Whats the biggest mistake you made in vanlife?

Community Resources
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Hi Everyone! I am writing an article for Project Vanlife and would love to know your answers to the question:
“what is the biggest mistake you made in vanlife?”

It could be not making the water tank big enough, not fitting a toilet, not having enough money put aside for repairs, taking your reluctant pets along, filling up with petrol instead of diesel, buying too large a base vehicle, being too confident with doing the fittings, spending all your budget on one specific item, anything that happened that you would consider a mistake!

I would love to hear your stories, good and bad, and if you’d like to, please include your name and/or links to social media so we can link back to you in the article. If you would prefer your answers to be anonymous, that is not a problem either, just let us know in your response! I’m looking for any pitfall that you fell into that we can help a new vanlifer to avoid!

Thanks in advance! Happy vanning!

LizB (Project Vanlife admin)

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Not doing it sooner.

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Greetings & Welcome!

Worst mistakes:

  • cargo vans
  • diesel engines
  • expensive vans or builds
  • somebody else’s DIY build
  • newer vans depreciate in value quickly
  • roof vents
  • solar panels
  • expensive batteries
  • any flavor of lithium batteries
  • sliding slat beds
  • 12v compressor fridges
  • having to build floor/walls/ceiling
  • no toilet/shower
  • plumbing that can freeze
  • insufficient or inefficient ventilation & climate control, or ones that require power
  • lack of a generator & battery charger
  • propane
  • anything complicated or expensive
  • all the bad advice from promoters & newbies with no experience repeating the promoter’s & influencer’s bad advice.
  • too many people spend big money, and wind up losing most of it.
  • all the “do it now” & “just do it” advice. Proper planning, patience, & practice are all better choices.

Best choices:

  • avoid any advice by promoters or influencers.
  • be very leery of advice by newbies, most make many mistakes they later regret, but rarely admit or report. Do your homework.
  • get a pre-purchase inspection!
  • cheap, older factory camper vans & motorhomes (preferably pre-computerized)
  • passenger vans or buses for DIY, tons of advantages & cost savings
  • being fully self contained
  • an inexpensive but reliable electrical system does not require solar, an isolator and cheap junkyard deep cycle batteries fulfill 99.9% of all my electrical needs.
  • a cheap generator & battery charger are essential for many people (never rely on solar)
  • No leaky roof vents or holes in roof
  • non electrical ice chest or fridge
  • non electrical ventilation & climate control (heating & cooling)
  • liquid fuel instead of propane
  • having your own kitchen & bathroom
  • a comfortable bed & seating
  • keeping things modular/portable for indoor/outdoor use without duplication
  • reliable, self sustaining income
  • multiple backup plans & an emergency fund
  • the time to start saving money starts with the vehicle purchase, and should continue indefinitely
  • never gamble more than you can comfortably afford to lose

Cheers!

"Always avoid complicated solutions to solve simple problems." ~ OffGrid


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Thanks Axel, this is one of our mistakes too!

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This is great, thanks so much Van_dweller, lots to go on here!

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Hi LizB! No matter how many videos you watch and research you think you’re doing, mistakes will be made. We have barely begun our conversion and our first mistake (all the vids never mentioned this!) was throwing the old floor in the dumpster when we removed it! Now I see how useful it would be to have kept it as a template for the new floor we have to put in -sigh. Will update you as we make more mistakes.

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Hey @Van_Dweller, what don’t you like about diesel?

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Greetings!

Basically the total cost of ownership is about 3x that of a gas vehicle, with no added benefits.

Diesel mechanics can be hard to find in many areas, and the same is true for parts. Wait times to get it into a mechanic can be much longer too.

I’ve had diesels, and driven them at work too. I prefer gas vehicles hands down.

Cheers!

"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." ~ Murphy


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Van Dweller, I don’t understand why you hate solar so much. I’ve been using it for years and have had zero issues. As long as you keep expectations in check and establish an electrical budget (that goes with ANY form of battery charging) it works great! And nothing says that you can’t also charge from the alternator while driving.

Only difference between solar and no solar is 2 solid state devices: solar panel and charge controller. The rest is exactly the same.

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Greetings!

Re: Solar

I don’t hate solar, I hate the hype, and the fact that people are still getting suckered into poor choices, just like I was.

I spent big money on multiple professionally installed solar systems, all failures. I became determined to figure out how to make it work, and spent more time and money learning everything solar, and everything alternative energy. In the end, my conclusions matched those of every honest expert that isn’t getting paid to lie to us. Solar electric panels are a very poor choice, the worst choice of all solar powered options available.

Can it work, yes. Does that make it the best choice, RARELY! While being the most promoted and most expensive option available, it is also the least efficient, & least reliable option available. A reliable system requires the availability of power generation 24/7. Solar alone fails miserably for that. So we need one or more of the top 3 (isolator, generator, shore power) to accomplish our goal, with or without solar, and mobile solar has even more limitations (like roof space).

