Van Tour | Ram ProMaster Converted to Tiny Home! | Van Life | Full Time Solo Female

hey this is susan and this is van tales stories from the road you know i've been getting a lot of questions from people about my van and they want to see my van and today you're in luck because that's exactly what i'm going to do [Music] do [Music] this is my murphy bed it normally goes up against the wall when i'm not using it and it's really really comfortable it's got a six inch memory foam and uh man i just love it it's a full size bed and with the side cushions here it could actually be a queen if you wanted it to be let's put it up so we have some room to walk around in here so it just uses this fastener here and there are some hooks on the top of the wall and it threads through on the base of the bed and just cinch it nice and tight and you know then i like to tuck this in so it's nice and pretty make it look a little bit nicer and so also we've got this piece here and this piece is independent and you can put this piece up and it will lock with the bed and then you have more space to walk around or you can leave it down and then you can also put a cushion here and that's a nice place to sit if you have extra people in the van and you have uh the table set up so it's really nice or if you just want to do like a chase lounge type thing you can use the larger or the longer cushion and lay down here read whatever let's put it up though so i'll put these cushions back on and these are great because they have velcro and the um the opposing velcro side is on the bench so they're really nice and snug so when you're going down the road they don't fly off which is a great little uh bonus because when you live in a van things shift and move around break yeah if you don't have stuff secured you're gonna have some difficult times ahead so these are nice and secure i got a nice pillow decorative pillow put that there so before we get too much further why don't we open up these doors and get some light in here and in fact i'll show you what i've got going on here so i've got a curtain rod here and it's just a magnetic curtain rod it'll pop on and off uh and it's really great i haven't had any problems with it it doesn't budge it doesn't move when i drive i really like it a lot and i just put these uh sheer panels here because even though the windows are tinted it just provides a little more privacy and i can open uh this area here take these covers off and the sunlight really streams in which is a bonus in van life it just makes the van seem a lot bigger so these are actually made for the promaster but you can get them for sprinters or or other vehicles for transits for instance and they have magnets in them so they just um go on and off really quickly and so i really like these a lot and i have one for each side of course when i'm not using them i either stash them off to the side here or i put them in one of the bins and finally i've got these cute little magnet flower thingies and so sometimes what i'll do is i will just you know um put these in place and just if i want some more sunshine i'll tie those off like that so it works great all right and of course you know we can open the doors as well and right now in portland it's uh it's not sunny at all that's the bane of living in portland the the weather's really temperate but you don't get a lot of sun uh so we'll leave those closed for now it's still a little chilly outside so since we're on this end of the van maybe it's a good time to talk about the webasto heater uh i i lovingly term it blasto because it really keeps me toasty uh it runs off of the gas line from the van but the van doesn't have to be turned on and it's also automatically altitude adjusted so if i go up to higher altitudes it will automatically adjust meaning it will not clog the fuel line and it will continue to work so i can go snowboarding i can go um you know up into the higher climbs and i'm still going to be super comfortable um so let's take a look at it here is the thermostat and the thermostat is adjustable it's programmable um it's not showing uh on the video right now but it is 65 degrees and it's set for 54 degrees so right now we don't need it on and i can um turn this little knob and i can update the temperature so i can make it warmer cooler just like you would in a regular house all right let's take a close-up look of this wabasto so here's the intake and basically when you run the wabasto you want to make sure that that intake is free of any materials so that it can properly introduce air into the wabasto and then of course this is where the heat is going to come out and this is a great little rotating vent here so i can have control over where the heat goes can go in the kitchen come under the bed etc and then there is a an exhaust on the outside of the van and i'll show you that when we get outside so i'm really happy with this webasto uh i've gone through the winter i've been up to the mountain it's been in the teens and i've been really warm not a problem at all so uh so yeah that's how i stay warm in the winter along with some blankets and my hot water bottle and i've been really happy also in this bench is where i keep the legs for the table now um i'm not going to put the table up quite yet because there's a few other things i want to show you but i did want to mention that that's where they are stored okay so we have a couple more benches here um but you will notice that i've got these brightly colored boxes