How to Choose a Vehicle
How to choose the vehicle which is right for you.
There are so many choices for a vehicle, where do you start? You start by
asking yourself, "How many creature comforts do I need?" Can you live in a
car, or would the tiny space drive you crazy? Would a van be big enough for
you? Maybe the small space is okay with you, but you must have a hot shower
every day. How many things do you need to carry with you, and where will you
put them? Be brutally honest with yourself, what do you need to live a
contented life? To help you decide how much space you can live in, perform
this simple experiment in your home. Measure the area of the vehicle you are
considering and recreate it on a corner of your home. So if you are thinking
about buying a van and you measured it and found out it is 5 foot by 9 foot,
you would set up that much space in a corner of your house. Make it as
realistic as you can. Use curtains or dividers of some kind. Where will you
sleep? Can you have a dresser? Where will you cook? Can you have a
porta-potti? Then, move in! Live for a month in the space. Sleep there, cook
there, go to the bathroom there! If, after the month, you like living that way,
start looking for a van. If it is too small, go up a size to something like a box
van or truck camper which is 8 foot by 12 foot. After living in that for a
month, how does it feel? If you like it, start looking for one. If not you may
have to go all the way and get an RV.
Another consideration is where will you park? If you have the money to pay
for a RV park then a vehicles ability to stealth camp is not important. But if
you are like most of us and you need to save money with free camping then
stealth is very important. Many cities are making it illegal to sleep in your
vehicle overnight and are enforcing it. If you are parked overnight in an RV
anywhere but in a park, you might as well put out a neon sign that says, "Look
at me, I am parked illegally!" But a car or a van won't draw any undue
attention. A box van, would not be questioned parked outside any store. It
just looks like a delivery van that belongs there.
And what about gas mileage? With a car you may get 50 mpg and with an RV
you may get 5 mpg. Since we are living cheaply, this is a very important
consideration. It's hard to be too specific with mpg numbers. If you buy a
1975 1 ton pickup with a 454, you might get 6 mpg with a camper, but if you
buy a 2005 diesel, you may get 20 mpg with the same camper. If you get a
1985 Ford van with a 460, you may get 6 mpg but if you get a 302 V8 you may
get 22 mpg. Or, even better, get a Astro minivan, you could get 25 mpg.
And finally, what about the initial purchase price? For $2000 or less you can
buy a good used car, van or pickup, but probably not much of an RV. You can
get older travel trailers for that little, but it will probably need work and you
will still need to buy a pickup to pull it. You can buy an RV for $5000 but it will
be quite old and probably need work. $8000 would be a more reasonable
amount to plan to spend for an RV. That extra $3000 to $6000 would be a
nice little savings to cover emergencies in your new life. It would probably
pay for a new engine or transmission if you need one. For many of us, it seems
like we can't save that much money so we have to go with what we can afford.
It all comes down to trade offs. With a car, the initial price is low, the gas
mileage is great, but there is very little space. With a van the space is small,
the gas mileage can be okay but it's cheap to buy and stealth is great. We
each have to decide our own priorities and make our decision based on them.
To help you choose, we have created a table to display the pluses and minuses
of the different vehicles. If saving money by getting good gas mileage is your
top priority look down that column and see which is best. If stealth is your
second priority add the values of the gas mileage and stealth together and
whichever is highest is your best choice.
The number is on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the best, 1 being the worst.
There are so many choices for a vehicle, where do you start? You start by
asking yourself, "How many creature comforts do I need?" Can you live in a
car, or would the tiny space drive you crazy? Would a van be big enough for
you? Maybe the small space is okay with you, but you must have a hot shower
every day. How many things do you need to carry with you, and where will you
put them? Be brutally honest with yourself, what do you need to live a
contented life? To help you decide how much space you can live in, perform
this simple experiment in your home. Measure the area of the vehicle you are
considering and recreate it on a corner of your home. So if you are thinking
about buying a van and you measured it and found out it is 5 foot by 9 foot,
you would set up that much space in a corner of your house. Make it as
realistic as you can. Use curtains or dividers of some kind. Where will you
sleep? Can you have a dresser? Where will you cook? Can you have a
porta-potti? Then, move in! Live for a month in the space. Sleep there, cook
there, go to the bathroom there! If, after the month, you like living that way,
start looking for a van. If it is too small, go up a size to something like a box
van or truck camper which is 8 foot by 12 foot. After living in that for a
month, how does it feel? If you like it, start looking for one. If not you may
have to go all the way and get an RV.
Another consideration is where will you park? If you have the money to pay
for a RV park then a vehicles ability to stealth camp is not important. But if
you are like most of us and you need to save money with free camping then
stealth is very important. Many cities are making it illegal to sleep in your
vehicle overnight and are enforcing it. If you are parked overnight in an RV
anywhere but in a park, you might as well put out a neon sign that says, "Look
at me, I am parked illegally!" But a car or a van won't draw any undue
attention. A box van, would not be questioned parked outside any store. It
just looks like a delivery van that belongs there.
And what about gas mileage? With a car you may get 50 mpg and with an RV
you may get 5 mpg. Since we are living cheaply, this is a very important
consideration. It's hard to be too specific with mpg numbers. If you buy a
1975 1 ton pickup with a 454, you might get 6 mpg with a camper, but if you
buy a 2005 diesel, you may get 20 mpg with the same camper. If you get a
1985 Ford van with a 460, you may get 6 mpg but if you get a 302 V8 you may
get 22 mpg. Or, even better, get a Astro minivan, you could get 25 mpg.
And finally, what about the initial purchase price? For $2000 or less you can
buy a good used car, van or pickup, but probably not much of an RV. You can
get older travel trailers for that little, but it will probably need work and you
will still need to buy a pickup to pull it. You can buy an RV for $5000 but it will
be quite old and probably need work. $8000 would be a more reasonable
amount to plan to spend for an RV. That extra $3000 to $6000 would be a
nice little savings to cover emergencies in your new life. It would probably
pay for a new engine or transmission if you need one. For many of us, it seems
like we can't save that much money so we have to go with what we can afford.
It all comes down to trade offs. With a car, the initial price is low, the gas
mileage is great, but there is very little space. With a van the space is small,
the gas mileage can be okay but it's cheap to buy and stealth is great. We
each have to decide our own priorities and make our decision based on them.
To help you choose, we have created a table to display the pluses and minuses
of the different vehicles. If saving money by getting good gas mileage is your
top priority look down that column and see which is best. If stealth is your
second priority add the values of the gas mileage and stealth together and
whichever is highest is your best choice.
The number is on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the best, 1 being the worst.
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By Bob Wells
If gas mileage and stealth are most important:
- Chevrolet Astro minivan--great mpg and super stealth
If room and stealth are most important:
- Full-size American van, especially the Dodge with a 318 V8
If headroom is most important:
- High-top American conversion van
For a couple, or if you need lots of room:
- Box van or Step-van, both with a diesel engine
If you want to go further into the back-country:
- Pickup with a camper with 4X4
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