transporterjr
IsLost
Relative to a motorhome, you are "doing it" with less.
In my humble opinion, less is more! Anyone else agree?
- Thread starter The Wanderer
- Start date
762X39
Explorer
Why does it matter if you do it with less? Are you a better human? I think there is room for all of us. I hate these pi$%^ng contests. Why is it a sin that you bring your wife and or kids along and have a few more amenities and suddenly you are not a real traveler or something? I paid my dues freezing at night and traveling lite on my Cannondale Touring Bicycle, now that I am older and can afford a few creature comforts (although when I am scouting new spots I still sleep in discomfort in my truck with a military surplus bag) I don't feel less a traveler or explorer (If I have not been to the area before I consider it exploring). Rant Off...
transporterjr
IsLost
Not a pissing contest see the OP's title of thread : In my humble opinion, less is more! Anyone else agree? You don't agree - fine move on.
762X39
Explorer
I feel better now.Rant Off...
NMC_EXP
Explorer
Antoine De Saint-Exupery agreed with you:
"Perfection is finally attained, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
-- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
“He who would travel happily must travel light.”
~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Scott Brady
Founder
Agree
I couldn't agree more.... I think back to why I've wanted an expedition vehicle, camper etc or more fancy gear and it was always so I could spend more time exploring the wilderness. Turns out I spend more time working, building, designing stuff than getting out there. The most memorable trips were also the ones with a lot less to lug around... With my backpack. Im working on a new chinook + lx450 but i do feel myself starting to want a little bigger. The desire to add new things is endless and I don't think its always rational. Some of the big rigs are cool but unless it is your house for most of the year its not an option for me. I'd rather have the flexibility to wander around backcountry roads not restricted to staring into all the 5th wheel camps...
I couldn't agree more.... I think back to why I've wanted an expedition vehicle, camper etc or more fancy gear and it was always so I could spend more time exploring the wilderness. Turns out I spend more time working, building, designing stuff than getting out there. The most memorable trips were also the ones with a lot less to lug around... With my backpack. Im working on a new chinook + lx450 but i do feel myself starting to want a little bigger. The desire to add new things is endless and I don't think its always rational. Some of the big rigs are cool but unless it is your house for most of the year its not an option for me. I'd rather have the flexibility to wander around backcountry roads not restricted to staring into all the 5th wheel camps...
NeverEnough
Adventurer
Don't get me wrong, I love to build things- it's a different kind of adventure, but it's adventure all the same. But my best outdoor adventures have always been those that allow the greatest freedom of movement, whether on foot or on wheels, which is why I tend to prefer just two of each!
whatcharterboat
Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
I couldn't agree more either. Regards John.
transporterjr
IsLost
Yeah anybody fight the decision : I only have "x" amount of vacation time, should I take a vehicle-based trip, bike tour, back pack, or kayak camp? (never mind, pain the house, finish that trim work, etc.)
I have my VW Westfalia and see posts about great road trips and think "I really should use this thing more", but then I tell myself, "I keep saying I want to bike / backpack / kayak more".
One idea is a combination - take my camper van, but take a big day hike every day, sleep in the van, move to the next trail head the next morning and repeat. I could do that with the bike too, but bike touring is such a great way to travel.
I have my VW Westfalia and see posts about great road trips and think "I really should use this thing more", but then I tell myself, "I keep saying I want to bike / backpack / kayak more".
One idea is a combination - take my camper van, but take a big day hike every day, sleep in the van, move to the next trail head the next morning and repeat. I could do that with the bike too, but bike touring is such a great way to travel.
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
I just got sick and tired of "projects". I spent 50 hours working on the project for every 1 hour I actually used it.
My son was a horseman when he was younger, and came to the same conclusion when he was 14 - he spent 4 hours mucking out stalls and grooming horses and cleaning tack for every hour he spent in the saddle.
Not worth it.
When I was raising my son, I finally settled on an old VW Westy pop-top. We kept it in the driveway, fully stocked except for food. All we had to do when we had some spare time, was hop in the Westy, hit a market on the way out of town to get some food and drinks and go. Setting up camp was simple - deploy a Coleman stove on the campsite picnic bench and set the icechest out on the ground.
Of course, I did put a fresh engine in the Westy, but only because I got the van dirt cheap due to a blown motor. Once I got it in reliable running condition, no other mods were even contemplated.
