RETIRE CHEAP, Live Well: Van Life on SOCIAL SECURITY, Living in a COZY 1996 Conversion Van

yes I'll be living solely on my social security in a teeny tiny pension but I got really interested in this lifestyle just found you randomly when I was laid off for seven months and a light bulb went off in my head saying this is a way that I can actually afford to retire hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to meet Anita hi and Anita is in a nice uh Dodge Ram and we'll find out here all about that and how long have you been on the road just for about um a year and a half I've probably had the van for almost 2 years but it needed a lot of repairs and and fixing when I first got it in order to make it Road worthy so it took a little while to get her up and going still a process and you're supporting yourself on savings or well I am not full-time on the road yet I'm still working full-time I have one daughter younger than Leilani and I want to get her finished at ASU she has about two to three years to go at ASU so I've been coming out as much as humanly possible um I started out with women's RTI in my Rav 4 and realized real fast I'm not camping in that I'm not either I I appreciate that so I was able to get this pretty cheaply and yeah I've been having fun with it trying to learn as much as possible about the lifestyle but my dream and my hope is that I'll be able to retire on the road I'm just loving this lifestyle more and more as I do it so you take every chance you get and go out I do and luckily I'm a manager and I'm able to sort of tweak my own schedule when we're not too terribly busy and um they're a big advocate of us taking some time for ourselves where I work so oh wow that's why I'm trying to get out as much as I can right and uh so you're going to hit retirement age and then you'll be ready to go well unfortunately I'm hitting retirement age this year but I'm not well not the full retirement because now they make it um you know older before you get your full retirement so by the time I get out there yes I'll be living solely on my social security in a teeny tiny pension but the big thing is you live cheaply enough that's true that's the bottom line absolutely and so that's probably exactly what you're thinking with the van I am now I don't know if this will be the permanent van that I retired to a full-time lifestyle in but who knows every time I'm in it I just love it and I feel at home so I don't know tell us a little bit about it so it is a 1997 Dodge B 2500 conversion van it is not the original conversion someone before me had taken the original conversion I think it had one of those beds that like flowed over um all out and built this wood build the van is actually from Vermont so she's traveled a long way here um I bought it from a gentleman who did Adventure Tours and he was looking for a little smaller rig that he could get back into the back country in um and I mean I feel like he gave me all the repair records which is really neat so I have a really good history on it ran the you know Carfax and stuff so now she's reconverted the conversion was done the second conversion yep the second conversion was done I have feminized it cuz it was looking really Macho in there you know from the young man that I bought it from it was a fun process and it's never done I don't know if you found that to be true as well but they're never done you just keep Reinventing them yeah yeah absolutely well can we take a look inside with you absolutely please welcome to my home it's a great van for a dog look how comfortable Cody is I might just have to consider getting one C never met a a van he didn't want to spend time in well I feel honored Cody that you came and spent time in mine yeah so here we are and so man he did a nice job in here he did I even the you know I have nice solid countertop here and all the woodworking I kind of fell in love with it reminded me of a log cabin when I first was in here it has a real Log Cabin feel yeah but you're right it looks like a man build it or a man so we just had to Jer up a little bit make it pretty so one thing I might put out point out is my van is called the blueberry so actually in Courtside I just had this sign made the last time I was here for the RTR very nice which I thought he did a beautiful job with that and do you have actual running water I do it is with a pump sink this had a foot pump sink but I took the foot pump out after a couple camping trips of in the middle of the night pumping the sink I decided that this would probably work better for me right yeah and those you that's probably assume it's a USB pump yeah it's a USB pump and then I have the water bottles I Ed the three gallon jug so I have one for the gray and then I just put a cap with a hole I drilled through and drop a hose in there so there's your fridge yep so I can run my fridge two ways off the solar from the van or I can run it off one of my portable power stations I find it keeps temperature better with my portable power stations and some of your wonderful fans there at the RTR will help helped me to determine that it looks like I need to replace the solar panel on the roof that they just might not be enough to work with the battery that I have in the back I have a very large renergy battery in the back and so we'll have to look at when I'm up here the next time maybe getting uh some solar panel Replacements up on the roof so just get more solar correct yep they they said it doesn't look like enough is in you know coming in to support that and you got a nice big bed I do it it um this is what my secret is this was all the man covering that we had here originally so I just threw my own sleeping bags I made it smaller at first and took out some of the cushioning but I found that I'm a little tall for laying AC cross and so I need to I put more cushioning in so I can kind of go with the diagonal so I have a little more room for my feet right I had the seat turned around that was really important for me so I could sit in here and relax couldn't find a swivel for it but my mechanic that I used was able to retrofit some holes and even the seat belts still works and everything so and you have bunch of storage underneath your bed yep oh my gosh yeah and then I put some drawers in this was just recent it makes it so much easier mhm and then of course the luggable L very important accessory but one thing I found makes it much more stable and your viewers helped again with this was by putting it either in a melt carton or this is the bottom part of like a storage Cube and here's your gas one