Adding a piano drawer to my camper van

Enjoying my van piano in the Elkhorn Mountains.

We designed our DIY Sprinter van to be a bike hauler with most of the comforts of home. Eight years later, I fell in love with playing piano and needed to figure out how to travel with a piano in the van PLUS bikes.

At first, I simply tossed my keyboard onto the bed and cuddled with it at night. When Chelsea traveled with me, I moved it on and off the bed every day…annnnoying. I needed a long-term solution.

So I built a piano drawer in my van.

The idea is simple enough: I attached a drawer to the underside of the van bed right above the mountain bikes. Figuring out the clearance and finding a piano took some time, but I finally settled on the slim-as-can-be Casio P1000X. At 52″ x 9.1″ x 4”, it wound up fitting perfectly. (Well, I did have to cut a hole in my bike drawer to lower my mountain bike.)

Pro tip: retrofitting is way harder than designing hobbies into a new build upfront. I’ve learned my lesson and shall NEVER AGAIN pick up a new hobby.

NOW my bike will fit with space for the piano drawer.

The piano drawer install

Once I figured out dimensions, the rest was fairly straightforward. After all, a piano drawer is merely a drawer with dimensions to hold a piano!

The faceplate is kinda cool, if I say so myself. I screwed little compression clasps onto the back of a piece of alder wood so that it snaps on and off without needing a visible latch.

The primary components:

  1. Draw slides. I found some inexpensive 4’ drawer slides cheap on Amazon.
  2. Stain: I used low-VOC polyx oil.
  3. Two compression clasps to hold the faceplate on (pictured as installed above).
  4. Some plywood I had plus alder my neighbor had lying around. Thanks Steve!
  5. A cable to connect my piano to my main stereo system so I can blast my Beethoven at distant mountains and enrage campers for miles around.
  6. Some felt for the top/bottom of the faceplate to prevent scratching.

One thing I noticed was a slight sway to the drawer when it’s fully extended. I thought a chock block under the drawer might be necessary, but when I play, my hands steady the side-to-side sway.

All in all, the project was straightforward and worked out exactly as I wanted. I’m pumped to have the piano in the van! Playing it in beautiful places with the door wide open and the view unfolding in front of me simply couldn’t be a better concert hall.

Now I can travel with my favorite things: bikes AND piano. What else does a boy need?

Photo gallery

Click and scroll to see full-size images.

Installing a DIY Gray Water System Under My Sprinter Van

For years, our Sprinter van’s “gray water system” consisted of a simple 3-gallon plastic jug. When it filled up, we’d haul the jug outside and dump it out. Usually discreetly, sometimes on an azalea in someone’s front yard.

After I upgraded our batteries to lithium and moved them inside, we lost the space for the ugly blue jug. How sad.

Instead, I schemed a fancy-but-affordable gray water system I could mount under the van. 

My goals for the install:

  1. Enough capacity to not need to empty it 1-2x a day like our previous system.
  2. A sensor to keep track of how full it was. (Rather than “hey, can you check the jug?” or “OMG, TURN OFF THE SINK, THE UGLY BLUE JUG IS OVERFLOWING.”) 
  3. The ability to dump water while stationary or on the go. Aka a remotely-switched dump valve. Boss mode!
  4. Not worry about ripping the tank off the van on rutted roads.
  5. Not spend half of a Bezos fortune on the damn thing. (My total cost with tank, waterless p-trap, tank tray, wiring, and so on was ~$270.)

Mission accomplished! After scarcely a half dozen trips to various hardware stores and almost dying of starvation wandering around Lowe’s, my fancy new gray water tank is operational.

NO, my tank did not perform like this pre-install drawing my friend Eric sent me…

My goal is to save all you DIYer’s the mental anguish of designing and sourcing all the components. Here’s a handy-dandy summary of the install.

  1. Things to consider
  2. Gray water tank installation process
    1. Install prep
    2. Full install
    3. Plumbing
    4. Wiring
  3. Photo gallery for gray water tank install
  4. Parting Thoughts
  5. Gray water tank parts list
  6. Installation tips

Things to Consider Prior to Installation

Gray water tank design
Initial design scheming and parts list.

I spent half an eternity pondering if I wanted to deal with this install. Simple is good.

A few considerations:

  1. If you love snow sports and plan on spending months traveling in wintry locations, I’d probably keep the gray water inside your vehicle. There are tank and plumbing heating pads, but that’s more complex and also a drain on power systems.
  2. If you frequent 4×4 roads (buy a jeep, dude), the less stuff attached to the bottom of your van, the better.
  3. Is it worth the cost and install time for you? I enjoy these projects and $175 felt worth it to upgrade my system. However, a cheap 3-gallon jug under your sink surrrre is effective if you’ve got the space.

Dreaming of a sweet new gray water tank? Here’s how I did it.

gray water tank install
Positioning the tank with the aid of a neighbor’s lift jack. Such a flattering angle of me…

Installation process for my gray water tank

My first decision was the new tank’s location. I decided to put mine under the van just behind the driver’s seat where my old AGM batteries were previously mounted. I did so for a few reasons:

  1. The space has easily accessible chassis ribs for mounting.
  2. The gray water tank tucks in right next to the fuel tank.
  3. My sink and electrical is right above there, so plumbing and wiring was easy.

From there, I ordered all the components, wandered around various hardware stores, cursed Lowe’s and all big box stores, and started the fun part: actually building stuff.


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cutting angle iron
Cutting the galvanized angle for the support tray. Hacksaw worked great.

Install Prep:

  1. Cut frame rails. The two 3’ horizontal pieces fit my tank perfectly, so no cutting there. The horizontal ones I cut to match the width of the tank, with a cutout for the drain hole.
  2. Bolted the assembly together, one ¼-20 carriage bolt in each corner.
  3. Cut four 10.5” sections of flat galvanized metal (same style as angle) for vertical hanging pieces.
  4. Attached the vertical pieces to my tank with the same carriage bolt setup.
  5. Since the tank is tapered, I cut up some scrap ½” plywood and stacked two layers under the slimmer end of the tank with small sections routed out to fit over the carriage bolt heads. Bonus with the plywood is tank protection.
  6. For the untapered tank end, I ran a line of ¼” thick weatherstripping to protect the tank from rubbing on the carriage bolts.
  7. Drilled a hole in the top of the tank to mount the tank sensor and screwed the sensor to the tank, plus a little silicon caulk around gasket for good measure. Note: make sure your sensor location is between the horizontal chassis frame pieces. Mine is 10” from the forward-facing part of the tank.
  8. Prepped sensor wiring for installation by splicing 16 gauge wire onto the sensor connections and covering wire loom for protection.
  9. Installed the drain, outlet and vent plumbing. Note: do this before installing your tank. Teflon tape on the thread connections is all you need.
  10. For the vent, I just used a 90-degree elbow and attached a small piece of vinyl tubing. No need to vent through the roof in my opinion. My van has enough holes in it.
  11. Speaking of holes… Next up was drilling eight of them in my van!
Gray water tank ready to go in. Sensor and all plumbing fittings pre-installed.

Installing the Gray Water Tank:

  1. Most important step: borrow your neighbor’s lift jack. I also enlisted said neighbor’s help getting the tank in position. I leave you to brainstorm other solutions if you don’t have a jack available. 
  2. Positioning-wise, the ribs in my Sprinter are exactly 36” apart, which lined up with the end of my tank. (I planned that!) 
  3. Crank that jack up and PRESTO your tank is in position. Line everything up because things are about to become a bit more serious…
  4. Real-deal install time! Position your vertical hanging pieces where you want them and tap two holes in each van chassis support for each piece. Pro tip: this is impossible without a 90-degree adapter like this one for your drill.
  5. Put a self-tapping screw (plus washer and lock washer) into each drilled hole.
  6. Admire your work for 30 seconds, brag to your partner even though there’s nothing to show yet, and then take a break before commencing wiring and plumbing.
drilling holes in chassis
Drilling holes in the chassis (90 degree adapter for drill is mandatory).

Plumbing:

Once I tracked down all the parts, plumbing was quick and easy. (For plumbing…) Your system will likely be different, so I’ll keep this brief

  1. I connected a waterless p-trap from Uniguard to the sink drain.
  2. I connected 1” OD tubing to the p-trap.
  3. Put a tee in the main tubing line with a valve on each outlet. One will go to the tank, another straight through the floor in the rare case of freezing conditions during travel.
  4. Under the van, I ran the 1″ tubing straight down into an elbow at the top corner of the tank.
  5. With a bunch of hose clamps on connections, plumbing is complete.
Waterless p-trap connected to bottom of sink.
Gray water tank plumbing below the sink with waterless p-trap at top. Left side of tee stubbed off for now. (Yes, I know the solar MPPT is not ideal in that location with water next to it… #retrofitrisks)

Wiring:

Wiring surprised me by taking an entire afternoon to complete. Lots of fun squished under the van, in the van, contorted in a cabinet… yay. The good news: it all worked as planned!

My two primary goals:

  1. Put the gauge for the water tank on a switch so it is only on when I want it to be on.
  2. Put the remote switch for the tank valve somewhere on the van driver seat so I can flip it while driving on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere OR in a sanctified RV dumping site.

Easiest way to handle this is with a wiring diagram!

Gray water tank wiring diagram. Pro, I know…

Gray Water Tank Install Photo Gallery

See below for all the photos from the install. Click and scroll to see them all.

Parting Thoughts

Say what? Project complete!

Overall, I’m quite pleased with how this turned out and it worked like a charm during an inaugural roadtrip through eastern Oregon. Overall, I expect it to be a major improvement on having the nasty gray water tank sloshing around inside our van.

The extra capacity—15 gallons vs. our previous 3 gallons— means we won’t be emptying the tank nearly as frequently. When we do, it’ll likely be while driving on gravel roads. This played out exactly as planned during the first trip.

One thing I may add is a second drain pipe in case of super cold temps and frozen pipes. This would allow emergency sink draining directly onto the ground. Photos show the hole I pre-drilled for this, which I capped off for now.

Gray Water Tank Parts List:

Here’s the (mostly?) full list of what I used for my install. Some of these are Amazon affiliate links, which means Amazon kicks me some change if you buy it. Hey, it’s the least you can do if you follow this install guide, right?

All the fancy parts: 

This 15-gal water tank directly from Class A Customs (<–best prices for water tanks ANYwhere on the internet. Instead of $200-400, this tank cost 58 bucks including shipping.)

-This electronic ball valve, plus 1.5” to 1” reducer, then a 1”-¾ reducing nipple to connect valve to tank

-A SPDT (single pole, dual throw) switch to control the ball valve. Any kind will do.

Tank level sensor (I bought the 6.5” one)

-Waterless p-trap by Uniguard (I bought mine from Etrailer.com)

Gauge for tank sensor

-Switch to control gauge

Items for the tray (any hardware store has this stuff):

2 – 3’  pieces of 14ga galvanized angle (support tray sides)

1- 4’ piece of 14ga galvanized angle (cut in half for support tray ends)

1 – 4’ piece of flat 14ga galvanized metal (vertical support)

8 – self-tapping screws, plus flat and lock washers

8 – 1/4 20 carriage bolts (1”) with flat and lock washers.

½” plywood to stack under the tapered end of the tank. Also protects the bottom of the tank from sharp rocks or malevolent neighbors.

Weather stripping to cushion bottom edge of the tank against carriage bolts

Random wiring components:

-16ga wire

-Wire loom

-Crimps, shrink tubing, etc for wiring

Installation Tips

-Leave slack for your sensor wiring in case you ever lower the tank

-There’s of course the option to also install a manual drain valve. If I ever have a problem with my wiring, I’ll add this. In the meantime, I’m willing to accept the risk. Worst-case, my tank drains through the vent hole at the top of the tank, so life won’t end.

-If you’re concerned about tank mounting, you could always use Plus Nuts and bigger bolts for the chassis mounting. Given that the full weight of this system is <100 pounds totally full, I feel comfortable with this design. If something changes (aka my tank falls off and destroys my undercarriage), I’ll update this with a bunch of swear words.

Breakfast in the Painted Hills during the water tank’s first trip!
Ohmmu lithium battery install with Renogy DC charger

Upgrading My Camper Van Electrical System to Lithium Batteries

Ohmmu lithium battery install with Renogy DC charger
Ohmmu lithium battery install with Renogy DC charger (and reused wires!)

I can’t believe I waited so long to replace my camper van’s busted-ass AGM batteries with shiny, powerful lithium ones. That single upgrade greatly improved our van travel experience.

Prior to the upgrade, our old batteries from the initial build in 2013 wheezed like a smoker’s lungs. They tried hard, but couldn’t get the job done. 

