VAN LIFE TOUR | Full Time Living in The Smallest Sprinter Van Converted Airstream Interstate

hello this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel here in turkey swamp park beautiful campground in monmouth county new jersey freehold township and i'm here with my airstream b190 today and i bumped into another airstream owner christine and she's going to give us a tour today of our airstream interstate now this is a short sprinter chassis and it is a four wheel drive this is my airstream this is an older one this is a 97 that i had converted to four wheel drive but anyway christine's gonna give us a tour inside and out hello welcome to new jersey outdoor adventures hi patrick i'm christine and this is the black pearl i call her pearl for short she is 19 feet long she's a mercedes-benz chassis with a 144 inch wheelbase which is the shorter version and she is usually getting about 18 to 20 miles per gallon it's a v6 turbo diesel and been doing this camping and rving for a long time and i had bigger units and i just decided i wanted to be able to go a lot more places being four-wheel drive allows me access to go anywhere so i looked around and i found this airstream interstate 19 and it has everything that i wanted in a home i gave up my apartment in june and so this is my house now and i spent some months thinking about different storage places and little storage hacks a lot of them from your channel new jersey outdoor adventures and some other youtubers so i'd like to share with you some of the things that i have done inside come on in so as you come in the door here you'll see this is the c zone this is all a panel with all touch control i can go from monitoring the batteries and the tanks it has a let's see it has a fresh water tank of 21 gallons and a grey water about 16 and a black tank of nine and then i can switch it and i can go to climb it turn on the air conditioning or the heat and different modes and then it controls everything from here with all of the shades the water pump the vents and the ceiling lights has a step on hold here and i put this is one of the things i added little puck lights uh coming in and out just easy to touch um this is the main battery shut off disk if you come on in welcome so this is the kitchen and living room and all in one so i'll start here in the kitchen and you can see that this model has a regular sink with a spout it actually has a hose that comes out so it's retractable you can actually pull it outside if you needed to it's great for washing pots and things that has a nice deep sink this is a two burner stove it is propane and it works great it i cook all my meals and i'm really able to do everything i need with the two burners this storage is just um this one area so this is all built in came with this and it has all my needs for a kitchen drawer with different spatulas lighter things like that and then these two cabinets are all my pots and pans i've two fry pans cast iron and then i use sea to summit cookware they stack inside each other and i have a lot of collapsible bowls and strainers and on the sides i've hung little hooks and i you know get things up and out of the way with my little hot pods there and then you know just only need very minimal um you know a couple plates bowls cups and that's it and um on the floor here i just have some bro rugs i got these from my apartment um these were on the back of a chair and they're just easy to wash and throw in and this flooring um is like a weave woven um and it's really durable it cleans well just sweep it out or vacuum with the little mini vac and it cleans up nice and easy all right moving back um some of the storage things i did um i added this little metal strip and it just stuck right to the aluminum and then these are magnetized um for all of my spices and it as i said i like to cook a lot so um i use a lot of spices this is a little pull out drawer and a table um so it's nice and convenient to come out and then i can have more space to work in the kitchen uh it has there's another add-on it's velcroed on so it's just extra basket i don't have a lot of cabinet space for things like this so having something just decorative out like that really works well for when i actually need another bowl or basket it has a microwave i don't usually use the microwave it stores all my breads and chips so um it's another little space to store moving to the back um i'll stay up top here this is one of the two cabinets that it has it's organized with two felt uh storage bins i think they're from ikea but this is my summer side and then the other cabinet has my winter clothes and that's plenty you'd be surprised moving around the top here these are two sliders that open for a cabinet of a beach towel i actually have my i'm a hiker i i hike the appalachian trail sections this is my tent and this is just an extra fleece road blanket so all throughout the van you'll see the different nooks and crannies where i've stowed away all the things that i need for my hiking and backpacking so that's where my tent is on this side this is another cabinet with my storage bins and these are all heavier winter clothes up front i have a couple places where i have winter coats actually stored away this is the electrical and solar system panel so whenever i hook into shore power i have