SO, THERE YOU ARE, having decided you want have a nomadic life, living in some type of vehicle or trailer, and perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed. Ack! So much to figure out! So much to prepare! Where do I start? ……….AAAAACK!!!
Start with the essentials
If you’ve been looking at other nomads’ and #vanlifers’ rigs, reading their blogs, watching their videos, you might be thinking, “Oh, I want something like that. They have it so it must be important, right? But how do I pull all that together?” It’s easy to get lost in a forest of details. Or is it a swamp of the extraneous?
You prioritize. You start with the most essential things and work upward from there.
William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways was a huge influence on me and many others. “Travel the country in a van? Yeah, I want to do that someday!”
What did Heat-Moon hit the road with? A bare van, a mattress, a sleeping bag, a duffle of clothing, a cooler, and a Rand-McNally atlas of the United States.
I’m not saying we should all go as stripped down as Heat-Moon, but it points to how we should approach our preparations. It gives us a clue about what is essential.
1. A Reliable Vehicle
Without mobility we’re not nomads. But not only do we travel (if only to migrate with the seasons), we also live in our rigs. If it doesn’t run, we don’t travel. If it’s in the shop, we become temporarily homeless. So the absolute number one priority is a good, trouble-free ride. Everything else is irrelevant without it.
2. A Place to Be
When we live in a building, society (and the law) says, “Yeah, okay, that’s your place. No problem.” It also says, “You and your vehicle can only be someplace you pay to be.” Otherwise, well, you know…
So the number two priority is figuring out the big picture of where you’re going to be, where you can be. Are we going to be a boondocker? A stealth camper in cities? A Wallydocker? A moochdocker? Are you going to use campgrounds and parks? Some combination of those? Your plans for that affect the rest of your preparations.
3. A Place to Sleep
Nothing makes vehicle dwelling more miserable than not having a comfortable place to sleep. Any layout of your nomadic home should start with the bed. Whatever the type, size or orientation, everything else should adapt to fit it, not the other way around. It’s better to be bumping into the bed while you’re moving about your rig than to be sleeping awkwardly every night for the sake of something else having enough room.
4. A Place to Poop
We all have to do it, and we all need a way to deal with it.
5. Health
What will you need to maintain your health or to compensate for health limitations? A way to keep medications cool? A way to power a CPAP machine? Steps? Grab handles? Heating pads…?
6. Food
Gotta have it. Will you cook or not? If you cook, how? Where? Will you refrigerate, use a cooler, or stick with foods that don’t need either of those? Again, those decisions influence others to follow.
7. Clothing
What type and how much will you need? Where will you keep it—both the clean and dirty? This is simplified if you’re a nudist. Or like Jack Reacher, wearing one outfit until it’s too dirty, then discarding it and buying new clothes.
Get Ready Enough
Once you have the essentials handled you can then worry about other stuff. The less essential things can be delayed. It’s not always necessary to have everything 100 percent buttoned up before hitting the road. In fact, you might not figure out whether you have everything done in a way that fits your needs until you live with it a while. It’s an ongoing process even for us veteran wanderers.
because you MUST WORRY! not enough to get on with it, do the best you can, take the lumps as they come you MUST WORRY.
After all if you are not scared or worried it is much much harder to control you.
Thank you for this. I was doing the opposite and looking for a fully outfitted van. Now I will buy a newer gently used EMPTY van and load up my PUFFY brand mattress (best mattress I ever owned). A portable toilet, one burner propane stove, and a cooler will complete the basic setup. Full insulation and two Maxxair fans will be the first upgrade to my buildout. Then a deck, and solar, and an Isotherm refrigerator, and a deep sink in a cabinet by the door, and water tanks, and a shower and and . . . .LOL
That Essentials videos that Bob and Suanne made was my guide. And then my daughter “outfitted” me! So getting back to minimalizing has been on going. My best decision was to attend Womens Caravans (safety, advice from experienced nomads, and preplanned camping locations which are now in my winter arsenal of free blm) and attending the WRTR and RTR 2022. This life is an ongoing living and learning experience all the while enjoying natures beauty.
1st upgrade: attend an RTR. Watching the videos from this year’s RTR taught me stuff I didn’t know even after all these years. The “favorite gadgets” one was priceless.
I prefer a calculated risk over just taking chances, have been scared but forged ahead anyway. Have not looked back.
In regard to panels & solar power, are 600 watts a fair amount of energy for a cargo van ? Thanks in advance for the information.
When calculating size of any electrical system, start with the needs of your devices and add their usage up. (Basic arithmetic) have enough panels and battery bank to get you through bad weather. I have 400w of panels and a 1500w power station.
It’s not enough in the north during the winter, but is awesome in the southwest.
Do 600 watts panels provide abundante energy to a medium cargo van ?
Good advice. I have two 100ah coach batteries. I calculated my needs and came up with a 600w inverter and 200w portable solar. I welt with portable so I can park in the shade, but still have my solar in the sun.
My 350 amp van alternator also charges my coach batteries, so I’m charging on the road or, if necessary, charge them on a stormy day.
My only demands on the coach batteries are a 2.5 cuft fridge that uses 2.5 ah when running, led overhead lights, and my electronic devices.
I was told 600w inverter was way too small, but has worked great. When you calculate inverter requirements, don’t add up everything you have, add up everything that will be demanding peer at the same time.
Interesting to compare with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760