I wrote this post a few years ago and posted it on Joe Rogan's forum. Lots of people were interested but I ended up getting banned from his forum for standing up to some bullies, which happened three times before I gave up on his forum altogether. I saved the pertinent parts of the thread and combined it into this post. I put questions people asked me in quotes.
I've changed vehicles since originally posting this and my old dogs passed away. I also gave up climate control and refrigeration, because I feel better being a human that's adapted to my environment and not reliant upon unsustainable technology. I'm sitting here in my waste oil powered crane truck in 110degree heat typing this and I'm as comfortable as anyone sitting in their air conditioned home though, and it got down to 50 a few times last week and I never got cold enough to put on clothes or grab a blanket. The info here is still great info to those wanting to transition to nomadic life though as it takes years to ween oneself from civilization's perceived comforts.
I have no idea how to post pics here and every hard drive I own was wiped out in Feb16 so this will be text only until I figure things out. My connection is also terrible so posting anything here is extremely frustrating and time consuming. This little window keeps popping up to tell me that my connection has been lost even though every other site works fine. There's just no way I can do flashy stuff, even if I knew how. Just getting this somewhat formatted and getting it to post has taken over two hours and all of the content was already written. Anyway, I hope you find it informative!
How to live sustainably, off grid, in an rv:
I've had a few people interested in how I live so I thought I'd post the info here so everyone can see it.
If you're tired of paying rent, bills, and mortgages and have a DIY attitude some common sense, and some mechanical ability, it's entirely possible to survive comfortably, outside the system.
If you let yourself go and open your mind, you could be livin like me....and it ain't so bad.(From Junkhead by Alice and Chains )
Here are some answers to some questions I've received about the logistics of living like this:
Vehicle Choice:
My main rules for RV's are to not buy anything built after 1978 because people haven't given a shit about their jobs since and not buying anything with a wood frame.
I wanted to do a short bus to but I just couldn't find one when I actually had the money. They're built a lot better than most RV's and there's a better chance of finding one with a diesel. If you can find a Mobile Traveler bodied RV though, they're built impressively well. I have $1000 into mine and with the 318 and I'm seeing 15mpg at 55mph. It runs like a champ! Some other great options are work vans and step vans. The best part about them is they fit in just about anywhere in cities so urban boondocking is much easier. Also, you can find the setp vans with a cummins 4bt diesel engine. These get great mileage and can run on free waste veggie oil with the right filtration setup. They're geared a little low for the highway but usually have room for bigger tires, which will help the gearing and clearance if you like to camp in remote areas.
Refrigeration:
As far as running a fridge goes, just make sure you have more panel than your fridge will pull and as large of a battery bank as you can fit and you'll be OK. Nova Kool's stuff looks like it runs anywhere from 230ish watts up to about 800 for their largest unit. They won't be running all of the time either so the only real way to tell how much juice you're going to need is to get one and run it for a few days through a meter so you can track usage.
Whatever fridge you end up using, it's a good idea to put an extra few inches of styrofoam insulation on the top and sides. It will at least double the efficiency. I lucked out because my new fridge is smaller than the one that came in my rv so I filled the extra space with insulation. If you're custom building a cabinet, make it 4 inches too big on each side and the top and you can cram 2 layers of 2 inch insulation in there. Being tactical about opening it will really save power too.
The dorm fridge I have pulls about 275 watts and runs constantly so it has to go! With a big battery bank and oversized inverter, nothing ever strains the system, even if everything's running all at once.
Solar:
My system uses three BP-195 watt panels, a 40 amp charge controller, a 880/1000 ah 12volt battery bank using 8 trojan t-105's and the rv battery, and a sunforce pure sine 2500 watt inverter. I also got a trimetric battery monitor and 500 amp shunt to keep track of everything. I've got about $3000 in it total but I found a really good deal on panels. They come up all of the time on Craigslist. I should have picked up an mppt charge controller but I didn't so my panels are only making 350 watts. I'm going to switch to a Morningstar MPPT60 soon and I'll get the full 585 watts out of the array.