to select the service amps that i'm using i'm on a 30 amp service right now and this shows you the battery remaining and the solar hours used for the 250 watts of solar that are on the roof and again i have another c zone back here so i whether i'm in the front or in the back i can access everything for the coach from these two sea zone panels this is the truma hot water heater system it's a combo and so if i wanted to turn on this would be for heating the rv this would be for heating the water and then it shows you the options that you have for choosing your power source so you can choose it to have let's say i want to turn on my hot water and then i click that one and then i'll turn it on to hot and then i can turn over here and i can say propane power mix 1 mix 2 and choose it all right moving down in the back um so around here i have a lot of things that are usb powered this is just a little clip-on fan and then i have this um little uh nightlight and then i also have a lantern that's usb operated inside this storage box i have two of these storage boxes one on each side and this one stores my goal zero it's a lithium battery it's the goal zero 200 i also have a solar panel for that to charge it right now it's plugged in to the coach through a regular outlet and the um this is the lantern i was telling you about that's also usb powered so in effect i could live off grid even if i didn't have uh battery power from the coach um because it doesn't it likes to be plugged in pearl likes to be plugged in uh it has a lot of things that are attached electronically with the energy sources um this is a lagoon table and so it's really great because you can swivel it different ways you can position it if you have people sitting here you can put it off to the side yeah so it works really well and it's a beautiful design from a nautical um [Music] actually found it from patrick's van one of his van tours that he did he has this in his van and um i liked it so much that i wanted to bring in the natural wood tones that i have here with the the bowl and the basket and and the table top all right this has a tv which i don't use too much but um you know it's got a little strap you can pull it down and you can swivel it actually to show up front if you swivel the front seat around i'm moving through this is the pantry it's really this is my solar oven um these are just um different things you would need in the kitchen drawer um this is all my food in the pantry and i have more food stored in the back in bins so that works out really well it also has a pull out pantry which i love it's one of my favorite things and i use this all the time i'm so easy to pull out and to get to my tea and my honey and the different things that i use on a regular basis it has a compression fridge which is great because i don't have to worry about being level to use it and so uh it has a freezer inside and it has a really nice size refrigerator as i said i live in the van and everything i need or could possibly need you know would fit in this size refrigerator so it really works out well all right and that's the freezer so it works out really nicely all right um this is the air conditioning system um it's a really loud i'm not going to have it run right now but it does work really well and i also have a ceiling vent and fan so a lot of times i like to just open the back two windows and turn on the fan and and shut the screen door on the side here it also has a full screen that drops down um with the back doors open it's really nice to sleep on a nice cool night with the doors open and just the screen down so it works out really well all right and this is the bathroom yes it does have a full wet bath and in the bathroom there is a the toilet um i got this little wooden mat for it for the shower this comes out and pulls up and hooks up on here so that you have the shower and it has shampoo conditioner and hand soap i added this little shelf here with the three tiers just for extra storage and little tower for tp so the bathroom is very functional and very spacious and i love it so these are some things that i found from watching different youtubers um these are little micro towels these are the bath towels that i use so i have two sets of them and they're really fold up nice and small there's three towels in here and the bath towel is really quite large it has a nice little hook and i can hook it right up on these i put these from one of my other motorhomes they hang right over the door and so it gave me a lot of extra hanging space for things like that these are quick drying and they really work well and also use it for extra beach towels in a pinch so you can see i step in here um how how nice and spacious it is it has a fan too i can turn the fan on and that eliminates any moisture and everything dry so the shower curtain would pull across and then everything on this side is able to get wet in the shower and it drains down the bottom and into the gray tank i also keep my laundry basket in there behind the toilet so i have that and then moving up to the front of the van um so this space here um behind my seat i just hung a hook and these are some of my jackets and my ukulele i also store here the uh cover for the window shades i also have actually a shower i love this what's called the green elephant