DannyB1954 said:
I'm not too sure how that car cover would work for me in a Walmart parking lot. And many food banks require an actual address and a bill from that address in your name. At least the ones I know and been too.
Needing Help,Advice, Ideas on living in my car. This will be my first time
- Thread starter Dwade81
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Help Support Van Living Forum:
I'm not too sure how that car cover would work for me in a Walmart parking lot. And many food banks require an actual address and a bill from that address in your name. At least the ones I know and been too.
rvpopeye said:
Yeah, I know about them tried calling but no answer. I did call same houston national forest. 14 days visit free then you can't be seen around any of sam houston national forest again for another 30 days.
DannyB1954
Well-known member
Dwade81 said:
There are many other places than Walmart. Apartment complexes are sometimes good. If you take up residence at the same place every night, you may wear out your welcome. I don't know exactly how food banks work, but I would assume they would feed homeless people as well. I think if you show them you qualify for food stamps or Government assistance they would help you out. People who volunteer to work at the food bank for a day here also get groceries. I know some people who are court ordered to do community service get food that way.
mdoverl
Well-known member
I've been thinking about making a checklist for new emergency car dwellers and posting it on the forum. I think that will be my next project.
Dwade81
Personally for myself, i stick with Truck Stops, Hotel parking lots, and walmarts. I never stay in apartment complexes because those people are already low on parking spaces, and I never park in residential areas. I have cheap black clothe that I bought from walmart that I block off most of my windows at night. I cover the rear passenger windows, and have a piece of clothe hanging just behind the front driver and passenger seat, blocking the view into the back of the car. I don't cover the rear window, as I usually make sure to back my car into my sleeping spot keeping it away from high traffic visibility areas.
Dwade81
Personally for myself, i stick with Truck Stops, Hotel parking lots, and walmarts. I never stay in apartment complexes because those people are already low on parking spaces, and I never park in residential areas. I have cheap black clothe that I bought from walmart that I block off most of my windows at night. I cover the rear passenger windows, and have a piece of clothe hanging just behind the front driver and passenger seat, blocking the view into the back of the car. I don't cover the rear window, as I usually make sure to back my car into my sleeping spot keeping it away from high traffic visibility areas.
mdoverl
Well-known member
I have a Prius (Hybrid), so I can run the AC all night, and it uses maybe a gallon of gas per night, I haven't figured the exact total, put it's pretty low compared to other gas engines cars that run the entire time they are on. I have heard of people who don't have the luxury of a prius that put the windows down an inch or two, and hook up a fan to a cheap inverter ($30 at a truck stop, maybe cheaper at walmart) through the auxiliary port.
mdoverl
Well-known member
Dwade81:
To be honest, your going to have to make sacrifices to live successfully out of your car. You will have to be creative. When i first started living out of my car I didn't know how to wipe my own ass. I was lost. But I immersed myself into the forum and got involved, and I watched a ton of YouTube videos for inspiration (Library). Now I'm dreaming crazy big ideas for my prius (Like mounting solar panels on it, who the heck does that to a prius, I know of one person I found online who does it.). Start small, eat lots of Raman noodles to save money in your first month (seriously it's like 20 dollars a month to eat Ramen depending on how much you eat). Once you get past that first month and have more money available, then you can get better things. Think of living in a car as a life style, because if you think of it because you are stuck "there", it will suck.
To be honest, your going to have to make sacrifices to live successfully out of your car. You will have to be creative. When i first started living out of my car I didn't know how to wipe my own ass. I was lost. But I immersed myself into the forum and got involved, and I watched a ton of YouTube videos for inspiration (Library). Now I'm dreaming crazy big ideas for my prius (Like mounting solar panels on it, who the heck does that to a prius, I know of one person I found online who does it.). Start small, eat lots of Raman noodles to save money in your first month (seriously it's like 20 dollars a month to eat Ramen depending on how much you eat). Once you get past that first month and have more money available, then you can get better things. Think of living in a car as a life style, because if you think of it because you are stuck "there", it will suck.
I don't mind eating Raman, but I need something else other than just Raman. I thought of maybe Tuna in water and stuff like chilli and crackers. I will be taking my car for a 8 hour test drive next month to see how strong it holds up and I will run it all night to see how much gas it burns while taking care of business out of town. I hope it holds up so I can live in it to save for a van. And I am thinking more of being a Stealth parker than boondocker until I can save to get a van. But I only get 755 a month and after bills I will have 500 left to save. That includes using my 200 dollars in food stamps for food and water per month. And that is if I only stay in the state of Texas I can use them.
mpruet
Well-known member
I don't live in a car, but I do car camp quite a bit. For washing I take a spray bottle and fill it with a mixture of water and rubbing alcohol. (about 20% alcohol) I then spray myself down and use a wash rag to rub it in. I generally don't need to dry off because the alcohol will evaporate the water. Some folks use baby wipes, but I didn't like that because they make you sticky.
user 37446
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Go to a public library and watch YouTube videos on the subject: Car Dwelling, Homeless in car, Vandwelling etc... You will be able to see what and how people are actually living in and where they park etc...
Optimistic Paranoid
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Dwade81, I think there is some serious misunderstanding going on here. You own a conventional car - a Chevy Cavalier. mpruet owns a Prius electric hybrid.