Even at 350 watts, I have enough juice to run a good fridge/freezer and a small air conditioner for the hottest parts of the day. When the sun goes down, my batteries are at 85% and by the time it gets hot again the next day, they're back to 100%. I also have the battery bank tied to the van's alternator so when the engine is running, it charges up the battery bank. I had to use 8 gauge wire and a 120 amp breaker to keep things balanced without the wire getting hot. My system is way overkill for an RV but I can use power tools all day, record music all night and probably go for a month with no sun if I really conserved power.
The battery bank came out of my solar powered mobile machine shop and is probably overkill for my system. It weighs about 480 lbs! It doesn't take up much room though. It's just 8 deep cycle flooded lead acid batteries.
AGM batteries for use in a battery bank? Pros/cons
AGM's are awesome if you can afford them but they're just as heavy as lead. They're also not serviceable and tend to wear out faster. I'm just shooting in the dark here but I seem to remember a 220ah AGM running roughly $400 and I got my Trojans for $105 each. Every AGM I've owned has lasted for three years or less. The Trojans will last for at least ten as long as I keep up with watering them and giving them an equalization charge every couple of months. Also, if you over build your bank so it never has to deep cycle, the batteries will use less water and last indefinitely.
Solar Install Tips:
I got an auto watering kit for my batteries and they're installed inside the rv in ventilated cabinets so they won't freeze in the winter but they also won't fill up the inside of the rv with hydrogen. I put the inverter, charge controller, combiner box, and breakers in the bottom of a cabinet with the battery meter installed in the door. I used a furnace fan switch so it activates 2 12volt fans that circulate air through the cabinet. They come on automatically at 90 degrees and shut back off at 70.
Wind Power:
I wouldn't mess with wind power unless you're going to be parked for long periods of time in really cloudy and windy places. Wind generators won't even pay for themselves until you get in the 600 watt and up range but those need to be installed on a 30 foot tower to work efficiently.
Toilet:
Right now, I have a regular RV Toilet and a small holding tank. I'm parked at a friend's shop and have a sewer hook up. Over the next couple of weeks, I'd like to build a solar poo incinerator that the toilet will drain into through the regular rv sewer hose. It will store under the rv for travel. It's very simple and has no moving parts. If you google the "hut" earthship in Taos, you can probably find a good explanation on that.
When I had other vehicles and was off the grid, I did things a little differently. For a while, I had a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat on it, lined with multiple trash bags. I'd do my business and cover the mess with cedar wood chips and/or sawdust from cutting wood for firewood. They would absorb the smell and soak up the liquids. After a few poos, I'd pull the top bag out, tie it off, and throw it away in a dumpster at a gas station or something. The wood chips basically mulch it and if you sat the bag in the sun for a few days before tossing it, it would pretty much be compost by the time I threw it away, not even stinking. I know this because the bag tore open while tossing it in the trash once, kind of like the fight club fat scene....and it smelled like garden soil. On other occasions, I'd dig a pit trench and just back fill it a little each time and go a little further down the trench the next time. This worked really well but I didn't like to do that on public land.
Commercial composting toilets are a waste of money and over complicated as far as I'm concerned.
Shower/Hot water:
There's a shower in the RV and a 6 gallon propane water heater. I'm going to try to find an electronic ignitor for the water heater so I can push a button to light it a few minutes before I need hot water and easily turn it off when I'm done. I also have a 2 gallon electric one to plumb in and would like to add a small glycol recirculating collector on the roof soon.
Air Conditioning:
My air conditioner is a GE 9K BTU from Home Depot. It was $189. It has a digital Thermostat and a remote control so I can shut it off/turn it on from bed if need be. It pulls 600 watts when it's compressing and running on high and about 80 watts when it's just cycling the fan. It's installed in the back window and since it evaporates water out of the air when it runs, I want to plumb a drain into the pan to feed my fresh water holding tank. It will make 1-5 liters a day of fresh water in the desert depending on the humidity.
The window AC works fine but some might say it looks a little ghetto sitting in the back window. Mine is in a recessed box though so I can collect the water and it doesn't stick out too far so it doesn't look too bad.
