So out here in Los Angeles, there is a growing trend of millennials taking to the vanlife to cope with high rents -- a subject I happen to be intimately familiar with. I have been vanning it up for over two years, and I ran a van rental business by putting mattress equipped minivans on Airbnb for about a year.
For at least a year, I was a proud vanlord. The official outfit of a vanlord is a red velvet robe, crocs with knee-high socks, a Burger King crown, and a scepter crafted from a radio antenna with a tennis ball on it (In case you wanted to know).
With the advent of good co-working spaces and gym memberships, there are some of us who are out here hustling on their business ideas who realize, "I don't really need an apartment, I have a bunch of other places I hang out.. what I really need is just a nice cheap place to sleep."
A big plus if that place can be near whatever you want it to be near -- location, location, location.
And so the vanlife is born!
The ultimate way to skip the commute and be frugal with your rental dollars.
I'm considering doing an extensive post about vanny and the vanlife. It's just going to take a little time to do it.
For now, I'll just talk about some of the basics of what's in a good urban vanlife van.
Get a newer van that doesn't look weird
The goal of a good urban camper van is to be unremarkable. Don't get an RV. Don't get something with a high roof. Don't get something rusty and weird looking from 20 years ago. The goal is to have a van that people say "Oh, someone must be working on something" and walk right on by without a second thought.
For this purpose, any post-2005 clean looking work van will do. Either a Ford Econoline or a Chevy Express. If you want to be fancy and get a newer Dodge Ramvan, by all means. In my case, vanny is a 2012 Chevy Express that I acquired from another vanlifer who had already applied some pretty cool fixins to it.
Queen size bed
To make this thing comfortable, you absolutely don't want to compromise your sleep situation. Your average work van is totally capable of housing a Queen size bed. Take advantage of this.
Windows optional
You don't really want windows, they just make you paranoid, because you probably are going to have lights and stuff in your van, and the last thing you want to do is be changing and realize that you forgot to close a curtain and there's a well lit version of naked you visible from outside the van.
Ceiling vent
The fantastic fan is necessary for ventilating the back of the van. This requires actually cutting a hole in the roof to install it. Totally worth it though
Solar panels
It's pretty easy to put a solar panel and some car batteries in the back of the van and set yourself up to charge phones, laptops, and run some nice LED lights in the back of the van. Definitely do this.
Hardwood floors
It's pretty cheap to set this up, and it has an odd psychological effect of making the space feel cooler and a bit higher class and slightly ironic.
Forget cooking
Seriously, you just saved your entire rent check. Eat out more and don't make your sleeping space smell like food. This is LA.
If you're interested in hearing more about what I've learned in the last 2 years of vanning it up full time, let me know. I'm totally interested in posting more about this, just not sure how much interest there may be in hearing about it from the community. Let me know! Totally glad to generate photos, video, and offer vanlife insights.
You've got some great insights for stealthing. Our budget and diets require us to make food 95% of the time, so a kitchen was a must, and so our Rialta was a compromise on something we could stealthily use, and still have enough space for two and be able to make feel like a home.
If I was solo, I think choose a similar setup to yourself. What are some of your favorite places to stay around LA, e.g. best neighborhoods? Do you have any idea how much longer you'll be living the vanlife?
I'm definitely interested in this topic, and I think a lot of other folks will be too, the larger the user base grows. It seems folks our age are realizing this lifestyle as a viable mid-term option, and a great way to accomplish unique things that others cannot.
-Onward Indian
Hmmm. Yeah, I can totally see that adding a second person drives up the need for space.
You know what was actually another contributing factor that probably got me into vanlifing was that I was living on Soylent at the time. So I just had a case of that under the bed.
Playa Vista is great for it. Lots of unregulated parking in the neighborhoods just north of the airport.
Venice is the classic place for it... but it's too much of the wrong kind of vanlife...
Lately I've been staying around downtown. I've found an outdoor long term lot that's cheap enough. And then I have a OneWheel that I use to get around. It's been pretty great.
Soylent...is that real, like Soylent green from Futurama?
I know LA made some new regulations last year, basically to mess people up who have no home and must live in their vehicle. Have you encountered any issues with that?
We got to roll through LA last year, but we have a friend in Studio City, and we were able to pull into his yard, it was cool, it looked like the set of a 90's sitcom.
I know downtown can be a bit rough in different areas, has that been an issue for you? Appreciate the correspondence on your experiences.
Also, Venice seems like it would be lots of fun, but seems difficult to find spots consistently, and I guess by wrong kind of van life you're referring to some sort of ne'r do well populous of stoned out skateboarders...
Haha.. yeah, Soylent is a real and thriving company, last I checked, anyways.
https://www.soylent.com/
I, personally, have never come into contact with police or anyone for that matter hassling me about my vanlife activities. And it has been about 2 years.
The best parking situations I've found have been in Playa Vista where there are still lots of middle class residential areas with very little parking regulation -- many areas don't even have street sweeping.
Downtown has changed dramatically in the past 5 years or so. There are still some seedy elements to be found, but nowhere near as many as you might think.
Venice is difficult because of the tight parking and also just that generally seedy boardwalk. Cool to visit when you want to see some silliness, but just not a day-in day-out kind of place I want to be, in my opinion.