What is the best camping vehicle
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QUESTION: You recommend a short wheel-based vs. extended
wheel-base van for ease of parking in cities. Would you feel the
same way if you were 6'1? tall and thus couldn't align the bed across
the van as you did but would need to align it lengthwise? I'm thinking
that because of that the longer wheelbase would be especially desirable.
How would you view the trade-off in my situation?
MY ANSWER: If I were your height I would purchase or rent
the longer wheelbase vehicle and turn the bed front to back. Yes
the added room is extremely valuable. Be aware that longer vehicles
will have additional difficulties in SOME places, mainly parking
garages, big cities, most major cities in Canada, along California's
beaches, and most crowded areas of the East coast. If you don't
plan on spending that much time in those kinds of places the longer
vehicle will not hurt you except for a microscopic loss in fuel
economy. The extra room is worth it.
QUESTION: When you say buy a van exactly like yours, do
you mean a Chevy Express?
MY ANSWER: The van I show in the book, and use, and recommend,
is the best for long term, full on, stealth mode, big city and outdoor
off the grid camping. Period. Every deviation from it will result
in losing some value somewhere. Every deviation from it COULD also
result in gaining an advantage that is worth it to you in particular.
See above question and answer for more on this. I chose the Chevy
because Ford did not offer an equivalent van that had the LARGE
sliding door on the side rather than the hinged ones.
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If you do not care about that issue then a Ford van of similar amenities
would work fine. See Vanabode book for more.
QUESTION: Why did you rule out other vans that are used mostly
as commercial vehicles, such as the Dodge Sprinter? With its higher ceiling,
I know it is popular among some van campers.
MY ANSWER: The Dodge Sprinter is an absolutely fantastic choice.
. .
1) If you can afford it,
2) If you don't mind NOT being able to park in many parking garages due
to the increased height. I stay in Vegas for months at a time for free
so a high top Sprinter style van would be of less value to me.
3) If you are NOT going to be stealth camping in big cities much. The
van I use draws absolutely no attention at all whereas the Sprinter is
more of a "camper" looking vehicle.
4) If you don't mind the fact that it is not as wide as the van I recommend
5) If you don't mind the fact that it is more top heavy and therefore
more tippy and shakes more in winds
6) Nearly all Sprinter vans are vastly inferior to my setup in terms of
suspension and tire size for OFFROAD use. We go to some extraordinary
places out West like Spencer hot springs, Joshua Tree, Ventana Wilderness
in California, Kings Canyon, and Bryce Canyon. When I get ready to drive
off road over milk jug sized rocks and ruts in the forest I don't want
any more trouble than I already have. The bigger and wider tires of my
Vanabode are much better in this regard.
YOUR QUESTION: You say a short wheelbase van is the preferred
way to visit cities, and mention New York City as an example. But seriously,
how would you use a van as an abode in NYC? Driving in Manhattan is crazy
enough, but parking is really hard to find and expensive. How do you do
it? Seems to me the only practical way would be to park in New Jersey
or something and then take a ferry or train. In that case, I would think
you could use a longer wheelbase van. But maybe you really do park in
NYC. Have you ever parked in a multistory parking garage in NYC and slept
in your van there?
MY ANSWER: I have not spent that much time in New York City but
we are planning a heavy long 5 month East Coast run next year. I have
slept in parking garages because in big cities it is most often cheaper
to do that with a 24 hour pass and be close to the action than it is to
park on the street and be limited to 4 hours at a time. It is noisy with
all the echoes and can be fumy. I do not recommend it nor do I do much
of this. With so many other options available for living as described
in the book I don't think many do long term.
YOUR QUESTION: You recommend a van with a rubber floor because
carpet collects allergens etc. But your van shows a carpeted floor. Are
you recommending to add carpet on top of a rubber floor, or were you unable
to get rubber flooring for your van so were stuck with carpet?
MY ANSWER: We used the carpet over the rubber floor for 3 months
as a test when we were in an area where we were hiking on wet muddy ground
alot. We took it out once it became filthy and would never use carpet
in there again. Carpet is NOT a solution to much of anything.
YOUR QUESTION: My husband owns a 2007 Honda Ridgeline truck that
he loves
we have been considering buying a smaller hybrid camper
trailer to head south with but never having been RVers so to speak we
are concerned about the cost. He already has a topper on his truck which
has a short box and it cannot pull more than 5000 pounds. Not sure how
much more we would have to spend per day with a rig like that compared
to picking up a used work van and outfitting it as a vanabode.
MY ANSWER: Once you get into the strategies outlined in the book
the budget will make more sense. If you do not drive many miles per week
then having a vehicle that is SMALL but gets great gas mileage causes
unnecessary discomfort and saves you very little money. If you camp in
thousands of FREE places shown in the book and are NOT worried that they
KNOW you are camping there then use the biggest vehicle you can afford.
However if you want to do EVERYTHING from camping in a national park or
remote off the grid homestead to living right on the Las Vegas strip or
on the beach in California then you will need to follow the specific
strategies outlined in Vanabode in order to do it on $20 a day. There
is no other way to do it all when you want to do it cheap.
YOUR QUESTION: Thank you for your great book...I would love to
travel this great country and was wondering if i could do it in my tacoma
v6 4 door with a fiberglass cap and a bedliner or do you thing i should
trade it for a chevy express....I may be traveling alone if my girlfriend
decides not to go.
MY ANSWER: You CAN but you may not want to. Most of what I describe
in the book can be done with your existing vehicle. I would NOT recommend
it if you are traveling with a reluctant girlfriend....with that scenario
I would HIGHLY recommend trading for the exact kind of van setup exactly
as I describe in the book.
Here are some other resources that may help those investigating various
platforms for travel.
RV for Sale Guide
offers a near complete discussion of everything big motorhome related
Sample
Class A travel vacation covers over 7,000 miles of 31 day vacation
(NOT Vanaboding)
Bus for Sale
Guide covers using buses for business transportation and as conversions
for live aboard
Used Bus
List allows you to buy and sell used buses for free, pictures and
sortable lists of buses for sale
This is a question from a list of camping
questions those on my email list have asked my help with.
Please email me anytime if you need help with anything
related to Vanabode, camping, travel, road trips, equipment, or living off the
grid in the United States.
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