The batteries had juice to power basic items in the van like laptops, roof fan, heater, fridge. But the overall capacity and voltage output had decreased to borderline unusable for any high-current load like a countertop water boiler. Which meant no quick morning coffee for Chelsea, which meant OMG FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY.

Also, the tiny microwave I installed last summer could only heat up food while we were driving or our inverter threw an error. People, I’m talking about an EXTREME inconvenience. I choose to sleep in a van versus a tent for comfort, dammit! I reserve sleeping on the ground for bikepacking.

(In defense of our old Fullriver batteries, we did use them five years past their typical use date. They were champions in their day.)

Suffice it to say that anyone considering replacing their old AGM (absorbent glass-mat) or FLA (flooded lead acid) batteries will see an incredible improvement in their electrical systems. Here are the details of my upgrade.

Post Contents

Click specific sections to jump directly there!

  1. Reasons lithium batteries kick butt
  2. Downsides to lithium batteries
  3. How I selected my lithium battery company
  4. Battery installation details
  5. Electrical wiring diagram
  6. DC-DC charger selection
  7. D+ signal wire details
  8. MPPT controller reprogramming
  9. The Verdict
  10. Engineer-dork battery info

Reasons lithium batteries kick butt

  • Lithium batteries maintain their voltage output down to 10% of their capacity. Compared to AGM or lead acid, which are almost useless below 50%, you get way more useable power even with the same amp-hour capacity.
  • Lithium batteries weigh about half what AGM batteries do. My ~13″x7″x9″ batteries are only 31 pounds each. Especially for big battery banks, that’s a lot less weight.
  • Lithium batteries have a faster “absorption phase,” which means they charge faster. (It seems like 3-4x faster than AGM is what most companies claim.) Many people online mention how quickly their system charges while driving or via solar power. What’s not to like?

Downsides to lithium batteries

Ok, fine, there are some downsides to lithium. It’s not all sunshine and peanuts. 

Lithium batteries can’t charge in below-freezing temperatures. Since my old AGM batteries were mounted underneath the van, I needed to relocate them inside. (Or build a heated box for the new batteries or buy fancy, mega-expensive batteries. Um, no thanks.)

I solved this by moving our gray water tank underneath the van (and upping the volume by 6x) and putting the batteries behind the driver’s seat in the van. Overall, I think this setup makes more sense anyway.

Pro tip: removing 150 lbs of batteries from the bottom of your van is best not done alone. Right after almost smashing myself dropping these, my neighbor said, “Hey, do you want to borrow my lift jack?” Sigh…

Other considerations:

Yes, lithium batteries are more expensive upfront. You can buy 300 Ah of AGM batteries for about half the cost of lithium. However, if you take the life-cycle cost into account (i.e. pick a time span and compare batteries), lithium eventually ends up being cheaper.

At 3,000 lifetime charge cycles for the Ohmmu batteries, that’s 10 years of use at 300 nights per year, or roughly 3-4x more cycles than you’ll get for AGM batteries. Given the better performance of lithium batteries, I think it’s worth it if you can afford the upfront cost. If you’re only looking to use your batteries for a weekend rig or want to save cash, it’s worth reading through this extensive vanconverts.com post about AGM vs. lithium.


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How I chose my new lithium batteries

Ohmmu’s lithium iron phosphate Batteries

For my new lithium batteries, I researched the Internets and ultimately chose a company called Ohmmu. There are many van battery options out there, but Ohmmu delivers more value than its competition.

From what I saw, Ohmmu’s lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries pack more power into a smaller, lighter package. The company uses prismatic cells vs. cylindrical ones in most lithium batteries. That means more active cells = less wasted space = more capacity and longer lifespans. (For engineering dorks like me, I put more details on the tech at the end of this post.)

Batteries are a commodity and the most important factors are cost, capacity and size. If cost and size are the same, then finding the one with the most capacity is what matters.

For example, Battleborn and RELiON batteries are a similar cost, weight and size as Ohmmu, but only provide 100Ah per battery vs. Ohmmu’s 150Ah. At $~900-$1,000 each for lithium batteries, that means it costs 50% more to get the exact same capacity, not to mention needing to find space for another battery. No thanks.

Full disclosure: Ohmmu sent me two batteries for free when I reached out, though I would have bought them anyway since they’re a great value. I don’t make anything if you buy their batteries.

For my install, I went with two 150Ah Ohmmu batteries, a total of 300 Ah of power. That’s 1.5x what we had before, plus we can drain the system to 10% versus the 50% with AGM. Let’s skip the math and call it what it is: MORE BETTER.

Lithium ion batteries camper van
Lithium batteries installed behind Sprinter van driver’s seat (prior to building an enclosure around them)

My battery installation

All the stuff! Anyone know what to do with all this crap?

Other than the pain of scrambling around beneath the van getting chunks of dirt in my eyes, rewiring my new batteries wasn’t difficult. The only complicating factor was that my new Ohmmu lithium batteries are 12V and my Fullriver AGM’s were 6V.

Since our van is designed around a 12V system, I rewired things in parallel vs. the old setup with two 6V batteries in series. If you’re thinking, “What the hell does that mean,” please consider paying someone to install your new batteries.

My hand-drawn diagram, super sick wiring diagram is below. FYI, I used 4AWG wire for the charger and 1AWG for battery connections, but yours will vary based on your system’s needs. FarOutRide’s fantastic electrical system writeup is excellent and can walk you through details if you aren’t confident about electrical calcs. (I adopted their idea of extra fuses on the batteries, thanks y’all.)

My uber-pro electrical diagram. If nothing else, it helped me develop an accurate parts list.
Notes: 1) there is also a disconnect switch between the PV+ and MPPT.
2) “Batt. Main” = battery maintainer from LSL, which trickle charges the starter battery.

Selecting a DC-DC Charger

Renogy DC charger installation with main battery disconnect switch in the top right.

One other significant difference with lithium batteries is that charging them with excess vehicle alternator current isn’t as simple. Rather than a battery separator, lithium needs a DC-DC charger to keep the battery in good shape. I think it’s possible to run a battery separator between the alternator and the DC charger, but I didn’t see any benefit to it and removed mine. 

After reading about various options, I picked up a Renogy 60 amp DC-DC charger (disclosure: also comped for free). There are more expensive, fancier options on the market, but in my mind, Renogy provides a solid product that does exactly what I need it to: put current into my batteries with no fuss. Many camper vans successfully run their chargers, so I expect mine to work well. 

The 60 amp rating means that when I drive for an hour, my batteries receive 60 Amp-hours, 1/5th of my 300 Ah capacity. Beyond 60A, an upgraded, separate alternator is needed (no thanks).

Even with batteries inside, you may want to pick up a temperature sensor (here is Renogy’s) and connect it to your DC-DC charger to make sure you aren’t putting too much current into your batteries. Jump to low temp charging below for the settings I’m using.

Note: for the DIP switch settings, I used the following: 1-OFF, 2-ON, 3-ON, 4-ON, 5-OFF. This forum post was useful for sorting this out, but it will depend on your specific batteries.

The new DC-DC charger ready to rip.

Dealing with the D+ signal wire

One thing that initially seemed complicated with Renogy was the “D+ signal wire,” which simply tells the charger to turn on only when the vehicle is running. Luckily, underneath the driver’s seat of the Sprinter is a wiring bank with a D+ terminal on it. 

Rather than needing to tear apart the dashboard, I simply ran 16AWG wire between that terminal and Renogy’s DC-DC charger and WOOT, everything worked. (Is there anything better than a solution that’s easier than expected versus, you know, the usual?)

D+ signal wire sprinter van
The D+ terminal is the far left one (black/yellow), whereas the middle terminal is an “always on” terminal. My red wire on the left runs to the Renogy DC charger

Overall, wiring the install proved quite easy with pre-cut wires like these. Sure, you can buy crimpers and make your own, but why bother for such a small project?

Just one thing left to do: reprogram my MPPT controller so my solar panels don’t turn my new lithium batteries into a nuclear bomb. (Don’t worry, that’s not what happens if you screw up.)

Reprogramming the MPPT controller

Late-night MPPT charge controller reprogramming

Lithium batteries have a major difference from other batteries: they don’t use an “equalization phase.” I won’t go into details here about why, but make sure to disable equalization on your MPPT controller. 

My MPPT controller from 2013, a Blue Sky 2512i(X), isn’t fancy. I can’t control it with my phone and it doesn’t wash my dishes, but it does what it needs to. Luckily, by reading through the manual (how fun), I figured out how to set things to what Ohmmu specifies for their batteries. 

Disabling equalization was simply a flip of a DIP switch on my MPPT, whereas the other settings were easily changed from a settings menu. Your MPPT manual has the answers.

Here are the settings I used for my Ohmmu batteries. Make sure to check your specific battery charger requirements!

Charger settings:

  1. Absorption 14.4V
  2. Float 13.5V
  3. No Equalization

Charging Your Batteries in Low Temperatures

When charging with solar, it depends on your system’s output. For 0-32F, Ohmmu batteries can handle 20A. Since our 200 watts of solar generates a max of 200W/12V=16.7A in ideal conditions, there’s no way the current will exceed 20A. (Deep-dive into why here if you’re interested.)

Even at -20F, the batteries can handle 10A, which is still likely more than our solar panel output given the low angle of the sun in coldest part of the day (i.e. the morning). I’m testing this out to see if I need a temperature sensor like this one for my Blue Sky MPPT controller.

That left the most heart-wrenching part of any project: turning on the power. Picture the scene from Ocean’s 11 when the guy turns and covers his junk before he kills the power in Vegas.

Are these supposed to connect to something?

The verdict: Lithium batteries kicks ass

No melted wires or explosions, folks! The system worked first go.

The results: our 750W microwave works perfectly, our 1000W water boiler cranks out coffee water, and the batteries charge far faster than our AGM batteries did. Unless we park the van in a cave for a week of spelunking, I think I’ve solved our power issues.

We couldn’t be happier with the decision to upgrade from AGM batteries to lithium. With the extra juice, we’ve added a small Instant Pot and microwave to our van to bring some comforts of home with us on the road. As any van lifer will tell you, it’s the small things when you’re traveling.

I’m looking forward to many years of hot coffee for Chelsea in the morning and quick hot meals for me after a mountain bike ride!

Post-ride in the van, hot food ready to go!

Post-script: All the obsessive details about Ohmmu batteries

I was curious about why Ohmmu’s lithium batteries have 1.5x more capacity than the competition, so I emailed the company. Below is the response from Sean, their founder:

Caveat: this section is for someone looking for all the battery details. If you simply want batteries that work, just order some and be happy. Otherwise, dig in.

From Ohmmu: 

Our biggest points of emphasis are capacity (Ah) and our use of prismatic cells (rather than cylindrical).  

The reason these are critical:

  1. Capacity is the single most relevant and important characteristic of any battery. The greater capacity of the battery indicates a larger surface area for chemical reactions to occur inside of the battery.

    With the larger surface area of prismatic cells, the stressors at any given point are decreased and the “work” the battery is performing is distributed across a larger area. The result of this is not only a longer run-time per charge, but more critically, it relieves the stress of use over time and leads to much longer lifespans.
  2. The other great thing about having the most capacity possible is that you can better manage your energy storage. You don’t need to fully charge or fully deplete the battery, but can charge to just 80-90% and discharge to 10-20%, providing additional stress relief for your battery.

    The biggest stressors on a battery occur when it is fully charged or fully discharged since the chemical reactions that occur become overly-saturated or overly-desaturated and result in small but permanent capacity losses over time.

Getting deep in the technical weeds, this is why prismatic is better than cylindrical:

  1. Our batteries are a sealed system. There is no coolant or air flow occurring through the battery pack inside of the plastic case. This means we rely exclusively on conduction to evenly distribute and dissipate the heat that builds up inside of the cells. 

    Our prismatic cell packaging allows for superior conduction of heat across the battery pack since (unlike cylinders), we can package our cells so the majority of the cell surface area is in direct contact with its neighboring cells.

    Additionally, we can package more active material inside of our batteries because less space is wasted (less air) and of course this additional active material leads to more capacity and longer lifespans.

