The Last Resort | ARV Builds a Custom 144" Sprinter for Full-Time, Off-Grid Living

[Music] we sold the big house and before any of the kids decided to move home there is no home we live in a van there's only room for two [Music] [Applause] we're excited to share last resort with you a little bit about how we built it and a little bit about what it does this is built on a 144 4x4 chassis we didn't want to look like an RV we wanted to kind of be able to be in a city or be out in the boondocks somewhere and still have everything we needed but not look like there's somebody living in that van in this case stealth includes not having windows it includes not having any cutouts on the side one capability is off-the-grid we do that with a very well designed well programmed well monitored lithium battery system there's no solar no solar necessary because there's I think about 10,000 watts of solar battery capacity and high current recharging capability the other thing we do off the grid is would maximize tank capability our tanks I think on this one are almost 40 gallons on a 144 that's amazing for fresh water capacity so off the grid is power and water and then for seasons it has insulated apartments for the tanks it has heated tanks it has heated batteries last resort started with a client vision and that vision was shared with our craftspeople but during the process of the build we found things in order to meet the clients objective that had to be shift a little bit or redesigned a little bit and the result everybody thinks is amazing it was funny so when we arrived we had our thoughts like we had you know the Sketchup model and we knew exactly what we wanted and we we were scratching our heads like houses possibly gonna take two and a half to three days to go through the configure and then when we sat down with Brittany we realized like everything is discussed and decided here I'm standing by the board of laminates and there's a lot of materials to pick so upholstery is working with curtains which they don't have side curtains because they chose not to do windows on this van but they're still going to be making a bulkhead privacy curtain from the front but cabinet laminates during the configuration process we've picked materials to get the feel that they wanted to in the end result so the laminate traces to flooring traces there's rubber flooring there's more durable materials there's vinyl flooring to choose from then the upholstery for the beds in their case they ended up going with the indoor/outdoor Sunbrella material some people will use real leather or ultra leather vinyls and option two but that doesn't always breathe as well to countertops so once you get the layout solidified we spend a lot of time going through and making the finishes just right outside looking in you don't realize how very specific you can be about what you want what you can Brittany goes through with the client that's called the configurator and basically it's a 50 page document of everything every desire that the client has for their fan we go from that to a rough layout design where Rob he lays out a rough schematic of what the layout of the Vans gonna be and you think about all the systems there the same systems that are in a big house it just happens to be an 80 square feet now and so you're down to the sixteenth of an inch of where things fit and what you want he starts to put dimensions to things as opposed to just being a document that has words in it and then from that point you use a combination of the configurator details because it's so detailed with the layout configuration that Rob does combine those study them get to know them and then from that I create these 2d hand renderings of what the real layout of the van would be even down to the outlets and the plugs you should be able to zoom in like yeah there's a plug there that's great I sometimes say that I'm a vessel for people because all's I do is I take what's inside of your head and I try to show you what your ideas look like we brought our ideas and now you see it returned to you as a of a finished plan we studied it and tried to see it was everything we wanted it to be after the client does their configuration we go through our design meetings it's almost a plausibility check of can we build this can we meet the design criteria that the client has spectin 99% of the time we do but there are some things that we need to change from time to time in order to make it to make it more buildable but also to make it more reliable for the client things that they may not notice a lot of folks want the benefits of a 170 crammed into a 144 how do you solve the problem of sleeping in a 144 so the way we solved that we said okay let's put an l-shaped galley and and the end of the bed will flip up over itself so when we're cooking it's great we wanted to keep the bed deployed because we didn't want to make a bed every night so it was an easy way to transition between cooking and sleeping it's challenging I mean there's a lot of hurdles that we have to jump through to make a lot of that stuff fit and once the van gets here we kick off the build process and we put all that hard work and forethought into an action [Music] this is pre cap so pre cap is the first production station when the chassis has come in from mercedes-benz start by dismantling the whole interior we cut big holes in your roof in other parts of the body for the accessories that we add such as AC max fan guide lights we put down sound deadening we put in insulation we put a subfloor down we put a finished floor down we hang all the pre-made wiring harnesses and add extra wires for accessories we do some pre plumbing and Creek a basically everything that needs done before it goes to cabinets last resorts about ready to move the cabinets it has a finished floor in it it has insulation all the sound endings already installed almost all the Waring's installed we have a air conditioner a max fan this unit has a customer supplied hatch we had to make a special adapter ring in house that was cnc'd to adapt it to the ribbed roof everything went according to plan water tested it just to ensure that it was nice and tight and here we go all in well h's how it's supposed to one of the steps taking place in pre kab by the finishing station is this will all be wrapped which is abnormal to us usually we have panels and