Modern Nomad Tales: Upgrading From a DIY Chevy Camaro Camper to a Suburban Conversion

For the past few years, wherever you turn online, all you see are inspiring and "brave" tales of people of all ages and from all walks of life, ditching their sad, stressful, and frustrating 9-to-5s to live out of mobile homes and finally enjoy themselves. We hear stories about DIY (do it yourself) mobile home builds and conversions from people with no prior building experience, of drastically cutting down daily expenses, of getting to travel to incredible, previously inaccessible places while still working on the road.

It's OK if you feel jealous even a tiny bit. Even with the usual disclaimers to these stories about how this kind of mobile, nomadic life is not for everyone, the premise is very seductive – to such an extent that you can no longer see that it's a bit misleading, too. Online content is not real life, but this is the kind of detail we keep forgetting, no matter the number of cautionary tales or warnings from psychologists, whenever we get caught in yet another amazing story of this type.

Arslan's is one such inspirational tale, but with a touch of realism you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Arslan first became Internet-famous last year with a series of YouTube videos that detailed and fully documented his decision to live out of his car so he could put himself through medical school. Last time we covered him, it was for his latest build, which he called the world's smallest and fastest camper: a Chevrolet Camaro he'd been able to turn into a sort of mobile home, complete with a kitchen setup and solar panels that helped him run his appliances.

Arslan, who hails from New Jersey, is still living out of his car but has since upgraded by moving back into a 2014 Chevrolet Suburban conversion. The difference between living out of a pony car mobile home and an SUV mobile home is huge: he now has space to actually move around, something that looks like a real kitchen, and a cassette toilet, so he no longer has to go number one in a plastic container.

What hasn't changed is the realistic way in which Arslan shows what modern nomadism looks like, especially if you opt for it on financial considerations and don't travel around all that much. It's a lonely, uncertain, makeshift life that calls for much compromise and brings little in terms of comfort. It saves money and offers a certain degree of freedom, that much is true, but the price for them is high if you don't go into it with a full heart.

Arslan did, so he has no regrets about it. He says the Camaro conversion is "out of commission" now but on standby as his backup should anything go wrong with the Suburban. This one is not a new conversion, as he's lived in it before moving into the Camaro, but he took a couple of weeks to add certain upgrades to the original layout.

These include moving the kitchen to the front of the vehicle, right beside the driver's seat, and placing the dining table slash desk towards the rear, facing the opening tailgate. The bed is still in the same place, with storage underneath and the solar system Arslan put together on his own. On the roof of the SUV are three 200W solar panels, and they help him run the lights, chargers, water pump, and fan. He also relies on a small propane cooker, a 3-gallon (11.3-liter) container for fresh water and a 1-gallon (3.7-liter) container for gray for his daily needs. Behind the driver's seat is a small refrigerator where he stores a few days' worth of food. That's a huge upgrade over the Camaro setup, where he had to go shopping every time he wanted to cook something inside.

Indeed, Arslan still cooks in his mobile home – just like he still uses an unhealthy amount of butter for frying. The video below shows him making a burger and, later on, an egg-white omelet with turkey bacon for breakfast, and despite plenty of sputtering around, he's able to keep the space relatively clean. But he's now able to actually wash his dishes with soap and water, and not just wipe them with paper towels like he did when he lived out of the Camaro, and he gets to enjoy his meals with a view of his surroundings.

Of course, there's no bathroom inside the Suburban conversion, but it's still an upgrade over the Camaro because at least there's a cassette toilet in there. This means Arslan relies on his Planet Fitness subscription now only for showering.

Living out of a car, even if rigged to suit your exact needs, is not some kind of magic bullet like most content creators will have you believe. It's highly dependent on how you prioritize everything in life, and in cases like Arslan's, it can make a huge difference. It has helped him pay for his tuition, allowing him to get a degree without running into debt, which is no small feat. He doesn't regret his initial decision and has no plans to change anything about his current living situation, except for the location: now that he's a registered nurse, Arslan wants to move out of New Jersey and plans to head to Nevada. Since he's already living out of a car, he might as well travel.

A video like the one below should be mandatory viewing for anyone considering transitioning to a mobile home.