5 Things I HATE About My Custom Camper Van Build

last March I achieved a monumental life upgrade when I bought a van and shortly after beginning the ambitious task of outfitting it to live in full time for months I toiled over the optimal layout while making difficult decisions regarding elements I felt I could sacrifice and those I just couldn't live without my friend Seth and Johnny both helped me build this pan from scratch and we brought you all along on the entire journey with us since wrapping up the van build last August I've got so many questions from you all wondering how happy I am with the setup I chose and now that I've had almost an entire year of living in the van I can without a doubt say that although I really do love my van build there were absolutely some things that I hate about it - whether it's something I left out of the van in which I had something we built and I think we could have improved or something that was just such a pain in the ass that I wish we hadn't done it at all here are five things that I hate about my very first band build real quick before anyone starts jumping down my throat in the comments I want you guys to know that I still am really in love with this van build and very grateful for the whole thing this video is more of kind of a reflection for maybe for the next band build or anyone that's embarking on a van build journey of their own so just want you guys to know that and alright let's get back to the video okay now that that's out of the way let's start big picture with the van itself I spent a long time finding just the right van sure part of this was hesitation to pull the trigger on the largest purchase of my life but another reason is that I had a very specific Ram 2500 model I was looking for one that among other things included both a rear and side window I could picture it perfectly me sitting in my van editing my next video out in the middle of nowhere taking it all in while sitting comfortably in my van and away from all of those pesky mosquitoes so I bought the van with Windows and then I promptly cover them up with this reflectix as it turns out lighting views are great and all but to me privacy is the even hotter commodity and these windows were making that very difficult the reality of my van life is that I spend quite a bit of time in civilization whether for a collaboration to visit friends are simpler to get good internet whatever the reason maybe when parking a city I want to be able to get in my van at the end of the day and have my own space that I can retreat to for that reason these covers have remained up on my windows ever since making me constantly wonder why I ever paid for these windows in the first place hey at least with these windows in the back I can investigate whatever the heck is making all that racket outside without giving myself away okay I'm gonna try my best to control myself while discussing this next one installing insulation was hands-down the most confusing infuriating an arguably pointless aspect of my entire van bill I spent days scouring the internet for information on the best type how much to use and even whether to insulate at all and all this only to learn that there is no definitive answer at all and the deeper you dig the more confused you become to recap real quick I ended up installing poly Co foam boards around the van floor walls and ceiling I then filled every nook and cranny with fiberglass insulation which I later learned was a poor choice for vans and could potentially be harmful to me so I decided to go through the arduous process of fishing it all out and replaced it with 3m Thinsulate this mistake continues to haunt me as I am still finding remnants of this fiberglass and the tiniest of crevices around my van even to this day [Music] this whole process was a monumental pain in my ass not to mention one of the most expensive parts of the van build the biggest problem however lies in the fact that any installation is only as good as its weakest link remember those windows we were just talking about yeah I didn't think this one through although I have found some great custom insulated covers for the front windows I still have massive areas over the side and rear windows that are not insulated thus pretty much negating the effectiveness of everything else yikes for my next man I think I will most likely end up going with no insulation for a few reasons first it would absolutely cut down on cost frustration and built on and finally with no insulation while it is true that the van will heat up faster it will also cool down faster in the evenings which is generally the time that I'm actually in it and don't even get me started on vapor barriers next up let's talk about power having a good electrical setup on my van is essential and always having sufficient power ensures that no matter where I am in the country I can continue to create videos for you all no I'm not saying that I hate having power in the van on the contrary I'm saying that now that I finally do have power on the road I hate not having enough of it I just got back from grocery shopping and I wasn't telling my license in my power box I have a single 100 amp hour battery that has been working overtime since the day it was installed this single battery is responsible for running my fridge fan charge station both my laptop's my phone and my internet that's quite a lot of output and it's almost always draining faster than it is charging via solar luckily the battery can be recharged in two ways either from the 300 watt solar panel on the roof or directly from my van when it's running this up has been working great and for the most part it's done surprisingly well all things considering however throughout the last year I've had an increasingly difficult time keeping everything charged which eventually led me to do some investigating that was actually a lot easier than we've officially found the culprit of all my electrical problems check this out solenoid this post right here is kind of discolored and this one's bright copper really nice uh-huh that's cuz this is where all the heat was yeah I mean we can see because it got so hot everything got all brittle and that was causing a lot of resistance culprits a solenoid dude this was a 80 amp I