- 9 hours ago
Full-time van life with two young kids takes clever planning—and Michael and Rina’s custom Sprinter shows how far thoughtful design can go. After five years and 88,000 miles in their first DIY campervan, the family built a new home on wheels around the lessons they learned on the road.
Join Patrick Botticelli for a detailed tour of the all-wheel-drive Sprinter, from its rooftop solar and off-grid power system to family-friendly storage, a flexible sleeping area, and an in-sink dishwasher. Discover practical campervan conversion ideas, space-saving solutions, and the comforts this family chose for cooking, staying warm, and traveling with toddlers. A useful look at DIY Sprinter camper builds, full-time RV living, and off-grid family travel.
Join Patrick Botticelli for a detailed tour of the all-wheel-drive Sprinter, from its rooftop solar and off-grid power system to family-friendly storage, a flexible sleeping area, and an in-sink dishwasher. Discover practical campervan conversion ideas, space-saving solutions, and the comforts this family chose for cooking, staying warm, and traveling with toddlers. A useful look at DIY Sprinter camper builds, full-time RV living, and off-grid family travel.
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TravelTranscript
00:00For me and my wife, we like to have sort of the luxuries of living in a house.
00:06We built this van for us, like for our own specific purpose of traveling with two young kids.
00:12It's not going to work for everybody. I know it's sort of tighter and whatnot.
00:15It really is a really fun space for everybody.
00:20Welcome back to the show. This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
00:25On today's episode, I've met up with Michael. Michael has a really cool DIY sprinter camper van that he's traveling
00:32the country full-time with his wife and two kids.
00:35I actually had Michael and Rena, his wife, on the show five years ago, and they were traveling in a
00:41similar sprinter van with them and their two dogs at the time.
00:45He's going to give us an updated tour of his new van and show us what he did differently to
00:49travel full-time with two kids.
00:51And I promise you, this thing is really awesome inside now. So join us for the tour.
00:57Hey, Patrick. Thanks for having me back on this van tour.
01:01It's been five years since we last met.
01:03And the first van we got, I built it myself with my wife, our DIY van.
01:09And we've been traveling in that van for five years.
01:13And our firstborn, who's now three and a half years old now, basically grew up in that van.
01:19And we've been traveling this whole five years full-time in our DIY van.
01:25And last year, my wife got pregnant.
01:29And that van only sat three people, which means we had to either rip it apart or build a new
01:35van.
01:36So we decided to let's just sell that van and build a new van and add some upgrades that I
01:42actually always wanted in the van that we never had.
01:44So there's a bunch of stuff that we learned from our old vans built that we threw into here that
01:49from the experience that we want,
01:52everything to make our lives even better for van life is all in here.
01:56So let's get started with the van tour.
01:58So let's start with the exterior of the van.
02:00And I have a van and camp roof rack here with a thousand watts of solar.
02:08And we didn't really need to climb up on the roof.
02:11So I wanted to maximize on our roof space.
02:14I don't know a lot of people that have a thousand.
02:16I mean, some people do, but I have, I'm actually so proud of our roof because I have a thousand
02:21watts of solar.
02:22I have two fans up there and I have an air conditioner as well, as well as a Starlink.
02:28And the solar panels are actually on hinges so I can lift them up on one side.
02:33Right now it's locked down and there's actually even more storage on the exterior underneath the panels.
02:39And the way I did it was I raised it by about seven inches.
02:43If you can see up there, the solar panels are just sitting right on top of the roof rack there
02:49in order to fit all the stuff that I mentioned.
02:50And I actually had to even make a modification on the, one of the solar panels to get the roof
02:57air conditioner to fit.
02:59But now the whole thing is flush.
03:01It's pretty sleek.
03:02You can't see any of that, which is really, really nice.
03:05And from here, we upgraded our tires because we like going sort of off-road sometimes because some of the,
03:12some of the campsites that we like in out, out west, you need to be on dirt road.
03:17So we want to get new tires.
03:18This is a four by four or actually all wheel drive sprinter.
03:22That's actually also an upgrade from my old van because our old van is only two wheels.
03:25This is going to give us more capability to go even further in a colder, colder climates, icy climates, whatever.
03:32This is a silver gray color sprinter van with a running board here because our kids, the four by four
03:40or all wheel drive is pretty high.
03:42We needed the running board in order for them to get on and off safely.
03:45And then up here we have the van.
03:49This is a 2024 Mercedes sprinter, 170 wheelbase, all wheel drive.
03:55It's a, the crew van.
03:56So you can see on the sides, we got the windows there.
04:00One window on the sliding door, one on the other side, and then two in the back.
04:03Those are the original crew windows there.
04:06Gives us pretty good access and good view from outside.
04:10We also have the 360 camera.
04:13You can see up here, there's one camera here, one on the side, and then I think the back gives
04:17us a 360 view of the entire van.
04:19While we're parking, it makes things a lot easier.
04:22That was something that I wanted.
04:25The LED or HID headlights, that's also a good upgrade there for us.
04:30Cruise control, nice seats.
04:34We got swivel seats on the passenger side there.
04:37And when we go around, we can kind of see the whole, the whole thing.
04:40I have a mount here for my camera because I also do a little YouTube.
04:44And on the side here, we have a bunch of accessories for air compressor, an axe, tracks here, just miscellaneous
04:53things that we use.
04:53And on this side here is our running board and just easier for me to get on and off so
04:59I don't trip and fall.
05:01Under the van, we have two gray water tanks, a 20-gallon gray water tank for the sink, and then
05:07a five-gallon for like a shower.
05:10And they're on ball valves as well.
05:13Side here is the side ladder.
05:16This gives us access to the roof in case we want to clean it.
05:20And like I mentioned, if I eventually use the storage underneath the solar panels, this gives us access to do
05:26that, and also cleaning it.
05:28So that's important.
05:29We got the side window here.
05:31These little windows are really good.
05:33The crew windows are completely shut, so there's no airflow, no circulation.
05:37We needed to add two windows, one on the side, one on the other, so that we can open it
05:41and get really good airflow.