but uh it pops out and it's i use it out on the side of the van with the outside water access and so i don't fill my tank so frequently i have two camp chairs here that i store i also have one of my hiking pads for backpacking that i use to sleep on put my sleeping bag on and then i have my manuals that came with the van and i also have um my little broom now a little dustpan and all of that fits nicely behind my seat moving up to the front you can see that this fabric here that came installed on the van um is is able to be velcro attaches to it really nicely so on one of the van tours i saw somebody had these velcro cargo nets and instead of putting a shelf across here for storage i wanted to keep the headspace and so i went online and found a whole bunch of these cargo nets and then i wanted it to look nice so i went and i got all the same little uh packet storage packs these are by eagle creek and these are a size small but um they really work well this is my hammock and so what you're looking at up here is most of the things that i found that i need to lift so this is on my hiking gear backpack my water filtration system for hiking so i can filter from a stream and have safe drinking water and then an extra little day pack over here i have all of my rain gear for hiking and i have a emergency roadside flares and things like that i have my junk drawer which would have in a kitchen with scissors and tape and coming down this side i have winter coats extra toiletries and first aid and like your medicine cabinet all that in here and then another winter coat so this is my little space where i keep some extra things these are my dvds when i feel like watching a movie on my laptop and this is my actual uh everyday toiletry bag and i unzip that and it hangs in the bathroom and everything is is right there that i need um and then this is just to make it feel like home these are some special things that people have given me over the years and this is my pug he died in may but my sister gave me this to remember and by and my other sister gave me that so here's his little memory tag hurley he's a sweetie he was 13 years old he was my co-pilot so it's time for a new one i think all right and then just up front here is just the um the manual for the van for the mercedes-benz manual part of it and i store my water up in one of these little soft-sided storage bins so i have all my different water containers up here and then i guess i'll take you outside on the way out you can see this is really handy over the back of the seat hanging organizer so i have everything from all of my bills and and letters and things in here to um i have my manuals and maps and i have my ukulele music books um these are some lucy lights that are solar powered so i i put them up in the front window and charge them and this little broom this comes in handy like all the time um these cup holders here and these are a couple of scarves so in the back this area here transfers from my um this is heavy i want to be really careful with it i'm going to put this safely up here so this area here actually converts to where i sleep and the couch goes down and i can show you the push of the button up here now being by myself when i'm by myself um i don't have to close both of these ottomans so i'll close the one ottoman over here and it takes up some of the floor space and then i actually i velcroed these on this little pad so it stays when i drive and that drops down and so this becomes my bed um i store my sheets in the back of the pillow decorative pillow and i put a pillow case on it and take the sheets out and this is a self-inflating camping mattress it's super comfortable and i put it out and it self-inflates and and then i actually just cover it make it like a bed so i put on a mattress pad and a fitted sheet and flat sheet and i have a a down quilt for the winter and in the summer i'll just use the blanket and it's really comfortable really cozy and so this gives me the floor space to you know keep walking and through here and go out through the van all right i'll take outside so this is because it's a full rv uh as i said it pretty much has everything it does have an awning and um with the control c zone here i can just click on the awning and i can open it up it's really big awning too i won't put it out all the way but it's really comfortable especially in the sun on a sunny day yeah it's really it's really nice and i have a a mat a rug that i put out here with my chairs um usually and so it makes a nice really outdoor living space so um i'll show you the outside of the van um some of the other storage things that i've done and the fronts here i have um just found this on a youtube channel to store all my leveling blocks i don't have a lot of space in the back garage and so they are stacked all the way along here so i have everything i need without taking up and wasting a lot of space in the back on the door i use this space for everything this has my binoculars a hammer this is a medical kit that came with the van aside from the medical kits i have from hiking just rags towels this is a wind-up battery for weather and emergency so i keep that handy for times when you know i need to tune in find out what's going on with the weather then i just have some wd-40 tape measure tire pressure gauge duct