MAXED OUT MICRO CAMPER VAN | FULL TOUR! - 2012 Ford Transit Connect

hey everybody my name is josh and today i do that every time hey everybody my name is josh and today i'm going to give you a tour of this 2012 ford transit connect camper van a few things i want to mention before we get started is if you're interested in a build like this i'll have my website linked below there you can get all the information you need as far as getting in contact with me booking dates and so on as well as links to a bunch of the products that you're going to see throughout the tour this build was designed to the clients requests and so we worked together to come up with a design that they're happy with and that's about it now i'm going to jump behind the camera and we'll get going on this tour like always we'll start on the outside and work our way in you'll notice up top we have two 100 watt solar panels as well as a max air fan coming around to the driver's side you'll see a shore power plug and we'll touch on that more in just a little bit jumping back around to the passenger side we'll start up front in the cab area brighten this up in here is a platform that i designed to fill up the i don't know surface area of the passenger seat providing a couple more options for storage i'll set the camera on a tripod real fast and show you how this thing works hopefully this isn't too painful to watch but it is actually a pretty simple installation and removal process if you're going to pull the platform out start by pulling the lever to recline the seat back a little bit and then it's as simple as lifting on the back part here and pulling the panel outwards the leg down there is on a hinge and that will just fold up as you pull the platform out and installation is just as easy just start by holding the back end up lining up this front corner there's a little notch in the platform that rests on the center part of the dash and then you just let go of the front push down on the back come down here grab that leg that's on a hinge and slide it into place the last thing i do is grab that lever again and recline the seat forward just a little bit and that really pinches everything into place once you close the door the panel can't slide outward and so everything's locked in moving on from that platform the last thing up in the cab is just this cell phone mount and holder now i didn't make this product there'll be a link in the description but there's two parts there's a mount and that's custom fit to the dash and then there's a holder that holds like your device or your cell phone this is a universal holder you just press a button down here the wings pop open or arms toss your phone in locks it into place there's also a magnetic holder that lets you just stick your phone right to the magnet on the mount now we can take a peek in the back one thing i forgot to mention is that the cushions for the bed have not been delivered yet but i wanted to get this tour filmed while it was nice out so we'll start over here on the right up top if you've seen any of the builds i've done in the past this is a pretty common cabinet that gets installed it utilizes the factory shelf that comes in these vans right up here and essentially just extends it forward and so this just flips up there's a little strut in the corner that helps keep the door open and then there's a pressure switch that triggers a light to come on when you open the bin so that you can see what's going on in there and then when you close it hits the switch and light is off to divide the cab from the back of the camper as you can see there are some curtains and then the owner of the van actually already had some custom made panels or inserts that will cover the rest of the windows in the back down here on the right is supposed to be a nightstand the cushion that sits over this bin ends right up against this lip here and so then this would kind of serve as a little nightstand stored within this little cabinet is actually a toilet um and it is designed for you know emergency use and so this is just a removable panel it just clicks out and then the toilet slides out this is a tight squeeze then you push all the way back and the lid will open and you can do your thing keep the door closed keep it open have a nature pool whatever close up slides back forward just lift it up into the bin there's felt pads on the bottom to try to keep it from scratching the floor at all but that slides all the way into the cabinet take the door there's a little lip rested on there and then it clicks into place it's a little bit of an unusual design but it was uh quite the challenge to try to fit this in there on the left here we just have a flip up table giving you a little bit more counter space and then to the left of that is your on and off switch for your led lights one press turns them on if you hold it it'll dim them if you release and hold it again it will dim them back up and off moving into the van this bin here like i mentioned is actually covered by a cushion so there's a little low profile leather tab here they'll just kind of get flattened when the cushion's in place but that's your pull to open the door and on the left you'll see the 100 amp hour lithium battery and on the right here this is just a general storage bin that's the extension cord for the shore power that i mentioned earlier and we'll close that up right over here you'll see there's a 12 volt accessory plug and then this is actually the on off for the inverter unfortunately is the ugliest on off switch i've uh seen in a while so i tried to tuck it away in a corner that isn't as noticeable now i'll crawl out of here and we'll open up the back doors and go from there so now i'll pop the doors open and you'll get a good look at the overall aesthetic we're really going for a light and bright theme here we'll start on the left here and we'll walk through the bed design climbing up into the front here these are all just general storage bins nothing too fancy just all on soft close drawer guides got a little funky shaped one here trying to make use of a little bit extra storage with that wheel well and then those all just close up and keep shot and this back drawer pull is actually a pullout table this is mounted on 250 pound 36 inch drawer guides plenty strong really just a cool addition to be able to cook outside if you want to or just have some extra counter space just slides back in and right below that there's a 110 outlet for any accessories or appliances that you want to use on that table and now onto the bed i'm going to climb inside and go over how the bed works so this bed was designed to be a legless bed and it's actually mounted on 500 pound drawer guides just pulls out slides all the way over and as painful as this might be to watch you can easily climb onto it it's going to support the weight plenty strong it ends up giving you right around 34 inches of width for your total bed area when you're done using it slides back in there's little ball catches that click into place to keep it from sliding open when you're driving down the road oh forgot to turn that off i think overall it's a pretty clean design it really is nice to not have to fight any legs