What I’d Change If I Built Out a New Camper Van

Good times in Leavenworth! (Pic: Kristen @bearfoottheory)

It appears this van life trend is sticking around. We’re sucking up wifi bandwidth at your library and stealth camping in your neighborhood…watch out! At most trailheads these days, I count the number of vehicles that aren’t vans. I’m certainly not innocent. In fact, since I think all humans (and some dogs) need a van, let’s talk about how to make them Super Awesome Sauce. I’ve talked about my initial build, but never said “this still works” or “I’d change this.” While I currently don’t plan to buy a new van, reader feedback and many weeks of van travel this year prompted me to make a list of:
  • Things I still love about our van
  • Things I’d reconsider, modify or do differently if I endured…err, engaged in a new buildout project.
My aim is to help your quest to design the ultimate adventure mobile to retain the comforts of home while exploring places like this.
Sunrise on the Alvord Desert.

Sunrise on the Alvord Desert.

Why Should I Listen to You?

Hold on: why the heck does your opinion matter, Dakota? Do you even USE Snapchat? (Got me…) Here’s all I’ve got: due to my writing about vans, I’m constantly awash in questions, comments, and thoughts about van life. Since 2013, my Adventure Mobile post has received hundreds of thousands of visitors and dozens of comments. (I’ve updated that article over 100 times with new info.) I’m also lucky to have met many readers around the country during our travels. “Hey, I know your van…are you Dakota from Trapezing, Tripping, er Thrashing About?” (The name doesn’t matter, right? Next blog I’m using a word people know.) Trailheads, libraries, laundromats, grocery stores: Sprinter vans and their cool occupants are everywhere.
Desert Sprinter van views

Van lifers everywhere except this empty trailhead in Utah. There’s still solitude to be found!

Keep in mind that my goal for the van was a low-stress, relatively low-cost buildout that wouldn’t consume months of my life. I aimed for a practical, simple, cost-effective design doable with basic power tools and a bit of chutzpah (over-confidence). Five years into our relationship with the Sprinter, I still love the van travel experience. First off, things I’d do again! —– By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for the free 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter for more tales from the mountains and creative challenges like drawing and piano when I’m off the bike or not van tripping.

I’d Do This Again If I Built Out Another Van

Buy the 144” high-roof Sprinter: I’m sticking to my guns on this one. The longer vans I’ve seen often leave more (wasted) interior space and are tougher to maneuver on the bumpy fire roads that I frequent. Throw in easier driving around cities and I vote for going shorter if you’re a couple with the standard van life hobbies of ride, run, ski, climb. (Caveat: if you have kids or travel with gear – e.g. dirt bikes – that need a separate gear garage, then a longer van may make sense.) Bike racks on sliders: No better way to maximize space for vans that are hauling bikes. It also makes managing other gear easier. I vote for 2-3 slide-out drawers/storage to handle the entire gear compartment! Big side windows on both sides: we love having the light and visibility from the CR Lawrence windows. Extra bonus is that the crank-out small windows allow great airflow when the vent fan is turned on.

Lunch break with a view on the Oregon Coast.

Cabinet in sliding door space: I’ve heard the arguments here: space for yoga, you can sit on the stoop… Meh, sorry… The extra storage and counter space, plus the ability to have a sweet drop-down table for post-activity snacking with friends or easy food prep, beats the piss out of your downward dog pose. I vote for folding chairs and a mat outside the van for sitting and stretching. But that’s just me… Large fridge: I’m sticking with a big, side-entry fridge (4.6 cubic feet). Having space for a ton of food is key for travel over a few days; for a weekender rig, maybe not so much. Swivel seats: must-have for the passenger seat, but maybe not for driver. I traded my driver swivel to a friend for a bike rack, in fact, and haven’t missed it at all.

One swivel is fine! Mr. Money Mustache approves. (This shot’s for you, Jules.)

Alternator wired to charge house batteries while driving: a must-have! Solar often isn’t enough to keep things fully charged, and just an hour of driving will top off most battery systems. Update April 2021: things work slightly differently now, so check out my post on upgrading to Ohmmu lithium iron phosphate batteries and a Renogy DC-DC charger. Diesel heater: unless you only travel in the summer at low elevation, this is a key component of any van build. I still stick by what I said in my install post: “With 20/20 hindsight and many sub-freezing nights logged, it is officially one of our favorite things in the van.” Given feedback from others, it seems worth it to get the high-altitude kit, though our heater has worked fine. Door-stop for sliding door: years into having this on our van, we still love it! My brother-in-law Jesse continues to manufacture and ship these and has a ton of satisfied customers. Drop-down side table: as I said in my favorite upgrades post, this is so handy for cooking or food prep, putting out snacks post-ride for friends, and general staging area for all activities.

Breakfast a la side table!

Solar: not mandatory if your batteries charge while driving, but still handy. Given how cheap they are now, putting solar panels on a van is practically a no-brainer these days! WeBoost wifi extender: if you work while you travel, this handy device is destined to be your best buddy. It’s not a magic device that turns No Service into LTE bars, but often allows me to stay parked way out in nature and still get enough of a signal to check email without driving somewhere. We have the WeBoost Drive 4G-X, which ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it for us! Propane hot water shower: I wish I’d done this earlier! For $100 and two hours of plumbing, a hot water shower off the back of the van is an easy upgrade totally worth doing. I bought an Eccotemp L5 heater as an open-box deal, but they’re on Amazon also if none are available.
Propane shower camper van

Hot water rinse after a long, awesome ride in Oakridge (full ATCA, no shuttle!).

Things I’d Do Differently

There’s all the stuff I’d keep. What would I change? With the benefit of many months traveling in the van, both for short and long trips, I’d make these modifications: No rear windows: The way our design evolved, only the top section of our rear windows are usable. (Most designs with bikes or outdoor gear under the bed will end up like this.) If I did it again, I’d skip the rear windows and install a small port window above the bed. More power: related to the next item, instead of ~200 amp-hours of battery power, I’d double it to 400 amp-hours via lithium-ion batteries. Update April 2021: 300 Ah is plenty of power given lithium’s ability to drain to 10%. Full upgrade post here. This provides a week of power with zero driving or solar, which is when a) I’ve eaten all the food and we need to restock or b) it’s time for new horizons (because we’re moving on, not due to police suggestion). No shore (plug-in) power: In four years of ownership, we’ve only used the shore power a handful of times. I wouldn’t bother next time. With 400 amp-hours of power, you definitely won’t need it unless you’re planning to pay for electrical hookups and run A/C in a KOA campground…which is antithetical to van life, so you may need to just buy an RV or risk community shunning!
Campground Hell's Canyon.

No shore power in the free waterfront campgrounds in Hell’s Canyon. Rock climbing just steps away in those hills!

Easily washable floor: Due to time constraints before our trip, we kept the stock floor that came with our van. It’s served us well. Still, I wish we’d had the time to put in a swath of colorful Marmoleum to create a durable, fun, more easily washable floor. Less sound deadening: The stock Sprinters, ProMasters and Transits suffer from vibration and sound transfer. Bare metal walls create an echo chamber worse than my nephew destroying his drum kit. (Ok, maybe that isn’t possible.) I’m glad I used sound-absorbent material below the floor to limit road noise. I’m less sure about the vibration damping for the walls and ceiling – after insulation and interior paneling, half as much is probably fine. Thanks to the heavy damping in our sliding door, it is a shoulder-breaker on slight uphills. If I did it again, I’d put pieces of vibration damping in there, but not coat the entire door.

Going wayyy back on Route 66.

Modular storage tray: We don’t always carry four bikes, which means one tray isn’t used or is under-used, especially for shorter trips of 1-4 weeks. I’m planning to make a modular/removable rack for carrying climbing gear, skis, paddles, or whaaatever. Design for fitting skis: We weren’t skiers in 2013, so the separation wall between the storage and the living area doesn’t allow for long skis. Some simple mods to cabinets would allow this. Wire/plumb initially: Not knowing exactly how we’d use our van, we didn’t plumb or wire before most of the interior was installed. I put in overhead lights halfway down the CA coast, and sink plumbing didn’t happen until 2.5 years of traveling in our van. (Chelsea is tough!) If you have the time and confidence in how you’ll use your van, map out as much of this stuff as possible. Given the in-depth resources, floor plans, and designs now kicking around the ‘nets, this is way easier now.
Sprinter van Mojave Desert

Good to have extra water when you’re in the Mojave!

Backup camera: I can parallel park the van like a boss. However, the visibility is limited and stress levels are lower in crowded parking lots or kids playgrounds if you’ve got a backup camera. I’ve only bumped a stealth motorcycle behind us once (it didn’t tip over). Update fall 2019: I bought a cheap license plate surround backup camera and it’s been great! Insulated blackout curtain: New desire: an insulated curtain that snaps up to seal off the cab from the main living compartment for insulation and easy light blocking. It’s also a good way to look innocent while stealth camping, if we ever did that… Skip the awning: This one came as a surprise. I pictured sunny afternoons lounging under an awning, fizzy water from the Sodastream in one hand and a book in the other. It rarely worked out that way. Usually, there was a tree for shade, or gusting wind turned the awning into a large kite, or we weren’t in one place long enough to set it up. Plus it’s worse for gas mileage. Geez, I might go put it on Craigslist now!

No awning needed during a lunch break in Washington Pass.

Maybe I’d Add These

Here are a few items I’d consider if I was feeling flush with skrilla and planned on living in a van long term: Flares: One downside to the Sprinter vs. other vans (ProMasters, Transits) is that they taper toward the roof. This results in a width that isn’t sufficient to sleep crosswise. Flares, while still expensive ($2k/each installed), free up space in the van and (maybe) are worth it. Buy a 4×4: everyone wants a 4×4 these days. While I think this is at least 30-80% because they look bold and badass, there is certainly utility in owning a 4×4 if you spend a lot of time skiing. However, I know tons of folks that ski all over in 2WD rigs with no issues. All in all, I think vans are not meant for rallying and that 4x4s just get you stuck further out.

The rough roads on the way to the start of the Oregon Timber Trail were no problemo in my 2WD mobster van!

Cabinet over our sink: We have tons of storage space in the cabin, but an overhead cabinet would spread things out. The con is that it feels tighter/borderline claustrophobic and Chelsea is a big thumbs down on upper cabinets. Van lifers often comment how open our van feels. Trade-offs! For the shorter trips we’re doing now, upper cabinets don’t feel necessary. For four-season, full-time travel, probably worth it. Hydronic hot water: I’d give this some serious consideration next time around. From what I’ve heard, the aftermarket hydronic systems are excellent. Still, it’s an expensive, fairly complicated system, and our hot water boiler and propane on-demand shower work great. Maybe someday… Diesel or induction cooktop: The magic of flipping on a burner without having to setup the stove is not overrated. (Weird, it’s like amenities from home are nice to have in a van!) However, it’s great to have the flexibility to cook inside, on the slider door dropdown table, or on a picnic table.

What it’s all about! (Well, other than the outdoor adventures, exploring awesome places, meeting new people…)

No Matter What You Do, Vans Are Awesome

All that said, if there’s anything I’ve learned in five years involved in the world of van life, it’s this: a basic setup is all you need. Put a bed (or sleeping pad!, plastic lantern, cooler and outdoor gear in ANY vehicle and you’re equipped to experience all the stuff folks in $100k van builds do. Case in point: Today an employee at a local bike shop told me she spent $72 on zipties and crates for her van build. Then she went dreamy-eyed and talked about a recent, amazing five-month trip. This past weekend at a van meetup, a dude named Andrew showed me his basic setup that allows him to roam the United States working as an artist. Don’t feel like an expensive build is the only way to go; there are many ways to explore the world. Power in simplicity! All you van owners out there – what would you add to this list? Every van and its use are different, so it’s always fun to hear what folks think. Drop a line in the comments!

Van life meetup last week in Bend with a big crew. Always fun hanging with blog readers!

Any old vehicle works as an adventure rig… Suspension is a bit rough on this beast, but it gets the job done.

Van Upgrade Season Concludes and a Summer Trip Launches

Starry night Sprinter van Oregon

We’re on the road! After a stint at home in Oregon, we’ve headed out for the summer with a fresh set of tenants renting our house. Four weeks in Iceland awaits, followed by outdoor adventures in the Canadian Rockies through the fall.

Before I come at y’all in waterfall photos from the Arctic Circle, let’s wrap up van upgrade season. A couple dozen hours of effort resulted in a litany of improvements that I’m excited to use. Houdini’s ghost would envy my contortionist skills as I wriggled beneath cabinets and into the gear garage getting them done.

Update: to streamline things, I’ve added all these upgrades to the first upgrades post. These are the smaller upgrades, so I won’t go into as much detail. Still, I’ve found that the tiniest tweaks are often the most helpful, so here they are! If you have questions, I’m just an email away.

Fantastic Vent upgrade

When we first bought our van, we wanted the rain sensor and variable speed vent fan. Too bad I ordered the wrong one… The rain sensor isn’t such a big deal, but only having 3 speed settings – tempest, tornado, and hurricane – created some serious drafts even on the lowest setting.

