Live Feed - How to Find a Van! March 4, 2020

and so we'll let him be the I'm gonna let him answer most of the questions I think just so we can give you the best possible answers there was only 20 minutes good 20 minutes okay yeah so now we'll move on and we'll actually talk about the topic card one live feed March 4th okay cliff you ready yeah we gotta bang these out okay Laurie clue clue oh man ask sorry about that this higher mileage necessarily mean higher cost of maintenance repair where is the sweet spot between initial cost and mileage what a good question that's a great question and it's kind of easy to answer in some ways because when how I set out to put some criteria together to help them determine what would be the minimum type vehicle they came up with under a hundred and twenty thousand miles and 2000 and newer and when you add those criteria together you kind of find the sweet spot so you're asking for the sweet spot that's kind of the target is under 120,000 miles and under $3500 usually most vehicles now are made to go unless they've been abused most of them will go to hundred thousand miles without much problem so you can get a lot of mileage out of the vehicle yet that has a hundred and thirty thousand right we like to shoot towards a hundred thousand but we you know sometimes you just can't 110 120 130 right in that range but sometimes even we the original four don't we had 93 thousand dollars I think so sometimes you'll find him with even less right yeah so and minivans well I guess we'll come to that question so we think that's the that's the that's the sweet spot okay Dale mmm the LK asks do you have any advice for having a van inspected when you're buying a van located out of state too far to travel and you can't inspect yourself well I do know a couple people that haven't done that exact thing I have not myself but most of them in fact the two people that I know in the last two years did it they bought a vehicle in a state that they weren't in and they went to Craigslist and looked for mobile mechanics there and they both easily found somebody one charged him a hundred dollars which I thought was very cheap the other was charged in 160 dollars they went out did it incest assessment of the vehicles both people ended up buying the vehicles and they were very happy and were very happy that they did the inspection because they learned everything may be right I also know someone who had them ask the person who was selling the vehicle they weren't they were the buyer was the California the seller was in Kansas City and they it was such a special vehicle they were gonna fly in they asked them to take it - it was a Chevy so they asked them to take it to the Chevy dealer now the Chevy dealer is gonna cost more but they're really going to give you an inspection they're looking for every possible thing that could be wrong yeah so that's an option I think the moment of panic is a brilliant idea yes that's a really good idea he's working for you because you're paying us so good idea yeah okay Debbie Bruning I would like a van that could tow my small teardrop while I slowly convert it can most vans toll good question almost any of the of course any full side man will pull a teardrop and my guess is that most of the like if you had a full-size Dodge Caravan you'd be able to pull no problem I think I was sad keep it under a thousand pounds or 1515 fifteen hundred pounds yeah yeah I I wouldn't personally I wouldn't tell a full-size travel trailer because on your own four thousand no I wouldn't yeah just we're talking about tear drop yeah specifically a small tear drop or like a pop up would be even pop-ups can be too heavy so yeah yes you had a really big one once yeah it was like 2,800 oh my goodness yeah you couldn't you wouldn't a the lighter the better yeah and it's good that you're thinking in terms of a material because it's not like it's going to cause catastrophic failure if you get too big a trailer am i probably not you know but will be cause a lot of premature failure of the brakes transmission everything's gonna work too hard exactly so a premature failure that's what you got to worry about and it's almost guaranteed if you're overweight even if you stay below the tote with a rating don't don't trust those ratings because they're not always they're very generous yeah and they're also ratings on towing is with the idea of you'll tow once or twice a year you know if you told once a month that's 12 times a year but you're gonna be towing all the time different different story altogether much more strain on the vehicle much more a lot of premature failure and it can lead to catastrophic failure and then your safety as it is this issue Elise asked can one relatively easily and economically lift a van for a bit for better clearance what are the methods and by how much can it be lifted I've heard of adding spacers that's on that well mostly on many bands for example there is not but most of the methods are not particularly safe you can't oftentimes deuce you can sometimes increase the tire size and that's gonna lead of course to changing your speedometer working those larger wheels might not fit under your vehicle properly so it it gets into an area that's a little tricky on most vans standard full-size fans of all the major manufacturers they all have lift kits that you can add to them easily when it comes to the mini events though you'll probably find less less acessory type options I don't and that's absolutely right I agree totally full-size vans you can add a lift I went into a lift kit on on a van and a ball but facers I'm they actually can it's a body lift you're not lifting the whole frame you're lifting just the body with space and you can get a lift kit for a standard size fan rear for 200 to 250 dollars right and that's and don't go very much couple inches yep but and you do that no problem and the exceptional of minivans is the Astro the Chevy Astro GMC safari you can do lifts on those and actually quite a few people do so that is if you want a minivan that's the exception that I would consider a lift on and they a lot of those come with all-wheel drive and they're really quite good rigs yes if you can find one of those those are awesome yeah Jan Webb don't make the mistake that I did I believe the car salesman salesman I don't have my list of facts with me and he reassured me that the van I was looking at was the longest longest model no now I am stuck with a short van and it's not even high top so she she believed the salesman in the salesmen let her roam unfortunately they're not there to protect your interest unfortunately right so that's good warning thank you so much Jan Oh Maria Maria Beru got Korean Barua okay I think the getting up pre-inspection was so important buying my used van the inspection at an independent shop revealed transmission problems the dealer shot dealership offered me a 30 I was soon 30-day warranty on the transmission because of that inspection report the shop was Martin was right and my transmission went out well that's just a reply I I'm sorry but for some reason we got we can't pick up the rest here but yeah don't always get it always always always don't buy a used vehicle without getting a new unless you're a real mechanic yeah get a real mechanic to check it out yeah absolutely that's just no question because even if you are a mechanic yourself it's kind of like a lawyer representing themselves it's not a good idea it's always good to get a professional inspection if you can afford it if you can possibly do it you know have the potential to save yourself thousands of dollars so they can almost all of