Ability to deal with different climates:
I've definitely gone off grid. I've been totally off grid for months at a time, in the summer in the desert and in the winter at 9k feet in six feet of snow at sub zero temps. Next month, I'm going down to Mexico and will be completely off grid indefinitely. I'm hoping I can catch some fish and keep a little garden growing. I'll be making a solar desalinating still for water and catching rain water when I can.
Cooking:
For cooking, I have a sun oven. It's freaking awesome! I also have the propane oven/stove in the rv for back up, a coleman white gas stove for backup backup, a tiny MSR white gas camp stove for triple backup and I've been known to construct fire pits and cook stuff over wood fires too. You can also wrap fish in foil and jam it under your air cleaner on top of the engine for perfectly cooked engine fish in about 20 minutes.
I've never seen a sailboat wood stove but I had a big wood stove in my expansible 6x6 ex army truck. It made heat and did the cooking and was really cool. Sometimes though, I'd sleep too good to get up in the middle of the night to put more wood in and I'd wake up with my drool and pillow frozen to my face and have to get dressed at 0 degrees. It's really not as bad as it sounds though.
Laundry:
Laundry is easy. When I'm near a town, I just use the laundry mat. If I'm camping off grid, I wash my clothes in streams, or with a bucket of hot water, or in the shower. If you do it every few days and wear the same stuff until it's dirty, it's really easy to keep up with. Even on a freezing day, if it's sunny and breezy, clothes will dry when hung outside. Here in AZ in the summer, they're dry before you get done hanging them up.
Food:
Industrial civilization throws away over 50% of the food it produces so I've adopted a diet called freeganism. I'm always running around helping people with their projects so I get fed pretty regularly. If I get hungry though, there are food banks and dumpsters everywhere. I know how to hunt/fish/forage, but I feel like my species already takes enough from Nature so I prefer to live on civilization's waste while it's still around.
Sun Oven:
Set up sun oven so it's in the sun.
Put food in pot.
Put pot in oven.
Make sure sun stays on oven.
Remove food.
Grub down!
Good Sun Oven Meal:
one free range chicken breast
organic Yukon Gold potatoes
one yellow onion
one large clove of elephant garlic
one teaspoon of seasonall
Bake for three hours in a sun oven.
It's a cheap meal and soooooo damn good!
The sun oven cooks everything to perfection. I can't stress enough how good it makes everything taste and how fool proof it is! The only problem I have with it is keeping my stupid dog from pissing on it!
General Tips:
Buy used stuff, use the sun to cook with and to heat your home, don't drive unless it's absolutely necessary, eat organic. I should start a new thread. It's a lifestyle but once you're free of the system, it feels good.
Learn a skill like auto mechanics, organic farming, solar installation, etc. Start at the bottom if you have to and learn by experience. Real skills that actually make positive differences in the world are going to come back in demand if the whole damn system doesn't completely collapse....and if it does, you'll know how to keep your car running, grow food, and have power when everyone else is walking around, starving, and in the dark.
Stream/River Fishing for Trout:
Bobber fishing in a river doesn't really work too well unless you can find a deep pocket of water that isn't moving much. Even then, it's boring.
Try something like these:
http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CJsBEPMCMAg
or
http://www.amazon.com/MEPPS-HOT-TROU.../dp/B002QG01ZK
It's a lot more fun! Cast a little upstream and reel it in quick enough so that the lure is going just a tad bit faster than the current. If there are trout in there, you'll be eatin good!
Surviving through pain, frugality, and finding work:
I bought beer with dimes yesterday.....
But tonight I had chicken and rice that I cooked in my sun oven and sat and ate it in my solar powered, air conditioned RV.
I have a broken neck that didn't heal right and can only work 6-10 hours per week and have barely been employed for a few years now and I managed to survive and get set up to keep surviving on next to nothing. You can do it too. Just don't worry about money....or your phone. You can go around and talk to people and find odd jobs that require no skill and will make you more in three hours than you would make all day working for a temp agency. Just walk down the street, try not to look like too much of a crackhead, and ask people if there's anything you can help them with so you can make a few bucks......or get a sharpie and some paper and put up some fliers with your email address on them. If you have a laptop, you can use free wifi to correspond.
