Cleverly Designed Camper Van w/ Murphy Bed, Office & Tesla Power System

what's up guys i'm elliot we are here in apache junction and this is just a quick tour of my van [Music] designing this area right here i've always wanted a space that people can hang out have a good time but also have space for storage and other necessities so the general cat setup was perfect so right up top i have extra storage up here so some pants other winter gear i cut my own hair as you might be able to tell and then over here is just more sweaters and some other gear as well some books i absolutely love movies so right under here is just a projector so i can project on my the white wall of my van or i can take it outside and it's battery powered and we can project and watch a movie play games outside in someone's van super convenient so the box cubbies i got just at a general target target or walmart or just any big box store the way i got them to fit was a little bit tricky i actually cut them down and re-sewed the size to make them the exact like length that i wanted to and they're absolutely perfect for what i need them to be they don't look the best but as a utility they're really well i can just bring them out put them back in whenever i need to super convenient yeah so um actually all the material in here is all three quarter inch plywood on the outside it is all laminated with white just having a white build it gets dirty very very easily so being able to just wipe it down with a melamine sponge or even just a washcloth cleans it off really well really quick compared to white paint which is stain stick to everything and then everything around here is just a matching walnut panel so the theme around here is just as you can tell sage green walnut and white and i tried to get this to match as much as possible the hinges actually are something else that i haven't seen too much around are these spring hinges in my experience the the gas struts always have broken for me so these problems have been solved on boats for years and boats have just the nautical spring hinges that you just break the tension and it holds it open perfectly so you can break tension and push it back down and it works out just fine with the storage areas underneath that after being on the road for about a year and a half i realized i needed more storage for charging things so i have just a power block up there and can bring these down whenever i need to and just charge some extra camera gear i can charge whatever else in there just by running the wire into there and putting it up instead of having a bunch of wires on my couch the whole day having a magnetically seat has been super nice and also i just have some extra magnetic film lights that i can stick on there for quick access it's been super convenient i built everything in here and sewing was my worst activity my worst talent so i just went with some classic amazon covers right under it had to be built up just so it could fit the actual fridge and freezer section so right here is the dometic 95 cfx it's one of the biggest ones they have with the dual zone so it has my fridge side as well as my freezer side just on 500 pound drawer slides and i can pull out an in and i have a foot lock for that so it never comes out when i'm driving looking back at it now it's a lot bigger than i really needed it i've gone the first time i went into the store i called up a friend i was like hey i think i just like made a mistake and got way too many groceries especially for the fridge and freezer then came back put it all in and i still had half the space left so it's been super nice i can go about three weeks without having to go grocery shopping with uh like uh with dry storage and wet storage has been super incredible power draw hasn't really been an issue for me since i do have such a big battery system when the compressor is on it pulls anywhere between like five and six amps per hour so that can be a lot but that only powers on and off every once in a while it just cycles through so i haven't seen too big of a problem i also like to keep it colder than normal just so my food doesn't go bad and if i did have a problem with how much power it pulled i could just up the temperatures slightly but i've loved it it's been great i'm very happy i chose this fridge having it just me and my dog in here has been it's a slightly too big for me but when i do plan on selling it and building something out this perfect this rig is perfect for two people and a dog or however much space you want to have for your food it's nice to not have to run to the store every single day moving over slightly slightly to the left is some actual more storage i used to have a custom-built composting toilet in here but it just took up too much space i realized the longer i've been in the van the more outdoor activities and outdoor sports i've gotten into so if i move that up just right here i now just have uh the go anywhere toilet and two storage boxes one for my dog one for more camera gear and then just stuff for the toilet and then some shoes down there as well or one of the best solutions to keeping your cabinets closed while driving are magnetic baby locks so basically if you have a magnet it comes with some but they're ugly and i kept losing them so i made my own that just kind of matched the theme of the van that sit on this bolt right here and then when i move it up an inch it will open it it'll unlock the unlock the door and then if i don't move it at all it's just not going to open at all as we move on to the kitchen section it was very important to me to have a very big sink so i went with the classic farmhouse style i was one of the biggest ones that i could find on amazon that was still not like too big it's still a residential size it's perfect for me especially since i have so much counter space i didn't really need more but when i had more when i wanted more i just have the flip up cutting board as well as all these mats that kind of fit on it so that i