This Man’s Brilliant Minivan Camper is the BEST I’ve Ever Seen!

uh [Music] this video is a tour of my toyota sienna no built minivan camper i want to share why i chose the gear that i carry along with some of the pros and cons of those decisions before i get into the tour i want to let you know that i included timestamps for all the topics discussed today i will cover everything in detail so feel free to jump around to what interests you the most finally i would like to thank the sponsor of today's video the notorious subscribe button check to make sure that you are subscribed and if not please consider subscribing [Music] so you might ask yourself why am i calling this a no build minivan camper conversion well basically there are no permanent modifications and i didn't build anything other than assembling some furniture out of the box in a nutshell i believe that no build translates to no skill required for my build just about everything is available on amazon and for most of the things you will see there's a link in the description at the end of the video i'll share a total cost breakdown with current prices but keep in mind these prices often change based on seasons and sales [Music] this toyota sienna is a 2014 le 8 passenger minivan it is a front wheel drive and although i'm happy with it if i ever needed to replace it i would hold out for an all-wheel drive version although i want an all-wheel drive i have never really worried about getting stuck except for a few times and the closest i got was on a trip to giant rock in death valley the sand on the last road out there was like moon dust but i just kept momentum and i got a great spot in the shade close to the rock i have not removed any oem equipment from the vehicle other than the middle row of seats which are very easily removable i did add some red air lift suspension airbags and i do prefer to keep it set up as is right now but i can convert it back to a family hauler as needed in around 15 minutes okay so there's one of the red airbags and there's the other one and when they come in the box they're flat and they have a little valve on them that keeps them flat and what you do is you slide them through the coils right there then once they're in the coil spring then you remove that valve and they inflate with no pressure they just kind of pop out you attach the hose if you can kind of see this little black hose right here and once you attach that hose then you can fill it up i've had no problems they're about four years old if i need to adjust the pressure in the airbags all i do is pop this off i have that little valve right there and that's like your standard little bicycle tire slash car tire schrader valve i believe it's called and you can fill these up i think to a max of 25 or 30 psi even at like 15 psi the assist with those airbags is very substantial [Music] while traveling in the minivan camper i don't really expect much out of it i treat the sienna as sort of a bedroom with a lounge chair in it so i can either sit and read i can watch youtube i can make some simple food items or i can sleep comfortably that's really just about it most of my camping is done solo and using a minivan for more than one person can be extremely tight so if you plan to travel with a companion make sure you really enjoy their company if you have tried small vehicle camping or are thinking about your first voyage boop that like button and tell me what you have planned in the comments let's take a look at the exterior from the outside this minivan camper looks like a regular soccer mom swagger wagon except for a few things i have attached to the roof rack i do have it oriented so that the passenger side sliding door is like a front porch the driver side sliding door is like a back porch and the rear lift gate is a sort of garage door i mostly only use the front porch but when i want to load my mini fridge it's more convenient to do that from the driver's side i try to keep the front seats clean and empty so that onlookers don't have anything interesting to see and this helps keep unwanted attention to a minimum if you happen to drive by this van while it's parked on the side of the road you might notice this giant solar panel and after doing this for a few years i seem to notice things like this on roof racks more often than i used to however most folks don't seem to notice it at all and in all honesty everyone needs something on their roof to break up the illusion of a minivan full of car seats and strollers this solar panel is a 180 watt bouge rv solar panel and it harvests more than enough energy to keep my power stations topped off in fact most 500 watt portable power stations on the market will only accept up to 100 watts of solar power so you could plug this into one of those power stations and pull a little more power during low light conditions keeping your power station charged throughout the day this solar panel is huge but its size allows me to stay off grid and definitely without needing to plug in coming around to this side i have this awning that is super useful when needed but it mostly goes unused unless i'm in a campsite for long enough to be able to enjoy it when i set it up i get around 42 square feet of rain and shade protection it is six and a half feet wide and comes out six and a half feet long but the way i have it mounted to the roof rack i lose about one foot of its depth over the door i don't mind the loss because i can angle the awning up and not worry about rain getting into the doors because of the gutters it's not difficult to set up solo but a second set of hands makes the job much easier and sometimes more fun this is a yakima brand but shortly after getting it napa started selling one that was about 100 bucks the last time i checked i will say that the quality of this one feels premium and even after three years of use this one still feels almost new yakima has three sizes but i wouldn't recommend getting the eight foot model because it will either interfere with opening the tailgate or hang over the hood of your vehicle but with the eight foot model you would be able to open this front passenger side door when it is raining you would also get a huge footprint of 64 square feet overall i'm fine with this size too windy for this one [Music] it's a little too windy so i'm gonna store the awning i don't want to risk it get blown away by the wind the final outside accessory are these wind deflectors i can always keep my windows cracked and this helps reduce condensation and it helps a little bit with heat management in the summer i haven't encountered a perfect solution to window screens but there are a few diy videos here on youtube with varying designs i recently took a stab at making some based on one of those videos but it only really provides minimal ventilation