VAN TOUR | 5+ YEARS LIVING ON THE ROAD

[Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my name is Christian Schaefer I a photographer and filmmaker and I'm now in my sixth year of living on the road fulltime in May of 2018 I moved out of my apartment that was just outside of Seattle Washington and into my niss Sonic sta SUV for a summer which turned into 14 months then I decided to purchase this band which I've called home for more than 4 years now I've already done two complete walkthroughs of my original build that you can go and watch if you want to see just how this F started out this video will be an overall walkthrough but with emphasis on the changes and updates I've made since the rebuild if you've been following me for a bit you know about what happened this summer I just decided to start ripping flooring up cuz I was smelling some really concerning smells and it's pretty bad guys most of the subf flooring was soaked with water it was a hugely stressful event I would not wish it on anyone the problem was a leak in the plumbing in a section between the cabinet and the actual metal van floor so in a place where the leak wasn't visible and pretty much just went unnoticed for a really long time and did a lot of damage I contacted my original Builder and we wound up ripping out the entire bottom half of the van and doing a total rebuild at this point it's December so I've now been living in the new remodel for about 4 months and I've had some time to really test out the new build this van is a ram promas High roof 1500 136 wheelbase with custom cut wheel wells for 245 altering ko2 tires and aftermarket Sumo springs for added suspension for this rebuild we replac the entire lower half of the B I did consider a fixed bed this time around but ultimately decided to keep the din setup I love having the ability to completely transform my living space every day and the office setup makes it much easier to edit for long stretches of time at first glance it might look kind of exactly the same but there are quite a few changes we made to really maximize space and make this band even more functional than before so one of the first things we did was redesign the dimensions of this walkway we widened it by 2 in and then we also push the countertops in by 2 in so the bed is a little bit Slimmer but the trade-off is that I have a lot more space in the hallway where I can easily store my ebike and still get in and out one thing you may have noticed is that we got rid of the toe kick so the toe kick it was in the previous build a 3-in space where your toe could slide underneath and you wouldn't stub your toe all the time I decided to to get rid of that in order to maximize space I personally think it's been so worth it I was able to add two more lithium batteries in the electrical compartment we made the camera drawer so much bigger and there was so much extra space that we just played with the dimensions over here a little bit and added an entire second drawer above the fridge I wanted to repurpose and Salvage as much as possible for this rebuild so we were able to keep the upper cabinets all of the lighting the fixtures appliances even the subway tile is the same as the original build we just regrouted everything so that it's nice and bright with the countertops I went with a whiter brighter color I just feel like the brighter the more opens the space up up here we replaced the dtic fantastic fan with the max a fan and honestly it has been night and day the fantastic fan I would only run when I was cooking because I had to and the reason is because it makes this loud woring sound that was so annoying but this fan is like feather light and I run it all night long when I'm sleeping it puts me right to bed this can be ran in the rain whereas my old one couldn't so highly recommend here is the camera drawer it goes back further and it's deeper so I can fit everything I need to in there if you guys are interested in knowing what camera care I use or what I have in my office setup or even anything I mentioned in this vour I have a page on my website that's linked down below it's everything from camping gear to camera gear to Van life Essentials here is the bottom drawer where I just keep towels utensils cutting boards and and then this drawer on top is where I keep the rest of my utensils I kept the same small dtic fridge which in all honesty I would have loved to go with a larger size just to accommodate more food but that would have meant selling the old fridge buying a new fridge and this just seemed like the simpler way to go if you saw my previous van tour you might remember that I had an 11 lb propane tank and I actually never used that in the van I had just gotten it for the van and someone in the comments pointed out that it wasn't properly ventilated and that it was an actual safety hazard I ended up going right back to the one PB Coleman propane tanks which it really sucks from an environmental perspective because I go through them a lot more often than I would a bigger propane canister I did consider