How to Survive Winter Living in a Van
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Jane and Casey were living in a house when a friend of their suggested that they trade vehicles. He had been living in a van for a while, but wanted to get back into living in a regular house with a smaller car. Since Jane and Casey already had a pathfinder and were looking into getting into long term travel, the trade made a lot of sense.
After the trade, they spent six months on the road travelling the United States before returning home to Colorado the following spring. They loved the lifestyle so much that instead of getting back into a regular apartment, they opted to continue living in the van. It allowed them to save costs, remain super flexible while also continuing to be involved in their community. Being avid snowboarders, they decided to continue living in the van over the winter, despite the challenges that can arrive from doing so. While occasionally challenging, they’ve been able to come up with a few hacks that make it easier.
The first big hurdle for this sort of lifestyle is obvious: the cold. There are a few ways that Jane and Casey combat this issue. The first being that they spend as much time out of the van as possible. They have friends that run businesses that they’re able to hang out at, as well as coffee shops or simply being out on the slopes. The key to winter vanlife is living out of the van, not in it. It’s a lot easier to stay comfortable in the van when you’re only in it for sleeping/cooking.
When they are in the van, they have a few tools to keep warm. The first and most important being warm quilts/sleeping bags. Keeping yourself warm is easier and more efficient than heating up your entire surroundings, so using multiple layers of winter-rated bedding goes a long way, especially when used with something like a hot water bottle. This allows them to sleep uninterrupted throughout the night.
Getting dressed in the cold mornings can be a little more uncomfortable. For this, they have a Little Buddy Propane Heater which allows them to temporarily heat up the space to make getting ready for the day a little easier. It runs off one pound propane bottles which is great for living off grid and away from electrical outlets. It’s also a completely portable solution which they are able to take with them anywhere and move throughout the van.
This solution to the cold however has its own issues: primarily condensation. The combustion of propane produces a lot of humidity which can build up in a small space when not properly ventilated. While some propane heaters like a Propex Suburban Furnace are vented and isolate the combustion from the living space using a heat exchanger, the Buddy Heater doesn’t. For this reason, it is important to make sure at least one window is cracked to make sure fresh air is able to circulate in the space. The buddy heater also has an exposed flame that makes leaving it unattended unsafe.
However, even with good ventilation it’s still easy to have condensation issues when heating a small space with a Buddy Heater. For this reason, Jane and Casey make sure to have towels and other absorbent materials on hand to keep their windows clean. Any time water builds up on a surface on the inside, it’ll freeze as the space cools down, becoming more difficult to remove later. Because of this Casey and Jane are very diligent in making sure there isn’t unwanted condensation built up.
To keep the heat generated by the buddy heater inside the van as long as possible, they’ve used reflectix insulation on door panels and windows to reflect radiant heat back into the space. They also hang large fleece quilts and blankets across windows, doors and other drafty areas to slow down heat transfer. On the floors they’ve laid burlap sacks, which doesn’t only keep the floor a lot warmer, but also makes cleaning out snow and dirt that might get tracked in a lot easier.
While living in a van isn’t always easy, especially during cold winters, Casey and Jane like the challenge, and think that the daily push beyond their comfort zone has helped them grow into more resilient and grateful people. While the winter nights might be difficult at times, they know that each one of them will make the summer nights all the more sweet.
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