don't have to mix different foods together just sits up there nicely and it's a lot easier to actually clean than the actual cutting board and when i'm done i can just put them right in the slot with uh with the sink i have about 30 gallons of fresh water and it will last me about 30 days because of something i added onto the edge of the sink on here is an aerator nozzle so i can fill up water bottles when i need to or if i spin this around it'll mist the water so i use that for washing dishes washing my hands anything that i don't need to fill up like if i fill it i'll use the other setting for water bottles or cooking or anything like that but that saves so much of my water every single time it's been a lifesaver so i don't actually use this for a shower sometimes i'll wash my hair in the sink just because it's convenient and out of the way on the back of the van i do have a shower hose that i can hook up to the mirrors in the back that i can just open up put out a curtain and shower back there when it's nice out but i also have memberships to different gyms and stuff like that whenever the weather is not permitting for an outdoor shower so the aerator is called the altered nozzle it's literally just this nozzle right here that has multiple multiple attachments that can connect it to almost any faucet i found it a couple years ago when i was looking at building up vans with friends and then forgot about it until i finally bought my van and then did my water system and i've had probably eight or nine people ask me what this is and i send them a link every time it's very very popular underneath the sink is i have two doors right out here i can open them up on the right side my trash pulls out and on the left side i do have two bins that i can also access on the other side in the bins are just cleaning supplies extra extra little bits of storage and a medical kit the other thing under here is probably the most convenient thing i have in here is the pee funnel instead of having to run out to the bathroom anytime from the middle of nowhere i can just whip it out and go to the bathroom super convenient just drains right through the floor that also has access right on the other side so if i need to clean in there or bring other stuff out i can bring it out on the other side and it's just a nice through passage right up top is a custom lighting system that i saw online so i decided to give it a little bit of a copy and see if i can improve on it a little bit with these led strips they're actually 6500k led strips since i do shoot video in here and they're on a voltage dimmer so that when you dim the lights it doesn't flicker on camera which is super convenient for shooting inside or outside and they go very bright so if i'm shooting inside with a little bit of an outdoor shot there's not such a difference of dynamic range i was going to have different settings for the front and the back but with how much they dim and how adjustable they are it didn't really need that um it's really it's a really big staple and statement piece for advance one of the first things people notice is how bright it is in here and how it actually just looks good and isn't the typical led puck lights right now the lights are pulling six and a half amps of power so if if i didn't have such a massive power system i would be struggling quite a bit with that but since i have something decent i don't have to worry about it at all [Music] getting on the road was kind of a no-brainer for me before van life i was a trip leader for a cross-country bike ride so i was just kind of choosing any job i could that would allow me to travel for work and i've always done video for like the last probably seven or eight years and transitioning to that for a mobile mindset and traveling and doing it on the road was so easy that it just made sense to try and get into a van or get into other ways of traveling and figure it out and after looking at it for a while this is what i came up with um i loved the build process i've always loved making things so i wanted to make something bigger but that wasn't quite like just hanging drywall for eight hours a day so this was just the perfect kind of big enough project that it was long term short enough project that uh it was always interesting and just weird enough to keep me interested and as soon as i started looking at vans and all the different options and what i could do to them and other builds i was just hooked and it just sent me on the road and i've just met so many incredible people um i've been on the road for just about a year and a half now i bought the van september of 2019 so i got super lucky with the pricing on that right before covid um built it it took a little bit of extra time to build it out took way too many breaks and then i finally hit the road about august of 2020 [Music] [Music] with the kitchen space i want it to be as big as possible so i have just all my food storages up top same thing we have the same springs right up top this one is locked just because i do keep some bowls in here as well ceramic bowls so it's dinner stuff then lunch and then breakfast or snacks and then just everyday use condiments and stuff like that right under that this was actually an addition after i built out my van i went on about a three month road trip and figured out what i liked and what i didn't like and this is what i added so over here just kind of the throwaway if i ever need to put something somewhere this is where it goes and then i'll organize it later so i have like my phone chargers wallet glasses keys camera gear that i try and use every day and then this when i slide it around it has my keurig in here in the mornings i'm basically just a potato and don't want to do anything so the keurig has been absolutely prime a blender and then also a waffle maker that someone's using right now right next to that is my fold down induction cooktop when building out the van i knew i didn't want any kind of propane in here especially since