Nowadays, just for myself, I use a Class B camper van with an old Yamaha Enduro hanging off the back for puttering around on.
But if I were gonna do a RTW and spend a few years "gone bush", I'd want something bigger and better equipped. I'm just too bloody old and spoiled to enjoy the adventure of crapping in the bushes.
My son was a horseman when he was younger, and came to the same conclusion when he was 14 - he spent 4 hours mucking out stalls and grooming horses and cleaning tack for every hour he spent in the saddle.
Not worth it.
When I was raising my son, I finally settled on an old VW Westy pop-top. We kept it in the driveway, fully stocked except for food. All we had to do when we had some spare time, was hop in the Westy, hit a market on the way out of town to get some food and drinks and go. Setting up camp was simple - deploy a Coleman stove on the campsite picnic bench and set the icechest out on the ground.
Of course, I did put a fresh engine in the Westy, but only because I got the van dirt cheap due to a blown motor. Once I got it in reliable running condition, no other mods were even contemplated.
Nowadays, just for myself, I use a Class B camper van with an old Yamaha Enduro hanging off the back for puttering around on.
But if I were gonna do a RTW and spend a few years "gone bush", I'd want something bigger and better equipped. I'm just too bloody old and spoiled to enjoy the adventure of crapping in the bushes.
climbingxj
New member
I like this thread.
Overall I agree that less is more, but I think that there's a time to expand just a little bit.
I was just thinking about it, and I've spent several months (maybe four-ish?) living out of the back of an SUV over the last five years on various climbing/hiking/skiing trips. I've really enjoyed the minimalism, but there's a few things that have always wound up being a bit of a hassle, and I've decided that it was time to build a small 7 by 10 trailer to remove the hassle. I won't be taking any more stuff than I would have before, but now I'll have a rolling base camp with a basic kitchen and bed that will take some the hassle out of camping and make it easier to stay organized. I think there's a place for this, just like there's a place for carrying everything in a 50L pack, and a place for fitting everything in a 9L pack (I've done both...). Sometimes having a simple trailer/camper will allow you to better enjoy the places you visit. My wife and I will be spending about four weeks on the road this summer, and for us, less time spent dealing with the campsite hassles we've dealt with for years means more time to climb and hike. Having a simple trailer sounds like a win. And if we want to go somewhere the trailer can't, we can always park it, load up the jeep and head out. No biggie.
That being said, I think that there's a point at which things get out of hand. There's RV's that are more luxurious than my house... That's a little out of hand.
Oh, and I agree with others who have commented about how getting married reduces how spartan you can live. For most of my single life I could fit all I owned in the back of my 4-runner and later my jeep, and most of that was outdoor gear there was a period where I was living large and needed the smallest u-haul around to pack everything up when I would move. Now that I'm married, I can't see living that light again. I don't think this is bad, it's just a stage of life thing. Excess crap is bad, however more people in a family = more necessary stuff.
Overall I agree that less is more, but I think that there's a time to expand just a little bit.
I was just thinking about it, and I've spent several months (maybe four-ish?) living out of the back of an SUV over the last five years on various climbing/hiking/skiing trips. I've really enjoyed the minimalism, but there's a few things that have always wound up being a bit of a hassle, and I've decided that it was time to build a small 7 by 10 trailer to remove the hassle. I won't be taking any more stuff than I would have before, but now I'll have a rolling base camp with a basic kitchen and bed that will take some the hassle out of camping and make it easier to stay organized. I think there's a place for this, just like there's a place for carrying everything in a 50L pack, and a place for fitting everything in a 9L pack (I've done both...). Sometimes having a simple trailer/camper will allow you to better enjoy the places you visit. My wife and I will be spending about four weeks on the road this summer, and for us, less time spent dealing with the campsite hassles we've dealt with for years means more time to climb and hike. Having a simple trailer sounds like a win. And if we want to go somewhere the trailer can't, we can always park it, load up the jeep and head out. No biggie.
That being said, I think that there's a point at which things get out of hand. There's RV's that are more luxurious than my house... That's a little out of hand.
Oh, and I agree with others who have commented about how getting married reduces how spartan you can live. For most of my single life I could fit all I owned in the back of my 4-runner and later my jeep, and most of that was outdoor gear
there was a period where I was living large and needed the smallest u-haul around to pack everything up when I would move. Now that I'm married, I can't see living that light again. I don't think this is bad, it's just a stage of life thing. Excess crap is bad, however more people in a family = more necessary stuff.