05:42Because we have two fans, and once those are running, the airflow is really, really nice.
05:46So that was important, especially for the living space area.
05:49Down here, we have our shore power plug-in, 30 amps.
05:54This is the city connector that connects into our water tank, which is 35-gallon.
06:03And up here, we have another ladder and a rear-wheel holder for our spare tire.
06:12We wanted to go with this because underneath where the spare tire used to go, I eventually, it's not there
06:19yet, Patrick, nothing there.
06:21I want to add an inflatable boat that folds up that says four people that will eventually sit there.
06:28So we'll see if that works out.
06:29Then that will allow us to go on lakes and different places.
06:32It should be pretty fun.
06:33And these fold down.
06:35It gives us access into the roof, and you can climb up onto the spare tire here to clean the
06:41back of the roof there.
06:42We got security cameras around the van.
06:45That's super important for us.
06:46This is the Blink system.
06:49We have one here, one on the back, and one on the other side.
06:51And we can access the van from inside at any time.
06:57Down here, we have the exhaust for the Wabasto heater.
07:01We have an Evo 40.
07:03Super hot when we're running that, and that's the intake for it.
07:07So let me open up the garage space so you guys can see.
07:13So a little different than some of the other vans.
07:16This is actually a mattress slash couch that folds into a full bed, which you guys will see when we
07:25go inside.
07:26And then here we have a ton of storage.
07:29We prioritize the storage in our old van and in this van because if you're living in a van full
07:35time, you'll know that storage is key.
07:37I actually don't know how people that are on Instagram or whatnot, they have vans that are so open but
07:44no storage.
07:44Like, realistically, it doesn't really work out unless you don't bring anything and don't have kids.
07:49But we have two young kids, so we have a lot of toys, a lot of books, a lot of
07:52everything.
07:53And we want to bring a bunch of toys with us when we're traveling.
07:58So maximized it.
07:59We pushed everything on both sides.
08:00We have the electric on the left, water on the right, even storage here up top, camping stuff, our power
08:06cord.
08:06I'm going to pull off some stuff so you can see what's inside here.
08:09Got a little light here.
08:14On this side is our electric component.
08:19We have 15,000 watt hours of lithium battery by a company called Power Queen.
08:2748 volts.
08:28We want to go with 48 volts because the wires are thinner.
08:30They're more efficient.
08:32Some of the components cost a little bit more money, but we like it.
08:35The air conditioner is actually on 48 volt, which is actually more efficient too.
08:39So we want to go with that.
08:41All Victron stuff, we have the Lynx shunt, distributors, two of them.
08:47Cerbo GX.
08:48This is the main power kill switch for everything.
08:51And then I'll pull out the other side.
08:53You can see the rest of the Victron stuff.
08:56We have a 5,000 watt inverter charger, the Multi Plus II.
08:59This can charge 30 amps, so it's pretty fast when we're in campgrounds.
09:04Down there, we have the MPPT charger, solar charger, and 2 DC to DC alternator charger from
09:1312 volt to 48 volts, so we can get about 750 watts when we're driving.
09:20So that's two sources.
09:21We have solar charging.
09:22We have shore power, and we have the, what's the third one, alternator charging.
09:30So those are the three ways we can charge our van.
09:33And then let's check out the other side then.
09:38Yeah, a lot of storage.
09:39We want to bring snowboards as well because we like snowboarding.
09:42We want to bring our son snowboarding.
09:44My wife likes skiing, so we need to find a big space for that.
09:48Winter stuff.
09:48Since we're full-time, we've got winter gear, and we've got summer gear, so we've got to
09:52be able to switch out and have the space for that.
09:55Oh, and by the way, this thing here, this is a 15,000 BTU burner.
10:01You'll see inside we have a wok.
10:02We like to do some wok cooking when we're at campgrounds.
10:05That's pretty fun.
10:08And then on this side, we have just a big platform.
10:13This is the original Mercedes flooring.
10:15I didn't really do much to it.
10:16It works really well, so we kept it.
10:18And then on this side, the access panel for our water components.
10:24This is the Wabasto heater I mentioned.
10:26It's tapped into the diesel tank, so whenever we're fueling up, it just sips diesel, and
10:33it heats up the entire van using our own tank's diesel.
10:37And the lesson that we had from our old van to this one is a lot of people, well, we
10:42follow
10:42a lot of people, and most people use either a Wabasto or a different brand, a spar, and
10:49they put it underneath the passenger seat.
10:50And we realized that that heat, especially the weaker models, don't get all the way to the
10:56back here, the living area.
10:57We sleep in the back.
10:58So we wanted to make sure that during the wintertime, we're warm enough, especially for the family.
11:04So we put it back here.
11:06The register is somewhere over here on the side.
11:10I don't know if you can see it, Patrick, right here.
11:12That heats up this entire space so well.
11:15It gets, actually, it gets too hot, so we've got to find a way to cool it down sometimes,
11:19but we have a fan that can kind of push air and circulates it back to the front.
11:22But you can see there's two hoses here, one goes to the front, a small one, and the big
11:27one goes in the back.
11:28So we want to make sure that we have enough heat for everybody.
11:32And then over here, we have the water tank here.
11:35This is a five-gallon isotemp hot water heater.
11:40This is a really cool heater because you can heat the water whenever you're running
11:44the van.
11:45So it feeds into our engine's coolant line.
11:48Whenever we're running, usually we drive for like 30 minutes, whatever.
11:51This gets hot enough, and it's insulated too, so it heats the water for realistically one
11:57or two days.
11:58They say longer, but wintertime, it cools down, it's not as hot.
12:03But we drive all the time anyway, so we kind of keep it nice and hot anyway.
12:06And then, that's one way, and then the second way is there's an electric plug here that you
12:12can heat it whenever we're parked somewhere or at a campground.
12:14We can kind of heat it using electricity.
12:17It uses about 700 watts or so to heat it up.
12:20And then here we have a lot of insulation on the side here.
12:29We have a 35-gallon fresh water tank in there on the wheel well.
