My Stealth SUV Nomading Set-Up

in travel •  6 years ago  (edited)


Day 1622 of Traveling and Life on the Road

June 15, 2018

Jackson Washington State Forest near Brownstown, Indiana

Here is a video where I show you the set-up in my Nissan Xterra SUV, 2 Wheel Drive, 2003, with 160,000 miles. I guess you could call me a travel nomad. I am homeless, my land boat is now my home. Almost everything I own is with me in my vehicle, except what I keep in a 5 X 7 storage unit and a few things I have scattered with a few friends. I could probably store every possession I own easily in a 10 X 10 storage unit. My plan is to eventually have all that I own with me in my vehicle. I've been slowly selling my possessions one item at a time. I even sell some of my smaller things, that I carry along with me, on EBay, while I travel.

I love the minimalist lifestyle. It frees my mind and spirit. I now value relationships and adventures. I also live very frugally. I don't work, though I do try my best to make a little income through investing, selling on EBay, playing online and casino poker, and buying crypto currencies. I'm always looking for a way to make another penny anyway I can. I've even made a little from Steemit, thanks to those that up vote my blog. Thank you all very much! The best way to make money is save money.

Ways I can live frugally are by camping for free, by either stealth camping or dispersed camping. Stealth camping is where you are generally camping someplace where you are doing no one any harm, but you are considered to be breaking the law by just sleeping in ones vehicle. No victim no crime. Typically you won't be fined or arrested unless you are trespassing on private property, which is something I never do. Stealth camping usually occurs at night, on a public street in a city, a public parking area, a roadside pull out, or an isolated park road for example. It is perfectly legal to sleep in ones vehicle at these places during daylight hours, but once darkness sets in, you are considered to be violating some law. Typically law enforcement will not fine or arrest you, but just tell you to move along.

Dispersed camping is usually allowed in national forest or Bureau of Land Management public lands. These places are primitive spots, you will find along back roads, where one just pulls off the side of the road on public lands and it is totally legal to use for this purpose. Usually you are only allowed to camp here for 14 consecutive days and usually no one even knows you are there to begin with. I rarely stay in one place for two consecutive weeks unless the place has wonderful weather, lots of hiking opportunities and places close by that might be of interest. Usually it is easy to find a free legal camping spot without having to stealth camp very often and I only stealth camp as a last resort.

National forests will also have plenty of free campsites in campgrounds with amenities like picnic tables, a flat, gravel parking place, a tent pad, a fire ring, and vault toilets. These campsites, like dispersed ones, are usually down back roads in more remote parts of the forest. This is fine for me though, as I'm looking for more remote quite, off the beaten path places to camp. You just have to be prepared. Be sure and have plenty of water and food and keep an eye on the weather in case a storm causes flooding that causes roads that led you here to be impassable.

Life is generally an adventure, but nomading is way less stressful and way more rewarding than my lifestyle, when I was working sometimes 66 plus hours a week. Now i can persue my passions and live life stress free. I know this is not for everyone, but I know many out there dream of such a life. Just like life, there are unlimited ways to travel and have an alternative lifestyle. Mine is not for everyone, but I hope to inspire you to start rethinking what you are doing and make the change for you own happiness.

Will I do this until I die? Not likely, as I have interests in traveling the world now and nomading doesn't work outside of the US. The love of travel, camping, nature, new adventures, living spontaneously is why I do this. Ive never before experienced so much serendipity or synchronicity ever in my life. Never has my life been so filled with positive experiences and happiness. Foe me, this is living as free as I can be, in an unfree world.

Peace, love and voluntaryism.

Christopher Greyson.


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That's a pretty tidy setup you have there. Have you considered a 12v refrigerator? Buying ice every other day has got to get pricey...

Also, did you use some sort of image stabilization on your video? If so, maybe try posting without it? the edges of the video seems to distort and it was difficult to watch at times...

I didn't use an image stabilization. I probably have shakey hands. Please instruct me on how to fix this. I don't drive enough to use one of those electric fridges and I don't use a backup battery. I typically don't use this much ice, but it's been unseasonably warm in Kentucky and Indiana I think as well. I was here last spring and it wasn't this hot. Plus I dont have a lot of perishables in my chest that require constant 40 or below. I don't store dairy , eggs or meat as I'm a vegan. If I wasn't hanging out for the Michigan Festival, I'd travel to some cooler areas. Have any tips, they are certainly welcome. Thanks for following and your upvotes. I need a cooler place to spend the summer. I really dislike 80 and above temperatures.

I'm definitely with you on the 80+ temps...

Only tip i have right now is to use 2.5 gallon water jugs with the top cut off in front of the handle for basically what you are using the red topped rubbermaid containers for. It will keep the ice and water contained better. we usually freeze them before a trip, transfer the initial melt into our drinking water when its just about completely melted, and refill with fresh ice. The water stays plenty clean enough to drink this way and the cooler stays cool and dry.

The separation is more important for us, because we are meat and dairy eaters, but i think you could benefit from it too. we pretty much don't waste any water in the cooler this way.

I'm really enjoying your adventures. Hit me up if you come to So Cal (don't come now... its pushing 100f here and the summer hasn't really started yet)

Great to see the tour of your setup. I love the tray setup on the back for the cooler. I may have to look into doing something similar. As I've mentioned before, I still have the electric cooler but it hasn't been plugged in for over a week. Since it's been relatively cool here, I've foregone keeping anything cold with me. With a setup like that, though, I could get a little more room inside and I could treat myself to something other than muh PB and banana sandwiches and storable food. LoL

This was a really interesting tour of your setup. Subbed.

Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for subbing.