You don’t need a stealth camper van for urban camping

Do you really need a stealth camper? In short, no. But keep watching to find out why. Typically, when people refer to stealth camping, they're referring to urban camping done in a stealthy manner so they can avoid the knock in the middle of the night. And they're camping in places like public streets, parking lots, etc. Before I really dig into this topic, I want to provide a bit of a distinction. In today's video, I'm going to be referring to urban stealth camping the way we do it, which is coming into a city town to visit friends and family, see the sights, really doing it for pleasure and travel, and not living in a city full time. And now that's where I'm referring to the fact that you don't need a stealth camper in order to urban camp in those situations. Now, there are people out there who do need a stealth camper. Those are the people who are essentially using their camper as their home or apartment within a city. They need to be stealth. They need to stay under the radar because they have to be in that place. For example, we have a friend who used to have a job in Silicon Valley. He and his buddies at work used to camp in the parking lot. They needed to do it in a stealthy manner because from our understanding, it wasn't something that was specifically allowed. So they stayed under the radar and security kind of turned a blind eye because they were just taking up a parking spot and weren't really doing much else beyond that. There's also a book, Walden on Wheels, that I will link to up here. The gentleman in that story was going to school and needed a place to live. So what he did was he got a van and he lived in the university's parking lot. I mean, he had to be stealth for that and he had to stay under the radar and make sure no one knew he was living in the van. There are also people who live in HOAs. They want to camper, but they don't want to have to pay storage fees to keep it at a storage unit. And that HOA doesn't necessarily allow campers to be parked in a driveway or in front of a house. Those homeowners look at stealthy type campers that don't have an awning, AC unit, things like that. And it looks more like a passenger van, something you would use to haul the family around the soccer games. Those are examples of the types of people who would need a stealth camper. I'm bringing this up today because we've seen a lot of comments and we've met a lot of people during our eight years traveling in RVs that feel like in order to camp in an urban environment, they have to have a stealth camper. Some people have expressed concerns to us that they don't think they're able to camp in an urban environment because their camper isn't stealthy. We simply turn around, point at our camper and say we do it all the time because none of the campers that we've ever owned could be considered stealthy. Let's start with the first one. 30-foot class A towing a jeep. There's nothing stealthy about that. A variety of class B camper van. Those might be considered a little bit more stealthy, but with an AC unit, awning, windows, stripes along the side, that sort of thing, it screams camper. The least stealthy of all was our pop-up truck camper. This was a pickup truck with a camper on the back and a top that popped up when we were inside with a canvas kind of siding to it. And anytime we had the lights on, you could see the lights through the canvas. So it was definitely not stealthy, but we urban camped in all of those campers. And in those eight years that we've been traveling in RVs, six and a half of those spent full time living on the road with a majority of that time spent outside of campgrounds. Now, I would assume for a lot of you watching who are new to camping or interested in the stealth camping kind of aspect of everything, one of the reasons why you're considering a stealth camper or stealthy features for your camper is because you're worried about getting the knock in the middle of the night. For all of you who are kind of veterans on the road, I'd love to hear your stories of any knocks that you've gotten in the middle of the night and I'll share ours. So far, we've gotten three knocks. They were all at Walmart. The first one was at a Walmart in Las Vegas that used to allow overnight parking, but they switched their policy and stopped allowing it. When we pulled into the lot, we went inside, did some shopping, and by the time we got back to our camper, security was there asking us to leave. Another time we were in Illinois, we got permission to stay overnight at the Walmart and the next afternoon we got a knock because they hadn't told us that we needed to leave early in the morning. So we were planning on packing up and taking off anyway, so that was really a non-issue. The third time we were at a Walmart and there were a lot of different campers. Again, we had gotten permission, but a camper showed up, they dumped their garbage all over the parking lot, made a mess, and basically ruined it for everyone. And management and security came out and told every RV in the parking lot we all had to leave within the next couple hours or they were going to start towing people. So those are the only knocks we've gotten. Now there was an instance where we were at my mother's house in our class A motorhome and she had been in the hospital and we were there kind of helping out and taking care of her. Well, we were there for a few weeks, parked in front of her house on the street, and the neighbors around her really didn't mind that we were there. Someone else in the neighborhood, however, did call the police and while the police didn't come out, they did send parking enforcement who came out, chalked the tires, and left a notice that if we didn't leave or move the camper that it would be towed or ticketed. So those are really the only instances we've had in over eight years of being on the road in RVs. The reason we've been able to avoid a lot of this is with some of the tips I'm going to share with you now. Use common sense and use your judgment. This will get you 90% of the way. If you see an area that looks good to park, it probably is just as long as you are checking the signs. Trust your gut. If you park somewhere and it feels like it might be dangerous or something's wrong, leave. Go somewhere else and listen to your gut. We've spent time in downtown New Orleans in a Class B camper van. We've taken our pop-top truck camper into residential areas and city centers and camped there. We've camped in open parking lots, hotel parking lots. We've camped on public streets in our Class A motorhome and spent the night all without ever getting the knock at any of those places because we used common sense. Know the regulations. When we were up in Santa Barbara, California, we noticed they had signs that prohibit oversized vehicles from parking. Well, most RVs and campers are considered oversized, at least according to them. So know the area and know what you're allowed to do. There are a lot of places too that will have signs up, no parking between certain hours of the night on any city streets. Some cities have regulations about it and you need to be aware of those so that someone doesn't come knocking in the middle of the night to tell you that you're parked illegally. Be considerate of your