Ultimate Guide For Your Camper Van Layout

[Music] hi we're Brooklyn Camper vans we built over 40 vans so far and with this YouTube series we're here to share our knowledge with you all hey everyone my name is Arthur I'm the co-founder here at Brooklyn Camper vans and in today's video we're going to be talking about what's the best camper van layout for you now I've had thousands of these conversations before so I figure why not just do a video about it so let's get started to begin we got to start with some big picture questions to get some big picture answers we got to find out what's the right length fan for you whether you're going with ram promas Mercedes Sprinter or the Ford Transit they all have small medium and long lens so for the purpose of this video we're just going to say that we're either going to go with a sprinter 144 wheel base or printer 170 wheelbase the 144 wheelbase is 19 1/2 ft whereas the 170 wheelbase is 23 ft so we're working with 3 and 1/2 ft of more buildable space and on the outside it might not seem like much but depending on what you're looking for and what's important to you it can make a world of the difference I've created three sets of questions that help you decide which van length is best for you and these questions could also help with deciding which layout is best for you as well [Music] the first set of questions is more about who's coming along with you are you traveling solo are you traveling with a partner any kids how many people in all are coming with you on this van for the majority of the time and also are there any pets any Furry Friends how big are they and lastly are you the type of person that likes to host in your van have movie nights or big dinners or are you more the type that prefers no one to step in to your home these questions will help you decide what vanl is best for you the next set of questions is about where you're going are you going to be driving the cities in the mountains in places like Bryce Canyon or other national parks you'll see signs that says no vehicles over 20 ft and that's because we need a smaller vehicle with a better turning radius to make those tight switchbacks so the other question is are you going to be doing a lot of off-roading or are you going to be mostly on paveed roads with the 144 wheeel base because the two wheels are closer to each other you're also less likely to bottom out now the Mercedes Sprinter is a very capable vehicle and I'm sure you'll be fine with the 170 World base but keep in mind that you lose a little bit of drivability and that's also a reason why most people don't go with the 170 World base extended again it really all depends where you go now the last set of questions revolves more around what you are bringing with you are you a part-time manifer or a full-time manifer and if you're a part-time manifer are you more of a weekend getaway person a weekend warrior or someone that travels for two to three months at a time where you need be bringing a lot of equipment or a lot of clothing the 144 wheel base has enough storage in it for most people either for a Solo Traveler or for a full-time couple living in the van with a small pet now this might not be comfortable for everybody but for some people it does work out think about what other stuff that you might have beyond the basic such as the essential clothes and kitchen wear do you have a lot of extra toys maybe snowboards or onewheel dog food dog crate these are all things to consider between deciding on a 144 wheel base and a 170 wheel base and there you have it that's three sets of questions that you got to think about who's coming with you where are you going and what are your storage requirements and now we could talk about layouts in all these layouts I'm going to show you they all come with Essentials whether it's a 144 wheelbase or a 17 wheel base regardless of the layout there's going to be a full-size bed there's going to be a kitchen there's going to be a 40 gallon water tank and solar panels batteries all the tech essentials from a home theater satellite internet security systems all these things don't take up that much space so it doesn't really matter on the layout now that we have the foundational understanding of what's in a van let's go see what's the best layout that's best for you in the 144 wheel base there's two big questions that you got to ask yourself do you want to indoor shower or not and do you want to U Lounge in the back or a fix bed so in this van here we have our most popular layout which is a fixed shower here and a fixed bed back there the nice thing about this is that with the fixed bed you get a lot more storage underneath the van and with a shower you know it's a really nice daily Comfort to have hot showers but if you're the type that is okay with driving the 15 minutes to go to platinet fitness or a local campground to take a shower then in this space instead of having the shower here we would have a bench right here with the pil it hidden underneath and then extra storage upper cabinets up top with this layout in the front we have a dinet space so both seats are on swivels and when they swivel opposing each other you could put a table in the middle this is a lagoon table that could swivel out and