Since one or more of the top 3 are REQUIRED for a reliable system, and each is reliable without solar, the question shifts to whether or not the addition of solar will be beneficial. For most, a researched and honest answer will be a resounding NO!

Real world example: For about 2 years, I had a 24v shuttle bus. The wiring was so complicated & convoluted, that I didn’t want to try adding an isolator. I had a 400ah deep cycle, used, lead acid battery bank, a $40 used no name generator, and a garage sale battery charger. The total cost of my power system was under $150, including the batteries. The generator would run for about 8 hours on a gallon of gas. About once a week, I’d use the generator to charge my batteries. I also used the generator for other things, fairly regularly. All in, I used under 10 gallons of gas per year, for all the power I ever needed. Even if gas is $5.00/gallon, that would be only $50/yr for unlimited power. Even being somewhat of a cheapskate, that works for me.

Bought new, a similar capacity solar system with batteries would likely cost over $1,000 in parts alone, and there wouldn’t have been enough roof space to even make it work. Even if the solar system never cost a dime more, and filled your needs, it would take 20 years to pay for itself, vs. my generator system, and you would have to pay that $1,000 up front, vs. me paying a little bit for gas here and there.

I’m sure somebody will bring up the issue of noise… It’s all baloney! Even being mostly a city dweller, I never had trouble finding places that running my generator didn’t bother anybody. Inconsiderate people are the problem, not the generators.

Lastly, there’s nothing eco-friendly about any of these power choices, not even solar, so let’s not go there.

Once again, I don’t hate solar, I just champion better choices.

Cheers!

"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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The solar panel on my van cost $149, with free shipping. The charge controller a little over $40 (used from eBay, but good quality). I’ve never had to charge my battery any other way - it’s only been on solar and I’ve NEVER run out of power even when camped a week under cloudy rainy weather.

I have no need for a generator, no need to connect to shore power, and don’t need to drive the van to charge the house battery (it’s not connected to the starting battery/alternator anyway).

To say that solar is a mistake is simply wrong. There are scammers everywhere, selling anything and I guess you learned that lesson the hard way.

We also have solar on our house (grid-tied), and paid less than $10K for the whole system, including installation, permitting etc., and we own it free and clear (no third party scam like some people have fallen for). Our power bill is $8.20 a month (meter fee). We didn’t get scammed because I did the research, talked to a lot of people, and am pretty good at telling truth from fiction (years of scientific training and working as a scientist pay off in other ways I suppose). The system works very well.

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I gave my generator to my parents this weekend. Reason being is since I have added solar, I’ve used it once n the last year for about an hour. This was literally because I was too lazy to move into a sunnier spot. I do not believe we are going to miss it at all. Glad to have the room and glad to not haul around a bunch of gas.

@Van_Dweller - The argument that the generator is cheaper and more cost efficient is a hard one for me to swallow at this point when gas is inching close to $4 a gallon in a lot of places. Certainly not cost efficient in Europe where the cost of gas averages about $5.50per gallon. This solution is not practical for most people that actually want to use electricity and not buy ice for their cooler every day or for people that are working remote. Running a laptop and a cell booster sucks down ~5 amps an hour alone.

I would also like to point out that while you can charge your battery with a generator and a battery charger you are literally just burning and wasting fuel unless your generator is capable of an ECO mode. Unless you are buying an “expensive” battery charger that is capable of charging at 20+ amps you are not using all the power it is creating. That to me is not very efficient at all.

I question your claim that a cheap generator and cheap battery charger are capable of charging a 400amp system to full in 8 hours. Battery charges and tenders are expensive. Especially if you want it to work correctly for different battery types and have the capability to condition and maintain your batteries.

And yes generators are noisy, it’s not baloney and that is why most campgrounds require you to shut them down during quiet hours. We’ve literally moved because some jack hole in an RV needed his 4500 watt generator running to power his AC all night. Most national parks require the noise level to be below 60db and to get level that you gotta spend $$$ for a good one, not some cheap POS bought from harbor freight.

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Greetings!

@Axel,

This isn’t about us, it’s about the bigger picture. It’s about the people who are spending big bucks, and then failing. This is the majority,

while we’re in a very tiny minority.

The criteria the experts & even the solar guru’s use is that you need some form of charging available 24/7 for mobile or off grid

applications. No matter how you cut it, solar alone simply doesn’t meet that criteria, although a generator does.

I can’t really argue with the above criteria because it makes decent sense.

Our solutions ( solar or an isolator ) can work for some. But…

A GENERATOR WILL WORK FOR EVERYBODY!

If you’re on the road, and your power system has failed, and you need power today, I’m merely proposing that a generator is your best

choice. Hopefully available locally, to solve your problem quickly. I like to be prepared, so my backup plan (a generator) is already

onboard, and ready to go.

Cheers!

"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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There’s no way in hell that you’ll convince me that I need a generator. My battery supplies all the power I need when the sun isn’t shining. Then, the sun comes up in the morning and recharges it. Simple.

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Greetings!

