Solo Van Life. Living in a Van for 5 months Changed his Life. Camper Van Tour and Mini Documentary.

hey my name is Jake this is my little homie Louie and this is our 1986 Ford get away when I first got it it was pretty much original but I've just done like some cosmetic adjustments to it for the water system we just have a little like 15 liter jug just a little pump that you twist on there after you refill the water and that works good enough and I just go and refill that like maybe every week or so for the kitchen I'm just using like an old Coleman triton camper stove I just buy the little bottles that works great that's fine cook it in here is really easy because I have the fan fan actually I don't even run it I just leave it cracked open and I've never had an issue with anything to do with propane when I first moved into the van like before I had a bit lived in here I thought that I needed a sink and to be able to do dishes in here obviously because I'm gonna be living in here but I found that I actually like took the time to install a sink and it's this actually slides up I didn't actually like anticipate thing but if you look I have some dishes in there and there's a full sink and actually a storage compartment and everything it wasn't feasible so it's one of those things it's like don't go above and beyond and do everything if you don't actually need it you're gonna find out once you move into the van how much you need to do so what I do for my dishes and stuff since it's just me maybe like five days worth of dishes I'll put them in like a waterproof bag that I have like a backpack doesn't look like there's dishes in it I'll walk into like a Walmart they have like a really big handicapped washrooms beautiful washrooms I'll use the sink in there put like top clean towels down for to dry the dishes and stuff and they'll spend maybe ten minutes do my dishes in there carry them back out put them away it's just way easier than having to lift this up and go you go through a lot of water and with a little jug like that it's just not worth it so that's all your four dishes here I just kind of keep like basic stuff I have like my cleaning stuff baggage bags I'm having a little vacuum for the van and then I just keep my bag of gym stuff in here this is where I keep like my bowls plates I definitely bought way too many for the van and I brought tons when I only probably needed five this is where I just keep my mugs cups and stuff like that over here is where I usually keep all the pans just a few I left the fridge for storage so with these old vans I just like too late realize that it only really works when you have it plugged in at a campsite because the way they were designed in the 80s I just kind of use it and I just keep all my like dry it like foods in there that I eat got like bread fruit oatmeal and stuff and then I just use my cool over here for anything like eggs milk stuff like that for power I didn't really want to spend tons of money on solar and get into like like batteries and stuff I just don't know enough about that so I was like I just need something quick something that works so this is the Explorer 500 I'm gonna power my lights off of it that are around the whole van here just some simple pot lights off of Amazon it has all the USB port so I charged my phone on that and I can charge my phone probably over 50 times with before it even gets to the point where I have to recharge it the way I recharge the battery is you can do it with a wall plug that will charge an eight and a half hours or eight hours something like that but when we're driving like a long distance and stuff like that I used to use the 12 volt connector to a cigarette lighter and I think it's 14 hours on that but yeah so we'll charge it even back to 70% and by the time I'm doing that again it's a more than enough never really runs out for heat I decided to go with the Olympian wave 3 I was gonna like go with the mr. body heater when I read too many like reviews about people having a toxic levels of co2 in their van and stuff like that or carbon monoxide so I decided to try this out and when I first move into the van I was really nervous about it because everyone's like don't put propane in your van it's gonna be horrible you're gonna die but I just kind of would leave it on during the day crack the window crack the roof end of it and like it was safe so for the first 2 or 3 weeks that's what I did now I've gotten to the point where I just leave it on all night running on low as long as my windows are cracked I feel so mmm-hmm never had an issue I keep my carbon monoxide detector right up here and I've never had a reading above the zero the whole time that I've been in here above the bed here I just keep this is like some old bins or like just some little crates I just keep all my basic stuff up there all my hats that I have too many of every time I go to a thrift store end up buy a new one shoes cooking utensils this is where I keep all my tea and then just books and I'm like either read or reading for the bed underneath is all the storage so it's kind of a pain in the ass or it's kind of annoying because I have to like lift the pieces of foam up to get anything out that's under there so I just keep like winter jackets something I'm not gonna wear that much under there so it's a lot easier you can climb over in this part and actually sit in one of the storage areas and there is a table that pops up I thought I was gonna be able to use it a ton but it's just not feasible with the size of my bed when I drove out here was me and my cousin actually we were both of us so I had this pulled out he was living up here full-time for maybe three weeks and I was down here so there's no way I was ever using the table so I'm sure one day I'll be able to use it but for now it just stays as storage so if you see under the foam there's these compartments and that's where all the storage bins are there's storage there and I think there's six of them all the way around