Outskirts Overland Podcast
Welcome to the Outskirts Overland Podcast, your go-to source for all things overlanding! Hosted by a seasoned adventurer with over 15 years of experience, this podcast offers a genuine and down-to-earth exploration of the overlanding lifestyle. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting out, join us as we delve into the essentials of gear and equipment, share captivating stories from the road, and provide practical tips for your next adventure. Tune in for insightful interviews, expert advice, and a community of like-minded explorers who share a passion for discovering the world beyond the beaten path. Get ready to fuel your wanderlust and embark on unforgettable journeys with the Outskirts Overland Podcast!
Outskirts Overland Podcast
Van Life is Calling My Name, But Where Do I Even Begin?
Dreaming of the open road and a simpler life has me deep-diving into the world of van conversions and full-time mobile living. This isn't just about weekend adventures anymore – it's about reimagining what home means when your address changes with the seasons.
For nearly four years, I've been researching, planning, and gradually working toward transitioning from my beloved Tacoma weekend setup to something that can sustain true nomadic living for years. The options seem endless: Ford Transit vans with high tops, Mercedes Sprinters, truck campers, and every variation in between. Each platform offers different compromises between comfort, off-road capability, storage space, and your bank account's health.
The reality is stark when comparing weekend camping to permanent mobile living. My truck works perfectly for those 3-4 day adventures, stretching comfortably to week-long excursions. But when considering living this way for years, suddenly those "luxury" features like proper toilets, showers, and functional kitchen spaces don't seem so optional anymore. As I've learned to appreciate: comfort isn't just nice to have – it's functional.
What's most overwhelming isn't just choosing a vehicle, but envisioning an entire life within its constraints. How do you determine what layout will work best? Where do you even start when designing such a compact living space? And the financial investment is substantial – ready-built camper vans often run between $270,000-$300,000, while DIY builds bring their own challenges despite potential cost savings.
The learning process has been cyclical – diving deep into research, stepping back to process while camping with my current setup, then returning with fresh eyes. I'm absorbing knowledge from experienced nomads and countless YouTube builds, though I often find myself pausing videos wondering about the thought processes behind specific design choices that aren't explained.
Got questions about van life or overlanding? Text me through the podcast app – I'd love to hear your thoughts or answer questions, especially as we prepare for next week's episode with Overland of America!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Outskirts Overland. It is Thursday the 17th, heading into the weekend. Here in the Midwest we just were met with not only extreme heat yesterday, a ton of rain and very humid temps today, so pretty sticky, that's what I like to call it. Sticky, it's real jungly here. So, anyhow, anyhow, what I like to call it sticky, it's real jungly here. So, anyhow, anyhow. Um, yeah, so that's what's going on here.
Speaker 1:Been watching. You know I talk about, uh, you know some I've talked about it. You know, privately and publicly, with many people, that I want to go on the road full time, and so I've been watching a lot of builds, just from vans to like, I guess, camper vans for sure, but like also like there's off grid man, there's so many trigger terms Off grid or off roadroad campers too, or like RVs I guess, which is kind of what a camper van is anyways. But you've got the Ford van, you've got the Econo line with the high top. You've got the Sprinter. You've got the full-size truck with the four-wheel camper flatbed. You've got the Alucab canopy camper on the back of a truck. You've got the alley cab canopy camper on the back of a truck. You've got the ross monster. I mean, it's really just how much you want to spend and how you want to live and it is a there's a lot. There's a lot to that. Um, and we're not watching van build because we think we're going to buy a built van, but we're probably going to build one.
Speaker 1:I don't plan to get rid of my truck at all. So as far as off-road is concerned, I'm not going to have some. I want to have a van with a lift and four-wheeler, all-wheel drive and some all-terrains and et cetera. But and a winch for sure, just because they probably don't have great traction, I'm not going to have an overly off-road situation going on there, because I do have my truck and it works for that very well and that's what it's more made for Is a little bit more of the off-road side of things Than the living comfort things. We've been watching that a lot. I'm starting to plan out for that Now. Again, this is not something. Watch next week for us to start like it's not going to be anything like that. It's going to be a while, but they're a lot of money.