them have a routine check that they do if they offer it at all they will usually offer a pretty thorough inspection for around 100 to 150 dollars and that's usually money very well save yeah always why - just don't buy it if unless you pay the mechanic to fix to look at it okay I can't even to say how to your name but you ask what year making model would you recommend for a minivan ah year and make him out well in the minivans my opinion and I think it's kind of also how is doing a lot of the Chrysler or Dodge vans there's so many of them out there they have a great deal of reliability so I've gone a lot with Dodge vans in 2000 range like how is doing that they said for their criteria those minivans you can get a really nice sweet spot they can you can get it from like 90 to 130 thousand miles I've got one right here $2,600 and it's got a hundred and thirty two thousand miles this is a great deal there's a lot of good deals out there in the two thousand to thirty five hundred dollar range in the two thousand right about the year 2000 there you're gonna get anti-lock brakes you're gonna get our airbags you're gonna get the basic safety stuff that isn't in some of the vehicles from the 90s Oh 2000 is a great year and there's a lot of vehicles out there particularly in the caravans that are just really a good bang for the buck that will last a good amount of time oh yeah I agree I think the I think the care about dodge Dodge Chrysler Line was really really good I'm more about thanking you and of course I think most people would agree that the Toyota is one of the better ones oh yeah however and we would I would normally think that about the Honda because Honda makes great things but actually their minivans has some questionable reports I'm not sure I'd buy the Honda but I definitely look for a Toyota but you're gonna pay a lot more that's the thing it's really a dollar for what you're gonna get I wouldn't say don't get it Toyota if you can afford to get a Toyota but you're you're not gonna spend twenty five to thirty five you're gonna spend forty five I've just said sir a fair amount more so it's all a matter of what do you have budget wise and usually the most bang for your buck comes out of dodge many fans ya know and there's a lot of them around a lot they can be worked on every it's it's it's a good one the Honda's tend to have some transmission problems the Toyotas are very nice they're just a little more expensive right just they're more money how have you considered - let's see Donna Bates okay Darrell Herron sorry are there any advantages of owning a conversion van over others for a no build build so I'm assuming he's meaning like a like a full-size van with a conversion and usually that means they put in nice interiors and bigger windows yeah but they oftentimes have things like captains chairs that might not be suitable or I mean in the back I don't know a lot of times the conversions put a lot of weight and excess stuff that people actually don't used as nomads often times you can't get one with a roof that's popped up a little bit so that's an advantage for sure that's kind of a you know a case-by-case basis I think I think you could find a conversion that might be a good way a good place to start from a lot of people want to just tear everything out and start from scratch but for a no build if you've already got a working conversion well sure I know lots of people that have road tracks I have a friend with a road track in the 80s that he just absolutely loves and it's just a perfect vehicle so yeah the one the one doubt really downside to the conversion vans is they add-on pretty stuff on on the walls and they get thicker yeah and you lose interior space yeah so they all have you know they'll add on the plastic on both sides that have cup holders all room yeah and so that might be four or five inches on each side which you don't care if you're driving down the van and the seeds but if you're living in it and you lose four inches on each side that's a whole big chunk of space and especially if you want to put the seat across the back well then you can't lose all that because no one's gonna if they're already blight because six feet and ya take away four inches on each side well who's gonna sleep in that even yeah even a small woman can't sleep across there generally so that's the one really bad thing about them is they they put this stuff on the wall and it just eats up into your space and I still think a cargo van is hard to beat thing on the walls you can see you can fit in between the ribs there's only the sheet metal core is is losing you space you're not even losing much to the ribs and so maximizing space inside the van which is a pretty big deal and keeping it light and keeping it light they're adding a lot of crap on there not again if they add at the top but usually they're called turtle tops or like a foot or so yeah that's worth it almost whatever asks you to get that top yeah but it doesn't have a top I personally don't think I would look for yeah yeah the top is key to making that worth that I think yeah okay Donna Bates have you considered doing YouTube videos and people you run across who are selling their converted vans asked by someone shopping I almost never again run across people who are selling converted vans it's a rarity yeah I mean if you've already converted it made it ready to live in it's it's a rarity yeah they sell them right away to their friends they do usually by the time somebody's ready to move up or change vehicles they've already got somebody that's you know spotted their vehicle or someone they know yeah the idea that you're gonna find one that's already converted for you and move into it is not likely I don't it's unlikely ross Cadell do you have recommendations where to find fleet vehicles sell offs that's on that well i i've bought a number of vehicles from the I'm from Washington State I bought another number of vehicles from the state of Washington I used to buy vehicles and flip them and so every state has usually a service that they use they don't do it themselves so you can just do if you look up state vehicle auctions you'll automatically find information right away that's a good way to go about it the thing with those is you know you have to respect to them and you can't take them to a mechanic unless you can get a mechanic to go to their facility you can be more complicated you can have more risk involved so that's something to consider yeah I'm my van that I'm Korean now what was a rental van and I I think was budget I think somewhere on there it's there's you can barely read on some place where well what the ban originally was I believe it was a budget rental van they had 12,000 miles and of course it's it was very much more expensive but it was fantastic deal it had 12,000 miles it was two years old and I got it for nineteen thousand which is an awful lot of money I know but I I this this scar hitter with you guys there this scar here gave me a big budget cash that I I put aside to buy a van with and and I had the cash so that's how I got it but if you can you're asking about I think that's the very best way you can buy a vehicle because it's still under full warranty the van has a full warranty that transfers to it the sale so this Chevy had 36,000 mile warning and only had 12,000 miles on it and it was for three years so I had another full year of warranty first you know that many miles so and it's hard to go wrong with a vehicle that's under full factory warranty but you have to be able to pay that kind of money for them and that's not easy most of us can come up with that and I found it on auto