one favorite thing or what's your five favorite things in your vehicle and this was kind of my criteria for all of them if I lost it today would I reorder it right away and so these are five things that I would reorder right away let's go look at five unsung heroes things you don't think are exciting but man they make my life a lot better all right let's go uh this is something that I really truly love I have in fact had to buy them a couple times because I've driven off without them I've bought them three times this is the third that I've got in my hand so this is one that I I I love it's it's a TR leveler you drive just drive up on it and uh one level two level three levels and I've also found you can kind of just stop anywhere along the way now this one's broken you can see that this isn't quite right here this should go over and up and then down and that's all gone and normally if I was showing you something that was broken I'd be saying oh this was crap don't buy it I'm still telling you I love this thing I will buy another one to replace it and then I'll have three and I have found times when I wanted three and the way I broke it off and it's remarkably strong and powerful is by going too far and rolling off so I love these things it's made by Camco the first set I bought was $25 each and they only sell them by the one this is $45 but I'm going to buy another one because I find them that useful I love the durability most of all and the practicality it'll raise you it'll raise you about 5 in and a lot of time that's enough if not well you just can't get level that's too bad uh where I'm parked right now I had to put it up and so there you can see it's up about 4 5 in up off getting a good night's sleep is is critical and not falling over if you're older and you have balance issues and your your rig is like this and tilted down and sideways and I'm exaggerating but um your risk of falling and losing your balance inside are much higher and that could really be a severe problem I don't want that to happen to me I don't want that to happen to you so these things really take care of that again uh these are not essential you can do you can live your life really well without it all right let's move on to the next item now the next unsung hero of Van life that I want to talk about is one that is very mundane you never think about it but man I love this thing it's this step if you if you're an RV or a very tall rig like I am uh so the my up to where I step in 19 in this is 15 in and each steps about 7 and 1 12 um to get up to 15 then to step in but I'm getting older and my balance isn't perfect and uh I this thing will never ever move or flip on me and to me that is the most important thing is that it be solid and stable and never move it's super heavy duty it's never going to fail let me tell you how much I love this thing I bought it and fell in love with it had to have it and I went to the dump one day it was in Courtside I think and I was taking my trash in and out and I drove away without it that very day I ordered I went back to find it but it was either in the trash pile or uh or taken if it if I got there and it was sitting there I'd take it home uh and so it was gone and I ordered one that very day I don't ever want to be without one of these this not going to work for most of you I know that this is one that I also love I love the width and its widest point it's 17 in the legs go out they don't just go straight down and that's where I think you get in trouble is when they go straight down but they go out and across here it's 23 a little bit more than 23 and the step is plenty big enough and it's height adjustable so this is its tallest typ the tallest it's a foot so you push in both sides and it goes right down and that's the lowest so now now it's a much more reason able height it's uh 9 in the problem with this is it's huge and it's uh you can't store it I have you have to have a big rig but the flags fold down on this so you just put this one down and it just goes down flat and now it falls down to nothing uh this is easy to carry around it's all aluminum not steel so it's as light as a a solid step can be so these two are um my unsung hero now now let's go look at another one so another unsung hero that I love I have owned a stove just like this I've been on the road living in a vehicle for 22 years uh total not all in continuous and at least 20 of those years I have owned this stove because and I've owned a lot of stoves I started like a lot of you with a Coleman 2 burner and I never used the other burner and it was big and I just didn't need it now I tried this isn't the only St I've played with other stoves people love the butane stoves with the little cartridge that you screw in and they're they're so small and cute I've I've bought a couple three of them most of them have broken and I've thrown them away and I always come back to this and again 20 years I've been using this and it's the one I'm going to recommend to you now it's going to work and it's going to work forever it course it Cooks on it really well big wide burners and not only do I cook on it I actually use it as heat with just just if you pick one of these up and you can't beat Walmart so buy it at Walmart um a clay flower pot and you put it right on top here you got an oven and this is what I have used for heat for decades and I never leave it on overnight so this is all I'll have it on before bed my rig will be toasty then I'll turn it off and I'll go to bed I also always have a carbon monoxide detector now the problem with these all propane heat is that the the heater itself puts out moisture but I'm in the desert and uh it's not a problem because it's dry anyway and it feels a little better to have a little moisture in the air if you're a really humid place this isn't the way to heat your rig but it does have a couple of downsides the highest heat is 7500 BTU which really is not a lot 10,000 is is a a lot it doesn't simmer very well although it's a low not all that powerful but it still doesn't simmer