12:35This gives us the space that we want to build out for the storage.
12:39So we want to maximize everything, like I said.
12:41And then the water pump here, and that's pretty much it for this.
12:46Okay, let's close it up.
12:51And this just is on magnetic latches, so it just kind of hangs up like that.
12:57Up here, for the back windows, we have, I believe these are Van Essentials window covers.
13:03Really useful, especially, like you won't realize like the window covers are like so important.
13:09They're very expensive too, but they provide insulation and it blocks out the light too.
13:15So these are really good.
13:16And magnetic, they just latch onto it.
13:18Really good.
13:19So let's close this up.
13:26Okay, this is the second window that I mentioned.
13:29Also opens up on the side with the bug screen, with the insulation.
13:33And awning, we eventually want to add an awning to this van.
13:38I mean, the awning is really nice.
13:39I just don't like it to be on the exterior because it's, I don't know, just harder to access or
13:45expensive for the most part.
13:46We decided to go with a sort of like a beach style, what would you call it?
13:51Like a sand tent that attaches to two of the hooks there.
13:55It pulls out with two poles and that becomes a sort of temporary awning.
14:01It could bring it to the beach too.
14:02So that's going to be for in the future when we, when we get that.
14:06Let's move into the inside of the van.
14:09So you can kind of see as you walk in here, we have a bug screen.
14:13It's currently rolled up for the purpose of this video.
14:16We want to make sure you guys can see everything, but this comes down zippers on one side, magnetic.
14:21It's super big bug screen.
14:22So you can kind of see, and there's no interference with the view, which is really nice.
14:27The cabinet extends out to here with a little magnetic door here.
14:32I'm not going to show you guys what's inside, but it opens up like this.
14:36Some extra storage inside, bubble guns, whatnot.
14:40Let's move in.
14:42Okay.
14:42So as you come inside, you can see we have two car seats because we have two little ones.
14:50Our older son sits right over here.
14:52He's three and a half.
14:53So he sits in the front and our younger one sits right here.
14:56This is the crew window.
14:57We got his toys out here.
14:59You can see, look out from here, everything that he needs.
15:03We hang our hats on this curtain here and this blocks off any sun when he's sleeping.
15:09My wife sits in the middle here and I am the driver.
15:12So she can watch everybody when we're up front here.
15:15And this seat here is not the original sprinter seat because this is a crew van.
15:21The original seat is a three seater, which extends out to like over here.
15:25And we decided to get rid of that and go with a factory four transit seat.
15:31We had to do some modification to get this to properly align and secure.
15:37But this is a much better seat because without this, if we have the sprinter seat,
15:43we wouldn't be able to build out the kitchen galley here.
15:45So this was a little bit of a work, but we were able to get this mounted here.
15:50We got vinyl planks down here, waterproof.
15:54Down here, we have a bunch of storage.
15:57You see different bags.
15:59This is my wife's favorite because she likes her snacks when we're driving.
16:04A bag of snacks for her, for everybody and the kids.
16:08And she also likes crocheting.
16:10And she has like her crochet stuff in the back there.
16:14And her other bags are somewhere in the back.
16:17And then up here, we have the headliner shelf.
16:20Right now, we are using it for blankets, pillows.
16:23Oh, and I like this too.
16:25This is on a bungee cord.
16:28Little clips to dry clothes when we wash them, hand wash them for the kids.
16:32Because kids make a lot of clothes.
16:35And we have a curtain rod here for blackout as well as thermal.
16:40Keeps the inside a little cooler or warmer depending.
16:44And these are little magnet clips that we add on and clips on the side of the van.
16:51And then the front here.
16:53We use the space on the front for additional storage.
16:58I can show you.
17:00Shoes are up here.
17:01That's a good place for it for now.
17:03We have leveling blocks there.
17:04Camping light.
17:05Bunch of camping stuff.
17:07And we swivel the seat.
17:09This is an aftermarket swivel that we put the kids' car seat on.
17:16And anything else?
17:19This is another magnetic cover for this big window here.
17:24Opens up.
17:25Also van essential.
17:26Gives us complete blackout.
17:28This is really good.
17:31You wouldn't really think that you would need something like this.
17:34But this is essential.
17:36And then here we just have miscellaneous cords for jumping wire, umbrella, and clean up stuff.
17:44All right.
17:45Let's move in.
17:46All right.
17:47Up here we have upper cabinets.
17:50These are more baby stuff, kids' stuff.
17:52We've got diapers here, baby wipes.
17:55We usually like to go to Costco when we buy diapers and baby wipes.
17:59So we want to get a good deal and be able to store everything.
18:01So we usually can stuff an entire box of the Costco baby wipes in here and kid stuff, etc.
18:11Over here is where we hang our coats.
18:15A bunch of hooks around here.
18:17Like I hang my keys here, hats here.
18:21And yeah, let's keep moving.
18:23We have a Nomadic Air Plus fan.
18:28So we have two of them.
18:28One in the front and one in the back.
18:30You guys will see in the back.
18:31The back is pretty cool.
18:33So with two fans, one in, one out gives really good airflow.
18:36And this one actually has a blackout function as well as a little light, which is really nice.
18:45Up here we use paneling.
18:47We cut a bunch of, I think these are less than a quarter inch, like one eighth inch
18:53boards into strips.
18:55And we made it go throughout the entire van, which gives a really nice decor, nice homey feel to it.
19:01Because we live in this full time.
19:02We want to make sure that when we're traveling, we want to make sure the van that we live in
19:07doesn't feel like an RV because that's the last thing we want our tiny home to be, right?
19:12So we want to make it homey, make it feel as warm as we can.
19:16We use the strip lights here, which gives it a more modern feel to it.
19:20My wife picked this color.
19:21This is kind of like the color of the van as well.
19:24Kind of like a bluish silver tone.
19:26And I think it goes really well with the rest of the van.
19:29And then over here, let's show you down here.
19:31So a lot of people always wonder what we do for toilet, bathroom.
19:35So down here we have a composite toilet.
19:40This is a little booster for my three-year-old.
