Roaming Robertsons
Adventurer
Sounds like Pawnee.
Is This Van Stealthy Enough to Stealth Camp With?
- Thread starter Sagan
- Start date
Sounds like Pawnee.
rayra
Expedition Leader
No, what you are talking about is being homeless. The other things are short duration.
but to the original question, that look with a dark tinted big window on the side? might as well put "SURVEILLANCE VAN" on the side of it.
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RememberTheFallen
Explorer
What is so wrong in not owning a house? There are some very sad opinions in here on what this guy is trying to do. Is it affecting you at all? Can the van not be his home so therefore he is not "homeless"?
I would expect a little more freedom of thought from a Devil Dog.
GR8ADV
Explorer
I have to agree. What is the definition of a home beyond ones place of residence. But maybe the title would be better stated, is this stealthy enough to call home.
justbecause
perpetually lost
close, Alabama.
I really hate to see some people doing their best to run off the newbie. Some of yall are striking me as the types who call CPS on people who go camping.
Having known a few people who were genuinely homeless in Boston and some who lived out of vans, a couple of thoughts.
In cities like Boston, there are some pretty crooked towing companies that make a fortune towing vehicles. It's difficult to find any place to park in the city for "free" except for places you're likely to get mugged. If you park someplace that has a sign anywhere that says parking for such and such all others will be towed, don't be surprised when you're towed. These companies will tow vehicles parked legitimately if it's an area with a lot of immigrants. They take advantage of the language barrier. Did I mention crooked? They're usually the same companies that tow for the cops, so don't expect help from them.
I had a friend who rented out a space in a storage garage in an industrial area, and parked his small RV in the garage, and lived in the RV in the garage. Much cheaper than an apartment in that area.
You can start a legitimate business for short money. Some places it's like, $75 for an LLC. Having commercial plates and a name on your van nobody says boo about it and you can park in more places. One of my friends does exactly that and keeps an orange ladder on his roof for the added effect. There's no law that says you have to make a profit in your business, you can just have a business.
$20 a month for a gym membership, and you can go to any of the gyms in the country, and many are opened 24 hours. You have 24 hour access to a shower, and perhaps more importantly, a toilet. On cold nights many of my friends would work out all night just to be inside.
In a pinch, go to a bar, have a couple of drinks, and tell them you're going to leave your car in the parking lot for the night because you don't want to drive home.
Good luck!
In cities like Boston, there are some pretty crooked towing companies that make a fortune towing vehicles. It's difficult to find any place to park in the city for "free" except for places you're likely to get mugged. If you park someplace that has a sign anywhere that says parking for such and such all others will be towed, don't be surprised when you're towed. These companies will tow vehicles parked legitimately if it's an area with a lot of immigrants. They take advantage of the language barrier. Did I mention crooked? They're usually the same companies that tow for the cops, so don't expect help from them.
I had a friend who rented out a space in a storage garage in an industrial area, and parked his small RV in the garage, and lived in the RV in the garage. Much cheaper than an apartment in that area.
You can start a legitimate business for short money. Some places it's like, $75 for an LLC. Having commercial plates and a name on your van nobody says boo about it and you can park in more places. One of my friends does exactly that and keeps an orange ladder on his roof for the added effect. There's no law that says you have to make a profit in your business, you can just have a business.
$20 a month for a gym membership, and you can go to any of the gyms in the country, and many are opened 24 hours. You have 24 hour access to a shower, and perhaps more importantly, a toilet. On cold nights many of my friends would work out all night just to be inside.
In a pinch, go to a bar, have a couple of drinks, and tell them you're going to leave your car in the parking lot for the night because you don't want to drive home.
Good luck!
fog cutter
Adventurer
hah! years ago i joined Pirate thinking i could learn up on rockin' & wrenchin' and other manner of 4X fun. about 3 posts into that community cured me.
but if someone is easily "run off" by a post on an internet forum, perhaps it better to find out now that van-life might not be the right lifestyle choice for them?
just a random thought; i get them all the time.
Last week my kid and I caught a late ferry back from Vancouver Island, not realizing it was Canada's long weekend for August. We'd been out of touch out on the West coast of the island for over a week, kind of clueless. There was no place to camp between the ferry at Tsawassen and the border, so I figured we'd find a motel or a campground back across the border. No such luck. I have no idea what the Hell was going on, but there was NO room at the inn from Blaine to Mt. Vernon, and maybe further. So, we hit the Walmart parking lot in Bellingham, or as my son refers to it, the "saddest campground on Earth". Lots of people living in their cars or vans there, plus RV's and overland rigs and pretty much everything else. Some of them were obviously transient, there for one or two nights like us, some were obviously longer term. To the OP's point, that van would be much less noticeable in the PNW than a lot of things people are living in. Besides Walmart parking lots, which all now seem to have encampments, there is a roaming herd of RV's in the SoDo industrial area of S. Seattle, and another up in the Ravenna/University area. The cops move them along every week or two, but they just move a few blocks and set back up. The SoDo one seems to be something of a mobile neighborhood, actually, with the same vehicles parked next to one another, just on a different block, all season long. Generators running on the sidewalk, awnings set up, the works. That van wouldn't even hit the radar in those areas.
escadventure
Adventurer
Wow, that's pretty stupid... It doesn't have anything to do with being a bum. Sounds like the OP, like some others, aren't being led like sheep into the 'dept up to your eyeballs' lifestyle that most people are forfeiting their happiness for.
The success of it certainly depends on the location. I hope you make it work.
The success of it certainly depends on the location. I hope you make it work.
aequitas3
I'm a truck…
Step 1: commercial plates
Step 2: add official looking decals
Step 3: carry on with your life.
Not mine:
Reference:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/sets/42365/
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Step 2: add official looking decals
Step 3: carry on with your life.
Not mine:
Reference:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/sets/42365/
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
KevinsMap
Adventurer
In general, I approve of your reasoning, and commend your emphasis on non-residential property. But even if you do not fall into the group I am about to highlight, I would ask you, and everyone here, to consider a problem.
What problem? I have a good friend who lives in a slightly rough neighborhood, a port industrial area interwoven with a very large, old and established residential neighborhood. As a single lady living alone, she gets along just fine by being streetwise, aware and cautious. However, one of her chronic problems is camping - call it what you will - on her neighborhood streets. This goes on for days, even weeks. She gets the police involved as often as can be done, but ask yourself, "why should she have to do this?". Her neighborhood is a mix of industrial and residential, true, but the residents call it "Home".
And that gets to the heart of the hostility you may encounter; you are not a true neighbor. Forget about the issue of who pays taxes or rent. The residents of a neighborhood are invested in that place. It is home. Their homes are not mobile, and they value their sense of solidity... of their walls, their door, their small patch of this earth. For many, it is all they have.
A camper can, and will, just pick up and leave if things start going downhill in the neighborhood. There is no investment in that place. A camper is a visitor, and visitors need an invitation... or they are perceived as a threat.
That is Human Nature. You cannot rationalize that away, at least, not in any way that will matter to a neighborhood. Certainly you cannot do so, to any of those vulnerable people (and the world is filled with such souls) who wonder who the blazes you are, and why you are living on their street... uninvited. Why should they pay, with anxiety or fear, for your freedom?
Hopefully the OP is very aware of this. I would like to think so.
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fog cutter
Adventurer
perhaps change their currency to understanding & compassion?
KevinsMap
Adventurer
And why should you ask this of them, when they are the vulnerable, the weak? They fear such people. What do those you defend give, that they should make demands upon such people?
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