The screw on the floor that you don't know where it's from is the worst! It's like a countdown timer to something completely falling apart, but you know the time left, just the mental ticking of the clock in your mind.

Really appreciate the honesty and the practical and realistic advice. I'm contemplating becoming a Grey Nomad when I retire in 3-5 years and this video has really helped get my head around important things to consider. I've done plenty of non-powered camping, from peak season in popular caravan parks, to remote backpacking, but never lived in a caravan. Thanks!

Awesome video guys, thanks for being so honest!

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

our pleasure, thanks for watching and leaving a comment.

I just love this channel, we are buying a new van next week and you are my go to site

@SvedosTrippin

9 күн бұрын

Thank you, we appreciate your support. Good luck with your new van purchase.

The things no one tells you :-) You are so right with the 'vanfluencers'. At the end of the day it is a home, your home. Just with wheels. The chores are pretty much the same, just on limited space. The upside is: the housework is done much quicker and there is less to do than in a 4 bedroom house. You either love it or hate it. We stuck in a cabin for a few weeks now, off the road because sold our caravan and waiting for the new one (which is coming soon). These few weeks in a fixed location are enough to made us realise we wont get back to living in a house or unit anytime soon. The caravan life bug has bitten and there is no return for us soon ;-) Great video, guys. Keep going, enjoying and safe travels. Love your episodes!

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Orr, thanks so much. You nailed it, same jobs but more complications and annoyances. But I sure as sht wouldn't trade this life for the old one any time soon. Hope you get your new van soon, catch ya on the road.

@asnomads

Жыл бұрын

@@SvedosTrippin countdown is running. Less than 40 days ;-) Thank you, would love to catch up with you guys. :-D Enjoy your travels and this awesome lifestyle.

I like how you guys are very open and honest - just telling it how it is from your experience.

Great insight to reality of van life. There are so many vanners on the road blogging on youtube weekly it is now to the point of overload for viewers. And of course they all want to make out it is glamerous by focussing on nice scenery/beaches etc they come across to get their views/subscriptions up and never tell how it really is We have been to all parts of Australia and lived and worked in Broome for 4yrs covering the whole top end to Darwin during that time. Last year in Cairns & Port Dougles region and i can tell you it is expensive tripping around these days no matter where you go and the country is overrun with travellers on the road in campers/vans/RV's etc it makes finding a nice spot to stay a logistical nightmare in peak season. These days you are far better off with a compost toilet like a "Separett Tiny" in a van than a chemical toilet which are a pain in the butt literally

We have a 16footer and understand what size means. Luv your vlogs. appreciate your open honesty and your positive attitude. Happy vanning and be safe

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and commenting.

Very informative! Need to be very organised!! The price of FREEDOM!!! Keep Enjoying & Exploring as long as you are still having FUN🥰

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

oh were still having fun, thanks for watching and commenting.

Great and honest review of caravan life, nothing is ever perfect but you never see or hear about it on so many videos. Well done, hope you enjoyed Tassie by the way

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, we sure did enjoy tassie but I'm looking forward to some warmer more swim able weather.

Good reality check. Thanks great tips.

@SvedosTrippin

3 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Wow, you guys are amazing- well done,

Absolutely nailed it guys 100% agree with this video great work.

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much 😁

Saving the the toilet a little more.. The boys could use a bucket that is kept in the shower. It becomes a bush wee and gets tipped out under a tree in the morning :)

Suggestion for the smelly toilet, get v.i.poos from the supermarket. It’s a little spray bottle, you spray once into the bowl (b4 each sitting)and magically no bad smell! Lasts ages

@SvedosTrippin

10 ай бұрын

Great tip!

Maybe you gotta let more of city life go. I was in the Victorian high country years ago in new year. Dargo high plains more or less. Back at the office was a skeleton staff. I had full faith in them. I would come back into mobile phone coverage and find a heap of messages about what should I do. Well I had no idea. I was on holiday. Sort it out yourselves etc. A problem of modern communications is it makes it harder to be on holiday. Life was easier when you went out of range and people understood that. D

great insight.....after 16 mths on the road I can totally relate and I have a bigger van with no kids.

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

We're so envious of kid less travellers haha. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂.

