VAN TOUR | Ford E-350 Cutaway Camper Van Conversion | Blizzard proof build w/ diesel heater

[Music] so [Music] what's up guys my name is nate brown and this is my ford e350 cutaway van conversion bit of a mouthful uh so this is actually my fourth kind of van conversion my first one was a big ass box truck that uh i already got kind of pre-converted and then i added on to it and kind of learned a lot next was a homemade camper i built all just during quarantine over in taha the next one was an econoline just the extended short van and then now this guy so basically the story of getting this is the day i was about to get it i was supposed to get a sprinter van and uh the guy ended up bailing day off just kind of flaked on me kind of some harsh words a little bit exchanged so i hopped up on craigslist and stumbled upon this guy and it was posted five minutes prior so i called my friend sammy and i was like hey sammy i know you're gonna drive me down to seattle today uh how do you feel about driving me down to olympia she was super on board went down checked this thing out and it was pretty much completely untouched basically when i bought this van it was just a big white box with just some terrible graphics on the side of the previous business and uh basically what i did was it had its pre-existing swing outdoors and i added the windows i added this window an electrical cabinet um that is accessible from the outside and as well as the door and cut the entire door out and riveted it on from there i kind of had my like base of what i was trying to do um so i started out with just a heavy duty insulation everything is has poly scio with reflectix um just coating the entire thing the main like idea behind that is i wanted this to be kind of a van for skiers and snowboarders stay warm cozy and kind of have like some good vibes in the parking lot even during like a blizzard or just you know negative temperatures so i wanted you to feel comfortable basically when making this uh so for cabinetry i kind of just laid it out as in you walk in and you have your sync system uh the sink basically is set up where it is on a water pump and the water pump is designated by a switch so just turns it on and off you have two different settings and here just turn on and it's nice to turn it off and then over here spans and you have the rest of the kitchen and the main part about this is there's a pass-through door and i really wanted to make a huge kitchen for just like kind of big old dinner parties i feel like every single van i've ever had the kitchen isn't quite big enough so i have a removable leaf right here and that allows you to pass through to the cab still with complete ease which is one of my favorite touches with this thing um if you swing out right here is basically your drawer for all your silver utensils everything down here you have your cycling and your trash this would be all your food storage would be down here additional plates whatever you might need two cabinets right here mostly for food and then your fridge or isotherm fridge right here you have more personal items three different cabinets and all these cabinets are on what i call pissed off girlfriend proof hinges and uh they're all this slow closed hinge so you can't slam them which i think is pretty important in one of these vans above you have two cabinets which these are mostly kind of clothes whatever you might need that is on a separate light system over here you have your living area which is basically i kind of want to make this as open but utilize the space as much as i possibly could so you basically have two seats and they both have under storage and then right here is your table the table is pull out so basically i really wanted to make the table also turn into a couch and i also wanted to make it so i was able to kind of be sitting right here and if i needed to get up to like grab some food it was easily adjustable so you're able to just have your laptop right here or you can have a huge dinner party so basically if you take this guy out flop it right here swing these guys out open right here got two extra cushions so yeah right here you have your extra bed in most bands i had i didn't have like an extra bed for uh like friends to crash over for the night so this is pretty crucial in this build and i just wanted to make it so it's just a multi-purpose uh situation you also have your toilet basically this is a nature's head toilet i've never had one of these personally in one of my vans because i can't afford it but they seem pretty dang sweet they're it's a full composting toilet and uh basically my stimulus check funded this thing so whoever purchases the van better appreciate those biden bucks swing it back in boom so basically you have all your all your uh space is multi-purpose um and it still remains extremely open so for my bed i had it uh kind of raised the size so i could have a pretty meaty garage i think which is one of the most important parts of any van conversion especially if you're you know outdoorsy and like to pursue sports you kind of want to have an area for all your equipment and kind of all of its little spots so this is why i raised it up this high uh the bed is a full-size bed but the length is actually six four um so most people can you know sleep very comfortably in this above right here two cabinet setups the cabinets there's some stuff in there but that is basically all your clothing it's kind of like the his and hers cabinetry uh the swing over here uh you have a personal fan and this fan is set up in every single conversion i've ever done it's a 360 degree fan and they usually use these on boats stays cool at night and also just promotes air circulation right here is a reading light which i think is pretty nifty um and then right here you got your little your little fairy lights with all the quirky little instagrammy settings um which i actually quite like and then on this side you have a little charging port which is just via a switch right here if you pan over here you have another charging port which is on that switch and this is on the fridge so basically if you're not using your van for a while instead of just unplugging your fridge you just flick the switch right here is your diesel heater so all you have to do is basically press on turns on and the diesel heater i have it split so it comes out one is right here and then the other one is down here um pretty much in previous conversions i've had you know it could be 90 degrees 100 degrees in here but your feet are always going