How to Live In a Car, Van, or RV: And Get Out of Debt, Travel, and Find True Freedom Paperback – January 16, 2014

Bob Wells is a very warm and sympathetic personality. it is a real pleasure to read his thoughts and advise because he is realistic but encouraging to anyone who wants to try the vagabond life. I am enjoying his newer book "Wisdom from the Road" now.

I found Bob on his YouTube channel I have only seen a few video's they kept popping up and just the life advice is worth the read the stuff that has nothing to do with Van or RV life. My favorite line "if I don't like my neighbors I just turn the key and leave" I've always wanted to live this life now with some planning and doing I'm on my way life is too short to live work a 9-5 live with jerk neighbors or worse when you could be hanging out with postcard views on your doorstep and nice people are the nature type the jerks are pavement bound (mostly)

Generally good information, although the topic of electric power needs an update for newer LiFePo4 batteries and new charging tech.

My immediate interest in buying this book was to learn something about doing exactly what the author did. And for economic reasons, as well. I'm about to retire, and I've long dreamed of vandwelling.I have a big edge on entering the vandwelling culture. I've logged many miles backpacking and car camping, and the minimalist practices involved, along with the vagabond philosophy of vandwelling, have already provided me with a lot of experience. The author treats the subject with wonderful hands-on horse sense--the kind of horse sense I grew up with, from farmers and many tradesmen and tradeswomen who worked with their hands and knew the feel of physical reality. The author is such a person.I'm finding that almost no one who writes or teaches about converting a van offers precision, step-by-step plans for a specific configuration of the interior and its fittings. This author doesn't, either. But he does touch on every infrastructural issue of living in whatever you construct, and his own practices and his advice are always spot-on: you'll know what to do.He also deals with the extraterritorial issues of vandwelling: how to stealth camp in urban settings, and how to assure your survival if you go off-grid--boondocking. He urges asking where he might be allowed to park for a night--e.g., the police. He discusses matters of safety, both in town and in the boonies.And finally, he advises humane treatment of all who might dispute your manner of existence: policemen and policewomen, who might be regarded adversarially, but who really are concerned with safety--yours and others. He speaks respectfully of commercial venues where the vandweller might access facilities for sanitation and cleanliness: trade there for something you might need. Ask them to use their facilities.It is a substantive book, without pretense or any excess of words. From it you simply learn.

I am a subscriber to Bob Wells channel on YouTube and envy his sharing his knowledge and adventures on YouTube. I also signed up for his online class and hope someday, maybe at an RTR, we might meet so I can thank him personally for all the ideas and reviews I have watched. I had hoped to become a Temporary PartTime NoMad but had to move into a new place. Now I can go back to researching the possibilities of traveling across the US now that I have a stable base for my family. I’ve always been a tent camper and had many backpacking adventures in my early 20s in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, West, East and Middle Forks, when I was in the Army at Fort Bliss. Now a senior will all the 8mm film through VHS & DVDs family histories I can reminisce in all my adventures with my wife and family.

This is a very basic primer aimed at anyone who thinks they might want to live in a vehicle. The primary mover would be a life crisis so the author aims his advice for the poor (but rich in spirit). This is not a travel book but an honest and sometimes searing assessment of what it takes to rebel against society's conventions.How to choose a vehicle or how to make do with what you have. How to equip it for living, preferably a van, how to camp stealthily in plain sight, how to live on not much money at all. How to be free in short on four wheels.It's an easy read and offers insight into the mind of marginal dwellers but as one who has lived in small spaces and enjoyed travel the book falls short on personal anecdote and stories of traveling. As the practical how-to stuff ends the book comes to an abrupt halt and the part I wanted, the stories just aren't there.Survivalists, recently divorced, the suddenly poor can glean useful stuff. Those seeking escapist literature should look elsewhere.A quick read and fascinating in its way.

Sorry it took me so long to read it! Great book, looking forward to next one. I hope to make the move, but I'm70 Yeats old. In good sjape.

Although some info could be updated because of modern tech (A/C and solar), the book answered everything i needed to take up van life. Bob Wells rocks, in print and in youtube