# old vans as rooms



## dimensionx

Has anyone ever lived in a van before? I have heard you can get them as cheap as 400 dollars then tow it somewhere to live in it. Extra room could be added to a homestead by parking a van up and connecting it.


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## M.Bailey

What kind of van? Like those HUGE ones with the curtains in the windows and storage room on top or like an old VW Van?


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## Big B

Box vans and or buses, delivery vans, with blown or removed motors, are free, you pay the cost of towing. 
I have set them up on concrete blocks before, they work fine, just leave the tires on, no problem.


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## PorkChop

dimensionx said:


> Has anyone ever lived in a van before? I have heard you can get them as cheap as 400 dollars then tow it somewhere to live in it. Extra room could be added to a homestead by parking a van up and connecting it.


I did for a few months in 1993. It was some of the best days of my life. It was never meant as a permanent home though.


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## N8EPE

In the early 70's I lived in a 1965 VW camper for 5 months. Cruised up and down the east coast. The best summer I ever had, what a blast.


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## Gordo

> Box vans and or buses, delivery vans, with blown or removed motors, are free, you pay the cost of towing.


Where can I get them?


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## hitech_hick

Gordo said:


> Where can I get them?


Look around locally for vehicles that seem to be collecting dust, can also try craigslist...

hick


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## beethoven

Do you think there are any rules against building a residence out of welded together cars?


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## BlackPaladin

beethoven said:


> Do you think there are any rules against building a residence out of welded together cars?


My instinct tells me there are, but each municipality is different. Believe me, when someone sees what you're doing, you'll find out one way or the other real quick!


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## mcbob

Perfect solution for anybody owning river frontage, wanting to perfectly embody Chris Farley characters


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## solaceofwinter

kinda off topic but i saw a van the other day with a window airconditioner in the back window wired up. It was kinda funny to see.
id imagine you could easily live in on especially if it was just yourself. im not sure how you would heat it though. guess whatever you chose it wouldnt take much of.


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## dukman

I don't see why you can't use a box van to live in... Just make sure you have proper ventilation. A family was killed up here last year because they used a propane heater on a very cold night without proper ventilation.


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## The_Blob

OT, but... you can usually find the older, smaller mobile homes for free (you haul), if you have the land, a few of those placed together can make a nice place to live.

the people involved make a home... everything else is just property


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## Canadian

I used to work at a car dealership and we sold a lot of cube vans. One of them was left unlocked and a homeless couple moved into it. They had a bed and couch in there. It was also full of garbage. The salesman threw the back gate up on the cube and there they were bare ass naked. It was a hot summer day.

The customer didn't buy the cube van.


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## The_Blob

Canadian said:


> It was also full of garbage. The salesman threw the back gate up on the cube and there they were bare ass naked. It was a hot summer day.
> 
> The customer didn't buy the cube van.


but WHY???


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## Magus

The_Blob said:


> but WHY???


I'm guessing the poo bucket.LOL


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## ke4sky

*Wind break only, colder than a deep freeze.*

I can tell you from experience that a snow cave insulated with pine needle thatch and heated with only a candle lantern is warmer during blizzard conditions than trying to camp in your car, huddling in a GI wool blanket having the window cracked an inch for ventilation while trying to run the engine for the heater. A metal van body is a wind break only and isn't much better than no shelter at all.


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## dukman

ke4sky said:


> I can tell you from experience that a snow cave insulated with pine needle thatch and heated with only a candle lantern is warmer during blizzard conditions than trying to camp in your car, huddling in a GI wool blanket having the window cracked an inch for ventilation while trying to run the engine for the heater. A metal van body is a wind break only and isn't much better than no shelter at all.


Good point, but the OP didn't say where he is from. If you are in TX you really don't have to worry about the snow as much... but then again, it can get super hot in there as well.


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## Canadian

I'm pretty sure you can fill all of the void spaces in between the panels and gaps with expanding foam insulation. You could also spray foam the underside as well. It wouldn't cost that much to "insulate" any vehicle. And spray foam in expanded for isn't very heavy.


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## Glendale

That is a hilarious story, Canadian! Too funny!
And yeah....why wouldn't they want the van?? LOL

I'm sure there are some sort of rules for living in box cars or what have you....after all, there are rules for everything!!!


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## sailaway

*van living*

my friend lived in a Dodge Tradesman for over a year in Key West. Rent was a thousand a month, so he just moved it around. It had no windows so the authorities never knew he was in there. He would go to the public beach and shower with the other street people and tourists.


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## Canadian

I considered renting a parking space and living in a van during university. Instead of paying rent I'd make a car payment monthly and pay for the space rental. In an indoor garage heat really isn't much of a problem and the campus had all the facilities you'd ever need. It would really just be a place to sleep and of course it would be transportation as well. 

As it turned out I got accepted to a school a few blocks from my folks house and they invited me to stay there - which turned out to be even cheaper.


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## doc66

Check this site out. It's all about living in vehicles and how people manage to live day to day lives in vans and even cars. I've read through it and some of it's pretty informative.