19:43This is a urine diverting toilet.
19:46So you have the back.
19:48I'm not going to open it up just because it's a toilet.
19:50And we use some cat litter for our number two.
19:52So it dries everything up, but it's a simple process.
19:55You don't need to buy a thousand dollar toilet, which was what we had last in our last van.
20:01We didn't need that at all.
20:02So, all right.
20:03And over here, shower.
20:05People wonder what we do with shower, right?
20:07So over here is our little shower system.
20:13In our old van, we had a dedicated shower, which in our opinion, we used,
20:19but we didn't use it enough to have a dedicated space for.
20:22We used it more as storage.
20:24So for this van, we wanted to go with more of a temporary solution.
20:28And the solution is we have a shower curtain.
20:32We have a sort of like a doggy pool.
20:36And when the door is closed and we have privacy here, this goes over here.
20:42The shower curtain hooks up to the top.
20:46And I use, I love these little guys right here.
20:48These little magnetic discs with the rubber there, so it doesn't damage your paint.
20:52And I just clip the corners around like this.
20:59And I have the shower head over here with a little, another magnet here,
21:03which clips onto, there's a camping light here.
21:06Let me move this for a second.
21:09Clips onto this side right here.
21:10So you got the shower head and we're inside.
21:13Keeps all the water inside the, the curtain there.
21:17And this end connects over to our shower, the sink there.
21:22But I'll talk more about the sink.
21:23So that's how we do shower.
21:24And when we're done, we just dump everything easy.
21:27Don't need to over-complicate it.
21:29I feel like a lot of people just over-complicate shower and all these little things,
21:32but there's also campgrounds too.
21:35So we need to take nice, long, hot showers that we can always go to campgrounds.
21:39So let's put this away.
21:46And this table pops up.
21:48So I really love to cook.
21:51So I wanted to make sure that I have enough countertop space.
21:55It's not that much to begin with, but this gives me a place to prep as well as serve dishes.
22:02And I also use this as like a standing desk.
22:04So when I'm working, I want to have some nice view.
22:06I can just stand here and kind of work on my laptop because I work from home.
22:10And so, yeah, we have this area here.
22:14And we have a three burner popane stove.
22:19Like I said, I like to cook.
22:20I didn't want to go with induction or any other ways,
22:24or just like a camp stove was what we use, like a little small camp stove.
22:28But I just go through those things way too quick to justify having a camp stove.
22:33So I wanted something real.
22:35And this is so awesome.
22:36Like this three burner, you can cook for like as long as you want.
22:40And we have a 20-pound propane tank underneath here in a propane locker.
22:45So it's nice and safe.
22:46And when I don't use it, I turn it off.
22:47And I have a propane detector because propane is heavier than air.
22:52If any propane leaks, it always comes down here.
22:54And also a propane detector pen.
22:56Just periodically checking to see if there's any leaks and stuff.
22:58So safety is our number one priority.
23:01Three burner and a stove.
23:04This has been so awesome.
23:05Just having a stove and a bunch of stuff in here.
23:07But like we can make frozen pizza.
23:09We can make bake anything cookies.
23:12We love making cookies on the road.
23:14It's just so awesome.
23:15Just being able to be in the mountains and have like fresh cookies and smell so good.
23:20And then we have a countertop here.
23:22We decided to go with like a thinner material here.
23:25Just because, like I said, we don't have that much countertop space.
23:27When I was doing the cutout for this thing,
23:29if you can see the shape of it, there's a, this is a sink.
23:32I'll talk about this in a second.
23:34It's really just like this little rim and rim here.
23:37And then just the little table.
23:38So we wanted something just, this is a three quarters inch plywood.
23:41And we just stained it and made it really nice.
23:44And that was it for the countertop.
23:47Oh, let's talk about this.
23:48This is my favorite part of the van, actually.
23:50It's an upgrade that when we were living in the old van,
23:53before we even thought about doing a new van, it was what I wanted.
23:58This is a, let me show you.
24:03InSync dishwasher.
24:06I don't think many people have dishwashers in vans, but I wanted one.
24:11It's really great because on the low cycle,
24:14I believe it uses about like three gallons of water.
24:16And when we're out camping, especially with kids, like you just want one thing
24:22less off your plate, pun intended.
24:25And then we just throw everything in here and just kind of run it and
24:27doesn't use that damage power.
24:29And we have a pretty massive battery bank too.
24:32So it can give us enough to run this thing whenever we want,
24:36but we don't run it all the time.
24:37And when we're not using it, this is a two in one.
24:40So this, this whole thing is a one piece when we're not using it.
24:43I use this as sort of like a second sink in the old van.
24:47One of the problems we had was when we wanted to wash dishes and we want to dry
24:52and we just lay them on the countertop.
24:54But if we wanted to drive off, we had to manually dry everything and put everything away.
24:58We're pretty lazy.
25:00So sometimes we wash things, hand wash it.
25:02We just throw in here and we can dry without worrying that the dishes will fly out and get damaged.
25:09Back here, this is our backsplash.
25:12I went with a more modern feel.
25:15This is actually stucco for like houses and it's waterproof.
25:19And it's really easy to work with.
25:21Like I think this is, they use this to like patch stucco for like the side of the building.
25:26So we just put everything on the side here.
25:28It looks really modern.
25:29I want to go for that like cement feel.
25:31You know how some restaurants have like a cement feeling to it.
25:34That's what I was doing here.
25:35Just kind of splat everything so you can kind of see the cement.
25:38Gives a good contrast to the side of like the cabinets and stuff.
25:43And then over here, we have the upper cabinets.
25:45This little guy here is a portable exhaust.
25:48So I, a lot of times I like to cook steak and it's very greasy, the air.
25:53So I want to make sure it captures all the greasy air before it goes in the fan.
25:59But it helps a little bit, but that's kind of the purpose of it.
26:03And up here is our toiletry area.
26:06Our toothbrush and stuff are gone because my family currently are staying at like an Airbnb.
26:11Airbnb, so we kind of took everything.