traders it seems to me that auto traders has the upper end of vehicles have you looked at auto traders I'm sure autotrader.com yeah and so I had really good luck with him I said I was in quartzite and I sent it to look within 300 miles that gave me Phoenix Vegas and Los Angeles and so I it was looking for all three of those areas there's a lot of names in those areas and I found this one and in fact the place I bought it from that's one of the main things they do they'll go to the auctions and they'll just buy budget they'll go to budget and it'll buy them all yeah and they'll get them at a fantastic deal yeah and they won't negotiate I said well you know this one had only had a couple of little flaws I said what about these he said the price is 19 and we're gonna sell it at that period and that was that but it was a good deal man I've never regretted that's a $33,000 man for 19 and it only had 12,000 miles yeah but I know you can't afford that fleet vehicles have the advantage of they're better maintained is do you think that's all absolutely absolutely and they tend to buy vehicles that they're successful with so if they have ones that operate well then they keep buying those so you tend to get good vehicles more often than not from fleets yes and the easiest thing there's a Google search yeah fleet vehicle sales portside fleet vehicle sales Los Angeles and I think Phoenix has a fleet place that sells buses absolutely no send a couple of people that bought buses from a place in Phoenix that so there's lots of places and that's an easy Google search you'll find lots of results ok this one I don't think we're gonna have an answer for Coach Jack's try guy what is the best cheapest van to stand in I don't think there are any can you stand in any van normal average guys fighting I'm by me no you got to go to a balk yeah yeah that's what I say go to a box fan at that point there's no vans per se that you can know oh well I guess now the new the Sprinter the transit and the Promaster yeah are not cheap but those are all the ones then those those are the ones those are the ones and of those the cheapest would be the Sprinter because you can get those back to 2004 yeah because they've been here the longest there they're almost always work vehicles and 2004 might be really beat hard yeah I would say so I usually they're pretty hard I did it hundreds and hundreds of thousands of miles so I know you know if you wanted to stand in at the conversion vans or by far your most likely oh what you are well we're seeing a lot of would be the ambulances type things not a full ambulance shuttle regular regular vans with the really call tom yeah shuttle buses lifts a lot of those have lips and they're used by hospitals yep and things like that that's gonna be one but my experience with people to buy those was they're really beat hard to their use really hard then they're sold once they're shot yeah I know it's a couple people that bought the mint bought those and then just poured money in yep but I do know somebody that bought one with not a ton of miles on it but most of them are run really hard yeah and have just thousands and thousands okay Chris Chris I'm just gonna say Chris ah hey Bob maybe you can provide a place where van sellers can post somewhere on your site and we can then shop actually I have that right now thing is these things man so so fast that they don't hang around my forum I actually have a forum and I don't talk much about it but the forum is cheap RV living.com slash forums it's plural f you are om s chief Harvey living.com slash forums and there is a training post there and occasionally you'll find vans there yep so there's that place is already there it's on the forum everything goes so fast that's the problem yep they do go very fast ginger snap Judy pros and cons of both sliding side door versus barn door styles what do you think about that well I've owned both I despise sliding you I despised sliding doors I would just really avoid a slot a sliding door and there are people that like them so it's just a personal opinion really yeah you have to understand that this is all just a personal opinion my personal opinion is do not buy one what is just a personal opinion most people much prefer the barn doors when they're available yeah just a lot better I had a lot problem I had a Chevy and it seems to me that Chevy's although I've had four words with a lot of problems with the doors the doors are a surprising amount of problems they hinges go the interior goes but on the sliding I bet I ended up putting $500 into trying to keep that sliding door running hit it finally just quit I couldn't make I could spend enough money they don't like the the grit and the sand and anything Animus because we traveled in so much of that yeah I think it just yours well no I don't I don't recommend the sliding doors at all Tiffany Morris what do you think about kia sedona xin chrysler town and country z-- if I can't afford a Toyota Center or yes so why don't you tell them well i my the Kia's are very small and they don't have a great track record for reliability and the town of countries are great they are very popular they oftentimes have the stolen go seats in the back of the town in countries which is the nice feature for dropping your rear seats down in the bottom or giving you cavities under their very popular vehicle lots of them out there to buy lots of cheap parts if you ever need to replace anything on them lots of aftermarket accessories I'd have to say caravans or town in countries are great the one thing about the the Chrysler Dodge both is the many is the transmission and so make sure that it's sound just get it inspected because that's the main thing that goes on is their their trainees like just like the honestly yeah nice I'm more positive about kia sedona i would i would keep kia sedona on my list but like any other because it'll be a lot cheaper to buy it was cheaper to buy originally it'll be a lot cheaper for you to buy now here's the big thing we have this fascination with reputations and and reputations can be very important no one in their right mind should ever buy a 4 Ford 6 litre diesel you buy that thing it's gonna blow up it's not a twin it's going to that's a reputation well deserved a lot of these reputations yes maintenance is more important than reputation if you a well-maintained car with a poor reputation is usually going to be far better than it right reputation is poorly maintained maintenance is key and the only way to know that is to take it to mechanic and you'll he can tell hopefully he can he can give you an idea of the maintenance you take good care of any car it should last on you and so that's more important than wreck than reputation is maintenance and I would keep Bukka see this an open mind to the in Sedona here's what I one thing that I kind of do with cars sometimes and the availability of parts based on how many vehicles were made and sold that the closer you can get to the higher numbers the chances are you're always going to be able to find it hard so that's what would Lane lean me more towards the Dodge our Chrysler then to us here and that's absolutely true you for one thing you go to a junkyard you're gonna find a whole lot more dodge be vans out there time you're gonna see a key yeah okay do you have anything we're not covering yet I know you had some stuff you wanted to cover Oh okay Austin Rollins what about the chrysler pacifica hybrid maybe a better version of the Prius I can't imagine any Chrysler being a better version of the Prius let me just say right now nothing is a better version of the Prius nothing that's personal