Five Questions to ask Yourself Before Buying an RV
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/ep...e-buying-an-rv
"Have you ever had your vessel boarded/searched by police?
If yes, how did it all transpire?"
I got pulled over a few times in the little toyota. I told them I was camping and they thought it was cool.
I got pulled over a bunch of times in the big military rig. I had it insured but I never plated it. Every time I got pulled over, the cops just thought it was really cool and wanted to talk to me. I'd give them the tour, honk the horn for them, and they'd thank me and send me on my way.
The big box truck was pretty incognito so I never got pulled over in that one.
I'm going to paint my new RV this weekend so it looks nice and hope to continue with the incognito vibe. I'm going to be taking it across the border soon though and it will definitely be searched repeatedly. I haven't been able to find any smoke since December though and everything's totally legal on this one so it should be fine.
Cannabis and nomadic life:
I've smoked weed damn near every day for 25 years so I have a few tips regarding travelling with it.
The new method I just discovered is to always have a padded envelope in the vehicle that's addressed, stamped, and ready to mail, but not sealed. Don't use your address! For the return address, I'd just use the UPS store's address from a nearby town but I leave out the box number. For the ship to address, really, anything goes, but I always make sure it's a fake name and undeliverable address. No need to get anyone in trouble. If you get pulled over, put anything illegal in the envelope and tape it closed. Be careful not to trap any genetic material, just in case it goes to the postmaster. The cops can't search mail and you can always claim that you found the envelop on the side of the road and was planning to drop it off at the nearest post office.
In the past though, I got pulled over, with weed in the car, high, multiple times. I'd always be nice and respectful and I'd make sure nothing stunk blatantly or was in plain sight and I never had a problem. If the cops were dicks, which some were, they'd give me a fix it ticket or a warning and go on with their day. The nice ones would admit that they were just pulling me over to check me out and make sure I wasn't drunk, or a tweaker. It's all about how you handle yourself in front of them. If you're going to have illegal shit in your vehicle, have your shit together, make sure everything's legal as far as plates, license, and insurance go, be relaxed and respectful and you'll probably be OK. It also helps to have a perfect driving record. Everything's been dropped off of mine for years now. It helps with insurance costs too.
Blending in while boondocking:
This is where a decent looking conversion van, step van, box truck, or anything that doesn't appear like a legit camper comes in handy. If you're urban camping , it's very important to keep a low profile so you don't get harassed by the police. Urban camping isn't something I like to do though. I see cities as human factory farms/zoos. Nomadic people in cities are like zoo animals that have escaped their cages but won't leave the zoo. Someone's always trying to round them up!
There is BLM and cheap/free campgrounds everywhere though and I can always crash in walmart parking lots, in front of rv mechanic shops, at truck stops, rest areas, etc. If you have to get out and make a bunch of racket to get setup, you're probably going to get messed with. I've rolled into neighborhoods with the engine off, coasted to a stop, climbed in the back, making sure not to close any doors or turn on any lights and just crashed out. People don't know if you're visiting one of their neighbors or if you broke down or whatever and you'll usually get left alone.
I usually have a destination and a camp spot lined up before I get on the road and have been caretaking in some fashion for a while now so I really don't worry about boondocking too much.
"Also, are there any unlimited cell internet plans, or are you a wifi seeker?"
Not really. I was with Straight Talk for a while. It was $45 a month unlimited but they sold their numbers to telemarketers and I got sick of getting all of the calls so I don't even have a phone now. I've tried them all and they're all lying, scamming pieces of shit. Right now, I'm caretaking a friend's property so I have access to wifi but when I'm on the road, I just use McDonalds, coffee shops, Dennys, motels, or I whoop out the cantenna and pirate some random wifi. I haven't had to do the last one in years though.
"What's the largest city you've stealth camped in? And for how long? What were the challenges, if there are any that differ from how you normally live?"
