Bob Wells (born 1955) is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

, author, and advocate of

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

, nomadic

vandwelling Van-dwelling or vanlife is a lifestyle of living in a vehicle full or part-time. The names are compound words that derive from the fact that it is typically done in a van that has been modified with basic amenities, such as house batteries, solar ...

. Wells 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 with ...

, and the Homes on Wheels Alliance, which assists needy individuals in acquiring vehicles for habitation and travel.

Early life

Wells's father worked as a union clerk at a

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

and died two years after reaching retirement. Wells found himself employed in the same store, wanting to avoid his father's inability to enjoy retirement. In 1995, feeling stuckTrujillo, Stevie (February 4, 2021
"Off-road, Off-grid: The Modern Nomads Wandering America's Back country
''The Guardian''. Retrieved February 14, 2021 after working twenty years at the store, and suffering a difficult divorce with two children, Wells found his finances constrained — and 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 between ...

, purchased with his last $1,500. The experience left him crying himself to sleep most nights. After six years, he remarried, moved into a house, and relocated with his wife to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, where the stress of the marriage with a mortgage became too much. After he and his second wife divorced, Wells began living in a

truck camper In North America, the term truck camper and its derived acronym 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 o ...

, followed by a work van,Sammon, Alexander (January 10, 2019
"YouTube Boomers Show #VanLife Isn’t Just for Millennials"
''Wired''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. and most recently, a four-wheel-drive ambulance.IE Staff (April 27, 2021
"Several real nomads were featured in the film starring Frances McDormand."
''Inside Edition'' Retrieved June 25, 2021.

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.

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

In January of each year, Wells organizes a get-together of vehicle dwellers in

called the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR). The term "rubber tramp" refers to people who live in a vehicle, which use rubber

tire A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...

s. 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 an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

for retirees. In 2010, the first year of its existence, 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 cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

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

Los Algodones Los Algodones is a city in Mexicali Municipality, Baja California. Located on the United States-Mexico border, Los Algodones is south of Andrade, California and west of Yuma, Arizona. It reported a population of 5,474 as of the 2010 Mexican census ...

, or

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, Mexico) to locating free second-hand items.

YouTube

In 2015, Wells started a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

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"
''cbsnews.com''. 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, 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 the 29 types of 50 ...

charity of which he serves as president. The organization is dedicated to providing vehicles that have been converted into dwellings to individuals in need of financial assistance.

Influence

Wells has been interviewed in documentaries and appeared on television news programs that focused on alternative lifestyles and

simple living Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. Not only is ...

. He identifies politically with the

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

, and sees van dwelling as a rejection of modern society's norms. Wells was featured prominently in ''

Nomadland ''Nomadland'' is a 2020 American drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao. Based on the 2017 nonfiction book '' Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century'' by Jessica Bruder, it stars Frances McDormand ...

'', a nonfiction book following the exploits of different RV and vandwellers. He portrayed himself in the critically acclaimed 2020 film adaptation.James, Caryn (September 14, 2020
"Nomadland Review: 'Overflowing With Humanity and Tenderness'"
''bbc.com''. Retrieved January 3, 2021.

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

References

External links

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

Homes on Wheels Alliance

Audio interview with Wells
at

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Wells' classes
at

Skillshare Skillshare is an online learning community based in the United States for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not accredited, are only available through paid subscription. The majority of courses focus on in ...

Wells' video courses
at

Udemy Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 ins ...

videos *
"Without Bound"
by Michael Tubbs and Aaron Harlan *
"Freewheeling: The van life"
by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

*
"Living Your Best Life in a Van"
by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

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