opinion but that's definitely my opinion now the here's what I have read and seen now the Pacifica came out later on and there was a period of time in the Chrysler Benny minivans where they had a period of considered unreliable and that's more in the 2004 to 2008 range now what I've learned and I don't I haven't been able to confirm this personally but the ones after 2008 where they came up with the new Pacifica design are supposed to be much more reliable so I don't know much beyond that but that's what I do know and and a hybrid minivan would be something really looking to do I don't know anything about the Chrysler hybrid system I don't need it I know I know this if you go look at you do a Google search on top 10 most reliable vehicles the prius we'll be on nearly every one of them every single one of them and it's just an incredible piece of engineering if you want something that's going to be reliable you know he's gonna be a Prius course we're tiny too aren't they so I can't imagine I can't imagine I'd buy a Chrysler hybrid yeah okay another really hard question coming up lucid lumix what van would be best for someone who is 6 foot 2 anyone in the comments who could help well you're tall you're about 6 - I'm 6 just over 6 foot and I didn't have any trouble sleeping sideways in my a Ford van that I was in the first year I had it with the pop-up trailer but I would also sleep in the van and for me sideways and that was but that was a full-sized 95 Ford van so that was a large size now in the minivans I I don't know what the best probably and we're looking at the longest ones being like the caravan so there's not really any in the minivans that are longer so if you're looking for sleeping space or they must a stand oh he doesn't say that doesn't yeah oh of course you can't stand in any of them it's six foot to it yeah and I think most of man is most bands are four foot tall inside you'd have to add a Heinkel so standing is out lengthy no I'm pretty sure we just built that one and not in October it was over 6 to 1 it from from the back oh yeah from behind the driver's seat to the back oh there's plenty yeah yeah there's plenty of link yeah yeah that's so you can sleep it lengthwise I think in any of them yeah I would guess at 6 foot 2 but not across no no not a minivan okay Frederick Edwards do you have any thoughts on those low mileage ambulances you see from time to time they are usually diesels thoughts on ambulances I personally haven't worked on one they're almost all diesels and I have seen several of the conversions and they're very nice have a lot of built-in stuff that is highly functional but you can be assured is gonna be heavy and if you're planning on getting off road very much I don't know how they're gonna work there but I've seen some builds they're fantastic yeah again you've got a diesel power plant if that works for you that might be good yeah one of the things that people ask about and are worried about ambulances is is old viruses you know someone had aids in there or or blood you know there's been blood people have died in there are there ghosts I mean I've actually people say things to me I know someone who Emily says no one should ever buy an ambulance because of the risk of dry viruses and blood I don't believe that myself but it is something for you to think about and decide for yourself so I'm not going to tell you yes or no about that but it is something for you to consider and make your own decision wait is that would be the biggie yeah they're happy they're very very heavy you know the one thing you can't have if you're running an ambulance is you can't have it breaking down you can't have someone dying on the way to the hospital yeah that's a lawsuit that you would never get out from under you know you just can't do that so I think they're very very well maintained I'm sorry another name that I can't pronounce which minivan is the best deal most space mpg and reliability for the money thinking oh now we're talking about the new ones Oh thinking about a Promaster City which is a very tiny little yeah yeah it looks bigger but not sure or Ford Transit I would assume you're talking about Connect for grand caravan the cheaper ones of course break more okay I think the requestion is miles per gallon and I think you're right the Ford Transit can get 30 but it's very small it's probably I don't know about the well they all make one now Chevy makes some kind of weird little tiny yes RV I mean a tiny minivan and the and the price Promaster City is very tiny I bet they're all getting 30 miles per gallon yeah that's gonna be your best miles per gallon for sure yeah I've seen a number of the little Fords people loose oh those I know because I've seen at least three or four in in the last couple of months that people are using the little transit so but I don't know much about the others as far as the newer vehicles in there most of my focus has been on older vehicles yeah the the Ford Transit Connect I'm a fan I'm a pretty big fan of the connect it gets on almost honest 30 miles to get on I think it's reasonably well built it's it's very small but I think if you can live with the size super stealth 30 miles to the gallon 28 I mean I literally 2830 is why people are getting with that's been honest not just a number of people dream up you can dream up any number yeah you're just not gonna beat beat dad is it big enough only you can decide we can't tell you that wouldn't be big enough for me would you live in a Ford trans to connect no I can't live in a Prius and I know some certain crazy people who can so you know if you live in it I would give serious thought if you can live in that small space okay Sheri Timmons what is the best man for the best pricing I can already tell you we can't answer this as money as the main hold up I'm disabled with bad back really need a high top and not sure what to do thank you for all your input we're in a lot where to look is there like buy here pay here or you can pay monthly payments so a lot of questions there you you you're poor you're really poor what do you buy yeah well if you have to stand up that really limits you it's not gonna happen it's it's pretty hard to imagine that you'd have to be in a box man or you'd have to be in high top so you'd have to be in a pretty tall vehicle that could be a tough one when I first started out I pulled a pop-up trailer behind my van because I needed to stand up I have a bad back so that is something when that was a consideration for me but I couldn't afford exactly what I needed and it took me a while to get to that point but if you need to stand up that could be a tough one the thing is most people and this is a consideration consideration you want to think about most of us spend most of our time outside of our vehicles so we try to camp in places where the climate is such that we're really not forced to spend a great deal of time inside if we don't want to it's the only thing I could say to that but getting one in a budget Reena you're gonna have to look for [Music] probably a box man would be the lowest priced vehicle I've seen and I've seen those four same prices this sub man so sometimes they do pop up something you might consider is the tents that hang over the back door that's an idea you would maybe spend your day out there it's all except the very worst weather conditions and then just sleep inside the van or maybe even sleep out there I don't know under the bad weather you wouldn't want to sleep out there wouldn't think and I think people overestimate the importance to standing yeah if you put the bed behind the Pat the dot driver's seat all the way at the