VAN TOUR - Handcrafted Artisan Retro Van Build

what's up guys i just wanted to see how long i could like stand here without them saying anything all right so we are at uh mark's uh big old shop i'm gonna just i'm gonna look at this look at the size of mark's warehouse this is like your storage area all right he just finished uh medell's van right and uh mike right he came this time around and we are going to talk to midel and mike and mark the builder you and i did a video not too long ago it was really interesting because i got to see this thing empty and now i get to see it finished we'll apologize the acoustics are obviously a little echoey and loud but once we get inside i promise they're going to be fine let's get into the entire tour with mark's nomadic customs newest creation it is an absolute artisan masterpiece let's get into this you know where did this all start you met mark a while back middle right in the 80s i lived in a van a 69 bw van i saw a lot of damn life videos and the van life hashtag going around and tiny tiny homes i think i started out going how cool would it be to build a tiny home and i would fantasize about that and then i went it's too big to do anything and there's no way to build it here and then i went to schoolies and then i went still too big and researched it for like a year maybe we bought one and i thought i could build it out myself no no how long so when was that process like when how long did it take you from like all right i'm gonna build it and then you're like nah i'm gonna go and find a builder well i thought the major systems that i would need to get done were definitely things i couldn't do i wanted a cruise and comfort air conditioner i didn't know i wanted the van life tech heat but that's insanely great mainly electrical and the cruise and comfort i wanted so i knew i would have to get somebody else to do that and then i met i reached out to mark i actually saw him on judy judy's tour okay sorry about that and she had no she had the cruising comfort and i went finally somebody who can do a cruise and comfort install and then it just sort of it was like why not get him to do it he's a woodworker it would be so great seriously like an art piece in there and now i'll have to say too that miguel had her her stuff figured out knew what she wanted she came to us with a big long list of everything that she wanted but moreover i could put middle on a sourcing task and i would get 40 options of what we could use and you actually went through like a couple different things like you went through like for example like just the the uh the tile in the bathroom oh yeah you actually changed it off you went from one thing to another and then this real expensive beautiful tile from actually a place that was in portland and then it was like we opened the boxes and went oh this is like a quarter inch thick tile this is ridiculous so i just found some penny tile from uh home depot it works better mark do you want to add anything to this uh you know i know it's a long long long process and mostly because you have i think you have the works in this thing what's interesting is like when you look at it we don't have all the bolt-on bumpers and racks and all you know all the things that really you would think would uh kind of more personalize the the vehicle what we did do is we really dove in it did a deep dive into mike and medel's wants and quality it is not an easy thing to do handcrafted stuff yeah i mean you don't even have a cnc machine here dude you don't have a cnc machine so like these little grooves that you see here those are all like hand cut yeah that's like everything about our our business and what we're doing is is hand crafted well at this point i've definitely put up a lot of pictures and photos or videos of the van um but let's step in and let's kind of go into some like deep dive into some details if that's okay obviously the owners of the van are standing in there because it's their van yes the builder let's take him outside he's he spent too much time in his hand anyway he's not spinning every time he went with the two swivels up front yes and no no shelf as like a bulkhead or like a bulkhead shelf no this is fine don't hit your head right it's great whose color choice was this it's all my color choices oh that's a i love it the greens and the oranges of this wood and i'd wanted cherry or something like that and and mark suggested this douglas fir it's better than cherry in my opinion it's local and it's gorgeous yeah mark i don't know where you got your lumber phone but it's uh it's amazing and some of this is actually old growth vertical grain i mean that's what your also background is a lot of woodworking so you know wood better than almost anybody i think little detail things like wood is going to move a lot and do a lot of different things in different climates and elevations you also know that we couldn't nail a hardwood floor down which i wanted you know it's like i want some reconstituted old growth hardwood that's not a really good thing to have in a van and it makes sense total sense plus you