@Bretly,

The relatively small number of people with working solar, tend to ignore the thousands upon thousands who can’t get it to work for them regardless of how much money they throw at it. Those people need options.

A huge percentage of people bragging about their solar today, will be back later with problems. That seems to be the trend.

People need solutions & alternatives. What works for a few doesn’t necessarily translate into working for the many. We need to be promoting ALL options, not just solar. People need to understand that there ARE options.

For many years, RV’s have come with generators because it’s the best, most reliable, & trouble free solution for the majority. They’re not stupid, they’ve spent big bucks figuring out the best solutions. Today, solar is sometimes optional on new RV’s. Whether or not it will be a viable long term option remains to be seen.

My cheap generators have always been quiet, if they weren’t quiet to begin with, I made them quiet. Like I said though, generators are not the problem, inconsiderate people are the problem. A considerate person would never run any generator if it was going to bother someone else.

Cheers!

"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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Greetings!

@Axel,

I don’t get this… I’m not trying to convince you or anybody else that they need a generator, or solar, or an isolator, or anything.

I’m just trying to point out that there are options, that should all be explored. People can choose whatever they like. Part of being prepared means knowing what your options are.

Cheers!

"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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RVs had and have generators because before solar came along that was the only way to do it off-grid. They still have them for powering energy-intensive appliances like compressor AC, electric cook tops, heat, and hot water - all of which can be done much more efficiently by other means nowadays. Most people in big energy-intensive RVs are old crusty farts who don’t want to change, so they build them for that market.

How much does a good quality diesel generator set cost these days? Probably $10K for a good one. We paid less than that for the solar system on our house!

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@Van_Dweller - When you say “relatively small number of people with working solar”, it sounds like you don’t get around very much and have zero clue what you’re talking about. Literally, almost every person I meet or run into has working solar on their van or rig and most do not have or need a generator. Where the hell is your proof or research on this other than the experience you had 30 years ago when it didn’t work out for you that one time.

Simply put the only reason this solution works for you is that you don’t use electricity for anything. There is no way this can work for you, if you work remotely from the road full time. It’s just not feasible. Especially if you intend to be stationary for more than a day or two.

Your whole list of worst mistakes revolves around spending money or buying anything that wasn’t invented before 1970 or that costs more than $20 for some reason. Not everybody is poor or wants to live like a caveman in their van. Your claims are simply unfounded with no real recent experience with anything you claim. Technology has come a lonnnnggggg way, you should give it a try again sometime.

The worst mistake I ever made was buying cheap stuff. Why, because it was cheap and just broke down and I had to spend the money for real deal later anyway. This goes for my fridge, my van, my heater and a plethora of other things. “You get what you pay for”. That’s what you should be telling people.

Why do you feel the need to hijack every thread and turn into a smear campaign against anything new or relevant that you do not understand? You really should take your own advice, “What works for a few doesn’t necessarily translate into working for the many” and get over it already.

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Greetings!

@Axel,

I don’t know where you guys get your facts or figures from but…

“Population and demographic trends favor long-term RV market growth - RV owning households are split almost equally between 18 and 54 and 55 and up, with significant growth among 18-to-34-year-olds, who now make up 22 percent of the market.” from Media Resources | RVIA

So “old crusty farts” is patently wrong, in that scenario. Us older folks constantly want better options, and most of us have the money to pay for them. We also do our research and want quality, reliability, comfort, and convenience. Things that get harder to find every day.

When I first got involved in solar, about 15 years ago, I would have been about 60. It was supposed to be better… It wasn’t, but I became determined to figure out how to make it work because I thought it held promise. So I spent time & money to learn it, as well as alternative energy systems. Today, I could build you any solar system imaginable that would work flawlessly. Wind, hydro, wood gas, alternative fuels, alternative engines to internal combustion, all of it. I experiment with new, old, and even ancient technologies. All in the search of better ways of doing things.

Any time someone wants to show me something better, I’m game, regardless of the cost. The problem is that newer or different doesn’t necessarily translate into better. In the last year I have upgraded to a non electric fridge/freezer, an experimental non electric heater/air conditioner, and candle powered LED lights. None of which is because I don’t have the power, because I do. I am currently searching for a WWII generator which can be solar/fuel powered, or the parts to build one.

I own 3 off grid cabins, so alternative energy is near and dear to my heart. Once I’m done doing care giving, my plans include traveling between them, and I’m designing their systems to run 24/7 unattended.

I look upon this game of life as a challenge to find or create the best solutions possible for whatever problems we encounter.

Cheers!

"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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Van Dweller, just about every van I see nowadays has solar panels on it, including mine. It works great. To say that solar is a mistake is simply wrong.

You might have been scammed by someone in the past, but it doesn’t mean that the technology is bad. You probably got scammed into using something that didn’t meet your needs, but that was your mistake for not researching it enough and believing in the scammers.

It’s almost as if you have some kind of ideological bent against solar. You sound like those talking heads in the right-wing fantasy world of fact-free propaganda.