all that well those are the only two flaws but I if if uh uh someone steals this one tonight I'll order another one tomorrow that's how much I like these things and I totally recommend them to you here's an advantage that propane has this thing will burn this propane any propane from any model any bottle well I've burned propane at 30 below uh butane stops uh burning at at freezing just a little bit below freezing and just not working anymore a lot of people will put under their armpit get it warm uh the fact that propane Works in any cold temperature U and I do use this for heat tells me that I'm going to use propane and not butane now one of the things that I love about this stove and any any propane stove is you can buy an adapter this is the adapter this threaded end is exactly like the threaded end of this Coleman green bottle this unscrews off this screws in and then this goes into your propane bottle it's this is $23 this and it's steel braided link down below to all this stuff uh but man this thing is fantastic I've always owned uh plastic hoses and they've always failed and this one even has a little um fuel gauge these things aren't terribly reliable but they're reliable enough I don't recommend these little bottles I've had nothing but trouble and I've owned a lot of them I've only had nothing but trouble filling them uh so nobody wants to carry a 20 pound propane bottle in a small rig but if you're going to use your propane for heat you really have to I'll stop there so that's another unsung hero that I really like let's move on to another one so another unsung hero that I love having and uh it's odd I tell people I have one and I love it and I come out and I use it and they think what's weird you're so weird why do you have an umbrella I have an umbrella because it rains and maybe the world you live in it never rains on you but it rains on my world pretty often I they claimed to be the recommended by the Pro Golf Tour and course a lot of great advertising but I have owned this umbrella for eight years and it has performed flawlessly I use this thing in a lot of very heavy winds and it it has never you know reversed you see rellas that do that it's never done that the winds coming from that side you have to go this way and if the wind's coming you have I I've walked a lot lot with it just like this just barely covering me and I've I've gotten it down here so that I you know so that I can just barely see the road in front of me but it's gotten me home from a lot of walks I got a dog Cody most of you know Cody uh and um he's got to go for a walk twice a day um this was a 58 in and you can see it's silver here I bought it with the idea that I could use it in the sun for heat I have never once done that I like the biggest one I like 58 I would buy it bigger if if I don't think they had a bigger one when I bought this uh I would buy the biggest one you could buy to my mind the bigger the better and $85 I've gotten eight years of use out of it so I paid $10 a year for this thing and I twirl it you get to twirl it it's free a twirl it's endless entertainment let me show you how it folds up and now it just I love this thing I I know it I know it it's nothing could be more mundane but I think the 70 80 bucks I I would never ever uh be without it if this one broke today I'd buy one today that's kind of what makes it an unsung hero I want it it helps my life it makes my life better and so uh I'm going to own it all right now let's look at the next unsung hero so one of the things that I consider essential is a good night sleep I mean who doesn't think a good night sleep is essential and yet then the mattress determines that for the most part a lot of other factors but if you go to bed on an uncomfortable mattress it doesn't matter if everything else is perfect you're not going to sleep well I have slept on many dozens of different kinds of sleeping pads and so when I bought this ambulance two and a half years ago I needed to get a new pad CU it was different size and length this is a 3in memory foam and I tried one and I did not find that adequate my if I slept on my side and I mainly sleep on my side my hip hits the bottom you can see that of course just like most Nomads I have uh just plywood at the bottom and that's not soft or giving and so I had to uh I bought another one I found the two together to be fantastic on the bottom you know this is a um this is a cover nice cover it zips off you can unzip it if you have to get it out and wash it uh uh and on the bottom this is a nonslip it's got nabies I don't know if you can hear the knies but or see them probably not but uh it's very doesn't slide around at all this thing is Rock Solid never moves so uh go check it out there'll be a link for it down in the description good night sleep is crucial you're not going to have a good life without a good night sleep and these have provided it for me two thumbs up five stars highly highly recommend mended so there you have it five different things I find uh that are really boring but man they're important to me maybe they won't be important to you again the most important thing is don't spend money that extra money that you don't have if it's a luxury okay I hope you got something out of that that just gave maybe gave you a new idea of different particular products that work really well I'll probably think some more of these and do it again later on I was getting into the van one day and I thought man I really love these steps I should tell people about them so that's what this video is all right if you got out of this video Like Us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later and remember die with a lot of amazing wonderful memories and not with a lot of regrets dreams that were unfulfilled I wish I would have I wish I could have so live your very best life and live it today all right we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 773,296

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: 7C3HDx-erWM

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023