Normally, I either pay a tiny bit , <$100/month, for a spot to park, camp on blm/forest land, or I'm on someone's property in exchange for a little labor.
I've stealth camped in Durango, Co, Farmington, NM, Albuquerque, NM, Phoenix, AZ, LA,CA, Morro Bay, CA, and San Luis Obispo,CA. I was always able to find somewhere to post up for the night without getting hassled. I'm not scared of bums, crackheads or gangsters though. If you go somewhere the cops are scared to go, they're probably not going to hassle you.
I really prefer being on private land or on public land out in the middle of nowhere though!
"4wd conversions. How realistic is that option?"
All you need is a transmission/transfercase, some leaf springs and hangers, drive shafts, crossmember, and a front axle. The U-pullit type junk yards sell this stuff pretty cheap but it's tough to find a good one ton(dana 60) front end though. Those generally run $1K. Once you have the parts, you cut the 2wd crap off, weld in some shackle mounts, make a trans/tc crossmember if you can't find a stock one, and hook up the driveshafts and steering. Sometimes the steering can get tricky but if all else fails, you can get a high steer kit from the rock crawler guys and a chevy 2wd steering box and go full custom. You can make front drive lines yourself with primitive tools and get them balanced enough to be OK but the rears usually need to go to a shop for balancing/shortening. It costs about $250 usually. You'll have to get the gears matched up too.
If you start with a vehicle that came with 4wd as a factory option, a decent mechanic should be able to do the swap in a couple of days.
If your rig's too big though, it doesn't matter if it's 4wd. 4wd in a huge rig just gets you stuck worse and then it takes heavy equipment to get you out. Sometimes it's just better to get a burly winch, throw a locker in the rear end, and be tactical about how/where you try to go.
I also made some roll up traction/floatation ramps for soft or sticky situations. They're made out of cut up fire hoses, chunks of 2x6 and a bunch of screws.
Here are some other resources I have found with some good info.
http://cheaprvliving.com/
http://www.cheaprvlivingforum.com/
http://www.findaspring.com/
http://www.freecampgrounds.com/index.aspx
http://freecampsites.net/usa/
http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks2.asp
http://www.waterbrick.org/products.php
http://www.mybigadventure.com/index....Build-A-Camper
http://homestead.org/NewIndexes/Directory.htm
http://www.govdeals.com/
jobs
http://www.amazon.com/gp/jobs?alocat...112662&x=0&y=0
http://www.camphost.org/about%20beco...mp%20host1.htm
http://www.americanll.com/Current%20Openings.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/fsjobs/employ/a...1_OCR_LIST.pdf
http://www.helpx.net/
http://www.workaway.info/
http://www.wwoof.org/
Lots of good info at those links.
Here are a couple more.
workamper.com
caretaker.org
Security:
"I don't see anything on what you do for security. I bet an RV is way more likely to get broken into than a home. I'd have guns stashed in every hole of that thing. Do you have any of that or are you just chancing it? I can't imagine rolling up to some of the places I bet you've had to stop and not having a zombiepocalypse arsenal.
And how much foraging do you do? Do you pull over when you see a big dandelion patch and make a nice salad? You putting some wild chives in that solar chicken? And have you ever raided a garden or farm? Tooling down the road and seeing a big watermelon patch or apple orchard has gotta be tempting. I've done it myself and I have a home."
For security, I have two mean looking mungrel ass dogs and a 9mm. I've really never worried about it much though. I don't even lock my doors. If you're worried about having stuff stolen from you, people with bad intentions can "smell" it and will steal your shit, regardless of security. If your stuff doesn't look flashy and you seem not to be worried about it, they assume it's either not worth stealing, or you have other tricks up your sleeve. One good thing about living this way though is I'm always near my rig. It doesn't get left anywhere without me. If I do have to go into a store for a bit, there's a pitbull and a sharpei lab mix in there chillin in the AC. They're sweet dogs but they're really defensive of their home.
I eat organic free range chicken because it's good for me and I don't like supporting factory farm BS. I buy everything I can from farmers directly if possible. I have scrounged some meals together here and there with stuff I've come across in the wild but generally I'm able to work enough that I can buy the food I need. I wouldn't steal out of someone else's garden or farm though. If I was that hungry, I'd trade them some weeding or something for a meal.