the bed where my jacket in the back I needed a space to get to my jackets sweaters hoodies and stuff like that but like I said I didn't want to have to dig under my mattress every single time so I bought like a cheap little rack from a home store I think it was ten dollars put it in and then it just works perfectly for my jackets I can slide it over it doesn't take up too much space so on the door here I just haven't been this is just for Louise stuff this is toys and his jacket his leash and stuff and then this one I just used for garbage okay so in the back of the van this is where I keep just my skateboard like I was talking about before my snowboard if you look it runs all the way into one of the storage compartments I keep just my guitar that's lies all the way in keep a space heater if I'm ever able to find it outlet the places that are like really cold when I bought the van it was definitely leaking it was uh it had leaks in this window if you can see doesn't look the greatest but I just use like sealant to my best abilities there and stop the leak from coming in on the top cuz that's really I was keeping my clothes and my cousin was living up there so he was getting wet at some point so I sealed that off I still find that water does run down here because it collects in here and runs down the door you can kind of see it's like affecting the old floor so in the future I plan to just rip this out maybe you make the bed more like your set up something that's more like seating that can slide into a bed at night so when I got the van I like I said I just wanted to like get in and kind of go quickly I didn't have a ton of time to convert it so I actually went with like a it's like a wallpaper and if you look it's on the back splash of the kitchen as well the same wallpaper I didn't think it would hold up but with water him his water spilling and dirt and mud and stuff it's been fine so with the interior I kinda want to make it like feel like home like a homey little space where I didn't feel like I was out on my own sleeping in a neighborhood I kind of want to feel like I was in my bedroom so that's why I won't with like just vintage stuff a lot of the things I already had like I said the book of maps I had the pins I picked up from a thrift store before I had the van and just little things that I added like comfortable the mattress I didn't want to be uncomfortable because I'm sleeping in it all the time I just wanted to make it feel like my own space not like I was driving someone else's man around to I was a full-time nursing student and the whole time I was about to graduate I kind of was thinking to myself like I don't know if I want to do this for sure I don't want to commit to a full-time job like build a pension and stuff like that yet so what can I do to kind of get out there and be able to explore and I've never been out of far as I was with maybe 4 hours north of Toronto so yeah I just wanted to get out and see if I could do it to be honest I wasn't really sure so I just bought the van I didn't even sleep in it before I left and I just my first night in the van was my first day on the road um what are some of the benefits that you found with this lifestyle well the first thing I think you save a lot of money I find that I was able to pay off a bit of school debt living in a van that you're only your expenses instantly go from rent groceries car insurance on another vehicle gas costs especially in the city all the time - literally only paying insurance and gas costs when you're driving around if you're in a more stationary lifestyle like where I was in Vancouver kind of parking in the same neighborhoods all the time I was spending little to no money on gas because I was in one area for work and that may help you save a lot more money that you can put towards things like going and seeing experiencing things or paying off school debt simple things like that it's just a lot more free you can move around all the time you're not stuck in one place you know you get these people who buy like these five million dollar condos in Vancouver for the same view every single day and you can park downstairs in front of that condo and move the next day so that's like one of the major benefits being able to change your view all the time and I think you learn a lot I just taught me how to be on my own and kind of disconnect from looking at a phone screen all the time I found myself like constantly looking through Instagram or killing time looking at my phone and now like even if I can find Wi-Fi I'll try and park away from it so I like do things like read or write or paint just do like simple things that I actually am like passionate about but I don't ever put before my phone or TV living in the van I actually was lucky enough to find a job where I was working driving all day so I was in a position where I could come back to the van and check out my dog make sure he was okay take him for walks give him food make sure he's alright right which was like I was really fortunate because a lot of people have a nine-to-five where a job where they can't check on them so that's one thing where if you have an animal in your van it definitely changes things more than just having yourself as far as work goes I found that it was very similar to working and just coming home at night but like instead of coming home being exhausted and just going to sleep I would come home and drive the van somewhere else and go do stuff maybe go on a hike some of the challenges to living in a van are definitely washroom I mean I'm not in the big $100,000 printer I don't have a shower I don't have a toilet that I can just use whenever I need to so but they're always around that so what I do is I have a Canada wide gym membership I use fit for less and good life to shower whenever I need to and as far as going to the washroom goes like realistically you end up sometime you got a in a grocery bag sometimes you got a pee in a bottle like that's just the way it works I think like