stuff the since is all going to be visible finishing is taking their time and filling some of the stuff so that way when this is wrapped it's all gonna be nice and smooth finished product so as you can see here the finished floor is down and protected one of the things that customers don't get to see behind the scenes is the amount of prep work that goes before the finished floor is installed we soundin aluminum backing material is applied to the floor we have a 3/4 subfloor that's screwed down we fill all the screw head it's to make sure the floor is perfectly flat before we lay our Finnish flooring down it gives just the best finished appearance you don't have to worry about anything sinking after a lot of wear and tear and stays perfectly flat for the life of the van since this customer chose not to have any windows in his van we took extra time to put sound deadening in behind all this just because that's a large panel we don't want any vibrations we put Thinsulate insulation in this just to you know help that's again it's a big panel don't want the heat coming in through there already heat cold air escaping from AC running and then we vapor barrier we insulate the heck out of these this one has about an R 7 and a half in the case of last resort we were able to increase the r-value by about 25% and we'll actually take that into other vans the other thing we were able to do in last resort was pull the insulation through the enclosed some of the enclosed structural parts of the van itself so all these details provide a better forcings in operation so you guys got some more wiring to do on this one finishing the wiring harnesses then we'll do a post-production checklist for pre cab someone will double check to make sure everything is there and then it will go over to the cabinet job we're getting toward the end of the cabinet installation but the process here has been one almost of continuous design and as I've watched Adam do this this is one of the most challenging builds that we've done and I wanted to ask Adam first of all what's in this one little kitchen cabinet here that that's an l-shape that actually connects to the bathroom the galley integrates the sink the heater core like usual there's also ventilation for the electronics in the back a myriad of plumbing and electronics all kind of converge in this cabinet there's also a tilt down counter which we've done before but in this case the opening is smaller than the counter itself being that it's l-shaped and it is 1:44 it's very challenging to try to get everything packed into a small package and that's really what's going on here a lot of things are coming together and the more cabinets we set the smaller the van gets did you have to go back and and rebuild or refit any of this as you built it pretty much all of it we have a basic set of dimensions for all the appliances and everything that needs to you know hard-and-fast dimensions that need to fit but as you're going there's always things that you have to account for integrate and adjust along the way so so far it's going pretty well everything seems to be fitting tell me about the coffee pot uh well it's a really nice unit actually it's a espresso maker cappuccino machine it's got a steamer arm on it we discovered that the steam arm swings out and would hit the back of the door consequently you wouldn't be able to use it so we now put the pull-out on a swivel so you can actually pull the whole unit out swivel the coffee pot and any any direction you want so that you can use its full function and then slide it right back in where it belongs and then you wouldn't even know it's there I mean once it's tucked away everything in here is going to fit with very very tight tile what are the talents is on the coffee pot well the coffee pot is six and three-quarters the opening it has to fit into seven and a half over top of the coffee pot after all this rig is enclosed I'm hoping to get about 3/16 of an inch of clearance everything has just the right amount of clearance around it to accommodate the hardware associated with its pullout or with its mounting bracket the client wanted a Cuisinart steam convection cook oven so in our finished apartment Alex took this out put it on a table and operated it to see how much steam would come out because this compartment that it goes into we were concerned that if it's put away hot or if for some reason they start to operate it without pulling it out which the idea is to pull it out and operate it then it could create a problem of the cabinet so our solution and this is kind of a little bit of design on the fly our solution was to you align the compartment here with aluminum and then it's all cocked all the way around to seal it up another thing that happened here there's a latch to keep it from sliding out but that latch had a little bit of Tolerance on it we did coat the latch to take some of the tolerance out there still was a possibility that this could rattle a little bit so we took it back apart and we put magnetic latches on the back and so once it's set you still have the safety latch but there's no there's absolutely no rattles that can come from this thing so these are details that take time but our guys it doesn't wait for an inspection for somebody to say hey wait a minute what if this gets put away hot the guys figured this out is there we go there's an l-shaped counter that runs all the way into the bathroom there's a drawer directly underneath that and underneath that is an open cabinet there'll be a flip up backsplash on the l-shaped counter portion that'll flip down the cushion will flip over and then the mattress then becomes a little more than a foot longer all the cabinetry and all the outside corners in this camper are 1/4 round edge or a softer edge there are some pretty tight corners in there so we try to eliminate any hard edges how did you match the cord around looks like the finish is identical to the laminate chatterjee well you just play with a number of different colors and I mixed custom dyes and things and stains we've successfully matched pretty much any laminate that we come across I've known Adam for I don't know 20 25 long time he's an artist he's literally amazing and the stuff that he does is I know you're it's it's phenomenal so we don't consider anything we're doing fancy we consider it elegant and elegance and