#actual van life

[ratisangy]

Realities Of RV Living

I feel this needs to be discussed as sadly it may become more of an option for many people as the cost of living increases. I want to provide a realistic look into this life. Unless you are well off with a luxury RV, what you typically see on social media is not even close to reality.

Traveling and Long Term RV Parks

Ask about rates monthly and compare multiple parks. Make sure to ask if the rate is the same all year long. Also, ask if utilities are included. You can save a lot of money by not having to pay electricity. Some parks don't have one of the main hookups, so make sure eletricity, water and septic are all available.

This is only good when you have a new properly functioning RV. When you live in something older and in bad shape, it means a broken part, packing up your entire life, and finding a new park friendly to long-term stay. I've moved 3 times in 2 and a half years.

The first RV park was $750 a month plus electricity ($100 in summer $200 in winter) and had multiple times were we were without power or had no use of our septic. Many of the times without power it was single digits or in the negatives. We got 120 inches of snow and had to make a homemade rv skirt of a tarp and pack the snow like an igloo around the rv to stay warm.

The second RV park was $350 plus electricity ($150 summer). This park was more affordable but had a lot more issues. Our neighbor had frequent septic issues and we often had it leak onto our rv space. We also were next to the septic for the whole park. So basically the smell of shit was ever present. It got to 110 F here and we basically ran the AC until it broke as heat exhaustion always felt right around the corner.

Third park arguably the nicest park is $550 utilities included only catch is $1200 a month in summer months. (No I don't live in a high value area either most of the town and houses are literally abandoned). It's a franchise park and the owner isn't even supposed to offer long term but deals with it for the insane price he gets in summer. I haven't had issues with electricity or other people's sewage here. Basically one good employment place here and my fiancé gets retirement, so that made it worth the move.

Extreme cold

Frozen septic and frozen water lines are a huge and common issue, especially in older, less insulated models. You can put insulation around the pipes and drip water all you want its going to happen if it's cold enough. So get comfortable with the idea of taking warm buckets of water and a rag to your septic pipe and pouring warm water down into your septic. A smell you will never forget ❤️.

Insulating the rv is very important from being almost 3 years in. Here's the best way to avoid hypothermia. Get R-tech insulation board and stuff it into your windows then cover it up with a blanket. Put this behind your pillows as well so heat can stay in the bed area. Find pre-owned carpets and cut them to fit in your rv so the floor remains warmer. Get socks or cozy slippers to wear most of winter. Your floor will most likely never be a comfortable warm and you may be at risk of hypothermia depending on tempature. Dress in layers put on two pants a shirt and a sweater and socks and slippers. If you need to gloves and a hat as well. Put a blanket over your door. Making a rv skirt out of a tarp and super gluing velcro to the tarp and rv can be useful. Use concrete blocks to hold down the ends. Depending on wind speed this can be hard to keep in place though.

As much as this may sound like a joke it's currently saving me. Xbox 360 consoles make ALOT of heat if you run a DVD that replays itself in the background all night it will warm your sleeping area. If I die I will fade out to the Do The Mario theme song I guess 🥲.

Extreme Heat

Just pump up your AC and have alot of ice packs and cold water. This is going to suck and may kill your AC. The smell oh god the smell will make you want to die. Your septic will boil in the heat and make BAD soup. Less things will break on your RV than extreme cold.

Mail

If your RV park doesn't allow you to get mail at the park its going to suck ass. PO Boxes are the most annoying things on earth. UPS and certain FedEx mail will not deliver to them. Most companies will not ship to them. Even if they say they do. You will often get packages shipped all the way to your post office only for them to be rejected and sent back to the seller. The crapiness is exemplified if you live in a very rural area like I do. Just ship to a family member and pay them to ship it to you in a USPS box only!

RV Common Issues

Too high of water pressure

Get a pressure gage/regulator a park with to high of pressure can cause your lines to burst

Electricity Surges

Get a surge protector a bad surge with no protector can permanently fry your eletricial system. The protector saved me on a bad surge that literally set my plug on fire 🔥.

Eletricity Constriants

Older 30 amps don't have much power. Depending on the appliances you may have to choose to use one at a time. Want to use the heater and your Ninja to cook? Well, enjoy tripping your breaker. In fact just get comfortable with your breaker you'll be spending alot of time with it as you figure out what appliances aren't friends.

Septic

You will spend way to much time with your septic. Whether it be unfreezing, unclogging, general emptying or trying to find a product that doesn't harm it but keeps the smell down during hot summers. Get Scott thousand ply tiolet paper or just cheap thin tiolet paper. It's very similar to the rv specific tiolet paper and way less money.

Water

Pex pipes are cool and easy to repair replace your lines with them. With cold your water lines of course have the chance to freeze or burst. Keep them insulated and use the warm water wash cloth method to unfreeze. Just make sure not to leave wash cloths on the pipes for to long or they will also freeze.

Propane

Please please please check your models history with propane if you plan on using it. Some were built with manufacturing issues that cause them to blow up. There's not many left of my model due to this. It also means I have no central heating or use of the oven.

Laundry

If your park has a laundry mat awesome but this not usually the case. Locate your nearest laundry mat and take that into consideration when looking for a park.

[diioonysus]

animals in art: snakes

[zivazivc]

I came up with Floyd's (other) ex band mates and then I went a little insane about them. . . Anyway they're all alternative trolls who adopted him into their group. They play nu metal at underground gigs but mostly they just go to raves and get stoned out of their gourds.

original photos under the cut

I googled "90s rave photos" and had such a hard time choosing which to draw. i might make more of them in the future...

[otrtbs]

“i wish people still painted like this” while making a dig at modern art… YOU FOOL. YOU BUFOON. YOU IMBECILE. LIKE ???? THEY DOOOOOO THEY. DO.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

pygmalion and galatea for aroace people

you should tell your friends what I look like, riz gukgak.

[dmitryanya]

haven't even been in the fandom a week and im making dumb memes

[halfdeadies]

a life for the king

[barschter000]

broke: Due to his attractiveness, Barok has slept with countless (wo)men.

woke: Despite his attractiveness, Barok is a virgin.

Bespoke: Because of entirely different factors, Barok does not know what sex is.

[jazzkrebber]

I always love seeing how stories write themselves sometimes because how do you go from a fun little heist with queer teens in love all the way to "In the end, he was not Nina or Matthias or Kaz or Inej or Jesper. He was just Wylan Van Eck. He told them everything."

[huntedsmark]

THE FOX a comic about my PC Roma and his relationship with his favorite person in the whole world, Rudolph Van Richten

[ratisangy]

Everytime I hear this song I think of my experiences in an RV

Listen with sound on for full experience

[synthsays]

I can't name a single happy love story from rdr2 no joke

Arthur and Mary ❌️

Hosea and Bessie ❌️

Dutch and Molly ❌️

John and Abigail ❌️

Kieran and Mary-Beth ❌️

Sadie and Jake ❌️

Reverend and Margaret ❌️

Karen and Sean ❌️

Lenny and Jenny ❌️

Dutch and Annabel ❌️

[aquareegia]

i'm 98% sure the vessels all had an emo phase and did not grow out of it. proof for my assumption is that they all wear vans and/or docs. it's also the skinny jeans.

[artifeast]

i hope the van explodes

[harundraws]

taivan post-crash doodle crumbs ❤️‍🔥 like i haven’t been absent for over two months🤭

[hailthegodsong]

holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck daniel wagner has seen my drawing of him im in tears about to combust what the actual FUCK