Suddenly, so many DIY vandweller youtubers?

[StarliteRambler]

Have you seen the one with the homesteader who is convinced there are creatures watching from the edge of the woods? Looong videos of him splitting wood while hundreds of thousands of his viewers scan the woods behind him looking for ???

People be crazy...

 

[ProfessorChaos]

No arguments with that from me in general, but this guy BSing other van dwellers and wouldbe’s.

This guy is particularly irksome with his clickbait titles and profiting from piggybacking off others content with zero attribution.

He’s trying to be some kind of anti-Bob Wells that discourages people from mobile living. It’s pathetic. He spent all kinds of time talking about the trials of RV living out West but he’s never made it West of the SD badlands...

On his live feed the other night he says that he is going to Arizona this summer to visit the Grand Canyon. I guess he changed his mind.

 

[eDJ_]

This cheap RV Van life and people promoting it started long ago believe me.   Grandad got my Dad this old Ford (a 60 ?) for his first car.  He made an RV of sorts out of it and soon developed a following with it when he went fishing & camping.  It was just a cot in the back and a kitchenette he built out of scrap wood.  He put plywood on the floor and indoor outdoor carpet on that and fitted some extra lighting in the back.  A metal Coleman ice chest, plastic jerry tanks, and a gas stove took care of the rest. 

I inherited it when I was old enough and Dad moved up to an Class C RV.  

Dad schooled me on his methods when he gave it to me.  There was no internet or cell's back then and only YMCA's and campgrounds at the State Parks in my area.  Dad would hit a Gas Station and fill the tank about closing time, buy some Ice, and ask the owner if he could pull into the back of the lot and sleep overnight.  Generally they agreed as they knew he was traveling.  Next morning he would wake up early and unplug his extension cord and put it back in the van. During the night he would fill the jerry's with a short piece of garden hose he carried.   When the owner opened up Dad would use the men's room and wash his face and get a quick shave with his electric razor.   By this time he had made coffee and offered the owner a cup before he departed as a way of  thanking him.    such a different world back then.

Dad wanted to publish a little booklet regarding this way of Van travel he had developed in his time.  Like those little booklets at the Grocery Store Counters that are about 4 X 6 inches and cost .50 cents.  He never did but I got his original notes and produced the two websites below from them.  He carried a couple of Campground Atlases, and a Campers Bible paperback book he bought somewhere.  I came up with the awning idea when I found a pair of ladder racks that looked just like the ones the roof top luggage carrier was built on.  Mom's Dad was an upholsterer and found an old pup tent to scrap out and got some mosquito net and built snap in screens for all the windows and doors.
Dad found a fold down table somewhere and mounted on one of the doors of the kitchenette.   The spare tire was mounted on the rear door and a ladder was mounted to access the luggage rack on the roof to provide more room inside the Van. 

All of this happened a long time ago,  but oddly enough.......there is still plenty of interest in this way of life today.  And with the internet people are going to see a small business market for selling info about it through eCommerce tech.   Today there are forums like this one for homeless people, such as Squat The Planet,  and many of these folks would love to move up to a cheap RV life so they can have a roof over their heads and mobility to go find a better life.

That old Ford Van

Fastenings on the door window

Screen on a rear door window with a zipper so the window latch can be operated without 
removing the screen

Remember, those of us who have modified a Van or other vehicle and have been successful 
with will generally be proud of our work, no matter how humble, and be willing to help others
when we have some time to show and tell.

 

[Sunny1]

.....Remember, those of us who have modified a Van or other vehicle and have been successful 
with will generally be proud of our work, no matter how humble, and be willing to help others
when we have some time to show and tell.

My favorite van life story ever!

 

[eDJ_]

Sunny1,  I'm glad you enjoyed it.  

LOL,  I was thinking Barbie would be jealous of your rig.... myself.   

Granddad had a cattle farm in Texas and was landed,  so camping was about the best he could do.
He had a 12 ft aluminum boat with a 7hp outboard motor he towed behind his old Ford Sedan.   
Dad described it to me as both his boat and camping trailer where he had a canvas cover for the boat
and he would pack it with his Wall Tent, Coleman Stove, ice chest, and camp tools.  The only travel was
to camping and fishing locations he and Grandmother would frequent.  But the Texarkana area had plenty of
lakes and sites for them to enjoy.

Dad was single and had ambitions to build a "Po Boy's camper" (as he called it)  to travel and see his world in.  That red Van had traveled thru most of the Southern and mid Atlantic states before I got it.

In my School Days I found a deal on a small motor boat for a couple hundred dollars and it and the Van were my get away rig.
By the time I was working in my career field I got rid of the boat and purchased a small economy car to tow behind the Van.
Using Granddad's methods with his boat, I packed apartment essentials in the car so I could quickly travel from one division to another of my company and set up on arriving at my new apartment and drive the car to work the next day.  Then unload the Van and have it ready for work if needed by the next day.  

Had I not learned these methods when I was younger I would have been waiting in line in the Corporate bureaucracy for raises and promotions.  It was how I added value to my skill sets with mobility and flexibility.  For it I not only survived but I prospered as well.

 

[jeanmarie]

Everyone thinks they can become the next YouTube star. The trouble is, while most of us do have something to say for ourselves, most people really aren't as deep or creative as they think they are. They say what they have to say, then start repeating themselves or trying to start drama to maintain views.

 

[travelaround]

I've been making mostly Booktube videos on YouTube. After I start traveling, it will be book talk in or near a van. Channel name: Book Lady.