@twocoddiwompletravellers

Жыл бұрын

@@SvedosTrippin it will come to you one day

If you plan on traveling Australia buy a hotel on wheels or you just won't enjoy yourself. By that I mean a van that has a top that pops 12 inches to give you head room but is otherwise fully appointed so that you pop the top, turn on the fridge (after a few minutes of leveling) and turn on a TV. You need a solar array and a battery bank to do it though and that's, in my own case, 4x170Ah batteries (plus a loose 5th) @ $270 each, 2x350W solar panels @ $170 each, leads and connections @ $150ish, inverter at $200 (but you can do better - I just got a 3000Watter). I've gone fruit picking in my younger days with a canvas sided pop top and yes, it sucked. Those things are meant for hot weather travel, and not for long.

Very interesting, so glad the positives outweigh the negatives by far.

😂😂😂 let’s face it at least you have been to just about every Bunnings .👍👍👍👍👍

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Hahahahaha love it, what's so good about them is they are all layed out the same

great info

Love this video. We will be hitting the road soon travelling. Would love to know who you do the schooling through and what you both do to earn money while traveling

@SvedosTrippin

9 ай бұрын

School for us is the Cairns school of distance education, it's very full on and there are easier options, but it's also a second to none education and happy to put in the work for my kids. Mel works an admin and accounts job 3 days a week online and I run our socials and create our content (as well as school the kids though they don't lay me for that 🤣).

When we went camping as kids, we’d shit in the bush until absolutely necessary lol. .

@SvedosTrippin

Ай бұрын

Hard to get away with that these days. And with how many people out there doing it, it wouldn't take long for everywhere to become a toilet and very unpleasant.

A great insight about what it’s like in a caravan full-time. It’s not all Insta photos everyday. Being 11 months in we agree with all your points, apart from StarLink. We can quite easily camp in the middle of nowhere and enjoy being beyond the internet. Safe travels. 👍

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Awesome, thanks for the positive comment 😀. We would love if we didn't need to be on the internet but we would be able to make this all happen with out it, small price to pay I think.

Brilliant … the honesty I just what is needed.. all about balance, the yin and yan… I reckon though 10 things not to like, a thousand to love ..👍🍾👌

@SvedosTrippin

3 ай бұрын

Well said! Plenty to love about this lifestyle for sure.

Replace your toilet with a composting toilet and it will be like a star link game changer! It lasts weeks, no water needed, no smells or chemicals and no need for dump points!

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Hmm... one day. I can see the benefits for sure.

Great video guys

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks do much 😁

Great video guys! Can definitely agree with all of these. Just quietly, was the camera set up on the toilet for this? 😅

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Camera needs a throne 🤣

So is it a lot different to what you initially imagined? You mentioned you wish you had a washing machine….any other major things you wish you had purchased before you left on your travels? You came up with some very honest thoughts. Nice to hear the other side !😅

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

We have everything we need, and it's funny when we go to shops we are always like we don't need to be here, we don't need anything. The point of this video was to highlight the things that it seems no one really shares, we certainly love what we we are doing and wouldn't change it for anything but it's not always raibows and butterflies.

Life on the road is hard but fun 😅

Motorhome too much problem’s Repairs all time you never going scape from theses bills going up? Thank for this information !!

@SvedosTrippin

Ай бұрын

Life's getting too expensive

I bought a caravan to live in, and I hate this lifestyle. I miss living in a house…

@SvedosTrippin

5 сағат бұрын

It's not for everyone that's for sure.

Install a fan in the cassette system there is a space for it. We installed a front loader which is up on the wall. Wont help 100%, a friend has a 2nd toilet cassette to take the pressure off in having to empty the cassette straight away. Yes, feel your pain in having to get out 10 things to get another item out at the back of the cupboard. $75 p/n @ Apollo Bay is a rip-off, was it a public holiday? Can the Van Cruiser crowd help, re parcel collection. If you are delayed someone can collect for you, if they live near where you are travelling to?

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Wow, there's alot to unpack there. Firstly thanks for watching and commenting 😀. A fan isn't going to help when Owen decides he's gunna go 2s at dinner time, it's not the cassette smelling, my son just needs to stop being so annoying... No Appolo wasn't a pub holiday, it's just the great ocean road tax. Parcel collection just is what it is. We manage, I just wanted to highlight that it is definitely more challenging than when you live in a house. We love our life on the road, but we wanted to be honest and share some the negatives just so that people know, because hardly any of the "vanfluencers" share some of the monotonous annoying side of this lifestyle.

we set off next month happy with my barista and cook 😊

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Enjoy

Great video but we are about to go on the road full time snd would love to know what you do about address for licence, insurance, Centrelink etc but you skipped over it. We won’t have a home base.