and it keeps you from having too much wood on wood contact because when you make a pull out bed with all wood there tends to be a lot of friction and it can jam up really easily using these guides it really makes it for a much smoother operation it's as easy as just using one hand when the bed is pulled all the way out and cushions and everything are in place as well as weight the bed won't close on itself in the middle of the night when you're sleeping and the last thing on the left side is kind of like a half wall or a small shelf here that goes the whole length of the van and then down below here inside this older body transit connect your access to change your tail lights and whatnot are inside and so this panel pops out and you can see right there unscrew the thumb screws and then you can change out tail lights or blinkers or whatever and then this is actually the 110 that is connected to the inverter and so basically making that just a little extension cord allowing you to unanchor the bed from the floor you could disconnect the outlet and then you could pull the whole bed frame out and you know have more floor space for storage so this panel just clicks back in again with a four inch mattress here you won't see that little thumb hole but you would see that dividing line but it was worth it to be able to get to the taillights now we will move over to the right side here and we'll start up top i was able to sneak in one more little storage cubby just a door that flips down it's a pretty small little cubby but gives you a little bit of overhead storage um it's on soft closed door hinges and so you can get it to a certain point and it will uh shut on its own and then right over here is another on off switch it actually flips on a little led strip to give you a little bit more light on your kind of kitchen counter area then of course there's a little 110 outlet on the left and small sink with a faucet going this route allows you to avoid having any sort of like a hand pump or foot pump faucet you just have running water there's a loud water pump but it is what it is one cool feature of going this route in faucet choice was to double as a shower and i'll set that up here now there's a little magnet hook here push that door shut stick that up there so if you do want to use the kind of outdoor shower option you just reach through here pull the gooseneck of the hose and then utilizing that little clip you can kind of position the faucet in whichever fashion you want there's a button on the end of the faucet that gives you kind of like the sprayer option so if you click that you have an outdoor shower kind of nice if you need to rinse off or or you know do any business outside just kind of a cool addition to using a faucet like that one stepping back inside here you can go through a couple of the drawers um this is just designed for like utensils and whatnot a bunch of the manuals from all the goodies in the van the second one is just a large storage drawer the owner has several pots and pans that they wanted to bring with and so it was kind of designed to fit those then the final one down here is actually a fridge this is a pretty tight squeeze to open the the fridge there's a latch you click here this fridge actually has both fridge and freezer options it's a very clean design and i think it goes well with the overall design of the van one thing i forgot to point out is i was able to sneak a little storage cubby in the door um just uses a little leather strap to keep some stuff from falling out the last little thing here on the end of the cabinet is the on off switch for the water pump on the end of the cabinet here is just a door that swings open to give you access to your fresh water and your grey water these are six gallons each the fresh water is on a disconnect so you click and pull the hose up and it seals itself so no water is going to come flying out when you need to refill and then just clicks back on and you're good to go the gray water here just goes from a little rv drain and it's nothing fancy just a hose that sticks into the tank when you want to empty the gray water tank you can pull the hose and you can you can rotate it up out of the way and then you can pull your tank out there are several stops in there to kind of secure the the jugs from moving forward or left and right too much and then again that's on soft close uh door hinges and the last little thing is another little storage cubby i could sneak into the back door here same little leather strap to keep anything really from hopefully falling out and before i forget we can take a look at the ceiling you can see the led lights as well as the max air fan this fan is both intake and exhaust another thing i almost forgot was there is some accent led lighting up in that corner there's a switch just like the on off switch to the overhead lights that we saw right in the beginning right over by the bed and now finally we'll go through the electrical setup which is up over by that driver's side slider door by creating that half wall that i kind of mentioned earlier it gave me a good place to store the electrical now you saw the battery earlier in that large storage bin to the right of it and i was able to get that storage bin by stuffing all the electrical over here really tried to make this design as kind of straightforward as possible for the owner of the vehicle really just locating things that they would need access to right up in front this is on off for the battery on off for the solar fuse for the inverter of course your 12 volt fuse panel charge controller for the solar and then this is a battery monitor you can connect an app and get a bunch of info on your whole system this does hinge forward just pops out and then you can have access to everything behind it and then it just clicks back into place down below i have another little leather thumb tab that's also a door and that's just hinged as well and that's going to reveal the inverter there's a dc to dc charger and that's going to allow you to charge your battery while you're driving down the road one more little fuse down here between the charger and the auxiliary battery as well as another one up by the starter battery and then you have your positive and negative bus bars this cabinet is not airtight there are several air gaps throughout just tried to make everything look as clean as possible i think that's just about everything hopefully i didn't miss anything in the van if i did let me know in the comments and i'll try to get back to as many people as i can and again if you are interested in the build my contact info will be below as well as product links to a bunch of the stuff that you saw in the build hopefully you enjoyed the video hit that good old thumbs up button if you liked it consider subscribing and i'll see you in the next video you

Channel: Josh Oakes

Views: 921,855

Keywords: van, life, living, travel, explore, just, man, with, josh, oakes, sony, a6300, gopro, hero, camping, camper, conversion, custom, diy, wander, fun, go, ford, transit, connect, xlt, 2012, 2010, 2011, 2013, briarwood, vans

Id: 3fAqZQMEODI

Length: 15min 45sec (945 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021