How We Ended Up Buying an EarthRoamer
Jacob grew up camping. I… did not.
He’s always been someone who feels most like himself outside—exploring, moving, figuring things out as he goes. When we met, that naturally became part of my life too. Not unwillingly, I do love being outside, but I’d say I lean more “outsidy” than fully “outdoorsy.”
When we met, Jacob had an overland Jeep. After one very cold tent camping trip, I pretty quickly decided I was done with that version of camping. We upgraded to a rooftop tent, which helped, but winter nights with the propone buddy heater still felt cold (and kinda sketchy and smelly
A few years later, we made a bigger jump and bought a short wheelbase Winnebago Revel Sprinter van. Immediately, we knew this was the way we wanted to be camping. It was heaven, except for the hiccup that Jacob is 6’5”, which meant he couldn’t stand up fully, couldn’t stretch out to sleep, and had to open the door just to use the bathroom comfortably. It worked, but it wasn’t something we could realistically live in long term.
After we sold the van and spent a few years without anything, we knew we wanted to get back into it—but in a way that could support more travel, not just weekend trips. We started seriously thinking about full-time life on the road.
We looked at long wheelbase Sprinter vans and went deep into planning a custom build. We had a long list of requirements, but a few non-negotiables:
Something that would actually fit Jacob
Comfortable for two adults and two medium-sized dogs
Functional for full-time remote work
Enough storage for bikes, paddleboards, and everything else we like to bring
We found a builder we loved and started pricing it out. By the time we got everything we wanted, the number was… a lot. And more importantly, it still wasn’t exactly what we were looking for.
At the same time, we kept coming back to EarthRoamer.
It had always felt like a bit of a stretch, something we liked but didn’t seriously consider. But once we started comparing numbers, the gap between a fully built van and a PreRoamed EarthRoamer wasn’t as big as we expected.
The other factor was something we know about ourselves pretty well at this point: if we don’t buy what we actually want, we’ll end up upgrading later.
(I officially made this a rule after realizing the level of FOMO Jacob operates with and the fact that the number of vehicles he’s bought and sold in his lifetime is probably pretty equivalent to the number of his age.)
So instead of trying to make something else work, we decided to go straight to the thing we knew we really wanted.
The EarthRoamer checked every box. Plenty of headroom, a layout that worked for all four of us, real storage for gear, and the ability to go places we couldn’t in a van. On top of that, we loved that EarthRoamer has an extremely tight knit community group and dedicated service support.
So, we more or less bought our EarthRoamer sight unseen. It was one of the biggest decisions we’ve ever made and absolutely one of the absolute best.
After a full year in our EarthRoamer we can’t imagine having gone with a van. It has been an absolute pinch me moment every day and has stood up to all of our hopes and dreams for the vehicle.