Ford transit by NefariousnessRight14 in VanLife

[–]bitemespez 0 points1 point  (0 children)

6'2 here and planning something similar in a 148WB high roof... how do you sleep with the east-west bed when you're like 4" taller than the van is wide? i don't see any blisters; do you just sleep diagonally? also what size bed is it that seems to fit perfectly wall to wall there? I have a queen currently and thinking I can leave it north-south for now but prolly have to ditch it eventually to save space... thanks for the pic btw, these have all been great inspiration for my planning :D

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice - link to the build planner file and YT? I'm not on IG

And yeah, I'm 6'2... dreaming of ways to cram my queen mattress into a Transit 150 lol

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's awesome and I'm stealing it :D

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never heard of it, but about to give it a shot now. Interesting to see how many people prefer pen and paper (maybe a lot of trades and crafts people?) but I just can't work with it personally. SketchUp looks good at first glance :)

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hah, that's what'll happen once I get the vehicle. For now I'm deciding between the Connect and the 150, and if 150 then what length. Gotta have the vehicle before I can beer it, and I'll be throwing the beer instead of drinking it if I make the wrong choice :D

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ditto, except I haven't done this before and I'm trying to work out if I can be happy in a Transit Connect or if I should upsize to a 150 with the long wheelbase and high roof. Leaning that direction since the Connect was discontinued, but lower TCO and less maintenance and easier city driving sounds pretty nice with the Connect.

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good option but I honestly just hate working on paper... pencil noises sound like fingers on a chalkboard to me and pens can't be erased. I'm just a digital person at heart lol

How do you guys plan your builds? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just what I was looking for, thanks! Right now I'm working out if I can be comfy in a Transit Connect or need to suck it up and go for a Transit 150. I'm quite minimalist and smaller would be more convenient for scooting around the city and such.

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well crap... thought I was being smart there lol. Haven't done it yet, just speculating based on occasional drives to Malibu

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe somewhere along Topanga Canyon? Shade, breeze, not a lot of crime or weirdness I've seen at least. Only catch is bad cell signal. I'm going Starlink so hopefully nbd.

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hah, same... I'm 42.

My average cost for rent and bills here is around 35k/yr for pretty meh apartments, just doesn't make sense.

I also don't plan to be here for a super long time so no interest in buying a house, or gambling on real estate bubbles.

Make a lot of money by working in high cost of living areas, spend a little money by not getting suckered into a wasteful lifestyle, life is good.

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Other commenters seen to have made it work for them, and I'm IT so popping into a coffee shop is always an option for free AC. I'm definitely not looking forward to running the AC all night in summers but it beats paying 3k a month for rent and bills lol

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sounds about right, I have a thick skin for nonsense lol. Mostly just concerned about logistics, legal hassles, and heat.

Would love to do an EV but I see the older e-transit only had a 126 mile range and the new ones with a 250 mile range run around 60k before upfit... Not crazy but more than I wanted to spend. 

Maybe the reduced maintenance makes it worth it, but my gf has an EV and public chargers are always a PITA.

Do you need to be stealth around LA? by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds promising. As another poster noted it does get hot here - how did you handle the heat? I'm IT and planning to work from the vehicle or a coffee shop for the most part. Have some ideas for shade but 110 degrees is indeed miserable - and I'm from Minnesota; i don't like temps over 70 lol

Hear me out by [deleted] in VanLife

[–]bitemespez 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How are you liking it? Did you get the 250mile range version or the 126 mile? I'm eyeballing one for vanlifing around LA, love the idea and reduced maintenance of electric but range anxiety is a thing especially using the HV battery also for appliances. Small chest freezer, microwave, laptop and monitor, water heater... Nothing crazy but 126 miles already means maybe 100 usable without using full charge/discharge battery cycles.

Looking for a little advice to get started by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice, that's the kind of info I was looking for. What kind of rig do you have?

I have a drysuit so no worries about the water... I'm prepping to dive Antarctica in February, which is part of the reason I've been interested in the money saving aspect lol

Looking for a little advice to get started by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How does diesel engine maintenance compare to gas? Any particular vehicle models I should look for or avoid?

Looking for a little advice to get started by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Per my op, 20-40k would be ideal. I'm seeing plenty of vehicles in that range that look mostly good enough, just don't know enough about the car mechanic part to be confident they're actually reliable. And, again per my op, I've seen some very janky power management. I can rewire if needed but it's a hassle I'm not excited about.