Speaker 1:I keep hoping that. I keep seeing these van builds and everybody's building them and it's kind of like everything else rooftop tents and whatnot, you know not for them. You know not for them. You know I want everybody to get out and enjoy their stuff, but it is pretty. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that in a lot of cases people get real hot to trot on some of these things and they buy them before they try anything. And then they find out, you know, they don't use it as much as they wanted or they're done using it or whatever. So really hoping I can find something that's a great platform that's even already built out, but because the price is less, because it's used, maybe I won't feel so bad about tearing some of that out and redoing a little bit of it.
Speaker 1:But who knows what's coming? There's all kinds of stuff. There's Ram, pro masters there's. I mean, there's just all kinds. And then you get into like the more earth roamer stuff where they got like the I don't know. I don't know what you call it Like. It's like a storage cube almost. Is what they put on the back of these things, these different Mercedes, you know. You know European military ambulances and stuff that's.
Speaker 1:That's not going to be for me. I'm. You guys have listened this long enough. I did a lot of very, very, very rugged and uncomfortable things in my past and I am all about ease of use and comfort. I'm very big on function, but comfort, in my opinion, comfort is a function. So I don't know what we're going to land ourselves on. Really. It most likely will be something larger than the Tacoma, though, so at least a full-size truck, if a truck, at least that. Just due to the fact that the living mean I'm not talking about like I'm going camping every weekend, like I am now like for two or three or four days or a week. You know we're talking a year, two years, three years, five years, you know whatever it turns out to be, but it'll be full-time living. So it's going to have to be something quite a bit different than the Tacoma.
Speaker 1:And the more and more you watch this stuff, the more and more you're like oh man, yeah, that, yeah, that, okay, yeah, you know. And you start to look at it and you're like do I need a toilet? Do I need a shower? Do I need a sink? What do I really need and what do I really not? How committed are you? Because you can't have a toilet, a shower, sort of everything, but you cannot have everything. There's not enough room, and I've looked at quite a few of these, these uh, so uh, sprinters like one 44 and the Ford transit is like a one 44 wheelbase around that size. Then you got the long ones that are dualies and it's real popular that they take those long ones and make it a super single. So that's whatever too, but the man, that guys, these things, these things, like I talked about how much my truck costs, right, like how much I have in my truck to do this thing. These are like literally twice that much. You're looking at like 270 to 300k on these things to buy a built one. Could I tell you guys what it costs to build one? No, will I maybe someday be able to tell you what that costs? Yeah, maybe, uh, I, you know I got to get on bring a trailer and see what kind of, what kind of half built or situations there are.
Speaker 1:Uh, for those of you guys that aren't familiar, bring a trailer is a place to find old or rare or unique vehicles for sale. It's a marketplace for car enthusiasts. So you could find built Tacomas, built 4Runners, camper vans, you know, like really old Porsches Not really old, but like 60s and 70s Porsches. It is a place, it's a marketplace auction for those types of things, your rare vehicles. You could probably get a Unimog off. Bring a trailer. It's a place where people that know they're looking for something really unique can go look for it. You're not going to find it at a dealer, I don't know. I mean Facebook marketplace maybe, but man, you're going to be on Facebook marketplace for a hot minute. It's ads galore on Facebook marketplace. So bring a trailer as a place for that.
Speaker 1:So you know, if you're the type of person that listens to this podcast or any overlaying podcast or watch anybody and you're like man, this is a lot of work to build a rig, you know, bring a trailer might be a place for you to go look and you might affordably be able to find one. You know, reasonably, um, that's already built and you're just going to have to drive to get it or whatever. But I've seen quite a few built rigs on bring a trailer. Uh, different types, you know, older Sequoias, tundras, just all, just all over the map.
Speaker 1:So, and a lot of times when you go to resell a vehicle, like I told you guys, I have a ton of money in my truck, I couldn't turn around and sell it for more than probably like 35 K. You know it doesn't make it worth more, so it's really up to how much somebody wants to take off of it and part it out If it's even worth it. But that could work out for you guys If that's something you're looking for right now and you can find vehicles that are new enough to where even getting a loan on it might be an option. You know we're not all Dave Ramsey, we're just going to pay in cash for everything. I had a loan on my truck too, like it is. You know, that's life, naturally. That's just. That's just how it goes. Uh, well, my truck is five years old now. Well, I guess it's 2025 summer, so it's almost it's five years old to me. But almost six years, six model years old Cause 2026 is will be coming out soon. That's crazy man. They even have a whole new model of Tacoma. Now Mine's not even the newest iteration. That's man.