also have a radiant fluoride yeah right you can't nail into that out of sight out of mind people don't understand that this is a hydronic heated floor system yeah i had it in my van and the absolute game changer of all game changers i can't wait for you guys to enjoy it in the winter time the upholstery done behind you yeah is actually matched throughout so right if i'm not correct yeah it's matched throughout the entire vehicle but a shout out to my upholsterer as well you can see all kind of the horizontal lines in that fabric dealing with a multiple shaped curved structure and he was able to like seam all of that stuff together he got all those lines to match so to the eye yeah the reveal is actually just uh striking as opposed to it being a mishmash of patterns color choice was kind of mine but he picked this based on the this welsh blanket that i bought this blanket right here no the the patterned one oh this one yeah that's a welsh full blanket and all right so medal you went through a ton of different color choices and understanding everything and then you're just like mark you take your artisan and go to the next level with it so who picked the layout i think it was kind of collaborative i love it it's collaborative and you went with these two front seats and then you have did you know this table was coming no no that was a surprise mark this is one of your your crew yeah it's actually a table that i put together epoxy table i love it oh yeah just epoxy table it's no big deal dude those tables are not easy to do you know this at the same time it's a beautiful way of using wood that you couldn't normally use that was actually a really fun one because they were kind of some pretty unique pieces of wood and then it just turned out beautiful the orange is the color matched yeah is it a maple it's a maple yep now mark i do want to show off a little bit of a what i like to call brim trim um and uh if you wouldn't mind we're gonna shut you off for just one second so can you shut that door so i can start to show just a little bit of brand yeah and i'll just give brian a quick little shout to that guy is a wood ninja he knows so much of what he's doing the detail and meticulousness that he puts behind everything so this is what we were i was talking about with the brim trim this is a not an easy thing to do when you're a woodworker guys um and he uh brin that's why we call it brim trim worked it into your your your window trims and right i took off normally these turn windows which are great because they are awning windows and you can have them open so you can have them open and normally they come with these faces that have a blackout screen and a bug screen but i said i don't want them i want bread trim yes i i do love that and then kale austin made the covers for these so we already have blackout covers that he made for the whole van so behind you you have a phenomenal galley very signature piece that a lot of van builders do is the the drop the drop in you know counter thank you majiggy yeah um and obviously they got the brim trim above it um mark anything uh out of the ordinary into this guy well what i'll say is uh you know we did a split galley kind of based off of what nadel wanted um and then maedel uh you know picked out some really beautiful pieces for um this the sink and faucet so it's actually yeah so this all these pictures were all you know this is like yeah yeah i bought this and i bought the sink which is this black stainless steel and i know you're a lot like me um our tastes are expensive yes so that is an expensive taste yeah it is it's a it's a really bad it's more expensive than what we have in our house oh no way oh yeah wait she says can i open one of these drawers so this is this is some of your stuff actually yeah it is you actually i didn't even realize that i'm sorry these are tiny little sponges that if you put them in water they turn into actually washcloths okay cool under cabinet we have the greywater tank and water filter but also their subwoofer for their stereo system is that the sub back there yeah oh cool gray water tank is hooked up onto a ball valve so which is fabulous and i love the lid that you can clean get in there and clean it thank you i'm glad that you said that because a lot of grey water tanks you can't reach your hand in you want to get in there and clean that out but then we also made it a permanent thing so you're not taking that 50 pounds in and out right we're hooked up to a ball valve which then so you can see it then you can just hit the switch and drain your and then mark fresh water where is this fresh water coming from so the fresh water we have a 32 gallon over the wheel well water tank oh he went with the big one huh yeah so or maydale one with a big one yeah so there's actually uh between the fan life tech hot water okay and the fresh water we have 36 gallons of fresh water on board you'll see a little window in the back there um and maybe middle can turn the little light switch on which is down by the brava um okay oh yeah yeah okay and then that gives you your fresh water level just a light