hey everybody welcome back to our channel we're Eamon and Bec and we
live full time in our self converted Sprinter van if you haven't already
subscribed to our channel we make lots of videos about behind the scenes of van
life cooking in our tiny kitchen so before even watching this video go ahead
and smash that subscribe button you got it that way we'll get along just fine we
feel like this is the season of van life there are so many van conversions
happening we're in the middle of converting a van for a man's daaad we're
actually daily vlogging the entire conversion so you guys can check that
out as we move mint is real literally we every day a new van new van new van an
Instagram it's crazy it's super super exciting it's so exciting and we feel
like as a couple who have lived in their own van for a year now we have some tips
that we can give to you if you're thinking about joining the movement
these are some things we wish we knew before living in a van
y'all ready for y'all ready for this Danna okay first thing you should know
before living in your van is maintenance costs a lot more than we thought so
going into it it was kind of like oh my god this is gonna be so cheap you know
it's just gonna be like having a vehicle that you live in and it's not really the
same thing first of all Sprinter vans in general
are a little bit more expensive to maintain but I think in any sense
because we're living in this thing we're driving it around the country we're beat
beating the crap out of it you know I'm off-roading on the dirt roads so there's
lots of little maintenance upgrades that you have to be aware of think of it as
taking the budget you would have for maintaining your home the budget you
would have for maintaining your car and any other miscellaneous things that you
maintain in a month and it's all into this one vehicle so while it is
definitely and can be a cheaper method of living van maintenance has been more
often more frequent and more expensive than we thought the second thing we wish
we knew before moving into our van was just taking a step back and
understanding the climates that we planned on visiting or that we already
live in when we were building your van we were just so excited to make it cute
and and to do it quickly because we were so
ready to have her own space that I think we kind of forgot that we live in Canada
so when summer I mean when winter was sprung upon us it was like oh my
goodness we don't have a heater and it's snowing outside and it was a very quick
turnaround of having to install the heater
we definitely hadn't planned for it before when we were insulating we were
more concerned about having height in the van as opposed to properly insi
insulating the floor and in a lot of ways we weren't ready for the winter
that we knew we were gonna have we just weren't gently reminded about it yeah so
I think I what she's trying to say is take seasons a little bit more seriously
it's pretty easy to think oh I'm gonna live in my van if it gets cold I'm just
gonna go over here or if it gets hot I'm gonna just drive away from that and kind
of chase the seasons but realistically like you're gonna be susceptible to
seasons and you want to make sure you're comfortable should I say every time the
thing we wish we knew okay number three this van life community is off the
charts when we first pop the tire when we first started like digging around it
was genuinely the reason why I was comfortable with joining the van lights
movement you know hashtag van life on Instagram and everyone that was doing it
was super rad really responsive to questions we had and we really try to do
the same in return which is actually why we started creating these videos on
YouTube was just to give back to the community in some way but taught us so
much and inspired us so much it's true like even like on Instagram like I feel
like when you're you know let's say you're into one specific genre and
you've got like those huge instagramers that you're like kind of intimidated by
and you send them a message and like they don't reply to you it's like oh
that's pretty classic but I feel like like regardless of how big these van
like four-seam on Instagram whatever like when we're starting out we had like
you know a thousand followers or even less right and I'd like send Scott comes
with a view who had like 30,000 followers you know a DM a question
specific question about electrical they'd be like yeah dude you just do it
this way a little people are amazing yeah take advantage you know yes what's
happened tonight unity find us on Instagram us personally
we'd love to get to know you guys and that really does translate to meeting
people in person as soon as someone is in a van and I know that there's
something to be said about having similar interests but I just feel like
it is so easy to get along we've gone away for weekends with people that live
in their van we've just been driving along and spotted someone with a solar
panel on their roof knocked on their door and end up being lifelong friends
so the community is amazing don't hesitate to reach out to people ask your
questions if you have specific questions for us of course you can leave them in
the comments below too but yeah the community's really good so to summarize
y'all want friends buy a van so if you're watching this and you're like
dude I'm sold I'm so want to get a van this is my dream when you're going
through your build I know a budget is a budget and everyone only has so much
money but saving a hundred fifty two hundred three hundred dollars to do
little short cuts whether that's with big appliances so like a fridge you know
the smaller one will save you a little bit of money or the inverter I think if
you're committed and you really believe that you're gonna do this as a long-term
thing you'll regret those decisions so I knew that with our electrical system I
knew I wanted to get a really good pure sine-wave 2000 watt inverter because I
didn't want to buy a cheap one at Canadian Tire and then upgrade and then
all your wiring would have to upgrade because you know you're getting a bigger
inverter and all that kind of stuff that will give you more headaches and
actually cost you more money down the road an example for our fridge as well
as you know we use a 55 litre fridge we're super stoked that we're gonna be
upgrading that but maybe if we had known that in the future we wouldn't have
tried to save a little bit of money there well I think that's a really
interesting point cuz one of my other points is that you don't have to strive
for perfection right out of the gate so there's always room to upgrade your van
and we're constantly working on ours to make it better and better suit our
lifestyle or maybe we've changed in some way and the flow doesn't work like
