Campervan.

First choice for a vehicle to live in on the road would be a campervan or small motor home. If you can trade your car for a small camper van such as a Volkswagen camper van your life will be a lot more comfortable and bearable than living in a car. A small camper can be fitted out with all the facilities you will need for a reasonably comfortable life.

• An enclosed and secure place to live.
• A water tank, pump and sink.
• A hot plate to cook on.
• A refrigerator.
• A source of electricity.
• A light or lights.
• A means of transport.

These vans generally have a small water tank, sink and water pump. The water tank will usually hold about 80 to 120 liters of water. Most of these vans have a hand water pump and a sink. A ready supply of water that is easy to fill up will make your life so much easier than having to store water in containers inside of your van. Through frugal use 80 liters of water can last a week but if you are using that water to wash yourself you can expect to use it in one or two days. Having a sink to wash your dishes at is a real blessing. You can wash up your dishes in the van. You can wash your hands in the sink. If you are lucky enough to have a hot water service or can heat water on a stove you can buy a small electric shower head and use the warm water to have a shower in your van.

Some of these vans will have a gas cook top. Having a dedicated place where you can cook food is another blessing. While it is possible to live on uncooked food and sandwiches, cooked food makes a great difference to the taste of food. With a little proactive you can cook all sorts of food on a stove, even a roast. In addition to cooking food you can use the stove to heat water for washing or to be placed in hot water bottles for heating.

There are very important safety considerations using a gas stove in a van. The gas can leak and catch fire. The burning of gas will produce carbon monoxide which can asphyxiate you. Two things that could save your life when using gas in a van or car. First, ventilate. Before and during the use of gas ventilate your van. Open the windows and doors to let any gas out of the van. Gas can pool in the bottom of the van so make sure you open doors to let gas flow out of the lowest points of the van. When using gas the minimum recommended ventilation is six square inches, or about 37.5 square centimeters. To play it safe wind open two windows in the van.

A 240 fridge or a three way fridge is of great use. A fridge will allow you to keep your food cool and fresh. It is possible to keep food cool without a fridge but it can be a bit labor intensive and unreliable. You can keep food cool in an Eski or cooler with ice. When it comes down to it though having to buy ice every few days is annoying and over the years it will add up. One thing to note about refrigerators though is that they use a lot of electricity. On my camper my fridge is the greatest use of electricity. You can't normally run a fridge on a car battery for long. Normally only about ten to twenty minutes of use will flatten a typical car battery. A 3 way fridge which runs on gas will work a lot more efficiently than an electric one. Even if you can't run the fridge you can store food in it and a block of ice to keep the food cool. A 2 or 4 litre ice cream container block of ice will keep your food cool for a few days.

Electricity and a source of light will make a big difference as to how civilised you feel. Light can mean the difference between sitting in fear in the dark and enjoying a good book after he sun goes down. A secondary battery and a battery isolator will allow you to run electrical devices without flattening the car or van battery. A deep cycle battery will allow you to run a small television for a couple of hours as well. Many typical 80-120 amp hour deep cycle batteries will not allow you to run many appliances at the same time. You might be able to run a small television or a laptop for a few hours and a light or two for about five hours a night. If you use energy efficient devices such as fluro or LED lights, a radio or MP3 player with no moving parts or an energy efficient lap top you will get a lot more use out of your battery. You can also add methods of recharging your batteries such as solar panels or a generator. These are expensive additions though.

Small camper vans also tend to have a seat which converts into a bed. Others have a permanently made up bed. Almost every van I have seen has storage under the bed. Having a bed to lie down on is a lot more comfortable than sleeping on a car seat. A bed in a camper can be just as comfortable as a bed in a house. I've seen full on futon beds in the back of Volks Wagon Kombi campers.

Another feature I've seen in many small camper vans is portable toilets. These are usually two part porta potties or Thetford type electric portable toilets. Compared to other ways of going to the toilet in side a vehicle a porta potty is about as close as you can get to a conventional flush toilet.

Some other features I've seen in small vans have included hot water systems, showers, storage, entertainment systems and more.

In Australia such vans usually range in price from $4000 - $7000. You can get them cheaper but don't expect them to be of good quality. If you do buy on cheap decide what you want more, a van that is comfortable to live in or one that is mechanically reliable.

• A campervan can be brought for around $4000 for a reasonably good VW Kombi or Mazda E300 type.
• A small campervan has good fuel consumption and can be a daily driver.
• If you hold down a job it won't look out of place, lots of people drive small campers.
• It won't look out of place down the coast or in holiday towns.
• There is lots of space for storage. Most campers have some built in storage or under seat storage.
• You may get amenities like a dual battery system, toilet, fridge, sink, water pump and stove. These will greatly increase your ability to live a comfortable life. Also, unlike a van, you won't have to build these in yourself. You pay more for them though.
• Cooking, washing and going to the toilet are going to be a lot easier in a campervan
• Most come with privacy curtains.
• You may get one that allows you to stand up inside.

• It will stand out more than a car.
• It will be more expensive than a car.
• It may use more fuel than a car. This is more so if it is big.
• Bigger camper vans can be underpowered and slow.
• Big campers are hard to park.
• It may be a bit top heavy or tall. Can not go where cars can go sometimes.
• Even with privacy curtains it is hard to ensure people don't look in.
• May be a more expensive rate to stay at caravan parks.
• Can be a real pain to get to the engine in some campervans.