replacing this gas stove with an induction stove top but everything I read online just said that it drew a lot of power I didn't want to complicate things further by adding in an appliance that would require even more power so I am sticking with the propane gas stove top for now in this cabinet I have more food storage mostly dry goods and these collapsible cloth baskets bowls plates frying pan my pot here and then I'll keep spices or produce up in here the key is to make sure it doesn't rattle when you're driving and so far this has been pretty solid in this cabinet I have more kitchen storage kitchen supplies toiletries more kitchen stuff collapsible strainer favorite mugs plastic wine glasses collapsible water kettle which I use all the time every day aerrow press for making coffee behind those linen boxes I have my propane tank and a propane gas detector mounted behind that I have a bare bin for whenever I'm camping in remote locations and need to store trash outside the vehicle down in this cabinet is the electrical system everything in this van is solar powered and runs off of either AC or DC current for this rebuild I decided to double the battery capacity to four 100 amp lithium batteries on the roof I have two mounted solar panels that are 160 WT each so 320 WTS total and I use an app on my phone to wirelessly monitor my battery levels throughout the van there are five 12vt dimmable light switches 10 LED 12volt Puck lights three AC Outlets four USBC and two USB charging ports with these newer ports I'm able to power my laptop using 140 W 12vt converter rather than my inverter which definitely helps conserve energy we move the fuse box to the front so it's easier to access and upgraded the DC DC charger to a solar DC charging combo that charges my house batteries whenever I drive this newer model is both smaller and more efficient it can recharge my setup to 100% with roughly 8 hours of driving I also have a 3,000 W inverter and we upgraded the wiring throughout to better support the voltage I can curl my hair I can use power tools in this drawer we have maybe the most important thing in the van which is the the toilet T if you guys remember in my last B build my toilet was on a drawer with actual sliders and it was constantly falling apart I had to do multiple repairs on it this design is a lot simpler we made it to accommodate the trino composting toilet which highly recommend these two bins here on the side are for trash and composting material for the toilet I stack my toilet paper here on the side so everything is conveniently located for me to use the bathroom number one and number two in this cabinet I keep mostly cleaning supplies this little shelf is a new addition and under the sink is basically more cleaning supplies compost garbage bin baby wipes paper towels mini plunger grocery bags minint Roller Magic Erasers composting bag everyday cleaner dish soap bear spray Swiffer glass cleaner rodent spray very important laundry detergent I got six of these in 2021 and I still have two left on the inside of this cabinet door I have three hooks to hang dish drying towels and my mini broom that I use all day every day we relocated the water pump from the side of this cabinet to the top to make better use of what was otherwise an empty space Here's the water pump and gray water tank switch and the gray water tank is a 5 gallon tank stored outside underneath the van out here is my water storage so that I have easy access to just take it out and fill it up and of course we redid All of the [Music] plumbing in my original build I had the shoe drawer accessible from the outside which honestly didn't make a lot of sense cuz I couldn't get to my shoes unless I went outside so we move this indoors and now I use it every day when it came to flooring for this rebuild I actually found what I think is the exact same flooring that I had in the original build it was deeply discounted at Floor and Decor so we love that we used the same flooring all throughout including underneath the benches in the back with the ram pro masters there is a metal flooring with grooves and in the past we put in pieces of plywood to make it everything level which ended up just being one more material that could get soaked so we eliminated that and we left those channels open so that if there is ever any water underneath the van it can hopefully go out the back through those open channels on top of the metal flooring we put 1/8 in Mahogany which was painted and treated to be mold and milder resistant then we just glued engineered hardwood flooring directly on top of that in the old build we had the plywood planks a four of an inch of plywood a whole layer of insulation a whole layer of cork and then engineered hardwood actually curious to noce how tall this is 6'2 I think it was only 510 maybe 511 last time this down here is another new addition it's basically a 4in step that still allows me oh you can't see there's still Headroom we made the mistake of mismeasuring these benches and my feet were d dangling and end up being a really happy