Camper Van Conversion Build for under 4k: Living in a Ford Econoline

[Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] hey guys chase back again and i'm excited to do a little van tour so a lot of you guys have probably seen my car set up and i've used that a ton in the last year but uh i've kind of always wanted the van and i dreamed about it for you know quite a long time and part of the reason why i built the car out was because i just wasn't in a position to get a van and so i'd been kind of stalling waiting waiting and then finally here about five months ago i ended up saying screw it you know i'm gonna pull the trigger on a van i found a pretty inexpensive van and uh bought it it was a passenger setup you know dirty old nothing nothing special i kind of had a whole like checklist in my mind i think a lot of people do of like you know brand new sprinter four wheel drive um high roof all the cool stuff but i didn't want to wait much longer and so i ended up just going with the cheaper option i figured it'd be a good um go around to get some practice with the build and then you know put it to use gain some skills in the building process and then you know maybe learn a little bit about what i do and don't like and then sell it once i was done so here it is got this thing i actually bought it about five months ago and my intention was to build it out this coming summer and so i was just sitting in my driveway for a while and then um long story short i'd thought about renting out my house and then ended up doing it much much sooner than i expected and so i kind of had a you know crammed like ended up building this whole thing out in three weeks while also working and so i wasn't able to get a lot of footage of the build process unfortunately but i have a little bit and maybe i'll throw together something um if i have enough to to kind of show the build process but anyways here it is it's quick yo built it out in about three weeks super simple and then i have now been living in it full time for um well next weekend will be three months and um still working been doing a lot of boondocking sadie and i are getting ready for our wedding next weekend and so it's been just a lot of uh work and then preparation there and trying to get things squared away so it's it's really just been a solid home base for me um you know don't have to mow a yard do you know all the house stuff right now since i'm living in that thing so just been working doing that and uh enjoying myself and then here in about a week sadie and i will be in it full-time well this in the car will kind of be bouncing back and forth depending on the trip i'd imagine long trips will be into the car shorter trips around you know when we're around home and i'm at work we'll be being this thing so let's uh take a look okay let's talk about the van actually let's talk about that thing uh got a new pup well actually sadie's parents got it and so it'll be our our friend whenever we're in town i think she's a little upset right now we we locked her inside so she doesn't run away when we're shooting this but uh yeah so that'll be that'll be a part of a lot of our adventures from now on and yeah van wyck this thing is a 2009 econoline e150 i bought it with about 160 000 miles a little bit higher and unfortunately pretty much immediately i had some mechanical issues that i ended up having to chase down had some friends fortunately who've helped me a bunch with that which has been awesome that was part of the reason i got this thing too is i've always been fairly fortunate with the vehicles that i've had and that i haven't had to do a ton of repair work and so i think i'm a little bit deficient there and so this was kind of a way to you know bring that on and it happened a little sooner than i expected but anyways up and running now and learned a little bit in the process so it's uh econoline it has a the 4.6 v8 which is not fast but it's okay i come from a subaru anyways and then um let's see we can go around back so it's a passenger version it's two wheel drive and that's rear wheels so not awesome for snow but came with a set of studded snow tires actually so that'll be nice and it also came with some sweet body work needs um there's some good scrapes on the side and whatnot but it's not a beauty queen so i didn't expect it to be perfect so i'll show you the back first and then we'll kind of go into the front so back here we've got oh hey dude don't jump off stay up there this is the back side of the bed right here and i've got storage kind of sliding in underneath the bed itself i thought about putting drawers in maybe i will eventually i don't know but for right now it actually works pretty well over here i've got like a just a loose bin where i put boots shoes extra stuff there and then in this middle section i've got this bin which you might recognize this this is what i um bring in my car as well and so my thought was i just kind of swapped my like essential year i guess you know the like camp chairs and table and jetboil and um medical kit all that type of stuff so this is kind of the bulk no no don't jump down here hey let's go ahead there good doggie no careful um and yeah so this is kind of all the essentials that i take with me on top of what's like in my backpacking bag you are flirting with the edge homie and then up here underneath if you kind of look in here it tunnels quite a ways back and i've got a spare backpack there and then a sandbag in case i want to work out while i'm out um on the road or camping or whatever so that's pretty much it for that side then over here it's the same type of