Speaker 1:I, when I was younger, I used to be like, oh, that car, that's the year old, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. And now I'm like, oh, son of a mother, you know, like I haven't had this car long enough. So that's crazy man. I just, yeah, that's crazy. I just I need.
Speaker 1:It's hard to comprehend it. Not that don't mean I've got any urgency to get something else. I can promise you that I will not be. Um, I'm committed. I'm committed to my truck. At this point I mean I'm committed enough to my truck. I bought a whole, a whole, entire another car so I don't have to keep putting miles on it. So that's about as a whole entire another car so I don't have to keep putting miles on it. So that's about as, that's about as committed as it gets. Which is what I'm in right now and I love this thing. I love my little Subaru. Well, I say little, it's a Forester, it's not little, it's a Crosstrek, but I love this little thing. It's a perfect little get around whenever commuter car. So yeah, we've been looking at vans a lot. That's not something that's new.
Speaker 1:I went to Van Do it last November, november, october, november, october, november and looked at vans and looked at builds and talked about building a van and what that would look like and things I like, things I didn't. You know I'm not ready I could be ready to pull the trigger on a van. I mean, it's not something that I have. It's not something that's on my list to do immediately, but if it was the right situation it could be Um. So I went and looked. You know I've been in contact with them a lot Bandu, it's real close to me, so it's in.
Speaker 1:Like Independence, which is an hour and a half from my house, so a van builder that I could like go check on progress or or see, like before it's built, be like okay, like go in there and spin around, you know, like, ah, actually I don't like that layout so much, you know. So I'm that's not stuff that when it's finished, I'm driving out to Utah or California or Arizona and I'm like, oh, I don't like this, that's a consideration for sure. Um, cause I could just drive up there. Not that I want to go annoy these guys to, to, to my, to the end of their life, but it's a possibility. And then it's still in my mind. It's like I have a lot of tools and I have a shop with a 12-foot door, or like, I don't know, maybe I build it.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I'm not like an elite craftsman by any means, but I'd say I'm above average. Well, the average is probably real low. I'm probably considerably above average, but I'm nowhere near expert, I guess I would say so. I just don't know. That's a whole nother world and that's a world I want to be able to bring to you guys. Here's what it's like living on the road. I've been on long trips in my truck, but my truck is is not a living space, it has a sleeping space. I mean and this could be argued. You know, people do travel the world in a rooftop tent or sleep in the back of a rig, and they travel the world. I don't know that I'm looking to expedition, I'm just looking to live. So I'm not, I do, I do the.
Speaker 1:I do like the aesthetic of the, the more rugged camper van type thing, and that matters. I mean, when you spend that much money, it matters, everything matters. Really, some of them, you know everything, everything matters. They're so expensive, um, so you definitely don't want to be into something. You're kind of like him, han, you're, but the more and more I look at it, I'm like man, this is just so, so, so, so different. You're going from my truck, which is about it's not even quite 6,000 pounds, I think it's like 52, 5,400 pounds to these vans are like 10,000 pounds. Well, but you got cabinets and you got water tanks and bigger solar and bigger fuel tanks. Typically Most of them have larger, extended fuel tanks. It's just a lot of stuff and it's a whole different world and I'm trying to learn about it.
Speaker 1:I don't hear too many people doing podcasts that know anything about it. Maybe here in the future I don't want to say near future, but in the future I'll rent one, maybe I'll rent a few, I don't know. Um, but I want to see what that's like. I want to see what it's like to just get to camp, pull the thing, flip your seat around in your home. You know, like that there's no getting out, there's no. Like you could put the blackouts on and just park in a parking spot and take a nap, like I'm, I'm, I'm getting, I'm getting more and more ready for that pretty much every single day. You know, and I've brought it up to you guys, where a silent, like our way earlier podcast is like where are good asylums for free camping? And I brought up like Cracker Barrel, walmart, home Depot, like not Bucky's, and in places you can go to get showers, like get a gym membership at Planet Fitness Anytime Fitness, you know any national brand. That's a place where you can get showers. So maybe if you're traveling long distance, get you one of those gym memberships. That's a good place to shower when you're traveling like that.