tape so all of that really can um you know just store it away there um this seat here it does swivel and so if i move the seat to the proper adjustment see [Applause] i can just swivel it around as i said i don't do this too often but it is really nice to be able to turn it around and you can then you know sit and watch tv from the back and so it works out nicely and this is a really great feature this is a screen full screen so this is all screened i can choose to open the door all the way or stop it here if it's cold weather and the screen with the fan and the windows open really circulates the air and it's quite comfortable this is my fresh water fill so i have a fresh water tank and i 21 gallon tank and i would fill it here i like it here because it's secure inside the van door so nobody could open it on an outside part of the van and put anything in it that would be unsafe so i just hooked up a regular garden hose to that and filled the tank there this is just an access panel so this is an outlet on the outside so that i can plug things in here that i might need um i actually travel with a toaster oven so i use that a lot i put my little table here and put the toaster oven on it this is where my propane shut off valve and fill is so this little switch here would go down to turn off the propane and this is where i fill it and that's the bleeder valve that has to be open when you're filling the tank and in the back is the garage i probably should have put the seat up because you can see a little bit better with the bench up but again i store i use everything for storage i use a lot of these rapid velcro things this is for my electric cord this is a little adapter for the electric to go down to 110 and then this is all things for keeping the van clean in the back here is where i store them in my bedding these are just stuff sacks so you just summit that i used from my hiking gear and so you'll see that i have a mattress pad and a quilt for when i need it in the cold winter so under here is my garage being this is the shorter version of the sprinter van being 144 inch wheelbase it has a much smaller garage area so i had to be really um careful about what i brought what i needed and how to store it so it's everything has a place and everything fits in its place and everything is safely um spaced so that the automatic chair going up and down isn't interfered with so this is an extra water hose and i have a utility shovel and i have those for times when you know if it's cold weather you have to dig out the snow you've got a shovel and then i have this is my cooking stove and kitchen for my backpack and all of the fuel for it this is my table and that really works out well it's just nice easy folding table and you can adjust the height i use that a lot and that's from gci outdoors um i have two of these these are from ikea i think and they're little octopuses for hanging my laundry out so there's a hook on a site you can hang that out but i also bring my own shepherd's hooks that are foldable and so um anytime that i have wet clothing bathing suits and towels i can hang them outside this is my sleeping bag as i said i have almost everything i need in the van for a backpacking trip all the time so i have a toaster oven which takes up a lot of space but i really like my toaster oven and i use it a lot i have some small storage bins these are all my bungee cords and velcro fasteners um hopefully don't need this nice snow scraper um i also keep you know hidden little things in here these are for my forks for cooking on the fireplace um for marshmallows and things like that um this is for my water these are my hoses my filter and all of the things that i need for water hookups and this is for my electrical i have another extension cord and um i have a cable for cable tv if they have a hookup for it and then i have another one which is for all of my extras i have chalks for the wheels i have a really nice axe for chopping my firewood extra toilet paper chemicals and this is for my tablecloth extension cord for when i just want to hook in and use an extension cord right from the electric post campsites all right so on this side my laundry detergent um i have a a cold bag so i can keep drinks cold to go to the beach and then these are these are my little cups that i use to um they fit together of course they come out right now it's one thing about van life or camping in a van i always have to move three or four things to get to what i need but that's just part of it yeah so these are just hooks i'm not going to put them together for you but you can see that they screw together and it's a nice little shepherd's crook to hang my my little laundry hook and then i have a tool box and again i watched a youtube channel um on things that you should have and travel with um in your van and this is just a funnel for putting some things in the engine uh for the fluids and i have my um oh up top um i velcroed on my hiking sticks and so you can see that you know they they've been there for eight months they haven't fallen down and so that they work pretty good this here is the screen that comes down i don't have access to the power button from here but it comes all the way down the rear of the van and secures um all the way down here and so you can have this full access with just a screen