Anybody pick up a local U-Haul when traveling to "temporarily" van-dwell?

[C-Cat]

All about comfort I guess... ventilation might be a problem, if it's your average box truck... I don't know if I would feel comfortable leaving the back roll-up door cracked during boondocking. Maybe if you find one that has a door to the cab area, then you could at least leave the windows in the cab cracked... otherwise, not a bad idea to save money on a trip.

Also, if you donate your gear to Goodwill (and probably others too), you can usually get a receipt and a tax write-off for the items you donate...

 

[kyonu]

We were thinking about a van and not a box truck. I'm not a fan of box trucks really. It's one of these:

https://www.uhaul.com/Truck-Rentals/Cargo-Van/

But yeah, thinking about donating everything. Maybe not Goodwill, probably a local shelter or something if we can find one, but Goodwill is an option.

Edit: Also note that the mileage for that $316 is up to 750, not 300. So we can drive for 750 miles in 7 days. That's only $45 a day plus gas. Not a bad deal for accommodation and vehicle!

 

[QinReno]

But yeah, thinking about donating everything. Maybe not Goodwill, probably a local shelter or something if we can find one, but Goodwill is an option.

We have both Goodwill stores here, as well as Salvation Army dropoff points. I put old clothes in the SA dropoff, and figure they have a direct line to shelters and the homeless. Then household are goods donated to Goodwill.

I like to shop at Goodwill as I have found a lot of little things for the house and van. The money I spend at Goodwill helps employ quite a few people, albeit the wages are probably low.

 

[GypsyJan]

Or you could become addicted to nomad living and just ship all your new camping gear home via ground freight and start shopping for your own cargo trailer/van/etc.

I've found I take more road trips since staying at Walmart/truck stops makes it a cheap adventure. I have a cooler and camp stove and eat for the same cost as staying home would be. Plus having the camping gear stashed and organized makes last-minute trips easy-peasy.

 

[kyonu]

Unfortunately this is not something we can do full time. My wife has a few illnesses that will prevent certain areas and vehicles (See Bob's "Traveling with MCS" video on Youtube for a perfect example), plus a mold infection. We like Uhaul since they're newer vans and mostly metal boxed so has the smallest chance of mold out of Airbnb and Hotels.

That said, I love the life style and hope to one day do it. But I have work obligations and limited "Vacation" time preventing me from becoming more nomadic with the wife. We're hoping to one day move to Vermont if the atmosphere is good for her, which will give us a bit more freedom. Midwest Texas has not been good to her.

 

[GypsyJan]

I am not full time yet either, but grab weekends and vacation time whenever possible in preparation for becoming a sunbird upon retirement. I live in Florida, so I can't be a snowbird, LOL. I plan to live Mar - Oct in the NE and Nov - Apr in Florida. I am getting a lot of the kinks worked out now so living in the vehicle won't be such a culture shock then. I hope y'all are able to find what works best for her health issues soon.

 

[kyonu]

Sadly, retirement isn't anywhere near my immediate future    I'm still too young for that, sadly. But we are working on other opportunities that will allow us to make money while not having to be in one location, which will help with our future adventures.