New to forum and van living

[Twelvehundred56]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right spot. 

I know nobody will probably read this but here goes for my introduction.

I am a struggling professional golfer chasing my goal of playing on the pga tour. I have been living a nomadic lifestyle for 11 years now. I follow the warm climates such as Arizona in the fall winter and early spring and Oregon or Utah in the summer. I have always been a true minimalist at heart and thoroughly enjoy being able to throw everything I own which isn't much in my car and take off for a new place. My golf coach has been teaching me for 9 years and is one of the best in the world he gives me free lessons because he believes in my ability and believes one day I will make it on tv with the big checks. I have gone through many hardships some because of my risky career choice some from just plain being irresponsible and stupid and some from mental health issues stemming from being bipolar 1 and also dealing with my brother's suicide. I have been homeless many times in my life and some of those times have been by far the most productive times in my life as I was practicing golf up to 12 hours a day. Unlike many pro golfers I do not have rich family sponsors or inheritance to rely on. I extremely fortunate to have a family that has hhelped me here and there to barely survive in the worst times but nothing more as they don't make much money and can only help so much. I dropped out of high school at 17 turned pro and have been chasing my dream ever since. I have seen many wild things along the way including escaping from a mental hospital at my worst point. I have squandered times when i was very close to achieving my goals mostly being irresponsible and living recklessly. Ihave always thought about living in a vehicle so I could travel to golf tournaments and not waste money on hotels as well as just being able to travel freely doing the constant driving I do across many states. I have lived in my car several times before in between obtaining jobs or apartments but usually never for longer than a month or so, recently I made some mistakes and have been living in my car for over 4 months and have been surprisingly successful doing it. I keep very clean and organized in my vehicle and keep a gym membership to shower and workout. I recently took a leap of faith as I do almost every 6 months and drove to Arizona with only enough gas money to get here and foodstamps and my gym membership. I was able to get two great jobs in less than a week for more than full time hours making between 20-50 dollars an hour. Although practice is my top priority because of the hole I dug myself I must save up money for awhile and work more than I would like and put tournament golf on hold. The expenses involved in practicing full time travel and paying for golf tournaments obtaining jobs and apartments without a sponsor is immense. It only makes sense for me to cut out a lot of those expenses and have a house on wheels. I have researched and test drove several vans and vehicles and have come to the conclusion that the Nissan nv200 is the PERFECT vehicle for what I'm looking for with stealth appearance simple small blank slate but with necessary room to create a comfortable living space and also great gas mileage and reliability. Because of the money I'm making now I'm able to save up to buy one with around 30k miles on it in about two months. In my car I stay at 24 hour grocery stores my 24 hour gym and behind bars it has been relatively easy in Utah but more sketchy in phoenix because nazi like police and it is in general a more dangerous town by far than salt lake. Sorry for the long post now finally to my questions. 

I only need an air mattress with a topper and blankets space for my skinny lghtweight golf bag, gym backpack, dirty laundry bag, three pairs of shoes and clothes rack or basket for clean laundry. I really have not needed anything else. My problems in the car have been the fact that it is a fish bowl and anyone can see in which caused me to get robbed one Time, I made mistake of sleeping in a bad neighborhood with windows cracked too far down and the guy didn't realize I was wrapped up in the blanket stole my phone and took off when I saw him. No big deal, but worse things could have happened. Other problem obviously is being bothered by police for living in a car although i have not had any issue so far. I know that having this Nissan nv200 commercial van will greatly reduce my stress of being noticed inside. In my car i have no a.c. and it can get deathly hot in Arizona spring and Utah summers i kost times wake up sweaty. Unlike a lot of vandwellers who carry hiking and biking gear or pile a bunch of crap and trash in their car or want camping amenities such as portable toilet sink or stove etc I need none of those things as I prefer to go to grocery store for pre made food and gym for hygiene needs and constantly clean and minimize. I need to come up with a solution for keeping cool and air conditioned without draining the battery at all or making cospicuous changes to my future van such as big fan pop vents or solar panels i want to truly look like any other commercial van parked with no one in it retaining as much of a stealth look as possible but need adequate airflow as well as a power source to charge my phone or other devices. I am very excited to begin this more focused and efficient journey on my way to obtaining my tour card and need all the suggestions or tips I can get for van living minimally and stealth but with enough comfort to remain employed and athletic. I am also wondering if it is necessary to get a white van or if black would be ok too as I prefer the look but suspect might not look as stealth and might absorb too much heat. Any suggestions for back of van room setup or any other suggestions will be helpful thank you very much for any input and again sorry for the extremely lengthy post