26:13So a lot of, some of the stuff are not here, but we would usually take all of the, like,
26:18we put all the toothbrush and stuff in here.
26:20Toothpaste, everything, everything that we need for the morning.
26:23We leave it out here.
26:24We brush our teeth.
26:25Everything kind of just goes back.
26:26Easy peasy.
26:28Contact solutions, all that stuff goes in here.
26:30Oh, and I wanted to build a lot of like charging areas around the van,
26:36like where you normally wouldn't need it.
26:38Like right here, I have a little USB-C and USB-A port for this guy.
26:44And if I wanted to charge like a light or something and I don't want to leave it out,
26:49because it's unsightly, I just throw it in here and charge it here.
26:53There's another spot for that, which is underneath.
26:55So let's go underneath this sink.
26:58This is the propane locker.
27:00So it's locked in airtight.
27:02I also have another wire here to charge our vacuum cleaner.
27:07This is a dedicated spot for this.
27:08So whenever we're done, we just plug it in and we charge this guy.
27:14Our garbage is here.
27:19Detergent, some cleaning supplies, fire extinguisher.
27:22And this is the bottom side of the dishwasher.
27:25In my opinion, it's not really that big or wasted space,
27:29because a lot of times down here is like a wasted space anyway.
27:32So I'd rather have that second sink dishwasher use and just kind of be able to put everything here.
27:37So miscellaneous stuff here, cleaning tools.
27:40We have plastic bags here for garbage.
27:42We put our sponge in here on the side.
27:45Keep it nice and clean, nice and neat.
27:49This faucet is on automatic.
27:52So save some water too when you're on the road.
27:56You want to make sure you set the right amount.
27:58Just a little trickle sometimes.
27:59Just like a little trickle like this.
28:03You know, you wash your hand and then you kind of keep it off.
28:05Make sure you don't waste water.
28:08Okay, let's continue.
28:10Paper towel holder here, spice rack in the back.
28:13Like I said, I like to cook.
28:15So a lot of spices, easy access.
28:17Which moves on to this side.
28:19This is a microwave slash oven.
28:23So we have actually two ovens in our van.
28:25This is electric, obviously.
28:27So electric oven and an air fryer.
28:30So in case we want to air fry something, we can pop something in here.
28:33Which is pretty neat.
28:35Put our travel magnets around the van and we have patches too.
28:39I'll show you guys later.
28:42Refrigerator.
28:44Two-tier.
28:45Our old van was a chest-style refrigerator.
28:48We found out that was kind of annoying to be able to look for things on the bottom.
28:53So we wanted to go with the vertical style for sure in this van.
28:56So we went with this one.
28:58This one has a pretty decent sized freezer by Bodega Cooler.
29:03Pretty good size here.
29:05And pretty empty fridge right now.
29:07Usually it is packed.
29:09But because we are about to hit the road again.
29:12We didn't stock up on everything yet.
29:14Right now it's still pretty empty.
29:16But very good use of space.
29:18Down here is our pots and pans.
29:23And the wok I was talking about.
29:25This is the wok.
29:26Pretty legit wok that we use when we're camping.
29:30We got a, I think this is three quart, what do you call this thing?
29:38Pressure cooker.
29:40We have our cast iron here.
29:42A six quart pot.
29:44And this is a really heavy draw.
29:48And you can kind of notice that a lot of the drawers that we have are on doors.
29:55Let me close this out first.
29:58It's because we learned that heavy drawers usually slide out when you're driving, especially on bumpy road.
30:04And we didn't want to deal with that.
30:06We used magnetic latches.
30:08That didn't work.
30:08We used the ball latches.
30:10That didn't work.
30:12Unless you use the specialized locking little latches.
30:17Usually it doesn't work.
30:18It doesn't hold.
30:18So we went with a door set up here.
30:21This doesn't open.
30:22So like once this is closed, these can't come out.
30:25Because like just, it doesn't work, right?
30:28It doesn't come out.
30:29And we have our utensils here.
30:33And then down here is another little storage for some propane gas, butane gas cans here, gloves, etc.
30:42We do have a camp stove with us.
30:45So when we want to cook outside, we can always have that.
30:47And this is extra backup cooking if we need to.
30:50Because one time when we were camping in this Great Smoky Mountains,
30:54our propane tank ran out.
30:56And we didn't want to drive an hour out into the nearest city to get it refilled.
30:59So we used a backup little stove cooktop to finish our meal, which is very helpful.
31:07Okay.
31:08And then over here is our pantry for our dry goods.
31:14This slides out.
31:16We have some Chinese cooking stuff.
31:21Because I like to make sometimes stir fry, sometimes clay pot rice.
31:26So you need a lot of seasoning and spices.
31:29We have rice here, a lot of dry goods, some oils here.
31:34MSG, of course, garlic powder, etc.
31:38Just for my cooking needs.
31:41Okay.
31:41And then down here we have more dry goods storage.
31:44This fits exactly like a can size.
31:46So if you want to put salsa or soda in here, this fits up here as well.
31:50And then down here is two three gallon water jugs.
31:56We don't drink our tap water.
31:58Just because you don't know where the water is coming from.
32:01A lot of times, a lot of places, they say it's clean.
32:04But it's not.
32:05Like we don't trust it, especially with kids.
32:09I guess filters will work.
32:11But we just wanted just peace of mind.
32:13So these we can easily take out and go to Walmart or wherever.
32:17This is like super easy to fill up.
32:18And I went with two three gallons just because it's easier to carry.
32:23The three gallons are a little lighter than the five gallon big jugs.
32:27And it's been nice.
32:28If we're not completely done with one, we can only just fill up one
32:31and leave the other one here so we don't have to carry the half full one to the supermarket or
32:36something.
32:38So that's the pantry.
32:40Down here is extra storage.
32:42My camera gear, a bunch of miscellaneous electronic stuff.
32:47This has a power plug in the back there so we can get things powered into this drawer here.
32:54Keeps all the wires nice and clean and hide away.
32:57This is my wife's stuff in here, her female stuff.
33:05We have a 48 volt.
