Scavenged Van Build! Ultimate DIY Cozy Cabin on Wheels!

and then just sunk into the ground mentally I was like done you know I thought I was waiting to die I started watching your videos and uh got to pass through door that is really really important yeah I really like it and it was an apartment door but my son cut it down to fit and yeah filled it and everything hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to meet uh Joe hi Joe hi and we're gonna see uh your really great box truck I love box trucks like you probably know my first vehicle I ever lived in was a box truck so I have a special place in my heart so uh Joe how did you end up living in a box truck well I had a a class a 1996 A-Class motorhome with a slide and uh a Saturn for two years and didn't go anywhere didn't do anything it was on my son's property and uh and were you living in it or yes yes living in it and well I was driving truck couldn't drive track anymore bought the motor home for a place to live because you know you don't maintain a house when you're out on the road uh bought the motorhome for a small amount you know I got lucky and then uh parked it and then just sunk into the ground mentally I was like done you know I thought I was waiting to die I started watching your videos and uh I don't have to do that I can do something different right I sold it and did that how long have you been in the box truck now well I lived in it while I was building it out so if I get to add all that on about nine months so we're here in quartzite and uh have you found friends and community amazing France um it's going to be hard to leave I I joined up with one of the Howa Caravans and a few of us clicked and we've just been putting around together ever since well Joel would be okay if we took a look around inside your box van I'm really excited to see it of course I'm really excited for you to see it all right folks let's go it's uh 1999 Chevy 3500 um it's I got it I got it for four thousand dollars plus a half finished canoe I wasn't done building my canoe but he wanted it for his son so he wanted seven thousand dollars for it oh wow yeah it was a cedar strip canoe but uh so I traded the canoe and 4500 for it it was a paint truck so it had racks of shelves across both sides in the back of the cabin um it's got too many miles on it but it still works so well that's a great thing about those old Chevys that 350 in there it'll run forever and when it comes time to replace it it's very very easy yeah and my son can do it yeah my son's genius I'll tell you you'll see it see him his picture but this is his baby I mean we worked on it together uh so wow you're right this is uh really beautiful thank you it I wanted a cabin look I wanted to look like it was home that's why I have all the pictures up and you know a few memorabilia um it feels like oh and that's my dad if you look at the picture on the end that's him and my uncle in 1985 out here in quartzite really yeah so you have a route here yeah my dad and him his uh my uncle used to come out here all the time uh from the 70s on they came out that little hump here is my diesel heater oh so that's the best first thing you know in the morning I've got my diesel heater and the vent is down here uh this tray comes off to fill it because the tank is here's in there too this tray just lifts off but everything else is underneath get a pass-through door that is really really important yeah I really like it and it was apartment door but my son cut it down to fit and yeah filled it and everything and it's dirty because it's a work truck right so it doesn't look good up there air conditioner TV uh plugs I've got one two three outlets for when I'm plugged into Shore power and then I've got uh 200 watts of solar 150 amp hour battery lithium and a generator down under there so do you have solar to go with your generator yeah I have uh 200 Watts on the Roof oh that's good and then I've got 150 amp hour battery down here and this kind of is hard to get to but my son built in a generator underneath in a box outside oh okay and then he ran the controls up into here so that I can start it and run it from inside the cab or inside here the choke and everything is up here right and then the plugs and stuff but the generator is outside oh the generators yeah it's completely outside but also my my controls and my charger and everything for the uh solar is in this little cupboard nice little seating area with storage yeah this was everything is scavenged this was a captain's bed you know those kids beds that have uh drawers underneath yes so I've got Foxy's little drawer for her stuff and then I've got literally more junk doors than any place you've probably ever viewed so I've got all that storage and then they only go back to here so this lifts up and there's my sewing machine Fabric and Costco closet toilet paper paper towels that kind of stuff right in these cabinets were uh there's three sets so there's these and those up there 40 bucks on offer up oh man this is kind of my coffee table so I can you know sit there and have a table my fridge I got it blocked off so the heat doesn't get right into it but it's all you know frigid yes it's mostly freezer this much of it is freezer there's a little fridge in the back but I use a lot of vegetables and meat instead of junk okay you know those people that plan for emergencies for the rest of their life yes I could probably live a year off this stuff I mean there's a plastic tub that goes all the way up to this Shelf full of oatmeal and beans and black beans especially they're good protein but all that stuff and canned foods up back here but I can live for a year off that stuff and I'm ashamed to say this stuff too well having food on hand is never anything you should be ashamed of well I I just I'm trying to stay out and not go to town right as long as possible that's how you save money yeah and then I've got well my spice rack this was a ladder from a bunk bed my kids bunk bed wow this was a vanity a bathroom vanity so it had big sinks in both ends uh and false fronts for the drawers so we built a drawer and my stove my cast iron all fits right in this door and so I can just set it up on the counter to use it this was my son's dresser my grandson's dresser sorry and it was a big tall dresser so we cut it in half framed around it and built a bed over it and that's what determined the height of my bed right was storage I have a little foot stool so I can get up onto it but having the high