 

[Joseph_Grey]

Air conditioning is tough. If it is really dry where you are at (and it looks like it might be) you might be able to get by with a swamp cooler. If it is humid they don't work at all. Swamp coolers use way less power.

A black van is going to need way more cooling. I would stick with white just for that fact. But you are right, the stealth aspect of a white van is better as well.

Good luck!

--jg

 

[Twelvehundred56]

Thank your for the tips jg! boy posting from your phone on here is difficult and that autocorrect is annoying! Lol. I will go with white then. Luckily Utah and Arizona are extremely dry climates almost zero humidity. I was looking at some small swamp cooler and I think that would work I guess I am looking for some kind of rechargeable power source separate from the van battery that i can keep in the living space that won't cause a fire or anything or have to wire anything up. not sure what's available as far as that. Any plug in small swamp coolers you would recommend? Also I accidentally made a duplicate post and thread of this not sure how to delete it. Doesn't seem to have an edit mode when I go to it even logged in

 

[Twelvehundred56]

I have decided that a nice cot with a memory foam pad is actually a much better solution than an air mattress for a few reasons.
1. Storage space underneath and lots so I won't have to build a platform that would be work and also add unnecessary weight and therefore probably worse gas mileage
2. Never deflates, I have never had an air mattress that didn't have a slow leak or worse after just a couple weeks of use.
3. The cot folds up into a bag faster than it takes to deflate an air mattress and put it in a bag that is also bigger than the cot bag. 

 Also the cot was more comfy and easier on my back.
I'm still trying to solve the stealth ventilation problem I feel like there is a simple solution that I'm overlooking but all the examples I've seen so far have involved changing the appearance of the van or cutting holes in the floor which seems dangerous for many reasons. Really excited about this van I can already see my minimalist dream inside and will still have space left over so ad not to feel like I'm in a Japanese train pod.

 

[wasanah2]

I have decided that a nice cot with a memory foam pad is actually a much better solution than an air mattress for a few reasons.
1. Storage space underneath and lots so I won't have to build a platform that would be work and also add unnecessary weight and therefore probably worse gas mileage
2. Never deflates, I have never had an air mattress that didn't have a slow leak or worse after just a couple weeks of use.
3. The cot folds up into a bag faster than it takes to deflate an air mattress and put it in a bag that is also bigger than the cot bag. 

 Also the cot was more comfy and easier on my back.
I'm still trying to solve the stealth ventilation problem I feel like there is a simple solution that I'm overlooking but all the examples I've seen so far have involved changing the appearance of the van or cutting holes in the floor which seems dangerous for many reasons. Really excited about this van I can already see my minimalist dream inside and will still have space left over so ad not to feel like I'm in a Japanese train pod.

I use a cot in my van instead of a wood frame build.  I can move it.  I can take it out and put it in a tent.  I have some versatility.  And like you, I find them comfy.  Stuff will fit underneath too. 

I foresaw running into the problem of it being too hot before I did my dry run.  Generally it's thought if you can go to higher elevation, it'll be cooler, or in the woods.  Being in the east, it was easy to go to the National Forest deep woods.  It was way cooler under cover of trees. 

Read all you can and see Bob's videos on Cheap RV Living on the youtube.  You can use no-see-um mesh for your windows to keep bug free and still get ventilation through the windows.  I use an O2 brand battery op fan.  It's about 10 inches tall and runs on 8 D batteries and has a lot of power.  It cools.

Good luck.  The more you read, the more you'll find stuff out.

 

[Cammalu]

There will be plenty of us to read your post! A pro golfer is a first that I've seen here. Seems a van would definitely be a great vehicle for you.

I hope you are able to make it big in your endeavor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Twelvehundred56! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.