Living in a van is not as glamorous as it seems on social media.
It's fun and adventurous, and I feel like I'm living life right now, but I do feel homeless
sometimes. I don't necessarily feel like I belong anywhere.
I'm Trent Arant and I'm 28 years old, and I live full-time out of a converted cargo van, and I pay about
$700 a month to live like this.
Before I lived in a van, I was living in a house with a girl and I was in love, and life was
great. Everything was going perfectly, and then that relationship fell apart really quickly,
and I was left in this big empty house alone with nothing but my thoughts to eat
me alive. And I wanted nothing more than to just get out and go, and be somewhere else, and be somewhere
different. I'm originally from Augusta, Georgia.
I grew up there, and then I moved off to college to Orlando, Florida, to go to film school, and then from
there I started working in Atlanta in the film industry.
I don't know that I would be able to live this lifestyle without my dog, Millie.
She provides a lot of comfort for me.
Whenever I'm having a bad day, she's always there to cheer me up.
It's hard to build and maintain relationships with people, and that gets really hard.
And when you're living in a van by yourself like I'm doing, it gets really, really lonely.
So, home base for me is Atlanta, Georgia, because that's where most of my film work is, but I'm currently
in Asheville, North Carolina, just adventuring around and hanging out in the mountains.
I think one of my favorite places I've ever been to was this spot in the middle of the desert in Nevada.
I had this hot spring all to myself and I was surrounded by snowcapped mountains.
It literally was a dream and it was so therapeutic for me.
I had that place for a week all to myself.
I own a 2020 RAM ProMaster Van.
It's a 159 inch extended cargo van that I converted myself.
I bought this van brand new right off the lot.
It was actually my first brand new vehicle purchase in my entire life, so it was quite a difficult process and
I had to go to several different dealerships before I was able to lock down this van here.
And, I bought it in Charlotte, North Carolina, after months and months of haggling with dealerships.
I decided to go with the RAM ProMaster because it has the biggest width.
It's just so much easier to build out of.
I honestly didn't even look at any other vans.
The MSRP of my van is $47,000.
When converting this van into a livable space, I had to essentially build a house from scratch.
Yes, the shell of the house was there, but I still had to add insulation, plumbing,
gas and even electrical, and I've got solar panels mounted on the roof of my van, which power all of
my appliances in my van.
Tonight, we're in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but come check out my van.
All the appliances in this van, including my computer, my refrigerator, my water pump, my lights on my
ceiling, is powered off of solar power.
And, I've got two three hundred watts of solar panels on the roof of my van, which then charge up a battery
bank that has 620 amp hours worth of battery power.
This is where I store all of my spices, my oil, even some wine here.
When building out this van, I wanted to make sure that I had essentially a full sized kitchen because I value
my meals - an oven, a stove, a huge fridge to store all of my food.
I made sure to get one of the biggest fridges on the market that's about counter height, and both 12 volt
power, and this thing is probably one of the biggest fridges you'll ever see in a van that's not a
full-sized fridge.
This is my sink, and I believe this is a 17 inch sink here, with a fully operational water
pump, and all that water comes from a 40-gallon tank that's located under my
bed. All the water that comes out of this faucet here flows down the drain into a six gallon gray water tank.
Once that fills up, I have to go and empty that out at a dump station or outside somewhere.
And directly next to my refrigerator is my cooking range.
I've got a three burner stove top and an oven so I can bake cookies and
brownies, or roast some veggies whenever I want to.
And directly on the other side of my van is pretty much the main focus of my van, which is my gaming
setup. This is my life.
I've got a full-size gaming PC that's all powered off of solar power, and it's incredible.
It's one of the busiest PCs you can get on the market for its size, and it's extremely power efficient, so
I'm able to game completely off grid wherever, whenever I want.
So right next to my gaming area is where my toilet is.
And believe it or not, I rarely ever use this toilet because it's a very simple toilet.
And by that, I mean, you literally just kind of go in a bag.
So, that's why I say it's for emergency purposes only.
And when I do go to the bathroom, I often find myself going to public restrooms or just going
out in nature. And this here is Millie's bedroom.
When I was building out my van, Millie loved this area of the van.
I just knew I had to make it her own space, so that's exactly what I did.
This is about a two and a half by two and a half living space for her.
I've got a little light here that can turn on and off, and I've even got a fan for her on the
hotter months. This here is my bedroom.
I sleep on a full size memory foam mattress, and because of the way I built out my bedroom,
I've got these little out jogged areas.
It adds like four or six extra inches to my bedroom space.
I'm 5'10" and I'm able to lay completely flat on this bed.
So right above my bed is where I store all of my clothes.
It's nothing too crazy, but it's way more space than I actually need.
And right on the other side of my garage is my outdoor shower.
Pull back this door, I pull out my shower head just like this, and then I turn on the faucet
and there you go. I have a nice cold shower.
Van life has really put life into perspective for me.
Being able to travel around the country and experience all these unique people and unique places, and now I'm
forced to go out of my element and experience things I wouldn't normally experience.
I don't necessarily have a timeline of when I want to leave van life behind.
I think I'm just waiting for that moment where I meet someone that's ready to build a life outside of this
lifestyle. Good girl.