f you’re thinking about doing full-time van life or building a conversion van, the first step is to figure out which van will be best for your van conversion. For the purpose of this blog we will be comparing the high roof versions of the Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit van.
Read MoreDebating a Mercedes Sprinter 144 vs 170 wheelbase? Not sure if you’ll need the extra length the Sprinter 170” wheelbase provides? Or maybe you think the 144 Sprinter will be too short for your needs…
Another van build is complete! We are so happy with the way Ethan’s 2016 170” Mercedes Sprinter Van conversion turned out.
Here are a few features of his van build with the “Outdoorsman” layout:
Mini Garage for bike storage
Convertible table/bed area allows for a place to work and eat
Full bathroom with shower and toilet
Ample storage in custom built cabinetry
Fully powered by 300 watts of solar, a 300ah lithium ion battery bank and 3000 watt inverter
Come in for a van tour of Scott's (aka Comes with a View) 2016 170” Sprinter Van Conversion with a bathroom.
One of the things we love most about #vanlife is connect with other people who live in a van! Scott was one of our first van life friends, and we finally got around to filming a tour of his DIY van conversion. It took him 6 months to complete this off-grid camper van into his home on wheels.
Read MoreWe know how overwhelming it can be to make sure you’re getting everything you need for you van conversion, so we put together this one stop shop for your van life needs. We added in a few extras that we love in our van!
Read MoreWe just finished our client’s van! Ryan came to us with a 2016 Mercedes Sprinter 170” Extended with a partial build out that he did himself. After attempting his own build, he quickly released it was a lot harder than he thought.
After demoing what he built, we started from square one to build out his dream van with a bathroom and room for bike storage.
He still wanted a convertible table bench bed area like our van conversion to be able to comfortably work in his van instead of having a full-time bed platform. We got creative and built an elevated platform to create a mini garage to give him the best of both worlds - storage for his bike and a convertible bed area.
Read MoreWondering if van life sucks? Here are 5 Things you should consider before living in a van:
If you have a sink and/or a shower in your van, you’re going to have to find somewhere to fill up your tanks every week. Where will you fill them up? And how easy is it to access your water tanks?
Well today we’re sharing some pros and cons of having a bathroom in your conversion van.
If you’re looking for details and what we used for our bathroom in our van, check out this blog post. And if you’re looking for plumbing details you can find them here.
You can shower any time you want! That means first thing in the morning, late at night or after a hot sweaty day. This was a must for us - we both like to shower every day so we knew we wanted a shower in our van. Outdoor showers are unrealistic to use whenever you want because you have to be OUTSIDE, which likely means you won’t be getting naked and you’ll have a lot of people staring at you.
There are many options when it comes to purchasing a van. However you really only have 3 options that allow you to stand up in your van:
Mercedes Sprinter
Dodge Ram Promaster
Ford Transit
One of the biggest and sometimes the most stressful part of van life is figuring out where to park overnight in your van.
One of the coolest things about vanlife is the ability to use solar power to power everything in your van. We upgraded our electrical system from our last van so that we could run our 2.5 gallon water heater without any issues. This system runs everything in our van great! We do turn off our inverter at night so that the hot water heater is not running when we don’t need it, so we highly recommend getting a switch for your inverter so it’s easy to switch off at night!
Read MoreOne of the first aspects of any van build or van conversion is to decide if you want a full time platform bed with storage underneath or if you want a convertible table bed area. Since our van is a live/work situation we wanted the flexibility to have a table/desk area to sit at during the day while we work. Let’s face it, if we had to sit in bed to get our work done, we wouldn’t be productive at all. That’s why we opted for a convertible table bed area instead of a full time bed.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for details on our Sprinter Van’s plumbing, look no further. We got ya covered! As you probably already know, we opted for a “wet” bathroom (meaning the toilet is in the shower area so it will get wet). We wanted to save on space, so we cantilevered the toilet over the shower pan using steel studs.
Read MoreWondering how and why we built a bathroom into our Sprinter van? We’ll share the details about how we fit a shower and toilet in our van in this blog post.
Read MoreLooking for details on a van conversion kitchen? Look no further! Get all the details for our converted Sprinter Van kitchen, including a farmhouse sink. We share our tips for converting your own van, living in a van, and more on this van life blog.
Read More