on top of one of the benches and you're probably saying susan what are these boxes for well you know confession every house has a junk drawer it's not really a junk drawer but i do tend to put things in there to keep them out of sight to make things look a little more tidy one of them is for my electronics um and one is for everything else so no i'm not going to show you what's in them but these work great they do have a lid and they have velcro and so they work really nice and they don't go anywhere which is great above them we've got these awesome flower pots and i don't know if you saw the episode with the 3d printer because these flower rings when i got them didn't work all that great they were a little too big right they moved around but my brother what a great guy 3d designed and 3d printed these rings to fit in there and now they fit nice and perfect beautiful the other great thing about these flower pot holders is that if you have people in the van you can also put them up against the wall so it's a little bit of a space saver too i like them a lot they've been working out really well okay not only is there storage in the bench seats but there's storage all along this this wall here which is awesome now i think i've got like a food in this first one i've got my toiletries here so i'll have a bin in each cabinet here i've got some clothes and then each one has a function so i know exactly what's in each one and i got like i said i got these really nice bins to hold everything and that works really really well this is also storage area there's also um just various things in here as well as on the other side these are both storage too so let's take a look at those real quick because i think you're going to be interested in these so this is where all the magic happens this is uh where the batteries are stored and this is where the charge controller is and all of the fuses so let's start oh and then this spaghetti mess here which is you know just an extra power cord and some other things that i keep there so these are three 100 amp hour batteries um so those batteries um store all the energy that's collected from the three solar panels that i have on the roof i have three 115 watt solar panels and i really haven't had any issue with running out of battery power uh there's also a charge when you're running the van so the alternator will charge the batteries as well which is great especially when you live in an area that isn't really heavy on sun like the pacific northwest so this is my fuse box um and basically just like you would have a fuse box in your house everything is labeled here so i have the usb bench the heater that the heater that i just showed you the fridge you know the fans etc and so they just take fuses like your car would take um yes i do have one out and there's a reason for that i'm working on on getting that fixed that is the um fan for my composting toilets which i'll show you momentarily and this panel here is for all of the ac power and that is going to be the alternating current that's what you would typically see in your house where you have a three-pronged outlet and so this is things for the microwave the kitchen some of the plug-ins and the bench so i have usb ports and i also have regular ac ports as well so here on the bench we've got the ac power which is typically what you're going to have in your house and then this is the dc power the direct current and uh that's just my usb etc so yeah great and most of the time i use the um the usb ports to charge all of my electronics but i do have to use the three prong outlets to charge my laptops for instance so um so it's great having both you gotta have both uh also again like the microwave runs off of that so that three pronged so you have to you know if you want to use your microwave that's the best way to do it one other thing that i have down here that you might have noticed is another panel and it is a carbon monoxide and propane gas detector which is really important so yeah that um that's housed right here and right now as you can see the light is green we're looking good so i did opt for propane in the van as opposed to an induction stove and part of the reason that i chose propane was because i was worried at the time that i wouldn't have enough battery to operate the induction stove when i needed to especially since i was living in a place where there wasn't consistent amounts of sun so now that i've gone through uh the winter and i'm come through the other side and it's springtime i've realized that i really do have enough battery i could have gone with an induction and i think if i had to do it over again i probably would do that because i believe that it's going to come in handy especially if i decide to travel outside of the country because some of the um some of the connections and the canisters are different in other countries and from what i've read it can be a little difficult to find the correct attachments etc when you're traveling outside of the us so the propane tank is right underneath the sink and this is a one pound propane tank it really does last quite a while i normally have to fill it up about every month month and a half depends on how much you're going to be cooking i've also got a bin here of cleaning supplies and other things and that fits nicely underneath of the sink area let me move that out of the way underneath the propane tank on the floor is this blue bin and basically this is the receptacle for my gray water the water