I lived the vanlife. it wasn’t pretty | Hacker News Reader

I lived the vanlife. it wasn’t pretty

nytimes.com

24 pointsfortran7739 comments

There's a recent wave of backlash against #vanlife that's pretty amusing to watch as someone who's been living in all sorts of rigs including pickups with campershells, camper trailers, and now a self-built van with radiant floor heat and a hot shower. I think it's good in some ways. I've encountered a lot of people who got lured into this way of living by the sepia-toned propaganda and adopted it with little understanding of the struggles it entails. This particular article is a really poor representation of those though.

The author rented a van that most would only use as a weekender rig for a week, and dealt with challenges that are fairly unique to folks inexperienced with camping, outdoor recreation and, well honestly life outside her abode in general it seems.

I think it's still sort of a useful article though. Last night, for example, I met a couple in the ski resort parking lot I camped in that were openly regretting their purchase of a $150k custom built van. They didn't enjoy working on it, and were distraught over their parking heater "breaking" (air intake had some ice on it) when there were no hotels in town with vacancy. From my conversation with them after I fixed it and invited them into my rig for a beer while theirs warmed up, I feel they're folks that would have read an article like this, and probably not made a really unwise investment into a kind of life they don't know anything about and had completely romanticized.

I also invited a kid sleeping in the back of his subaru on a platform he built so he could chase storms into my rig for that chat. He would have killed for one of our vans and would have had an absolute blast (though a truck camper is probably a better choice for his lifestyle.) My guess is he wouldn't be influenced at all by an article like this one. He'll probably build himself a van one day and have as good of a time as I'm having.

So, I get some of the ire I'm seeing here for this kind of off-hand dismissal for vanlife, but I think I'm alright with it. Countering the propaganda is good, and the folks who would be dissuaded from building a van and living on the road by an article like this definitely shouldn't be jumping into this kind of lifestyle anyway I figure.

Urbanite rents a van at the request of their editor and is ill-prepared for the wilderness-like experiences that ensue. She admits that she is not a good driver and that it stresses her; why would it be pretty, especially for only a week? This type of lifestyle is best suited for those who are OK with living on the move and know their destinations... not those who roll in to camp grounds after dark and expect to live an urban lifestyle on four wheels. The article mischaracterizes van lifers.

A version of Big Brother? Put volunteers in an awkward position, then make big headlines about how awkward it felt. (Then profit from the attention.)

In fairness it is advertised as basically great for anyone. If you have it all and live in the city, the next best thing is to live in a van.

I read this article in contrast to that idea peddled by countless Instagram snaps.

This is article is just bad:

  * You can’t “vanlife” for a week. In a week you’ll just start learning how to do it properly and how to use a van.

  * “Used converted Sprinter costs $300K” - wildly inaccurate. Even new converted Sprinter doesn’t cost $300K. “You can’t get it” - after over-production in the last few months and with the current recession you can buy in a day.

Most of the van life you see depicted on social media is actually this though - people who've rented a van short-term for as much as a hotel room or who live in a house and have a van that costs as much as a second home as an accessory for weekend trips.

People who actually live in vans are far less common than people who take photos of themselves in vans.

I suspect it's more that the intersection between "people who live in vans" and "people who take pictures of themselves in vans" is rather small.

We waited for 8mos last year for my wife’s sprinter to show up. I realize that was 2021/parts shortage/etc. but it wasn’t converted, just a 170” 4x4 cargo 2500.

But yeah, this article is just shit. Yes, Yosemite can be crowded, but good lord, get out of the valley.

I couldn’t finish after that.

I’m probably going to pick up a startlink rv setup, so that next year we can toss the kayaks, the kids that are still home, and a couple of dogs in the sprinter and go spend a week in the mountains.

And I’ll be able to do It without burning vacation. Just have to make sure I’m not on call as the phone ain’t gonna work there

Oh, I’d also point out: we’re not living in this thing. It was purchased for my wife (dog breeder) as her “dog show van” so she can go places with the mutts and not need hotels.

We had an RV (38’ class A) that was totaled by an ice storm. The van is a MUCHA BETTER vehicle for this, as it has more storage for the stuff we need, and is useful for her normal uses, where the RV sat there except for a few times per year when we’d drive it. Otherwise it just wasted money

“I rented a cheap campervan, went on an ill-planned road trip with unreasonable expectations, and had a bad time”

If they can do it any one can. It’s a lot harder to have a bad experience in a hotel/camping

I enjoyed it, I felt like the nakedly artificial nature of it was fitting, a reflection of the artificial nature of living a "van life" as an influencer.