top you can still sit in there just fine oh I sit up yeah in fact I sit up there when I'm like watching which I haven't watched TV yet but when I was at home I did or when I was still at my son's house I did uh bar sink it's not big enough I will replace it when I can but this was 20 bucks so and this my son remodels Apartments so he brought this home it was free because it does that the only thing I bought for Aesthetics was the bead board um I wanted the bead board and then these little trim pieces are uh chopped up board you know that we just cut up for the trim board to hold up the bead board your basic drawers and I put these things in so that they wouldn't open and all the cupboards have them and stuff but so this is a shower yeah wow and this is this is an apartment door right back in here taken out of an apartment it was warped a little bit so they didn't want it anymore and he was remodeling it so and then this was from uh the this is flooring and it was the shower you could tell was just thrown together because I found a shower pan a 1967 camp trailer she was parting it out and turning it into a bedroom in her backyard and so uh I found a shower bin last minute and so we threw up the shower it works really good and I'm like so glad I have a shower yeah and this is a on-demand hot water heater 12 volt having a son who's a handyman really paid off here do anything yeah he really went all out to make it a beautiful home for me and you kept the roll-up door in I kept the roll-up door and that's why the even the shower is short and these cabinets are down right is so that I could roll up and down the door you know I have one of those romantic ideas that I'm going to be able to park on a beach somewhere and watch the sunset out the roll-up door from bed not that it's happened well he did a great job in here between the two of you and you have almost no money invested in this oh no no this was seventy dollars this these all three were forty dollars and the rest was okay the K the bed was on offer up for free and had a brand new mattress on it wow so my mattress is brand new she it was in the plastic she had it uh in a guest bedroom and she wanted to turn it into a sewing room and it never got used so I got a brand new mattress and everything for free and one of the great things about these box trucks you got a flat floor mostly yeah and you've got straight walls Square walls exactly yeah and you can put in House Furniture super well well if you look down here the that wheel wells are only what two and a half inches three inches yeah tall and yeah and he brought this flooring home from an apartment he took it out of an apartment that he did new flooring for and that's nice that's nice flooring I know right yeah the fridge and the solar those were my expenses but the rest of it it was pretty it was pretty easy I mean the wood hundred dollars in in beadboard this box he put in is my uh propane tank and then there's a gas can and a diesel can to store you know everything I need since I got a little of everything in there so the gas can the diesel can and then he made a metal box so it would be safe and you have tanks uh underneath water tanks I have a uh gray tank right back there it's metal oh yeah he just happened to come across a metal tank it's a gray tank and so my gray water is in there and I can just drop a hose to empty it and then the this thing is for the e-bike and trash sorry I had to open my trash that's my generator nice yeah but it's a 3000 watt genaco oh that's a big one yeah it is it's really big and then he put this in he built it he was just bored one day and cut the aluminum and everything and put the piano hinge in for my water fill oh yeah so I could just so you do have a water tank just inside here I do I wanted my water inside yeah so it couldn't freeze this is I keep my barbecue in a box so it doesn't rattle around so much and then my hose extra seat barbecue thing and then the water tank is a 25 gallon tank and you can barely see it but it's right back there oh and I got a extra hot water heater that I don't know what to do with I bought it for like 280 with 4i um before I got my shower in before I realized I could put a shower in I bought that for just outdoor showers and you can put one end in the creek and it yeah well Joe thank you so much for sharing your home with us it is really beautiful I love these box trucks you can just see all the advantages to it oh yeah yeah all that space and and plenty of room easy to build it was your idea it was your idea you know I've heard you talk about them and show them and I've watched all that stuff well and you were right you're right because there's so much space in there right and it's not claustrophobic there's not cabinets all over around your head and stuff and there's plenty of storage down below that I don't have to build out the top and make it stuffy you know they buy these 150 000 sprinters and things and I think yours is just as good or better I'm pretty happy with it yeah I am very proud of it okay well Joe thank you so much for sharing your home with us it's really an inspiration you've done them you and your son have done an amazing job he's an amazing guy yeah anybody wants it done get a hold of me oh really your son he has a huge shop oh and up in Washington he's already got two others going right now that he just started because he liked this so much right and he's doing it cheaper than most because he gathers stuff he's always bringing stuff flooring home uh insulation he's always bringing it home from the jobs he does okay and so people were interested in uh you know spending summers in Washington is fantastic yeah uh how could they get hold of you or your son just my email uh Jolene Woodruff gmail.com h-o-l-e-n-e-w-o-o-d-r-u-f-f gmail.com right and then I pass everything on to him right so uh that's uh that's a great idea folks if you're looking for a really inexpensive and really well done rig then this is an opportunity you should grab well Jolene thank you so much for uh sharing your rig with us I really appreciate it it's great thank you thank you too thank you so much so folks I'm sure you've been inspired by how inexpensive this is and how wonderful it turned out if so then like us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now bye

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 141,578

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: JKC0JZsyDUM

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 16 2023