Seven Years Rent Free - Man Finds Happiness Living In A Minivan | Simple Self-Built Campervan

Well, it's been

seven

years

since I decided to move into this

minivan

. This is a 2015 Ram ProMaster City and I just want to give you a little glimpse of how I

built

it to be comfortable for me and why I have it. I decided to live in a

minivan

, so to first answer the big question, why would I want to live in a van? Well, life became too expensive, it was really that

simple

. I'm from Southern California. Things were getting more and more expensive. and when

rent

s reached more than 60 percent of my income, I knew I needed to make a big change, a very drastic change, and of course I looked at all the options.

I looked to get a second and third job. I also looked maybe.

living

in a place with a lot of roommates and none of those things really seemed very desirable and that's what Van brought me to life, so why a minivan? Well again, that's pretty

simple

, this was the biggest truck I could afford and because it was going to be a squeeze, I knew I had to be very careful in how I

built

the truck so that I would be comfortable in it, so what I decided that the most important thing to focus on would be a comfortable bed and that's how I ended up with this galley style setup here where I have a bed ready all the time.

I didn't want to have a bed that folded up and I had to unfold it every night and put it away every morning. I just wanted a bed. which was always here and ready to use, so this bed works as a very comfortable bed and also as a sofa during the day. Now it's a small bed but it's the same length as a double XL, so it's a little longer than a standard. double bed but it is only 30 inches wide. The nice thing about this size bed is that I can use standard twin size sheets, they work well and the next thing I wanted for my personal comfort would be a sink, so this sink has functionality.

Water is drawn from a

seven

gallon water tank just below the sink area here and I have water on demand. This is great for just brushing my teeth in the morning and staying clean. I can also wash my own dishes, so in general. I really like having a second and the third item I knew I was going to need to stay comfortable is a stove. I'm using a basic propane stove now and I really like it. I like having a stove because it allows me to be able to cook whenever I want and more importantly it allows me to make coffee whenever I want and I want coffee all the time and one more item that I should probably put under the necessary column is the vents from the roof, now that it is a full size motor home. roof vents, which is a little big for this little van, but it's nice to be able to have some air movement in the van from time to time and in fact, I have this set up so that I can pull air from a vent in the apartment I have.

Installed here in the van, that means I can run this vent at a lower speed without having doors or windows open, and even though it's a small van without much space, I also have some luxury items, larger ones. luxury items is this refrigerator, this is a refrigerator made by set power and it is actually a refrigerator and

free

zer combo so I can use it as a refrigerator or as a refrigerator and

free

zer which is how I have it set up now this is pretty cool because as much as I like coffee, I would say I also like ice cream, so it's nice to be able to have that on hand now that I can have a refrigerator because I have a small electrical system, it's a DC powered system, it's just that I have a single battery is 100 amp hour made by chins and i have two renegie solar panels the largest one you see is 150 watts and the smallest one on the back is a 100 watt panel these are mounted directly on the roof of my truck alone because I find that it is the most efficient way to always generate power, since I only have two small solar panels and a small battery, that means I don't have much electricity to go around now that my system is big enough to support all my electrical needs They're working.

I have enough power to keep the lights on, my phone charged, and my refrigerator and freezer running, but I don't have enough power to cook and that's why I still use propane. stove I'm also using a propane heater. This is an Olympian Wave 3 propane heater. I have it installed on this flat screen TV stand so I can lift it up and out of the way again. I'm short on space here, so I'm just doing what I can to get by, but this is a great heater. Most propane heaters release a lot of moisture into the air, but these wave three olympic heaters don't, so it's really the perfect heater for me and keeps me comfortable until the end. let's say 20 degrees Fahrenheit, except I really try not to be in temperatures that are in the freezing zone, so this has been a perfect heater for me and one of the other things that helps me stay comfortable here in the van now yeah , this truck is small and I admittedly bought it because it was the only thing I could afford, but it turned out to be the perfect size for me.

I don't need a bigger truck and I don't want a bigger truck. This van does everything I need it gives me a perfectly comfortable place to sleep it gives me a way to make coffee possibly the most important thing I like and need in my

living

space so it covers all the bases so I don't want a van bigger I don't need a bigger van and the most important thing for me is to be able to be outside and walk what I like the most is to walk, especially on a day like today when the weather is very good I want to be outside.

I want to walk all day if possible, so the fact that the van is a little small doesn't bother me at all and as a last thought, I don't want to embellish Fan. life this is just my way of life after seven

years

this is normal for me uh it has some difficulties this is not an easy way to live necessarily and it's not a cheap way to live you I hear people say that often that it's cheap and it's easy to live in a van, you know, that can be true in certain situations. I would say it's probably a little easier if you have a really good steady income.

Most of the time I have lived. In this van, I had a normal nine to five job and that made it a little easier to have a steady paycheck each week, at least it seemed like I had some security there in recent years. I've been working gigs and my salary has fluctuated a lot more than when I had a regular nine to five, so there are ways to make living in a van easier. Maybe the last few years have been a little more challenging. for me, but I wouldn't have changed a thing in the last seven years, this has been the most comfortable way I've ever lived, I would say, and again, I don't mean I'm glamorizing this, it's just that this is normal for me. now and I want to just address that point, um uh, if you have any more questions about how I live out of the van, what I do with my day and the best way to get answers to them is to just check out my channel. go directly to my channel page and watch the videos.

Now I have over 500 videos that answer all the questions you would have, so I'll post a playlist at the end of this video and you can watch it. playlist and get the answers you are looking for, probably the best and easiest way to do it. Hey, thanks for watching. I really appreciate it.