In my most humble opinion, I do have some recommendations on choosing your travel vessel. There are tons of different videos and trust-fund kids out there telling people how to renovate things like they did and do goofy shit to customize and economize their living spaces. Some of these videos also come with the $ sign of their projects and I absolutely love those. Even on the low-end these projects always end up costing at least 50k when you consider everything of course. The influencer culture is going to show you the cost of raw materials and the the 0$ they paid for the van daddy bought them. All said and done you’re going to pay anywhere from 20k from something god awful to live in or pay 150k to drive a Mercedes sprinter off the lot with a couple thousand miles on it. what does that investment get you? a semi-comfortable, difficult to maneuver loss of money. How could we improve on this model? I’m elated you’ve asked me. Well you could just go buy a brand new or used RV complete without any painstaking failures right now and not only improve your credit score but purchase a rentable asset with a well thought out lay out and 0 loss of your life making it livable.
Why trust me? Well, I live in my very affordable Keystone Crossfire Bullet 1800RB, a 22 foot tow behind camper trailer, and I tow it with my truck, a brand new Ram 1500 (I can explain why I bought it new). The total set up cost me 70k… in debt which I can afford easily if I rent out both. Considering my other income I’m doing fine. If you work from home you will be too. My total monthly payment is just over one thousand a month for both. I can rent the trailer for $120 per day and the truck for $120 perday so if each rents for 5 days per month they pay for themselves… almost (insurance, repairs, IDK other shit) so let’s call it an even 15 days. If one or the other is rented for at leas 15 days a month they completely pay for themselves. Not a bad prospect for someone who has a desire to see the country and is tight on cash. The RV is also really comfortable while being economically savvy. I live in it with my wife and two beagles and sometimes she does hurt for some feminine luxuries but, I’m good so… who cares about all that shit. Kidding.. kind of. We plan to upgrade just a bit bigger with a slide. A slide, for those of you who don’t know, is a feature in a camper that allows a portion of the interior to electronically slide out of the centerline of the RV cabin space and increase the square footage of an RV. It works a little bit like sliding a drawer out of a dresser. That little extra slide space will really get us to where we need to be in regards to living space. Even though we are planning on the upgrade we aren’t upset about our space at all. There are a few ways to upgrade your camper and a few tools that I think you will find necessary to have on hand once you purchase your RV. My wife and I have provided a mini series of videos below to explain some of the nitty gritty details of living in a camper that you should know before you go. You can also click here to go straight to the videos. These tips and tricks can help a van lifer or an RVer elevate their living situation and potentially expand their longevity by avoiding some major mishaps that tend to happen when living in a mad max parallel.
Whichever route you do choose with your RV/Van make sure to plot a course and try to stay at a location for a little over a week at least. This life can be really fun and really easy, but having the right know how and attitude can completely change the outcome. I have seen plenty of people travel across the country and come back saying they’ll never do that again, but if you do it right and make sure everyone is happy the travel life you see blasted all over the internet really can become a sustainable alternative to homesteading. At the very least you will gain the knowledge and confidence to pack up whenever you so please, or next time the world completely goes to shit, and go experience something visceral and real like the great outdoors, or head to key west and experience and excellent month of hangovers, both great options.