Yep this also I got from from viewers it is way sturdier than the butane I had before I have a little issue with the smell of propane so I went over to the butane and of course I crack a window when I cook inside the van and I also have a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector in the van too cool and two fire extinguishers you're ready I'm ready well that's not overdoing it that's that's always a good thing I like to keep them on a couple places cuz you don't know where you're going to be when I fire strikes so right right right so uh yeah I think turning uh the the um the chair the seat passenger seat around is one of the and it's great cuz it reclines so you can be really comfortable right if you think about it really all you have to do is replicate this all the systems of a house so you do you've got it you've got your kitchen your portable bathroom absolutely a lot of ANS don't have any place comfortable to relax right and that I found before I turned this around was kind of an issue because I'm not a person who wants to jump in my bed all day long the bed is for sleeping to me so I wanted a place to sit and the luggable loo helps me by being a stool when I'm cooking in the van so I don't have to be ducking because I can't quite stand up in here so I can sit on the L and do my cooking and dishwashing and it's a lot more comfortable for me I also have uh portable solar panels for my power stations that I keep right behind the seat a big screen tent up here that I just love that I got on Amazon not a clam it's you know one another brand but it's amazing and I can handle it by myself with no problem it justop pops up and you're able to get it popped down I that's the hard part but I'm going to tell you though I bought a shower tent and I could not get that folded up for anything I even asked my neighbors at the campground nobody could get it folded yeah it's it's complicated I don't I'm going to have to watch more videos I guess yeah so if you're going to ask about showering the shower tent for me has been an epic failure but I'm not going to give up right I have a shower bag um and I also have wipes and of course I can take um a spongebath there so sure so you're just part-time for now correct tell you fully retire absolutely and are you out in All Seasons then I don't get out a whole lot in the middle of the summer I'm pretty busy at the job I do in the summer so I did get out Fourth of July week this last summer went up to Prescot and it was was actually still surprisingly comfortable up there uh Fourth of July week the days were hot but the evenings were nice and cool yes and I camped with a fellow Nomad that I met and it was a lot of fun and she was camping in a RAV four so I learned a lot from her honestly it's been so much fun to take a little piece of of everybody I meet and you know their help I think though the only thing that I would do different is this build is very heavy so it does put a lot of weight on the van I had been tempted to take out some parts of it but after everybody loved it at the show I think I'm just going to leave it alone it has at least for now yeah I think it has a beautiful feel it has some character it has a lot of character it's not just a yeah well this guy did a much better job than I ever could when I'm done with something that doesn't have much character just function exactly and he insulated with I can see spray foam and all kinds of stuff and one of the RTR people helped me take a panel out of the door to see what was inside here in case I wanted to build like a cabinet or something in the door and it's just filled with insulation so it looks like it was sort of a spray foam and then I think they've used some other things I can just like peek between the cracks here and there to see what's up there I was thinking about removing some of the ceiling to see if I could stand up but we did the measurements and I still won't be able to stand up so yeah these these short high tops are really really good in a lot of ways but you're generally not able to stand yep definitely not that's the only disappointment but it's it's still better than crawling and you know it is and you're not been over nearly as much as you would have been but I do whack my head on this right here all the time I think so I got to get used to that yeah I keep extra water up front behind the seat and just a basic big six gallon water container because I'm a big believer through you know studying this that carry as much water as you can I know it creates a lot of weight but I don't want to be that person stuck out in the middle of nowhere I did have a breakdown in Prescot and it was my first breakdown in the van and on a Sunday in the mountains you cannot find anybody to come and help you so finally I was with romley insurance at the time four hours later they finally got somebody out to me but if I hadn't you know I had to be fully prepared to be able to stay as long as it took to get somebody out there so you know we all have to be really prepared and that's something to think about absolutely it is and then I just keep all my goodies back here I just also added drawers back here so when I need to get my tools they're really handy and easy to get to my paper goods I keep my shovel for many different reasons yes I have drawers for clothing and it acts as a nightstand and then up top up here is another storage um area as well and I keep a lot of pillows on there and these pillows are all filled again from your lovely viewers with coats and blankets and all the things I don't have spot for right right so I picked up on that idea I thought that's genius yeah you it fulfills multiple purposes that's what counts abely the only thing I would love to add someday would be a like a Max fan or a fantastic fan I would love to get a little more air flow in there right so right maybe someday and I do have a nice Eco flow Power Station back there yeah along with my smaller one that I have up front and they have been working out great for me good yeah they are very very handy well thanks so much Bob for all you do and all the learning I've gotten through your programs your videos thank you I'm glading beautiful beautiful van thank you very much so folks I'm sure you've gotten some great ideas out of this tour if you did like us on YouTube subscribe to the channel and we'll talk to you later bye bye

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 134,165

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: qCCa8DUDEjo

Length: 12min 53sec (773 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024