33:07This is a country mod air conditioner.
33:09I think it's a 12,000 BTU.
33:11Really nice and cool.
33:12I really, really like this air conditioner.
33:14One of the main reasons is because the air blows north-south.
33:19Because we live in the back area here.
33:22I want to make sure airflow is just front and back and rather than just coming down.
33:25And what we do is, even though this flows pretty good air, it doesn't reach all the way to the
33:32back.
33:32So I have a little fan here which we attach to with a little charge cable up here.
33:39And it pushes air all the way to the back or all the way to the front depending on where
33:43we are
33:43and just kind of move the air around.
33:44This is a nice little buy here.
33:47And again with the magnetic latches here or magnet little disc here.
33:53These are only 35 pounds so these are super solid.
33:55It hasn't fallen off before so I really like that.
33:58We've been using a lot of these magnet things over Velcro.
34:02Our first van was a lot of Velcro.
34:04This is pretty cool.
34:06And then this is a little extra cubby here for clothes that don't go back into the closet.
34:12When my wife wears something one time or our kids wear one time, not dirty enough to wash.
34:17Usually you put it on the chair.
34:18We don't have a chair here to put it so we just throw it in here before the laundry.
34:21Wear it again if we need to.
34:23And the power station.
34:26We have the Victron.
34:27This is the display for everything that is going on with the van.
34:31How much power we have.
34:32How much solar we're generating.
34:34The inverter control.
34:35How much water we have.
34:37All is shown over here.
34:39Water shows 78% right now.
34:41So it gives us a good command center.
34:44It's also linked to our phone and onto the internet.
34:47So we can always see what's happening with the van at all times.
34:51And here are just three gang switch for a water pump, gray water tank.
34:55And these two are currently not used because I did not figure out how to do the
34:59linear actuator that I wanted to do when we were building out the van.
35:03Because I built this van when my wife was five months pregnant.
35:07And I gave myself about three, four months to finish the van.
35:11I did most of it.
35:12I got by the time our second son was born, we were 90% done.
35:17But it started getting cold and there's just so much left to do.
35:21So big plans, big ideas, never got to it.
35:25So they're here for one day when we want to continue working on that.
35:29And then the 12 volt distribution stuff are all inside.
35:33A little messy, but everything is fused up and nice in here.
35:38And we have a Starlink Mini that's also on the roof.
35:41So this is a little switch for it.
35:45And then this one right here before I go.
35:48Oh, by the way, we have an elevator bed and this is the switch for it.
35:51And I'll show you guys that in a minute.
35:55Okay, let's continue with the closet space here.
35:57This is my closet.
35:58We decided to go with partially mesh trays and drawers rather than just full blown like regular
36:06drawers to build out.
36:07One is a time saving.
36:08I didn't want to build all the drawers because they're very timely to build.
36:11And these are a lot lighter and these are just on slider.
36:14Very easy.
36:15All my stuff are here.
36:17And even bigger down here.
36:19The kids clothes.
36:19My wife's clothes.
36:20These are on the Ikea.
36:22I got to open this fully to pull out.
36:25Ikea mesh drawers.
36:27Very cheap.
36:27I think they're like, I don't know, under $10 each.
36:29So pretty good system.
36:31Saves a lot of weight.
36:34This is the other register for the heat.
36:37So I show you guys in the back.
36:39There's one in the back.
36:40And this one feeds hot air into the living space.
36:43And this is the propane detector that I mentioned.
36:46And then over here is access to the garage through this little door here.
36:52Got a light.
36:53We throw a laundry in here.
36:55We have some winter clothes there for now.
36:56And we built a little platform for easy access into what we're about to show you,
37:03which is the living space.
37:05This is one of my favorite spots in the van, of course.
37:10Because this is a multi-purpose room for everything for our kids to play in,
37:17to eat in, to hang out in, entertainment room.
37:21You can see we have a TV over here, a 32-inch TV.
37:25Also on the magnet mounts because they're very, very thin.
37:29And I couldn't find a mount that was thin enough
37:33for when the elevator bed comes out because it's curved.
37:36So this is like, it barely hits it.
37:38But I'll show you when I bring down the elevator bed.
37:40So we like to eat over here.
37:43This is like a Japanese style.
37:44We're okay with it.
37:45It's pretty decent space here for the four of us.
37:48And I have my table here, which is also on magnet mounts,
37:53which I pull down on a foldable table.
38:00So we can just sit over here.
38:01The four of us just having a nice meal inside our little space.
38:09And I built a little bookshelf on this side, easy access, nightstand, bookshelf.
38:16And I hide all the wires down here.
38:18So it's nice and neat and also kit friendly.
38:21So there's no risk of them, you know, touching the electric and whatnot.
38:25And this is a blind, blackout blind.
38:30Okay, let's move this back here.
38:34So this just goes on the side here.
38:37And so far, it hasn't fallen off.
38:40So it's been working pretty good.
38:42My baby wipes are here on this side.
38:44Some more kids stuff here, more books and easy access diaper for when we're in the living area.
38:51Easy changing.
38:52And a little small table for when our older son, Spencer, needs to work here.
38:57And you can use this table before we need to take that one down.
39:00And floor cushions here.
39:02And then on this side, we have a map of where we travel.
39:07A little calendar here.
39:10Controls.
39:10This is a Webasto heater controller.
39:12Actually, it also has a fan too.
39:14So you can build cold air into the living space.
39:17But you can set the temperature, run it, and it just runs automatically.
39:20Which is a really nice upgrade for my old van as well.
39:23And then over here, let's show some of the space here, okay?
39:28This is like, I really like how this base came out.
39:32Even though it's like a little tighter.
39:34Like we built this van for us.
39:36Like for our own specific purpose of traveling with two young kids.
39:39It's not going to work for everybody.
39:41I know it's sort of tighter and whatnot.
39:43But it really is a really like fun space for everybody.
39:48So you can see like this entire space here is storage.
39:52So we have my son's like craft kits, drawing water paint, more books here.
40:00A little projector here for his books.
40:02Over here, we have some winter clothes or changing season clothes here.