like behind it it's full now so you can you can illuminate it yeah that's all that's an illuminated tank illuminate it see how much water you you actually had so this is this van was designed to be in freezing temperatures four seasons i can be in hot i can be in cold you have an ac on board you have a heater on board that's ridiculous so your tanks will never freeze mark yes and the lithium batteries will stay and your lithium batteries thank you so much uh you touched upon it what is our power system marky uh we have uh did i just call you marky [Laughter] okay okay anyways i'll let it slide thank you thank you um we have uh 630 amp hours of lithium batteries it's a lot of 3000 watt inverter why did you go with that much power because i wanted all the power all the all the solar panels and all the power let's see two 370 watt solar panels up on the roof big ones huh they've got 704 yeah and charge on the alternator and also the shore power so we always have the three points of charge 600 plus amp hours which obviously can run that cruising comfort which is probably the biggest power drive that you have on this board um we also have the bravo and the bravo oven the biggest power draw is the brava is it really yeah how many what's the wad on that um that's a it's an 18 consistent 1800 watts but then it has some heat on it um but what's great about the bravo is that it's a fully digitized oven so you can go in and you can cook a full pizza in there in six minutes you have a you put an electric oven in a van this is heats by light it's like light light heat bravo infrared it's like a infrared it's an easy bake oven i love that i have yet to see one of these in a van it's it's really a cool thing it's also got a little bit of um specificity to it you really have to use the right inverter you have to use the right power cables and stuff so for anyone that's looking to put a brava in please there's a lot of troubleshooting right a lot of troubleshooting a lot of things that you have to do so just make sure that if it is something that you're interested in to reach out to us so that we can uh steer you in the right direction that being said it's a great product in the sense that uh a pizza usually would take a convection of in about 25 minutes at like you know 1200 watts where this runs 1800 watts and we'll cook a pizza in six minutes and then what's also fun is it kind of helps you provoke like some more healthy eating because you can actually sear meat in it which is one of the only options and there are zones that does that yeah and then there's different zones so you can have like your little pieces of steak you can have some brussels sprouts and then maybe some cherry tomatoes it will cook all three of those zones at different levels so when you pull the tray out it's kind of like the jetsons oven where you all of a sudden have a three-course meal so are you like a sales rep for brahma is that what you're doing it's such a cool thing now is this your only uh apparatus to cook no we have this too oh what is this do you see how sarcastic i am right oh wow we have a dual induction cooktop right and it's a great size which is another 1800 watt you know thingamajiggy here that's another 1800 watts he's balanced though so you can only use 1800 at a time per medel's request we need this little cover this is really nice a lot of people what they experience is something dropping down on that glass top and then their induction cooktop gets broken all right i'm gonna switch sides with you guys we're gonna get some some cool details here in the back do you want to touch on this guy right here mark yeah the shower was something that uh maedel was like we gotta have a really beautiful fun shower and then she came to me with these brass um uh antique brass i'm gonna open one while you're talking okay so bronze portholes and um and i was like can you do something with these mark did you weigh these they weigh about 25 pounds apiece i didn't know that and so um i love them so much with the cavitation and everything we're like well we can't just like build a wood wall here so this uh whole entire showers actually was welded and framed by my uh welder anthony and you can see that you're pretty much in the video that you did yes very much so and it is totally framed out and i was like man i hope this thing works i knew it was going to it was just one of those things i'm like i cannot believe you guys are doing this and then what's really unique is given that it was an aluminum frame structure we were able to include the duct work and we made a flat duct duct work for the air conditioner so the ac ducting goes up along this wall is up the wall um and then we have a little transom shower so this lid pops up yeah and then we're able to pull out this retractable um shower head and then that just goes into the top piece up here that's nifty and then when you're done you can just pull it down and and stick it away which is really convenient because when you're driving down the road you don't get that slap and i believe you ever put a vent band in here if i'm not ready yet we put