accident because this is more storage and we love more storage it is my tripod storage up in these cabinets I keep mostly clothing and they're stored in these collapsible cloth bins I like to roll most of my clothes just because it maximizes storage and it's easier to see what you have in this bin I have zippered travel bags so I keep socks in here underwear bras that sort of thing keeps it really organized folded pants a folding mirror and a bunch of toiletries face wash face lotion contact solution hairbrush makeup miscellaneous toiletry stuff hair ties more toiletry stuff I got these little containers off of Amazon and I store various things in them like this one has sunscreen ipren that sort of thing for the seating area we did change the dimensions a little bit to [Music] maximize the seating area storage and also to push the walls out and make the bed longer the bed is actually the thing I was most excited about for the van upgrade because we took it from 511 to 6'2 I used to always sleep diagonal on my bed because I'm 5'9 and I like to stretch out but now I can actually sleep sideways and be comfortable we did that by knocking out the side panels and then coming up with a new design that can maximize that space since we changed the dimensions of the seating area we couldn't reuse the cushions we had to custom cut all new cushions but the benefit of that is I got to choose a new color the old cushions were a bluish gray and the new ones are a warm cafe latte heather gray and I love them the cushions themselves are 3 in of natural latex wrapped in Wool batting and enclosed in a zippered muslin fabric case which Nest inside this outer casing of duck canvas with a triple stitch in seam so it is durable as fun my work table is mounted on a lagoon Mount and at night when I make the bed it just pops right down and then I put these cushions down over it and lay my 1in mattress topper on top of the 3 in of latex cushion so it's super soft it's probably the size of a full bed I would say in this bench I keep all of my bedding and it's pretty deep the 1in latex mattress topper is down underneath you can also see my wee boost is tucked away down here with the interior antenna mounted to this side column and the exterior antenna attached to the roof I've had pretty good luck using this to boost my cell signal in remote locations and I recently upgraded my monthly Mobile plan to include 130 GB hotspot so I'm able to work off grid in most places with this setup here's the other end of that same bench I use a handful of these zippered linen bags that I got from The Container Store down inside the benches cuz they're just super durable and really great for organization in the previous build these benches had metal framing which took up a fair amount of space so this time around we went with a simpler design that allows for so much more storage I've got my backpacking bag helmet a bunch of hiking boots underneath the bag is my standup paddle board which I can easily access from the back when we redesigned the bed and dinette area we made it so that the back bench was actually a lot wider so that it could serve as a day bed it's 6'2 long and then I think 27 in wide I personally prefer transforming the whole Space every single day because it just makes me feel more productive if I wake up and the first thing I do is make my office I go into work mode and that really helps me with a little bit of structure and routine but it is nice to have the option of not having to make my bed every night this is my work sling table it can move in all sorts of directions because it's on a lagoon Mount this table is a solid piece of wood as opposed to my last table which was two pieces of wood glued together and the problem with that was it was really thick and heavy and so it would lean a little bit on the Lagoon Mount and it had a tendency to warp this one has not warped at all so so far so that's been great it's also lighter so it's less likely to wobble and there's more surface area so I definitely prefer this table over the last one if I want to work from my day bed or have like dinner in a movie I can reposition the table like this pull it up close and then I can have my food my iPad and it's super convenient I have these two sliding windows on either side when I'm sitting at my desk working I have fresh air coming in I can also look up and see a beautiful view so that was another reason why I didn't want a fix bed is because my desk area would have been over there and I would have just been staring at the kitchen sink all day this may seem like an excessive amount of pillows in a van this size and it is but it's storage in plain sight I keep all my down sleeping bags down jackets and just other various blankets inside each of these pillows back here actually one of you commented on my original van tour this idea so thank you it has been the ultimate hack I do have a travel Martin guitar that I'm still learning how to play slowly but surely but I usually just have this in its case and it just hangs out back there whenever I'm