Why I Quit Vanlife

[Music] in this video we're going to talk about why i quit van life why van life didn't work for me but before i do that i want to say thank you to some fine folks i want to say thank you to canoe reese for the recent support i also want to say thank you to bendy for picking up a shirt on teespring bendy is actually the only one to ever pick up a yellow shirt so he's not afraid to be different and i love that i also want to say thank you to richard forrest for joining us on patreon and i want to say thank you to west coast ronnie and rick c for the recent super chat support on the last live stream so it means a lot to me thank you guys very much and you know i really appreciate it let's get right into it why i quit van life and i use the term van life because you actually have to be living in your van to be living the van life if you have a house or a home base you're not living the van life you're just simply a guy or a girl with a van you actually have to be living in your van to be living the van life now that we got that clarification out of the way let's talk about the reality of van life it's not all unicorns and rainbows like you see on instagram with just epic views out the back door and just epic scenery and it's easy to be disillusioned by some of the things you see on the internet where people just post these really dramatic you know photos or videos of where they parked for the night and yeah a lot of times that is real and i'm guilty of it too i've showed a lot of really epic places on this youtube [Music] channel [Music] [Music] as a whole it's not like that all the time you know a lot of times you're parking at walmart or you're kind of stealthing in like an industrial area or you know just recently i spent the night at an abandoned truck stop and winslow and you know you it's kind of every once in a while it's a little sketchy and you know that's the reality of van life i could also tell instantly when i look at someone's instagram photo someone i don't know i'm just kind of browsing you know a van life hashtag i could tell immediately who actually lives in their van and who doesn't it's blatantly obvious who's a weekender and who actually lives in their van full time if you had smell-o-vision too you could tell immediately because one of the harsh realities of van life is showers you don't take them very often i averaged about two showers a month when i was living in this van and think about that for a moment it's pretty grimy a lot of times you're just dirt bagging it and that's just that's the reality of it water is really heavy you also got to haul your own all your own water so any water that you have on hand you personally filled up in a jug i had a three six gallon containers so on average you know sometimes i threw some crystal geyser gallons in the mix there to just supplement it but you know the most water i ever had on hand at any given moment was around 18 gallons and if you think about that that's pretty heavy and you got to have a place to store all that you know van life it's a very minimalist lifestyle i sold pretty much everything i had to get into this and as a result now that i have a house i have no furniture and very little belongings which being a minimalist is kind of a neat way to live and it really simplifies things but it's something you have to consider with van life you don't have room for just extra frivolous stuff if it doesn't fit in the van you don't have it so that's something to definitely consider and for me it was a factor i towed my jeep around on a trailer and you know the jeep was one of the possessions that i just i couldn't get rid of i just i love it too much and i had to keep it so because of that i was getting six miles per gallon and i had a couple situations where i had you know to pull off like a million point turn going down a trail that there is nowhere to turn around [Music] so that was definitely a con is you just can't have anything and everything with you at all times another con is safety it's definitely not the safest activity to be partaking in i mean you're constantly just putting yourself out there in the world and when you have your doors open just anybody and everybody can just walk by and see in and i don't know why but a lot of people feel it's like an open invitation if your doors are open to just pop their head in and be like oh hey you mind if i get a ride or are you going anywhere there's been numerous times where i've had to tell people that no like i'm not going anywhere i won't give you a ride like this i'm here for the night and uh you know some people didn't take too kindly to that there were two instances i can remember that you know people were kind of aggressive and they were really upset and i rate that i wouldn't give them a ride to wherever they were trying to go which seems kind of ludicrous but you're just kind of in that like outside counter culture of like hitchhikers and you know people that are just living outside basically so because of that you get a lot of unwanted attention but you also get a lot of wanted attention i've met some super cool people from living this lifestyle people i wouldn't have otherwise met i'm with my buddy kent and uh i would say i guess that's a pro and a con but the con it can be kind of heavy sometimes the pro it's nice i don't know that's about all i can say about that another big thing you have to consider something that's oftentimes overlooked is where you're gonna register your vehicle at if you're like me you don't have a true address so i could use my parent's address or i could use you know my girlfriend's address or a friend's address which is a rental and it's kind of a volatile address because it's not for certain over a long period of time and my registration was also expiring about the same time when i got into this six months ago so there's a couple routes you can go but i chose to do america's mailbox in south dakota south dakota is one of the few states that you can register your vehicles and declare is your domicile without actually living there you can do it in florida texas nevada and south dakota i believe south dakota is the cheapest and it was the most pain-free approach so i chose south dakota also they don't have smog in south dakota which was a big factor for me because this van it runs a little