compartment and i just keep you know some camera gear here climbing gear um toolbox for now until i ensure this thing is up and running just fine and then over on the side because it's the passenger version of the van it has a built-in ac and heater blower unit back here and so that's actually kind of nice because it it blows air i have it blowing air straight up right here and so i threw some hooks in on the back here to where i can you know maybe hang up some some wet shirts or hats or whatever and then the air will kind of blow that around so okay buddy we're going to shut this back up before you jump out all righty yeah let's shoot around to the side now good look out mommy okay we go inside now got the hey hello okay you can you can run free good jump normally i leave this door shut and this is kind of a storage area back here but i'll open it for now make sure nothing falls out so it's not too bright so i kind of store my shoes right there some crocs the essentials and then inside i got my uh flooring it's just standard um you know house house flooring picked up from home depot put that in then put some nice like stair step edging down made it melt nice with the uh existing step and so that was uh convenient and then this was all seats back here had uh two rows of seats so i pulled those things out ended up having to do a bunch of cleaning work on the base to get it all rust free and painted over and then i put down i put down some insulation and then some plywood and then the flooring on top of that and cut the old carpet off right there and so it kind of goes nicely into the carpet up front and that was it for the floor and it's the floor is the only straight thing in this entire van um as far as the build is concerned and that so that wasn't bad to make but everything else just felt like i was like carving things in order to make it fit to the walls and and whatnot but i think it turned out pretty good so come on in the front door so right here is the kitchenette area i've got my little sink here it's just a hand pump faucet and the goal with this whole van was to build it as simply as possible i guess to where i kind of had the minimum amenities but also you know low low maintenance and and also inexpensive and so i kind of went with you know the cheaper more manual options for the most part and yes that's the sink got a nice cool little um brass or copper whatever that is um sink looks sweet and then got our candle that will set out there and then our nice little decoration area make it feel like home hopefully these don't fall off and explode then i store my camera bag up here this is just my backpack and i keep my all my camera gear and my laptop in here and then that stays right there and i'll usually take that with me wherever i go since that's all the expensive stuff i have in here then under the sink i've got a little soft cooler this is just food storage and then beyond that i've got a little this is my cooking pan for my uh stove i also have a camp stove in the back like a two burner stove i don't use it very much in fact i haven't used it like at all but that's a pan for that then this is my water system here and so if you come look up under there i've got a six gallon water jug here and it's strapped in to keep it from going crazy and i'll show you how it's tied in so i've just got um some hose here going into the top cut a hole in the top and then i couldn't figure out a way to get the hose to go to the bottom and you know so that it sucks all the water before it starts sucking air without you know it kind of curving back up and so what i finally came up with was uh this is the spout that comes with the the jug itself for pouring but i found this little uh this piece i've never messed with well really any plumbing before but this is a toilet component somewhere back in the tank they use this bought it new from home depot so that is what i use and it's about perfect length it reaches right down to the bottom and so i get pretty much all the water out of this jug before it starts sucking air and once it's empty just pull it out bring it in to house store wherever and fill it back up with water and that'll last me i don't even know about a week i pretty much only use it for you know drinking water coffee and brush my teeth that straps back in there do that later and then as far as gray water goes i want to keep it super simple for the most part the water that comes out of here pretty much always goes into either a bottle for drinking or else a cup for you know making coffee or something and then if i am washing something i'll usually just try to throw it out the door um and so because of that i didn't need much gray water space and so i just did this little this little tiny jug here so i did this flex hose tubing not sure what it's called into a little chunk of pvc and that just slips into a hole that i cut into that jug and so when it gets full i just pull this thing out and then i lift this up right here and slide this thing out and then i can just pour this thing on the ground and this is probably only i don't know two gallons don't need much though i haven't even filled it up yet so that is that is a water system and i keep a cutting board there really simple then i also forgot to mention i've got a fire extinguisher up here behind the seat that is just bolted onto the front of this cabinet system so then i got a little pull out tabletop for working on eating and drawers with all of the main essentials got my coffee grinder aeropress all the good stuff some bowls and some cups back there and yeah just a bunch of utensils in there and