Iain_U1250
Explorer
I've travelled and camped since I got my licence, my second car was a Nissan panel van and I travelled around southern Africa with it. I've drive over 50,000km with my Land Rovers with a roof top tent in Australia. I find that when the weather is good, when the roads are good, you don't need much to be happy. Life is easy, nothing to stress about and both my wife and I are happy.
When the roads or weather turn bad, then things get a bit more difficult. Camping with a tent for a weekend when it's raining all the time is pretty miserable, if it looks like it's going to rain for a week, we move on or head home. Setting up a tent every night and then packing up each morning is tedious. We then got a roof top tent and can set-up i pitch dark in 10 minutes. Packing up takes about 25 minutes. My Defender can go most places, have a reasonable range and is pretty comfortable. We have about 30,000km of camping trip over the past two years. There are quite a few time we have had to stay in a hotel for a night or two just to get some sleep. 30km winds, heavy rain, all make living outside your vehicle pretty miserable.
If you want to travel in remote areas, you need a capable vehicle. We drove down the Birdsville track after the floods, it was pretty stressful wondering whether you would make it through the next water crossing or get stuck for days. We met a guy who was towing a big caravan up the Birdsville track with a two wheel drive. He made it about half way, then it started to rain. He was there for two months - not my idea of fun. Diff locks and bigger MT tyres make the difference to me between hoping you will get through, worrying constantly about getting stuck or being confident most of the time and just enjoying the trip. We have found the limitations of our Land Rover. On our last trip we had our inflatable canoe and outboard, it took up a lot of room and added another 60kg. We were staying in a remote national park - 350km from the nearest fuel in any direction and it had about 200km of tracks to explore. Spending a week there we had to be careful with water, could not drive everywhere we wanted as we did not have enough fuel and just the fact that the Land Rover was very heavily loaded so we had to be extra careful not to break anything.
Each time we take a trip, we think of the things that we absolutely need, what we can do without, and what would just make it nicer.
I'm building a truck for travelling in Australia and then a round the world trip. My Unimog will be have a lot of luxuries by most people standards. We have a latex mattress on a slatted base, it's more comfortable than the on in my bedroom, we have hot water to wash and shower, filters for drinking water that filter out all bacteria and viruses, a fridge and a freezer to keep food fresh. We have space for all sorts of clothing, for all weather. The camper is insulated and heated for temps down to -20 degree C. It is important for us to have a comfortable weatherproof camper that we can park up in the middle of a storm and have a good meal and comfortable nights sleep. We will have a Nespresso machine for coffee, bread maker, nice chairs and tables for living outside when we can, nice chairs and table for inside when we have to. We can carry out boat with us, stay for two or more weeks without re-supply,
We want to drive in very remote place in Australia by ourselves. We don't want to worry about getting stuck all the time, we want a 1500km range, we don't want to worry about fuel range or lack of water. We want lots of ground clearance, to be able to drive through 4 ft of water without worrying, we want something that rides well on corrugations. We want something that can handle poor quality fuel without worrying, something that is designed to be off-road for hundreds of thousands of km. We are willing to put up with driving a truck, it might be a bit noisier than the Land Rover (I've added loads to sound and heat insulation so maybe not) it will be slow, it will use a lot more fuel, and it also costs a lot and has taken 4 years to build. I've enjoyed building it, I can maintain everything on and we have still travelled extensively whist still building it
Could we make do with a lot less, but why "make do" when you can be comfortable, why have to forgo driving down a remote track just because of lack of fuel or supplies or because the road looks a bit bumpy or the river crossing a bit deep We want to carry our boat, kite surfing equipment, bicycles, tent and hiking gear. Why be miserable just because it's cold and wet, living on the road is a lot different from a camping trip for a week or two.
The OP said he found he needed less and less each trip. We might not need much, but we've added the things we want and will leave behind the thing we don't want.
When the roads or weather turn bad, then things get a bit more difficult. Camping with a tent for a weekend when it's raining all the time is pretty miserable, if it looks like it's going to rain for a week, we move on or head home. Setting up a tent every night and then packing up each morning is tedious. We then got a roof top tent and can set-up i pitch dark in 10 minutes. Packing up takes about 25 minutes. My Defender can go most places, have a reasonable range and is pretty comfortable. We have about 30,000km of camping trip over the past two years. There are quite a few time we have had to stay in a hotel for a night or two just to get some sleep. 30km winds, heavy rain, all make living outside your vehicle pretty miserable.