simplicity and simplicity is structural integrity not rattling the right materials and things that fit together and are functional and these guys Adam and everybody is thinking way beyond getting something built that looks nice when we finish last resort two people go out on our you're not going to believe this but in Cleveland we have some rough roads so they go out on the rough roads at different speeds and listen for any rattles this thing is tight as a drum there are no rattles in it that's pretty amazing when you think that we have an arm pull out for the monitor that was not designed necessarily for motorhomes so we had to modify it put some magnetic stops in there to make sure that it was tight while you're driving so you're not hearing any banging around the bathroom door uses latches designed for airplane bathroom doors so it's tight and it's it's expensive but it it's it's amazing how aggravating a rattle can be [Music] we use a valence battery system it's a little over 800 amp hours of battery that's a lithium ion system I should say also we use a 3000 Watts and tracks inverter which is plenty of power for anything their coach needs the batteries we have inside on a 144 so they're in relatively conditioned air at all times in the winter time they stay warm with the van on and summertime they stay cool with ventilation and the a/c on and all that's monitored by the silver leaf system there's a lot of technology in the van some of it was client provided some of it was standard stuff we use like the Apple TV Wi-Fi Ranger that's pretty par for the course on our builds the client provided us with a mini computer which was the first time I've ever seen a computer that small and an ultra wide screen monitor which are integrated into his cameras that are mounted on the roof rack customer Frank we wanted to have external cameras on it that were connected when we have either cell coverage or Wi-Fi coverage so hey what's going on our van we're having dinner somewhere in the city and we could log in and look and say oh everything's good oh look at those people come by and take a look what's going on if you're not gonna have windows in the van and something goes bump in the night you want to see what's going on and so the roof rack was to place to mount the cameras it was also extra space so we envisioned having a rooftop deck that we can when that's nice and we're in a beautiful place set up some chairs and get some drinks and just sit in the Sun and enjoy our place we didn't want to have a ladder we have this elevated bed and had some experience sailing so we said oh well let's put a marine hatch hi my name is Jon flick and I'm the engineer at advanced RV and I do a lot of the mechanical design for the custom motorhomes that come through anything that's special or out of the ordinary or not really our standard production it falls on to my department this roof rack is one of the items that I had designed for customer I've got 25 years in automated equipment machine design I'm an avid off-roader and a camper so when it comes to roof racks I've had vehicles that have had roof racks I've driven across the country and I know what is some of the useful features and things that should be designed into those into this particular roof rack and other things the customer had a well-defined idea of what he wanted in this roof rack and they had given me a Sketchup model and advanced RV we use SolidWorks SolidWorks is an industry standard 3d design tool this is the roof rack they provided us with an overall length and a width and they said that you know they wanted to have cameras on the forward and the rear and the sides and they also wanted to have some lighting some LED lighting then my job was to lay out the design of the roof rack so I would make some sketches and then I would transfer that to actually creating the solid model that you see in front of you right here with our Levellers down this becomes a really stable platform so you could have multiple people and you could enjoy a sporting event or just the outdoors on top of the rack normally a roof rack you see is rounded tubes and their beds they're mandrel bent but this particular roof rack is inch and a quarter square aluminum tubing and it's got an eighth inch thick perforated metal deck on it and the whole construction is welded and there's also rivets that hold the top of the top deck on along with aluminum welding we have clearance for our air conditioning and our high-powered max fan and we also have an additional removable hatch where we can get to all of our electronics the design was very very well thought out it was made to be easily manufacturable yet something that would go on the van and it could be removed for service to if necessary and I really like this hatch it's made for you know saltwater boating environments out in the ocean and it actually is a really nice size and you can see that it was able to come right out of the roof rack very easy or come on to the roof rack very easily and I'm gonna go back down now so you're welcome this is a standard 40 gallon tank that we use in our 170 builds we modify it to go ahead and fit the 144 wheelbase and it goes down to I think 34 gallons at that time the gray tank is 25 gallons and the black tank is 12 the 144 is it's always a different floor plan so then what we do now is actually spend well via the fittings into the tanks where I need the drains to go depending on where they're at this customer asked to go ahead and have heated tanks there's a heating pad up underneath this insulation portion here which we just partially insulate that to go ahead and keep some of the heat in on this side of the tank once it's installed our glycol system so it's a continuous loop actually in the escolar system for the heating and the the hot water and it'll actually come through the tank it's not stout here we try to keep everything you know contained and concealed so you can't go ahead and see anything outside a little utility center here which is all custom-made you know in house the nerf bars Dave which does our welding he makes these little containers you know that are basically inside the nerf bar away from the elements we hear you have LED lights for you know nighttime usage city water inlet to go ahead and throw your freshwater tank this customer actually has a compressor on blurred so he has dual