the sienna does have automatic sliding doors but i prefer to use the manual mode because the doors are slow and they use electricity from the starter battery and it's just easier to use the handle now that we've covered the exterior join me inside for a tour of my spacious minivan camper conversion the first thing you see here is a single cubby shelf i use for holding some smaller cooking gear and dry foods this thing is just about the perfect size but i can't leave anything on the top while traveling anything up here will slide off as soon as i begin to drive i am able to store a few things on the second shelf and the bottom is useful for keeping cans and other small stuff secure but readily available the best part about this cubby is that i can hide the seat rails under and it gives me a perfectly flat surface for this rug if i need to get in with my shoes on i can push the rug out of the way i prefer to take off my shoes and relax inside otherwise getting in and out at campsites can quickly drag in a mess and start feeling grimy [Music] i consider this bed the single most important upgrade in here i originally used a foam roll and then i upgraded to a cot and finally settled on the steel frame with a six-inch tri-fold memory foam mattress this is a narrow twin or cot size bed that measures 30 inches wide by 75 inches long and you could fit a bed up to 45 8 inches wide if you stowed this last seat this size is perfect for a solo traveler i believe comfort is the most important quality needed in a small vehicle camper for a few reasons first the space is already cramped and there is a limit on how much you can stretch out and most importantly if you are not comfortable sleeping here your adventure might end before it ever begins so for those reasons i recommend starting your build with your bed and filling the rest from there if you find this minivan camper tour enjoyable please subscribe this bed won't be perfect for everyone i did choose the 14 inch tall platform for the storage space and the six inches for the memory foam brings this up to about 20 inches off the floor and because it is so high i can't sit up in the bed if i need to sit up i do slide down into the seat something else to consider with this bed frame is that the back feet do sit on the edges of the rear stow and go seat i use a small piece of folded up cardboard to keep it stable and i have never had a problem with the bed falling in the gap but it does look a little janky [Music] i have a three-piece sleep system and my favorite part is this green bag but in the winter i sometimes layer all the way up with the black bag and the gore-tex cover and i use that combination during extremely cold weather i do prefer the black sheet but there are lots of color options available on amazon the last thing on my bed is my regular sized pillow and of course i have this high speed cheetah camo pillow in case i decide to sleep in my tent please share your favorite camping experience in the comments [Music] the house battery is a lopez 1100 watt portable power station this has a 992 watt hour lithium iron phosphate battery and it has enough power to run any of the small appliances i use i won't focus too much on this power station because i have several videos that go into detail about the capabilities but for what you get you can't beat the price of these cheaper portable power stations their latest model is a 1200 watt portable power station and before this i originally used an old rock palace 500 and after almost four years it still works as designed but that rockpals 500 has lost about 10 of its useful capacity next to the power station is an old crate with the remaining appliances and other utensils i did carry a slow cooker in here but i recently broke it and next to that i keep closed but not much else [Music] i recently downsized from my apple cool c50 mini fridge to this joy to this 23 quart fridge and for my canadian friends that's 22 liters eh this fridge draws about the same amount of power as the apple cool downsizing fridges gave me room to add this tote i keep the rest of my sleep system and some other non-essential items in this blue tote [Music] on a side note having a no build camper like this can be dangerous in the event of an accident so if your plan to do this carefully consider where everything is placed some designs have things like knives hanging from magnetic strips but those could become projectiles in the event of a collision for this reason i try to keep the items behind me low and light so what i'm gonna do now is show you how i would cook if i had to cook inside of the minivan i usually do not cook in the minivan i do have a picnic table right here beside me i try to avoid cooking because of items like this so i have this extremely flammable sleeping bag and i just pushed it out of the way i've got this little white tray right here and again this is a cooking tray it's pretty easy to use one thing i have is this instant pot i just recently got this this does use quite a bit of power but it replaced my slow cooker which i could cook something you know all day with my power station this thing does pull about a thousand watts so my power station down here is able to support that but it does also use like 15 to 20 percent of the available power inside of the power station if i'm not using that i do have inside of my crate here this fire maple stove i have used this in a few of my other videos to make coffee i also made ramens in one of my recent videos that's super convenient everything i need is in here so if i took this out and set it on the picnic table over there i'd be able to cook with that no problem i also have this pan right here if i'm using this stove and i'm going to cook something grimy or something that might leave a residue if i'm not able to clean it thoroughly i will use this kind of immediately and try to reserve this strictly for boiling water and then i also have this kettle right here which works with this system as well something that's also convenient and finally i rarely use this one so i might end up not carrying it around anymore but this is a little wood gas stove that burns little wood chips i get a little like one foot tall flame out of it and that's fun to kind of mess around with without having to make a giant fire i do have one more stove i'll pull that out of the trunk real quick and show you guys okay so i have this coleman gas stove it was like 20 bucks i want to say maybe 30 and this uses these little butane fuel cans and between this and the fire maple for example it would be better to cook with this on here but for some reason the fire maple stove burns quicker and actually boils water so if it's really cold out i'll try to either use this as a shield or i won't use it because i want to get my water boiled so if i am cooking