My apartment renewal’s coming up, and I’ve been looking into #vanlife minus the nomadic portions since a having a car was a casualty of the pandemic.
I can park at work unless I need hookups, and a friend’s happy to let me use their address. But I feel like this would be entirely too easy, so I’m sure there must be things hiding in the shadows that others could fill me in on.
Like … this heat.
Chiming in based on some second hand experience passed on from friends who tried van life for varying periods of time. Even with friends willing to let you use their address and driveway, living in such a confined space seems rough if you plan to spend significant amounts of time there. Both of my friends gave up on the idea after less than a year, or two in the longest case. YMMV If you spend most of your time out and about.
I suspect a lot of the info you need isn’t particularly specific to Austin.
Heat is probably the main problem. If you try to keep a van cool with the engine’s AC you’ll go broke on gas and probably repair bills too. Without AC you’re looking at internal temperatures of 120+ on a regular basis.
Yeah, this is just one prong of my feasibility study. Financing costs on used look very reasonable compared to my current rent, to say nothing of what I’m about to hear it’s going up to.
