Our story
In March 2021, Katie and I purchased a van to convert for camping and road trips. Our goal has been not to build a full-time live in van, but something that will keep us comfortable while driving and sleeping on multi-day trips.
We explored different vans, including renting camper vans and even renting a minivan and building a temporary bed platform to use for a trip. The Ford Transit van seemed to be the best option.
After a bit of searching, we found a 2016 Ford Transit 350 XLT with 42k miles on it. The roof height is standard, but it’s as long as they come. The price was higher than we hoped for, but it seemed to be a good van. We opted for a passenger van over a cargo van.
As it turned out, we bought just in time. The “van life” phenomena escalated during COVID-19, and the Kelly Blue Book value for our van (without counting in our modifications and including the the 20k miles we have put on it) is now about 75% higher than our purchase price. Sometimes you get lucky and buy at the right time.
Why this blog?
My posts are designed to provide folks with insights to our conversion and modifications. I’ll include details of all the conversions, tips of our successes as well as lessons from mistakes we made. I’ll also include links to YouTube videos that I found helpful—there are so many to look through I’ll try to save you some time by sharing the ones I found most valuable.
Modifications
As I generate posts of our modifications, I’ll add links below.
- Roof rack: We did a DYI aluminum roof rack that attaches to the eight OEM roof rack nuts on the top of the van.
- Solar panels: We have three 300 Watt panels on the top; I’ll add photos and description of the rack soon.
- Electrical improvements: Much to show on this, hopefully soon.
- Folding bed: We used a trifold bed design, but rarely fold it. Since our van is a standard/low roof, we have enough room under the bed for plastic bins, but not a lot of room for sitting up in the bed.
- Insulation and fan installation
- Keeping foods cold: We bought a Vevor 12VDC/120VAC fridge. It runs OK on 12V, but much better when plugged in to our 120VAC inverter. It barely taxes our 200MAH lithium battery.
- Sink and water plumbing (after a few trials at a small sink, we opted to not include a sink, and thus have no plumbing)
- Toilet (We opted for a Thetford portable toilet, we mostly use it for ‘#1’ in the middle of the night, but found Happy Bowl liners for those emergency #2s.)
- Heating and cooling: We use a Mr. Buddy propane heater for the few times we need it. Details on our mini-split AC system coming soon.
- Passenger seat swivel: This is a wonderful addition. We only added a swivel to the passenger seat, but we can swing it around and one of us sits on it while the other sits on the bed. We bit the bullet and purchased a Scopema because it had the best reviews. It was an easy install, and works great for us.
- Remote rear view mirror: Love our Wolfbox; we mounted the camera on the roof rack so we can see over most cars following us.
- Fuel efficiency
- DIY etrike/ebike carrier for trailer hitch mount
- Navigation system (Android tablet based).
Selling the van?
At some point, we may opt to sell the van, and if we do these pages will document all the modifications. I’m 6’3″ (190 cm), and would love to eventually have a van I can stand up in. If you fall in love with our van and want to make us a high offer, you might be able to convince us to sell to you (we’re near Sacramento, CA if you’d like to see it).
So, no, we’re not currently looking to sell it, but could be convinced to do so if the offer is high enough 🙂
