Tour of a Nomad Living Super Cheap in a SUV | No-Build Van Life

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to meet z kind of an unusual name while asking about that and really kind of an unusual setup as well so welcome z to the channel thank you bob and z is a bit of an unusual name how did you come up with that well my name is steven zeigler but z is a lot easier to remember so i just put z out there and it seems like people remember z more than the other and so you are in a you're living in your subaru outback yeah and you're pulling the trailer with some stuff and how long you've been in it four years now four years yeah and uh how's that going it must be going pretty well you know surprisingly well i i prior to this i used to sort of be a big fan of trucks and um uh of something you know things took a turn for the worse about four years ago and i had to start all over again and this is just what was available it turns out i'll probably never get another vehicle i'll just replace this with another subaru outback for sure and how does the towing the trailer go for that you know as long as you don't overload it which i never have now most of us think of the idea of course you got the trailer to carry a lot of your stuff but most of us think of the idea of living in a small car as unbearable but to you it's become a joy well i'm a long distance hiker uh from i did the pct and uh little bits of the at and the continental divide trail so getting a tent was a huge upgrade and then actually having a car as long as you're thinking more in the hiker mentality this is a castle this is a luxury now this was unintentional i was going to turn this trailer into a teardrop and i just was using this setup for the intern and it turns out that this is much more um you know the modularity is much more functional so i decided against a teardrop and just clear the vehicle out use that as the sleeping living area and it's not cluttered with all the stuff that you would normally have in there and um and yeah it's worked out really wonderful i mean you'd really have to pay a lot of money to recreate the same environment that you already have in the car so um it was a great money savings too i'm all about saving money and you're probably getting pretty decent gas mileage i think something about 30 32 oh yeah yeah so you set up a tent or you spend most your time inside the subaru now the modularity of this allows me to kind of set up multiple types of shelters so i'll have a tent when the weather's good sometimes i could just put these bins down along the side and set the tent up over that and have a nice little riser which is nice during the summer time um yeah and then this is almost like a shelter pod so when things get rough just jump in there and then you're good to go i don't know if it was my generation but we were all raised to you know me too yeah to go out there and explore yeah what mom was always saying go outside and play exactly so um you know after um you know we've talked about this but i've done a whole bunch of different things and i feel really grateful that i can still i have the health my health i can go out and explore and you know just on a very limited uh budget you know um teaching online things like that uh right you're not re you're not retirement age yet so you just have to still have to support yourself yeah yeah you know you do whatever um you know with whatever is morally correct you know you know it's you know it's easy to get by if you don't want a lot of stuff then man your life is so much easier you know you just don't fall into the trap of you know stuff you know one of your most influential videos on me was the whole idea of like okay you're you know you gotta get rid of this stuff now you know and a lot of it although it's precious to you it's pretty much junk to the rest of the world you know and uh i think that probably i'm sure that's held us all back to some degree or another so uh you mentioned um teaching online so uh do you have classes online yeah i started teaching kung fu online around 1994 and um i've been offering uh everything from free lessons uh to um you know paid subscriptions stuff like that you know the patreon and all that but you could find all that at seafoodsy.com good and go there so how how so do you make videos showing the moves yes uh i've you know over the years created hundreds of videos but i always like to make new videos to pretty much update any information um you know make better videos uh maybe reiterate um information that needs to be said differently so yeah for many years have been putting videos up for for everyone to learn from i think it's it's really valuable that you know i'm i'm a pretty small guy and it's really valuable to understand self-defense very practical self-defense which is really mostly situational awareness you know really become a good judge of character and control your environment or move go leave the area you know so everybody be sure you go out and go and check out his z's website and so you can see what he's got there that's something we should all be whatever our age we should be attuned into just taking care of ourselves and it's a great way of maintaining a level of fitness so whatever your fitness level is you can adjust this martial art to your fitness level and then watch it slowly develop and get stronger and stronger you don't have to be as strong as your attacker you just to be need to be as strong as you can be everyone be sure and go and check out his z's website give it again slowly cfoo z.com that's s-i-f-u-z.com and stop by and say hi be sure and do that can we check out your setup yeah you know the number one question i get over the past four years is what's in the in the boxes let's go take a look this will be the first so people are always really curious what's in these boxes yes and the number one guess is usually they think i'm hauling fish right especially if i'm by the ocean um but these are uh cargo bins uh that i used to use in a business for trade shows i've never shown anybody what's in these so this will really be a first i hope it's not too appalling now this is my refrigerator and just like it was at home um yeah it's a mess my refrigerator is a mess but i know what's in it this is most mostly soft stuff that can get crushed this is my silverware and pots and pans and stuff and this is where all the cans uh and boxes of food go yeah it works out wonderful yeah and if