inside of the van i prefer this because it's flatter this thing when you set it up can be unstable and fall over and i don't really want to deal with you know this wild jet flame you know inside of the van so while i have this crate out a couple of other things i use coffee mug i used to keep a glass mug but i've actually broken some of those and so i try not to keep glass accessories at all this egg boiler that thing is actually super convenient i can make a bunch of eggs i do like to make coffee out of this little thing right here this was from ikea it was like 20 bucks from ikea and i like this one the most because it has a really wide base and so when i use it on that fire maple stove it just sits perfectly on there this is a pour over coffee thing so occasionally i'll just take this boil water and the fire maple put a filter in there and then pour my water right inside of that and then i don't have it in here right now but i have a pour over brim coffee water boiler and that thing is really convenient because i can make hot water without an open flame and so if it's really cold outside and i want a hot coffee i'll use that just to avoid an open flame inside of the vehicle the last thing i keep in here is this carbon monoxide alarm and this they say to keep low so i just leave it on the floor it's convenient in here and i don't use this for when i cook although sometimes when i cook i can actually see this start to register carbon monoxide so if you don't have your windows cracked and you are cooking in a small area like this with an open flame you can start to accumulate carbon monoxide but what i primarily use this for is ideally an alarm if there is a fire event for example if i'm sleeping maybe something catches on fire the carbon monoxide level increases and this will give me a chance to escape the vehicle safely [Music] so one of the first worries i had when minivan camping was how to avoid unwanted attention while legally parked and mining my own business so for stealth camping i got a set of window shades to be able to get complete privacy i originally just started with just the reflectix chrome material that you see here but decided that stealth was more important than the potential heat issues from having a dark material for that same reason i picked up a roll of black felt fabric and sewed it onto these shades in some states it is illegal to use limo tint so i prefer to use these covers when part and take them down for complete visibility on the go the set i have are a mix from amazon and from theheatshieldstore.com although the price is similar for both the amazon version and the heat shield store version i believe the heat shield store version does have a little better quality i have another video that goes into detail about the window shades but i think something like this does help ease the worry of waking up in the middle of night with a flashlight shining in your face so one thing that's super important in the minivan camper is lighting my power station is on and i have three of these little led bulbs they're not like a super great solution but the good thing is i can put this wherever i want and then with the flip of a switch i have light and so occasionally i'll turn these on i'll move the wires around wherever i need them and then i'll just kind of hang them off of something like that the lights i use the most are these goal zero crush lights and i like these things a lot because i never have to charge them i don't use light all night long maybe for like an hour or so after dark and because i have this one in the window here it actually remains charged all the time so whenever i need it i pull it out of the window i use it whatever the purpose is and then when i'm done i just crush them back up put them back in here and i leave them for the next time always charged super simple now these are more substantial and one issue with the van no biggie but that panel brew oh and here's my hat and gloves gotta stay warm up here in the northeast but i have in here a couple things so here are two more of those led lights and so i can genuinely brighten this minivan at night if it's pitch black out and then another thing i have is the charging cable if i want to plug my power station into the vehicle i rarely have to do that because of the solar panel but if so maybe i have a problem with the solar panel wires or something i would use that and then finally in here i have a super long i want to say a 12 foot dc extension and i could use this maybe i want to move my mini fridge out to the picnic table or maybe i want to do something where i require that extension without having to undo a bunch of wires and move my power station around so that's all i keep in there let's get on to the pricing [Music] i was a little surprised by the overall cost because this is a no build minivan camper conversion i didn't actually expect it to be as expensive as it turned out to be after adding everything up something to keep in mind is that i did assemble all this equipment over several years and i did start with an empty van and so as i slowly started to add things to my build the price did add up so it turns out that the solar power and portable power station are the biggest expenses at around one thousand dollars power isn't a necessity and could be skipped if you are just going on short trips another option is to start with something like a battery bank to keep your phone charged the next biggest expense was the slim shady awning it is a great item to use but it might be a luxury at around 380 dollars adding in the rest of the other gear sums up to over an astonishing two thousand dollar price tag for a no build minivan camper conversion which is just unbelievable so here is the total cost of the entire build i summarized the appliances as one lump sum this is another category where i would start with what i currently have and as you start piecing together your camper i recommend considering what your use cases will be and then start with just the basics for me the number one essential quality is that comfortable and safe place to lay my head you should begin your journey with what you already have and watch this video to learn more about small vehicle camping [Music]

Channel: Off Grid Adventure

Views: 544,638

Keywords: Sienna camper, camper van, camper van conversion, micro camper, micro camper build, micro camper van, minivan camper, minivan camper conversion, minivan camper tour, minivan camping, minivan conversion, minivan life, no build minivan camper, no build van build, sienna camper van, tiny home build, tiny home tours, toyota sienna, toyota sienna camper, toyota sienna camper conversion, van life, van life build, van life tour, van tour, van tour van life

Id: 9bFMTKRU9Os

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2022