a little vent fan in there and the best thing he put in yeah and then the the oh yeah oh my goodness how did i forget this i'll do a video from above on that is that we're able to have this waterproof door okay and then this drawer actually pulls out and that's a freaking toilet that slides out your toilet yeah i was i honest to god i was wondering why there wasn't a drawer here yeah and that is exactly what happens and that's the reason why yeah uh one more the compost yes and you have sea head and it just literally it hides um so this can be kind of still a showpiece without having to stare at a toilet she did all this little effervescence um maydell actually did that i'm gonna put this toilet back in if that's okay yeah and we're going to that's so easy i just did that one-handed everybody uh white tile on the bottom and then did like some effervescence of that white tile kind of coming up into the walls and i kind of bled up yeah and then also into this back here too i like that again kale knocked it out of the park on the upholstery side of things and made a shower curtain out of the same fabric that we have for the headliner and some of the other fabric wrapping mark i see brent trim behind you i see more brim trim on the other side and i see a deer's head all the curves yet yeah that came from england okay really yeah oh wow and then this little guy here ah um pulls out there's a table because they're both sitting on benches everybody and then there's a little drop down that comes down so that this is nice and sturdy and it's all gravity and then when you just push this back up then you just slide it right back in now i didn't even mention what chassis were on nobody mentioned it because there's a lot of room you've got a shower you've got a queen size bed you've got a two seating right here one galley with a bravo another galley and how how did you get all this room uh we're in a 148 extended 2015 ford transit which is great for mike because mike's got some height to him so he's able to stand in here without having to bend his head transits are a beautiful machine but they're also very challenging on the woodworking side because they they are narrow and then they belly up and they narrow back in and then the walls go up and narrow and kind of do fun things you put a bunch of detail back here as well that's like did we just have the ac kick on us he just kicked it the ac just kicked on because we're getting hot up in here yeah i guess because we were demonstrating it earlier oh is that okay because uh anthony was walking you through the systems and whatnot that's hysterical now mark now that the ac is on the vents are right up here as i know yeah cold air is always gonna seat right right so if it comes out high then it's going to distribute throughout the rest of the van and then to help give this a little bit of distribution we put in a soraka 12-volt fan um and then made the vents very small and condensed so that it really pushed the air out and uh it actually cools down in here very i'm already freezing guys do you want to no you're not i'm gonna go oh middle's gonna get on my way she's gonna get the shower for everybody i'm gonna spin around here for everybody that says the crews and comforts are loud it's really not that loud yeah there was a train there everybody thank you mike this is the van life tech system now what's really nice about what you've really put the ac mark was it's centrally located in the van but it's also by their bed yes so they can sleep comfortably at night yes thank you mark just turned off the entire system but this is the van life tech system so you what's nice about the cruiser comforts it actually integrates with troy's box which is really nice so the entire heating and cooling is all controlled right here yes troy was able to figure out a method of being able to tie into their controller and um put it into his controller so it worked out really great and what's also the ac just shut off on us other than obviously all controlled on one thing what else can you do with this system uh well what's really awesome about it is you can set it all up on bluetooth and so you can actually i guess wi-fi right or whatever wi-fi and bluetooth right right and so you can actually set it up to where if you go for a hike you can turn it on so that the vehicle is nice and cold or warm through an app i believe right through a nap which is really nice for these guys down here because sometimes we don't travel with or they're not going to go everywhere with us right or right up over your head sorry yeah right up over your head uh you have these uh upper cabinets yep um again you don't have a cnc machine no we do not what did you do about those handles this is all bryn this is a new added to the bridge room emphasize how handcrafted this really is all these little pieces and trims and handles and counter thanks for opening that he uh he counter um sunk sunk we're not countersunk but put this this other little lip on here so oh yeah it actually can get on our balance actual handle so wow it's ergonomically delightful yes ergonomically