environment. Like the example I gave you at Walmart when the camper showed up and dumped their trash all over the place, they ruined it for everybody. If you're going to camp in a parking lot, don't put your trash out. Don't set up camp with lawn chairs and barbecues and loud music and things like that. Same thing if you are parking on a residential street. Don't blast your music. Don't make it obvious that you're living or staying in your camper. Don't put things outside of your camper. Just make it look like the camper is parked there with your window shades and everything up with you hanging out inside. Along with being considerate of the area around you, think about where you're actually parking. So if we're staying with friends and family, a lot of times we'll just park on the street in front of their house or in the driveway if they have room and it's not too off-level. But if we just come into a neighborhood and we're looking to park or we can't park in front of a friend or family's house, we'll look to park somewhere in the neighborhood where we're not directly in front of someone's house. A lot of times there are little side streets where there's a wall or something and you can park along the wall and just be out of the way. A good example is going back to Santa Barbara. When we first got up there we saw those signs. We had to pull over so we could look at a map and try to figure out where we were going to park for a night. We hadn't even shut the engine off and a homeowner came out to start basically yelling at us that we weren't allowed to park in front of his house. So these are things to consider when you go into a neighborhood. That said, looking at neighborhoods in general, when you drive through a neighborhood usually there are campers, trailers, things parked all along the streets because people necessarily, you know, don't have room in their driveway or don't have a storage area for it. So they park it right in front of their house. So it's kind of a common sight in a lot of neighborhoods and not something that necessarily stands out. Ask for permission. It's always good if you're going to be parking in a business's parking lot to go inside and ask for permission. We've definitely gotten places where they've already been closed but, you know, we know from past experiences or things that we've read online on apps like Allstays that that particular area is friendly to campers so it's probably going to be okay for us. But if the business is open, go inside, talk to the management, and make sure to ask permission. And one thing we learned from our stay at Walmart is check to see what time they'd like you to leave in the morning. Use your network. When we're heading into an unfamiliar city or town, we'll reach out to people we know who have been there or spent a lot of time there and ask them for recommendations on places we can park. For example, we had a friend living full-time in San Diego and when we were headed down there with our truck camper, we reached out to say, hey, where can we park? And we got some great suggestions along with a fantastic brewery. Have a backup plan. What happens if you get the knock at two or three in the morning? Do you know where you're going to go next? Usually if we are parking someplace, we will have some sort of backup plan or idea of where we want to go so that if we do get a knock in the middle of the night, we don't have to figure out at that same time where we're going to go next. Pets. For you pet owners out there, before you get to your final spot for the evening, make sure you take them to a park or something so they can run around, do their business, so that when you arrive, you don't have to keep going in and out of your camper. The less you have to go in and out of your camper, the less attention you'll draw and the less likely it'll be that you get the knock. HOAs. Now earlier, I talked about people who might need to get a stealth camper because they live in an HOA. Well, what if you're visiting friends or family who live in an HOA? One thing we've learned over the years is that if you have a class B camper van like we do or a smaller camper, typically they don't have a problem with that if you get in touch with them first. So normally what we do is we will call that person we're going to visit and check to see what kind of regulations they have on parking an RV overnight. If the answer is no, what we'll do is ask them if they can contact the HOA directly and we'll send them a photo of what our camper looks like and every time our friends or family have called back and said yeah the HOA said no problem if you want to come spend a couple nights here. So that's the way we get around HOAs when we're visiting friends or family. Familiarity. The more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get with it. We've RV'd in 49 U.S. states and to us it's just become second nature. It's actually a game Kate and I play when we drive into a city whether we know it or not and whether or not we have our camper. We'll just start picking out places that we could spend the night at and for us it's really easy to spot and that just comes with doing it and getting familiar with it and comfortable with it. And my last tip, check out some other YouTubers out there who do a lot of urban camping and see what information you can get from them. A friend of ours Scott Watson with GoSmallLiveLarge is an avid urban camper. He's even camped in downtown Chicago. So check out his channel and check out all the tips and tricks he has to offer. Now for those of you who still feel like you need a stealth vehicle to do the type of camping that you want or need to do, there are going to be some compromises with the type of camper that you have. One of those is you're going to be limited on the size and the number of modifications you can make to that vehicle in order for it not to look like a camper. For example, the more a van looks like a utility van, the less likely it is to look like a camper. But once you start adding things like awnings, maybe an AC unit or a vent on the roof and windows along the side, it starts to look like a camper. So the less you do to it, the more stealthy it is. The other thing to keep in mind is some campgrounds won't accept non-traditional campers. For example, if you've converted a box truck and you show up at a campground, they may turn you away because it doesn't look like a camper. I want to go back to the original question I posed which is, do you really need a stealth camper? And again, the answer for us is no. And I think if you are traveling the way we do, it's also no. But there are some of you out there that depending on your situation and circumstances, you definitely need a stealth camper for whatever reason. But that said, that is the end of this video. I would love to know what you think and how you travel in urban environments down in the comments below. Check out our website weretherussos.com. And if you want to learn about our first year and a half in our Class A motorhome and some of the street and urban camping we did in that, check out my second book, Tales from the Open Road. It's available on Amazon. We will see you next time. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this, please give a thumbs up, subscribe if you haven't, and check out my books. Bye!