i intentionally put in a large battery system but i saw the biggest problem was that people were cracking their induction cooktops from things falling onto it so i decided to figure out a way to have it fold up and fold down very easily and lock away when i'm driving or not using it behind that is just more spices and condiments so just super helpful when i'm cooking just to have everything in one spot before i had this here i just had a little bit of a backsplash and i just wanted something that could be more of a centerpiece of art and i wanted to try and work with resin and woodworking i've always been a little bit inclined with woodworking and stuff but i really just wanted to test out what i could how i could really push it so i found tambour doors online it's basically just doors that fold around a track but i've never seen it done with resin so after seeing multiple plans i just made a plan poured one or two big resin slabs um or one resin slab with two walnut pieces and cut it in half and then after that i routed out a track for this whole thing to run on cut this into slits and then lined the whole thing i lined the back of it with fabric and glued it on so that allows it to effortlessly fold around and look absolutely incredible it looks i think it still looks great it's probably one of the biggest things that people complement in the van which is very nice to my hard work went to something good and then this right here was just seeing if i could continue it and make the resin river longer and it just happened to work out after a lot more planning that i care to admit moving down a little bit farther right down here is a pull out eating area as well as my junk drawer everyone needs a junk drawer mine's always very messy right under that is another staple to my build i am famously not that good of a cook or that fond of cooking so having a microwave and convection oven also it's a grill it says has been a lifesaver most of my meals these days are frozen and then cooked in the microwave which i hate to admit but for me i'd rather hang out with friends or get a project done than like spend 30 minutes cooking so having the microwave has been indispensable i don't think i'll run into any problems it's been it's been really convenient to have right under that is a drawer for my pots and pans so it's actually a double drawer this one opens to my pots and pans and then another one pulls out just for other cooking utensils right next to that i had an awkward bit of three inches of space so i made this really long drawer so on the top is my silverware below that is a full knife block and then below that is my plates when i designed this space i wanted to be as multi-functional as possible the garage and the stable bed just wasn't for me i wanted to be able to do everything i needed to and have as much space as possible so when i built this i went with the murphy bed setup which allows me to have nine feet of counter space and i can use that for anything from cooking to work or any activity and then if it gets late i just toss all my stuff on the couch with that design i put down mirrors behind us as well as medicine cabinets which is great for storage as well as just makes the space seem a lot bigger and then as you can tell i don't have any windows in here that was very intentional because when i first started on the road i was told i'd just be staying in walmart parking lots the whole time so i just kind of figured the best view would be up and so having the skylight right above the head of the bed has been super convenient i can open it up it brings in a ton of air as well as i can clip on a fan to it and push air in and out i also have a blackout curtain and a bug screen that attach right to it so if i'm sleeping in a parking lot i can block out of the light to make it almost completely pitch black in here and sleep through anything as well as when it's really buggy out i can close that and open the windows and still have airflow through the through the van when designing the build i was looking at the fans seeing that there were mixed reviews on all of them and then i found dometic mixed skylights and that was a very pivotal moment in looking into that except everyone that i could find was somewhere in europe so it was kind of a pain to get it over here i think i bought it on ebay got it shipped over here with freight and there was still a crack in it so i had to send it back and get a new one so the whole process actually took like five or six weeks to get it in but i wouldn't change this for the world if i ever build out another van i'm going directly for the skylight again instead of a fan installing it is exactly the same i will say it's a little bit more nerve wracking cutting a two foot by three foot hole in your roof for a new van but if you caulk it properly and just uh do it right i have had no leaks in it so far this was one of the first things i did in the van and it's been absolutely flawless since moving towards the back of the van i really needed some kind of stable workspace and this is what worked out for me so on the right side of van i just have a pull out ultrawide monitor with a custom built desktop pc back there then i can pull out some 500 500 pound drawer slide seats and then another work tray this setup was mainly designed for editing video on the road and i do have a laptop and a i or i do have a laptop and a tablet for some of the more administrative work so this spot is mainly for heavy editing i have the graphics card for it i have the computer for it it takes a lot of power to do but whenever i have big editing jobs i'll sit here get work done for hours at a time but if it's just more admin work that i need to send out emails and stuff i can hang out on my couch or outside with my laptop and get work done as well so this is uh this spot has been really really convenient for sitting down strapping and getting work done when i really need to um sitting here really allows me to focus on work and nothing