Stunning Transit Connect Conversion: compact and elegant custom camper / tiny van - Van Tour

hey my name is Sophie and I'm Richard we left our life in News Iran about 18 months ago to live in a van we enjoy traveling skiing rock climbing discovering new places enjoying marvelous landscapes and meeting new people we made vans for ourselves in both New Zealand and Canada and after a little video on YouTube we started getting requests from all sorts of places to come and build vans for people and that's how we ended up here today with Jen and showing you this new van we've created so let's discover Jen's Byrne Stanley [Music] obviously every camper van needs a bid and we wanted to make sure Jen had a full-size bed despite the fact that it's clearly a tiny camper it's really quick and easy to set up just slide out these two drawers slide out this top it sits down on top of the two drawers the backrest becomes part of the bed and there's another cushion here behind the seats and it's all done one of the things that surprised Jen Lots was to have a kitchen in the van when she contacted us she didn't really think that was something that was possible in such a small place but we managed to make it work by putting it under the bears in under the couch so it's latched so it doesn't slide outs when we drive but once it's so much it comes out the whole way out we've got the sink here with some water there's an electric pump which brings water for dishes and brushing teeth which is really nice the freshwater tank is located under the bed so you just have to slide the kitchen slightly more and then by pushing you just open the tank which is about three gallon this is a wide opening because we wanted to make sure she could refill using the normal dump station for RVs she can obviously everything off from just a normal tap at home then we've got lots of storage in here in this caveat which is really good for all the pantry and all the food or you can also store just your normal pots in pens to know how much fresh water she has there's an indicator here and you get to see directly the level of the water which has got handy so you don't run out of water at surprisingly we also have stove which is marine stove it's alcohol-based that way we don't have all the big setup that's taking place like a lot of space for propane and just to make sure she's safe if she ends up using it inside then we've got the seal detector right there she can also take the stove and use it anywhere else we made that choice because if you use the kitchen and you just pull it slightly out you can also use it as a bedside table for the Bears when you don't have the stuff for the greywater there's a tank right under and then to empty its you just unroll the pipe from inside behind the stove storage and you can empty that in any drain or any RV dump station it's very simple and nice one thing that we also have as part of the kitchen where Jen uses a lot is a fridge so this fridge is quite spacious there's lots of space for one person and what's really special about the fridge is that it's a draw obviously and the compressor isn't directly behind it which means we could use it here that's the kitchen so one of the most important features in the van was this cabinet which is kind of a a workstation for Jen she wanted to use the van a lot as an escape a place that she could come and be creative read write and work so we've made this for it it's got lots of little knickknacks lots of little spaces for their knickknacks some of them open some of them closed these are really easy to wear open and shut and then the most important thing is this desk can either fold down in half which works fantastic when the bed is open or you just want a little extra storage space or it can open right up to be a huge desk another thing to note is the shape of the van it's really curved as you can see there's lots of obstacles and metal in there and to just shape the wood to that shape of metal was quite challenging and it's certainly not one of those already made cabinet that you can just add here it takes a lot of work in definitely some craft to fit in there especially if you want to keep it really slim which is what we were trying to achieve to keep as much space in the van as we could John wanted to be able to use the van as an office so for that she needs her laptop obviously at night she wants to have some lights and she has a fridge so all of this power comes from the solar panel that are on the roof it's hundred watt and the very thin so that she doesn't get them too much scene and also it's better for a fuel consumption so she had to make sure that she never runs out of power we've got here a 125 and power battery and which is an AGM battery and we also have in here the fuse box we've got this is the fridge compressor and we've got the solar panel controller then in the van we have LEDs for the light we have just USB products full computer and obviously we've got the fridge so all of that makes it nice and easy for Jam so she's got a van all powered generally enjoys the nature and being able to see outside from a little bubble was really important so we installed two skylights for her so she could enjoy the view during the days have the lights and also during the night see the stars so Louis car lights are actually marine hatch so they don't leak because the designs for waves big storms and you are not walking on them they're expensive but as we mentioned earlier we want to spend the money we're really matters no one wants to have our leaking skylights it's it's okay to have a Tupperware as great water it's not okay to have a leak in your roof so these cars come with a locking option so when the locked no one can enter the van even from the roof when you unlock them you have the option to put them as ventilation again they look so you can leave them like that before your day walk and when you come back the very nice and cool because the wind can kind of circulates especially because we have two skylights so once you want to enjoy really the view and go out you can open them fully and just pop your head out and enjoy the scenery alright let's go camping now I wanted people who could design it but weren't married to their own design of their own ideas who were listening to my ideas and I wanted an immaculate craftsman and that's what Sophie and Richard are it feels cozy but it feels spacious with these huge windows been impressed with every aspect of the function and when the desk is double folded here it is as large as the work space and my desk at home and what I've gotten is quiet and independence and nature wherever I want to go this project has been unbelievable a great experience every step of the way it was this is what we want to build for you something that's functional useful and beautiful and they delivered on that promise every step of the way the price didn't change from the beginning to the end it's a wonderful vehicle I'm going to love it for many years you

Channel: Richard and Sophie

Views: 735,299

Keywords: Van conversion, Transit, Campervan, Camper, Custom, Stealth, Bespoke Creations, Richard and Sophie, Van tour, Transit Connect, Craftsmanship, Wooden, Design

Id: XkbZzfnVFWw

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2019