back then all you have to do is step in and sit on the bed yeah and you'd have to keep the bed low enough so you can back your your full back goes up right yeah if you have to arch then that's going to clobber your back down but as long as you and you get it low enough and you can you never have to do anything but sit on the bed inside the van everything on the side you can reach and you'll have to do almost everything outside yeah you mean putting your pants on would be hard because you're gonna be scrunched and if you've got a bad back being scrunched to snow but as you said I thought it would be harder to be in a van than it actually was when I did some traveling in my van by myself so really again you get in and sit down just you know if you want to be up then you get out you're outside and that would be you know it's going to bathroom putting on your clothes those are the things that are really hard to do in the van you can sit and cook put your kitchen directly across kind of block a little bit of the door so you could cook there you could have your storage there you can just set a whole lot more than you think and if you could get a tent outside then you're set all you got to do is get inside to set to and then sleep and be outside of the tent you're not gonna find a minivan on a really tight budget with it you're not gonna find a high top that you can stand in on a really tight budget this is not and if you can't it's gonna be a piece of crap that's gonna keep falling well that's the one thing we haven't talked about and they do ask where to look so let's talk about where you go to buy a van or a minivan or a car or whatever people right I think we might go over I think if I go over folks so if you want to hang around well here's a few places recently I have been using a couple of things I've been using cars.com which gives you a good comparison and it does do national searches though it'll do searches like within 200 miles or 300 miles that's a good one to get some basic pricing and see what's available cars.com that's one auto Tempest I like Auto tempest dot-com is a site that allows you to search multiple things at once so it'll search Craigslist it'll search several other sites and bring all that information in G and you can pick which sites you want it to use so Auto Tempest is a good one Craig Glick Craigslist of courses is a very good one and you know the typical typical things you have to watch for on Craigslist with some of the things or some of the salesman or sales outfits what we'll list is a private sale when it's really a commercial sale that doesn't happen too much anymore because now they charge you for all listings for vehicles at least they did in the city I was in so everybody was on the same playing ground but Craigslist is still a good resource because it's local you can fine tune in to local stuff and the other one that's been really popular I've seen a lot of stuff on lately his Facebook marketplace it is very localized you can get stuff right close to home and that's a good place to look so those are some places of course Auto Trader it's been a good one they give you a broad spectrum all of these guys are going to try to use it as a tool to advertise to you try to send you the typical marketing materials all that so it depends also if you're in a rural area well then Craigslist might not hate your area very well and that's when something like Auto Tempest will help give you a little broader spectrum because it will not only check Craigslist but it'll check Auto Trader and some of the other ones at the same time so that's a good something to do is you're gonna have to expand your search like I said I was in quartzite and I drove over to LA I don't know how far that is prior to hundred fifty miles and you know I found this was the van this was the van and I I drove over there to get it so you may have to do that what do you think about eBay eBay ah is for sophisticated buyers is what my opinion is I've been the baby bump a seller and a buyer I think since well at least 15 years and vehicles are tricky because you don't get inspect them unless they're in a city near you so you run into the much higher risk and usually people are selling them on eBay for a reason that they don't want to sell it directly to their market whether we're is the possibility of liability coming back on them so if they want to wash their hands of a vehicle and know that they're not going to deal with again they're going to sell it without any no guarantee no warranty whatsoever you know you get it you accept it and if it says described it's yours so there is more risk and I would recommend it only if you've bought a lot of vehicles and and knowi be well right okay oh then back to the so if the question from sherry sherry Timmons what's your best cheapest you're really poor I'm gonna say buy a minivan buy the best mini of you and you can you're gonna get the most bang for your buck all those places it's so like okay then she asked about if you are kind of poor is there a buy here pay here where you can pay monthly payments and all I'll address that first I have but I've bought vehicles at a used-car lot where you buy here pay here and I had a really good experience but I found I've been looking for a for pickup said I wanted a pickup and so I take it like three or four different ones to mechanics they were all craft he said you buy this you just throwing money away so I went to this I mainly going to use car dealers and so I went to this one used-car dealer and I said guy take it to a mechanic you sister look great so I took it to the mechanic the mechanic said if you don't buy it I will so I went back and I bought it and it was $5,000 and I only had three that was all I could just put to put down and so I did a paint by your payer and I think the payments were 150 a month and I went in every month and keep my Harvey bucks and I think a year and a half later or whatever was I don't know the details in half later right that's time and I was it was a great experience I wouldn't hesitate to do it again are there rip offs probably but this was my hometown it was in Anchorage Alaska I'd driven by this place and so I would do it that's that's what I'd say try and know them try to know if they have their reputation oftentimes if it's a buy here pay here they may get a little more price for the vehicle sometimes they'll do that for offering the service you have to J you know judge that for yourself as far as the value but it could certainly be a way to to get something financed if if that's helpful to you okay I think we covered that any last thoughts on you don't have much money what do you do what do you buy what are you going I think we covered that pretty well ah you know if you really are looking for the cheapest possible vehicle I'll go into Craigslist I'll make myself a search I'll set the maximum amount of money that I have to spend and then I'll look at every single listing one at a time and see if those vehicles could be suitable for a living right and you may have to settle for something you don't really want to live in I mean you're gonna be uncomfortable but it's if it's a cardboard box or or sleeping in a car you don't need a vehicle that makes you uncomfortable I'm gonna still going to choose the vehicle if I can afford it it's better in a cardboard box under a bridge well also for me when I started out I started out with the van of the Papa well that allowed me to save money during that first year and then I was able to trade that in and get a different the next year so you know you could do it incrementally and most people do that incrementally