else compared to like hanging out with friends outside and answering emails and stuff like that so this was a very convenient solution part of the whole design of the van making the upper space larger than the lower space was having these curved or having these slanted drawers behind me which allows me to have a back rest and make it very comfortable to sit here and it's also my clothing so i have shorts here pants shirts and other stuff down here in all the drawers main clauses right behind me it's all the storage ever i've ever needed for clothes and i have a winter gear up on the roof so right next to me is a seat for eating so i have the eating tray that just pulls out when i have all the seats out i can comfortably fit at least nine people in here two people can fit on each of these 500 pound drawer slides there's two of those enough on the couch and then also have seating outside under the awning [Music] i'd be very intentional with the way i built this van because working from home i kind of expected that i wouldn't get any work done and designing it so intentionally where i have a workspace i have a space for each individual thing that i want to do has helped me tremendously and has gotten me to be more productive than i have in any other job it's doing photo and video work is a job that i love i've never been bored doing it and if it is i just pick up another project with a different company and being able to have such a variety in that one little set has just skyrocketed my productivity and being able to create content and enjoy doing it one of the great things that has surprised me about this lifestyle is finding people out here that are more like me than i ever expected i expected van life to be all outgoing all outdoors all the time like hiking climbing doing everything outdoors nothing inside and i know for a fact i'm slightly a homebody so having like my space being able to like go i'll do that and then come hang out in the van and just chill for a day that was exactly what i needed and there's so many more people like that than i expected um i've had i've hung out with a bunch of friends in here the whole day before in their vans the whole day before some people like every single person here has some kind of streaming subscription and will spend a day watching it that was probably the biggest thing i realized was just that not everyone spends 24 7 outdoors like all the influencers make you think they do and that was very very refreshing as someone who like genuinely likes to hang out inside [Music] so moving to the back of the van now we can talk about the murphy bed it's one of the key things that just brings the whole thing together and makes it as multi-functional as possible i really wanted something that could fold down over the counter top so it saves as much space i can use as much space when designing this i really wanted something that could go up and down in less than 30 seconds i've stayed in the the table that converts into a bed and it just stayed in bed the whole time so having this go up and down really quick which is really key to me so this just folds down right over the counter bed folds down and comes out and pillows and blankets are just right in there at in the morning it takes less than 30 seconds to bring back up i just have this handle right here on a pulley system pulls that up pushes that over and then it folds back up below the murphy bed sits the brains of the operation the power of it everything that keeps this fan running right behind this panel is my electrical system fully custom designed have never done anything like this before my life but i decided to go big with it so the power of this is two batteries that i got salvaged from a tesla model s so that gives me just about a thousand amp hours of lithium power connected to that is three ways of charging the typical solar um the typical solar of 750 watts i have the alternator charger and i also have a shore power and inverter combo yeah most products you see here are from victron the biggest downside to using tesla battery modules is if they die you can't revive them so it's just a big waste of money if they completely die so i have a couple fail-safes in place so that doesn't happen and then if tesla's overcharged and light on fire the fire is too hot for the fire department to put out so they just let it burn so i have two fail safe so it doesn't undercharge and i have about three fails safe so it doesn't overcharge just to make the system as safe as possible other than those weird caveats this thing has been a dream it does the whole system is mostly 24 volt with some 12 volt converters in there as well as my 120 volt ac inverter it is a 3000 watt inverter charger in in my control panel is the shunt so that's for my battery monitor and then this one's actually a bunch of little shunts this module right here which also connects to my battery monitor has three shunts or sorry four shunts as well as four analog monitors so the four shunts just tell me what is pulling the most power out of the four things i put in there and the analog monitors can tell me how much water i have left in my tank or propane if i ever went that route i can put a monitor on that as well another benefit of the tesla battery modules is their form factor so i have two right sitting right up here at the top separated by a heating pad the batteries are about two and a half inches tall by 24 inches long by 15 inches deep so they're a really strange form factor that you can just stack them right on top of each other and be completely safe without having these massive batteries that take up this whole section that was just really killer and space saving all that connects to so my batteries connect to two bus bars which connects to two inline fuses as well as my fuse box inverter and charger and my solar panels on the roof so over here is just my master power control system i have my wii boost right over here for just extra signal right next to that is my verizon