a lot of things are glorified on YouTube and Justin Graham stuff like that and nobody everyone thinks oh it looks so great but there are downsides like that like that's the reality of it you know but like I said before there's as much as like you might in the grocery bag and piss in a bottle but that's probably some of the only downsides to living too man one thing I was worried a lot about was break-ins people not especially with an older man I think it's like people think they could Hotwire it easier or they could definitely they know there's like not probably not a major security system on that pan so those things I think about so I was a little bit cautious when finding parking stuff like that but it just goes away like the longer you're in the van you just don't think about that stuff anymore you just become comfortable my advice to anyone who is like considering getting a van but they don't really know where to start or if it's gonna be okay it's just kind of like try it if you have a Honda Civic flat in the back seats go sleep in it for the weekend go camping with your friends a lot of people get set on that I need this van to go out and live in it even myself I thought I needed a high roof which is nice it's nice that I have a high roof it's great I can stand up and cook but I would have been totally fine in a minivan a Honda Odyssey I could have been in an old Toyota van I would have been fine I could have done a car it wouldn't have been as great but I could definitely could have done it I would suggest just try it and like you can like speak things into existence you know you start writing things out I'm starting them off on my one because eight months ago I was like watching your channel Chrome's channel dillema gaster stuff like that I was like man that's crazy those guys are just killing it and now I'm here doing a Venter with you're living in my van full time so it's totally doable you just have to want it bad enough and like be willing to put the work in to go actually like get out there and do it I would recommend this life so most to people who just really aren't sure like what or what they want to be or what they want to do yet if you're someone who is maybe just finished school or you just kind of don't want to get like into a mold that everyone else is doing and you enjoy being outside this is the perfect thing to do it's like the way to the way it is and like the freedom that you have to kind of just go and especially if you're on your own you don't have to rely on someone else's schedule or worrying about someone else's well-being it's just you I feel like just try it and what's the worst that could happen if you hate it sell your van right like try it sleep in it for a week if you hate it ditch the van sell it sell it to someone else you had to sum up what would your personal philosophy on life be I really didn't know because watching your old videos I always saw you ask this question and I always thought like what am I gonna say when this guy asked for this so I feel like I'm gonna have to like I said before like you really can just speak things into existence me and my brother and my friends you should just talk about this lifestyle like oh man I really want to live in a van looks great YouTube makes it look awesome like I don't want to try it but you just have to be like I said be willing to like I just want for me personally writing things down like steps and just checking things off to make sure that you can get things done and my second thing that I've really only learned from being out here I've only been in the van five months now and I actually wrote the quote on my fridge there it's happiness is only real when shared it's from into the wild Christopher McCandless wrote that on like the bus when he passed away before he passed away and like being out here is great I actually loved being on my own and it's amazing but I whenever I'm doing an amazing thing like I was on the ferry and I saw humpback whale yesterday or I'm down at the beach and I'm cooking my food I just like can't help but wish that someone that I like loved or cared about was there with me to like experience it alone it's great it's fine I can tell people about it or I can videotape it or whatever but I don't think that compares to like sharing a certain experience with someone who you genuinely care about I think people who are really nervous about people knocking nervous about but there's so many things to be nervous about someone breaking in just be smart don't like you can park in residential areas don't go park in front of a expensive condominium and blare music all night you're asking you have trouble or simple things like the propane heater like you can listen to a million people tell you that it's unsafe that you're gonna die in your van you it's gonna be like you're gonna get sick but you're not really gonna know until you just go try it that's what I did and it's never given me an issue there's a lot of things like that that I find like one person's opinions not always gonna be yours everybody it's for as the filmmaker hope you guys enjoyed that episode of alternative dwellings if you want to see more playlists are popping up right now where you can watch all of our archived episodes or if you want to see new ones make sure to subscribe because they premiere at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time every single Monday hope to see you guys there

Channel: Different Media.

Views: 792,942

Keywords: 1986 ford get away van, van tour, vanlife, van life, get away van, van life documentary, solo, how to live in a van, living in a van, living in a van tour, living in a van full time, van life tour, vanlife with a dog, documentary, movie, male, female, dog, restored ford camper, camper van conversion, van build, camper van, van conversion, van life tour with bathroom, van life tour solo female traveler, van life build, Van life conversion

Id: SIkM7TaCByk

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2020