If I make a travel video without books it will go on my Travel Around channel. I will focus more on videos about places.. not the conversion process... though I might include a bit of that since it is part of my story. They won't be how-to videos because I'm an old woman who has never done any woodwork and who expects to do most if not all the work myself - while I'm traveling.

I just like making the videos. It is a fun challenge for my old age, especially as I started out extremely camera shy. I've come a long way since I started YouTube in 2014. Now I can speak to the camera without freaking out.

I also don't care for videos that criticize other video creators. What a waste of time. And I detest click bait, even with vandweller videos. I've seen some that offer something interesting in the title, then you have to wait through 15 minutes of something unrelated (and boring) before they get to the promised info. They're doing that to increase watch time but they've totally lost my interest.

We don't seem to have that problem on the Booktube section of YouTube where everyone is friendly and supportive of other channels, and there's just no clickbait. We want to talk about books... that's it.

I'm not making money with YouTube. I don't qualify and have other income streams. I like the idea that my video archive will probably outlive me and be there for my great-grandchildren to watch, in case they're ever curious to do so. If they do, they'll find out I love books, art and traveling.

By the way, I just brought the van home today. My next great adventure will be putting a floor in it.

 

[jeanmarie]

What bugs me are the ones that mostly just criticize other YouTube channels.

There’s one (Naming names: Little House on the Road) who constantly cites content on other channels and deliberately does not link to or name who he’s referring to, then he distorts, exaggerates and sometimes straight makes up things about what they’re trying to say.

Alright. I went and watch some of Rob's videos. He does seem to be a bit negative. Sometimes, he seems to deliberately do thongs the hard way. But I have to agree with him on one point. Way too many people are telling others, regardless of those others' obvious unsuitability for the lifestyle, to "come on out," no thought or preparation needed! They will deliberately keep selling the dream of a nomadic life as a carefree paradise because that want the Adsense and Patreon money.

I belong to several camping and RV'ing groups online. Most at members show up, all eagerness, and are encouraged by other members to just jump right in. Within a year of actually getting their van/camper/whatever, they are in trouble. People who really could have been successful at it, if they had been told the truth about the need for planning and preparation and discipline,  are broken down and broke along the side of the road, desperately ebegging for money to go home. Then, they are gone.

Nomadic life is not Paradise. It is a lifestyle that, like any other lifestyle, has its satisfactions and its problems. It can be isolating, it can lack stable community support, it is physically and mentally harder than a S&B lifestyle. It may start out as an exciting adventure, but it will eventually becomes mundane, just like any other lifestyle. It will just become normal.

 

[Almost There]

Nomadic life is not Paradise. It is a lifestyle that, like any other lifestyle, has its satisfactions and its problems. It can be isolating, it can lack stable community support, it is physically and mentally harder than a S&B lifestyle. It may start out as an exciting adventure, but it will eventually becomes mundane, just like any other lifestyle. It will just become normal.

I don't watch anyone's YouTube videos so I have no reference point on that. I agree that no one should jump in unprepared. The worst state of unpreparedness that I see is the lack of an emergency fund and lack of the skill sets necessary to thrive on the road. Note I said thrive, not survive, there is a big difference!

BUT, I have to take offense to blanket statements like above for some of us, nomadic life is paradise. It is only as isolating as one chooses to make it. Not all of us need or want a stable community support system and if needed, a wonderful nomadic community support system is there, but one has to take the time and be of a mind that can both give and receive that support. It is not like a S&B support system based on charitable or government funded support institutions, rather is is based on friendship and is not usually of a financial basis.

As to it being physically and mentally harder than an S&B lifestyle, that again is only as difficult or as simple as one chooses to make it. A lot of us are actually physically and mentally more healthy living this nomadic lifestyle than we ever would be when confined to a S&B type living accommodation.

Once again, mundane is only as mundane as one makes it. After 17 years of full-timing, mundane is not even part of my vocabulary. I know people who have been full-time nomads for longer than me and mundane isn't part of their vocabulary either.

Like anything else, a nomadic lifestyle is what each and every one of us makes it. To me, it is MY normal, anything else would be abnormal.

The choice lies within each of us. Please don't generalize like that.

 

[jeanmarie]

^
We agree on the need for financial preparation and probably agree on the need to take skills - both to maintain our systems and to possibly make a living into account.

But I think we are playing word games after that. In my opinion, NO lifestyle is Paradise. You have admitted this by agreeing to the need for an emergency fund. No matter where you go or what you do, Murphy comes with you. As for life being mundane, in the sense that your lifestyle just becomes your everyday normal, every lifestyle becomes mundane.

Yes, there is a nomadic community. But they are often not where you are.. If you sprain your ankle in your S&B, a kind neighbor will probably walk your dog or pick up some groceries for you. If you are out on BLM land, there might be no one around to help you.

As for nomadic life being harder, in an S&B, you flip the switch and you have light. You turn on the faucet and you have water. You flush your toilet and your waste goes away. You change the temperature by turning a little plastic knob. In a van or RV, you deal with these comforts, yourself, on a day to day basis.

For some, this lifestyle is great. For others, it is not. People are not the same. They have different limitations. They also have different delusions about themselves. In his last video, Rob mentioned on 87 year old in poor health who had decided he or she wanted to Live the Dream as a rebellion against the inevitable. This person was being encouraged to just go for it. Crazy! I live around retirement communities. By the time most people are in their late 80's they should not even by driving, much less be trying to build out a van or be behind the wheel of a several ton RV.