Speaker 1:Like this is not something new to my brain, it's not something new to my, my, my future plans, but I take a break from it because it's, if I don't, it's almost like coming back to it with a new set of eyes, taking a break from it. You know like I'll watch a bunch of it, I'll write some stuff down, I'll take a month or two off of looking at it go, you know, camping in my truck, which is I wouldn't say it's constantly getting revamped, but it's some in some way shape or form reorganized or evolved, evolved like we've got it, we've got my truck really really well locked down. But even so, just due to the season or the terrain, or we are always kind of like moving where stuff is a little bit, a little bit little tweaks. You know, like little tweaks. I mean, a couple of weeks ago I was camping and this is unforeseen. You know, this is completely and totally unforeseen to me. I'm camping and I wake up and it looks like the paper towels have been chewed on I opened my drawer and something had chewed up on the paper towels and made themselves a little bed, squeezed themselves in the deck system and made a little bed on top of my tool roll. So you know, like that's a cause for like evolving that. So now my paper towels Are inside the truck. They're not outside the truck anymore. You know, like just dumb, just dumb stuff like that and that stuff happens. Guys, it might sound gross to you, but like that's, you're out there amongst these animals. I mean that stuff's gonna happen. I mean that's just kind of stuff that's gonna happen. It's not gross. It doesn't mean like my deck system's not secure. If you guys know mice or field mice or whatever, like they can. They can they're skeletons, they can like squeeze into pinholes. So it just is what it is. I wasn't like, oh, that's mouse. I was like I'm an idiot for leaving my paper towels out. I mean that mouse just living life. I mean good for him. He had a great. He had a great night's sleep, I'm sure, um, but it didn't not what I want to have happening regularly. So paper towels are inside.
Speaker 1:I spent way too much money on a changing mat that that, like I don't even know onward makes its company onward o-n-w-r-d, not w-A-R-D onward. And I got their like headrest organizers, which are freaking phenomenal. But I also bought their little changing mat and when it gets dirty you can like cinch it so like you're not getting dirt everywhere. It's not like a flat mat, you're not rolling it up on itself. That's something that's like, so, like I don't know. I saw it in a media. It was like I have to have that, not have to have it like oh my God, it's the fancy thing right now. Like I was, like I have to have that. Cause that makes sense. Like I try to not step on it with my shoes, but it's a place that's take your shoes off and step barefoot on the ground and change without creating an enormous mess.
Speaker 1:Cause a lot of times we're changing up in the rooftop tent and those of you that are in a rooftop tent, it's typically well, for me it's two people or more and there's really one way in and one way out, cause there's not ladders on both sides, that is that you know it's going to get dirty with. Cause those of you that ever walked up a rooftop tent ladder like extremely unpleasant barefoot and also the ladder's never clean either. So, and yeah, there's people that are going to go oh, they make pads for that. Yeah, they sure do, they're. I mean I could vacuum up dirt for the pet, cause you got to take the pads on and off. The ladder doesn't collapse up the same. Like I always say, is the juice worth the squeeze? That one is not. That one is not just to walk barefoot up the ladder and again, the steps still can get dirty. They just don't hurt your feet as bad. So you'd really have to be like super committed to only walking up and down the ladder barefoot and they're probably still slick.
Speaker 1:Those of you that camped in any type of sleet or rain or I mean good way to slip and bust your butt, so, uh, I don't know if that's gonna be something that I'm recommending. Yeah, I've been looking at a lot of full-time stuff and just trying to learn from those that know and that I could try. And it's Dan Grek. He's not in a camper van, he's in a Jeep. He's always in some kind of Jeep Gladiator, jl, four Door, I mean. His first one was I don't even know what model of Jeep. It was Old 90s soft top, lived in a tent the whole time all the way through the Pan American, so that's, or well, the bottom half of the Pan American, I believe. Anyways, north America to or not North America, us to Ushuaia, argentina.