Luckily, there’s an upgrade kit that replaces the old kit. Pop out a few screws on the original, disconnect some wires, swap wires around until the sparking stops, and *presto* you’ve got a new fan. This is a 30 minute project that I’m glad I did.

The one thing that threw me (not mentioned in the instructions) is that it’s necessary to sync the fan and remote control. Here’s the instructions on that.

Pffft, who wants to see a picture of a vent fan? Here's a waterfall in Oregon instead.

Pffft, who wants to see a picture of a vent fan? Here’s a waterfall in Oregon instead.

Isotherm fridge efficiency enhancer

This cool upgrade improves the efficiency of our Isotherm fridge, our van’s biggest power draw. (Thanks for the tip, Jon.) The claim is that it’s 30-50% more efficient; I’ll update this later when I have hard data. (Why, I’d like to know, doesn’t Isotherm just install this as a standard item in their fridges?)

At first glance, this project was slightly intimidating. Turns out it’s simply drilling one hole through your fridge and rewiring a few things. Two things the 44 page instruction manual didn’t mention: 1) If you have an original thermostat with a light, it’s easier to simply reuse the housing and install the new guts in that to keep the light. 2) The thermostat in our fridge was connected to a temperature sensor in the freezer compartment. I didn’t know what to do with this and wound up just snipping the tube. It gave off a hiss, but nobody died.

Watch this Youtube video that some kind soul created if you’d like step by step instructions. I didn’t bother watching/reading anything and it worked out ok!

All-Terrain Tires

4×4 Sprinters are badass. I’d argue that most people don’t need one, however. Who wants to rally their home over stuff better traversed by a Jeep Wrangler?

Our 2013 van is the 2WD option and we’ve driven 30,000 miles on the smooth stock tires. From gnarly access roads in Gooseberry Mesa in Utah to steep fire roads, we’ve covered a ton of ground and only gotten (briefly) stuck once.

Still, there are times when some extra traction would help. When our tires started looking frayed, I researched options. Wildcountry, Toyo, BF Goodrich, and others were all on the table.

In the end, I went for the ones that practically every Sprinter owner uses – the BFG 245/75/16 T/A KO2s. After all, no need to get creative when Sprinter Van Diaries and others can drive gnarly South American roads on their BFGs. I bought mine from 4WD.com and got $50 off on a set of 4, but any tire store has them, as does Amazon.

After rumbling about on fire roads around Oregon the last month, I can attest that these tires are 1) grippier 2) give a better, softer ride and 3) are slightly noisier. Mileage after two tanks of fuel has us between 19-20 mpg, within 5% of our previous mileage. Worth it for increased badassity and peace of mind.

New BFG KO2s.

Look at those gnarly beast monsters!

Warmer interior lights and gear garage light

Our interior LED lights from West Marine work great. I dig having them individually switched and they look clean. The downside is that their color temperature is cold – around 3,500-4,000 Kelvin.

A nice, warm light is around 2,700K, which is a much friendlier tone (and also what Chelsea wants). Since my aim is always to keep my awesome wife happy, I searched…and searched…and couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.

Enter LED filters used for photography! I found this $7 sheet of photo paper from B&H Photo, cut out a few circles to insert between the LED bulb and the clear light cover, and we are now bathed in a warm yellow-orange glow in our cozy space. Huge improvement!

LED light bar for gear garage

I also added this 12V LED lightbar on a switch to the rear storage garage. It was hard to find what I wanted with a switch, but this bar from superbrightleds.com is awesome.

The light bar doing its job. All four bikes loaded up the night before heading out!

The light bar doing its job. All four bikes loaded up last night before heading out!

Increased/improved storage for gear garage

Our gear garage holds our four bikes, but it also contains a ton of stuff for backpacking, climbing, and around camp (hammock, chairs, slackline). To make things super easy to access and maximize the storage space, I added a number of cabinets and structures.

-U-shaped platform over the right rear wheel well to support two camp chairs. It’s 8”x12.5”x36” and I screwed two L-brackets to the top to hold the chairs in place. Wasted space, used!
-For our camp stove, I opted to copy Sprinter Van Diaries. All I did was build a little alcove (accessed from inside) that took unused space from above the mountain bikes. We’ll continue to cook outside on the drop-down side table.
-Cabinet over the center sliding drawer behind the bike handle bars (see above shot).
-Another cabinet behind the center, slide-out storage array. This is easily accessed from inside the van and is where we’ll store our backpacking, bike touring, and climbing gear, plus another big area for miscellaneous items.

You don't fit into the storage garage of a Sprinter without staying limber. Here we are hanging with our buddies Nikki and Jakob from Sprinter Van Diaries.

Ah, cheesy pictures rock. Here we are hanging with our buddies Nikki and Jakob from Sprinter Van Diaries on their way through town.

Remote switch for inverter

Our inverter is tucked at the back of a cabinet. With some recent additions, accessing it was a bit tougher, so I bought this remote switch. Cut a 2” hole, plug in a telephone jack wire between the two, and you’re done. $20 well spent!

Odds and Ends

-Sliding carriage bolts to hold rear sliding drawers in place. Under acceleration uphill, they’d sometimes break free from the ball catches I used in the past. No more!
-Two 12V USB chargers by the bed for charging phones and other devices without running the inverter
-Magnets to hold countertop storage boxes in place

***

And with that, I declare our van ready for a big summer road trip.

If you’re in NW Montana or from Banff west to Whistler and want to hang out, drop me a line! Maybe we can meet up in August or September for some outdoor shenanigans. Onward into the summer!

An excellent alpine day in the sun last weekend on Gunsight near Mt. Hood. Here's to many more days outside this summer! (Here's my buddy Tony cranking through a rock garden.)

An excellent alpine day in the sun last weekend on Gunsight near Mt. Hood. Here’s to many more days outside this summer! (This is my buddy Tony cranking through a rock garden.)

Favorite Upgrades to Our Sprinter Camper Van Buildout

Making new friends and meeting a bunch of blog readers at Sprinterfest in June 2016.

Hanging with folks at Sprinterfest in June 2016. It was awesome to meet a bunch of blog readers in person!

As we’ve traveled in our Sprinter van the last few years, we’ve made a list of upgrades to make. This post details recent favorites that I’ve finally had the wherewithal to complete since we landed in Portland in late April.

I considered my initial van buildout effort in 2013 a prototype design. Our goal was to use the van for a few months to nail down specifics, be it water usage or storage for my chia pet collection. After many months on the road, we loved some things – I’d sell a kidney to keep the sliding bike drawers – and other things needed improvement.

Without further ado, here are recent upgrades/additions I’d highly recommend incorporating into your camper van buildout. Happy van building, y’all.

The Upgrades

Sink and water system

The sink cranking out running water!

The sink cranking out running water!

Favorite item first! We finally leapfrogged pre-Mesopotamian civilization and officially have running water. It only took us a few years to pull the trigger…

Why didn’t we do a sink right away? Our rationale was two-fold: 1) Before investing in a water system, we wanted to see how much water we used and 2) The idea of drinking from a plastic water tank made my cancer radar ping like crazy.

For 2.5 years, we simply used four 1-gallon glass jugs as our water source. It worked fairly well, but capacity was obviously limited and doing dishes wasn’t very fun. (Ok, it sucked!)

In a burst of vanspiration, I bought all the components for a water system from the folks at Van Specialties. Then I took 17 trips to the hardware store and *presto* running water!

Water tank installed. The top line is a 3/8″ vent line through the floor; the top fill nozzle plug is a 1″ plumber test valve that expands when the wing nut is twisted. The bottom drain has a hose attachment when needed.

There are lots of full posts out there about how to install a water system, but here are the basics. If you don’t have a local camper van store, I’ve linked to the same items online.

  • Dometic folding-lid sink
  • 25 gallon freshwater tank mounted over the rear wheel well using metal plumbing strapping. Many people use jugs under the sink, but this takes up valuable storage space inside the main living area. I simply drilled three holes (fill, drain, and line to pump) and used 1/2″ fittings. Super easy!
    Note: I chose to fill the tank by opening the rear doors rather than cutting another hole in the van. It’s easy to fill with a 25′ expandable hose like this, and the fill hole is sealed with a 1.125″ “plumber test valve.”
  • 3 GPM Shurflo pump wired to 12V power with a $7.50 switch in between. A smaller pump would work fine as well!
  • Gray water is currently routed to 2.5 gallon holding jug that we empty each night. After 2 months traveling with it, there’s no stink and it’s easy to empty anywhere. Do the polite thing and don’t drain your water onto the ground through a hole in the floor.
  • Drinking water from the original 1-gallon glass jugs (just say no to buying bottled water!)

I’ll end with this: put in a sink and running water. Just do it. Stop pretending you like doing dishes squatting over a bin and join the all the fancy people with their high-tech running water.

Hot Water Propane Shower

eccotherm propane shower

Upping the hygiene game with hot showers!

As an additional upgrade, I added an Eccotemp L5 propane shower to the back door of the van. For ~$100, the inconceivable luxury of a hot shower entered our lives. (Hot showers rule! We should have hot showers at home!)

I didn’t want a hooked-up shower all of the time though. Enter quick-connect fittings. Using an array of them from Amazon, I created a system that takes 30 seconds to set up, but doesn’t leave the back of the van a mess the rest of the time.

If you already have the Eccotemp shower, a propane tank with regulator hose, and a water hose, below are all the quick connect fittings you’ll need. Enjoy those hot showers!

By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for the free 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter for van talk, outdoor adventures, and life hacks.

Cell Phone Signal Booster

The weBoost and internal/external antenna. It's about 8" square.

The weBoost and internal/external antenna. It’s about 6″x8″.

Some people are lucky enough to completely disconnect from the world while they travel. Our double-edged sword is that while we can travel long-term, I’m still working at least a little bit most days.

It sucks to watch a fading cell signal right when I need it most, and that’s where the weBoost comes into play. It’s not for everyone, but if you are working remotely and don’t want to be tethered to wifi at a coffee shop, this is what you need. I got the Drive 4G-X, but there are other models as well. They work for all cell phone networks and will also boost wifi hotsports if you use one of those. (I’ve switched to only using data from my cell phone for simplicity.)

This handy device allows us to camp in remote places where 1 bar of Edge trickles in from somewhere over a ridge. The weBoost will turn that into a few bars of 3G, enough to send emails without praying to the internet gods that your communiques are being delivered. (Ok, you caught me – I only need this so I can post fake yoga poses at sunset on Instagram.)

The install was incredibly easy and didn’t even require drilling any holes. Just a magnetic antenna on the roof and a quick wire splice to wire to 12V power. Cancer-fearing person that I am, I put our booster on a switch so that I only turn it on when I need to check in on work.

One caveat regarding its performance is that it doesn’t create cell signals out of thin air. If you’re in the bottom of some canyon where all signals are dead, you’re done.

Storage shelf above the front seats

Headliner half shelf in final installed position.

Headliner half shelf in final installed position.

If you have the high roof Sprinter like us, you’re wasting a shit ton of space. RB Components, which fabricates many high-quality aftermarket Sprinter parts, has a solution. Sure, I could build my own with hours of effort, but the need to manufacture brackets, pull out the headliner, and deal with a weird shape sounded terrible. So I bought one.

Update: These days, I would use the wayyyy cheaper kit that my buddy Sean created. For a little legwork on your part, it’ll save you hundreds of dollars on an otherwise very expensive shelf.

The shelf is awesome! Others agree. Last weekend we went to Sprinterfest, a big gathering of Sprinter owners near Portland, and the shelf was the biggest hit in our van. Do yourself a favor and buy one. We’re planning to store camera equipment, physical therapy gear (foam rollers, etc), and at least three watermelons up there.

If you want to drop some coin, RB Components has two options: a full shelf that mounts at visor level and a “half shelf” that mounts six inches higher. I opted to keep some head room and go with the half shelf.

If there’s a downside, it’s that the shelf is exactly forehead height if you’re 5’10”. Chelsea forced me to install pipe insulation on the edge to avoid knocking myself out. My forehead thanks her already.

Bike repair stand attached to van

Close up of the bike repair stand install.

Close up of the bike repair stand install.

How many times have I worked on my bike with it leaned against a rock, tree, or dog? Too many to count.

Well, NO MORE! I bought this Park Tool bike stand and installed it on the right rear door near the hinge. The door can still swing 270 degrees and also clear our awning when it’s out, but I don’t have to open all the rear doors to work on a bike.

To mount the stand, I drilled a couple holes and installed two 3/8″ rivet nuts. Whammo, I’m officially a mobile bike repair business!