rich and the jeep won't pass in any state that requires smog so south dakota definitely a good place to establish domicile but something that's overlooked because you're going to get your mail there and if you get pulled over technically you live inside that po box so that's something to consider something a lot of people don't think about i'd say it's a con plus everywhere i go people think i'm from south dakota they're like trying to constantly chat me about sturgis or you know if mount rushmore is worth the drive for a photo or how the black hills are and it's kind of like uh it's kind of like me talking about sports i kind of got to just bs my way through the conversation or a lot of times i just tell them that you know the real scoop this is just for registration purposes i'm actually from california another con a lot of people don't consider is where are you gonna go to the bathroom and well i got a bottle and a bucket and uh you know it's just one of those things that's more difficult when you live in a van it's not like you could just flush the toilet and bale like you're either digging a hole using this bucket with a bag and you know if you're off grid for a long period of time there's nowhere to dig a proper hole you're gonna be hoarding a lot of poop and it got kind of gnarly sometimes but i mean overall it wasn't really that bad but it's still something i would definitely consider as a con something kind of gross that a lot of people don't really talk about but it's something you definitely need to consider if you're serious about you know fan life one thing that did make that whole situation better is having a proper trash receptacle on the outside of your van you don't want to be hoarding all that poop or trash period on the inside of this small space i mean it's kind of gross so trash roo giant game changer i would still consider the whole overall situation a con though another van life con that kind of made me you know feel uneasy on the regular is i was always concerned about someone breaking in here because when you live in a van everything you own is in the van so if someone broke in it would be absolutely devastating there's a lot of equipment in here that i just simply couldn't afford to replace like my computer and my camera gear and you know cars are broken into a lot more than houses so i just never really liked leaving my van for long periods of time because i was just concerned i would come back and see broken glass on the ground and all my prized possessions you know the little ones that i do have gone so that's something that'll kind of mess with your sanity it's probably just me being a paranoid weirdo but i know other people feel this way too so it's your home your home on wheels and you just don't want anything bad to happen to it there's also breakdowns i mean yeah houses fall apart but i think vehicles break down far more often than houses and there was one instance in particular that i had to change a radiator out in the middle of the desert and it was pretty hot that day too so yeah that uh that kind of sucked although it was an experience and it's something i'll never forget [Music] and there it is crispy fresh new radiator the old one also your sanity like you're by yourself a lot and if it wasn't for this youtube channel i probably would have had a hard time with this but you know making content on the regular and interacting with you guys in the comments well it kind of kept me sane a lot of times because there was a few times where you know i didn't see another person for multiple days on end and that can kind of mess with you a little bit it's like solitary confinement if that's something you really struggle with you're gonna have a hard time living in a van trust me because that's not even something i struggle with and i struggled with it a little bit something i would definitely consider a con another con i would say is it's you know oftentimes very uncomfortable but a lot of people say hey get outside your comfort zone and live a little and it's like well there are a lot of times you are really hot and really cold for example right now it's 120 degrees inside the van granted if i was actually living in this van i wouldn't be here in central arizona i would be somewhere else entirely someplace that is cooler but still definitely a con prepare to be uncomfortable and i'm not a bougie person but yeah there were many times that i was a little uncomfortable something to consider and last i'd say the biggest contributing factor to me getting out of van life is well having a future van life is just kind of a stagnant presence like you're not progressing and you're not digressing you're kind of just living in the moment every single day just you know trying to make it work and i have a girlfriend that i care a lot about and that was a huge factor for me van life isn't something that she really was interested in so this is something that i was doing all by myself and that didn't really provide us a future at all that was an enormous contributing factor to us buying this house this house is going to provide us a future and i just want her to be happy that's pretty much all i got to say about van life and you know the van is not over but the van life is i'll no longer be living full time out of this van although the travel will still continue but i don't think i'll be using the term van life because it's kind of insulting to those that actually do live in their vans and uh yeah that's pretty much all i got to say about that leave a like on this video if you enjoyed it and subscribe it's a free way to support the channel and i produce content wednesdays fridays and sundays every single week so thanks for joining me on why i left van life and let's go inside it's freaking hot out here it's like 110 today if you're wondering where rex is he's inside enjoying the ac let's go hang out with him there he is [Music] you

Channel: Captain Gnarkill

Views: 380,666

Rating: 4.8371153 out of 5

Keywords: vanlife, #vanlife, I quit vanlife, quitting vanlife, why I quit vanlife, living in a van, van living, The REAL reasons I quit #Vanlife, I’ve quit van life...and here is why, We Quit Van Life, I'm quitting van life, I'm giving up Vanlife, 5 Things I Hated about Vanlife

Id: qo_gZUXmy0k

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021