Speaker 1:I listen to that stuff because there's just so much like, if they can, if they can, if somebody can convey it, broken down, like in the moment, like I do these things for you guys, that like regularly and I'm like, oh, this is on my mind right now. This is almost a way of me like digitally note-taking, to like this is on my mind right now. I'm going to talk about it so I can come back to it. You guys could come back to it like, not that, my thoughts are yours, but it's a good place just to have it. But sometimes those folks, you know, if I, if, if I think, if I was to talk to them, to ask them questions, I would be able to ask a lot of stuff that they didn't um, I don't even know the word but that they didn't talk about because there's so much you'd forget. So in the moment it's easy to remember, but then it's like, oh, a squirrel or another situation, like just even another, like there's another obstacle to overcome all the time.
Speaker 1:And then for me, when I'm camping now even and it's not by any means living, but like driving man, I drive so much like I drive so much, it's not unusual on a weekend I go camping for me to drive 12 hours, not one way, just total, but that's a lot, that's boring and you're driving so you can't be taking notes when you're driving. I could probably take voice memos. That'd probably be a well, like anything else. That's a great idea, but that's also a new habit that I don't do now and that's going to be hard to implement. That's a talk for old Charlie another time, anyways. So yeah, it's just it's hard to even, it's hard to extract all the information to questions you might have.
Speaker 1:When it comes to living on the road full time, I'm not an expert, I'm not at all an expert, I'm not even sort of an expert, I'm a um, I want to be a student of it and I think there's tons of people that have done it. And while we still have public land, you know, obviously my, my plan could be foiled real quickly, you know, if they sell all the public land, which I'm strongly against, but that would totally screw my future plans, honestly. And then I don't, I don't know, I've played, I've spent a lot of years planning on trying to work toward that goal and, uh, that would stink pretty, pretty bad, that would suck. So because blM land is obviously going to be an enormous you know part of that lifestyle but been looking at that, trying to be the best student I can be of that to learn what, what, um, what to even where to even start.
Speaker 1:You know, I was watching one yesterday and people were putting up doors and I was like, oh, this almost looks fun. And then I paused it and I was like, how'd they even come to picking that door? Like, that's the info I want. Where are you buying all this stuff? How do you come to these? Like I talked to you guys like the trucks, tetris, and I'm looking at a five foot bed like, and that's Tetris. Where do you even come to figuring out, like when you've got this blank space, unless you're copying somebody else's plans? But heck, even even in the case say you're copying somebody else's plans how they come to it. That's the stuff I want to know. Like, how did you figure measure? Like, how did you figure all the measurements out of what you need and how to fit it and where to get it, because they're always doing unique stuff and and, and I'm pretty good at that myself, but it seems almost overwhelming to me.
Speaker 1:So it's a, it's a. It's just a whole new world and I I continue to get out and come back to it and I feel like I need to talk about it because, no, nobody else is it's. I mean, nobody else is. I don't know if there's Van Life or Overland Van Life podcasts. There's tons of YouTube channels, but again, guys, I'm better at this than that. I just don't do video editing.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, living full-time is something that I definitely want to get to and I don't know that it's going to be in the cheapest. Most you know the most economical way, necessarily because the longer and longer I look, even if you build it yourself, most you know the most economical way, necessarily because the longer and longer I look, even if you build it yourself, like it's just just building something to live in. That's not. That's better than like RV camper quality. It's just expensive. Whether you build it or somebody else builds it, it's it's. It's expensive, it it's.
Speaker 1:It's very much like building a house, except there's not as many people that do it, so it's learning how to make studs in the vans, like so that's where you can put walls up in them, you know, and insulate them, and sub floors, and there's a lot to it and and, quite frankly, like many, many, many people do it different. So there's a lot of ways to peel that orange like a ton. I've seen at least five different ways to put a freaking floor in. You know, in the last four days, and I don't even woods heavy, but wood's cheaper than aluminum, it's just. But you don't want it. I mean, when you walk on it you don't want it to bow and I don't know. It's a lot, there's a lot there and you're drilling holes in the floor because you got to vent certain stuff, whether it's propane or diesel heater, or cutting holes in the roof for sure for max air fans and ac units or whatever. There a lot, there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 1:It's like I'm it's like I've never built a house and I'm like I'm gonna build a house and I'm gonna try and learn how to do that on YouTube. That's like where I'm at Overwhelming. Well, I guess I'm not overwhelmed, but complicated. I'll say I'm not overwhelmed, I'm excited, more so, but I'm also not in the middle of the project going, ah f, that's, that didn't work out. Now I've spent money and failed, so I'm excited right now, before I'm in the middle of it, which is hindsight, you know, will probably occur pretty heavily on me. So there's that. Yeah, so that's what's going on in my life.