He can run his air conditioning all night because it runs off the huge built-in battery bank, and when the battery gets low, the engine, which just powers a generator, comes on automatically, runs just long enough to recharge the battery, then shuts itself off automatically until the next time the battery needs recharging.
If you try to let your engine idle for eight hours overnight, it's going to use a hell of a lot more gasoline than the one gallon mpruet claims his Prius uses. Frankly, I don't think you can afford to pay for all the gasoline you would need in a month from what you said about your financial situation earlier.
He can run his air conditioning all night because it runs off the huge built-in battery bank, and when the battery gets low, the engine, which just powers a generator, comes on automatically, runs just long enough to recharge the battery, then shuts itself off automatically until the next time the battery needs recharging.
If you try to let your engine idle for eight hours overnight, it's going to use a hell of a lot more gasoline than the one gallon mpruet claims his Prius uses. Frankly, I don't think you can afford to pay for all the gasoline you would need in a month from what you said about your financial situation earlier.
mdoverl
Well-known member
Optimistic Paranoid is 100% correct, you will not be able to run your AC overnight, as I illustrated in our private message. You may be able to get away with hooking up a fan in your car, but you have to be careful not to kill your starter battery.
Optimistic Paranoid said:
There is no misunderstanding. I know prius is a hybrid. And I said I would test it out to find out. while I still have housing. just to see what I will be looking at statistics wise with mine.
mdoverl said:
I Understood what you said. I wanted to run a test get statistics to find out exactly what it would pull. before I actually go stealth parking or boondocking. I also thought about the battery thing and thought about buying a spare battery and hooking it up with a converter. possibly placing the spare batter somewhere in the car. I will be doing some research on that to see what I could do about that.
mpruet
Well-known member
Dwade81 said:
The folks who have a Prius are able to do the bit about leaving the AC/heater on overnight because of the way that the Prius works. The gasoline engine will start up about every thirty minutes for a couple of minutes, so the engine is only running about 8-10% of the time. That not only reduces the amount of fuel burnt, but also reduces the risk of carbon monoxide. (Even still I keep a carbon monoxide monitor and a window cracked...)
I don't think that non-hybrid cars can use the same technique since the energy from the engine is not saved in a 300+volt battery like in the Prius. What happens with the Prius is that the engine charges the high voltage battery and then the high voltage battery charges the 12 volt battery. When the engine starts up, it is just to top off the high voltage battery, not to run the AC. This is not the case with other cars. The engine does not go on and off based on the charge of any battery.
I'm afraid that the best you would be able to do is to use a second battery to run a fan and then charge that battery during the day - possibly with a portable solar panel kit. But that is going to cost a bit of money which I don't think you will have right now. So the best possible solution would probably be to move the car to locations where the temperature is more comfortable. The only thing that I would suggest is to get some form of screen on your windows so that you can avoid bugs with the windows down.
Colorado (in the mountains) would be comfortable between May and early October. I have a condo there and do not need AC. But we also had a three foot snow storm last week and temps were in the 20s at night. Right now the comfortable areas between Dallas and Colorado would probably be in the Dalhart, Texas to Raton, NM area.
mdoverl
Well-known member
Dwade81 said:
Definitely head over the the electronics section of the forum. Also, you'll want an inverter, not a converter. If you need any help with the math of figuring out what size of a battery you need, just let me know, just write the the output watts, volts, or amps from the fan or other electronics you'll be using.
mpruet said:
I was thinking another battery like a deep cycle battery with a battery isolator for the fan and some electric items like phone maybe small tablet. And I won't be doing this until around sept or oct. this way it gives me time to get the car working right and set up and some extra money on hand first. then planned on staying in the car through the texas winters which in this area doesn't get too bad or uncomfortable. It would also give me time to save money to buy a small van or a better car.
I thought about a solar panel but like you said they would be too expensive. But I also plan on doing things for extra money which would keep me busy like certain hobbies.
mdoverl said:
Thank you mdoverl. I will. once I get a feel for exactly how my car works and runs, remember I just bought this car 2 weeks ago and haven't really had much time to mess with it let alone test it out and push it to its limits.
mpruet
Well-known member
Dwade81 said:
I don't think you would need that much power if all you are going to run is a fan. You could get a DC fan which plugs into a cigarette lighter and then a 12-volt clamp connection between a 12-volt battery and a single cigarette plug. That way you could avoid having to purchase an inverter. If you are going to want to run other things which are going to require alternating current, then you would need to get an inverter. I'd strongly suggest getting a pure sine inverter because a lot of electronic devices won't work with a modified sine wave inverter and fans will buzz.
But like I said, you might be able to lower your costs by going with a DC fan and they can be found at most truck stops, a 12 volt battery, 12-volt to cigaratte adaptor, and a solar panel kit.
But truth be told, you need to first get a list of the things that you really need to power when you are remote first. And then you need to think of what the minimum that you need is with the idea of making it into something that can be expanded later once you've built up your financial reserves.
https://www.amazon.com/Conntek-Batt...&sr=8-5&keywords=12-volt+to+cigarette+lighter
https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-1...F8&qid=1494623669&sr=1-3&keywords=12-volt+fan