Bike repair stand and side table showing their utility after a MTB ride.

If you travel in a van and ride bikes a lot, I insist that you immediately do this too. If not, men with straitjackets will descend upon you very, very soon. You’ve been warned.

For the record, I stole this brilliant idea (among others) fair and square from my friends Jon and Pamela, the Roaming Robos.

Drop-down table from side cabinet

Table dropped down. The cut-out is for the stove.

Table dropped down. The cut-out is for stove access.

In an attempt to not stink up the van like a rolling chuckwagon, we mostly cook outside using our portable camp stove. Sometimes this is on picnic tables, but often we are in the middle of nowhere without a table.

Our initial cook table was a pull-out shelf with the camp stove on it. This worked well but was a bit small to hold anything except the stove. With upgrades in full swing, I decided to build a drop-down side table, as inspired by my buddy Michael.

The table is 24” x 28” and is supported by a piano hinge attached to the cabinet. A magnet holds the table vertically and two small chains support the outside edge when in use. Some aluminum trim and it looks pro! Or at least usable.

Table in vertical position with magnet holding it in place.

Table in vertical position with magnet holding it in place.


Detail of the table in horizontal position.

Detail of the table in horizontal position.

A less powerful blender

This may sound random, but we also replaced our travel blender. The trusty Vitamix now stays home and we roll with a Ninja blender. Why?

Our Vitamix pulls 1,650W. With our 12V/210 A/H battery system, anything <80% charge while trying to use the blender would make the 2000W inverter error out. I decided a lower wattage appliance made more sense. At 1000W, the Ninja is perfect and is already facilitating iced smoothies after long rides in the summer heat. Update: after upgrading to lithium batteries, we’re good to GO.

Fantastic Vent upgrade

When we first bought our van, we wanted the rain sensor and variable speed vent fan. Too bad I ordered the wrong one… The rain sensor isn’t such a big deal, but only having 3 speed settings – tempest, tornado, and hurricane – created some serious drafts even on the lowest setting.

Luckily, there’s an upgrade kit that replaces the old kit. Pop out a few screws on the original, disconnect some wires, swap wires around until the sparking stops, and *presto* you’ve got a new fan. This is a 30 minute project that I’m glad I did.

The one thing that threw me (not mentioned in the instructions) is that it’s necessary to sync the fan and remote control. Here’s the instructions on that.

Pffft, who wants to see a picture of a vent fan? Here's a waterfall in Oregon instead.

Pffft, who wants to see a picture of a vent fan? Here’s a waterfall in Oregon instead.

Isotherm fridge efficiency enhancer

This cool upgrade improves the efficiency of our Isotherm fridge, our van’s biggest power draw. The claim is that it’s 30-50% more efficient; I’ll update this later when I have hard data. (Why, I’d like to know, doesn’t Isotherm just install this as a standard item in their fridges?)

At first glance, this project was slightly intimidating. Turns out it’s simply drilling one hole through your fridge and rewiring a few things. Two things the 44 page instruction manual didn’t mention: 1) If you have an original thermostat with a light, it’s easier to simply reuse the housing and install the new guts in that to keep the light. 2) The thermostat in our fridge was connected to a temperature sensor in the freezer compartment. I didn’t know what to do with this and wound up just snipping the tube. It gave off a hiss, but nobody died.

Watch this Youtube video that some kind soul created if you’d like step by step instructions. I didn’t bother watching/reading anything and it worked out ok!

All-Terrain Tires

4×4 Sprinters are badass. I’d argue that most people don’t need one, however. Who wants to rally their home over stuff better traversed by a Jeep Wrangler?

Our 2013 van is the 2WD option and we’ve driven 30,000 miles on the smooth stock tires. From gnarly access roads in Gooseberry Mesa in Utah to steep fire roads, we’ve covered a ton of ground with no issues.

Still, there are times when some extra traction would help. When our tires started looking frayed, I researched options. Wildcountry, Toyo, BF Goodrich, and others were all on the table.

In the end, I went for the ones that practically every Sprinter owner uses – the BFG 245/75/16 T/A KO2s. After all, no need to get creative when Sprinter Van Diaries and others can drive gnarly South American roads on their BFGs.

After rumbling about for a couple months on them, I can attest that these tires are 1) grippier 2) give a better, softer ride and 3) are slightly noisier. Mileage after two tanks of fuel has us between 19-20 mpg, within 5% of our previous mileage. Worth it for increased badassity and peace of mind.

Note: I also used black Plasti-Dip to “murder out” (see how hip to the jive I am with lingo?) the rims and front/rear Mercedes logo. This was purely aesthetic and I LOVE IT. Don’t listen to the internet claims that it takes 5+ cans to do this . You’ll need two and you’ll have enough to spray the neighbor’s mailbox and kid to boot.

Admit it – the rig looks way more badass like this! (Camped in the Bob Marshall in NW Montana.)

Warmer interior lights and gear garage light

Our interior LED lights from West Marine work great. I dig having them individually switched and they look clean. The downside is that their color temperature is cold – around 3,500-4,000 Kelvin.

A nice, warm light is around 2,700K, which is a much friendlier tone (and also what Chelsea wants). Since my aim is always to keep my awesome wife happy, I searched…and searched…and couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.

Enter LED filters used for photography! I found this $7 sheet of photo paper from B&H Photo, cut out a few circles to insert between the LED bulb and the clear light cover, and we are now bathed in a warm yellow-orange glow in our cozy space. Huge improvement!

Trailer hitch for rear-mount bike rack

Our bikes all fit inside the van, but sometimes I’m traveling or doing a day ride with buddies whose bikes are different sizes. (Or I want to haul 6 bikes!) I typically don’t leave the bike rack on the back, but this easy install hitch is cheap and requires zero drilling. I installed it in less than 15 minutes with a minimum amount of cursing. Recruit a friend to help!

LED light bar for gear garage

I also added this 12V LED lightbar on a switch to the rear storage garage. It was hard to find what I wanted with a switch, but this bar from superbrightleds.com is awesome.

The light bar doing its job. All four bikes loaded up the night before heading out!

The light bar doing its job. All four bikes loaded up last night before heading out!

Increased/improved storage for gear garage

Our gear garage holds our four bikes, but it also contains a ton of stuff for backpacking, climbing, and around camp (hammock, chairs, slackline). To make things super easy to access and maximize the storage space, I added a number of cabinets and structures.

-U-shaped platform over the right rear wheel well to support two camp chairs. It’s 8”x12.5”x36” and I screwed two L-brackets to the top to hold the chairs in place. Wasted space, used!
-For cooking, these days we use a sweet little microwave and an Instantpot! Lithium batteries rule.
-Cabinet over the center sliding drawer behind the bike handle bars (see above shot).
-Another cabinet behind the center, slide-out storage array. This is easily accessed from inside the van and is where we’ll store our backpacking, bike touring, and climbing gear, plus another big area for miscellaneous items.

You don't fit into the storage garage of a Sprinter without staying limber. Here we are hanging with our buddies Nikki and Jakob from Sprinter Van Diaries.

Ah, cheesy pictures rock. Here we are hanging with our buddies Nikki and Jakob from Sprinter Van Diaries on their way through town.

Remote switch for inverter

Our inverter is tucked at the back of a cabinet. With some recent additions, accessing it was a bit tougher, so I bought this remote switch. Cut a 2” hole, plug in a telephone jack wire between the two, and you’re done. $20 well spent!

Mini-microwave

Can’t believe how much I love this thing! No longer can I pull the lazy card after a ride – “ohhh, I can’t be bothered to pull out the stove and heat up burrito ingredients.” My days of cold meals are over!

For the install, I simply added an outlet in a storage cubby below our bed. Then I slid a 0.5 CF Whirlpool microwave in and WHAMMO, life was simpler.

Odds and Ends

  • Sliding carriage bolts to hold rear sliding drawers in place. Under acceleration uphill, they’d sometimes break free from the ball catches I used in the past. No more!
  • Two 12V USB chargers by the bed for charging phones and other devices without running the inverter
  • Magnets to hold countertop storage boxes in place

***

That’s a wrap! I’ll update this post with other mods as I do them, but I have no plans for any more at this time. Just lots of traveling in the van and mountain biking my legs off!

What favorite van upgrades would you add to this list?

Don't worry, I don't spend ALL my time working on the van. Here's a shot of my buddy Nate during a mountain biking trip we took to Central Oregon. 100 miles of riding in 3 days made for some tired legs!

Don’t worry, I don’t spend ALL my time working on the van. Here’s a shot of my buddy Nate enjoying a view of the Cascades during a bike trip to McKenzie River.

How to Build a Badass DIY Camper Van

Big Sur Sprinter Van

If you have enough money, it’s easy to buy an incredible adventure rig. Building a camper van, on the other hand, is trickier but a helluva lot more affordable.

You can either go the cheap, bare-bones route or opt for the nicest amenities around, but I prefer an approach that strikes a balance between the two.

I spent less than $15,000 (plus the vehicle) retrofitting my Sprinter cargo van, including items like a stainless-steel fridge and a full electrical system with solar. Some people fully devote six months to a build-out, but mine took about four months of part-time effort. (I’d rather mountain bike than build stuff.)

Whether you’re retrofitting a used Ford Econoline or a new Mercedes Sprinter 4×4, here’s a framework to guide your decisions…

Read the full article at Outside Magazine.

Door Stop for Passenger Slider on Sprinter Camper Van

The door stop in action in the Steens Mountains.

The door stop in action in the Steens Mountains.

Looking back, I can’t believe we used our van for a year without a door stop for the sliding passenger door. It’s one of my favorite tweaks for the van! Most of the Sprinters or other camper vans don’t have this as a stock feature unless you ordered it new. Ours didn’t, and we decided it was worth looking into, especially with one of our cabinets blocking half the door space. If you don’t have a door stop installed at the factory, it’s a couple hundred bucks +$120/hr for a shop to do it OR a giant pain to retrofit. I opted for the fun of a DIY version.

Design and how it works

My rad brother-in-law Jesse and I designed a two-sided ramp with a divot for the passenger slider wheel in it using a CNC machine. I used old engineering skills from bygone days to sketch out a design and then we used CAD to model the door stop in Solidworks, a 3D design program. This ramp rests right in the main track that the passenger door wheel slides over and works great! The divot is sized to fit the wheel of the passenger door. The door stop is just 3″ long, 1/4″ wide and 1/10″ tall, and attaches with JB Weld. When installed, it provides a perfect way to hold the door in place, even when you’re parked at an angle. Plus, you get to choose where you want to install it – anywhere on the sliding surface of the passenger slider track, so it should work with a RAM Promaster, Ford Transit, or any van with a metal sliding surface that the door rolls on. Being able to hold the door only 1/3 open keeps things more private, makes it so the door doesn’t slide all the way shut or open, and keeps wind gusts out while letting a breeze in. A small, easy fix that we love. By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for the free Traipsing About newsletter for van talk and outdoor adventures.

The door stop installed on the van rail slide.

The door stop installed on the van rail slide. (Photo from LivingtheVantasy.com.)

How to buy one

Dozens of people have contacted me via email to buy one, but it’s not something I’m interested in. Not to worry: Jesse put up a simple order page here, plus wrote an installation manual. He ships the stops with JB Weld, so it shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes to install one. People on the Sprinter forum dig it, and we’ve even had unsolicited feedback from people like Jason at LivingtheVantasy.com, who recently wrote an entire post about it (excerpt below):

As soon as I finished reading Dakota’s post, I ordered one on the spot and I cannot believe I owned my Sprinter for so many years without it.  Not only was the product excellent, the service that Jesse provided was wonderful and the installation manual/kit he provides is extremely easy to follow. That was about a year and a half ago and I have consciously appreciated the brilliance of this simple doorstop every day.

Hope you enjoy this quick and easy DIY solution! Just a little karma back into the Sprinter world that helped me out so much when I was designing and building our van.

Some shots of the design and manufacturing process

Designing the door stop in Solidworks.

Designing the door stop in Solidworks.

Setting up the part in the CNC machine.

Setting up the part in the CNC machine.

Finished door stop in the CNC jig.

Finished door stop in the CNC jig.

How to Install Solar Panels on a Camper Van

200W of solar power and the vent fan.

Panels in their final location on top of our Sprinter.

Solar power for our Sprinter camper van was a top priority from day one. After a few years of free energy charging our batteries and running our fridge and laptops, I can hands-down say it was one of our best additions to the van. I highly recommend it.