to be cold in the middle of the winter because heat rises so i wanted to put the diesel heater basically at your feet and like heat up the floor especially while cooking it's it's pretty crucial otherwise you need to invest in a pretty expensive pair of slippers or something so basically the main electrical it's set on these six puck lights are set on a dimmer um and these things are super cheap off amazon i've had them in every single conversion i've had and it's it's always worked perfectly for the exterior i have two sets of lights one is a red running light that goes right here can't really quite see right now and then on the other side there's another red the running light so wherever you're camped out at you can just you know basically either have your red lights going towards your campsite or all around you um which i think is is probably one of the best things i've ever done in a van if you pan down something that actually is probably my favorite part about this conversion is the water system so for the water system i decided i've had fresh water tanks and a lot of my conversions and though they're great it's actually really annoying to try to find a hose with clean water to fill it up um especially when you're in like california or kind of in the middle of nowhere you're like you just run into someone's yard and fill it up it's it's definitely not a great system um and the water definitely tastes pretty janky a lot of the time so basically what i did was i have three seven gallon uh water tanks and these are all can just be filled up straight from any grocery store basically that has like that glacial water um and it's just super easy to fill up and i just have a little pop top system right here it's removable and you just undo this guy [Music] pull it out and do this and then you just put that into the next bit basically for my diesel heater this thing is an unleaded van so i couldn't attach it to the tank itself to the gas tank so instead i actually used a jerry tank and the jerry tank is just fed right through here and goes uh straight to the pump which is externally uh mounted i really like this because if you have a little internal diesel tank inevitably you're gonna splash some diesel and uh your entire van is gonna reek so i actually quite like this design if you open up here you can latch the doors on the side which is a nice little thing and you have the garage garage you just got a little switch right there um right here is your diesel heater and it's turned on right now so you can hear it kind of going i put it separate so it's in the garage so you actually can't really hear it and it also cycles so you get warm air down here so it'll heat up your bed as well right there is the compostable toilet which is just removable right there if you ever need to clean it easily accessible and then right here you have his and her cabinets for all your storage stuff along with some hooks you also have 120 volt right here in case you ever need to like add speakers or party lights or extend your living space to the outside as well as an easily accessible propane tank right here that is just on a latch system take it out pull out your tank and fill it up so basically one of the key components i wanted in this van and how i do actually all my electrical and any vans now is i make an entirely separate cabinet this like basically makes it so it's easy to work on if you ever need to tinker with some fuses or add more 12 volt or whatever it may be it's all in one location and it keeps it really neat and tidy let's pop it open so you have basically four deep cycle batteries that give over 200 amp hours of power right here this is connected to your alternator and that charges your batteries while you're driving everything is on its own fuse and breaker and these breakers are pretty sweet because they're they're marine grid so they just actually just pop open instead of destroying the fuse um everything also the solar and the entire battery bank themselves is on full kill switches which i think is pretty important for storage and then up here is your mounted 1200 watt power 3000 watt power sign inverter so when uh building out this van it was pretty important to have a really strong racks because i wanted to mount a deck up and i also wanted a really nice ladder and basically there's no ladders that are custom fit to this and same with the roof racks they're super hard to come by so i actually am super fortunate we're one of my best friends he owns probably the best rack manufacturer in on planet earth at this point it's called tanner rack and it's located in bellingham washington um he basically custom fabbed all these this ladder with all the treads for your feet along with the roof racks that are extremely important so the deck doesn't fly off while driving so for solar basically i did 300 watts of uh solar from renegy um they all feed in at this corner right here through these things called clam shells these are marine grid and they basically are super waterproof for your positive and negative wire to feed through i built a deck basically everywhere so you can easily clean off your solar panels especially if you are parked up at the mountain have a big blizzard and you need to you know have some energy it's really accessible and you just shovel it right off the deck is built also around your max air fan and this thing is pretty crucial never skimp out on your roof van especially if you live in the pacific northwest because if you do you're going to get water in your van having this one it gives a rain guard so you're able to leave it open all year long and you'll never get wet on the inside basically the rest of it's just a huge deck for beers and sunsets and taking a girl on a pretty date whatever it may be well thanks for coming checking out my van guys this guy is actually up for sale if you guys want to swoop it you can reach me at nate underscore and underscore nico on instagram uh especially if you want to see more builds kind of like this also i recommend checking out my food truck i just opened up in bellingham washington definitely stop by if you're ever in the area it's called sweet ass waffles definitely way cooler than any van i've ever built definitely check it out and thanks for stopping by guys and take it easy [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Trail and Summit

Views: 118,310

Keywords: vanlife, van tour, camper van, van conversion, ford, e 350, cutaway van, box van

Id: 4hAbE3BlH50

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021