Maybe this thread will encourage some more good people to get out on the road.
"How are you gonna get your dogs into mexico? Also, what's the visa situation for someone staying long term?"
They're going to the vet next monday to get their certificates of health. Then I'll just drive across the border with them. It's really no big deal. As far as the government is concerned, I'm going to vacation at a friend's house and can make trips back up and across the border whenever I need to reset things to stay current. They're not too concerned about gringos spending their money down there though and I'm going to be staying near a pretty large community of ex-pats.
"In your opinion, how much would someone have to save to be able to get set up with everything you have and need? Also, is there anything else you really wish you had, or miss from the slavery of modern convenience?"
If you're mechanically inclined and thrifty, $5K would be plenty to be pretty comfortable. It all really depends on what you need to live. When I set out in the toyota in the first post, I had the truck, that I got for $500 and $430 in cash. I spent $350 getting a cot, toilet(bucket), camp stove, people food, dog food, etc, and hit the road. I lived out of that little truck for about six months and had everything I really needed. Anything over that is just extra convenience.
The only things that I miss about having regular cash coming in and being in town are the ability to go out on the town and socialize more frequently, and the ability to buy weed. Even then, those things aren't near as important to me as I thought they were and they're still possible for me to do, just not four nights a week.
A bunch of good questions:
"On an RV battery bank, what would be more ideal; 3-4 12V batteries or 6-8 6V run in a series?
Actually, I'm interested in knowing the pros and cons of each... in order to reach the conclusion of which is better.
Do you tilt your solar panels, and if so do you do it daily or by season? I noticed on your really big rig they were tilted, but it looked like you had a nice white blanket on the ground.
What is the advantage of having the MPPT over what you have currently? Advantage being what do you get out of it and why do you get what you do get out of it? (sorry)"
If you want to PM the answer to this next question, by all means...
Do you purchase licenses everywhere you want to fish, moreso leaning towards public land...?
Anyways...
If you are boondocking, how deep/isolated/remote do you tend to get? How often do Rangers bother you? If they do, what do they appear to want to know or are looking for? Do you stick to the semi-universal 14 day stays in dispersed campgrounds or are the rules lenient?
Have you ever trapped or hunted wild game (besides fish, of course)? If so, what method(s), animal(s), etc?
What method of gaining finances do you prefer? Workamping, odd jobs, others...?
What is the most remote place that you've visited?
I'm well versed in nat'l forests and nat'l parks and the differences between the two, but I have never visited any BLM lands; what is the difference between BLM land and nat'l forests?"
Batteries:
I went with 8 six volt ones run in 2 series, 4 parallel configuration.
The 12 volt 225ah batteries are really big and a nightmare to deal with if you ever have an issue and they're more expensive than 2 6 volt batteries. Also, if I have a battery issue where one is getting a weak cell, I just have to buy one 6 volt battery instead of spending over twice as much to replace a 12volt one with the same capacity. Also, if I'm really in a pinch and need to stick weld straight from the batteries, I can easily change the configuration of them to get different voltages. The amperage is varied by hanging electrodes in a bucket of salt water. Less water and or more diluted water equals less current and vice versa.
My solar panels are able to be tilted but since the system is so overkill, I tend to leave them flat. If I need full power in the winter, I can unbolt the back mounts of the panels and bolt in vertical risers. It's pretty easy to do but it's really not necessary when the system has so much headroom.
An MPPT controller will figure out what voltage and amperage the panels output the most power at and run them at that voltage. It is constantly redoing this measurement and adjusting accordingly. My panels output the most power at 22-24 volts but since I'm running a 12 volt battery bank, the panels only output 13 volts which decreases their capability. Even so called 12v panels put out their optimum power at 16 volts so when they are hooked up to a 12 volt load, they're not at maximum efficiency. The output voltage of a panel is dependent upon the voltage of the battery bank that it's hooked up to. An MPPT controller "tricks" the panels into running at their optimum voltage then steps that voltage back down, while increasing the amperage proportionally and then sends it to the battery bank.