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## james_black

*my first post!!*

Sorry to ressurect an old thread but I have experience in this subject. Me and my wife lived in Idaho and moved to Las Vegas on a ford e250 econo. I got it for free from my ex who bought has a project but she never finished. We bought sleeping bags, duffel bags and 2 of those plastic 3 drawers containers from walmart. I got large rubbermaid containers with camping gear in it (food, propane stoves, lamps, etc). We also have tools for minor repairs. I have a mossberg shotgun and a glock 22 for protection. For entretainment we bought a portable dvd player and got 10 movies from our collection. And then we left. When we arrived to Las Vegas we slept in Walmart parking lots with the other campers. We used the walmart bathrooms or convenient stores. For showers..we join a golds gym. We used to workout 1 hr a day in the morning then we shower and shave etc. We did laundry at a local laundromant. You have no idea how much I miss that. The freedom and independence of it. I was making 12 dollar p/h. Got paid weekly. Didn't have mortage or rent. Didn't have car payments. We only had 1 credit card debt. Now I'm unemployed, 
broke, with rent, car payments and 5 max out credit cards. Lol. I will trade everything I have just to go back and live in that van once again.


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## allen_idaho

I still have a 1978 Chevy conversion van which I used to use all the time for camping or long road trips to the oregon coast. However, it doesn't get used much nowadays due to gas prices. A 350 V8 really burns through the fuel. And it can cost around $80 to fill up the tank. 

It has a couch which folds down into a bed, a hand pump sink, a refrigerator, an overhead lighting system, swiveling captain's chairs in front and back, and 2 removable tables.

Over the years, the van has sort of fallen apart a bit but it's still in pretty good shape. I would just roll open the sliding side door, set up a tarp, and do my cooking outside. Viola, one home away from home.


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## glenntwo

*class b motorhome*

I use an old Ford class B motor home in my job. Works great for traveling up and down the East Coast all summer, then in winter I just drive it back down south where we live, and me and the wife use it at the beach on weekends. It has a built in head/shower, sink, stove and fridge, as well as a pull out double size bed up top and a fold out couch below. I wouldn't want to try to sleep four people in it, but when I live/work alone in it, or when we take it out for weekends, it's perfect. The gas mileage sucks, since it weighs 8000+ lbs. but I can park it on city streets at night, crawl in back and go to sleep, wake up and motor on over to work in the morning, and no one even knows I was ever there

The only downside to her is not having a generator, but other than that she's great. I do have an inverter installed to power things like my laptop and coffee maker off the house battery. I just load her up with fuel, water, food and beer, and I'm usually good to go for about a week in the wilds of urban America, and when I need to reload, head to the nearest truck stop, dump the tanks, re-fill and do it all over again. When it's hot I find a shady spot to park her, and when it's cold I just grab an extra comforter out of the back closet. As long as I don't get crazy and overload her with stuff I don't need. make an effort to keep her neat and clean every morning, as well as keep her sound mechanically, she treats me real well. She does have AC and a furnace, but without shore power or a generator the AC is useless. And, unless it gets below zero wherever I'm at, I doubt I'll ever use the furnace. It's likely that at some point I will tear out the furnace and install a small generator in its place and hook it up to the propane tank underneath. I also wish it was a diesel, for obvious reasons, but you can't have everything, so you make do.

At 19' she's so small and non-descript that no one realizes I'm even there. We call her the "cardboard box", since in one town I work in, I usually park her under a freeway overpass about 2 blocks from where I work. In the time I have had her, I've gotten one parking ticket, and that only was because I let a meter expire. Other than that, not one single problem with the law or anyone else snooping around her. When I have to leave her, I just pull the curtains and lock her up and leave her in a parking lot full of cars. When I have to fly home for a few days, I just leave her in the long-term lot at the airport.

It takes a little getting used to, especially if you are used to being in hotels or if you live in a normal house most of the time, but if you get a good reliable vehicle, keep her running good, keep her clean every day, and don't fill her up with junk, she's perfectly capable of giving you good, if not luxurious shelter for an extended period of time. I've spent most of the last seven months in her, only getting out to fly home about once every six weeks.

Some of the main things to look for: Low mileage (most of these things hover in the 50K-125K range, so the closer to 50K the better), good interior mechanical/electrical (working plumbing, stove fridge, etc.), and most of all, NO LEAKS. Mine is an '89, so I expect, and deal with minor problems as they arise, but overall, after getting a few major things done to her when I bought her, such as a new exhaust, shocks, alternator and batteries (engine and house), I have not had any problems that I lost any sleep over. Over the winter, when I don't work and have free time, I'll spend a little time mending some minor wear spots in the upholstery, as well as adding on a few toys like a CB, sat-radio, flat-screen TV, as well as the genset. GPS I have on my cel, so I just plug it into the dash lighter and I can get anywhere. Since I got a really good deal on her and she has low mileage, I figure she's worth some of the upgrades in creature comforts.

One person, traveling around looking for work or a new place to settle down in could do much worse. You could literally make your way across the country, stopping periodically to pick up odd cash jobs along the way. Many years ago, I was in that position and wish to hell I would have thought of a solution like this then.

Can't post a pic, but if you google "Intervec class B" you'll get a good idea of what I am talking about.


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## NaeKid

glenntwo said:


> Can't post a pic, but if you google "Intervec class B" you'll get a good idea of what I am talking about.


I figured I would take a peak at it .. looks like a fairly nice "non-descript" home on wheels .. people really wouldn't look twice at it .. :2thumb:

:google:


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## glenntwo

They don't. I have had people I work with come looking for me out in the parking lot, only to come back to me later saying they didn't see a motor home out there, so they figured I had taken off somewhere. Everyone looks at it and sees a van, and goes looking for something else entirely different.


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