Skyrocketing fuel costs have van lifers concerned. Here are 5 reasons why this may be the BEST thing to happen to your van life dream.

[JeepLiving]

I'm old enough to have lived through multiple periods of economic upheaval starting with the gas shortages in the 1970s. It's never pleasant but the only thing that can make it threatening is giving in to panic. They always pass sooner (usually) or later. Temporary adjustments to lifestyle may be needed sometimes, whether that means limiting travel for a while due to high gas prices or substituting paper towels for toilet paper for a few weeks due to panic buying and hoarding.

Unfortunately, there are way too many posters on social media that enjoy the drama of treating every little blip like it's a prelude to the End Times.

Remember, "The Dude abides."

 

[scaredycat72]

So if I understand this correctly you can move back and forth every 14 days on BLM land. Is that correct or wrong? It looks like you don't need a third spot if I'm reading this properly. That's good news if that's is the case.

That's how I read it. You can do 14 days at one spot, go the required number of miles away for 14 days, and then come back for 14 days. Rinse and repeat as nauseam.

 

[bpdchief]

So if I understand this correctly you can move back and forth every 14 days on BLM land. Is that correct or wrong? It looks like you don't need a third spot if I'm reading this properly. That's good news if that's is the case.

BLM (unless they have changed the rules this year) require you to move a reasonable distance every 14 days - a reasonable distance used to be considered 20 miles. If you were at Plomosa/ Hi Jolly/ Quartzsite you could move to Ehrenberg or down to KOFA toward Yuma etc... Hi Jolly to Plomosa wouldn't be right (you probably wouldn't get caught but rules are there for a reason).

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

"Dispersed camping is allowed on public land for a period not to exceed 14 days within a 28 consecutive day period. The 28 day period begins when a camper initially occupies a specific location on public lands. The 14 day limit may be reached either through a number of separate visits or through 14 days of continuous overnight occupation during the 28 day period. After the 14th day of occupation, the camper must move outside of a 25 mile radius of the previous location until the 29th day since the initial occupation.

You will be a couple of days short for moving between two spots. The 14th day you leave one site will be the first day on the second site so at the end of the second 14th day stay you will have been only 27 days away from the first location.

I doubt anyone is watching that closely unless you really piss off a ranger.

 

[gizmotron]

I doubt anyone is watching that closely unless you really piss off a ranger.

Let's try a watch and see . You arrive at destination X at 10:00am on the 1st of the month and leave on the 15 at 10:00am. That's exactly 14 days. You arrive at destination Y on the 15th at 11:00am and stay until the 29th. On the 29th you leave destination Y at 11:00am. You arrive at destination X at 12 noon on the 29th. Each place you stayed exactly 14 days. It works for me if you do the math. It just comes down to the time it takes to drive between sites.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

You arrive at destination X at 10:00am on the 1st of the month and leave on the 15 at 10:00am. That's exactly 14 days.

That is 15 days. Day 1 is the day you occupy the site.
The 1st is your first day, the 14th is you 14th day.

You arrive at destination Y on the 15th at 11:00am and stay until the 29th.

Again 15 days at the site.

 

[AmargosaWayne]

You will be a couple of days short for moving between two spots. The 14th day you leave one site will be the first day on the second site so at the end of the second 14th day stay you will have been only 27 days away from the first location.

I doubt anyone is watching that closely unless you really piss off a ranger.

If you vacate on Day 14 you will have only stayed 13 nights.

I had a NF ranger approach me after someone had made a complaint that I had overstayed, it was a nice spot. I explained, "last night was my thirteenth night, tonight will be my fourteenth night, and I will be leaving tomorrow." His response, "Oh, then you know about the 14 day rule." His interest in me waned at that point.

I went through this exercise years ago, setting up a spreadsheet to be used for trip planning. Had forum members telling me that I was crazy when I mentioned that there was something off about the 14 day rule. Change "day" to "night" and it becomes clear.

For example, arrive on March 1. After 14 nights it will be March 15. You have not violated spacetime.

Second site goes from March 15 to March 29.

March 29 is 28 days after arriving on March 1. You may safely move back to site 1 after 28 days, on March 29. No filler required.

You arrive on Day 1, spend your first night, and wake up on day 2, then spend your second night. Rinse, repeat until you wake up on Day 15 after your 14th night.

Day 15 becomes Day 1 when you arrive at the second site. Rinse, repeat.

If you are in IT you could call the first day Day Zero, then you would vacate on Day 14. The day you arrive doesn't count. The clock starts with the first night.

The regs were poorly written using "days" instead of "nights". The nights between the days is the important commodity that has to be limited.

As I said before, at this point in time, they are not going to spend a sizable portion of their limited budgets on the red tape required for changing one word for another.

 

[gizmotron]

Again 15 days at the site.

OK, then I agree with you. You are one place for 15 days and 15 at the other. So that adds up to 30 days. The last time I checked 30 days is more than 28 days. This is starting to add up like paying the rent on time in an Abbot & Costello skit.

 

[gizmotron]

Heck, I don't care. I can go into my "who's on first" routine if the ranger is puzzled.

The part I like the most is that you only need two places about 25 miles apart and not three. That changes trip planning a great deal for me because I thought you needed three.

 

[GntlStone]

Throw in a night at a rest stop or WallyWorld and you're good to go?