then down here i've got a bunch of different bars and snacks and whatnot and then my little hot water kettle expandable i use this pretty much every single day to make coffee so collapses down and lives in there and then and then i've got my um well i'll finish showing you the storage in the bed and then show you the kind of the simple electrical that i have these are soft closed drawers too so i didn't want to have to put latches on and i was trying to figure out a way to do that and so what i did was i got um drawer slides that are the soft closed style and so they have kind of like a back tensioner to where they kind of pull the the drawer in the last little bit it goes and so when i set them i put them a little bit too far in to where they can never fully close and that forces tension onto the drawer and so it's kind of sucked in like that and i haven't had any issues yet you know with them coming open because there's that little tension there and then once you break that it's nice so that was my way of getting around having to put latches on on those so back here i've got uh my battery bank and i'll talk about the electrical in a second got a little storage compartment down here and that's where i keep a lot of my other camera gear that i don't need often just lives down in there and then right here i've got my seat this is a nice little addition i actually use that quite a bit just for making coffee and whatnot and under this i have all of my clothes storage and so this yeah all my clothes go in here and this actually goes about another foot beyond this wall underneath there and this bottom piece right here is a big bin and so that can slide completely out and i can set that you know up on the table or outside or on a chair or something and then it it leaves a big platform so there's about a seven foot long platform right here then that somebody could put their feet in there and their head up here if i was going out with a buddy or somebody else you know tall or we just had a third person for some reason so got a third sleeping spot in an econo line which i was pretty happy about so that's that's my clothes storage and then over here i've got my uh overhead cabinets just have a sleeping bag in here this is where all sadie's clothes will go we're gonna see if she can take on the challenge of fitting all of her clothes up in here i mean i think she can do it we'll see and under the bed here we've got some more storage so i just kind of keep water bottles bags and then i have a ton of dehydrated meals in here because well backpacking and if i'm lazy just make those instead we like to to share those sometimes we'll do one of those with some tortillas or something and it's a good solid meal and it's actually not that expensive if you compare it to uh eating out so that's kind of the general overview got some hooks over here as far as the electrical system goes i wanted to keep it very simple just because um one i have zero electrical experience and so i didn't want to hire somebody and i was time compressed so i just want to keep it simple so what i ended up going with was you might have seen my other videos i have the smaller jackery battery um and i have loved that in my car it charged when i drive and then i use it to charge all my camera gear my phone stuff like that at night and it's been awesome i've used that for the last year about now and so i ended up getting a um the biggest well at the time the biggest it's the 1000 battery because it has the inverter inside of it and it has a ton of outlets and it'll do up to um a thousand watts at 110 volt and it has three outlets to do that and so that's been that's been awesome i use my my water kettle every single morning plugging into that i'm able to make coffee and i also have usbc and just standard usb 3.0 outlets there and then the 12-volt outlet and so the way i have this set up is it is um this thing is sufficient to manage whatever i need to do for about i'd say about four days and that's about perfect because that's you know usually the the longer extent of my my trips right now at least between you know work and so that's great so i don't actually even charge this um on a daily basis i can just um you know run it for when i'm out and about and then when it does run low i have three ways of charging it the first is off of a 12 volt from the van itself and so i have an outlet right back here and i have a charger lined back into this box and so that can plug right in and then i can charge off of the vans battery when i'm driving or when i'm stopped and so that'll help recharge this or i can plug in a just a standard wall outlet and plug this into you know an outlet at a coffee shop or at work or whatever and then the third way is using solar panels and i've got two of their 100 watt fold-out solar panels this has been awesome they're they're temporary ones so they live inside i don't use them that often but if i'm going to be at like a coffee shop for a long time and i'm running low or else at work or whatever i can just toss them out on top of the van or beside the van and then it'll you know feed this thing and fill it fill it back up and yeah so that's how i can recharge it and this the system that i'm using is um pretty much i've got this 112 volt outlet it goes into a little call it a junction box here it's just a you know splitter and then it goes up to a fuse box i've got a light switch here it's a twist knob dimmers i've got my led lights on both sides front and back and then also have this rv fan set up in it and so i can you know turn it on from right here in this fan it's the max fan something