Speaker 1:Stand by, guys, for next week. I'll have a podcast before Wednesday. For sure I may even do one again tomorrow, but I'll have a podcast before Wednesday with Overland of America. Again, guys, hit me with any questions you have. They actually just met with, uh, met with, Benji at Newfound Overland. I haven't listened to it yet, but definitely I'm gonna, cause I want to, I want to try and extract some questions that weren't answered there. Um, and if you guys also go over there and listen and you're like, what about this, what about that? Hey guys, you got a great opportunity where they're going to be on his podcast this week, which is live yesterday, today or yesterday, either way, you can listen to it right now, and then they're going to be on mine next week and we can get into some, you know, unanswered questions. Hopefully, hopefully, it'd be great, awesome opportunity for you guys.
Speaker 1:Shoot me an email, Shoot me an email, shoot me a text. Shoot the. There should be a text, us tab on the podcast. Text, the podcast, whatever you want to ask them, I mean that's what it's for. That's why they're coming on. Tell you about what's going on so we can ask some questions. Excuse me, get to know them, get to know the event, go from there. So, anyways, guys, I'll catch you another day. I don't know what day, maybe tomorrow, maybe not, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I just wanted to talk about, like man, just looking at this, looking at this, living full time on the road or public land or whatever. It's a it's way complex and I'm still like barely scratching the surface and I'm really probably since 2021, 2021 pretty well decided. This is what I want to do. So it's it's evolved in the last four years, for sure, but also I've been trying to keep up with it for the last four years and there's just every time I think I got a good idea and I've got that down and I'm pausing videos and I'm like, man, I never saw that before. Man, that's, I never even thought of that.
Speaker 1:You know, you don't want to build something and be like, oh shoot, like totally forgot about this whole entire part of life. So it's hard, it's just a hard. It's hard Like it's not like physically hard, mentally hard. It's just hard to think that far ahead with something you've never done before. This will be the first time that I don't go, probably in the most basic sense, and try to build something to go in, because I don't know, while you're in the build process, how I don't think it works real well to test it out half built, just due to how you got to run wires and stuff. It's kind of got to be slightly predetermined and none of it's like really like modular. Particularly you can get stuff that's modular, but I don't know that's what I want to live with forever, and then I'm buying stuff twice. Yeah, it's tough, it's tough, it's super tough. I don't even know.
Speaker 1:Um, on another note, another note um, my, finally, today, my, I was talking about getting my apparel website up. Today all my first order of apparel is coming in, which is nothing like for sale or anything, it's just like kind of like a one of each, so I I can see what stuff looks like, so I can make adjustments if I feel that that I need to, and I'll probably post some pictures of that stuff and then that website will come here. That website's built, it just we're working on it. It's a little bit of a any of you guys that do that, you know that's a little bit of a deal and I don't like that. We stock photos or mock-ups on there. I want the real products to be on there as much as when applicable. Obviously, if we come out with a new product or a new idea, we'll post a mock-up there because it's not been made yet, but I want at least the first few things to be made already and those real photos will be up there. So, and that'll be live.
Speaker 1:If you guys want to buy anything, uh, it's really just more for you guys. Like, I'm not trying to push it really honestly. Um, I'll come out with new stuff. Like I told you guys, I think it's cool to make. I think like such a weird thing, but I like designing apparel. It's fun for me, for whatever reason, and uh, hopefully I got some stuff you guys think is cool looking. I mean enough to buy. So, anyways, I'll catch you guys later. Have a great day, have a great thursday. It's almost friday and uh, keep it real guys.
