{"id":3226,"date":"2016-11-28T14:28:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T22:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turo.com\/blog\/?p=3226"},"modified":"2025-04-07T07:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T14:20:23","slug":"from-camper-van-to-cash-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/turo.com\/blog\/community\/from-camper-van-to-cash-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"The man with the sleeper vans"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you tell people that you sleep in a van, it might not call forth the most professional impression, but Turo member <\/span>Ryan C.<\/span><\/a> is here to change that. If anyone can be convincing about the unexpected, it\u2019s this guy, whose cool demeanor and matter-of-fact tone don\u2019t immediately betray his penchant for creative problem-solving. <\/span><\/p>\n

About six months ago, Ryan moved back to southern California from Indonesia, and was looking for a place to live. At the time he was doing research for a furniture factory in Compton and was driving a cargo van for work. He was also coding his face off in the evening with his friends on start-up projects they were developing \u2014 a subscription sock box and customizable privacy policy generator, to name a couple. Without a place to call home and a series of jobs that kept him very busy, Ryan decided to camp out in the cargo van. It was cost-effective and eliminated his commute; he was always close to where he needed to be. \u201cI did eventually get an apartment in Hawthorne, but I would still spend the night in the van thing during the week,\u201d Ryan says. He could park the van where he was coding and immediately hit the hay or park by the furniture factory so he was ready to start work first thing in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a while, Ryan decided to put his cargo van on Airbnb to see what kind of interest it garnered. It turned out that there were lots of fine, upstanding citizens who were psyched about sleeping in a van. \u201cWhich was cool, but they couldn\u2019t drive it,\u201d Ryan explains. Since his Airbnb guests weren\u2019t covered by auto insurance, he didn\u2019t feel comfortable letting them drive the van. But who wants to sleep in a van they can\u2019t drive?<\/span><\/p>\n

It was around this time that Ryan found Turo and decided to buy a few minivans to rent (a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan<\/a>\u00a0and a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country). The insurance coverage through Turo allowed his renters to both drive and sleep in his vehicles. For reasons unknown to Ryan, his vans tended to be especially popular with French tourists. \u201cI also had a German renter who rented a van for 45 days and went all over the place: LA to San Fran, out to Vegas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The other perk of using Turo was that his dream car would pay for itself on Turo. \u201cI thought, \u2018I can rent out a Tesla, those things have no maintenance.\u2019 So I managed to get a loan at the bank and went to Santa Monica to get a Tesla Model S.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fun facts about Ryan include that he was in the military and speaks fluent Mandarin. Recently, he started teaching at the Air Force Academy and through this work, has a gotten a few repeat Chinese customers, who appreciate that he switches the language in his Tesla<\/a> to Mandarin before he rents to them. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Because the Tesla pays for itself, he\u2019s less inclined to feel protective of it. \u201cI let my friends drive it around town or if someone comes to visit I\u2019ll loan it out,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cIf I had dumped a bunch of cash into this car not as a business, then I\u2019d look at it differently. I wouldn\u2019t buy it only for fun, and that makes me the odd one out at the supercharger station,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou see some balling looking people there. Mine\u2019s a base model, but the people rolling around with P90D are a different class of society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

High society Teslas or more down-to-earth camper vans, Ryan’s got them both. He\u2019s spiffed his up so that it has hardwood floors, a queen-size mattress, and LED lights for tons of ambiance. If you\u2019re sick of your LA commute, you could also rent a van and just opt not to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rent Ryan’s cars<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you tell people that you sleep in a van, it might not call forth the most professional impression, but Turo member Ryan C. is here to change that. If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t