live in truck?

How do you do it?

I'm trying to save money like Homeless Firefighter on YouTube
Apartments here are $2500. No thanks
If you don't know, cool, I'll go ask on Expedition Portal or something.

I lived in a car before for a month. It was great.
The Tacoma has more room

Only thing I can't figure out right now is food.
Back then? I did it. $200/mo = $6-7/day. Bread, nuts, whey powder, bread, salad, sandwiches/wraps, coupons, fruit/veg like bananas apples etc - all quick easy simple stuff
daily multivitamin, maybe protein bars - I forget what else
But that was during a cut down to 170. Which worked. Goal was to eat enough protein to keep muscle, but not enough to build it.

I'm not bulking now but definitely trying to get stronger.
Can do 20 strict pull ups @ BW185, want to do 30.
Squat 225x20 ATG, but want to get better with 315+
Benching 225x7 but want to do more.
Point is, achieving that probably requires good protein macros. AKA thriving, not surviving.
AKA chicken, salmon, and steak.

Is there a solution for that?
I'm thinking it will require
-solar panel
-dometic fridge, powered by solar panel, always running
-finding a place/way and tools to cook + wash utensils

 

I think you should do that ....... Whats this got to do with anything?

 

There's camping, and there's living in the truck. One style has tent deployed, the other is to find public parking and sleep incognito. Two completely different lifestyles.

I do have to say that one month doing anything is great. I've done business trips that lasted three months; in college I had a class that required living in a tent for 6 weeks. After about a month, it starts to grind. After about three months is when reality hits. Three months of showering in truck stops and gyms, then driving across the street to start laundry, all the while trying to figure out a reasonable non-barfly way of maintaining a social life...thats an open invite to depression-town if you aren't careful.

All I can say is that its doable, but beware of the mental decline. If it were me personally, I'd rather use my time in a car to tour the country and find a town more suited to my budget.

 

they have built vans + overland rigs and may know more about self sustainment

you have a point. Been there done that. Moved somewhere where an apartment was $600. It was also 100+ degrees with less of everything. Less opportunity, pay, things to do, etc.

Yes for sure at one point touring the country would be incredible but unfortunately for now my work is stationary and not remote with only some time off so there isn’t so much of different state every month.

Showers would be easy because there’s a lot of them including at the gym. As well as clothes working in a uniform that has laundry service, aside from laundromat for street/personal clothes.
Could even wake up with a run and cold ocean swim which would be amazing.
It’s just nutrition that’s the hard part

Definitely easier and more room to trade/sell for a van but would mean giving up a stealth capable off road rig for something big, more obvious, harder to park, and potentially more expensive

 

good refs.

Pickup Truck Camping: Ultimate Guide to Outfitting & Living in a Canopy (desktodirtbag.com)

Boondocker's Bible - Learn the Skills of Free Camping (boondockersbible.com)

 

If you have the sense of humor that Homeless Firefighter has make sure you set up a YouTube channel as well for us to follow.

 

I don't plan to live in my vehicle other than camping or adventure trips, but yes Solar panel, and some way to store perishable food would be my concerns. In fact you may even be able to get a hot plate to cook/heat up water with.

I recently bought a plug in cooler, solar panel and battery pack, I haven't used it outside of screwing around at home yet, but I am very confident that will take care of my cold food needs while camping or traveling.

 

Train and prepare yourself so you can get a better paying job. Second, move out of SoCal where the cost of living is one of the most expensive in the US. Then you can live a normal life in a dwelling. If you really like and enjoy living full time in basically a 4’x6’ box with zero convenience’s like bathroom, shower, kitchen, plumbing, electricity etc. etc. then go for it. If that’s what you want to do, then it’s all good.

 

So your planning to live in your truck or on top of it?

 

Either in the bed with a shell, or cab with passenger seat removed and turned into a bed

that is one option I’m looking at. A number of jobs have a few months of training to get to 100-200k/yr.

Bathroom and shower is easy; they are publicly available. As is Wi-Fi.
Not sure if a solar panel can be wired and battery for electricity storage for charging devices.
It’s the kitchen/cooking/meal prep/food storage that’s posing a challenge to figure out

I otherwise have some obligations in the area for the time being and reason to stay but yes in the future in general/down the road would be great to live somewhere else normal

that’s definitely an idea. I think we all want a YouTube channel for the supplemental income

you heard of OnlyFans?
quick ball pic every now and again could be $15k/mo

 

Depending on what your current starter battery is you could do a 100w solar panel (Renogy seems to be best bang for your buck from what I've read) + a simple MPPT to keep it topped off. You've got much more sun in SoCal than I do in Wisconsin so this might be possible but I'm not pretending to know for sure.

