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Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

This is article is just bad:

  * You can’t “vanlife” for a week. In a week you’ll just start learning how to do it properly and how to use a van.

  * “Used converted Sprinter costs $300K” - wildly inaccurate. Even new converted Sprinter doesn’t cost $300K. “You can’t get it” - after over-production in the last few months and with the current recession you can buy in a day.

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Most of the van life you see depicted on social media is actually this though - people who've rented a van short-term for as much as a hotel room or who live in a house and have a van that costs as much as a second home as an accessory for weekend trips.

People who actually live in vans are far less common than people who take photos of themselves in vans.

I suspect it's more that the intersection between "people who live in vans" and "people who take pictures of themselves in vans" is rather small.

We waited for 8mos last year for my wife’s sprinter to show up. I realize that was 2021/parts shortage/etc. but it wasn’t converted, just a 170” 4x4 cargo 2500.

But yeah, this article is just shit. Yes, Yosemite can be crowded, but good lord, get out of the valley.

I couldn’t finish after that.

I’m probably going to pick up a startlink rv setup, so that next year we can toss the kayaks, the kids that are still home, and a couple of dogs in the sprinter and go spend a week in the mountains.

And I’ll be able to do It without burning vacation. Just have to make sure I’m not on call as the phone ain’t gonna work there

Oh, I’d also point out: we’re not living in this thing. It was purchased for my wife (dog breeder) as her “dog show van” so she can go places with the mutts and not need hotels.

We had an RV (38’ class A) that was totaled by an ice storm. The van is a MUCHA BETTER vehicle for this, as it has more storage for the stuff we need, and is useful for her normal uses, where the RV sat there except for a few times per year when we’d drive it. Otherwise it just wasted money

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