and sleep at night all right in the bottom here there is a hitch you have to undo these two little bolts and it is wired and capable of towing 5000 pounds and um it's pre-wired for braking system and lights and so there is a receiver there and moving around to this side this is the electric where i'm hooked up to shore power right now and then below it you'll see that is the exhaust for the generator it does have a generator on board it is propane operated and this is the uh city water so when you come to a campsite and you hook up to the post you can hook up your hose right there and hook up to the water source and i always use a water filter an rv water filter for that plus i filter my water again inside um this is the exhaust for the truma combo system for the hot water and heating system uh moving along here this is uh this part of the van has all of the access for your dumping of your tanks for the black and gray tanks also has the cable hookup if you're going to hook up to a cable tv and then this has a macerator system so it's a very small hose and it has a macerator in it so you would take this take it out to the dumping station disposal area and then you would open the tank and then you would turn on the macerator and then it would pump out all of the contents of that tank and then you shut it off and you close that tank and then you open the gray tank i do last i do the blank tank first and then i do the great tank and then i turn this on after the tank is open and wait till the um the hose runs clean and dry not too dry you'll break the macerator pump and then i shut that off and close the tank and this retracts the hose back in on the swivel inside the coach and i i don't know what this is service life i think that's the lights up oh yeah there's a light i haven't done this in the dark just found that and this is for the outdoor shower so in one of the bins in the back i have a hose and it has a nice little faucet and so you have hot and cold water coming out and i use it in my outdoor shower it works really great i've done that a lot this summer moving up to the front here again uh i try to use every bit of space this is another backpack that i have i have my gloves for when i filled the diesel and work on the tanks just an umbrella broom these are my shopping bags this is a set of fuses my fuses are under here and so in this fuse box you can see there's a need for lots of different fuses to run this coach so i have a multi-pack kit that allows me to you know hopefully have what i need and this is where i open up this little door and fill the diesel and i always double check to make sure i have the green nozzle there's actually diesel this is the first time i've had a diesel truck um and and so it's a really nice spacious cab area uh captain's chair here and comfortable super comfortable and i love sitting up there nice and high and driving a great view of the road works out really well [Applause] coming around the front has a really nice new features on the 2020. um version of the two night it's a 2019 mercedes-benz sprinter chassis and it's a 2020 airstream interstate 19 rv but they redid a lot of this area on the airstream lighting and some of the name plating and then the mercedes actual van chassis has a really nice step up here so uh when i want to work on the windshield or get to the wipers um this is where you would step and it's quite sturdy and supportive so you could get up here and you could reach everything that you need to works out really well christine thank you very much for giving us a tour of your 2020 airstream interstate 19 four-wheel drive and this is the uh just to repeat what we did in the beginning this is a 144 inch wheelbase 19 foot long about just under 10 foot tall and it's what for what i understand is a pretty rare four-wheel drive in your purchase process now i know you mentioned had other rvs before what led you to a van and why mercedes and why airstream well i i think as i said i i do have a long history with rv life um from very large 40-foot diesel towing a jeep to a tank camper in the beginning and travel trailers so i've i've had a class c class a everything there is and i wanted something that i could go anywhere i wanted to go with the four wheel drive and the short 19 foot body i can park in a regular parking spot anywhere i don't have any restrictions in terms of state parks and and length limitations that would keep me from going to see some of the places that that i want to travel and go see so it has everything i need inside i have found a place for all the items that i actually need to have with me and i still have some space for some other things to add to it but this vehicle allows me the freedom to just go to just go explore to go see places um i've been cross country in rvs twice i've been cross country in a car with just a tent so whatever you can do to get out and go see this beautiful country just do it this has been a long time coming and i've waited a long time to um to buy something like this and i knew what i wanted i wanted airstream i wanted the quality i wanted the build um the mercedes benz part of it the engine uh the durability the the years that this will last me uh were two of them the factors that i found these two joined together were the the right choice for me um so you i can't