Blend or brass neck?

[Deleted member 4850]

For wild camping in remoter places (ie as opposed to car parks and laybys) do you think it's better to have a shiny white van that looks kind of 'normal' or something that blends in to the countryside?

Touch wood, we've never been told to move on yet in any of the white vans we've had but have a friend who now has her formerly green van painted orange cos she had a couple of times when there was hassle...she reckoned people thought she was trying to hide.

 

[Marc008]

I can't see it making a lot of difference, what stirs up one person might calm another. I was moved on once in my white van but that was due to the arrogance of one local resident. Had the police hammering on my van at 2am. However, they ended up apologizing and did not in fact insist that I move. The next time I went back there this resident had gathered reinforcments and started to cause harrassment so I decided that leaving was the simplest option. I must say I have thought of painting the van a less obvious dark green.
Marc

 

[nowhereman]

For wild camping in remoter places (ie as opposed to car parks and laybys) do you think it's better to have a shiny white van that looks kind of 'normal' or something that blends in to the countryside?

Touch wood, we've never been told to move on yet in any of the white vans we've had but have a friend who now has her formerly green van painted orange cos she had a couple of times when there was hassle...she reckoned people thought she was trying to hide.

This is a good point, everyone has a different opinion on this subject. It all depends on the type of camping you prefer. For us the colour of our van is such that as soon as night falls the van is almost invisible. This has proved beneficial many times and allows us to camp in some very remote places without standing out, this suits our lifestyle. If we had a bright white iceburgh on wheels then our stealthy blending in with nature routine would not be as possible. We never use campsites and very rarely do we use laybys. Therefor it is safer in our opinion not to draw attention to the fact that we are there. We have never had hassle because of the colour of our van, quite the opposite the colour has been to our advantage quite a few times, especially when the yobos appear. Tis not the first time the missus and I have been sitting at the side of the van in the dark with a coffee and people have walked past us 3-4 metres away and have jumped put of their skins when we made our presence known with a cough or the orange glow of a smoke.

 

[Deleted member 4850]

..If we had a bright white iceburgh on wheels then our stealthy blending in with nature routine would not be as possible.

Yes, I think you've got a good point there. I once had a blue/green VW van and at dusk it became hardly visible. Over the years we've had several small caravans on the farm as guest accommodation and we always painted them green and people always said how much better they looked. I prefer the idea of merging with the background - but it'd take some courage to paint an expensive motorhome green!