Bob Wells (born 1955) is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and author. Known for his advocacy of nomadic

vandwelling Van-dwelling, van life, or vanlife is an unconventional lifestyle of living in a car, van or other motor vehicle. A person who lives in such a manner, either on a full or part-time basis, is known as a vanlifer, van dweller, car dweller or vehi ...

as a form of affordable minimalist living, he founded the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous, an annual gathering of van dwellers in

Quartzsite, Arizona Quartzsite is a town in La Paz County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 census, the population was 2,413. Interstate 10 runs directly through Quartzsite which is at the intersection of U.S. Route 95 and Arizona State Route 95 wi ...

, and the Homes on Wheels Alliance, a charity which converts vehicles for needy individuals to live and travel in.

Early life

Wells's father, who worked as a union clerk at a

Safeway Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops, and veh ...

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

, died two years after reaching retirement. Finding himself employed in the same store—and wanting to avoid his father's inability to enjoy retirement—Wells moved into a

box van A box truck—also known as a box van, cube van, bob truck or cube truck—is a chassis cab truck with an enclosed cuboid-shaped cargo area. On most box trucks, the cabin is separate to the cargo area; however some box trucks have a door betwee ...

in 1995Trujillo, Stevie (February 4, 2021
"Off-road, Off-grid: The Modern Nomads Wandering America's Back country
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Retrieved August 13, 2024 purchased with his last $1,500 after working for 20 years at the store. The experience, which occurred during the aftermath of a difficult divorce with two children, left Wells crying himself to sleep.Sammon, Alexander (January 10, 2019
"YouTube Boomers Show #VanLife Isn’t Just for Millennials"
''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. "Soon after, ellsdecamped from Alaska and moved with his wife to North Carolina, having ditched the van for a truck more suited to conventional domestic living. It didn't go well. "I despised living in that house. Owning a house is preposterous," he says. For Wells, it was fast becoming clear that the arrangement wasn't working. He tried to save the marriage by taking long trips, a month at a time, to the Florida Keys and to Maine for wildflower viewing. But being a mere hobbyist wasn't enough. In 2008, he left for a trip that both he and his wife acknowledged he wouldn't return from. Wells' return to full-fledged vehicle living came just as the economy nosedived ... " After six years, he remarried, moved into a house, and relocated with his wife to

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, but eventually went back to living in a vehicle full-time. After he and his second wife divorced, Wells began living in a

truck camper In North America, the term truck camper and its abbreviation TC are generally used to refer to any recreational vehicle or RV that may be carried in the bed of a pickup truck. In North America, this RV type is sometimes known as a slide-in or c ...

, followed by a work van and a four-wheel-drive ambulance.

Advocacy

In 2005, after seeing a mother and her three children sleeping in a car, Wells created the website ''cheaprvliving.com'', to provide tips, resources and strategies for living in a vehicle. He portrayed himself in the 2020 film adaptation of the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

, Wells organized a get-together of vehicle dwellers in

each January known as the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR). Attendees and other followers of the event are known as "The Tribe". The gathering itself has been described as the

Burning Man Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...

for retirees. During its first year of existence in 2010, the RTR received 45 attendees. By 2018, it had attracted over 3,000 participants and by 2019 it had attracted 10,000 — making it the largest gathering of its kind in the world. Activities include seminars geared at vehicle dwelling, ranging from city and stealth-parking, repair and improvement seminars (e.g., installing

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s), identifying resources such as inexpensive vision and dental care (e.g., in

Los Algodones Los Algodones ( English: ''The cottons'') is a town and borough in the municipality of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Located on the United States-Mexico border to the north and east, Los Algodones is south of Andrade, California, and close ...

, or

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, Mexico) to locating free second-hand items.

YouTube

In 2015, Wells started a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel called CheapRVliving to offer how-to videos, interviews with other vandwellers, and philosophical videos with inspiration by noted authors and thinkers. In May 2019, the channel was approaching 50 million views.(May 26, 2019
"Van Life: Making One's Home on the Open Road"
''

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

''. Retrieved January 3, 2021.

Homes on Wheels Alliance

In October 2018, Wells announced the creation of Homes on Wheels Alliance, a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

charity of which he is the president. Based in

Pahrump, Nevada Pahrump ( ) is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town located at the southernmost tip of Nye County, Nevada, United States, about west of Las Vegas (roughly an hour away by driving distance). Pahrump lies adjacent to the Nevada ...

, the organization helps those with housing insecurity by acquiring vehicles and having volunteers convert them into a habitable space.

Works

* ''How to Live In a Car, Van or RV: And Get Out of Debt, Travel, and Find True Freedom'', CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Bob 1950s births 21st-century American male writers American bloggers American male bloggers American male non-fiction writers American nomads American self-help writers Charity fundraisers (people) Living people Simple living advocates Writers from Anchorage, Alaska YouTubers from Alaska