7 Negatives Of Living On The Road

1. Hygiene

Whether you’re living in an RV or a van, staying clean can be a challenge. In RV’s you are limited to the size of your water tank and your holding tank. Most holding tanks are about 40 gallons. By the time you use water to do dishes and cook your food, brush your teeth, wash your face and do your hair, there isn’t much left to take showers. My usually routine was to take a shower every other day. Even at that, I had to refill my water and dump my tanks every seven days or so. If I pushed things, I might get that closer to two weeks, but then you’re cutting back on other things. It’s a constant give and take that needs to be addressed.

When it comes to living in a van, it’s even more difficult. I learned to do what I call bucket showers. I used a dedicated five gallon bucket and filled it with water from some source (parks, gas stations, local businesses, even laundry-mats). I would then use my Coleman stove and pan to heat up the water. Essentially, I would take a scoop of water out of the bucket, bring it to a boil, dump it back into the bucket, and repeat until the water was as hot as I wanted it. The downside is you’re parked somewhere, trying to hide from the public. If I was close to the public, usually on some dark side street, I would keep my underwear on to avoid some charge that would require me to register as a sex offender. Exposing yourself, even if you aren’t trying to, can cause major issues in our modern times. I showed as quickly as I could and got dressed. Besides the worry of taking a bucket bath in a place that someone might drive up to, it was enjoyable. Every dark cloud has a silver lining!

Regardless, staying clean is a major challenge. It’s probably a good idea to invest in a gym membership at Planet Fitness or 24Hour Fitness to avoid those issues.

2. Birds Of A Feather

I enjoy living free and not having to worry about paying rent on the first, month after month. The downside is a lot of other people live this lifestyle due to drug addiction. From the outside it’s hard for the public to see a difference. You inevitably get lumped in with the degenerates. I had a cop knock on my the window of my van one morning asking me if they could help as part of an outreach program. I explained I wasn’t homeless. The public doesn’t take the time to see that I work for a living, clean myself, don’t do drugs or drink, and that I’m as normal as they are… other than the fact I won’t pay a landlord to borrow their property for extremely high prices. The truth is, if you live this lifestyle, you will be grouped up with some of the most despised people in town. You need to have a strong mind to keep from letting that rub off on you. This is mostly true when you stay in urban areas. If you boondock in the sticks, than I doubt you’ll experience too many people to give you weird looks.

3. Breakdowns

You need to keep a really large reserve to cover worse case scenarios. You will break down and it will likely be when you least expect it. It’s one thing to have a break down when you have a house/apartment to go home to. It’s a completely different issue when you live in that vehicle. You need to have enough money saved up to pay for a complete rebuild of your motor or transmission, or to replace an axle or rear differential. Those are jobs that can cost $2,000-$5,000 or more. If you can’t fix it, you might be risking living on the streets. Cops will impound your vehicle if you don’t move it. If you’re living in an RV, you should have AAA towing for RVs. You should have it even if you’re in a van, but a van will cost you a hundred bucks to tow. A RV can cost you $800 or more in some cases. I broke down coming up through the Grapevine (mountains just north of Los Angeles). Thankfully I had towing covered with my AAA. The total for that tow, had I not of had coverage, would have been close to a $1,000. Most RV towing is charged at about $8 per mile. That adds up quickly. Then you still need to fix your RV once you get towed. Be prepared for this or don’t live in your vehicle. It will come back to haunt you.

4. Isolation

You are rarely alone while traveling, but you can still be isolated. When you don’t know the people around you and you haven’t seen your close friends or family in months, it’s common for people to feel lonely. The other side of that coin is the people who are closest to you, will likely not understand the reasons you choose to live like this. Not being able to relate to those closest to you is part of the problem. The best thing you can do is build up a “tribe” of other travelers. I hate that word (tribe), but it does describe what you should do. Having other people who travel and live the lifestyle you do, can offer comfort. The jokes and laughs you can share about the struggles are more funny when the other person gets it. A group I use to spend times with had a running joke. We created names for different type of people living this lifestyle. Someone who is down on their luck, but has a house, was “section 8” (in reference to the government housing program). Someone who had an RV was section 7. A van was section 6. A car was section 5, and if you went down to section 4, that meant you were living in on the streets. It made fun of the struggles we all have living this lifestyle. Not everyone who does this is choosing to live like this. Anyway.. it was a good laugh with people who could relate.

