82-Year-Old Nomad Living in a BelAir Truck Shell! 2023

everyone welcome back to my next video i think you're in for a real treat today a really wonderful guy we're going to meet who's living in a very nice setup not not luxurious but really really nice so welcome gene to the channel i'm glad you're here thank you very much and you are now a full-time nomad well i've been at four weeks but yes i am so you're you have don't have a home you're going back to i still do have a house it's reverse mortgage they're trying to take it away from me i lost my wife uh four years ago i was living on three checks now i'm living on one it's just been downhill and then i owe so much i just i gotta hit gotta hit the road yeah that's going on i get letters all the time from people and the details are different but uh there's a lot of people struggling financially out there and you stumbled upon your a solution and that it seems to be working for you uh after four after just four weeks what do you think so far well i'm i'm real uh i'm real surprised i i really didn't know what to expect at the first campfire i went to i was a little hesitant to walk up to these people i don't know but in five minutes i knew everybody and they asked me you know the same kind of questions you're asking me right and after after just a few minutes i just felt like i was part of the group it just was uh i can't explain it it's just a really good feeling right yes uh nearly everyone i talk to say they have a stronger better friendship and community out here than they ever had in their whole life oh i believe it yeah i believe it and uh so folks we are at a caravan of homes and wheels alliance caravan and so uh you found out about homes and wheels alliance the caravan and you just came here yes sure and you were welcomed in and uh taken in well yeah just like i would been there forever yeah and that's that's been my experience universally with the caravans a good place to go so uh you told us a little bit about it you have a house that you think you might be losing at home and uh and a mountain of debt and boy don't we all know about that uh and so it seemed like the way forward was to uh get out of your house and into a living mobily and so tell us about your rig well the truck's a 2003 silverado it's a half ton it would have been nice if it was three quarters but it's half ton and i put so much money into it just to keep it running and everything i i couldn't trade it in on anything else they wouldn't give me anything for it so i 100 and 100 for trailers and and something to put on the back and i come across the biller shells and immediately i said oh i like these and so i talked to them and i ordered it in february i didn't get it till august wow i'll be covered was going on yeah exactly yeah so in the meantime every month i would buy out of my social security check i'd buy one item i'd buy i bought the jackery one month i buy the solar panel another month i bought the cooler another month and so by the time i did get it i was ready to go wow that was that was a really good way to do it you knew you had some time and so you just started planning and and getting the things you needed it actually wasn't to my advantage yeah to have that much time i didn't realize it at first but it was my advantage right yeah yeah yeah and so then uh you built it yourself the uh the into a little home the inside yeah yeah and uh so this was kind of a solution for a really bad problem you were in economically really good solution right yeah so basically this is the the way you're going to be living whether you like it or not unfortunately you really like it well i do like it good good yeah well why don't we take a look around and see what you've done with it appreciate it let's do that okay okay well the very first thing i built this cabinet here was real tall it was ugly green i cut it in half and i put one half here and the other half down there and i connected them together with another kind of a box and then i put the countertop on it and then i built this to go on top of that but i like i like this because of the drawers i got every drawer this is my silverware drawer cooking utensils this is my paper work is my toothpaste and all that stuff down here is more this stuff food and the drawers over there is my pots and pans and you'd like the top drawer just full of cables and electronics they kind of take over our lives they do and then this side is just made out of two by two by twos and plywood so i have a storage under here and the very the very front is where the porter party is oh underneath the uh oh the bed yeah it slides out and this this is just for that kind of stuff nice and my water joke back here and underneath that's a that's right it's it's batteries you just touch it and turns on yeah and then a good friend of mine he put this switch in for me if i pull it back here it's on the jackery oh what a good thing and the jackery runs the fan and the two lights if i put it up here it's on a truck battery which i never want to do right but is there an emergency so that's about it the jackery eventually is going to live right on this table at the end but my cable to my panel solar panel is not long enough so i have i have to keep it up in the truck for now this is my cable and i bring the porta potty out and i put my pillow on it so i sit right here oh that's so that's kind of your seat yeah yeah and then i put the laptop over here and i i have a few books i i read here boy it looks great you've really used good space uses of all this space my paper towels here yeah the jacket is going to sit the jacket is going to sit right in here oh wow very good and there's a big hole down here so i build a box and put this box in here and underneath the box is a is a false bottom i run my wires there to go out the little porthole on the side so that's after i get a longer cable for the uh for the panels then i'll be able to do that yeah yeah good good good and you got an awful lot of storage over your cab yeah and everything's pulled forward whatever you see here i could put that much in the back right so it's like 48 inches deep so you have more more storage space than you need i do well that's kind of good that's unusual actually but the only problem with that is like you pointed out one of your videos i brought way too many clothes right most of us do but it's not causing a problem so no so uh do you remember how tall this shell is it's 61 inches uh yeah the these i love these belair shells i've i've talked about them before and uh i think they're really a perfect solution for a lot of people you can't quite stand up but it's certainly better than being hunched over on your knees in a van well i had i had a smaller show and i i thought about using that and i got inside doing measurements and stuff and i actually hurt my back yeah and so i sold that shell and i ordered this one right yeah these are just so much better these aren't cheap uh this is probably what three thousand three four thousand i had the fantastic fan put in it is that a little more it's come to 4700. yeah they're yeah you do them right then they it starts to add up you got the two windows and i love the windows the windows opened up yeah um getting that ventilation