I do purchase fishing licenses if I'm in an area that I'll be fishing. Since I use that public land, I will pay my fair share to help support that system. Also, rangers are armed to the teeth now and have been completely militarized. They get really bent out of shape if someone doesn't have a license.
The deepest I've camped has really only been maybe 20 miles from town and this was on BLM land. When I'm on the road, I don't bother going in deep because it wastes fuel and would make things more difficult if I break down or get multiple flats. I haven't really had the extra money to go deep into nowhere and stay for long periods of time. Most of the time, I'm able to find care taking or barter opportunities and am parked on private land. I try not to have to move camp too often because of fuel costs and the extra work required to find paying work in a new area. As long as I can keep finding work and have a low cost or free place to park that I like, I tend to stay put.
When I have been on the road and camping, I've never been bothered by rangers. I always keep a clean camp, follow all of the rules, don't make too much noise or make a scene so I get left alone. They're out there to keep idiots and tweakers from messing the place up and if you don't put off that vibe, they'll leave you alone.
The 14 day rule is kind of a grey area. It's really more like 14 days from the first time a ranger sees you . Most of the time though, I'll move camp in less than 14 days on my own. Not setting up big elaborate camp sites really helps in that aspect of things too. I camped in the forest north or Durango CO for a few months and was in violation of the 14 day rule the whole time because there was no way to get 15 miles away to another camp spot. I worked at the ski resort up there and never had any issues with camping. Once the snow started falling, I rented a little lot in Hesperus, CO for $100 a month and parked the big truck there and drove the Toyota to work. I was making pretty good money and got to snowboard a lot so the commute was worth it.
It seems like there's more traffic and ranger activity in the national forests and more drinking/shooting on BLM. The national forest areas are generally a lot prettier too and have campgrounds, water, toilets, showers, and dump stations where BLM land only has trails. Rangers occasionally make sweeps through BLM land but they're pretty predictable and really just looking for people causing trouble or dumping trash. In the national forest, they're also looking for fee/permit violations and to some degree looking to make revenue by writing tickets. I prefer the BLM land.
As far as wild game goes, I mainly fish. I usually keep a pretty good food supply when I'm going to be out on the land and really don't like having to kill furry stuff unless it's a necessity. I have shot a few rabbits with the pellet gun and made stew but haven't done any trapping. I know how to if I need to though.
To make money I usually end up doing mechanic work, landscaping, or property cleanup/maintenance stuff. These are all skills that people with extra land usually need so it works out for everyone. I guess workamping would be similar but by doing the odd job thing, I'm not tied to schedules or commitments. I'd like to get some residual income coming in from writing and music eventually.
I don't want people to get the impression that I'm out in the middle of nowhere, alone, living off the land for months at a time. While I'm equipped to do it, I do need a little bit of social interaction and stability so I try to find places to park that are semi isolated, but close enough to town so I can find little bits of work, go to the grocery store, or go to the bar here and there. It's possible to be mostly "off-grid" and pretty sustainable right in the middle of town if it comes to it.
"Being honest, reading this thread I did feel somewhat claustrophobic for you. Like you have this freedom to pick up and go at your desire but it sort of all depends on this modded isolation cell you have created for yourself.
I know paying property taxes sucks but the beauty of living in America is that there is millions of acres of cheap land where you can live off the grid and build your own teepee.
Do you ever feel your lack of socialization is something you would want to change in the future?"
I have plenty of room to stretch out and relax and I can always hang out outside. I feel way more confined in a conventional house or apartment in the city. Since I always have a "home" to go to where I can sleep safely, keep clean, cook, and keep my stuff, I'm free to take chances at other opportunities that may otherwise be too risky. Say for instance I find a really cool property that has a big awesome house on it and the owner wants some work done there and wants someone to be there at night, but that person seems a little off, I can still give that opportunity a shot and if things get weird, I can easily move on. If I relied upon a moving truck, situations like that would be much trickier to transition out of if things didn't go as planned. Some people are just weird and some personalities just don't work well together even though both parties are well intentioned so having a solid home base/means of escape is actually pretty freeing.