i'll put a link to i'll put a link to everything that i can in the description but this fan has a built-in um uh it's not like it's kind of a thermostat it's a 78 degree hold so anytime it gets above 78 degrees it'll kick on and bring it back down and then turn itself off when it gets there you can't adjust that temperature but it has that and then it also has a rain sensor so if you do leave it open running and it starts to rain it'll sense that and close itself turn itself off and then it also has a the ability to reverse the the fan direction and so with this van being a passenger one the the windows on the side can flip open and so depending on what i need i can you know have it either you know suck air out the top or else blow it blow it in and then out you know other outlets in the van and yes that is that has been very necessary since i don't have like onboard ac when the cars or the van's not running and um it's also dark color so it gets really hot in the sun without that so that's that and then i also have the 12-volt outlet here or sorry refrigerator over here and i just got this a few weeks ago i thought i was going to use a cooler and i did that for about i don't even know it wasn't it wasn't that long before i realized that i did not want to deal with ice in day to day life over and over and the moisture that comes and you know wet cardboard boxes food whatever and so i end up getting this ice co i forgot the model i think it's about 40 liters i can look that up and link it as well and it has been awesome addition it plugs in over here as well runs off of 12 volt very low um output so i i turned it on this morning and it was warm i brought it down you know when i got off work brought it down to 39 degrees i don't know what you're supposed to keep a refrigerator out but that's what i've been doing and when it fires up the compressor i think it draws like 40 watts and right now it's reading at two and yeah so very low output and it just holds and flips open and then inside if you've got you know a little room for food and drinks and this back here is a little uh yeah nice cool cool area so this has been nice i'm excited to put this through the paces it'll yeah it's just nice to have dry food when i'm out and not have to worry about ice melting and all the water and condensation everything making a big mess so that's the simple overview i might i'm going to do another video a little bit more in depth on the specifics of this setup so if you want to watch that i'll uh once i get it done i'll link it here and um one thing i forgot to mention is the curtains up front and so for the um to keep light out because i've been in town a lot recently just in like subdivisions at the gym um you know just trying to work during the day and then and then uh sleeping here on my on my days off and so i put these uh curtains up and they're just on paracord i got these little uh eye bolts that i screwed in two on each side and then one in the middle since it's kind of con or uh convex and so i want to bring it up and so these curtains come out to here got one on both sides and that blocks it out nice and then i took them all down because we're out here and it looks or it's a lot nicer without them in but i have reflectix in all of the windows and so well i guess i can show you one of them it's the same thing that i've used in my car it's a little um audio cut out there so same thing i've got in my car and oh this thing just cooked on so the refrigerator will it'll kind of sleep when it's at its temperature and then when it you know i think raises up a little bit the compressor will turn on cool it back down and it is extremely quiet i've never had a refrigerator other than my house before but this thing is like really quiet that was one of the things i read in the reviews um also so that's pretty nice and then yeah strong 52 watts right now at uh while it's cooling itself down and that's in max mode so i think eco will do a little slower slower dry even but anyways the window coverings i'll show you how this one goes into the window it uh cut a mole so that they're just slightly bigger than the opening in the window and let's see this goes like that and just kind of set it in and then it stays in place pretty well and it uh blocks out pretty much all the light keeps you know gives you a good privacy and then it also is really good at protecting from radiant heat you know from the sun keeping it a little bit cooler inside and then i guess a little bit warmer in the winter as well so that's the vantour if you have any other questions or anything else you want to see let me know this was yeah it was a fun build it was a bit frustrating at times just because of the uh the challenge of all the curves and whatnot but i had i had fun and i was lucky to have some friends who who had some good input on the you know on the build itself and then especially repairing the van when it broke down on me a couple times and so um yeah it's been awesome i'm sure you'll see a little bit more of this in the future but uh the car will not be going away so don't worry about that and you'll also see some more of uh this little guy too huh what you doing you bored yeah see some more of her [Laughter] anyways thanks for watching catch you on the next one [Music] kittens [Music] do [Music]

Channel: Chase Christopher

Views: 733,901

Keywords: van life, camper conversion, ford econoline, e150, van build, camping, hiking, conversion, iceco, jackery, solar, travel, living in a van, digital nomad

Id: B7mzaa0Cb6E

Length: 25min 40sec (1540 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021