This summer I spent two months living out of my Jeep Grand Cherokee and traveling the country. It was vanlife deja vu, except everything was different. My expectations of the trip were different, my intentions were different, and the path God led me down was totally different than my nomadic ventures two years ago.
One of the biggest differences between these two journeys was the vehicle I used as my home-on-wheels. Instead of living in the van like I did in 2019, my Jeep served as my home this time.
Suvlife differed from vanlife in many ways, and it came with its own set of ups and downs. There was the undeniable sense of freedom that comes from this type of lifestyle, but there were also negative aspects about the experience.
For anyone considering the nomad life via car, read about these 8 pros and cons of suvlife before diving in.
Con: Lack of Space
Let’s just get the bad news out of the way first, shall we? Space can be either an issue or a blessing, depending on how you look at it.
For me, space was an issue.
There was no room to change inside the vehicle unless I was laying down; there was nowhere to go to the bathroom. Everything had to been taken out and set up outside when cooking.
Aside from storage, the only activity I could do in the Jeep was sleep, and even then, it was a tight fit; I constantly banged my knees on the plastic siding of the car as I struggled to stretch out comfortably.
Suvlife is essentially camping. Get ready to be outside a lot if you live out of your car.
Con: It’s Time Consuming
Suvlife is a real-life game of Tetris. There was a spot for everything in my Jeep and if I took something out, I had to put it back in the right place, otherwise the car quickly became a scene from Hoaders, and it would drive me crazy.
When grabbing an object from the car, I usually had to take out several other items just to get to that one item, making a simple task take way longer than it would living out of a vehicle with enough space.
I felt like I was wasting so much time moving my stuff around.
Con: It’s Exhausting
The lack of space and the “constant moving of the things” as I called it, begins to wear on you.
If you’re constantly traveling to different places, setting up and taking down camp twice a day is exhausting.
Even when I stayed somewhere for a day or two, the knowledge that I’d have to pack everything up and take the time to do so made my head hurt.
Most things in life require payment, whether that’s time or money. In suvlife, don’t be surprised if you save money, but spend more time/energy in order to life the live you desire.
Constantly using my time/energy in this manner was draining for me personally, and if I could do it again, I would probably spend more money on fixing up the vehicle to better suit my needs.
Con: You Will Be Dirty. Most of the Time.
With camping, comes dirt. And bugs. Lots of bugs.
Some people don’t mind a little dirt between their fingers and toes, but others just can’t hang. Ask yourself what kind of person you are. Can you live without a regular shower?
I got reallllly used to my feet being black most the time. I also conquered (most of) my fear of bugs.
While I personally didn’t mind the dirt and the bugs, going more than a week without a shower would make me feel less human and more like an alien, adding to the general exhaustion I felt as time went on.
Investing in a gym membership or a portable shower is a great option. I had a gym membership during vanlife, and it was both a luxury and a stress-reliever to never have to worry about finding a place to shower.
This time, I embraced the river and lake baths.
Pro: You Get Better Mileage
Okay, maybe this won’t be true for every vehicle out there, but my Jeep got better gas mileage than my van.
Better gas mileage = more saving money on gas.
Many smaller vehicles get the best mileage, so you’ll save a lot more on gas than if you live in a van.
Pro: You Can Go Faster
When I started vanlife I had the conditioned road rage of commuting around L.A. for years.
Driving my sweet boy Thunder (that’s the van) forced me to slow down. He couldn’t go over 60 mph without eating up gas like one of those hot-dog-eating champions, so I learned how to relax and enjoy the ride.
It was a good learning experience. I stayed in the slow lane, let everyone else pass me, and prepared for each stint of my road trip to take hours longer than it would in the average car.
In my Jeep, I practically flew down the highway, well, that’s what it felt like compared to the van. I was going the speed limit most of the time. Okay fine, 5 over.
Being able to drive the normal speed enables you to get where you want to go within the time frame that Google maps tells you it will take. Which, after van life, felt like nothing short of a miracle. And road rage didn’t even sneak back up!
Pro: You Can Go Anywhere
Again, this really depends on your vehicle. Living in my jeep meant I could tackle any potholed backroad I came across and this led to some epic campsites.
Having four-wheel drive and decent clearance set me free from the beaten path and I got to truly be in the middle of nowhere. For me, this was equal parts terrifying and fun, and gave me confidence as an outdoorswoman.
All because my Jeep could handle the rough terrain my van wasn’t cut out for.
Pro: You Are Oh So Inconspicuous
When vehicle-dwelling, finding a safe, and in my opinion, dark and quiet place to sleep is key. Sure, you can park in the busy lot of Walmart and have a mediocre night’s rest if you don’t feel like hunting for a prime spot, but we’ve all dreamed of waking up to spell-binding vistas, views of mountains and oceans and sparkling cities like we see on social media. And we want to find those places.
But as we grow more seasoned in our craft, we realize that it’s not always going to work out that way. Sometimes you’ll have to stay in a city or neighborhood, full of watchful eyes waiting to alert the cops the moment a shiny sprinter or gigantic RV pulls in front of the neighbor’s house.
Just kidding. Sort of.
While many people have warmed to the idea of #vanlife, there are still those who aren’t too keen on the idea. Especially when they see a parked vehicle on the public street in front of the house they paid for.
When stealth camping, nomads just want a place to park for the night. We’re not squatting there permanently, waking up the residents by blasting music and dumping our pee buckets onto their lawns.
At least, I don’t do that. But some idiot somewhere has ruined it for the rest of us. And because of their crap behavior, we’ve gotten a bad rap. To some people, vanlifers are sketchy, dirty people encroaching on the space that they paid for.
I think they’re just jealous we’ve hacked the system and have found an alternative way of living that cost less and gives more freedom, but back to my point.
It’s important to be stealth. You don’t want a cop or a raging housewife knocking on your window in the middle of the night, telling you that you can’t sleep there.
Having a car literally takes all that stress away. I was able to park virtually anywhere, and no one bothered me.
Why? Because I blended right in with the rest of the cars on the street, duh.
With vanlife on the rise, iconic Westfalias and loud-n-proud Sprinters are easier to pick out. People will notice your large rig on their street. Your little Prius, however? No one will suspect you’re sleeping in it, let alone living in it!
