College Student & Full Time"RV" Living
I'm a full time college student as the thread title says, but I'm looking to purchase and convert a Ford Econoline style cargo van into a mini-RV. I live in Pierce county Washington but I'm going to b...
Forum Discussion
x2 on the pics and blog. I respect and applaud the zeal to do this, but I just don't see how this is going to be feasible, especially with dealing the rigors of college life. Trying to survive at the edges of society can take up a lot of time, and this may be overwhelming when combined with what college throws at you when it comes to papers, finals, and other items. Just finding a shower to look presentable can be difficult in some cases.
The biggest issue is just how suspicious people are these days. If someone saw a van's door parked in the middle of the city slide shut in the middle of the night, there is a good chance that they will be dialing 911 and calling in an attempted vehicle break-in. If people see a van park and nobody get out for a period of time, again, they likely will call the local police because it is suspicious behavior. If someone sees the same van in the same location and notices that someone is staying in it, again, the police will be repeatedly called, or they will play vigilante and investigate themselves.
In the past, 10, maybe 20 years ago, this wasn't the case, but the country is a lot different after 9/11 and the Boston bombings, and things that wouldn't have batted an eye in the past would get the police called immediately. Most places have a non-emergency line (311) just so people can phone in anything out of the ordinary. Paranoia is rampant, and I've read about some California cities using helicopters with FLIR to look for people camping in vans in order to get them off the streets.
Of course, there is also constant exposure to the criminal element in the middle of a city. One might wake to a window getting smashed in and a door getting opened in the middle of the night. There are a lot of crazies on various illegal substances, and they wouldn't hesitate to attack someone in a van if there were a good chance of them scoring the van itself or something they can sell inside for another rock of meth. Are you prepared to defend yourself against multiple attackers when this happens? How about the police who are looking for someone to arrest after an incident gets them called over?
I can understand stealth camping as an occasional thing when visiting towns, but trying to full time like that and make classes on a daily basis while keeping oneself from becoming a crime statistic may be too much for one to handle.
The biggest issue is just how suspicious people are these days. If someone saw a van's door parked in the middle of the city slide shut in the middle of the night, there is a good chance that they will be dialing 911 and calling in an attempted vehicle break-in. If people see a van park and nobody get out for a period of time, again, they likely will call the local police because it is suspicious behavior. If someone sees the same van in the same location and notices that someone is staying in it, again, the police will be repeatedly called, or they will play vigilante and investigate themselves.
In the past, 10, maybe 20 years ago, this wasn't the case, but the country is a lot different after 9/11 and the Boston bombings, and things that wouldn't have batted an eye in the past would get the police called immediately. Most places have a non-emergency line (311) just so people can phone in anything out of the ordinary. Paranoia is rampant, and I've read about some California cities using helicopters with FLIR to look for people camping in vans in order to get them off the streets.
Of course, there is also constant exposure to the criminal element in the middle of a city. One might wake to a window getting smashed in and a door getting opened in the middle of the night. There are a lot of crazies on various illegal substances, and they wouldn't hesitate to attack someone in a van if there were a good chance of them scoring the van itself or something they can sell inside for another rock of meth. Are you prepared to defend yourself against multiple attackers when this happens? How about the police who are looking for someone to arrest after an incident gets them called over?
I can understand stealth camping as an occasional thing when visiting towns, but trying to full time like that and make classes on a daily basis while keeping oneself from becoming a crime statistic may be too much for one to handle.