that uh i use in the sink and uh that actually has to be dumped periodically i would say i dump that tank about every three weeks i'm really uh conservative about my water use so others might have to dump it a little more frequently but i also uh don't feel uh guilt when i'm dumping it either because i do use uh castile soap i don't have uh any kind of chemicals in there so so that's also really nice so if you can that's also a great option good for the environment now the water tank itself is underneath the microwave cabinets it's the microwaves up here there's another storage bin here and then you have the water tank the water tank is a 28 gallon water tank it is filled externally and then this is the water pump which then of course pumps that water to the sink area i also have a water filter underneath the sink so that i don't have any problem uh with drinking water uh tastes delicious and most of the water that i filled up in the van has either been at a campground or there's some great natural springs uh in oregon here where the water comes straight down from the mountain which is awesome the sink is really nice um i did put this soap dispenser in after i got the van and it works great and you can even fill it from the top so it's really easy really convenient and this water faucet also is retractable it's great um when you turn it on you can also press this button and so that will stop the water and if you let it go it will turn on of course so that's been really great also another feature is um instead of coming out in a stream you can also have like a spray type situation which is really great i did not opt for hot water in the van so you can get hot water in the van what i was told is that in order to get hot water in the van you need to leave the van on and running or have just turned it off and really the only reason that i would have hot water in the van or need hot water is if i had a shower i did not get a shower i'm rethinking that decision every day during the pandemic especially but now things are starting to open up and it's really not an issue at all um but so i don't have hot water and i've been making out just fine without it but that might be something that you might want to think about if you're you know going to be building a van or getting into van life so we're in the kitchen we talked about the water we talked about um the gray water tank and the propane and the stove but what about the fridge because you're not gonna keep my beer in there i gotta keep my food my peanut butter and jelly so yes i do have a fridge in a van not only do i have a fridge but i also have a freezer let's take a look okay so my fridge sits underneath the stove here and let's open that up there's quite a bit of room in here um and i don't as you can see i need to go grocery shopping um so it's a little empty right now and up here though is where we have the freezer so there's some ice cubes some veggie dogs and i think some hot dog buns all right this works really great there's a control on the side here and you can make it colder warmer whatever i keep it uh pretty much mid level and haven't had any problem one thing i will caution you is i feel like the fridge is probably the biggest drain on my battery in the summer months it comes on quite a bit and that makes complete sense so you may want to turn it down a little bit in the summer if you're having trouble keeping up with your battery demands but uh really when it comes down to it again i really haven't had too much of a problem with it and i'm really pleased with my solar setup it's worked out really well right above the fridge again is the the plugs my usb ports and my ac outlets and then of course this is my drawer with all of my utensils etc um these are great i love these they're little wine stoppers okay yeah there you go down here uh is my trash can and you know i just um implemented this yesterday so i put some uh velcro on on this corner and it attaches to the wall here it's only been a day so i don't know if it's gonna work yet or not uh if it does end up working and it holds snug then i'll probably upgrade and get a lid um to this and and go from there but it's really nice to have a place to to keep your trash and keep things clean you also notice about the trash can um this set up here this is actually um part of the countertop and it's collapsible so if you have people coming in and out of the van they're using the sliding doors or if you just want some more room you can put this down and then you have some more room to walk in and out of the van etc so that works really great i've also got these curtains here which are fantastic and let me tell you about these curtains they're blackout curtains these blackout curtains in combination with the covers i have for the back windows do not let any light escape so i can be urban camping and people don't even know that i'm in the van it's great not only does it keep the light inside the van but when i'm ready to sleep it keeps any light from entering the van too so it's nice and dark in here i love it now on top of that i decided to get one sheer panel to put in the middle so again if i'm parked somewhere and it's a beautiful day and i just want to open the van up i can open up that sheer panel but still have some privacy so it works really well i just have a regular uh curtain rod here and then i just pull this over and then you've got some really nice uh sunshine coming in uh on a sunny day that is so that works really well