Van life tips: lessons from living in a van

Dia duit agus fáilte – that’s Irish for hello and welcome – to this RA health and travel blog. I wanted to share our biggest lessons from living in a van full time; hopefully these van life tips will prove useful if/when you decide to embark on your own van life experience.

This post was written in August 2021. We moved into our van six months ago and in that time, we have traveled 14,000 miles, visited 25 states and driven through 3 more. We have skied, hiked, cycled and walked our way across the country, visited 20+ National Parks and sites, climbed 11 high points (read this for more info about US high points) and spent time with most of our US family.

Those are the highlights, the stories everyone wants to hear and experience when van dwelling, right?

In the same six months, we have slept in more than a dozen rest areas, often beside semis whose generators hum all night, made an emergency exit from a parkway and had a 3am wake-up knock from the police. We have run out of power, had one urine accident and pooed in a plastic bag several times.

These are the less romantic tales of living in a van and that is what I wanted to share with you today: the reality of van dwelling and I also want to give you some van life tips from our own experiences.

If you’re thinking about living in a van full time, knowing some of the challenges ahead of time can make your transition smoother. I always tell our kids – don’t make the same mistakes I/we made; learn from ours and go make your own! (Read “Thinking about van life?”)

So here are our top van life mistakes and mishaps; learn from them and go make your own. After all, what is life without adventures, challenges and stumbles?

Before you get to the nitty gritty details, I want to be clear; despite all these lessons from our six months van dwelling, I wouldn’t change a thing. I absolutely love the romance and the reality of living in a van full time and we have no plan to stop anytime soon.

If you are curious what living in a van means, check out this post.

Diesel/gas & getting from here to there

One of the most enticing aspects of living in a van full time is the ability to travel, wherever and whenever you want. Traveling and exploring are certainly in the top reasons we embarked on van life. After the cost of the camper van conversion, travel costs are definitely our biggest expense. I figured it might help to know the true cost of traveling and living in a van full time.

Van life tip #1:

What is the real cost of traveling the US? It is expensive to drive from one side of the country to the other, unless you drive an electric vehicle. When we traveled and camped across the country in our Subaru eight years ago, it seemed we were always stopping to fill up.

Well, we now drive a DIY Sprinter 2500 diesel conversion van, and it still feels like we are always stopping to fill up, the difference now is we are filling a 24-gallon tank instead of an 18-gallon one. Our calculations suggest we get about 20 mpg.

In addition to the diesel, we have to add DEF every 1000 miles and get the oil changed every 15k miles. Oh, and don’t forget insurance, which can be pricey and hard to find, and any navigation apps you might pay for. I did not include the one-time maintenance/repairs we have done or the cost of tires and rotating the tires – those costs are variable and can be very high; van life vehicle tip #2: have a maintenance fund.

When figuring price of diesel, I chose $3.50 as the average cost of a gallon of diesel – it has ranged from over $4 in California to under $3 on occasion in Virginia. (Haha! As I review this post(Sep ’23,) current diesel prices are above $5/gallon)

Costs per 1000 miles = $266:

Remember, your vehicle, driving style and travel itinerary will impact the cost for your van life adventure. The cost of driving is one of the realities of van life that needs to be factored in to your planning.

Vehicle tip #3 from living in a van – get diesel when the opportunity presents itself, even if you have a half tank. When we were out west and in New England, we often struggled to find diesel for way longer than we felt comfortable.

Home is where you park it

I want to call out some of the misrepresentations of van life. #Vanlife is often way more fabulous than van life; social media is probably to blame for many disillusioned van dwellers. Let’s talk about the reality of van life and overnight parking.

First, there will be nights when finding a spot to sleep will be stressful and uncomfortable. In fact, this is Tom’s #1 stressor of living in a van full time. We have been hunting for a safe spot as late as 9pm on occasion. Once, we were in the middle of nowhere, in northeastern California with the next big town almost two hours away. We found a little blip on the map, drove to a 1-horse (or in this case, a 1-bar!) town and parked in the dirt lot outside their tiny school. It worked out well but we were exhausted and stressed from the experience.

We have parked in more than a dozen freeway rest areas, some of which are surprisingly clean, welcoming and/or quiet. But, let’s be honest, sleeping in a rest area is nobody’s idea of the perfect van life. Tip #4: Using rest areas is definitely one of our top van life tips. We use rest areas because they are safe, practical, easy to find and there is no question of whether or not we are allowed to park overnight.

We have had only one middle-of-the-night door knock by the police in the six months that we have been living in a van but we have certainly gone to sleep several nights wondering if we would be woken at 3am. I have to be clear, the police were polite and did not give us a ticket but did ask us to move in the middle of the night. That part was worse than the wake-up call – where were we supposed to go at 3am?

My favorite van life horror story for this particular reality of van life is the night we slept across the road from what was most likely a really busy drug-trading spot. I swear, a car drove up every 5-10 minutes, drivers chatted through their windows, something was passed, the visiting car drove off. I was sure the person doing business would spot us and worried till he closed shop around 2am.

Because I don’t want this whole topic to be a downer, here are photos of some of the free #Insta-perfect overnight spots we have experienced. My favorite spot so far has been an iOverlander selection on the banks of the Shenandoah – right on the river, plenty of easily-accessible parking and a flat area to set up chairs and read or eat. It’s the title picture for this post.