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Hi, yes, sorry that would be a video onto itself. Short answer is we use our parents' address as a residential address. Enjoy and good luck getting on the road and thanks for watching.

Even with all those negatives I bet you wouldn’t change your lifestyle.

@SvedosTrippin

10 ай бұрын

nailed it.

How do you get mail to be sent to a post office of your choice? What's the procedure and how much does it cost?

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Hi, sorry my wife manages this and she's currently away from me (long story). But we have something called parcel collect. It would be a good start for you to google how parcel collect works. But thanks for your comment, we will put how do we manage mail on the road onto our list of help videos that were going to start putting out.

Very much agree with your comments re HIP camps - we’ve found the pics to be very misleading

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

At least we aren't the only ones.

Hi, I know this is a bit personal, but how do you make an income to pay for all that?

Just a small generator would help you big time out of trouble for charging the batteries. You can ger a small 1000 watt for 260 dollars that maybe 8 nights in a caravan park I would buy the small Honda one for sure that one will last you for many years

@SvedosTrippin

11 ай бұрын

I will have to look into it. Tbh it's very rare that we need to book a C.P for power reasons but.

Can I ask guys, has your reversing gotten better the longer you've been travelling, ot is it still q little daunting everyone watching at caravan parks?

@SvedosTrippin

21 күн бұрын

It's very natural for me, I learned from the several boats I had before I got the van. My local boat ramp was a 10/10 for difficulty so my skills developed in a harsh environment haha. It gets easier with practice, and just try to ignore the gawkers at the C.P, I hate when they do that, it even makes me nervous...

@72superlead

21 күн бұрын

@@SvedosTrippin Thanks mate. I drive a box trailer every day for work - 9 years now but the caravan is surprisingly quite different. You give me hope 🙏

Glamorous lifestyle LOL You guys crack me up

@SvedosTrippin

4 ай бұрын

hahah thanks, we try lol.

Life’s boring realities no one wants to talk about, Some interesting points, a separate toilet with a door is a must 😂

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Yup, not many "vanfluencers" seem to want to talk about these aspects of the lifestyle, that's why we took upon ourselves to do it.

How many amp hours do you guys think you need?

@SvedosTrippin

4 ай бұрын

How long is a peice of string? It really depends on your usage. We would be alot more comfortable with 800watts of solar and 400 amps of.battery, but we don't use alot of appliances for cooking if you did you might want more.

Out of interest how come you didn’t go for a bigger van? We have a 16ft van with bunks, I love it, but we are weekend warriors and school holiday campers, I couldn’t imagine traveling in it full time.

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

A couple of reasons. We wanted to be smaller to make it easier for finding places to camp and navigating tight roads. We wanted to have an off road capable van (which are heavier) but also have a boat. We had an average budget so couldn't afford a bigger tow rig and bigger van. I think most of these complaints would exist in a bigger van too. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂.

@72superlead

21 күн бұрын

I for one couldn't imagine how hard reversing into tighter spots, tighter roads etc anything beyond 20ft would become. It's just too difficult in my mind and limits things you can do whilst increasing stress

Seems to me that a lot of the challenges you face are made worse by the choice of van you made. A proper family 22 foot van would make your lives much more comfortable and easier. More lithium batteries and panels on a bigger van would also help take the pressure off. 👍

@SvedosTrippin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and commenting. There are always pluses and minuses, I can think of a lot of negatives to a 22 foot van as well.

More bigger more problems?

I wonder about the long term affects on your children. Maybe they will not get into relationships such as marriage as they associate that with living in hell.

Sounds like you need a bigger van. But, enjoy what you have. Having a home and a day job mean more comfort but less freedom and travels. Can’t wait till we do what you’re doing

How do you manage ‘mummy n daddy’ time with the kids always there? 🫣

@SvedosTrippin

Ай бұрын

Our kids are solid sleepers. We ask aloud if "does anyone want chocolate" to make sure 😅. There are plenty of compromises in this life.