I’m on a long touring holiday (6 months planned, possibly more), I’m half way thro and the number or breakdowns and vehicle issues is near biblical 😟 need some help!
Which Celtic deity would be best to request help from?
Transport in Celtic times would have been horses. I here’s I’m in a van… or maybe of travellers?
Any suggestions welcome!
TLDR Do your guys’ vans break every 2-3 weeks? Is this all just bad luck? Help me feel okay about this investment and decision to do this 😅
I’m new to van life - bought a van in April, did solid due diligence before buying & got a detailed mechanics report. Immediately loads of expensive worked needed - new ad blue injector, sensors & turbo costing £3k+. Gutted but the seller paid for £2+k of it 🤷🏻♀️
End of May move into the van full time and left for a big touring trip round UK and have had to take the van to the garage every 2-3 weeks. I know vehicle maintenance and repair is is a regular fixture of owning a van but this seems like too much?
Hand brake has failed 3 times now. Twice the cable was tightened and it was fine for like 2 weeks each time. Then another time they found one of the arms had ceased open. They fixed it but it’s like the issue has come back as I still have trouble with it being intermittent - sometimes it works normally and stops movement on a steep incline, other times with the same amount of clicks its like nothing is happening and the hb isn’t on at all. I just park on the flat and avoid routes where I might have to hill start on a single track lane. Once not ideal for touring.
And now the fuel additive pump needs replacing and a new pipe into the fuel tank cos it’s leaking. I just… am feeling so bummed out!
I’m disabled so can’t work, so have minimal income from government and all this repair work is eating up the savings I do have so much faster than I’d planned for.
So I’m reluctant to get the work done… the garage that did the diagnostics said just drive it til it won’t anymore, then get the work done… and I’m not sure how I feel about that advice - my bank balance is into that approach, but it feels risky?
Do your guys’ vans break this often? Is it just bad luck? Help me feel okay about this investment and decision to do this 😅
Sorry this is a bit of a ramble am feeling a bit defeated rn
New to van life. Obvs a sink in a campervan feeding into a grey water bottle/tank shouldn’t be treated the same as a sink in a house. But what is okay to go down there and what not?
Washing hands ✅
Cleaning teeth ❓
Washing up water (if plates not super dirty) ✅
Dirty/oily plates/pans ❓
Washing dog food bowls❓
Washing clothes ❓
I may be overthinking it…
I’m new to van life and the uk is having unprecedented hot weather - all week has been mid 30 degrees and wed and Thu will be up to 39 degrees Celsius. And it’s HUMID AF. Dry weather at these temps is SO much more doable but the humidity is killer. Anyone here from hot humid climes that lives in their van got any tips on how to manage heat?
I’ve got an extractor fan in the roof and windows that open in the back. Have an air circulator fan that’s pretty good and decent electric set up. Have fridge freezer so can have ice packs but obvs that’s v temporary. Obvs will aim to park in the shade as much as poss and have windscreen sunshade up. What else can I do?
Thanks!!
I’m in the south west uk. This week temperatures have been consistently over 30degrees (which has never happened in my 42 years in the planet), and weds and Thurs will get up to 39 degrees (which has also never happened in my life time). I don’t like hot weather or feeling hot or sweaty in general from a sensory perspective as well as there’s something about it that feels oppressive and inescapable. But these temps are making me feel actually scared. Like death or the end of the world is imminent (my therapist says this is OCD vibes). Does anyone else get this? If so how do you get on top of the emotion of it?
I know there’s parts of the world that are regularly this sort of temperature in the summer, but they tend to have more of a dry heat, which is a totally different thing. Are there other places in the world that have temperatures this high as well as crazy humidity? How do you guys manage it?
Also I’m staying at my friends house this week (thank god) but from Friday I move back into my van and am scared about managing this sort of heat in a tin can. Any fellow autists who hate heat live in vans and have experience managing this sort of heat?
I think I need reassurance that I’m not gonna die (kind of joking kind of serious) 😬
I will personally be basking like a lizard this weekend, but I would like y'all to not die so here's the tips I always remind my local friends of
**Setup**
- Hydrate!!! Seems obvious but I know some of y'all barely manage a glass a day. Start now, the body can only absorb so much water at a time so it's better to be hydrated in advance than trying to chug once heat exhaustion sets in and you get sick
- drink water, but also make one of those drinks a juice or a sports drink. Keeps your sugars and electrolytes up, which are important. Also yum yum tasty. And get some ice trays, they're worth it
- Keep your windows CLOSED with the best sunlight-blocking curtains possible as soon as the sun starts coming out, unless you have particularly good ventilation or something. Insulation works both ways, so better to keep the sun OUT from the jump rather than letting all the heated air in. If you can hang curtains or shades over your windows from the outside, do that too bc it will prevent the glass from warming (*if the outside air is still cooler than the inside air, windows open + curtains closed is acceptable. But as soon as it stops actually cooling, close it up)
- place fans strategically to circulate air through the flat. The room most towards the center of the house will be the coolest, so open all the interior doors and point a fan to "pull" cool air from in there, then place other fans in a sort of ♻️ direction to form a smooth current flow. If you have hot rooms you don't need to use, keep that door SHUT (firefighter rules)
**Cooling Yourself**
- if out of sun, you can dress as skimpy as you like to sweat efficiently. If you're in sun, COVER YOUR SKIN!! light breezy fabrics keep the majority of the heat from hitting you directly
- ice packs in the armpits, between the thighs, and/or under the neck. These are major artery zones and will cool you the most efficiently. The most effective option I've figured out for sleeping without feeling like a sticky disgusting mess, can even use a blanket to keep the cold in sometimes, lol
- wet hair. Like the opposite of wearing a hat in winter, a lot of heat escapes your head so you want to encourage that as much as possible. Just dunk or run your head under the faucet every time you dry off, it's very refreshing. Bald people can use a wet rag on their head for similar effect
- feet in a bucket of water, similar concept to the ice packs on major arteries but less intense. Best used for WFH desk folks or evening relaxing. Nice to get the sweat off
- cool showers or baths. Try not to go COLD cold because it makes the muscles clench and resist heat release, but a "pool cool" bathtub is nice to just keep full for whenever you want to climb in, soak for five minutes, then climb back out lol (saves water, keeps you cool, no room for civil bath habits when you're risking heat stroke)
- spray bottle for misting yourself. Basically supplementing your ability to sweat, most effective in front of a fan
- "second skin", dress in a thin, close-fitting layer of clothes (athleisure stretch fabrics or swimsuits ideal) and dunk yourself. It's messy, but the water evaporating off acts like turbocharged sweat cooling. Stops being effective as soon as you're dry, so only use if you're somewhere you can stay dunking and don't mind dripping everywhere
- other people swear by swamp fans, but I've never been able to get them to do much. Basically putting a brick of ice behind a fan to cool the air immediately behind it and then blast onto you. Worth trying at least once, I recommend plastic takeout boxes for freezing your bricks (lasts longer than ice cubes)
Edit: Crowdsourced tips of things I forgot, some that were new to me, and some I had assumed were obvious but since they came up are worth tagging on lol
Edit 2: Lots of tips about putting tinfoil (reflective side out) on windows, but this is only safe to do inside of SINGLE GLAZED WINDOWS! Double glazed risks heat getting trapped wrong and cracking the glass, so if you want to try this on double glazed, do it from the OUTSIDE. This has been your friendly "don't lose your deposit" PSA