DIY 1999 Dodge Roadtrek Camper Van Renovation

hey I'm Janice and I'm Jesse and this is our tiny home which happens to be a 1999 Dodge Ram Road Trek band come on [Music] [Applause] hey welcome to the middle of our van aka the hallway the storage closet and the kitchen most fans actually do not have a microwave ours doesn't either we never have enough energy for that so we use it as bathroom storage like brushes tooth toothpaste all that good stuff it actually makes for a nice shelf because it doesn't pop open when we drive it's not a big space but we make it work one of the things that has really helped in this kitchen area because when I have two things cooking and things in the sink I only have this little space so I really like that there's this extra counter pull out on here and this is like utensil drawer um our fridge runs off of propane which is really nice we have an outside tank that we fill up about once a month and fuels our freezer and fridge which is really nice so when we first met our Nomad friends on the road I was really inspired because we just kind of had a blink slate and that was really looked like so homey so I wanted to decorate a little bit so we actually made this mural um on our fridge with an old calendar and cut out pictures this is all wallpaper I just bought some stick and peel wallpaper and cut it all to size that was a really easy way to add wallpaper to different spots of the van spices I know this is not a new thing but um you don't even have to buy the expensive magnetized glass jars I mean these are just like the dollar spices you can buy glued and nailed up to the top of this so it works great so I was really worried because I've always loved cooking I was worried about moving into a van with such a small kitchen space and not an oven but it's actually been really great uh we I I just have so much more time being on the road we make great meals every single night um you'd assume that we just see like Ramen and sandwiches all the time but I mean we last night had tamales and Spanish rice and we made curries all the time and it's it's been really fun to have this extra time and you really can do so much just with a stove this also is a new to many tiny homes but hooks are such a great uh helper this is where we put a lot of like our potatoes and veggies and fruits and then we have our closets it's pretty chaotic we built these shelves ourselves this is like the first modification we made in the van originally there was actually a toilet in here and a shower like you could shower in here um but I I really have liked all the extra space we've had we we put all of our camping gear in here uh hobby stuff instruments propane there's so much that we have in here and these closet doors are also really nice because they open up and you can close off the space from both sides so that's been a really nice Beach sure to be able to close off the van from different areas so before we moved into the van we were living in a house and obviously had quite a few things our parents are willing to store a few boxes for us which is really nice but we got rid of almost everything and at first it was really scary I had a really hard time with my clothes in the beginning because I would wear all my clothes often but the more we started to get rid of things the more easy it became like I have you know so many less attachments to things like the things we do have really bring us joy we have um an extra focus on a lot of hobby things and instruments and painting supplies and just sports equipment just things that make us happy [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] what kind of made us want to go into van life and start traveling around nomadically is we kind of kind of an enlightening experience one time we were actually saving up to buy a house and we totally shifted gears one day and decided to start looking for a van and it has been the best decision ever it's completely aligned with who we are and we've grown so much from it and this just fits our lifestyle so much better and and also we were camping one time and I saw a couple living out of their Volkswagen Bug and just like naked bathing in the river and I was working 40 hours a week at that time and I was like I want to quit my job and I want that life and it's been so great to have that life Welcome to a front area of our van yeah this van um it was originally built out to be a Weekender van for a family or so and there actually used to be four seats back here and we kept it like that for the longest time but then we realized it wasn't really really matching our needs and we just would end up putting junk on top of the seats didn't really matter to make modifications to the van we were kind of worried about it at first but after that we just decided you know it's it's our van we can do what we want with it this mural back here I drew um still in the process of drawing it it's not quite finished yeah just it's nice once you realize you can just customize it how you want this is where our rotating seats they rotate a whole 180 degrees our passenger seat does at least and super nice because we can host multiple people in here we used to have two seats back here that came stock in the van but we ripped them both out we put a bench in and underneath the bench we have water jugs and our shoe storage and our motorcycle helmets as well we have 12 gallons of water that we store underneath our bench usually 12 gallons of water will last us a few days maybe maybe a week or so which I don't know might be bad I'm not sure we should probably should be drinking more water but okay so as we have Nova with us or our van cat we have her food and water that we put here right underneath the bookshelf and underneath here where there's a door is her litter box area where we just stored her litter and her litter box and she can just walk in and out and it's actually quite perfect setup we never smell it and super easy to clean up because we installed hinges where we can lift it up and take it easily in and out of the um the Box our power bank is a rich solar power bank it holds about I believe it's 500 watts and we have a panel that we actually store underneath the bed that we plug it into so we take the panel out put it wherever it's sunny run the cables into the van to the power bank and usually it's about eight hours of being in the summer light before we're fully charged and a full charge will last us a while it's kind of like our backup battery or we don't use it too often only if we don't get enough sun on our panel above our van so we have two power sources we have the 100 watt on the top and then we have the other 100 watt underneath the bed these windows um they're fantastic we really enjoy them because on Starry Dark Nights we can look out in stargaze inside our van without having to get out in the cold they also kind of allow you to like peek out through them without disturbing your curtains or anything and they are kind of a downside as well because as their angled glass windows on hot days like today when the sun comes through it can get pretty hot so we usually have to cover them up with reflectix foil or anything else we have [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you um I'd say like the biggest con is with how heavy our van is it doesn't get the best mileage I think with the bike on the back it's like maybe 11 miles to the gallon so not the greatest yeah another car is it's just it's not the most convenient lifestyle somebody told us once the convenience is death so I kind of like that better it's you know it's not convenient having to pull out your shirt bag to pull out your pants bag to pick out your pants for the day and some things are a few extra steps but the little bit of inconvenience is yeah we'll go over the pros in a bit but it's so worth it yeah Pros um just being able to choose where you want to spend the night and just how long you want to