driving or on the bed if I'm too lazy to make the bed that [Music] day in the back I decided to have cabinet doors rather than drawers to save space and added a shelf to the middle cabinet so I could better organize my gear [Music] this partition wall used to have an electric outlet in it which ultimately resulted in a lot of wasted space I decided to remove the outlet so we could open up this wall and create a kind of cubby hole to hang jackets add a hat hook and stash a few extra things my day pack inside my day pack I have another backpack my grab and go shower pack shower tote quick dry towel Carabiner for easy hanging hat storage laundry bag I've actually had this bag since College which was well I graduated in 2007 so a long time okay I know I'm probably going to get comments asking about a shower and why I didn't include one in this rebuild I personally think that for a van this size a shower just doesn't make sense to me it's wasted real estate not only for the shower stall itself but for the fresh water and gray water storage as well I actually Ed my solar shower quite a lot this summer it's so easy to fill up in a river or lake and then just add a kettle full of boiling water to make it nice and hot plus I have a gym membership sometimes I house it and there's always campgrounds and aquatic centers and the occasional Airbnb so I'm pretty content with this set up and not having a shower under the driver's seat I keep a lot of tools and miscellaneous things like tape and batteries tire inflator jump starter shovel I should also probably mention that we replace the original plastic cabinet and drawer latches in the van with a stronger metal latch design so far it's been a solid upgrade underneath this swivel passenger seat is my sbar petrol heater it draws gas directly from my van's fuel tank so I don't need to hook up a separate fuel source to keep it going and it's extremely efficient I have yet to see any noticeable drop in the fuel gauge whenever I start the engine even after using it for hours at a time also this is the high altitude model which means it can function in higher elevations next to the heater I have a battery powered carbon monoxide detector and for the rebuild we relocated the 12vt temperature monitor to the back of the van so I can easily start my heater in the morning without getting out of bed up here in the front I stack all sorts of miscellaneous things yoga mat Camp table shoes back packs walkie-talkies more random stuff basically I'm like a squirrel and I hide things everywhere under my cushions I store my window covers they are from vanmade gear and they're reflecti material and they have magnets along the side so they completely black out the van once I have them all placed on the windows and then I have a blackout curtain here up front that I can secure to the side door using a magnet so that there's no light coming out of the van it's pretty stealthy I do think this rebuild was absolutely necessary just to ensure there wasn't any possibility of mold or wet wood residual in the van I also wanted to compensate Brett although he did offer to do it at Cost which was incredibly generous of him I didn't want to do that he put so much work time love and effort into this van and I'm so so thankful to him that he even like fit me in I just passed the 60,000 M Mark in the van which does seem to surprise a lot of people considering how long I've been in the van but doesn't surprise me I mean I enjoy traveling slow I would say somewhere around the 2-year Mark of living like this full-time the novelty of quickly driving from place to place kind of wore off and I began to travel with more intention and base and locations for weeks at a time before moving on I find slower travel to be a lot more enjoyable and sustainable in the long term I also really love this van and I want it to last so I'm not in any rush to rack up the miles I think overall this layout really maximizes space it's highly functional and comfortable while still being Compact and not a pain to drive around or park in urban settings or along narrow mountain roads my only genuine complaint is that it's not a 4x4 I hope that I cover just about everything I'm sure I left some things out here or there so if you have questions or comments leave them down below and I will do my very best to respond come say hi over on Instagram @ Christian Schaefer if you want to see more behind the scenes content of living life on the road a full-time as always thank you so much for being here y'all are the best maybe one day I'll see you out on that open [Music] road [Music] [Music]

Channel: Christian Schaffer

Views: 419,361

Keywords: campervan, van conversion, tiny home, tiny house, tinyhomeonwheels, living in a van, solo female, solo female travel, travel vlog, solo female van life, off grid living, off grid, travel, build, electrical, toilet, office, solar, organization, digital nomad, minimalism, shower, propane, heater, rebuild

Id: dLP_eoG44VY

Length: 22min 43sec (1363 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 07 2024