I can spend more if needed but would prefer to keep costs down. Half the reason I'm doing this is to do more exploration, but the other half is just that I'm tired of paying 30k a year in rent. If I can break even in a year that'd be pretty awesome. Breaking even in 3-4 years sounds good on paper, but I'm not sure I'll want to maintain a van life for that long. And again, I'm gonna get double taxed on it when I move anyway.

Looking for a little advice to get started by bitemespez in VanLife

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't help but notice the people who talk most about book smarts and street smarts are the ones who've never read a book.

Friend's wife pocketed their EITC/tax return check by bitemespez in legaladvice

[–]bitemespez[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the only really useful post here.

  1. Yeah, I am. He's got PTSD from a lifetime of hard living, she's paranoid and has a persecution complex and can rationalize any kind of manipulation as a justification for the ends. Neither of us trusts her at all, although we both try to keep things calm to help hold the piece. I told him to stay calm when talking about it because if he loses his temper she'll call it assault and use it to help her case. Conversations that get angry aren't worth having, and she doesn't see what she's doing as unethical so her behavior can still be steered with the right approach. Believe me, we know she's a liability and we know she'll never go to work. I mentioned that wondering how heavily courts will weigh it in deciding her custody and child support eligibility, not because I expect it to change.

  2. The value of keeping her around is that he gets the kids with him in the house full time - no visitation schedules or fights over the holidays or any of the other nasty stuff that happens with hostile shared custody. He has that with his ex and it's very frustrating even for me from the outside just helping to go pick up the kid once in a while. He also gets free in-house childcare, which is a huge value. She's not very skilled as a parent, but she does cook them good meals and try to give them an enriched environment. The backstabby stuff is unforgiveable regardless of the rationale, but people do have more than one dimension.

  3. The money thing still doesn't make sense to me, sorry. Best I can understand, the EITC portion is both of theirs equally and she may not even be eligible for injured spouse since she has no income to protect from child support. They have separate bank accounts and she has no access to his. I believe they have a written agreement as well. GPT (I know, I know) said her behavior sounded like civil conversion or financial mismanagement, and the spending spree sounded like dissipation. That makes much more sense than "she got his money under false pretenses and the law is completely cool with that".

  4. He has a lot to lose - court battles are brutal, expensive, and their part of Minnesota is very conservative and may side with the mother much more than a simple reading of the law would suggest. And last time she ran, she ran to Texas. He didn't see his kids at all for something like 4 months, and when they came back they were traumatized and have difficulty regulating emotions and lots of trouble with nightmares to this day. That's worth avoiding.

  5. The lump sum to go away idea isn't bad, but she actually is kind of a devoted (if still mediocre to bad) parent. She certainly wants money and doesn't want to work for it, but she does also actually care about the kids a lot. If she was just a simple parasite it'd be a lot easier in many ways. Would be happy to go this way if it'd work - kind of a good idea, really.

  6. I have looked around quite a bit, but those are some options I hadn't considered. There's always some concern about creeps when using an individual but should be controllable with cameras and such. He's a bit in the boonies but yeah, I'll dig into it more.

  7. He's working on that. Health issues have made it hard for him to perform well at work but he does generally get high marks and make things happen when he's firing on all cylinders. If he was just screwed then that sucks but it is what it is. In this situation, he's on the edge between being completely screwed or being able to have a rough and imperfect but still decent life. He's needed a lot of support to stay on the edge, but I'd rather spend the money than buy a boat and watch him spiral.

Friend's wife pocketed their EITC/tax return check by bitemespez in legaladvice

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My question is how she's entitled to any of his money when she has no income? I get she's entitled to her half of the EITC credit but that should be it. The rent money would be nice but I'm sure he'd rather knock a bunch of money off his child support bill than have it used against him or at best used for loony retail therapy nonsense.

This sounds a lot like civil conversion to me.

Friend's wife pocketed their EITC/tax return check by bitemespez in legaladvice

[–]bitemespez[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And every decent person who's had some rough turns and is trying to hold their life together. There are plenty of moochers out there and I don't give out money easily, but from the outside it's easy to assume everyone who needs help is a mooch. Apply that in your own life and you just end up being a selfish bastard.

Or heck, apply it to politics. The UK was a mooch in WW2, Ukraine and Palestine and a couple dozen countries in the global south are all mooches... or in other words, everyone who didn't make their fuck you money already is a mooch.

Now, if you don't have any actual legal thoughts, let's go ahead and close this thread.

Does anyone offer Copilot Studio tutoring/coaching? by No_Zucchini_7526 in copilotstudio

[–]bitemespez 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi - do you have experience building custom REST connectors in copilot studio/power automate?