How to Get Started with Van Life
About 3 years ago my boyfriend and I started considering Van Life. We would occasionally look at vans, truck campers, buses, and nothing ever felt right. Then on a random Sunday night a few months ago I saw a great deal on Facebook Marketplace for a 2003 Mercedes Sprinter T1N and an hour later we were looking at it. 24 hours later we were the proud owners of our first Camper Van!
The hardest part of getting into van life is getting started. I was the person that would do tons of research, watch YouTube videos, follow van life social media accounts to try to figure out everything I needed to know but I never felt like I was ready until we bought our van on a whim and just started doing it!
So my advice to you is….just do it. Find the vehicle you want and just start! There are tons of factors that come into play when trying to figure out what to buy like, are you going to be working out of it, if you aren’t doing it full-time where will you store it, do you want to be able to camp at places that are hard to get to, a realistic budget that includes emergency costs, so I think the hardest decision you’ll make with van life is what you buy!
Here’s how we came to our decision:
- We are only doing it part-time right now so we didn’t feel like we needed anything fancy or with a high roof. If you are doing it full-time and have the money to spend, you will probably want to buy something that’s more comfortable to live in with a high roof and more space to do things like cook or shower.
- We live in the city and have an alley with space to park a vehicle. We would have had to find storage if we got something bigger than our van and didn’t want to deal with that.
- We found an insane deal and knew that if we tried it out and hated it, we could resell it for the price we paid, if not more!
What’s next after buying your van?
#1 – Getting the basics put in
Our van had a bed, cabinet, and under the bed storage when we bought it and that was it. We took it out for a 10 day trip before deciding what we actually want in it. A lot of people buy a van and immediately start building it out according to what they think they want instead of what they actually need and then rebuild it months later. If you can just get the basics in there to survive one trip before building it out, I highly advise you to do that.
#2 – Building It Out
If you are not handy, then you probably want to consider hiring a local company to help with the build. If you have the time and think you can figure it out yourself, I’m all for that route because you will save a TON of money. Will it be perfect? No way, but if it’s your first van, you don’t need perfect. There are so many YouTube tutorials that will teach you how to do anything from insulation to hooking up the electrical. Make sure you have some flexibility with how long it takes to build the van out whether you’re doing it yourself or a company is. It will almost always take longer than you think, so if you have a lease ending and plan on being in your van as soon as it ends, make sure you have a back up plan if the van isn’t quite ready yet.
#3 – Safety & Security
A big mistake people make with van life is being so caught up in the build of the van but not knowing the mechanical side. Make sure you are keeping up on your maintenance and research what kind of tools you might need if something goes wrong. Would you know what to do if you were driving to a wild campsite and you got stuck in a rutted out road? Those are the things you need to research and prepare for! A lot of people put a camera outside of their van for safety purposes as well.
Hitting the road!
I’ll never forget the moment we hit the road for our first big trip! I was both excited and nervous at the same time. The good thing about van life is you can’t really over-pack, the bad thing about van life is you can’t over-pack, lol. So make sure you have room for the essentials and leave non-essentials behind. This will obviously vary if you are doing van life part-time versus full-time.
How do you camp for free?
- iOverlander App: This app is really basic and FREE! It will show you all the “wild camping” spots that are around you. Certain areas have a lot of options like on the West Coast where as others have much less like in the Midwest. Get the original version from the app store and if it asks you to upgrade, just ignore it, the newer version is garbage.
- The Dyrt: Another app that helps you find camping locations but you have to pay for this one
- Harvest Hosts: This is a membership program that allows you to stay at farmers, wineries, breweries and more. You do need to be fully self-contained to stay at any of these locations
- Free parking lots: These businesses will let you park for free overnight in their parking lots: Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Cabela’s, Sam’s Club, Costco, Rest areas, Truck stops
Tips for wild camping
When you look for wild camping spots using the apps, remember that a lot of other people are also looking so you might not get the spot you wanted. Have some backup options in case where you wanted to go is full.
Make sure you are looking for “no parking” or “no overnight camping” signs. If you find a spot from one of the apps but then see these signs, you need to find a new place because chances are it used to be free but changed. The comments in iOverlander usually do a good job keeping up with saying if it’s closed so make sure you are reading those.
Find your camping spot while there’s still daylight. Finding these spots in the dark can be really hard sometimes. This is not as ideal in the winter when the sun goes down super early but one of the worst things in van life is being tired and then struggling to find a place to camp at night.
Always leave it better than how you came! If you see some garbage, pick it up. If you have extra firewood you could leave behind for the next person, leave some behind!
How to shower on the road
(If you don’t have one in your van)
How to go To the bathroom on the road
This was the part of van life that stressed me out the most. I really wanted to go big and have a nice composting toilet built into our van but we haven’t done that yet. If we do decide to give up some space for that, this toilet was the most recommended by other van lifers.
Instead we have a cheaper portable toilet for emergencies only. I thought having a bathroom in our van was going to be an absolute must for me but after doing it part-time for a couple months now, I almost always use other options. Remember, you have to get rid of the waste at some point so a lot of times it’s easier to not have a toilet in your van. I would also recommend using Dude wipes instead of toilet paper when on the road!
Other options:
- Gas stations
- Bucket
- Pee Bottles
- Digging a hole (make sure to pack a shovel if you plan on going this route)
If you are a bidet person, this portable bidet comes with us on every trip!
How to Have Power on the road
Solar panels: They aren’t cheap but it is free power once you start using them!
Solar generator: We have this solar generator that you can charge with the solarsage, a car outlet, a wall outlet, or USB-C PD. When we are in coffee shops we always bring it in and charge it. It takes longer to charge with the solarsage but if you are just hanging out at camp, it’s worth laying it out in the sun to charge. There are different sizes but the 300 worked for us to use for 3-4 days at a time to charge phones and laptops. We don’t work from our van though so you will probably need something more if you are constantly needing to charge a computer.
Alternator: A van’s alternator converts the engine’s power into electricity to charge batteries. You can use an adapter with multiple charging ports to charge electronics while driving.
So, have I convinced you to take the leap and start van life?? I know there is so much information out there to prepare you but I really think this article gives you the basics to get started and then you will learn more from there!
I also have everything that we have bought and used in our van on my Van Life Amazon Page!