spend somewhere it's entirely up to you it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book honestly some might not see it as a pro but like realizing you have like finite resources like water and food um it definitely makes you appreciate it more when you do have it and when you can find Like Water for free at Phillips like that's it's really cool I feel like I I would say that's a pro yeah that's Superman Pro I'd have to say like my absolute favorite part of living this lifestyle is going on a hike and coming back and you're tired or if you go shopping you know Walmart can be exhausting sometimes but you can come back and immediately you're home you can make a snack you can lay in bed you can take a nap just home is anywhere it's not like you have to get back to your car and then leave oh you can just reset wherever I guess yeah okay so back here is our bed area we have a mattress topper and underneath that we have four separate cushions that we can individually lift up that's how we get to our garage area or under the bed area that's where we have our solar panels stored at as well as our paddle board and our rug that we keep outside where I'm at up here is Nova's living area there actually used to be an AC unit that was pre-built into this van um and one day we just decided it was way too heavy way too bulky we could use the space for something else so we ripped it out and we put a bed up there and made it Nova's little area and she absolutely loves it like it's her go-to spot just where she won't be disturbed so um yeah we absolutely don't regret removing the AC unit we never used it and it was too much of a power draw and so heavy um so yeah we generally tend to be places where we don't need AC we don't like being anywhere hot especially since we do have a cat we we definitely try to be in more moderate areas like higher elevation areas during the summer and like warmer areas during the winter like Arizona and up here are our two clothing bins where we keep just our bags of clothing stuffed very unorganized up there and we also have more clothing bags underneath our bed as well the windows are all crank open sideways which is really nice um it's kind of a perk but also a drawback at the same time having three Windows when we're parked somewhere beautiful and can have them up and have the view is amazing but also insulation isn't the best so on cold nights it can get pretty chilly so uh it's a give or take but I really like having all the windows around the bed yeah I feel like this lifestyle has really helped us grow into the people that we are now um when we first left we were busy people we had plans almost every single day of the week we were both working 40 hours we always had plans with friends or different things come up so when we left it was just so shocking it was just it was just us and we didn't know anybody in the areas we were at and we just had all this extra free time and at first it almost felt kind of boring and kind of lonely but it has been so great to slow our lives down and really just read a book or work on Hobbies I feel like we've also spent more time on like education like we we love watching educational shows and looking up at the stars every night watching sunsets it's like it's a slower lifestyle um but like so incredible that we have all this extra time to do the things we love to do and spend time with each other yeah yeah I add to that honestly like the amount of extra time you have not dedicating most of your time to working it really allows you to see what you really like doing and you it's not like you're forced to do it but now that you realize you can do it you start doing it more often which is really cool um and I feel like that allows you to grow as a person um and also just like not yeah not having schedules as well um is really nice just going with the flow that was something that like we we kind of took our first year pretty fast in the van um and just going up the west coast and realizing like the less we schedule and have deadlines the more slow and laid back and better life is and I feel like it's made me more Mindful and as a person and I love it welcome to the outside of our van we don't always live in our van we like to say we like to live out of our van um while we do spend a lot of the time inside every day we spend hours out here which is the whole reason why we decided to live in Advantage so that we could spend more time outside we recently got this beautiful mural done by Chelsea Nielsen she does murals and it was her first one on a vehicle but it looks incredible and we're so in love with it because before we just had the typical 90s swoosh on here it has been really cool to be here in Colorado with this mural because we've never spent so many times in mountains and right park next to rivers and lakes so it's been really cool to have our first experience here with this mural also having this awning has made a huge difference the awning we bought with the van and we weren't using it for the longest time at first we just thought it was like too hard to like pull out because if we had one one bad experience when it was windy but we've been using it so much and I would really recommend getting an awning because and a rug like this because it really just extends your space outside you don't just feel like you're camping you feel like you have a whole porch area which you can just walk outside barefoot I I would definitely recommend getting a rug if you can have the space because it helps a lot one of my favorite things about these roadtruck fans is that they came with this outdoor storage compartment which has been such a huge help because there's you know dirty things you want to put in the van and just bulky items we have like roller skates in here we put our leveling blocks in inner tubes things like that and it locks right up which has been really nice and this is our garage space back here so nice to have this door open when our dirt bike isn't on here have a nice view we prioritize the paddle board um that has been something really fun you know you can really make space for whatever Hobbies you want to have uh we also keep our extra solar panel just to charge up our extra generator battery pack that we have this is just if we sometimes we find sales on food and buying bulk and put extra peanut butter packs back here or whatever it may be and we have extra brake pads for when we need to change them out we just all the extra stuff that's a little bit more inconvenient to get is a good spot to put here um because it's really easy to pull up the mattress technically this could be a couch area I know a lot of people do like to transform their bed every day but we don't we've never actually even set it up like that just because we have so much stuff down here and because we have so much bedding so a recent addition that we added to the van and is a dirt bike rack and a dirt bike it's kind of nice to have as like a scouting vehicle almost some roads get real bumpy and we've been recommended them to go camping so we'll just take the bike off and go up the road and see if there's any free spots it's also really nice for going into town on trips for anything we might need when we don't want to put away camp thanks so much for watching our tour our Instagram handle is Warped van tour and if you want any of your graphic design or anything my personal art Instagram is in our bio as well thanks for watching thanks

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 39,136

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house england, tiny house uk, 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, tiny home uk, diy tiny house, diy home, van life, camper van, van conversion, van life build, off grid, living in a van, van build, tiny house tour, van life girl, camper van conversion

Id: th0jxy3hmJU

Length: 16min 25sec (985 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 06 2023