If you go 2nd battery there are 1,000 ways to skin that cat. I'll be doing a LiFEPO4 setup in mine soon with a DC/DC charger for future fridge and camera/drone/laptop/etc power when offgrid but might be overkill for you.

Definitely get a fridge. Definitely I would say a necessity if you like fresh foods. For me fruits & veggies keep my mental health positive so for that alone it's worth it to me.

Food: You seem to already know about nutrition. Hard-boiled eggs are cheap and keep for a long time, can be cooked on a propane camp stove. Beans of course are cheap. Both are loaded with protein. Fridge gives you option for milk, cheese, or anything else you can dream of.

Food prep: This might depend more on where you are doing your cooking. I don't know how SoCal rolls with that, probably depends on your specific location. Parked on a busy city street? Probably get lots of crazy looks, hard to pack up and run away from people looking to gank on a brother. Parked on side street or doing cooking in a park? No sweat. Coleman stove and some 1lb bottles and go to town. Pots and pans from Goodwill work just fine for car camping/cooking.

If you don't like the idea of a stove look into "cold soaking". That is how long-distance hikers and backpackers do it. You have to get creative but it's possible. Quinoa is a good protein option here (have to wash it first though).

Good luck man, shake off the haters telling you blah blah blah live in a house. Like yeah of course we thought of that, duh. Worst case you save a pile of cash and have cool stories about that one time you lived the van life.

 

Lentils

/thread

 

get a camper shell

 

https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-pro-portable-power-station

No extra wiring, just hook up the solar panel and charge it.

 

I make 6 figures in socal which is lower middle class and literally half my check goes to taxes, 401k and insurance. Unless you have dual income even making 130k is hard to buy a decent home in a decent area in socal. Few of my coworkers pay 3k a month in rent so i can see where the op is coming from.

Back to the op your 1st step is to get a camper shell if you don't have one

 

A van, even a minivan, gives you a lot more options. Some can be quite off-roadable, within reason of course. I've done a month on more than one occasion, out of my trucks and a VW camper I used to own, and, especially on this coast, the lack of space gets old quickly. Being younger, smaller and more flexible helps, especially if you've beat up your body over the years. The newer fridges are a lot more efficient than the older ones and with a house battery and a solar panel you shouldn't have any problems. An insulating cover (some manufacturers make them) or blanket will help keep it cooler, obviously make sure you don't obstruct the vents in any way.

Eggs don't have to be refrigerated, especially if you can get them fresh. When you buy meat, ask the butcher for the stuff that's still frozen if you need it to last longer. You can get a good variety of fish and other meats that don't have to be refrigerated (foil packs and canned) but it's expensive for the quantity (and often quality).

I expect that being in California with so many homeless everywhere you won't stand out that much. Not a fan of removing the passenger seat and sleeping in the cab (I tried it with a VW Bug and an FJ-40), but it's doable if you can figure out a way to block out the windows for privacy. I miss my Westy (I'd restored mine but they're still slow and quirky) and keep thinking about buying an Econoline and building out what I want.

 

I would get a small, used travel trailer. Like 17’ You have a table you can sit upright at and play cards, a bed that doesn’t need to be folded up and down constantly, a small kitchen and a washroom. Living in the truck half the time you will just be moving things around to make space for the next chore.

 

If you live in your truck, you are essentially "homeless". Some of the more progressive communities in SoCal offer some pretty significant benefits to the homeless - food, lodging, healthcare, etc. Hell, you may come to embrace the homeless lifestyle, and ditch your truck for a Safeway cart......

 

Got to check out a camping setup today; it was pretty nice
battery, DC DC converter to charge it while driving, to power a Dometic that can run for a while off that even in hot temps

This guy gets it

How about a softopper?
They're pretty well insulated

Food stamps are $200/mo and require approx sub-$1k/mo income (no job) to qualify. Same for healthcare (Medi-Cal)

There's already 10% ceramic tint so even without any kind of shades it's still pretty private

Is the bear leaving to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, etc.?
Because word on the street is Californians have already ruined those states as well