that's totally cool and you can always perfect and change the little things but
I do think that what you were saying was like whether it's the actual van itself
or those big appliances it hurt you in the long run if you cheap
out so yeah he doesn't have to be perfect but prioritize and know that
some of those bigger things that seem a little expensive or you don't want to
spend the extra hundred dollars upfront is definitely worth it okay something
else I really wish I knew and this is such a great tip for stealth camping an
app called I over Lander we were just introduced to it on our way into Mexico
and I think we use it every single day in Mexico he basically put in your
location and you can see you just go to the map and it shows your location you
go to the map it's a user-generated platform so people will write hey I
stayed off the beach pull down the gravel road talk to someone they said
it's cool to camp there for a couple of friendly neighbors yeah I'm running
water down the street so everyone kind of adds to it and its international
we've got locations in Europe and I think it's Australia so super cool
download that add to it if you are gonna use it and that bailed us out of a lot
of spots in Mexico so awesome yeah I think that's something that really
intimidates a lot of people with fan life so I just wish I knew about it
earlier because our first couple of months are stressed out of our minds
trying to find places to sleep at night it doesn't have to be that hard I would
say stress in our minds but it was like a thing that we are doing like we were
medium stressed out of our noggins maybe you were stress out of your mind I
wasn't stressed on my mind I was just trying to exaggerate why
because we're both wearing hats today so the next one we want you to be aware of
before buying your van this is something that I think a lot of videos or a lot of
people talk about with any kind of lifestyle really is like take it at face
value Instagram is an amazing tool and like we're even guilty of it as well as
like of course we're gonna post our coolest pics our most epic locations
that's not real van life that's kind of Instagram and you're trying to create
cool content so just be aware of that don't think that every single day we're
sleeping on an amazing Beach even though right now we are actually at amazing
yeah what I'm trying to say is that van life does have its highs and lows and
just be super aware of that before jumping into a van and thinking oh my
god yeah something that we try to share a lot on this platform is the authentic
real and authenticity the authentic side of inland the behind-the-scenes event we
have videos just about a normal day in the life and things like that so if you
guys are interested you can check those up right okay I'm sure so yeah sometimes
I love the feeling of my own case it's really soft and sweet I really do want
this to actually be a really positive video because for someone like me who is
a little bit hesitant about van life or doing it full-time I just want to say
how awesome it is so this point is really that the world is now your oyster
for real this is your backyard you can literally take your home anywhere open
up your back doors and you know spend some time outside go enjoy races yeah
like you can go to somewhere an hour away from your house that you've never
even knew existed and just totally I live in a different neighborhood you
know you're from Parkdale good totally and it's like the coolest most rad thing
to go out and explore and then come home and make a tea or dinner in your home
the comfort of your home it's just so awesome this kind of touches on a lot of
the things we've already talked about but inclement weather and having
sort of a plan or implement in climate dry it and ent inclement clothes but
very close not right by clothes you would never make it on that genius but
having a plan or something to do inclement weather when it's recess in
its inclement weather we always called it inclement weather now that now I'm
saying it sounds weird inclement weather I know
Catholic school inclement weather means it's like raining or way too cold or way
too hard hard-core weather at the extreme haven't inclement weather plan
so for us we just take those days to really hone in go to a cafe and work
when we were in Vancouver though I have to be honest inclement
it was inclement inclement rain and it rained for 30 days straight brutal it
was really miserable I couldn't live in Vancouver although we're going back out
there I know mrs. summer now yeah yeah I think it's just important to note that
there will be days or months or periods of time and just know that you've got to
do something else to avoid cabin fever okay okay you wanna
do the taking breaks yes this is probably the best point we should have
told them at the beginning of the video wait till the end we've got the best
point well this is the special point we've been talking about and it doesn't
it doesn't mean you're quitting but I think it's so so important with van life
van life is a lifestyle and a lot of people will post a video or will talk to
a lot of people when I say I quit I can't do it anymore I think it's super
important to acknowledge and realize that taking breaks doesn't mean you're
quitting so we are fortunate enough that we have an office in Toronto so when
we're there especially when it's not nice weather out we'll cook in our
office and obviously we'll still sleep in our van well we'll do all of our kind
of routine stuff in our office and then in our van so if you are feeling like
you are burnt out no shame go to your mom's place for weekend go to your
brother's home for you know a week and honestly within even a few days
we're like itching we're like ready to go on the adventure again and I think
it's such a good repose Peggy breaks is the special sauce for keeping
band life and the passion for it alive yeah passion yeah okay yeah that's it
that's it that's so congratulations you have how now have our blessing to go buy
a van live in a van and join the crew hit me up on your cell phone no
seriously guys we really hope you enjoyed this video all about the things
that we wish we knew before moving into the van if you're moving into a van
thinking about moving into a van have questions about moving into a van let us
know below I'm so excited when I get messages like
hey we're going to look at Sprinter airs or you know it's so cool the community
is growing and we're excited to be a part of it and to meet you one day and
to meet you one day on the road until tomorrow please make sure you like this
video if you found it helpful subscribe to our Channel hit that bells do you get
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like being crazy or do you like being normal
I hope my mic wasn't on a weird setting