 

[bullfrog]

Staying a night in a truck stop, Cracker Barrel or for us as we have tanks to dump and fill and enjoy a nice long hot shower after two weeks of conserving water, a cheap full hookup spot at a park works well. Usually showers and dump fees come close to park space fees plus you can get a good full charge on your batteries in 24 hours. A trip to town for a day allows you to do the laundry or catch up on required maintenance while in town as well without having to rush to a new camp and set up in the dark. When we had a travel day every two weeks especially when we were tenting a cheap nearby motel or AirBnb allowed us to arrive late and sleep in the next day and still get to the new campsite and set up before dark without so much stress.

 

[gizmotron]

Well I would only do this two week thing if I was trying not to travel. I stay at casinos and hit RV parks that will take an overnight for a self contained conversion van once in a while. I have to move every two or three days as I'm a player. But that's where my gas and a few meals come from. It's a way to stay on the coast in the hot summer at no cost. I use the RV parks to top off my batteries, dump stations, and to fill water tanks. A lot of places that won't take you for extended stays will take you for one night. And it's all on the casinos. This works great for the southwest in the winter too. There are at least 50 casinos to go to outside of Nevada that have overnight parking for players for free near the west coast. I can follow the sun, work on my music, and take advantage of a small take from not trying to get rich and greedy. That's the secret.

 

[scaredycat72]

You will be a couple of days short for moving between two spots. The 14th day you leave one site will be the first day on the second site so at the end of the second 14th day stay you will have been only 27 days away from the first location.

I doubt anyone is watching that closely unless you really piss off a ranger.

That's only 2 places. You don't have to leave until the 15th day. The 15th day at the 2nd site would be the 29th day for the 1st site.

 

[Marcos989A]

I was going to become a supporting member until my post in this thread was deleted by a moderator. Take notice new forum owners.
Let me rephrase my deleted post. There is nothing good about rising gas prices. Nothing. Nothing at all

Objectively false and I disagree.
My career in the worldwide exploration of oil\gas is only (generally) funded when the international wholesale price of these resources allows it (~>US$70 p/BO and\or CF). My employment is directly affected. I and hundreds of thousands of people have worked little since 2015; ~175k in Houston alone.
Furthermore, rising prices are a function of capitalism and healthy market economies., now if you don't support those so be it. Of course, OPEC distorts the equation.

 

[peteg59]

While I'm not as well travelled as many, I've never heard anyone say they've been asked to leave a BLM site for violating the "14 day rule".
In this day and age of budget cuts in governmental agencies, I doubt campers are being watched that intensely.
What good would it do the BLM, they don't impose fines on anyone who would violate although they might have authority to do so???

 

[Marcos989A]

If you vacate on Day 14 you will have only stayed 13 nights.

I had a NF ranger approach me after someone had made a complaint that I had overstayed, it was a nice spot. I explained, "last night was my thirteenth night, tonight will be my fourteenth night, and I will be leaving tomorrow." His response, "Oh, then you know about the 14 day rule." His interest in me waned at that point.

I went through this exercise years ago, setting up a spreadsheet to be used for trip planning. Had forum members telling me that I was crazy when I mentioned that there was something off about the 14 day rule. Change "day" to "night" and it becomes clear.

For example, arrive on March 1. After 14 nights it will be March 15. You have not violated spacetime.

Second site goes from March 15 to March 29.

March 29 is 28 days after arriving on March 1. You may safely move back to site 1 after 28 days, on March 29. No filler required.

You arrive on Day 1, spend your first night, and wake up on day 2, then spend your second night. Rinse, repeat until you wake up on Day 15 after your 14th night.

Day 15 becomes Day 1 when you arrive at the second site. Rinse, repeat.

If you are in IT you could call the first day Day Zero, then you would vacate on Day 14. The day you arrive doesn't count. The clock starts with the first night.

The regs were poorly written using "days" instead of "nights". The nights between the days is the important commodity that has to be limited.

As I said before, at this point in time, they are not going to spend a sizable portion of their limited budgets on the red tape required for changing one word for another.

I think I will make a chart to be displayed in the windshield showing day/time of arrival and planned departure day'time saving personal interaction.

 

[hugemoth]

Several years ago the county sheriff issued $75 citations to a group of campers near Bouse Az. The campers stayed in the same place on BLM land for several months every winter. Those campers left and I never saw them again. The business owners in Bouse made it known that they were not pleased about loosing business and I have not heard of anyone being cited since.

 

[user 423]

Enforcement varies all over the map (he..he). Where I camped in the Gila NF in western NM last summer people were staying 3 weeks or more. I was there a lot in July and Aug. for 4-5 days at a time. It was a free NF campground and I never saw a ranger.

 

[Hollwire]

Hey, my first Youtube video sucked so bad that they weren't even crewel enough to put me out my misery. But I never took it down just as a reminder where I started from.

Sting, just to show I'm a good sport about these videos, here is my first ever YouTube video. You can tell why I don't do that many. I'm going to put out music videos without any talking.

I quite like this.

 

[MotorVation]

Objectively false and I disagree.
My career in the worldwide exploration of oil\gas is only (generally) funded when the international wholesale price of these resources allows it (~>US$70 p/BO and\or CF). My employment is directly affected. I and hundreds of thousands of people have worked little since 2015; ~175k in Houston alone.
Furthermore, rising prices are a function of capitalism and healthy market economies., now if you don't support those so be it. Of course, OPEC distorts the equation.

I'm not in the least bit interested in transferring money from my pocket into yours. LOL