there's a lot of ventilation right the other one opens up to the other side to keep it covered because it lets in a lot of heat the bed had to be the same height as the rail so you gotta get that extra four inches in there but i like laying on here i don't put a cup when there's nobody out there i don't cover the window at night right so it's pretty cool you lay in here and you wake up and you see this beautiful desert and this sun coming up it's it's fantastic yeah it is and so um how everyone i always have to ask how do you stay clean i use a lot of wipes a lot of wipes yep i know that and then what's so cool about this caravan is if you go to any kind of problem like that you minister to somebody and they tell you i plan to get one of those stand-up showers in one of the little um what do you call them solar solar so yeah i plan to get one of those and uh do you uh have a stove it's right there oh yeah sure right here in front of me i brought a couple of them with me and one of them is butane and you can't find those butane canisters anywhere so i just give the stove away i had a big coleman and it wouldn't open up in here and so i give it away so i want to get stuff like yours now yeah they're hard to find in stores amazon has them of course but they're hard to find in stores but it's great stuff and i really love the construction here this really gave you a lot of overhead storage you had a lot of fun building that i have i have a wood shop in my garage and i had a lot of fun building that cool and so um how do you uh go to the bathroom then i have one of those composite toilets but i really don't use it like that i put a bag in it just use a plain old bag yeah yeah two of them two of them yes i have like five or six in mine i get carried away uh yeah but no that's all it takes works well really really well for me uh and uh so when you started out were you afraid are you you mentioned you were afraid of being lonely no i wasn't afraid of being lonely i i just didn't think i was going to be accepted i mean you know everybody out here is a bunch of kids you know 55 years old and i was thinking i'm going to walk up to that camp and they're going to say where'd that old guy come from you know but it wasn't like that at all that was that was my only you know i'm i'm not afraid i long-hauled for 15 years so i i did a lot of would be out six seven weeks at a time so you know i've been out a lot right so driving wasn't a big deal to you no i took the back seat out oh my that looks great and then i built a platform all my tools and everything are underneath there on the other side i have two two boxes one metric and one standard but this is my uh there's a there's an all baku is that how you say it yep all but cool it's a 54 quart and uh this this cover insulates it really good at nighttime i shut it off wow that does insulate it well and uh it's a 36 now and tonight when i shut it off in the morning it'd be 44. wow that's great and so then i plug it back into the jackery and in an hour it's jackfruit's back up where it was right right yeah these super cabs really make a difference it gives you an enormous amount more storage so you you know this you'd think you couldn't live in just a shell but you're living really comfortably okay everything you could want i am i might i may have a little advantage just to a a newcomer that i camp a lot right and so i knew a little bit what to do right yeah yeah it's really just going camping except the camper is the tent yeah i got the exactly sitting there right now but eventually she'll go up where i showed you up there there's your water yeah you just with uh a tall bell air and of the back seat rigged out you've got an enormous amount of storage you can always find a place to put something but then try to find it yes that's the problem right there i've i've gone through that many times oh man where'd they put that yeah if you once you let it accumulate uh before long you just can't find it then you're buying it because you can't find it now you got two exactly yeah yeah i've done that i'm afraid i've done that so you have a regular door up on the shell that you could pop the whole back off let's pull that down on a short chain yeah watch your head cody he's got to be in the way wow that is nice that was super easy really nice yeah and like you said you could uh cover it with either shade cloth and get shade inside or if it's a rainy time you can i think you could cover it with a tarp and leave that wide open yeah yeah get a big tarp yeah and that would give you you know you don't feel so claustrophobic no i don't spend a lot of time in there right that's the disadvantage and um i try to park where i get one side of my truck is in the shade quite a bit of the day still like here so right and what a view you've got here oh that big that big goalie you know everyone says the desert's ugly sometimes it's beautiful yeah one of my friends says you're not gonna like the desert and another one of my friends she said you're gonna love the desert yeah i love the district yeah yeah it's a funny thing i come fall i'm really really anxious to get down into the desert and come spring i'm really really anxious to get out of the desert and back into my beloved mountains but uh the thing is you get your choice you get them both you don't have to choose you get them both oh that's that's the beauty of this there's no there's nobody telling you what to do where to go how to get there it's up to you yeah you're in charge i'm in charge if i want to sleep till noon i'll sleep till noon right for most of us it's one of the few times we've ever really been in charge of our lives oh i believe it yeah it is okay gene anything else any what any last words for the older people or younger people or just if there's any people out there uh water what is your recommendation to them just go to one campfire go to go to a caravan spend one night tell yourself i'm just gonna say that one night i'm gonna go home that won't happen but uh that's my advice uh well first of all watch watch your videos i've i've watched your videos and i have your book i've watched no man land probably six times ever when people come over i said you got to watch this movie and he can learn a lot from that so people my age they are going to hesitate but just do it just get out you're going to be amazed if you you can't i can't ex really explain just how wonderful it is out here it's just it's another world it's another world it's one that people don't know about they don't no and it's good that people like you tell them thank you yeah really really good well gene thank you so much for sharing your life i really really appreciate it i love the bel air i've been a a big fan of theirs for a very long time so i'm glad this is working for you thank you appreciate it and at a price you can afford you know you it's hard to get into a home that you like on the pickup you already have for five thousand dollars very hard yeah you this does it yeah okay folks i hope you got a lot out of this i know you did if so like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 1,635,435

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: pn_CKEpHs0U

Length: 17min 47sec (1067 seconds)

Published: Sun May 29 2022