you know if they'll get in the lifestyle that they can then save some money right and life starts becoming easier and then they can maybe upgrade your vehicle over time so even if you're on a really low income say you're on an 800 a month or thousand a month if you can live in your car in a tent for a year and save $500 if you can save 100 if you save $100 about this 1200 after a year that's 2,400 after two years that's 3,600 after three surge of 600 you can get you into a minivan good meaning it was really good so you might have a year or two or three if you have no other money but then it's a path it's a good path forward it's there's hope and yeah you're enduring wife in the car and in the tent but there's the path and there's a light at the end of the tunnel and living in a minivan can be very pleasant yeah absolutely so and and sometimes you have to think that way I'll take anything I can get right now I'll save up I'll save every penny I possibly can and a lot of you are paying one hundred two hundred five hundred six eight hundred a month in in some place what if you could live in your car and put that in your pocket it won't take you long at all to get a good vehicle yeah my first year my expenses went down by six and you saved it and I saved it are you guys able to use that to move up to another vehicle right so endure the discomfort for a while so the guy who's too tall to sleep in a minivan you've got indirect it it'll get you to where you want to go it's a way forward it's a hope and then that's sometimes that's that's enough just hope all right let's do one more question Laura Kramer asks what would you buy if I were your family members so if you were my family member this would still be my advice I'm in a power chair when I need to be outside my house walking my dog large dog instead I also have a CPAP and no to concentrate all need space and power what do you think she's in a power chair as Big Dawg well I've seen that kind of situation where people use the small schoolies is common it is something that you have to beyond to get in and out of the vehicle or just on to move around if that's the case then I don't know you could have a carrier for a scooter without any problem on most any vehicle so that's not too hard and the room for stuff in a minivan big dog okay well I don't know for me it's it's as simple as a cargo van you just parked over at them and is simplest yeah and that's always the simplest it'll have a gate drop-down gate you get six by ten six by twelve yeah you'll need a vehicle that can tow that they all usually weigh about 1500 pounds less than 1500 pounds but the time you get all that stuff in there yeah you hold a lot of sore you can old you and your dog it's an empty space you build it for you and your willpower chip and your dog say you go in you look around and say this is where I can sleep this is where the power chair can go this is where the dog is gonna go you can build up around all those things in mind I've seen several people in in particle vans and that's the answer for a power chair it works really well you'll have to work out a system but you can it's just mechanical cargo trailer cargo trailer yes cargo trailer sorry of dropping the door and raising it but you can do it there's there's a way you can do it yep you have a video of I do Bob was his name as well I've got he he was in a he'd lost even wonder both legs and you lost your loss too late that's right yeah he made it work way to work well yeah and you'd have to have a large enough vehicle he had a full-size pickup it's gonna be a couple thousand pounds by the time you've loaded it off probably about right yeah so you're gonna need to be uh something that can tow 2,000 Eve anthems yeah you've got the storage of the minivan and the cargo train that's what that's what I would tell anyone in any situation one yeah well it's for ten should we quit well let's go for one hour that's what we'll do Casey maybe we'll cut the first 20 minutes off out of this video once it's processed and have an hour I only in it we'll have an out one hour of question and answer to a little card before raven white feather i have asked this question before when bob was live at the Schooley episode where do you register and inspect while you are we're losing you folks sometimes we're gonna come and go it's the Internet we're just using Verizon on my phone you have to have be a resident of a state and so you're going to register and inspect the vehicle in that state I chose Nevada so I don't have any inspection I became a Nevada resident and so I register my vehicle here I get my driver's license here I'm in Nevada resident South Dakota makes it the easiest and cheapest by far easiest and cheapest no inspection so this is a whole other topic and I have videos on it yeah I have several yeah several a lot of people Carolyn has a really good Carolyn's RV life has a really good video on her becoming a resident of Nevada this you know how to become a resident of a state you have to have a state and become a resident and do it all there it's no big deal it sounds hard it's not and I'm not going to cover all that down William cutlip is it reasonable to think that I can buy a starter van now and be in something good by next winter but what will depend on what you mean something good it sounds like you're buying something bad to start with is something good an RV you know you really have to have to define your terms here yeah are you talking about fixing up the van so that it's all equipped by the end of that time or that you would save up and get another vehicle yeah see when I bought my man I didn't have any idea that I was gonna move I bought my van with the idea I'm gonna leave it the rest of my life yeah I literally did I bought it with that idea in mine I'm 65 if I got 20 more years that'll be good and so yeah I but you know I don't really understand the question yeah and it depends on how much money you can see all right we'll go through what we just talked about you yeah okay there we go so we got a clarifications that bad is low miles an ancient which would you recommend low miles an ancient at all high miles high miles an ancient No but I think it's what he's saying he gets in something just to get started and then could he expect in a year's time to be able to upgrade to another vehicle depends on your budget yeah we would we have about knowing more but for me for example I was saving the $600 I was spending on rent and storage and those went away so in my first year I was able to save almost all that money and so for many people just the savings of what they've been paying for rent when they become nomads that money can go to their bottom line and they could save it or pay bills or do things that they weren't able to do with it before so oftentimes you can upgrade it in here yeah if you can save if you're paying 600 for rent right on the road right now now you're paying $1,000 a month for written out in a year you saved $12,000 you can get a really good van for $12,000 sure so yeah didn't the answer would be yes but if you're only saving $100 a month and the answer is no but it is common that people do come out get the lifestyle figure out and begin to enjoy it and then they safe and they upgrade to another vehicle I've seen people that are on their like their third vehicle so it's very common for people to upgrade I'll give you an example now this is a real-world example this is a friend this actually happened to them she came out in the in winter in a car and we have a Holmes of wheels Alliance gave her a tent to sleep in rent it was a she borrowed it when she was done she returned