40:07And this goes throughout the entire platform that I'm standing on.
40:12Here we have more toy storage.
40:15We're going to bring more toys in here when we start going.
40:17Another toy storage.
40:18Really deep too.
40:19It goes all the way to the side of the van.
40:20So really spacious, usable space.
40:23Now we wanted this extra space here for easier access.
40:26Because the garage space is really tough to access.
40:29Especially when you're inside.
40:31And then on the other side.
40:37My wife's yarn.
40:39She has so much yarn.
40:40That's her hobby.
40:42And more on this side.
40:43And some extra diapers from Costco when we buy in bulk.
40:46So storage is key.
40:48Like you need storage.
40:50In our first van, that was the main thing is like
40:53when we built it, it wasn't with three people in mind.
40:56So a lot of stuff that Spencer had, all his toys were just hanging everywhere.
41:01It just didn't really look that neat.
41:03So we wanted to make sure everything has like a dedicated place for storage.
41:06That's super important for van life.
41:08Because once you don't have a space for that thing,
41:10then it just either stays out or just unsightly.
41:13So this also comes down.
41:16We got a little night light here.
41:19Easy access.
41:21Little cubby here.
41:22This also charges the phone for the upstairs.
41:24There's a USB-C up here as well.
41:27And let's bring down the bed.
41:28So you can kind of see how this looks like.
41:30So this is just a, I believe this is a full size couch slash bed.
41:37And this is one of the blankets that we have.
41:39With two kids and we all co-sleep right now.
41:42Even though we have two beds, currently we co-sleep.
41:44Our oldest son is not ready to sleep by himself.
41:46So you need to have two blankets because you can't have four people sleeping with one blanket.
41:52It just doesn't work because you got kids that kicks and stuff.
41:54So we have another blanket here.
41:56It doubles as a little nice cover for the couch here.
41:59And this falls down easily into its own sleeping area.
42:06And we currently just sleep down here together.
42:09It's a really nice space here.
42:10We really enjoyed it.
42:12The original plan was to have our son sleep down here and we sleep up there.
42:17But we ended up just liking being down here.
42:20It's really, really comfortable.
42:24So we have this.
42:26This comes out a little bit further.
42:29Falls flat.
42:32Like this.
42:34You got a big bed over here.
42:36And we sleep north-south.
42:38So our feet don't touch the side.
42:41We're not that tall either.
42:42So we were able to sleep here and very comfortably.
42:47Then this is the back here with the back windows.
42:50And we put our magnets along the van, wherever there's a place to attach them.
42:55And the van that we have with the elevator bed.
42:58We didn't go with any branded elevator bed build.
43:04We did it ourselves.
43:05We went with a company called Frugalis.
43:09I forgot the name.
43:10But we basically bought different parts from the company.
43:15These are linear actuators.
43:17There's four of them.
43:18And they're on tracks.
43:21So how that works is those tracks are mounted on these aluminum bars.
43:26Which helps guide the bed up and down when we press the button.
43:30And the linear actuator just pulls it down and pushes it up.
43:33So let me show you how that works.
43:39So the button here.
43:41Let's bring it down.
43:44It takes about a minute or less to get the bed down.
43:50You can see.
43:54Slowly coming down.
43:56Make sure nothing's catching.
43:58And you can see like the TV is just like right there.
44:02Just right there.
44:03It almost hits the side of the bed.
44:05But it comes down perfectly.
44:07And we have a second sleeping area right here.
44:11And whenever he's ready to sleep up here.
44:14This is going to be his bed.
44:15And as they grow a little older.
44:17My two sons will be able to sleep up here.
44:19While we sleep down here.
44:21And then I can even go up here.
44:29Not the most spacious.
44:31But hey it's for sleeping.
44:32So it's okay.
44:33Oh and we have a seal detector right here in the corner.
44:37And we have a light.
44:38Another fan.
44:40In the back here.
44:41The second fan.
44:44Yep.
44:45Just like that.
44:47All right.
44:48Let's come back down.
44:54Yeah this little platform is good.
44:57To help with us and the kids to get up and down.
45:00Michael this is pretty awesome.
45:03You can tell you are very experienced in van life.
45:08By how thoughtful all the storage is.
45:13You already built one.
45:14You're already out there for a long time.
45:16How long was that last journey?
45:18How many miles or how many years?
45:2088,000 miles on our first van.
45:22We went to the west coast three times.
45:26Back and forth.
45:27To south to Canada.
45:29We went all over.
45:31And our older son basically grew up in that van.
45:33We started traveling in that van when he was three months old.
45:36Whenever he was ready to go we were on there and we just hit the road.
45:40And you knew enough about that van that you definitely wanted all-wheel drive this time around.
45:44I'm sure there were some tricky situations that you got yourself into in a two-wheel drive that
45:48made you go with the all-wheel drive this time just to be prepared.
45:52Yeah, exactly.
45:53Yeah, off-road sometimes the BLM land or public land there it's usually just dirt road.
45:58And we've been stuck in sand before we stuck in icy conditions.
46:02So we want to make sure that we have that ready and we can basically go anywhere without worrying.
46:06And also high clearance.
46:07There's a lot of places in our old van when you look at the apps they say oh you can't
46:11get here
46:11unless you are high clearance or 4x4.
46:14So we want to go more places.
46:15So this is going to give us that option.
46:17And this air condition is pretty low profile.
46:19Yes.
46:19It barely even sticks out.
46:20It doesn't stick out at all.
46:22Yeah, it's under the solar panel.
46:24Like I said, I had to modify one of the solar panels to make it fit.
46:27But yeah, it's seven inches under seven inches.
46:30Or actually just that seven inches.
46:32Now I know like some of the viewers are going to have some burning questions.
46:36One of them is like that bunk that you put down, that automatically stops in that position?
46:40It stops.
46:41This is actually the lowest position that it's in.
46:43Can you adjust it if you ever want to go down further?
46:46Yeah, so under here is the controller for it.
46:48You can kind of modify the limits of the upper and the lower limit.