receptacles on both sides anything that you want to use outside turn up your tires you know why you're you're under the way out of the road switch for your macerator the valves are up under here for your dump valves and you just pull those out and dump you know the appropriate tank that you want to dump raw sewage hoses you know containers in here also and then it does have adequate space that you can go ahead and stow stuff it has an outside shower assembly on that side specifically these vehicles the 144 is you know we try to encapsulate the gray and the black tank the tank I have heaters on the fresh tank the spill open air but it is insulated and the glycol line does run through this box also making the air the continual loop so that we use that heat to to heat this compartment down the road in the build he suggested that he wanted to put a foot pump you know not a full bathroom but it has a toilet in it a shower has you know fold out extendable shower assembly where you can go ahead and close the bottom door it gives you a little bit more room to you know maneuver around in there while taking the shower custom teak flooring so it really turns out you know I think really beautiful that you know we're done with it first and foremost I have to say amazing job to the owners for picking out the materials that they've done it's come together beautifully in a smaller space it's neutral yet warm and modern at the same time I'm touching the Sunbrella fabric its complemented by a softer wall the material has a little feeling of grain to it just all fit so well together [Music] my name is Alex I help coordinate in the finishing Department we are the guys that make the van look good so we do covered wall panels that you see here the decorative coverings we did this garage area here it's a long seal flooring product it has a diamond plate pattern on it which was extremely difficult to install for us only because I wanted to make sure that the pattern across the entire deck there's six or seven different pieces on this deck lid I was very nervous about the pattern not matching across all of those pieces the diamond plate pattern was actually laid across this entire surface as one gigantic piece we then had custom templates that we made to the flooring to come back so that we knew exactly where these small gaps between the access doors were cut them back flush trimmed everything to make it look pretty this entire diamond plate section in here is what we refer to as the garage and a 144 we put the ac/dc inverters the electrical panel the entire battery pack is in this section right here it seems like each van at a RV does kind of builds the body of knowledge and improves over time we had the opportunity to come visit at a RV fest and so when we saw a maverick the question was this is how we did battery deployment with a platform bed we put them in between the wheel wells and you have this garage area will that work for you Rob asked us we said yeah that's that looks great so we have this big area all the technology is underneath it and the bed is above it so we took that solution from maverick and it became part of last resort it's a lot harder to design access for all of the things that are built in here all the batteries electrical systems are down here all the electronics for the client are there there are some things we have to think about to do that well and one thing is we have to think about how we're going to cool electronics so we bring air through a vent in the front and event here it goes down its ducted down into this compartment here comes forward around the battery packs over here around the inverter and then it's pulled out by a fan that fan is thermostatically-controlled the other part of maintainability is access this accesses all the i/o for the silver leaf this cover over here provides access to the inverter and some of the other electronics all of these access lids have latching and magnets to hold them down in place they're totally removable they do not rattle so the client specified in their configuration this specific style of light valance with that specific Kym metal covering on it it is actually a bronze laminate with a stainless top layer so when it's cut and you're actually looking at all of the edges it adds a third dimension to the finish inside the van to have this very tiny bronze line that mirrors all the way around all of the lighting balances it's actually really nice we now have developed a way to install all of our wall panels here with no fasteners being exposed whatsoever I feel like in projects like these that have so many different aspects going on on the insides of them you don't want any one specific thing to catch your eye or detract your attention from the overall project itself today's delivery day for last resort it's always a thrill we kind of put the van out in the middle as it turned out it's a beautifully crafted Motorhome the clients have seen photos and they're excited to be here today [Applause] it's beautiful I mean it's just it's exquisite the the the fit and finish in that van is it's like a jewel box like everything down to the 16th of an inch every finish you can just tell the pride that the craftsmen take in their work it just it's evident it's just so rewarding to you know hear that and they feel like the quality of the product is you know beyond what they could ever imagine its home we have friends and family all over the country so we actually think we're gonna see them more now the Fenton one we're just living in one place I think life is about experiences new experiences with people that you love if I had to sum it up in one sentence and I think the last resort is the means to make that happen [Music]

Channel: Advanced RV

Views: 997,850

Rating: 4.8546648 out of 5

Keywords: Motor home, RV, Travel, Advanced RV, innovative, motorhome, mercedes, sprinter 3500, off the grid, boondocking, freedom, camping, glamping, road trip, rv living, propane free rv, sprinter rv, sprinter motorhome, class b rv, class b motorhome, mercedes rv, mercedes motorhome, luxury rv, custom rv, custom motorhome, luxury motorhome, 4X4 rv, 4X4 motorhome, 4X4 sprinter, recreational vehicle, four season, custom sprinter, sprinter conversion, van conversion, van life, rv life, rv

Id: WfY2KHwf2hQ

Length: 28min 21sec (1701 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020