Our Van Build

Welcome to the exhilarating, confusing, and frustrating world of van building. If you're interested in how we converted our van, I’ll walk you through the chaos — planning and layout decisions, insulation, electrical — and explain why I chose the designs I did. This is the WHAT and the WHY, but not the HOW — mostly because I’d rather be out “doing” van life than writing step-by-step tutorials. For what it’s worth, I hope my rambling here can help someone in some small way.

Before we dive in, a quick confession… I am not an expert. Like 80% of the YouTube videos I have watched, this is my first van build too, but I will still project just enough confidence to sound like an expert. I am fully aware of the Dunning–Kruger effect. Any idiot like myself can write a blog or make a video. Take this into account when doing your research and that includes this blog as well.

September 4, 2025

Van Planning – Part I

Looking back at my first hand sketched van layout – heated floors and tiled showers – I was delusional. Every new YouTube video added a new feature to the van. We finally got over this “Instagram Van” phase, and this is what we got right. We started with these basic questions...

Why do we want to live van life? 70 square feet is small. As a result we chose to live van life in bursts – full-time for stretches, with breaks to visit family and travel. We have to think of the great outdoors as our van’s lanai. Every van lifestyle decision directly affects the build – Do we need windows? How much water? How much power? And other essential details.

What are our "must-haves"? I want to be able to stand up in the van. And the last thing we want to do is to convert a dining area into a bed every night when tired.

What are our daily routines? How will we shower, make coffee, clean dishes? What will we do with our muddy boots after that 6-hour epic hike in the rain?

Once we answered these philosophical questions, we needed to decide which van would handle these demands best. Sprinters are diesel and finding a repair shop is more frustrating than booking a Yosemite campsite in peak season! Repairs are also expensive! With a Ford, a coat hanger and a roll of duct tape will get us another 100 miles to the shop. Promasters are only available with front wheel drive and I didn’t want to put the lion’s share of build weight over the rear axle in a FWD vehicle.

With these questions answered, we turned to designing the layout…

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September 27, 2025

Van Planning – Part II

There’s no shortage of YouTube videos titled, “The Only Van Layout You Need!” It helps to remind myself that there is no such thing as a "perfect van" and that compromise is a huge part of the process. Let me clarify. There IS such a thing as a “perfect PLAN”. I have had dozens right up until coffee with my wife the next morning.

Designing the layout is the fun part – the reward. I have the joy of considering weight distribution over the drivetrain, side to side, and the center of gravity of systems. All to ensure my cold-pressed avocado cooking oil doesn’t end up on the bed sheets while making those turns on US 50. Oh, and keeping water and electronic systems separated, and obsessing over how materials handle vehicle vibrations. If you read this and thought, “wow”, save the praise – I haven’t turned a single bolt yet.

After watching hundreds of hours of YouTube videos, the most important lesson I learned is that experts and idiots alike love to make van build videos. And it is sometimes difficult to tell them apart.

I have spent years obsessing and reworking my design over and over. There are a truck-load of details to be considered and I have an 80-page design document to prove it! I finally created the “perfect plan”. That newest sketch? It’s version 117-B of the layout. This morning, standing in the van, coffee mug in one hand, my eyes darting to each section of the van. Each bolt hole, support beam, from one measurement to the next mind running a mile a minute, I realized…

I need to make a number of changes. Crap!

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