3 Unique Minivan Sink and Grey Water Ideas to Make Van Life and Camping More Enjoyable!

so why did I abandon this idea after much trial and error I have discovered [Music] today I'm going to show you three of the more successful sync iterations I've invented maybe one of them will work for you or give you some ideas to come up with something different having running water when you're out camping or on a long trip can make such a big difference you can wash your hands wash your dishes even take a bath with a washcloth and having a gray water catchment inside makes you more self-contained and stealthy if you need to be I experimented with a few water pumps a manual one that sits on top of a five gallon water jug a foot pump wait no two foot pumps but what I ultimately recommend is one of these USB water pumps the charge lasts forever and when you're using it for the hundredth time on your trip you'll be happy no effort is involved and one of the huge pluses for me is your water can pretty much be stored anywhere so I have 15 Gallons stored in the very back totally out of view and just pumped in by this tube so let's start with my first idea I started with this sink because it has this really nice lip that can perch on a countertop I took a thick plastic cutting board and used a jigsaw to cut out a sinkhole to act as my countertop the sink sits perfectly down inside I glued on a rubber funnel to direct the water into the gray water tanks below the tanks are just some storage bins that I bought at Walmart I recommend actually going to the store and finding a storage bin then heading over to the kitchen storage to find some bins that will work for your gray water Lord knows if you've looked at my link in the description I love buying things off Amazon and having them on the doorstep in the morning but for this one you just actually have to walk around the store and try to see what will fit I partially screwed in screws into the bottom of the counter purposefully a little wide so they would catch and stretch out the bin and hold on then I just drilled a hole for the water tube to go through the counter and secured it on with a magnet the pros of this sink were the size I could wash my hair and any splashes would be caught by the counter it was easy to use Easy to wash dishes in and the bins were pretty easy to dump out and I think it looks pretty great so why did I abandon this idea ultimately it just took up too much space I was constantly moving it around to get into my floor and it was just too cumbersome also emptying the bins was a bit of a mess if they were full so here was my second idea this one fits in between the seats I just happen to have this bin from Goodwill in my house side note thrift stores are an excellent place to look for this stuff a camping sink from one of my other initial attempts just happened to fit right inside another plus I didn't have to mess around with a drain tube it just drains right into the red bucket and I take the whole thing and dump it out and it just happened to have this perfect little space here where I could wedge in my water pump so the pros of this sink were obviously the small footprint it worked fabulously between the seats and if I had to do something that involved a little splashing like washing my hair or something I just pulled it out to have more room the cons of this sink were when it started to get a little full it would slosh about too much when driving and the water would smell like last night's dinner and the biggest con was that the sink floor is flat so if the van wasn't oops so if the van wasn't completely level the water would pool in a corner or I had I'd have to clean the sink and the sink wouldn't be that clean and and just hated that it didn't drain cleanly so the final front here to find a sink that fits in between the seats that doesn't slosh looks decent and drains cleanly after much trial and error I have discovered a regular old bucket fits perfectly between the seats of a Pacifica so that's what I'm using now as my gray water holder now for the sink well Ikea has these wonderful cheap stainless steel bowls that are not flat on the bottom like most of the other ones you find this is important so the water drains cleanly and miraculously the 11 inch one fits perfectly in the bucket so I drilled holes in the bottom to make a drain I thought this would be better than a large hole this way I wouldn't lose any spoons into the muck and I have some holes on the edges so that as water drains down it'll hopefully drain cleanly [Applause] I also glued on a little rubber from a bungee cord to really grab onto the bowl and it fits perfectly the hardest part has been figuring out the water pump I used some spare parts from a side view mirror attachment to clamp on a Shelf it's a little a little Tippy [Music] [Music] I cut out a slot for the water tube because with all the other versions I had to disconnect the water tube to empty the tank which gets old and I don't want my fresh water tube to get contaminated so this way I can leave it connected and just slide it on and slide it off when I need to empty it and so I don't have to disconnect the tube I don't have it completely worked out I think I'm going to use some velcro and maybe some magnets again to really solidify it on its little stand here and my favorite thing about this system is to empty it I take the water tube off and voila a handle none of my other things have had handles I've all had to use two hands and some balance to empty them I can just take this out to empty it take the sink out and voila dump it out so far it's worked fantastically I don't know how it does on the cute scale maybe I can put some nice contact paper on it but you know it functions the best out of the three so far and it was much cheaper I think maybe like nine dollars for the bowl and maybe what five for the bucket you can't beat that okay it's working even though I'm at an angle it's still draining okay so I did update my sink I made it a little prettier and I was able to stabilize the faucet that's what I did was I put some magnets here and I put a magnet here so it just snaps together then it was still a little Tippy on the inside so I put a little bit of velcro here on the back to hold it so I think that's gonna work for me it's not gonna tip over and [Music] it's perfectly right in front of the seats so there you go I hope my mistakes and many unneeded purchases will save you some money in time if you hit the like button it'll help YouTube know who to recommend this video to next and click the green circle to subscribe so you know when I put out a new video thanks

Channel: Minivan Camper Gal

Views: 129,975

Keywords: vanlife, van life, minivan life, Chrysler Pacifica, minivan conversion, vanlife boondocking, digital nomad, travel vlog, car camping, stealth, vanlife vlog, minivan camper gal, minivan camper, van adventures, nomad vanlife, digital nomad lifestyle, solo female travel vlog, van dweller, camper, campervan, minimalist, minivan sink, van sink, diy van sink, diy camper sink, vanlife sink, vanlife kitchen, vanlife water, minivan kitchen, portable camping sink, camping, off grid

Id: _dO_mMgGFHA

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023