There is something magical about solar power. Put a few photovoltaic panels on your roof, run some wires to your inverter and battery and POOF, electricity to run your electric shaver. And that solar power frees us up to set out across the land in a van with nothing except the fuel in our gas tank, untethered to explore with the comforts of home.

My senior project in college was designing a solar panel and battery system for an off-the-grid house. Luckily, I forgot most of that knowledge and got to experience the learning process over again! To save you some time, here is how I went about it.

Where Should I Buy My Solar Panel Kit, And How Big a System Do I Need?

Probably the most important thing to consider when setting up your solar, battery and inverter system is how big the power draw on your system will be. Are you installing a fridge? Microwave? Electric heater? It is easy to determine how to size things by looking at:

  1. Renogy has great solar panel kits at prices 1/3 what I paid for ours in 2013. Here’s their 200W kit with MPPT charge controller.
  2. The maximum voltage draw from your van’s juice-sucking components. Unless you’re planning to stick with 12V power, you’ll need an inverter big enough to handle your biggest total voltage pull. Our max is ~1500W, so we got a 2000W inverter that has worked great. If you have the space, I say go big or go home. “Oh, I’ll never use more than 350 watts. We are minimalists,” you say? Mmmm hmmm. Famous last words.
  3. The estimated amperage draw on your system and how long you’ll be running each appliance. This will help you figure out battery system sizing.

(Note: I’m not going to talk about wire gauge size or things like that in this post since it is so system specific.)

Sizing our system was easy. We don’t have many big loads that we run frequently except two big short-use items (Vitamix and hot water boiler at 1,500 Watts each).

LED lights, laptops, fridge, Fantastic Fan roof vent, the Espar heater fan, heating pad for bed (used briefly at night on cold nights instead of Espar), and our stereo system are the big power draws. That totals about 8-15 amps, which means we don’t drain the batteries all that fast. (With a 200 Amp-Hour system, we can theoretically run everything for 13 hours, minus the hot water boiler and Vitamix.)

Left to right: Solar tracking system, stereo amp, and the inverter/battery wiring.

Lots of wiring! Left to right: Blue Sky MPPT (final installation was inside wall after interior paneling went up), stereo amp (also recessed into wall), and the 2000W inverter/battery wiring.

I sized our system so that the solar panel system would put about 10-12 amps/hour into the system during the day in full sun at maximum power point, and then we have the electrical system rigged up to charge with excess current from the van alternator while we’re driving. This works great and we’re usually topped out with electricity unless we are not driving for awhile AND there isn’t any sunlight.

Note: we also have shore power in the form of a 15 amp cord to plug in… that we’ve used twice. I’d skip this if I did it again.


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Should I Buy Individual Pieces or an Entire Solar Panel Kit?

Costs have dropped dramatically on solar components. We paid $1500 for our 200W kit in 2013; now you can get the same system from Renogy for $500! It’s fantastic how cheap solar is these days.

Many shops also do solar installs, but the cost is painful. I say give it a shot yourself with one of the kits and save $1000+.

Below is the list of major components. All can be found on Amazon (links provided), though I’d just buy a kit to make it easy.

  1. Example of Panels: Renogy 100W panels (two of them, easy to add more if needed)

  2. Charge Controller: Blue Sky Solar Boost 2512IX-HV

  3. Meter: IPN Pro Remote (this is the monitoring/control system for the solar setup)

  4. Batteries: We’re running two Ohmmu lithium ion batteries after I updated our system in 2021.

All our stuff showed up at our door in a big box and I got right down to being overwhelmed. When you do it, breathe deeply – it isn’t that bad and I bet you’ll find it to be a satisfying project by the time you’re done.

It took me about 10 hours total to do the install. After a solid weekend of effort, you’ll be sitting pretty.

Here's the kit you get from AM Solar.

Wires, wires, everywhere.

Nine Steps to Glory! (Or Wait, Where the Heck Does All This Stuff Go?)

Here are the basic steps I followed for our install. I’m sure everyone will do it slightly differently, but this worked well for me and there aren’t many things I would do differently.

  1. Assemble your tools! I recommend a rachet/wrench set, heat gun, hole saw (~1.25”), cordless drill and bits, caulk gun and caulk, utility knife, wire cutters and crimpers, and some way to get on top of your van (ladder, tall friend, or sky hooks).

  1. Get the panels ready for installation on the van. Attach all the mounting brackets and feet and pre-wire crimps and other attachment so you don’t have to do it on the roof of your vehicle.

  1. Put the panels on top of the van. I recommend having someone help you, or you can do it off the top of a tippy ladder by yourself and provide entertainment for the neighborhood as you wobble about trying not to kill yourself.

  1. Move the panels 67 times to figure out the best place to put them. Think HARD about where you’ll route wires inside the van. Make sure you consider proximity to your roof rails if you are planning to install an awning, or location relative to a Rocket Box if you are getting one of those. I suspect mounting a panel at the very front is totally fine, but I didn’t want the force from the wind off the windshield so I mounted them behind our roof vent instead, and could have put two more panels back there.

  1. Drill the Boss-Size hole to route the panel wiring inside. I used a tap hole followed by a 1.25” metal hole saw. Nothing like tapping an inch-plus hole in the top of your new van to make measure twice, cut once sink in. Make sure you paint the edge of the hole with some kind of sealant to prevent rust.

Hole saw ready to roll. I used an 1/8" tap hole first so it wouldn't wander and scratch the top of the van.

Hole saw ready to roll. I used an 1/8″ tap hole first so it wouldn’t wander and scratch the top of the van.

  1. If you have multiple panels like we did, you’ll need to somehow combine the wires from each panel before routing them through the giant hole you just drilled in your roof. I used a combiner box that came with the kit and mounted it under one of the panels. It is screwed down and sealed with lots of caulk. No leaking so far!

Bringing together wires from each panel into the combiner box. The wires then all route to the interior via the orange/black pair at the top.

Bringing together wires from each panel into the combiner box. The wires then all route to the interior via the orange/black pair at the top.


Combiner box mounted. Notice the sealant around the perimeter of the unit to seal it to the top of the van.

Combiner box mounted. Notice the sealant around the perimeter of the unit to seal it to the top of the van.

  1. Once your combiner box is installed, you can mount the panels on the roof. (Or do this step last.) After a lot of research, I used 3M VHB 4950 adhesive tape. Some people screw their panels to the roof, which certainly would work, but that’s just 16 more holes to rust or leak. Make sure to put a layer of self-leveling sealant over the top of the solar panel feet/adhesive pads to prevent dirt and water from compromising the attachment and haven’t had any issues.
    Updated June, 2017: A recent event made me VERY happy I used the VHB tape. A string from a deck snagged a solar panel and ripped it off the roof! Luckily, the pads peeled off, the panel wound up dangling in mid-air with merely a couple bent brackets, and it was an easy fix. If it had been screws into the roof…*gulp* Our VHB tape has lasted 35,000 miles through all kinds of weather and is holding strong, though the sealant over the feet does need a refresher.

No drilling or screws required! Make sure to put self-leveling sealant over the entire foot afterward.

3M VHB 4950 tape. No drilling or screws required! Make sure to put self-leveling sealant over the entire foot afterward.

  1. To the inside we go! Here is where you just follow all the wiring diagrams. (See how easy that was?) Buy a kit that has all the connectors and shrink tubing clearly labeled so you don’t have to go back to your favorite hardware store (where they probably already know you by name) five more times in a weekend to get this project done. Before cutting any wire, carefully fitting and laying out the location of the charge controller, on/off switch, IPN remote and shunt relative to your inverter (if you have one) and other stuff is important or you’ll be cramming stuff into a wall cavity or struggle to find places to attach all the components. I mounted the charge controller inside the wall with flush-mounted face plates after I finalized the interior.

  1. Turn on the beast! Hopefully there is exactly zero popping, crackling and fizzing. Crack a cold one and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Solar works first try, exceeding my expectations!

Power flowing. Works first try, exceeding my expectations!

All in all, this install was surprisingly straight forward and easy. Save yourself $1,000-1,500 and do it yourself! It took me an afternoon and part of another day, plus research about the system. One weekend and you’re dialed in with power on your van!


A Few FAQs

Q: Is 200W enough?

A: Yep! The only time we’ve run lower on power is when we have practically zero sun for awhile and haven’t driven recently. You could certainly put more on there if you want. When we’re in direct sunlight, which isn’t all that hard to find where we like to go, our system is at 100% almost all the time even with the fridge running, stereo on and laptops and other stuff charging.

Q: Is your Vitamix/hot water boiler (1500W each) always able to run?

A: NO. When the voltage in the batteries gets below about 12.2V, which happens around 70% battery life, the inverter will fault. Gotta keep the system pretty topped out to run that kind of wattage and amperage pull. Note: We have started the van up and run it for a few minutes while boiling water to get around this. Works great, and only has been necessary a couple times before you think we’re earth haters. Consider getting a Ninja blender (less wattage) and/or a lower wattage hot water boiler.

Q: Aren’t you worried about your panels blowing off while you drive?

A: Initially, I was worried about this. I haven’t had a single issue with it. Make sure to use the sealant to cover the solar panel feet and I suspect you’ll be fine. We’ve been fine for 35,000 miles!

Q: Do I need to wash my panels?

A: Yes! After a few months driving around, I got on top of the van and the panels were practically coated in dirt. I’d say a solid wipe down every month or two would be a good idea.

Installing an Espar Heater in a Sprinter Camper Van

Perfect Espar heater installation weather.

Perfect Espar heater installation weather.

We almost skipped installing an Espar D2 heater in our Sprinter camper van. With 20/20 hindsight and many sub-freezing nights logged, it is officially one of our favorite things in the van, with the fridge (perhaps) beating it out by a sliver.

Except that I’m writing this post during a rare rainstorm in Joshua Tree and our heater is cranking away keeping my fingers warm while I look out at the desert, so the fridge is losing points fast! (For more background on our full build-out, check out the adventure mobile post.)

All in all, our Espar is fabulous. We’ve run it about 50 150 250hours so far without any issues whatsoever. One thing I’ve heard from blog readers is that the high altitude kit can be handy or else the unit will soot up and need to be serviced. That said, we’ve spent days and days above 6,000′ elevation and our Espar hasn’t required a cleaning yet. When it does, this is a handy resource for trouble shooting the unit, cleaning it out and hopefully fixing the problem.

Since I spent a fair number of hours dealing with the install and couldn’t find much except scattered and often incomplete forum posts on the InterWebs, I wrote up the following install process for how I put in our Espar D2 heater. (Installation of the Espar D4 heater is exactly the same, so far as I can tell.)

I recommend doing it in a heated shop, or in the summer while drinking a cold beverage, rather than the November weather in Idaho that I experienced. Sleet, snow and rain are sub-optimal install partners…

Where to Buy It

For a decent deal at $995, check out Bunk Heaters. I  also considered Snugger, a less expensive version of the Espar. Either way, you’ll save a bundle versus buying from a dealership. If you’re doing the install yourself, definitely buy online.

Deciding to do the install myself was a simple process after getting quotes of $1,000-$2,000 from the brain surgeons apparently needed to do the work. RIPOFF ALERT. The install may sound intimidating, but you can do it! And if you screw it up, hey, vans are cheap – buy another one. Your loving partner will understand, right? If not, you can sleep in your freezing-cold van…

Frankly, you can do this install. Dozens of blog readers have used my writeup to successful install a (working) Espar heater in their van. Grab fortune by the britches and get after it! (Yep, I just used britches in a sentence.)

But first, remember you’re doing this install so you can hang out in places like the below!

Alpine Trail, Oakridge, OR

Why I Bought an Espar D2 Heater versus D4

I went with an Espar heater because 1) it can run on diesel, which means I could tap into the main fuel tank for our van and avoid installing propane or other fuel sources and 2) everyone else did it and Sprinter Jedi Mind Control works on me.

I bought an Espar D2 heater, which is smaller than the D4, after reading that you want the heaters to run on “boost” (high power) in order to avoid fouling the combustion mechanism inside the unit.

Our van is insulated with anywhere from R-11 to R-14 on the walls and ceiling (none in the floor) and the heater has kept us warm down to about 22 degrees in the cold and damp redwood forests of the Northern California coast, the cold spring in Durango, the mountains of Colorado, plus dry and freezing desert nights in SoCal. We haven’t done much winter camping in it, but I’m confident it would perform well.

Fuel economy on these things is amazing. Even at full boost mode, it burns just one gallon of gas in 20 hours (!), and it doesn’t run that high most of the time. (It’s apparently 50 hours per gallon at the lowest heat level.) For the heat output, it is quite an efficient unit and seems well worth the price.