say enough about the quality of the airstream and the interior and the detail um the functionality uh so you know nothing not good has broken on it um it's it's it's built well it's built to last and and it really it's wonderful to live in i love it do you do any stealth type camping because i can imagine a vehicle this size and i mean it just looks like a regular passenger van i've had people ask me um you know what's in there and so a lot of people unless they see the awning and then they kind of know it's probably an rv they don't know i i don't do a lot of stealth uh camping but i know i could i could park this anywhere and somebody would just think it's a vehicle parked for the night because it's it's very plain on the outside it doesn't have any um indicators that that it's an rv other than the airstream logo um on on the side trim so yeah you could you could be stealth um i don't boondock either because the the batteries on this particular unit aren't set up for that so there are lithium batteries and there are more powerful inverters like a 3000 watt inverter this only has a thousand watt inverter and so it's not meant for that and i didn't want to do that i knew when i started this that i had a camping membership and that i was going to mostly be in rv campgrounds and that i would have sure power to hook up and to use all of the um luxuries that this provides me and that's my choice but whatever is important for you then look into that you know because this is not something you would go out and boondock for three weeks as it is coming off the lot you would have to make some upgrades and do you i see we saw the onboard generator and the air conditioning are those two things that you utilize a lot so the generator i've run generally just for the maintenance of it every month i'll run it for an hour i have used it a couple of times when my battery went low when i was in the state park without sure power hookups and and i had some things running that required the batteries to be recharged but generally speaking i don't use them all that much and you are a storage genius all the things that you've done in here and i i now i got some ideas for mine do you have any suggestions for any first-time buyers people out there right now researching class b motorhomes whether production models custom or to building their own do you have any suggestions or recommendations for them yes um think about what you want to do with it think about how you're going to use it you know like i said this one isn't really set up for boondocking um but this is perfect for me to live in and this is exactly what i need for all the comforts of home that i had left behind when i gave up my apartment find what fits your budget you know so not only research what you think you'll use it for how you'll use it but think about like how how much you have to spend on something and then make sure that you're able to enjoy it because you have the money to to go do trips and go places with it most people don't realize and rvs you could get 15 or 20-year loans on them so if someone's looking to get into this lifestyle and giving up an apartment you could have a very low monthly payment if you decided to even finance one of these whereas if you were going to build your own i don't think a bank would give you a loan for all the materials so you know this will have a book value when you're done with it so we'll have a trade-in and a retail value which is different than someone doing their own home built one because there's no book value so it's gonna be hard for someone to get a loan on it for the value of the conversion yes and and instead of paying rent i pay my loan on this so i do have a loan um i am not able to just buy something like this outright but then you also have to think about getting it insured because this is rv certified build this is insurable by a regular insurance company so this is fully insured for the contents for the engine for any damage anything stolen so this has complete coverage from bumper to bumper for anything that might happen to it if you build your own i've heard it's harder to find the insurance companies that will cover you might not have your build cover just the vehicle so things to think about well thank you very much for taking the time here today and i wish you much luck in your full-time journey in an airstream camper van this is the airstream interstate well if you would like your van featured on new jersey outdoor adventures and you're in new york and new jersey area please be sure to email new jersey outdoor adventures at gmail.com well this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel hope you enjoyed this video please like this video comment share and subscribe i love it we'll see you soon

Channel: New Jersey Outdoor Adventures

Views: 1,130,053

Rating: 4.850565 out of 5

Keywords: camper tour, airstream, interstate 19', nineteen, ext loungt, grand tour, van tour, rv tour, vanlife, #vanlife, van life, full time, living in rv, rv hacks, cheap rv living, bug out vehicle, turkey swamp park, new airstream, airstream price, campervan, westfalia, revel, winnebago, advanced rv, roadtrek, pleasure way, midwest, coachmen, thor, class b, walk through

Id: xVFNwUvCnDw

Length: 43min 43sec (2623 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 05 2020