46:51So when I press the, I can press this back up.
46:53It stops.
46:54It can go higher than where it ends, but I set it so that it doesn't go any higher.
46:59Otherwise it will sort of crush the roof or whatnot.
47:01So it ends at the maximum that I think is capable.
47:04Because some people have this fear that, you know, you and your wife will be sleeping down
47:08below and the upper bed just all of a sudden, like on maximum overdrive, the movie where things
47:14come to life, like the bed's just going to start moving.
47:16But that's pretty foolproof, right?
47:18It's impossible because of how the bed and the linear actuators are.
47:22It can't go any lower.
47:23Like it physically can't go lower than where it ends at.
47:27Like even if I wanted to, it's not possible.
47:29All right.
47:30And then there's a couple more questions I have.
47:32So this is flexible space.
47:35So as the kids grow up, this bent seat just can come out and you can reconfigure if you want.
47:40Yeah, that can come out.
47:41I can just pull those two pull bars there and then the whole seat comes out.
47:45And yeah, this space is great because like right now we have two car seats here,
47:49but eventually once they grow a little older, we don't need the car seats.
47:52Once this becomes a secondary living area for eating and dining here, I can add just another
47:58swivel table here.
47:59I would have to add another swivel for the driver's seat.
48:02I didn't need it right now, but I can add that and swivel and just have like another entertaining
48:06area.
48:06I think that would be super nice once we're ready for that.
48:09I think it's smart not having a dedicated like dining table in your living space.
48:14You're able to push everything forward.
48:16And that back play area becomes eating, hangout.
48:21It's all sorts of activity area underneath there.
48:24Yeah, super important for us because we want to make sure that the kids that we have are going
48:28to grow up in the van here and be able to enjoy it and do the things that the kids
48:32need to do,
48:32right?
48:33Like schoolwork.
48:33Once, you know, you have the space for it, like you got to be able to do it.
48:38In our old van, we, he was on the bed most of the time because we had a fixed bed
48:42and
48:42really no secondary like living area.
48:44So having like a dedicated play area, entertainment area, eating area is just going to give us
48:49that flexibility to do what we need as, uh, as time changes.
48:52And what was the biggest lesson you learned about being on the road full time in your last
48:58van?
48:58Um, what carried over to this one?
49:01Uh, I guess the biggest lesson would be, um, it's hard to say this.
49:05I mean, a lot of lessons, uh, you can kind of keep things simple.
49:09I mean, for us, we like from, for me and my wife, we like to have sort of the luxuries
49:16of living in a house in a van, right?
49:19Like the dishwasher, like not having to do a dishwasher, uh, dishes for one night is a,
49:24is a big win, right?
49:25Like little things like that, be able to cook without thinking about, uh, running out of gas
49:29or just boiling a pot of soup if we want.
49:32Cause we like to make like these, this soup that takes a long time to boil, like these
49:36Chinese soups that, you know, it takes time and bake stuff.
49:38Like the little luxuries of life is what makes van life really enjoyable.
49:42And we want to kind of keep that essence of it.
49:45And, you know, add as much of that as possible as we're traveling full time.
49:49And I know what it is already, but like when we were showing the toilet,
49:53I panned over and there's this jug over here and it's, it's not what you guys...
49:59Oh yeah.
50:00This is, uh, this is bubble water or his bubble gun.
50:04Cause he got a massive, I'm just going to work right now, but massive bubble gun.
50:10He loves his bubble guns.
50:11And we, we have several around the van.
50:14So we have another one underneath there and whenever he goes outside,
50:17he can play with his bubble guns and we need a big jar because these things run out super quick.
50:21If you, if you have kids, you'll know.
50:23You run out of it.
50:24So now you guys know this jug is not urine.
50:28So on your last van, you had a swing in the last van.
50:34I had a what?
50:35A swing.
50:36A swing.
50:36Yes.
50:37Yes.
50:37Which is pretty cool.
50:38I really, I do miss that.
50:40We don't have it in this van.
50:42But I think eventually we can probably add something over here if we are creative enough.
50:46And that's the cool thing about van life is like,
50:48you can be as creative as you want and just come up with different things, whatever you need.
50:52You can just add on to it.
50:53And you're also YouTubers and you're going to be documenting some of your journeys.
50:58It's a family with two small kids traveling the country full time.
51:02Yes.
51:03It's going to be interesting episode series.
51:05So I'm sure some of the viewers are going to want to follow along.
51:07Yes.
51:08Can you tell us a little bit about that?
51:09Sure.
51:09We have a vlog.
51:11I used to do like a daily vlog a couple, like two years ago.
51:14I remember that.
51:14Yeah, it was really stressful.
51:16But now we just kind of focus on us as a family traveling in the van.
51:20My wife and I were from Hong Kong.
51:22So we like to travel to different places to explore food, Hong Kong style food,
51:27Cantonese cuisine, just different places around the country and Canada.
51:30Food is a big part of our culture.
51:32We like to cook Chinese food.
51:34We like to bring our kids to museums, zoos, things that we like to do.
51:38We show them all in the vlog that we have.
51:41Our day-to-day live, most of it is pretty raw and unedited because I'm just lazy as well.
51:46I don't like to edit too much.
51:47So I just kind of shoot whatever and put it out there.
51:50And that's our YouTube channel, show our daily lives as a van life family of four.
51:55Yeah, that's a tip for any of you folks.
51:57If you're starting off on a YouTube channel, raw unedited videos actually are the most watched
52:06videos right now.
52:07People want to see real content.
52:09If you notice, this whole entire video was on one take and there's no fancy B-roll.
52:14Nothing like that is needed for this video.
52:16This is a real raw video of someone really out there enjoying van life.
52:21I'll put a link in the description so our viewers could click over and check out
52:26the YouTube channel.
52:27I'll even link it as a collaborator post so it will show up on his feed and
52:32he could share it with his audience.
52:34Well, this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
52:37What's the name of the channel?
52:38It's Rina and Michael.
52:40Rina and Michael.
52:41Yes.
52:41I'll see you next time.