In case you are considering not getting a heater: If your van is insulated and lacks an internal heat source, it will turn into an ice box. Some people may think body heat will warm up your van. From personal experience and testing this on numerous shorter trips prior to this one, I can say this… They. Are. Wrong. Put in a heater or your less cold-resistant partner is going to stay home while you road trip alone crying quietly into your cold ramen at night.

Want the real details? Read on.


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Install Tips

Set aside a weekend for the job. I did it in a day, but that doesn’t include the initial trip to an auto parts store to get supplies.

Recruit people to help. An unsuspecting friend, or incredibly helpful father-in-law (thanks again Steve!), will make life 12x easier. Damage done to that relationship excluded…

Getting the Sprinter up on blocks or a hoist to get more space under the van will make your life 1.2 million times easier. It can be done without it – I survived – but take my word for it. Your elbows and back will thank you. Especially if it’s sleeting and the ice water pools under the van on the tarp…just sayin’.

Sub-optimal working conditions... At least my father-in-law is under the van while I'm cramped in the bike garage.

Sub-optimal working conditions… At least my father-in-law is under the van while I’m cramped in the bike garage. #vanlifefun

Something to watch out for: while the wires for the thermostat and heater power are 12’ long, the pump wire is only 7’ long…which can (did) create some issues depending where you place your heater. I have no idea why they don’t make the wires the same length.

-Strong recommendation: install a combination smoke/CO detector in your van. They’re small, cheap and can save your life.

If you have an ‘08 or newer Sprinter (the NCV3 or newer), you MAY not need the ~2′ fuel pickup pipe that comes with the unit. For most Sprinters from 2008-2014, the helpful folks at Mercedes put a fuel tap on the front left side of the fuel tank that makes it quite easy to install the tubing without dropping the fuel tank and drilling a hole in the top. YES. According to a blog reader (see comments below), from 2015 onward, the fuel tap is optional and not included on the Sprinter Worker package, so you may need the tap.

-Buy the $36 muffler from BunkHeaters.com. Our heater sounded like a rocket headed to Mars before I installed the muffler two months into our trip. Your neighbors in camp will appreciate it, trust me. It’s a super easy install.

Consider installing the high altitude kit if you are going to be camping at elevation (such as the Rockies). This avoids fouling the Espar (the elevation messes up the fuel/air mixture and makes it run too rich). I didn’t do it, but it is worth considering. (Update Jan 2017: For what it’s worth, we’ve spent many nights above 6,000′ with the heater running and have not had issues in three years. Other readers who spend weeks at high altitude have had issues, so I’d err on the side of caution.)

I read about some guy cutting off the “extra” wiring harness on the unit after he installed the thermostat and fuel pump wiring. That’s the diagnostic port! Leave it there.

The fuel pump wiring will not go through the same routing hole as the intake/combustion beneath the unit. You have to run it through the floor of the van somewhere else.

Connections You’ll Need to Hook Up

  1. Intake air for combustion from outside the vehicle – black flexible hose provided with the unit.

  2. Exhaust air from combustion to the outside of the vehicle – silver, heat-resistant ribbed metal hose provided with the unit.

  3. Fuel line from the main diesel tank under the van, routed through the fuel pump that comes with the heater (more below on that specific item).

  4. Thermostat control wiring – this stays internal to the van. Just follow the color-coded instructions on the wiring, it’s straight-forward.

  5. Power wiring – I ran this directly into a fuse in our 12v panel.

  6. Intake/Heating air ducts – I installed our heater so that the heating air snout for the heating unit pokes into the main living space, with the intake end of the unit in the bike garage. This has worked well and air circulates through the van without running a large amount of duct work, which I wanted to avoid. The air temp of the hot air isn’t too high, but I’d recommend at least 6-12″ of open space so you don’t roast your floor or other surface in the van. Installing under the front passenger seat seems like a popular option, but that’s where our subwoofer goes (priorities, right?) so I can’t speak to that personally.

Here is how I went about installing the heater in our 2013 Sprinter (same as 2008-2013). Please note this is the same process as 2007 and earlier models except that you’ll need to drop the fuel tank and install the fuel pickup that the Espar D2 or D4 heaters come with. Check out www.sprinter-source.com for information on that.

Install process

  1. Figure out where your heater is going to go and measure all wires, duct work, and fuel lines to make sure you have enough material. Then add 10-20% slop so you avoid stretching wires tight or running out of fuel line halfway. I ended up having to relocate the fuel pump and the shorter wire presented a headache.

  2. To attach the stock Mercedes Sprinter fuel tank to the Espar fuel line, read all the directions in the installation manual and then perhaps follow what I did:

    1. Buy a short (<12”) piece of 5/16” black flexible fuel line, two clamps to fit it and a metal male-male connector that is ¼”.

    2. The 5/16” fuel line slips over the fuel tap from the Mercedes tank. Then you insert the ¼” connector into that, which then inserts into the ~3/16” (5mm) fuel line that comes with the Espar D2. Make sure to clamp all connections.

    3. Clamped down, the fuel lines are snug around the connector and you can run the 5/16” fuel line directly to the fuel pump for the Espar heater. The instructions clearly give you max distances and orientation for everything.

      1/4" male-to-male adapter prior to putting on hose clamps.

      1/4″ male-to-male adapter prior to putting on hose clamps.

  3. The fun (scary!) part: cut a 4×6” rectangle in your wood floor. Note: you can cut all the way through the metal, but I don’t recommend it. Instead, just cut through the floor (a hole saw worked great for me) to get the clearance from the exhaust pipe and then drill smaller holes that allow the intake/combustion pipes to exit. There is a template provided with the heater that makes this easy. File down sharp edges on the holes and install heat-resistant muffler putty on the wood. I also folded up some aluminum foil and lined the inside of the wood just to reflect some heat back. Probably overkill, but it was easy.

    Paint to seal the cut, file and a hook blade to cut through the flooring.

    Paint to seal the cut, file and a hook blade to cut through the flooring.

    Two 4" hole saw cuts and holes drilled for the fuel line (center) and intake/exhaust.

    Two 4″ hole saw cuts and holes drilled for the fuel line (center) and intake/exhaust.

  4. The seal that comes with the heater will mash down on top of the floor and seal out grime and dirt. I don’t think it is necessary to cut a huge gaping hole in the metal when it just takes a couple holes.

    Holes cut and sealed with heat resistant putty behind the reflective foil.

    Holes cut and sealed with heat resistant putty behind the reflective foil.

  5. You’ve got your holes drilled. Before routing the intake/exhaust pipes, clamp them to the unit. Otherwise you’ll be doing it on your back and it will be impossible or make you hate life and any word starting with “Espa…” A little foresight here saved me some serious pain.

    Heater with piping clamped and ready to install.

    Heater with piping clamped and ready to install.

  6. Fuel line and intake/exhaust ducting run? Route any internal ducting, or at least think about where it is going to go. Perhaps reference step #1 again.

  7. Run your thermostat, power and fuel control wiring per the diagrams. (See how easy that was? Just one sentence that will take you a couple hours. Enjoy! )I think connecting to the house (not engine) battery is the best way to go since you don’t want to drain the battery that starts the engine.

    Test install for the heater. Flipped it 180 for the final go at it.

    First install for the heater…BACKWARD. *Slaps forehead* The finned silver end puts out the heat. Easy to flip around at least. Note to self: read instruction manual.

  8. FIRE UP THE BEAST. At first, all you’ll hear is a clicking of the fuel pump as it fills up the fuel line for the Espar. Do not despair if the unit “malfunctions” and says there isn’t enough fuel to start combustion. Reset it and do it again. It took three times through for ours to start. In the meantime, I cursed, kicked some stuff, and practiced other Zen methods of stress control. The manual doesn’t tell you to just let it run. I hopefully just saved you some frustration and early gray hairs.

That’s it! The details are in the the instruction manual and will cover most of it, yet I think a few little pointers like this could have saved me a considerable amount of time.

Drop me a line if you have any questions about your install. First question is free and then I demand Synergy kombucha drinks delivered cold to my van door after mountain bike rides! Cheers to staying warm on the road.

Sprinter bike hauler.

The Adventure Mobile – Our DIY Sprinter Camper Van Bicycle Hauler

A glamour shot for the Sprinter before the JEM/Gould's ride near Zion.

This post covers the DIY buildout I did for our Mercedes Sprinter to turn it into a bike-hauling adventure mobile. The goal was simple: create a functional, comfortable travel rig…without spending half my life creating it. (I’d rather mountain bike.)

Our build took about three months of occasional effort, plus one big three-week push. The result is a physical manifestation of fun and freedom that fired us up for an amazing three-year trip, with many more months since. (Careful, van travel is addicting.)

The Sprinter van is what we use to carry two mountain bikes and two touring bikes, plus climbing and backpacking gear, on a variety of adventures. Hopefully it motivates you to get your own van or helps buildout ideas. Buen suerte!

Just Getting Started?

Thanks to remote work and COVID, van life is hot the hottest thing ever and the amount of online information regarding DIY van buildouts is crazy. When we started, I spent hours searching sites and forums or trolling Pinterest.

To help sift through build options and save time, I recommend picking up this Sprinter conversion ebook. It’s a comprehensive guide to DIY Sprinter vans and saved me a ton of time. The ideas and suggestions combine insights and featured buildouts.

Shortcuts to All Van Posts

For shortcuts to any van posts I’ve written, here you go! For details of our build, read on below this list. This post is a brain dump of many basics for our DIY van.

  1. Favorite van upgrades I did after a year road tripping.
  2. Tons of in-progress buildout photos in a gallery.
  3. Van features I’d keep (and change!) if I built out a new van.
  4. It was about time to upgrade our van batteries to lithium.
  5. A quick video tour of the gear garage.
  6. How to install solar panels or an Espar heater in your van.
  7. My custom-made doorstop, a favorite improvement.
  8. Downshifting from van life – #vanlife as a mindset, not a permanent travel mode!

Shortcuts to Various Sections

This page is a comprehensive overview of our entire van build. If you’d like to jump to certain sections, click the links below! Otherwise, read on.

  1. Overview photos
  2. Buildout details
    1. Van size and model
    2. Bed design
    3. Pullout bike racks inside van
    4. Ventilation fan
    5. Batteries and inverter
    6. Solar panels
    7. Diesel heater
    8. Door stop for passenger slider
    9. ​Swivel seats
    10. Cooking
    11. Fridge
    12. Water system
    13. Cabinets
    14. Side windows
    15. Interior details
    16. Awning
    17. Curtains
    18. Lights
    19. Stereo system
    20. Lessons learned


Overview Photos

Sprinter van bike and gear garage. The drawers on the left/right pull out 4' and hold two road touring bikes and two mountain bikes. In the center is a big pullout storage drawer system on 3' slides for miscellaneous equipment for road tripping. The doors have pockets (Ikea!) that work great for organizing shoes.
Sprinter van bike and gear garage. The drawers on the left/right pull out 4′ and hold two road touring bikes and two mountain bikes. In the center is a big pullout storage drawer system on 3′ slides for miscellaneous equipment for road tripping. The doors have pockets (Ikea!) that work great for organizing shoes.
View in Sprinter van sitting in front swivel seat looking back. Ikea countertops on either side, utility drawer over fridge on drivers side, and storage with wire baskets underneath the countertops.
View in Sprinter van sitting in front swivel seat looking back. Ikea countertops on either side, utility drawer over fridge on drivers side, and storage with wire baskets underneath the countertops.
Bike repair stand and side table showing their utility after a MTB ride.
Bike repair stand and side table showing their utility after a MTB ride.

Buildout Details for Our Sprinter

I’ve got a few building skills acquired from working on houses with my dad growing up. That got me about 50% of what I needed to know to do this. The rest happened through over-confidence thanks to my (completely unrelated) engineering degree and extreme optimism, plus a dose of insanity.

Below are our main design criteria (and a lot of detail), plus links and info to help find specific parts and components. For our build, I ordered a huge amount of stuff from Amazon and many van supply companies continue to warehouse products there. Nothing like overnight shipping for free, right?!

By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for my free, 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter to level up your life around travel, creativity, and yup, van upgrades. After all, why bother building one out if it sits at home?!

Van size and model

We went with the 144″ high-roof model. The length allows us to park in almost any parking spot and navigate cities like San Francisco mid-week as well as remote fire “roads” without getting stuck.

The high-top is a must have because it allows a 6’2″ standing height inside. Sure, you can do a pop-top Vanagon/Sportsmobile style, but if you pop the top in a city then you’re going to be super obvious, and those things can get drafty. Oh, and if you don’t like working on cars or getting to know VW mechanics, Vanagons may not be your cup of tea.