There is no such thing as cheap land. I was looking at 4 acre parcels in the seligman/ashfork, and mohave county areas in Arizona that were in the $5-15K range. This is some of the cheapest land in the country but it's still far from cheap. The soil isn't good. There's NO water. There's no paying work for many miles. And to top it all off, you're not allowed to live in a temporary structure on these properties. The counties actually hassle people and enforce ordinances out there so even though you're in the middle of nowhere on land that you supposedly own, you have no more freedom to do as you please than you would in the city. If you live in the city and want to have a relative park an rv in your driveway for a couple of months, you will get hassled. Same rules apply out there. If someone's living somewhere, the powers that be want them to have a permitted(taxed) conventional septic system, and a permitted and up to code permanent structure. While you may be able to get away with living in a teepee for a while, whenever someone decides to mess with you, they can, and any work you've done to make the property comfortable up to that point will be lost.
Outside of Taos, NM, up on the mesa, people generally get left alone. Since the people have figured that out, the land up there has increased in price quite a bit. There are cool people scattered here and there but there are also a ton of tweaker scumbags living in junkyards up there. At first I though it might be an option but it's a clicky area and rumors get out of control all of the time.
Nothing in America is free or cheap. It's ruined.
I do like to socialize when I can, but I like to socialize with people that have similar views to mine. Generally, socializing just reinforces my opinions that most humans are pathetic, ignorant, lost, dirty, greedy, selfish creatures. I really miss intelligent conversation and good music and finding that in public is like finding a needle in a haystack. I know there are a few towns where I'd probably be able to find like minded people, like Portland, Vancouver BC, San Francisco, Austin, TX, but other negatives like the weather, traffic, and big city crap overrides my desire to socialize.
I get most of my need to interact with others out of my system by having conversations over the internet.....like this one. It removes the physical boundaries and the negatives of a bunch of people all crammed into a small area and makes it easier to find like minded people to converse with.
I've been hoping to start a tribe of people like me that can travel around together and be a rolling community but haven't had much luck finding people that are prepared to be, and are not scared to be, on the road. A traveling intentional community would be awesome, and it might happen someday so I can look forward to that. Until then, I have enough stuff to do to keep me busy and can always do a little socializing when I need to.
I feel really sorry for kids these days. Even those with "cool" parents. I don't know any parents, no matter how cool or educated, that actually teach and take care of their kids. The kids get raised by the TV, the system, and their peers. The only people can actually take care of kids like parents should are people that live in intentional communities or communes. There aren't many people around that live this way. Voluntarily bringing more mouths to feed onto an over populated, highly mismanaged planet is irresponsible unless the parents bring the kids up in a way so that they believe in and live a carbon neutral or carbon negative lifestyle. The carbon neutral terminology isn't really the best way to express my thoughts but it should get the point across sufficiently. Creating more consumers to consume, compete, and suffer is just wrong.
"Why the southwest and not the southeast?"
I don't really like the deep south. Too many tweakers, skeeters, and bible thumpers down that way for me. I had to pick up a scout chassis in Linden Tennessee and it was soooo beautiful. I asked myself, "How come only old people and tweakers live down here???" Then I got out of the truck and literally gagged on the bugs and I had my answer.
I call a big city a place with more than ten thousand people so I'm sure that Athens would be just like LA to me and New Orleans should be a swamp. It's right next to the ocean and below sea level! I like swimming but not like that!
I could definitely build my own home but it's highly unlikely that I'll ever have the money to do so. I also don't want to spend much more of my time building things at all. Building anything conventionally, which is required almost everywhere, is also really wasteful and unsustainable. If I did get some land, I'd probably dig a big hole and use locally sourced natural materials to enclose it....or get a teepee, or a yurt. Unless a relative that I don't know about dies and leaves me a bunch of money or someone with money appreciates my struggles, thoughts, and skills enough to give me a bunch of money, I'll be living in my RV for the rest of my life. Even if I had a bunch of money, nothing in my life would change much though.