delightful what a term yeah holy christmas they've got the flare spaces in but then again we my crew just completely knocked it out of the park and they put in these six inch wide i remember these going in window rings that are all solid for i'm gonna actually turn around and i'm gonna show on my side because i'm next to them look at that that's huge are these your pillows my doll i'm sorry they are so like comfy are they linen they are like this is than we have let's move to the outside and we can finish off with the uh the you know the trunk and garage space sounds great all right so we're back to the outside sorry about the acoustics again wrap job was all you yeah i wanted that beautiful mustardy butterscotch color and the green stripe is marked okay yeah nice breakup of the color mark you got an awning pretty standard uh but what is this white tube up here what's going on here buddy again another fabrication that anthony did that just knocked it out of the park dale was like i have to have an outdoor carpet okay and we were trying to scratch our heads of like how in the heck are we gonna get this thing and maydell was like well just put in a pvc pipe and we're like no so what is that is that like welded aluminum welded aluminum tube powder coated mounted to the side of the van it's the same material that the big gas company trucks use oh my god for their hoses and stuff when they fill up the gas stations you don't have to just put a carpet in there you could put friggin anything in that thing you really can we left a little bit of room in the back we didn't put the biggest awning on but okay it left a little bit of room so you could stick a little telescoping ladder up there and then oh you even have a locking mechanism on this thing uh you went with a suspension upgrade and obviously beautiful tires and i love those rims i have black rhinos myself but an inch and a half lift a full suspension kit from van compass we also installed an air compressor is that what this this golden tube back here is for the air compressor you want to open up my garage for me mike's stepping in i love it dude thank you you do actually uh looks like uh kale's got a whole bunch of covers for us yeah so and that's where the magnets are look at that the blackout i like it thank you mike he's the only one thinking out of all of us by the way everybody this guy's stepping up this big garage space and then what's really cool i'm gonna step in really quick again please go ahead by the way he did not mention this but this is your outdoor shower yes it is so what's really cool now he's up there talking again geez if these guys want to just kind of park it and have the north rim of the grand canyon out the back door sure like sit and have a glass of wine and we can put together this what this was a complete surprise this was a surprise you didn't know this was happening it's amazing really amazing yeah who who did this masterpiece again uh my fabricator anthony came up with everything that he uh that he does researched uh the hinges and and yeah put it together and so you can come up here you can sit down you can have some coffee you can have some wine just hang out and watch sunsets like over a lake or a mountain or a valley or whatever it may be whatever and then it's really simple you just push it forward and then it just lays right back down that is nifty huh so pretty sweet mark what what else can we show here that you that you have knocked out of the park yet again the video is long enough as it is your grey water tank you have an extra grey watercolor yeah are you another grey water for the shower so that also has a ball valve at least of course it does why wouldn't you mark honestly again we did all these little pieces of parts that you would typically get in a van but really what sets this apart has these guys the most excited is just the the craft the handcraft and and the craft that went into this so miguel and mike uh you guys are about to leave you're about to get on your your travels right now so i really really hope you guys have some great memories in this van and travel well well mark uh i guess i'm probably gonna see you soon i can't get rid of you for some some reason yeah same thing so again thank you so much uh sir for medellin mike for uh allowing me to do this to your um wonderful new travel home i guess right it's a i'm gonna call it a travel home thank you jared um thank you yeah that's what i do yeah i love doing what i do uh all right guys thank you so much you

Channel: Jarrod Tocci

Views: 96,783

Keywords: van build, van conversion, van tour, sprinter conversion, tiny house, van life tour, van life build, promaster conversion, living in a van, promaster van tour, transit van conversion, transit van conversion with bathroom, transit van build, nomadik customs, jarrod tocci, ghost van tours, how to convert a van, best van build, luxury van life, luxury van conversions, luxury van tour, van heated floors, van air, van air conditioner 12v, best van tour

Id: Y7dDp_-NMVE

Length: 25min 59sec (1559 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021