would have thought that 80 amp would be enough for a campervan but how much is the new one it's 200 amp turns out quite a bit of the inefficiencies I was experiencing we're due to this issue and as I write this sent I am heading deep into Yellowstone National Forest so here's the hope that that new solenoid will help keep me powered more efficiently out here should I do it all over again I would definitely opt for another battery and solar panel though this stuff is very expensive making sure I have enough power in the van at all times as priceless as it powers my mobile business there's approximately 100 ish square feet of my van and for anyone that has lived in such a small space you know that keeping a small space tidy is crucial when designing my van I made sure that everything had a place where it belongs so that finding it when I needed it would be easy or so I thought as it turns out I do have plenty of storage space overall but what I later realized is that I'm lacking purposeful organization within that space a great example of this problem is my kitchen supply drawer because it was the biggest drawer I had it naturally became my kitchen bin by default and I currently have everything kitchen related dumped in there to get it anytime I want to get at something from this drawer I pretty much have to take everything out and then put it all back in again this probably doesn't seem like a huge deal at first but I assure you after a couple times unloading reloading thing only to realize you've forgotten that other thing you need it becomes quite a pain in the butt one of my main storage units is this workbench that we bought and bolted to the inside of this van this has been a fantastic solution in many ways as is allowed me to store valuables in it and lock the drawers the issue with the storage in the workbench is that most of the drawers are pretty shallow and kind of flimsy if I were to pick another workbench for a future van I'd probably look for one with some vertical storage in deeper drawers along with some stronger slides another piece of organization I wish I had built-in is some hanging storage I can even remember taking the tour of Hanna's van and her telling me you can never have enough hooks man I wish I'd listened to that this specific struggle often encountered on the road is what to do with dirty or wet clothes and how to get them dry before they mildew and stink up the place I thought I had this problem solved with that nifty clothesline in the back of my van but it didn't take me long to realize that wasn't really gonna work unless I'd left my bed and couch mood all the time I've come to make do by hanging wet clothes on my door with clothespins or just draping them in the back of the van on my bikes I also utilize the space next to my bed to put clothes I plan on wearing the next day again but that has quickly gotten a little out of hand and kind of become the no-man's land for clothes that quite clean but not quite dirty either overall I'd say that we did a great job making sure there was enough room for all my belongings in the vans but next time I will definitely be going a step further while planning to create more purpose-built storage to make my day-to-day life in the van a little bit more seamless I'd imagine that you all probably expected me to start this entire list off with something like the fact that I don't have a toilet a shower in here but honestly neither one of these was nearly as much of an issue to me as the final item on this list not having running water in the van when living in an apartment or home I rarely thought about the convenience of having running water while living in a van without it I have quickly realized just how many little daily tasks this complicates think about brushing your teeth where you spit it out want to wash your hands off quickly nope and oh man does it make cooking hard as of now in order to do anything requiring water I have to first pull out one of two massive seven gallon water jugs and set it up if I'm gonna be filling up my water bottle making coffee or cooking I'll generally just set it up hanging off the edge of the counter inside if I need to do something like clean dishes however I need to set it up so the water falls out of the van onto the ground so I've been using my Yeti cooler to prop it up again none of this is really that big of an issue if I'm out camping which is why I think I was fooled into thinking I didn't need running water in the first place see when I was living out of my hatchback Sheila I had to seek out places to park each night that I could put my tent up anyway since I was camping outside it wasn't that big of a deal to also be doing all the water related stuff outside too now that I have the freedom to park wherever I'm much more concerned with being self contained inside the van so that I can remain stealthy and frankly opening my van door up to spit out my toothpaste kind of gives away my cover [Applause] of all the things I don't like about my first van build this one is top priority to me so I'm away back to Asheville last month I sketched up a little diagram to show how I thought it could all work and my current set up and I sent it over to my buddy Johnny from the crafted workshop channel now I'm sure many of you all have been wondering why on earth I chose to drive all the way across the country to Asheville when I had plans to be in British Columbia a mere month later well now you know during the final two weeks of my stay in Asheville Johnny and I have been working tirelessly on a van renovation that addresses some of these major issues discussed in this video in the next video I'm going to not only share with you all some of my favorite aspects of the original van bill but also revealed a new project that we've been working so hard on I seriously cannot wait to show you guys what we've done I'll see you all next week for that one and in the meantime if you want to get a refresher on the whole van build from start to finish I'll put a link to the playlist right here as well as down in the description below that's it for today thank you all for watching and until I see you guys next time you know what to do lip-read Jen stop [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Singletrack Sampler