Yes, exactly. The article is self-aware and funny in portraying it, too.

"without any experience relevant to my endeavor"

Reminds me of the old Bill Hicks bit "I took mushrooms and went to Astroworld and had a really bad time."

Personally I always felt like van life was super posh camping, as opposed to only mostly posh camping, which is camping with a tent instead of just a tarp.

People who take their creature comforts completely for granted are an amusing sort.

We met a woman living Van life at a national park. Offered her the shower in our hotel room. She promised to name her children after us and clean our toilets.

"After a while," she explained, "the alcohol wipes are merely moving the dirt around."

> We met a woman living Van life at a national park. Offered her the shower in our hotel room. She promised to name her children after us and clean our toilets.

Not all "van life" folks are destitute homeless people who can't afford a shower in a hotel.

You met a homeless poor person who lives out of a van...

I believe she was living van Life by choice. Her story was she was on disability from the military. Everything was in good repair, and there were no rooms available in the national Park where we stayed (they're usually booked up two years in advance)

People still take basin baths with a washcloth. Squeeze of citrus also helps. Water is still in short supply in many places.

The trouble is fitting a big enough basin in a cramped camper, and yes, water access (much less pressure) in a place one can use it.

I mean, you don't have lakes or rivers there? I hike through the pyrenean or Alps every summers (and when I don't it's because I do a roadtrip across Spain or Italy), and I know I cannot last without washing myself at least every two days, so we plan accordingly and stop near streams or lakes. Granted, it's cold, but I'd rather be cold for 5 minutes than dirty for a week.

Reading the comments here, it appears that I’m the only one who thought this article was hilarious.

Hidden at the bottom of the article is that she has pleasant memories of the experience.

Hidden in the middle of the article is that these are false memories after the fact.

van life kind of bugs me, mostly because i think the surf line ups are full of people trying to live some weird idea of being adventurous. The parking lots next to some of the surf breaks are filled with sprinters. of course they need to learn to surf, instagram i guess sells them this idea, more beginners with no ocean knowledge in the water... and they bring an entitled culture along with them. yeah bro im going to cali from the midwest, going to park my giant van, and going to like surf and chill. the instagram account newpointlocal has a bunch of pictures of sprinters parked all along the roads right next to the surf.

my other random thought, i wondered if these sprinters will be like the vw buses of the 60s and 70s in ~30 years.

> One thing to remember about #VanLife: At the end of a day of driving, you end up sleeping in the van, too.

Good grief, does no one swag it anymore?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCnpE6F9BTk

It's the same as working from home. If it doesn't bother you, great. But it drives me insane to walk 5 meters from my bed to my desk and start working and zooming colleagues.

I'm in W.Australia, rural W.Australia - I work from home, sure - but walking the boundary with the dog in the morning can take an hour or so.

Yeah I mean I've thought about how I can go skiing, or go to the gym, or have a routine that gets me out of the house. But really, it's sitting in my house that bothers me. Because it's like the same as you aren't supposed to use your bed for something other then sleeping because as soon as you do sleeping get distracted by the other thing you do in bed. My home is for chilling. Work is chill but it's not a chilling activity.

You need a good staircase between your bed and your desk. It allows you to have that commute experience. In my split level, if my wife comes home as I'm getting out of work, I even get the experience of "traffic" on my "commute" back up the stairs.

Doing something between waking up and going right to work helps too -- I used to walk 3 miles to work, and would all but snarl at my wife who occasionally would suggest that she drive me in and rob me of that transitional time. Kettlebell swings and a shower can work wonders at going from bed mode to desk mode.

I'm on a limited connection atm, can't watch the video, so as a fellow Antipodean who loves him so chups, what does swagging mean these days?

The most of my knowledge about it, is that there once was a jolly swagman down by the billabong and a tree whose name escapes me. Coolabah?

Sleeping outside on the ground, with a swag or bedroll, under the stars or under a strung tarp if it's likely to rain, etc.

Yep - Coolabah tree, mainly an eastern states tree - but one of the many Eucalyptus (Gum tree) family found all across Australia.

> fellow Antipodean ... Patagonia ?? :-)

I tried reading but could not stand all the non-van-life info. It's 90% that.

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