hotspot and i thankfully got the old 4g verizon grandfathered program so i can use as many gigs as i want it never throttles or never slows down right next to that is my carbon monoxide sensor so super convenient to have webasto heater is right below that my inverter switch a lot of people always have it on but it just kills your power and then right next to it is called the simmering pico it's my battery monitor it also doubles as i can check my battery status i can check what's pulling the most power it can also check how much water i have left so i have 46 or 13.9 gallons left of water and all of that without ever actually having to open up panels and looking at the system with the back doors open there is a lot more storage that you can actually access from the back on the actual doors i never really saw people use their doors for storage so that was one of the key things that i wanted to do so on the roof back above me i can get up there with my telescoping ladder i have an axe at the bottom as well as my hammock and on this door i couldn't fit my boosted board so i actually cut in little sections so that i could fit the boosted board in there so whenever i need to go into town i can just take that out and go instead of taking down camp and running into town i can just use that as well as the the medicine cabinet that you saw before down here is just some more extra storage so as soon as i got a corgi i knew that i needed a vacuum so dyson has been incredible for that right by there is my hiking gear so i have the tracking poles in my my hydro flask and anything i need for that on this side i have a scale a little bit more electrical stuff my hoses back there and then just a box for some extra shoes i didn't realize how many outdoor sports i would get into until i didn't have the space for them so going into that having the murphy bed instead of the garage space i decided to build a custom roof rack that holds my uh inflatable paddle board it holds winter gear it holds my skydiving gear anything that i need that uh i don't need every single day it goes up there it's very convenient to have it is on struts so that even though there's a solar panel and deck up there it can basically open by itself so i don't have to struggle up on the ladder i have light bars in the front and the back so that it's just helpful for parking at night on back dirt roads or wherever i need to go um before i did mention the shower so the shower situation is just this right here it's just a shower hose connected to the faucet and this can just hook right onto my mirrors and attach and i can take a shower with that right there one thing i've been trying to get into i call myself a wannabe climber i'm not very good at it but i do have this hang board right here so there's never a good spot to put it so i welded some brackets on the back of it so that i can put them right up there and hang on that and then put it away when i don't need it instead of having it there all the time hitting my head on it one of the weirdest things about my van is one of the ways that i can lock and unlock it so i can unlock and lock my van with an rfid chip in my hand so all i have to do is scan under there and wait for it to beep and then press a button and the van is locked then i can scan it again press a button and the van unlocks when all of our friends are going hiking rafting everyone's like hey let's go hide our keys i just head to the trailhead or start getting my gear ready and just heading out super convenient definitely a weird thing to have i've seen it done on houses and stuff like that but being able to build it into the locking mechanism of the band through the mirror is very helpful so there are three buttons under here but nothing happens to them unless you scan the correct rfid chip which is the only one in my hand so if anyone came under here and started playing with the buttons nothing would happen until i was actually there to scan it and then let it open up what makes all this even weirder is the place you buy these chips is called dangerousthings.com and as soon as i tell people that they're like this is just not real anymore so i tried to leave that to the end but yeah it's it's definitely kind of it's definitely kind of a weird thing but also super convenient for me and kind of a cool conversation piece to anyone who actually wants to check out the van [Music] if anyone's really looking into getting an event life one of the biggest things i can say is van life is exactly what you want it to be it's not defined by the social media like content creators if you want to hang out in walmart parking lots for the rest of your life go for it if you never want to touch one in your life i have been on the road for a year and a half and i've never stayed in a commercial parking lot van life is honestly one of the most freeing things i've ever done because there are so many things you can do with it you have no real massive bills it's very easy to get into a little harder to get out of um but there's such a lack of judgment between people who live in vans that you are just accepted no matter what you do whether you are introverted extroverted weird nerdy like me like you can make van life exactly what you want it to be and yeah it does take a little bit of work but what doesn't it is probably one of the best lifestyles you can ever get into [Music] you

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 1,461,061

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house movement, tiny home, small house, small spaces, small house design, alternative living, architecture, affordable home, off the grid, small space living, tiny house life, diy tiny house, diy home, van conversion, van life, van tour, sprinter conversion, tiny house tour, living in a van, digital nomad, tiny homes, van conversion camper, van life build, living in a van life, van life vlog, rv life

Id: Ehd2jApxaq4

Length: 29min 59sec (1799 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022