it and so she was in her car and in living in a tent she got a summer job she started I think in April and she was there till October and at the end of October she gave us back the tip know where they were at they put her up in a dorm and she didn't have to pay anything she saved her entire salary she had enough money that wow she saved her I think her so security was like 801 thousand dollars month and so she say she'll easily live on that saved her entire salary for that whole time saved a little bit of her thousand a month whatever it was and then at the end of that time she bought herself a nice used RV nice Class C so there's a there's a true story that I know for a fact I know this person I could trust her desking I've seen the Class C I've been in it if the nice older of Class C yes so there's it can be done but again if you can only save a hundred dollars a month that's not going to work that way it's up to your personal situation c1 asks what do you think is a good cargo van cargo vans almost all of the manufacturers if you get them after like the year 2000 it's not a brand thing anymore it's how well was it cared for there's no real big failure problems that stick out if you can find good quality good maintenance I mean something that you like I mean there it used to be you know I'm a Ford guy or I'm a Chevy guy but now you you know they're all made well if they've been maintained well most of them are really quite reliable yeah I agree completely it's just on dodge went away Dodge had one of the better engines that I think the old 318 360 engine was one of the best yeah they did have problems with rust and the front ends were kind of problems on the dodges but they were they had a fantastic engine in them when they stopped making them in 2002 or something like that but yet Ford and Dodd I mean Ford and Chevy they're good if they were maintained well they're gonna be good reliable vehicles you're not really gonna do go wrong with any of them Joyce Marley how do I learn what I need to know to buy and actually go out on the road traveling solo YouTube I mean there really is not much you can't learn on YouTube about all of this stuff honestly I'm really that I'm not I'm not being facetious really truly yeah buy my book you know I you know I'm gonna shamelessly throw that in there there are three dollars on Kindle I think you gonna know most of what you need to know I'm just reading that book this the information is out there [Music] don't buy a vehicle bye bye okay I'm gonna lay it out really simple buy if you have $3,000 by the minivan with 2,000 or newer with 100 to 120 thousand miles on it get it checked out by a mechanic that's the vehicle do a no build build I have a video called no build build it's all plastic it's easy it's cheap and then join the caravan okay I've got I got the whole plan for you lay down there you go buy a $3,000 minivan 2000 or newer and in less than 120,000 miles get it checked out by a mechanic every bite without getting it checked out by a mechanic buy my book join one of caravans and you're set what's the name of the book Oh how to live in a car van or RV by Bob Welles I don't promote the book but it really is so inside wrote it for you I really did write it for you someone who's coming out here you're terrified what do I need to do I would rewrite it probably an ad Mauryan now that I have back then it's a long time ago but I really did write it for you and join the caravan there's a wonderful community of people that are ready and willing to help you when you come out here you'll be surprised at how many people are there to help if you don't have the money to bike have an emergency fund boy that's a you got to have an emergency fund so don't spend the last 3,000 to buy your minivan because when it breaks down your stock you lose a minivan if you've got a good reliant car if it's pretty reliable come out in a car and attempt and and save your rent until you can buy a reliable vehicle and have an emergency fund I didn't throw that in at first an emergency fund is a critical critical critical don't come out here without one I mean you may have to it's better to come out here without one than live in a cardboard box but unless it's a cardboard box or nothing come out here with an emergency fund okay traveling c2g with so many floods lately how do I make sure it was not flooded that's a really good question they may not have claimed it on insurance no traces it's a good question any thoughts that one can be tough normally you won't find any insurance vehicles that are flooded but don't say it because that leaves the liability for the insurance companies so they are going to tell you if it's been flooded in most all cases now individuals may not have been honest with the with their insurance company so that's a different story but again the inspection should be enough to tell whether it's been flat on snape I'll pull up all the carpeting and look at the steel underneath it it should be starting to show some rust pretty quick yeah and you know we didn't move there's also certainly a CARFAX report is is also a very valuable instrument on newer cars to make sure where it's been the history who owned and and where it's from that can help you learn learn about that and I say go to buy one in New Mexico or not New Mexico buy one in Arizona or California in the desert but even that doesn't really mean if they can yeah all them over there certainly West Coast cars are gonna be in better shape than East Coast cars their vehicles just because they're uh scanned the amount of weather that the afternoon dirt yeah I think you're better off buying from the desert than any other place but yeah it's not a guarantee to have to be careful I pull all the I'd pull carpeting up yeah if you were concerned I think there would be a smell almost certainly I would hope maybe not maybe it's not I think you could just see from watermarks underneath stuff getting underneath it you know Kathleen burns how do you go about getting a mechanic to inspect one you're interested in buying does the mechanic come to where the seller has the van new sellers let you take the van to a mechanic all three of those are good oftentimes the seller will it just let you take it to your mechanic anybody that's you know really wants to make a sale and doesn't have anything to hide should not be have a problem to take it as a mechanic but also you will find mobile mechanics that's the second one and there are third people that do specialize in just vehicle inspections only almost all of them are mobile so normally if you look up vehicle inspectors or pre-purchase vehicle inspector there's quite a few people that specialize in it have good skills in it and are mobile if I ask someone if I can take it to a mechanic and he says no I'm almost certainly walking away what are you hiding that's a deal breaker that's a deal breaker to me and I've never had I don't think I've ever had that happen and it's hassled I've usually will take them to a shop but the mobile mechanics a great idea and so maybe just before you start your search for your minivan call around to some of the mobile mechanics and have them online say can I can I call you and unless he's right in the middle of something hopefully he'll come and help right or or set up an appointment okay card five lucky $19.99 what are your opinions on full-size SUVs the suburban etc versus a minivan for boondocking on BLM land and similar use well generally the space and the gas mileage er what's better than the minivan than they are in these other vehicles that are really made for hauling people not for camping in Suburbans tend to get