Are you planning to live full-time in a bus conversion? If so, there are some important things you should know about real bus life. Rule #1. You can’t believe all of the hype you read on the internet. Living on the road can be both exhilarating and exhausting.
My family of four and I have been traveling in our Skoolie for five and a half years now, with our five-year-old son and seventeen-year-old daughter. Along the way, we've learned a lot, and I believe it's time to share this knowledge with families who are just starting on their bus life journey.
Meal Planning
I think it would be helpful to categorize the breakdown by season and based on the type of facilities we have at our disposal. It may also be useful to differentiate between cool days and hot and/or humid days.
When hot outside, we try to cook as much outside as possible to avoid adding extra heat inside the bus. During hot summer days, we make most of our lunches and dinners, on the grill.
If there is a way to have a fire pit, we cook over an open flame. We also have a campfire grill that we can place over that open fire pit. If there is no fire pit or a way to make one, we use our small Weber portable charcoal grill. We have a tote stored under the bus that holds our bag of briquets, lighter fluid, and BBQ tools.
We try and get our groceries from local farms when we stop, such as farmer’s markets, and even Harvest Hosts when it is a farm. Always be ready to pay more for food when you are away from a city or town. Stock up in town when you can to take advantage of lower prices.
We also take our Instant Pot, and/or Air Fryer and plug it into the generator, and cook side dishes like mashed potatoes, rice, etc. Some days I just make Instant Pot Spaghetti while plugged into our generator.
If it is a cold day in the bus, we can start our mornings simply by warming up cinnamon rolls, or a casserole in the propane oven just to break the chill in the bus. For lunches and dinners, we use our Instant Pot almost daily or cook on our gas stove as any other household would.
We would also recommend if you like to cook or have a large family, go ahead and put in a full-size stove. It doesn’t take up that much more room, but you will gain cooking luxury. Many RV stoves only have two burners. A four-burner stove makes cooking some meals for a family much easier. Not to mention the ovens are larger.
Using the Instant Pot on solar, we are afraid would probably suck up all our power or even trip the inverter, so we have yet to try the Instant Pot on solar. Most 6-quart Instant Pots are around 1000 watts, while the 3 quarts average about 700 watts and the 8 quarts average 1200 watts.
Laundry and Other Chores
If we are parked for a prolonged period, it is usually at a friend’s or family’s place, and they have facilities they insist we utilize. So, we get the best of both worlds.
We can easily throw a paper bag of trash away at any small trash can along the way. Also, my husband can take the trash out on his XR-650L motorcycle if we are parked out in some BLM land. This also gets him out doing what he loves (riding his bike).
There are always RV Parks and campgrounds that may also let you dump your tanks. Sometimes you can get lucky simply by typing into Google Maps, “RV Dump Station Near Me” or using an app such as “RV Dump Sites.”
Energy Consumption
We have three ways we can get the power we need for our daily lives. One, we can plug into shore power. Two, we have a 3500-watt Predator generator. Three, we also have 600 watts of solar panels and 400 amp hours in our lithium battery bank.
If we can plug in, that is what we do. However, if we are out boondocking we try our best to work with the solar power we have. We have a 9.2 cu. ft. refrigerator and that can run for about eight hours on solar. We shut off the solar at night and the fridge keeps temp above 40 degrees until we wake up around 8:30 AM or so. By then, in the summer at least, the sun is already starting to charge our batteries back up for another day, if it is a cloudless day.
For those cloudy, rainy boondocking/travel days, we pull out that Predator generator. It is quiet and efficient. On the hottest day we had ever experienced, we ran the two window air conditioning units off the generator all day and the rest of the house off of solar power. Utilizing two power sources at once. We survived the 108 degrees in Bend, Oregon, and then packed up and left the next day. Bye-bye summer.
Filling Fresh Water Tanks
A lot of gas stations have water spigots, you can ask the attendant if you can fill your tanks. Some will let you, some won’t. You will have better luck if you arrive at a time of day when they are not busy. There are also fresh water fill stations at many RV dump stations. Campgrounds have also been known to let individuals fill their fresh water tanks as well as many Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts. Please always ask before you fill up gallons and gallons of water on someone else’s property.
Be aware of the difference between potable water and non-potable water. One is safe to drink and one can make you very sick and is not to be used for things like bathing, drinking, brushing your teeth, and so on.
Bus Maintenance
Editor’s Note: There is a great Bus Maintenance Checklist on BCM’s Documents page HERE.