If you want to travel in remote areas, you need a capable vehicle. We drove down the Birdsville track after the floods, it was pretty stressful wondering whether you would make it through the next water crossing or get stuck for days. We met a guy who was towing a big caravan up the Birdsville track with a two wheel drive. He made it about half way, then it started to rain. He was there for two months - not my idea of fun. Diff locks and bigger MT tyres make the difference to me between hoping you will get through, worrying constantly about getting stuck or being confident most of the time and just enjoying the trip. We have found the limitations of our Land Rover. On our last trip we had our inflatable canoe and outboard, it took up a lot of room and added another 60kg. We were staying in a remote national park - 350km from the nearest fuel in any direction and it had about 200km of tracks to explore. Spending a week there we had to be careful with water, could not drive everywhere we wanted as we did not have enough fuel and just the fact that the Land Rover was very heavily loaded so we had to be extra careful not to break anything.
Each time we take a trip, we think of the things that we absolutely need, what we can do without, and what would just make it nicer.
I'm building a truck for travelling in Australia and then a round the world trip. My Unimog will be have a lot of luxuries by most people standards. We have a latex mattress on a slatted base, it's more comfortable than the on in my bedroom, we have hot water to wash and shower, filters for drinking water that filter out all bacteria and viruses, a fridge and a freezer to keep food fresh. We have space for all sorts of clothing, for all weather. The camper is insulated and heated for temps down to -20 degree C. It is important for us to have a comfortable weatherproof camper that we can park up in the middle of a storm and have a good meal and comfortable nights sleep. We will have a Nespresso machine for coffee, bread maker, nice chairs and tables for living outside when we can, nice chairs and table for inside when we have to. We can carry out boat with us, stay for two or more weeks without re-supply,
We want to drive in very remote place in Australia by ourselves. We don't want to worry about getting stuck all the time, we want a 1500km range, we don't want to worry about fuel range or lack of water. We want lots of ground clearance, to be able to drive through 4 ft of water without worrying, we want something that rides well on corrugations. We want something that can handle poor quality fuel without worrying, something that is designed to be off-road for hundreds of thousands of km. We are willing to put up with driving a truck, it might be a bit noisier than the Land Rover (I've added loads to sound and heat insulation so maybe not) it will be slow, it will use a lot more fuel, and it also costs a lot and has taken 4 years to build. I've enjoyed building it, I can maintain everything on and we have still travelled extensively whist still building it
Could we make do with a lot less, but why "make do" when you can be comfortable, why have to forgo driving down a remote track just because of lack of fuel or supplies or because the road looks a bit bumpy or the river crossing a bit deep We want to carry our boat, kite surfing equipment, bicycles, tent and hiking gear. Why be miserable just because it's cold and wet, living on the road is a lot different from a camping trip for a week or two.
The OP said he found he needed less and less each trip. We might not need much, but we've added the things we want and will leave behind the thing we don't want.
daddyusmaximus
Explorer
I also like the idea of KISS. My travels, when they start, (still building my truck) will be lone get-aways. Can't get the wife to go, unless it's glamping. I am building my truck up so that it will be all I need. Got used to living off vehicles in the Army. I like the idea of "Get in, start up, and go... stop, stretch out, and go to sleep." What makes me wonder about the KISS method is bad weather. Don't get me wrong, I love watching lightning and hearing thunder, "God's fireworks" but I hate getting wet when I'm trying to get some sleep. Bad weather had always made me miserable. I've "camped" on tanks, trucks, on the ground... but I had to because I was preforming some type of mission. Now retired, I still want to travel, but for my own enjoyment. I wanna be comfy. My Idea of KISS is my truck with a rain proof topper, sleeping platform with storage under. (nothing new there) My platform, however, will have a real mattress on it. My teenage daughter graduated to a bigger bed, and I have a perfectly good twin size mattress waiting for me. KISS is easy, but a good night's sleep is too good to pass up.
KISS, sure... thin foam sleeping pad on wet ground, think not.
KISS, sure... thin foam sleeping pad on wet ground, think not.