Views: 1,374,116

Rating: 4.8628588 out of 5

Keywords: singletrack sampler van build, vanlife, seth's bike hacks van, crafted workshop van, van conversion, custom van, living in a van, diy van tour, van build, diy van, van garage, camper van, van build out, life in a van, what is vanlife, what van life is really like, promaster van build out, sprinter van living, stealth camper, how to van life, how to live in a van, day in the life of van life, how much does van life cost, why live in a van, custom camper van build

Id: WFnTAq5Optg

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/JaredMancini]

He also doesn’t have running water. Honestly at this point insulation people think is an opinion, I’ll tell you for spending time in winter climates it helps tremendously. You are sitting in a steel box.

[u/GoghVanVincent]

His opinion is more about the tough learning experience than the merits of insulation itself. The school of hard knocks is the best one out there - but you have to learn from the lesson, not resist it and make excuses.

Indeed there were mistakes made. First - don’t use insulation that can and will absorb moisture. Second - gaps in insulation absolutely undermine your efforts. It needs to be everywhere.

In our cargo trailer build we put 1-1/2” pink foam everywhere but the floor. Omitting metal joists. Then put the 3/8 ply back up. You can TOTALLY feel where it’s missing. We ended up adding reflectix onto the back doors permanently and to walls temporarily over winter - it’s not pretty, but works well. Lesson learned: no such thing as too much insulation.

Regarding his argument that he wants it to cool down in evening faster by not having insulation - he’ll be regretting that worse. Because it won’t stop cooling down until sunrise. The van will be an icebox and sleep will not be restful.

Use insulation. Use double what you think you should. Use triple on roof.

[u/LuckyRabbitPNW]

I insulated my van, I'd say it was worth it. I had the van uninsulated for a year so I got some solid comparisons and first-hand experience.

• A heavier weight insulation will also dampen sound. With the metal skin only I could hear people shuffling feet from a half-block away
• It makes a difference if you can't find a shady spot right away or running an errand.
• Wood is a great insulator, my lower benches make a great pantry as it is always pretty cool.
• Sleeping down low is important, the upper half of my van always seems to be way warmer than the bottom as heat rises. My bed can be in the high-top area or down on top of the lower bench seats.
• Window covers should be insulated too

My van is home for my dog and myself so I wanted a place i'd be happy and grateful to spend time in. I built it out slowly for cheap and it's an ever evolving thing. Lithium and solar next I think

[u/HomefreeNotHomeless]

I’m not a fan of this guy. Buys a 35k+ van then complains about insulation cost.

He should have filled all of those gaps with Great Stuff instead. It worked great for me.

I don’t think he’s a brightest bulb or really didn’t plan vanlife that well.

[u/thistletea024]

I have zero regrets about using insulation during my build. I moved into my box truck in June of '18 and without insulation my interior temps would hit about 110~120F by 12PM with exterior temperatures of 85~95.

The worst my interior temps get now is about 5F warmer than the exterior temps. The downside to the insulation is that all that heat is retained for hours after the sun goes down. Running a 5k BTU window unit for about an hour before I go to bed has worked well in bringing the temps down to a more comfortable level for sleeping.

[u/lennyflank]

Most people who have insulation, probably don't really need it. They have it because everyone else does, and because they still have a "house" mindset.

Insulation works best when it is used in conjunction with a heater or AC. By itself, insulation can delay heat transfer for a little while, but it won't stop it. Eventually the temp inside will equalize with the temp outside.

[u/7-Twelve]

Dont skimp on insulation. Having to rely on Mr.Buddy heaters to heat up your van in the winter (or anything below around 60 degrees) will NOT work without insulation. Also, your van will not only be an oven for you, but for your stuff. This includes food, ice, candles, and electronics which may not work due to that intense heat.

Perhaps he regretted the insulation because he's never been without it and doesnt know how much of a blessing it truly is. I dunno, but I've been without it and it was HORRIBLE.