The 4×4 model wasn’t out when we bought our van, but we would still stick with the 2wd model now. We drive lots of fire roads and solid tires like the all-terrain BFG T/A KO2s (245 series) take us everywhere I want to go. If people can drive through South America 2wd, we’ll be fine. Just my opinion, and of course the 4×4 looks badass!

Note: bigger is not always better. A few Sprinter-owning friends with the 170″ van mentioned they wish they had the shorter version. Ask yourself what your hobbies are, whether you need more space for kids, and what kind of gear you’ll be hauling.

Bed Design

This needed to be super comfortable so we could travel and not be desperate for a real mattress! If you’re traveling long-term in your van, screw sleeping on Thermarests and buy a bed better than your dorm room bunk. We sleep with our heads pointing toward the front on a queen-size latex mattress that I hacked a foot off of with a machete.

Note: No need for posts to support the bed! Just use plywood or wood slats attached at the walls and reinforce those with 6061 C-Channel structural aluminum from somewhere like MetalsDepot.com. To answer an FAQ, the base of our bed platform is mounted 39″ above the stock floor of the van. With dropper posts, I’d go with 36″ next time.

An older shot (prior to drop-down side table) from Big Sur.

Bike racks inside the van

Hauling four bikes (two touring, two mountain) and protecting them from theft, weather and road grime was important for our initial travels. The heavy duty sliders are the 48″ heavy duty version, which are rated far stronger than we need (400 lb) but otherwise you can’t get a 4′ slider (and if you use that drawer for gear, you don’t want a wimpy 200 lb rating anyway!). Yeah, they’re expensive…and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

If you only need ~3′ pull-outs, the 200 lb version has worked well for our center drawer. I used 3/4″ maple plywood to build them and lined the bottom with a clear plastic floor mat to protect the wood, with fork mounts from Universal Cycles. They work great.

Note: I’ve had a few questions about the tray size. The road bike trays are 60″x 13″ x 3″ (outside dimensions) and the mountain bike trays are 60″ x 17″ x 3″.

Ventilation fan

Keep the van cool and aired out with a roof fan. Ours is right behind the front seats and keeps things nice and cool with the side windows cracked.

Why didn’t we do A/C? Because we are scared of RV parks and A/C pulls WAY too much electricity…and I refuse to have a generator in my van. Let the 40′ RV’s do that lameness. We own camper vans, not portable homes! If we can survive a night in Death Valley where it was 100 degrees after sunset, we’ll be fine anywhere.

(Model: Fantastic Vent 6600R rain sensing version. The variable-speed fan in the 6600 is a great feature.)

200W of solar power and the vent fan.
200W of solar power and the vent fan.

Battery and electrical system with a 2000W inverter

We charge laptops and phones, plus run a fridge. For A/C needs, we have a Ninja blender and a hot water boiler. If you don’t have a dedicated 12V USB charging, these outlets are rad. They charge two USB devices and have two A/C grounded plugs as well.

Note: I highly recommend splitting the van alternator and battery circuit like this so that they are charged while you drive. (Update 2021: lithium batteries need a DC-DC charger like this.) This keeps things topped off even if it’s cloudy or rainy. We also have shore power, which we rarely use.

Update February 2021: I recently swapped out our old-and-toasted AGM batteries for two mega-powerful Ohmmu batteries. These babies pack 300 amp-hours into the same space, weigh half as much, and have a lower life-cycle cost than AGMs. Ohmmu makes Tesla batteries and cranks out about 1.5x the capacity of Battleborn or other mainstream batteries (for the same price!). Here’s the full writeup of my DIY upgrade.

(Models: Inverter – Xantrex PROWatt SW2000 plus the remote switch. Old batteries – Full River DC224-6 with 224Ah. New batteries – Ohmmu Group 31 with 300Ah)

Solar panels

Here’s the full write-up I did on our install, a 12v DC system fed by two 100W panels. Since I installed ours, prices on kits dropped dramatically and now I wouldn’t go with AM Solar. Renogy is SO cost-effective; here’s their 200W setup, enough for most vans.

(Model: Grape Solar 2 x 100w with full system – GS 100 – from AM Solar in Oregon.)

Diesel Heater

Espar D2 diesel-fueled heater that runs off the main vehicle tank (see full description of installation to save some headaches). No propane tanks or extra fuel to carry around, and fewer things to break.

Update November 2020: After eight years of using ours, we’ve had zero issues with it. If you camp consistently at 8,000+ feet, get the high altitude kit. It’s built into many units these days.

(Model: Espar D2 Airtronic via a screaming deal on Ebay.)

Passenger slider intermediate door stop

This is an addition we did in San Diego to stop the door from sliding all the way open every time we opened the passenger sliding door. If you didn’t order it as a stock add, there’s an expensive kit that Mercedes offers (PFFFFFT). We absolutely love this and I bet you will too. Rather than a long description, read more here if you’re interested in the solution I came up with my brother-in-law. He has sold dozens of these to satisfied customers and people are even writing testimonials about them.

26 degrees in the Alvord Desert? No worries with a heater!
26 degrees in the Alvord Desert? No worries with a heater!

Swivel seats for the driver and passenger

180-degree rotation to convert the cab into seating and my desk. Note that this raises the seat height a couple inches.

(Model: Purchased from Sprinter Store in Tualatin, Oregon)

Cooking

Originally, we went with a portable propane stove that practically everyone I know owns. With updated batteries (LITHIIIIUM, BABY), now we have a mini-microwave and an Instantpot to handle cooking.

Fridge

As big as possible so we can bring plenty of grub for extended stays away from civilization. 12V DC, and far more efficient than a typical dorm fridge. It pulls about 2.5 amps running at full blast (though they spec 5 amps for startup amp pull), which means we have four days of battery life if it ran all the time. Adding an efficiency increaser I added as an upgrade cut energy usage by 50%

Gotta say, this is one of our favorite things in the van, and I can’t even remember the days of coolers and ice. Popsicles after a bike ride in the desert=living large! Do yourself a favor and get a fridge… I will say that the workmanship on the Isotherm CR-130 fridge isn’t amazing and we’ve had similar issues to what this writeup says.

(Model: 4.6 CF stainless steel Isotherm CR-130 purchased from West Marine.)

Water system

After 2.5 years of just water in jugs, I installed a Dometic sink, a cheap 12v electric pump (basically any will do), and 25 gallon water tank in the van. Check out the first item in this van upgrades post for some pics and links to what we used if you’re interested. Glass jugs of water (to avoid chemicals leaching into our water) are still our go-to for drinking water.

The sink cranking out running water!
The sink cranking out running water!

Cabinets

Friends have sacrificed their relationships and well-being to create complicated cabinets. It’s not necessary!

Ours are maple and birch plywood attached to the floor with L-brackets with $10 wire baskets from Ikea that are tough and light for the majority of drawers to keep weight down. There are also a few slide out drawers to hold appliances (hot water boiler and blender) and the four water jugs. This has worked great. Birch countertops to top things off – thanks again Ikea!

Side windows

Mercedes doesn’t provide stock side-panel windows that open. We went with a window that many Sprinter converters use, the CR Lawrence tilt-outs, and they’ve been great.

With the aforementioned vent fan, it’s fantastic to be able to open the windows (which are screened) and have airflow through the van without 1,237 blood-sucking mosquitoes joining in.

Note: I had these professionally installed by Van Specialties near Portland because cutting a couple giant holes in my brand-new van made me want to puke.

Enjoying breakfast with a view in the Utah desert

Interior

Sound deadening to mitigate road noise, plus insulation (open-faced denim insulation for walls and denim water-heater blanket from Amazon for ceiling), plus a thin, light-colored wood veneer so we feel like we’re on a boat. (There is also the ready-made RB Components interior or a less expensive one from Van Specialties.)

In the buildout pictures gallery, you can see some details of my interior build. I used silver pan-head, self-tapping screws that were ~1.25″ long. For the wall panels, I just screwed directly into the metal frame of the van. For the ceiling, I ran five strips of plywood first (see pictures gallery) to make mounting/finagling the ceiling panels into place easier.

Note: I played around with Rivnuts and decided they were HUGE overkill for attaching 1/8″ plywood. Save yourself 57 hours and skip them. I did use Rivnuts to mount the bed to the wall.

Awning

Double our living space off the side of the van. Easy to crank out to the side, no whistling from wind while driving or noticeable reduction in mileage, and installation was *cough* a breeze solo on a tippy ladder. (Recruit a friend!) The awning isn’t good in strong wind, but keeps the rain off and certainly the sun when wind gusts stay under about 20 mph. Given how little we use it, I might not buy one again.

(Model: Fiamma F65s, perfect for the 144″ Sprinter. Purchased from the Sprinter Store.)

The Sprinter in action in the Mojave National Preserve. Awning and stove out while cooking a meal and enjoying the view.
The Sprinter in action in the Mojave National Preserve. Awning and stove out while cooking a meal and enjoying the view.

Curtains

Occasionally (ok, frequently), we pull into cities along the way and sleep in a quiet neighborhood. Yeah, we could get a hotel, but I paid enough for the damn van and I want the cost-per-use to keep dropping. Blackout curtains make this possible.

Ours are a two-layer black canvas facing out and a colorful design with  snaps and magnets that keep it quick, clean and easy. These were the first time I’d ever used a sewing machine and turned out quite well. For the front windshield and passenger/driver windows, we went with a cab insulator kit, also from the Sprinter Store. Using these, we’ve stealth camped at least 100 nights in cities and never had anyone bother us.

Lights

12V LED lights that we installed two months into the trip in Santa Cruz. A MUST have, in retrospect. We have one diffuse (wide-spread) light a foot back from the headliner and another two spotlights over the countertops. Having fairy lights or mood lighting is a great addition as well.

Get the lowest temperature (warmer light) model that you can. Around 3,000 Kelvin seems to be what people like the most.

Note: I retrofitted our lights with photo filter paper from B&H and now we have a warm orange glow. I also installed a 12v LED light bar in the gear garage – both written about in this upgrade post.

Stereo system

Last but certainly not least, the High School Dream System that I couldn’t afford when I was 18. I suspect we bump Macklemore more than most teenagers in Seattle.

For those putting in a subwoofer, ours is in a custom-built box in the space under the passenger seat down-firing toward the floor. Works great!

Note: with the most-excellent Alpine deck we installed, I can connect via Bluetooth from my laptop and watch movies with some serious bass and surround sound action. It’s fantastic!

(Models: Alpine Bluetooth deck, 4 Hertz 6.5″ mid/high speakers, ID 10″ subwoofer, Helix 5 channel amp.)

Sprinter bike hauler
Bike racks in action in Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur.

Things I Learned Doing Our Buildout

Turns out building out a Sprinter is like building a house. Same decisions on finishes, same design dilemmas. Which isn’t my favorite thing, by a long shot.

The saving grace? That this “house” had an engine and could give us access to nature and new places. That said, there were absolutely moments that I wanted to (and did) scream in frustration on a sunny Saturday when I was insulating it instead of shredding perfect mountain biking trails. Patience – the shredding happened later, and lots of it.

  1. Drilling holes in a new Mercedes gets progressively easier as you make more of them.
  2. Nothing in the entire vehicle is straight. Curved walls, floors, windows.
  3. A full shop would have made this far easier. Almost everything was done on two sawhorses in our backyard with a circular or jig saw and an abacus for calculations.
  4. DIY=prototype. Sometimes a permanent one, but in my mind, it was always “Wow, learned a good lesson there! I’ll take advantage of that newly-earned skill next time I (insert incredibly frustrating, tweaky building activity).”
  5. I could have been a contortionist given the small, awkward spaces I was able to cram myself into while building the interior.
  6. Put the heater in the van BEFORE you go to Idaho in the winter to shiver in 20 degree weather and slither around on the frozen ground underneath the van routing fuel and electrical lines.
  7. The process of building an adventure rig is immensely satisfying. I look at the completed Sprinter these days like a proud parent at graduation and am stoked (and surprised) that it turned out so well. Also, perhaps not like a parent (you tell me!), I pretend I don’t see the little things I’d like to improve. In my day job there ain’t much in the way of a finished, physical product, and so it was really rewarding to see something concrete come together.

Enough words. Time to start building your van!

If you read this entire post, plus comments, and can’t figure something out, drop me a line. Maybe I can save you 12 hours of pain or at least throw a snide comment your way about how suffering builds character.

Happy van building!

Whoa, you read this entire post?! If you survived (or even enjoyed?) all the bad jokes, you’ll probably enjoy my free 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter.

The van taking in a view of the Alvord Desert.
Once your buildout is done, you get to hit the road to places like this!