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Comment by mvlad | Hacker News Reader

I love that social groups are critical and so it seems that swimming and saunas, but when taking a piss, or having a kitchen are ``irrelevant'' topics.

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Well technically your clothes are hanging up in the space your are cooking in. You don't really need to be known as "Mr. Bacon".

Toilet is critical. You will need it (knew a friend that decided to not install one and rely on public loos while staying at a ski resort...lasted two weeks.) It's just that you don't want to take a dump unless you absolutely need to. This is less to do with then, but more when you need to 'empty' the waste. You will be peeing and you can either do that in a lay by, but with snow on the ground and 3 in the morning....then somewhere to pee in the van that also can be 'sealed' to contain the smell is critical.

As someone else who lived like this for a few months (except out of the back of a much smaller Land Rover Series III), pissing is done in hedges (and the odd beer can), shitting in public toilets or food restaurants and cooking on a gas bottle outside.

Mine looked like this: http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/land_rover/30328...

Going for swim acts as an opportunity for showering.

It's great fun after you get over the initial shock of creature comforts requiring planning and thought.

I eventualy gave in I found that the chassis had a huge hole in it and I had to start putting in as much oil as fuel.

Sounds like your set up was more rural. I was doing it in the middle of a city mostly, so really had to have everything self contained. Definitely would consider having the rear doors open and ability to pull out a cooking area and pop up an awning for those times when you are sitting on a beach and need coffee and a bacon roll.

Must admit it's a pretty good way of living but not sure I would do it for years on end.

Now canal boats....now that I could see myself doing one day.

I was doing it in Leyton/Woodford in East London so borderline city/suburbs.

I'd do it again, 100% of the time but the three children, wife, mortgage and inevitable responsibilities that come with these things make it difficult if not impossible to achieve.

Narrow boats and widebeams are horrid. I lived in a narrow boat for a month. They rock very slightly, smell awful, are damp as anything (even the nice ones), cost a fortune to keep afloat and the neighbours aren't particularly nice people I've found. Very clicky, suffer from a major superiority complex and are terribly bureaucratic. Thames barge perhaps but narrow boats; never again!

Dammit you ruined the canal boat dream! Must admit, renting one for a month or two would probably be worth considering before buying one. I hear it's all about finding a mooring space.

Yeah I would rent one for a bit first, preferably long enough to try and get water out of a diesel tank and empty the sewage tanks!

You might enjoy it, but I certainly didn't.

Also, literally everything went rusty. Even stainless steel and my windows mobile 5 phone at the time went rusty.

With regards to taking a dump, you could use one of those self contained composting toilets - maybe even using the digested remains as methane gas for cooking ;)

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