5. Unsolicited Wake Up Calls

It doesn’t happen often, but one of the things that can wear on you is the knock on your door in the middle of the night. It’s rarely done in a way that is respectful. When a cop knocks on your door, they usually bang on your door and startle you awake. It’s often accompanied with a flashlight shining through you windows, with red and blue lights flashing behind you. It’s a miserable way to get woken up. It usually only happens to me about one time per year. Not enough to make living this way undesirable, but enough to constantly have a little stress of the “next time”. If you stay at state or national parks, you will likely not have to worry about this. It is almost exclusively an urban boondocking situation.

6. Power

It’s hard to have enough power to live the same way you would if you had a bricks and sticks house. Even with solar, most people still need to conserve the little power they do generate. I don’t have solar, so I tend to go to Starbucks and charge my laptop, a backup battery pack, my wireless speaker, and my cell phone. If I do that everyday, I can usually last all night without having to use my deep cell batteries. It’s a cheap option. I get most of my electricity needs met and I get all the coffee I can drink for about $3. If I’m out in a more remote area, I don’t have that option. That requires me to either run my van or RV (Whichever I have at the time. I own both.) to recharge my deep cell batteries. I charge my batteries with my alternator. Having solar would help, but even then, you still need to be conservative with your energy demands. You are much more aware of your power needs than you are when you can just plug something in or flip on a switch.

7. Restful Sleep

Sleep can be a challenge when living in a vehicle. There are two primary culprits. The first is street noise. I usually sleep very soundly for the first three hours or so. After that, any noise will wake me up. The homeless guy pushing his shopping cart past your vehicle. The semi truck who sounds like he’s about to sideswipe you because he drove so close to you. The guy who thinks he needs to share his rap music with you at 3am. All these things are a pain and if you stay anywhere near a city, you will deal with all these things and more. The second set of issues is weather. I’m a night person. I like to sleep from about 2am to 10am. The problem is, at 7am or so, the sun starts to rise and the heat rises with it. You will almost certainly not have the option of running an AC unit. This can be solved by parking under large trees that are running east to west. I park on the north side of those trees and in some spots I can stay in the shade all day. It makes sleeping much more enjoyable. Remember, if you live this lifestyle, these aren’t just a day or two worth of problems. This can be an everyday set of issues that you’ll need to adjust to. Not sleeping good for only a day or two will impact your mood and your health. Finding a few good shaded spots you can rotate between will help you sleep more comfortably. I have two spots that are almost under a tree and I can keep cool even on 80+ degree days.

8. Bonus… Pets

If you have pets, you need to consider their needs. While days that reach into the 90’s or higher can be solved by going into a Starbucks, it doesn’t help your pets. They have to stay cool in the vehicle or you must have a backup plan. I have two cats. If the temperatures are expected to be anywhere above 85 degrees (f), I must get them out of the van or RV. In those cases, I have a small carrier that I can put them in. I find a quiet place in the furthers corner of a Starbucks and I put them on a chair. Almost nobody can see them and they stay cool. I hate people who bring their pets into Starbucks, but I won’t let my cats die while dozens of hipsters brings their tiny dogs into the store. You will kill you pets in less than an hour if the heat rises too fast. 85 degrees outside can quickly become 120 degrees inside the van (maybe even hotter than that). If you don’t have access to a Starbucks or something like that, taking your pets to a tree covered park is a good option. This really is a challenge and you need to give this the most thought before you decide to buy a van and get on the road. I’m looking into the idea of using a 12v swamp cooler as an option. It’s called the Turbokool. It is expensive, but might be a good solution for pet owners. If I buy one, I’ll post reviews letting everyone know how it works. If you buy one, please share your experience with me and I’ll share it with my readers.