you had all this in your rig that's all there'd be and you'd have to do a lot of shopping i can usually supply myself for a month um with this setup which is nice to not you know you can save a lot of gas not having to go in and out of town and resupply right yeah and here um is predominantly the cold and wet stuff this is my water over here my table and some extra canvases to you know create makeshift shelters various types and yeah i don't uh use the electric ones uh i just um you know try to do my best with the uh with this cooler i i do intermit intermittent fasting so that means i'm only really eating one meal a day um which gives me a lot more energy and uh and whatnot any of you out there doing intermittent fasting you know what i mean um and it saves on food too you're not eating all the time right you know so your body really is looking forward to that one meal you know now as we go back i have to make sure that the weight uh gets lighter and lighter so this is sort of um just where i keep the other propane i keep my solar in here i have two solar units it was by mistake but i i probably would never go any other way which is i have a small jackery like the 240 i believe and uh the blue eddy both from your reviews so boy two solar units um and then i have this panel um which is a qc something it's the same as the renergie uh real high efficiency 50 watt panel and then this is a 120 watt uh folding panel then you know i do a lot of hiking when i can um climbing sometimes i do a podcast uh called integrity radio um so my microphone is in there there's my uh my uh my big tank my big propane tank that i fill up the little propane tanks with you know this vehicle has over 300 000 miles on it and i'm just so amazed with the outback the performance of the outback um 2004 and so um i always want to be prepared for what might happen when the thing decides to die it has every right to die you know so served you well oh absolutely and so i wanted a way if something happened especially out in the wilderness um be it snow or whatever how would i get me and my dog out you know so um i made a pulp and so this polk i just put kayak wheels on it and it becomes a land or snow pulk and i can tow it like a wheelbarrow or i can attach a harness system and i have some crampons and i can tread through the snow so this way we're not stuck you know if we have to hike 10 miles to civilization then um we we bust out the polk we'll show you the poke some of you some folks don't know what a pulk is yes yeah i didn't know what a pulp was so this will be this will be a new um now like i said everything has to get lighter so back here is where my reflectix are um my my back roll for um stretching and stuff uh i've got the uh my detergents and and this is this is a bucket that i can take a shower or a bath in my toilet i think that's what the french might cost and i i make sure i have bleach that i use to combine with the water and let it sit in the sun so it stays nice and clean and doesn't start stinking stuff up nope and then we got the electric scooter that's a great idea just quick trips around town yeah um modularity and mobility is the most important thing to a nomad so what i opted for and yeah i'm sure a lot of you do this is you have different ways i have a sled i have a wheelbarrow uh a you know a scooter electric scooter this gets 30 miles on a charge does about 18 miles per hour uh miles per hour so um that's more than fast uh for me and i can use as long as i don't let go down beyond 50 percent i can easily recharge it with my solar setup and said uh solar setup um you know i didn't know anything about solar whenever i tried to use solar back in the 80s when i first started doing you know long distance hikes it just wasn't there yet right you know so i kind of just dismissed the whole market until i start seeing your videos essentially this is where all the soft stuff goes so um sleeping bags clothes um you know anything that's soft and uh me and the dog she can rather be up front especially if she's not smelling too good she can i can be separated from her but as long as she's nice and clean she can join me here in the back and this just becomes such an amazing luxury to have all of this space to just lay around any which way diagonal whatever you know so this is uh this is the polk and it's a snow sled basically yes yeah i i got this at a big five sporting so uh and you don't have to use expensive carabiners if i'm a climber so i have real nice ones um but you just drill holes so you can run a line and uh this way the weight is being pulled by the ropes and not the plastic and uh i have a kayak wheels here that's usually used for um hauling a kayak and the tires are inside there so that way if there's no snow i can just use it um serve in the same way you would use a uh wheel barrel right yeah so then it comes up and attaches to a waist belt yeah for the snow then it has uh um there's pvc poles that the rope goes through attaches to your waist and then you can pull like that and you're able to pull a lot of stuff you know like a couple hundred pounds and um and winter camping it's heavy well and if and if you get stuck your vehicle breaks down i've got so many things that i don't want to just leave out there in the wilderness and come back and find that they've all been stolen or vandalized so so it's important for me to be able to take some of the more important things and my dog and be able to carry them all out z thank you so much for sharing your home and your life with us you've really created an amazing life for yourself freedom and and joy or just engulf your life thank you and um and thanks for having me bob i i'm really appreciative of all the stuff i've been able to learn from your videos which just you know kept giving me that like life improvement you know quality of life you know and that's what it's about is quality of life and um you know to quote somebody i think we're all familiar with you know you could have all the luxuries and whatnot right or you can have your freedom i'm paraquoting but i think you folks know who who said that and um now i live by that that's a good one yeah aloha everybody thank you thank you bob folks i know you've been pretty impressed and and inspired by z if so like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 117,645

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: 2S_eDkIidNg

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022