be tucked away this next layout has a shower and a u Lounge area in the back so with this area we could seat five people and you know you know you can host dinner parties movie Nights hit the projector screen over here and watch a movie perfect for a rainy night now at night when it's time to sleep make it into a bed spin this knob push this down it lays on the rails flip these over put this one in the middle put this one in the middle how easy is that around this layout could also be raised higher to make use of this wider space over here with this space we could add fiberglass bed bump outs to sleep someone who 66 when it's raised higher you have more storage underneath you lose the upper cabinets for more head space and it's just another option that is pretty comfortable now if you're doing this layout on the 144 wheelbase but you don't want to shower well since you have a u Lounge back there you don't really need another bench or another area to hang out this could be more storage space so storage cabinets that continue throughout so more countertop space but also upper cabinets as well this layout could also be nice for those that want to just sit back there and have a bigger projector screen without the shower here this projector screen could be a lot bigger perfect for mobile offices people who want to have either movie Nights take meetings the possibilities are a lot more let's move on to 170 wheel bases so with the 170 wheel base we have 3 and 1/2 ft of extra buildable space what that means is that everything gets pushed back and then you have this extra space right here behind the driver's seat to get a little more creative so with the 144 wheelbase we had two questions shower no shower U lounge or fix bed with the 170 wheelbase we have one extra question which is what to do with this space here so let's step on inside and take a look at the most common layout that we have for the 170 wheel base in the back we have the fixed bed as you can see we have the shower right here now this extra space the client opted for Ben seating because they have two kids and they want to have a road safe legal seat on top of that this seat swivels so that it faces the passenger door for a nice view when you're parked outside now let's check out a 170 whe base without a shower even more room for creativity what the client opted here is a lounge area so right now it's set up as a dinette perfect for two people to work or have dinner and when you want to relax over here we have a dinette that could also be a makeshift Lounge sets up super easily you can hang out like this it could be a Gest bed or this bottom area pulls out storage underneath here but also uh autom for a nice view looking out the passenger door now this whole area here could be made however you want this could be additional storage as well imagine this with storage a shower here and that gives the possibility of turning the back into a U Lounge area so if you really like the lounge in the back that is a possibility we just switch it around and make this more of a storage space now that wraps up all the main layouts that we offer there's a couple other things to consider number one as you see above me there's a pop top that could sleep two more people on the other hand in the 144 wheel base especially if you want to bring more people you could add a jump seat right behind the passenger the jump seat isn't installed on aeronautical Trails so that it could be clipped and unclipped easily and other thing to consider is that we could add more storage there's quite a few different options for this we could add storage on the outside of the van in these owl boxes over here we could also put upper cabinet storage there's quite a few places where we can get creative if storage is truly an issue now given the confines of the space we only have the options that we've showed you so far we also have to keep in mind weight and in the vehicle on this side we have the 40-gon water tank and on this side we have the heavy batteries so this balances the way out the other thing is that we want to keep the water system on one side of the van and the electrical system on the other side because these two things don't go well together here we got the 40 gon water tank hot water heater sink and faucet and as well as shower here with these principles in mind these are the only layouts that we can do to cram all these amenities into a 144 wheel base or a 170 wheel base now we could always get creative with a lift bed we have a lot of opinions on that whether it's through the winbo Revel or the concrete Oasis layout we have a video on that and it's in the description below so come check that out I hope this video is super helpful for you guys if you have a favorite layout let us know comment in the description if you want to see something new that we haven't done well I feel like I've heard it all but let us know in the comments as well and I'll see you next time

Channel: Brooklyn Campervans

Views: 1,348

Keywords: camper van conversion, van build, van conversion, van life, camper van, camper van layout, camper van layout ideas, van life layout ideas, vanlife layout

Id: zra-Xj8eSfE

Length: 11min 34sec (694 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2024