Knocking Vanlife

[Buc22]

Comparing sleeping in an RV versus hotel tells this me the author never slept in a tent. A better comparion should be tent versus RV.

[Vee and Zeekie]

OMG, that first article is hilarious!

[Jfhowes]

This story didn’t show what the writer thought it would show. I just makes him look bad. It’s like a person who says that he’s heard that baseball is a fun game. He decides to play it and finds that the rules are complicated, it’s hard to hit the ball, it hard to throw the ball and hard to catch the ball. He’s gives up after one inning and says, “Baseball is not for me! I can’t imagine why anyone would want to play this stupid game!”

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by jon

I don't think it was a "hit" job. I think she was an inexperienced person expecting too much from a class B. I can relate to the heater problem. My gas heater is not very reliable. It usually takes two tries to start. Sometimes more. If she didn't know to try more than once. Or, maybe she had less than 1/4 tank of fuel. My Ford Transit's extra fuel tap seems to be above the 1/4 mark and more than once I've forgotten that.

I'm not knocking Webasto or Espar fuel heaters but they're not like electric push button heaters. I carry one of those too.

I read the article a while ago and and just thought she must be a newbie.

It was not a women, it was a man writing those articles and if you search he is insider.com's assigned writer on Vanlife and tiny homes and he had written several articles prior including reviews on vans and vanlife. If not a hit, it was a preconceived agenda about what he would write about and a bit disingenuous.

[jon]

Originally Posted by Davydd

It was not a women, it was a man writing those articles and if you search he is insider.com's assigned writer on Vanlife and tiny homes and he had written several articles prior including reviews on vans and vanlife. If not a hit, it was a preconceived agenda about what he would write about and a bit disingenuous.

Oops. That's what I get for checking in every couple of weeks and not paying close attention to the threads. I remember reading an article that showed a couple of women a van for the weekend and assumed this was about that story. Maybe my memory is not 100% accurate.
Sorry Davydd I won't let it happen again.

[Mark0819]

I'm not usually a contrarian, but with the explosion of interest, getting out, getting away, getting decent campgrounds, campsites, hell, almost everything has been getting more and more difficult. So, if our author succeeds in convincing a few folks to stay away, so much the better

[VocalVirgo]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Ok I came across two articles with some overlap and a person renting a camper van and attempting to winter camp and boondock. Since the writer says he covers tiny homes and van life I would assume he would be more familiar with van life than he makes it out to be and is writing in hyperbole with a preconceived article agenda.

I tried living in a luxury camper van for a weekend during the winter, and I’ll never do it again

I spent a night in camper van in a Cracker Barrel parking lot, and the experience revealed a surprising side of the van life movement

The latter article reminded me of our stay at a Cracker Barrel in the winter in Gallup, NM exactly 5 years ago to this day in 0ºF. temperature arriving after the restaurant closed and waking up with the garbage truck emptying a dumpster. Only we didn't have any problems.

I read the full write up from the guy who says vanlife is terrible. He contradicted himself so many times… First he says the van was so huge he refused to drive it, then he said it was so tiny there’s no way to live in it. Most of the issues that he had with the unit are honestly because the person who rented it to him did not explain well enough how the systems worked, and on top of that he has never been in an RV in his life. He assumed since they were solar panels on top he would have power all the time. As it turns out, he never turned on the inverter and that’s why he didn’t have power. He went on and on and made a complaint after complaint. I was almost embarrassed for him reading the article. I feel like That article was written just to slow down the van life. The whole time I was reading it I felt like it was purposefully written to discourage people from doing the van life.
Another point to make, I really feel like the owner of the van did this guy and the entire van community a huge disservice. If for nothing else, telling someone who knows nothing about van life to “just turn the kitchen stove burners on for heat“ was a stupid and dangerous thing to have him do.

I’ve never scuba dived before. Is there anyone who is willing to give me some scuba diving equipment and I’ll use it for the weekend and write my review, LOL.

[Nic7320]

Wait. Are you sure Frank Olito's articles weren't sponsored by Cracker Barrel... just to discourage all the people that don't belong there???

And where is the link? I could muster up some schadenfreude right now.

(Now insert a bad joke about white privilege at... cracker barrel).

[mangomike]

A little amusing ,,,, complaning about getting a "free spot" for the night.
Takes all kinfs
m

[Rocinante]

Gotta say, jumping in with both feet and no idea what they were doing was probably the worst way to try camping anywhere in an RV of any sort, much less while renting a home-brew camper van. OTOH, if these articles convince a few people to think a little more deeply before doing the same, that's probably a good thing.

[PleasantonMac]

Originally Posted by Jfhowes

This story didn’t show what the writer thought it would show. I just makes him look bad. It’s like a person who says that he’s heard that baseball is a fun game. He decides to play it and finds that the rules are complicated, it’s hard to hit the ball, it hard to throw the ball and hard to catch the ball. He’s gives up after one inning and says, “Baseball is not for me! I can’t imagine why anyone would want to play this stupid game!”

Originally Posted by VocalVirgo

I’ve never scuba dived before. Is there anyone who is willing to give me some scuba diving equipment and I’ll use it for the weekend and write my review, LOL.

Those are both pretty accurate summations! I guarantee you this, when I do get my rig, the first place I'm gonna take it is to my driveway, where I'll boondock and learn, 10 feet from my bedroom, wifi router, and espresso machine. Then, my first excursion will be to the dump station a few miles away. THEN I'll think about taking it down the coast or something.

Originally Posted by VocalVirgo

He contradicted himself so many times… First he says the van was so huge he refused to drive it, then he said it was so tiny there’s no way to live in it.

OK, in all fairness, both of those statements can be true. I bought a Sprinter 19 (PW Ascent), but I fully recognize that it'll make a great day-trip vehicle for us but will not be a vehicle for multi-night sleeping in (for us).

[Doctor Old]

This article came up in my news feed when it came out. The writer was such a putz that I actually wrote him to tell him so. What a disservice he does to potential RVers.

[VocalVirgo]

Originally Posted by Doctor Old

This article came up in my news feed when it came out. The writer was such a putz that I actually wrote him to tell him so. What a disservice he does to potential RVers.

I have to say, I'm OK with what you did. He made us look bad and it was a disservice to folks who don't know much about RV'ing- but want to. His irresponsible write-up probably scared a few people to decide not to. And that is indeed a shame.

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by Buc22

Comparing sleeping in an RV versus hotel tells this me the author never slept in a tent. A better comparion should be tent versus RV.

The military ruined the fun of camping out in a tent! But before the military came into my life, as a kid I camped out while growing up south of Buffalo NY. We were always out in the woods hiking or skiing during the winter time. My Roadteck serves as a cheap motel room, and it is much better than some motels I've stayed in.

[mlts22]

I read the two articles. They reeked of a smug, provincial urbanite who made a token attempt, then wrote how bad something was without actually putting much effort into it. The articles really verge on just outright trolling.

I could systematically disassemble all the article writer's talking points, but I just don't feel like feeding the trolls. All I can say is that learning to have a van work is isn't hard... but just something new, and if one doesn't want to learn, that is their problem.