Tiny Home Maintenance
Internet Service
I have a company phone that is Verizon with a hotspot. I get 30 gigabytes every month and I use every bit of it when on the road. We also have two personal phones that are Metro/T-Mobile. Both of those phones also have hotspots and have 15 gigabytes each.
If we have a good signal on those T-Mobile phones, we tend to try and use up those gigabytes first. This is so I can keep the Verizon gigabytes for when we are out further from the city and towns. Verizon works a lot better all over the nation than T-Mobile.
I have seen weboost and such, but I feel like most of the ones I have tried in friends’ buses, you had to be inside the bus and near the booster.
If I need more time to work online, we can also find a nice park for our son to play, a Riverwalk parking lot, or some other daytime parking area with good cell service. We pick somewhere nice so the ones who don’t need to work online can get out and enjoy whatever surroundings we find ourselves in.
Remember, no matter what service you have, no service is no service. Until Elon opens his network to the public for free to everyone, nobody will get service while camping in the boonies unless they have a lot of money to spend on Starlink. If you can afford it, however, Starlink is the ultimate for being connected almost anywhere you can park your rig as long as you have a view of the sky, i.e. not in a densely wooded area.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling in a bus can be a very rewarding experience for some families. Your children can not only read about places in history, but you can visit them to show them what it was like back in the day. They can read about rocket ships in books, but there is nothing like going to NASA and seeing a real rocket ship up close. You can read about livestock, but until you visit a farm with your kids and touch and smell the animals, you will not know what it is really like.
Overnight Parking
There is also an annual Federal Parks Pass. “The America the Beautiful National Parks” and Federal Recreational Lands Pass is your ticket to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites across the country. A pass covers the entrance fee, standard amenity fees, and day-use fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle at per-vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Children aged 15 or under are admitted free.”
There is a lifetime Senior Pass and an Annual Senior Pass. They have a “free, lifetime pass – available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are over 62 years old or have been medically determined to have a permanent disability (does not have to be a 100% disability)."
You can also “receive your free Military pass by presenting your Current US military ID at most Federal lands that charge an entrance fee. As of November 11th, 2020, veterans qualify for free entry into federal parks. The Interagency Annual Military Pass has been expanded to include both veterans and Gold Star Families.”
As someone who travels full-time on the road with their family and dog, we've learned to be flexible and mindful of our resources. We regularly set aside a day to restock our RV with food, water, and fuel, a day that we call "Chore Day."
When we first started, we aimed to camp as long as possible without refilling, but I've come to realize that there's an "itch" to keep moving. For us, it's usually about four days to a week before we're ready to hit the road again. So, doing chores weekly is a good opportunity to explore new places and satisfy that itch. Not to mention, who wants to deal with the added stress of running out or overflowing?
My advice to anyone new to this lifestyle is to just go for it. Don't over-plan, as everything will change once you're on the road. Embrace the journey and have fun. Who knows, maybe we'll cross paths someday!
You can follow the @Buslivin adventure on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
You can also contact Sandra via email: Sandra@BusConversionMagazine.com
Qualify for a $200 Commission and a FREE 5-Year Membership or extension.
If you are working with any conversion parts or service companies, send us their information to support the only website dedicated to the nomadic conversion lifestyle.
We will contact them and if they advertise with us for at least six months, you will receive a free 5-year Membership and a $200 commission after they pay their first invoice.
Email their contact information to Gary@BusConversionMagazine.com
We are seeking a self-starter, energetic, honest person, with a pleasant phone voice to seek out new sales leads and follow up on current sales leads and then follow through and close deals.
This is a work-from-home/bus position and we are looking for someone who has some bus and/or bus conversion knowledge. This is a chance to earn money to either buy your own bus or money to buy materials to build your bus or tiny home, or to just earn some extra money. An interest in new and vintage buses and bus conversions is a plus.
All you need is a phone, a computer, a good internet connection, a quiet environment, and have a good working knowledge of MS products including, Word and Excel. You can work your own hours as many hours per week as you wish. The harder you work, the more you can earn. The sky is the limit.
You will be selling Advertising for up to three bus magazines
BCM, National Bus Trader Magazine, National Bus Tours Magazine, and Vintage Motorcoach Magazine
You can make one sale and potentially collect up to four commissions.
Contact Gary for more information a Gary@BusConversionMagazine.com or call the office to speak to him in person at (714) 614-0373.