Top three van life tips for free overnight parking: #5: BLM land (mostly in the US west) allows overnight parking, #6: National Forests also allow you to boondock within each location’s restrictions. #7: Apps like iOverlander to help locate good options as well.

The yucky reality of van life

Everyone pees, poos, farts and burps; we all know that. (Some people can even do all at the same time!) We accept this fact because it is mostly kept private. Well, I am breaking the rules so you can avoid our mishaps and know what might be ahead of you if you’re planning to join us on the van life adventure.

Van life tip #8:

One of our first lessons from the road was the necessity to empty the urinal whenever we had the opportunity. Yup! One morning, we woke to find a little trail of urine on the floor; the receptacle had overflowed during the night. If you’re thinking yuck, then I agree! Having had four kids, it’s not the worst thing I’ve cleaned up but I’d rather not repeat the experience.

Now, we carry the urinal into rest area bathrooms or find a porta-potty and dump it on a very regular basis.

Van life tip #9: Decide ahead of time how you want to deal with poo while vandwelling.

Next yucky reality of living full time in a van – where (and how) to poo. We have an Airhead compostable toilet so, in theory, we can poo comfortably in our tiny home on wheels. That said, we use public restrooms – in the grocery store, parks or rest areas. When we had our first “emergency,” we elected to poo into a plastic bag tucked under the toilet seat.

I can hear you now; why bother with a really great compostable toilet if you’re not going to use it? Well, we don’t have to worry about having poo in the van, even if it is composting and the smell is contained. And honestly, pooing in the bag is easy to do and to dispose of. And not at all unusual if you are a hiker or camper!

Tip #10 Just so we can finish this topic on a (slightly) brighter note – remember to empty the grey water tank whenever you have the chance! Yup, another tale of spills and clean up. The good news is that grey water is not particularly disgusting and ours overflowed into the step area and not across the living room floor (à la pee!)

One of the best design elements in the van from a functional perspective is the installation of an electric ball cock on the grey water tank. We are able to open and close it with a switch which allows us to empty the tank as we roll down the freeway. Van life tip #10: Learn from our mishap and empty your grey water as often as possible. Check out our other design tips here.

Van life tips from lessons while driving

Vans are tall; our base height is 9’, install a WeBoost antenna and we’re at 10’8”. We knew that we would no longer be able to go through the drive-through or park in garages but there were a few other lessons from the road waiting for us.

Parking on treelined streets can be a challenge – low branches scratch the sides and roof of the van or we run the risk of knocking the antenna or damaging the solar panels. Van life tip #11: put a height reminder on the dashboard & get in the habit of looking up.

A more challenging and dangerous issue – low bridges. Our first experience with this van life reality came as we were leaving the quaint town of St Genevieve, MO. The GPS took us down a road with a bridge too low for us. We had to back up and make a detour which was easily picked up by the GPS. No big deal but we should have learned from that first experience.

The second time we faced low bridges was much more stressful and caused a one-hour delay, mild anxiety attack and the purchase of a map app specifically for RVs and campervans. Three things we learned from driving the Parkways in Connecticut and three more van life tips for you:

12. Get the campervan map app before you need it. I can now cross check with the Google maps route to see if there might be an issue when driving on smaller roads.
13. Watch for and read the signs on the side of the road VERY carefully. We did not notice the signs as we entered the Parkways and managed to slide under several bridges because they were arched. Then, just when we thought we were in the all clear, we caught a sign that said “passenger cars only” and managed an emergency exit right before the sign that said Low Bridge 6”11.” Yikes!
14. Take a break to recover from nearly beheading your home. We were both a little shaken and stopped to eat, breathe and find the safe route with the newly purchased app!

Managing power & water when van dwelling

When you live full time in a van, you are responsible for your power and water; no more turning on the kettle or faucet without a thought. Our only power source is electricity so I cannot speak to propane; I imagine it’s similar to tracking water usage.

Within just days of moving into the van, as I made breakfast, I learned that I cannot plug in the toaster, kettle and coffee grinder – it shuts down the inverter. It is a lesson I occasionally have to be reminded of.

One night, we were woken by the electric monitor beeping loudly to tell us the batteries were dangerously low on power. Fortunately, we were in a location with an outside electrical box and we plugged in; no damage done to the batteries and they took a full charge. Now, we check how much power we have after dinner just in case we need to turn the van on or drive a little to let the batteries charge from the alternator. For the record, we offered to pay for the electricity we used the following day but they kindly declined.

Van life tip #15: Check your power & water levels regularly

We have a 30-gallon water tank so we don’t have to fill up that often which is probably why we slipped and let the tank empty to 10%. Not an emergency per se, just a little inconvenient and added pressure to find water asap. Fill up water whenever you have the opportunity; it’s sorta like diesel – not available everywhere!

Final thoughts

There you have it – 15 van life tips and ideas to make your full time van dwelling adventures fun and hassle-free.

Before I finish up, I want to share some of the best lessons from the road:

• Time-consuming housekeeping is a thing of the past, as is lawn-mowing, mortgage, utilities and internet costs.
• It is possible to live very comfortably in 84sqft; we have all that we need and most that we want. (I’d occasionally like more space for yoga.)
• This lifestyle is more liberating and exhilarating than I imagined. I can think of no place I’d rather live than in my tiny home on wheels; it is the perfect “for now” home.

I’d love to hear your lessons and realities of van life; please post them in the comments below.