Trent Arant has been to about 40 states and dog-friendly nationwide parks in his travels all around the U.S. in a custom-built van that doubles as his house. It doesn’t have a rest room or bathe, but it surely does have one thing extra essential to his day by day life: a PC gaming station.
“Gaming has at all times been a giant a part of me,” says Arant, 29, who has greater than half 1,000,000 followers on YouTube as TTTHEFINEPRINTTT who observe his journeys and gaming experiences, which embrace enjoying creepy titles in the course of the night time in the course of creepier woods. “It’s my method of enjoyable after a tough or unhealthy day.”
He’s had his justifiable share of these over the 4 years he’s been dwelling this nomadic life, sharing his heartbreaks, loneliness and resilience together with his many followers. He’s additionally stumbled upon a growling bear together with his canine and backed away with out incident and loved out of doors weekly showers from the again of his van (when he’s not close to a gymnasium). Dwelling and dealing in a van has taught him find out how to adapt and make do with much less.
“Doing one thing so uncomfortable made me step out and develop,” he says. “I wanted that 5 years in the past. I used to be caught in my methods. I needed to change into one thing new. Vanlife was a catalyst for me. It pushed me out to the world and altered me indefinitely. I’m a totally completely different particular person now. I grew up so much. This has been a transformative time in my life, saying goodbye to a previous model of myself.”
Although he’s taken some breaks from his van, it’s his homebase, born of a wanderlust that wasn’t fulfilled after attempting it briefly. That point, he had been dwelling with mates in a home for about 4 years. In these early days of vanlife, he discovered an inexpensive, previous van and went all in on a three-month street journey. He beloved it a lot, he needed to stay that life full-time.
Being on the street a lot with solely his canine Millie for firm, he meets new folks on a regular basis (and she or he loves that the world is her yard). However Arant misses his mates. Gaming is important to how he catches up with them.
“This way of life has a whole lot of freedom and it’s so rewarding, thrilling and stuffed with adventures. However there’s a whole lot of isolation,” he says. “In locations I’m unfamiliar with, it’s so comforting to play and reconnect with my mates by gaming on-line.”
PC gaming captured his consideration when he was a toddler, in fifth grade. A serious milestone occurred: the household obtained a pc. One in every of his siblings opened a brand new world by displaying him how a keyboard and mouse – vs. utilizing a controller and mouse – may result in new adventures.
“That actually bought it for me, and it felt much more immersive after I may recreation on-line,” says Arant, who credit Age of Empires and RuneScape together with his early desire for PC gaming.
The primary van he constructed and lived in didn’t have gaming as a spotlight again in 2018, so by the point the pandemic and lockdowns rolled round he was firmly entrenched in that life and in a position to adapt shortly, isolating himself and Millie within the woods. However over time, he tweaked his gaming setup and documented these adjustments on his social media channels: switching out completely different chairs, consolidating tools and upgrading displays and computer systems. Most significantly, he constructed a devoted and comfy house for gaming. He additionally developed his on-line gaming from tethering his telephone’s web to hotspots to the way more dependable cellular satellite tv for pc equipment he now makes use of.
“Starlink modified the sport for me,” he says. “Vanlife places me so removed from cell towers and locations I prevented earlier than, however now I don’t.”
He additionally made different enhancements together with his second van, which debuted in spring 2021 after engaged on it for a number of months beginning in 2020. He ditched his cooler for an actual fridge, added an actual range and burners, traded in a sink he needed to pump together with his foot to a working one and meticulously selected ornamental handles and designs for his new and improved kitchen cupboards.
One fixed via all these upgrades that guarantee he can play when he desires: photo voltaic panels put in on his roof, which complement a lithium battery financial institution that shops energy for him to make use of all through the night time or on days he can’t depend on the solar’s rays to return via. He additionally makes use of a DC-DC charger that permits him to cost the battery financial institution whereas driving.
He’s had a whole lot of computer systems over time, for work and for play – and even constructed a couple of – however his newest go-to for work, play and every little thing in-between is the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18.
“Out of all of the computer systems I’ve had, it’s probably the most highly effective PC I’ve ever used. It’s outperformed every little thing I’ve ever owned and large enough to really feel like a full tower PC,” says Arant, whose present video games embrace World of Warcraft, Fortnite, Name of Obligation and Apex Legends. However he’s additionally utilizing the laptop computer to edit his YouTube movies.
He’s a fan of the Home windows OS.
“It’s each prosumer and client. It may be barebones, but it surely will also be actually nice for nerds like me who wish to dive deep,” he says. “That’s what I like about it.”
ASUS adopted Arant’s journeys and obtained in contact with him, resulting in a proper association that made him a model ambassador for ASUS ROG. Whereas Arant nonetheless enjoys working within the movie trade creating on-screen graphics, the latest strikes had lower down the project-based work he often did.
As a part of his partnership with ASUS, he’s been attempting out the ASUS ROG ALLY, a conveyable Home windows 11 gaming machine. He took followers on a tour of it in June, displaying off its versatility and intuitive options. He’s taken it tenting and loved gaming beneath the celebs.
“I like that factor! I like that it performs any PC recreation like a console, however you may as well hop on YouTube and Netflix. It’s laborious to explain, but it surely feels completely different.”
Although he’s adept on the cellular gaming vanlife fashion, the mobility of the ASUS ROG ALLY is a wholly new expertise for him.
Arant grew up in Georgia, however since he first dedicated to dwelling the vanlife, he’s traveled to all however about eight states within the U.S. His favourite surroundings to date is the Pacific Northwest as a result of it reminds him of a spot in a online game.
“It has what I wish to name a hauntingly lovely feeling to it,” he says. “The tall pine bushes poking via the night fog and the plush inexperienced forests with that darkish blue hue within the ambiance is so eerie, but so lovely and comforting to me. It’s a bizarre satisfying distinction and I at all times beloved the sensation that form of panorama offers me.”
When he was a toddler, he says, he leveled an Undead character on World of Warcraft for the primary time, strolling via the Undead beginning zone feeling “alarmingly cozy and at peace.” That place wasn’t precisely an space you may suppose would elicit these sorts of emotions.
“You’re surrounded by zombies, evil spirits and mutated bats which can be attempting to kill you,” he recollects. “However I spotted it was nature and the ambiance that made me really feel that method. I keep in mind telling myself I needed to go to a spot like this in actual life at some point.”
As he approaches 30, he says he realizes how quick life is and is glad he’s partaking in these adventures now, visiting different scenic landmarks such because the Grand Canyon, Nice Sand Dunes, the Grand Tetons, Loss of life Valley and the Nice Smoky Mountains.
“It’s a reminder to me that we solely exist on this planet as soon as,” he says. “This makes me need to exit extra, develop extra and problem my ideas.”
To search out out what he’s doing subsequent (or the place he’s been), observe him on YouTube.
All photographs courtesy of TTTHEFINEPRINTTT.