pretty pretty poor gas mileage unless they're newer the older ones should you know I don't think there are any more reliable so well in all of this when you're making your choice of which vehicle to live in it always comes down to the balance you when you get something you give up something and if going off-road is your highest priority you're going to give up a lot of comfort and you're going to give up a lot of miles per gallon and is that worth it to you and that's only a question you can answer I can't answer that for you yeah I chose a van because I thought it was the best balance of miles per gallon going off-road and comfort and I still think a full-size van is the best balance of those three things the drivability all of it everything considered I think a van is the best compromise does it do any of them well doesn't do any of them bad minivans great mouth gas mileage let's comfort poor our off-road which is more important to you and right now fans are getting so hard to find this may not even be an option for a lot of you you just can't find a decent used minivan so if the off-road ability of a NASA 4x4 suburban is worth it to you then that's what you got to buy and only you can make that decision they're not going to be as comfortable there they're gonna get much worse miles per gallon but you can go off-road and tool for a lot of folks I'm getting hearing from a lot of folks who they just recently bought a vehicle and they're stuck because now they're underwater they can't turn it back in they can't sell it come and watch you've got and save until you get out from under and I find a lot of people best advice is just yeah just endure it and tell you can get out from under it that's my only advice so if you're in an SUV and there are a lot of people the Jeep Patriot I've been I've had a dozen people writing you with a Jeep Patriot and they're kind of small yeah I think it's a great vehicle it'll be reliable for you because they're mostly newer but boy they're really small you've got to just put up with it until you can get out get out from under water ok so that's an hour we've been we've been going a full hour and I think that's enough we didn't we got through nearly all of them is there anything that you didn't cover that you want to get covered I don't think there's anything too critical I have lots of information in the checking out of your own vehicle the things that just might be deal-breakers just simple things if there's any milky if the oil is dirty and there's milky oil of course that's a diff possible deal-breaker if the transmission fluid smells that's an automatic deal-breaker if the basic water coolant has a problem that could be a basic deal-breaker there are so a lot of further information but most most basic stuff we covered and and there's always more to cover later unless no and also about that tires that they can aged out long before the tread gives up yes be aware of that there is a way to read a code on them to tell the age but you've got to know what you're doing you got to find the code you can look up online and it'll tell you the code it usually just gives you the week that it was made in the year that it was made so it's like 22 week 22 but you can look up online so tires will oftentimes a particularly minivans that may have been owned by older folks they may not drive them very much so it is often times you can age it out so tires is a you want to look for the age and ten years is the max and I usually wanted to be less than eight years old nearly seven yeah after seven years you replace them even if the model even if the trend is perfect yeah because they were gonna blow the son kills particularly as he in the web in the warm weather absolutely my first year going home back to the northwest I blew both of my front tires at different times because of the heat right boy there was something else is gonna cover them here it is a lot of people think that if you buy you find a vehicle you find in 1982 but it only has 25,000 miles Wow it's gonna be wonderful I'm gonna get that is that automatically a good thing to buy no no it's not because of many things aged out over time so you could have a vehicle at very low use and that actually may be worse because they didn't keep those systems operational continually through the whole time so low miles generally a plus my RV that I bought I was fortunate to get it under fifty five thousand miles but you have to look at the wear and tear of the rest of the vehicle they particularly are bees because they're not made it to really be useful time they're made to be used on the weekend so in all honesty definitely it's not just low mileage you have to inspect it for the whole body of the whole vehicle and make that decision yeah a vehicle that has just sat for a very very long period of time can very well be worse off than a vehicle that's driven regularly yeah and maintained well it will be worse off no question don't be fooled by super low mileage on an old bull all the rubbers going bad all the seals are going bad as soon as you fire it up start using it the seals will fail yeah and that could be an awful lot of money there's gonna be rust on the interior and then when the fire the it starts firing up that scours it under the interior of the engine I'm sorry I didn't say that the interior the engine can be have rust in it because it's been you know it's been Mike going to three four or five years and never run there's never any leo there's been a real lubrication so yeah it can be don't be fooled by super low miles on a really older vehicle or even on a Brett really new here that can be just as bad one thing I want to point out is to go search the reputation of the vehicle one website is car complaints calm yes car complaints calm you know they do a survey of a lot of different vehicles and and and the common car complaints and how many they'll give you a number this vehicles guy and how many and the type of complaints that that particular model gets and also consumerreports.org they're a good one to find out the reputation of a vehicle what's there's some others the others you'd recommend well you can use the some information comes from JD Powers do they have one they do have one but that's mostly newer vehicles but ma da or data they have a site that tells you and also Kelly Blue Book also points out some of those things so those are also some sources for projecting where's comes the worst just look up do a google search google really continue all mores we should yes people don't use google enough they think they're looking for an expert to tell them google Tech is an expert that can tell you so just do a google search on reliability record 20 2004 Honda Siena yep and and and and and all these websites will pop up so that's that's good way to search okay I think we're done we're gonna quit thanks so much cliff for sharing your knowledge and information for having me I know this is a huge question for a lot of you folks the bubble started by accident a long long time ago and they become part of the show you're gonna want to dance okay folks thanks so much for watching this hope we answered a bunch of questions Thank You cliff for your sharing your incredible knowledge you sure will so folks thanks for watching if you got anything out of this like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit the thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later thank you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 120,273

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure

Id: 4pHoWW4J7-w

Length: 74min 7sec (4447 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020