and it really opens up the van i also have additional room uh here underneath the microwave and this is where i keep all of my pots and pans and spices and mugs etc so that works really great and then also up top this is where i keep my coffee hot chocolates tea some plates and whatnot but also my fire extinguisher in the back which is really important you never know if you might need that so it's good to have and it's really nice to come through the side sliding door and say oh welcome home okay the other thing that we have in the kitchen are all the controls up above this a beautiful portrait from my nephew thank you we have all the lights so this is for the front um portion of the van where i cook etc this one is for the bed bedroom area and these are also on dimmers which are really great so they can go up and down this is the water pump also this is a really really great feature i'm so glad i got this this is for the cell booster the sew booster is mounted outside on the on the van on the roof of the van and when i turn that on it increases the signal so that i can get better reception when i'm on my phone and i actually use my phone to tether the internet so that's how i get internet in the van i actually use my phone as a hotspot and so that works really great and i can get normally at least one bar if not two when i use a cell booster and i absolutely love it the other thing that we have in the van is the um the battery monitor this is the victron energy and then the xantrex and i won't go into detail on those but basically that's to um to see how much battery life you have how many watts you have available and the um the xantrex will actually tell you when you're on bypass power for instance if you go to a campsite and you plug in it will tell you there that you're on bypass it'll also give you a good overview of um of all the energy you're consuming etc so there's also apps for your phone that you can download and you can also look at you know use the apps to monitor all of your systems as well one of the things i'm really excited to to show you today is my pig this is my pink toothbrush holder yeah it's it's a little things in life it opens up and that there's my toothbrush close that pick up there you go i also have some fruit here and i just have like a little command strip that i use for that including the book light so this book light is just it's just a clip-on book light i put it up here to keep it out of the way when i'm not using it but it's great because when i'm in bed for the night and i'm reading i don't want to get up and when i'm tired to turn off the lights i can just flip off my book light i'm lazy like that okay i mentioned something about a table let's put the table up you can check that out the table legs again get stored in this cabinet they get tucked away there and then the table itself actually slides in the side here so that just kind of comes out a little bit at a time so we'll put the legs on first and then i'll come back for the table let me just tighten it up just like that i have a table [Music] and eat here work on my laptop do my video editing play games do whatever so it works out really well so i've got the wabasto or blasto that keeps me warm in the winter but i i also need to keep cool in the summer and i do that by using max air fans now normally you'll see one max air fan on a van sometimes you'll see two i have two and i highly highly recommend getting two and the reason for that is that i put one on intake and one on exhaust and when i do that i get a nice breeze that comes through the van and really circulates the air and it works great this one is at the rear of the van and you know you have some controls here if you're not familiar with uh max air fans this is the in and outs you can change the direction of the van this is auto if you want it to come on uh when a certain degree is met and you can also open it and close it if you turn it on and off here you can also ah i'm already getting a nice breathe that's great and so i'm gonna turn that off right now just by clicking the same button and it closes up sometimes you don't really need the fan or you just need one fan and you just need to have an opening so that that air will draw from so sometimes i'll just open the fan without actually turning it on and you can do that manually with this knob here and so it just opens the fan casing so there you go the other fan i have placed strategically right above my cooking area and that is a great place for it because let me tell you if you're in the city and you're trying to be stealthy nothing is worse than the smoke detector going off so i normally turn this fan on low and it's just going to uh to vent out any of the cooking fumes or smoke or anything else that might happen works great so while i might not have a shower i refuse to not have a toilet so yes i do have a toilet in the van i would not give this thing up for anything i can't imagine how people don't have a toilet or some means to go to the bathroom in the van because what happens in the middle of the night when you gotta go you have to drive around and find a place that's open and i'm sure that that was super difficult during coven so yes i do have a toilet i have a nature's head composting toilet and it's tucked away here underneath the octopus here that holds my keys and you know dumbledore and snape of course uh and there you go that cabinet just pops up and there is my toilet now i also have a trash can here and i've got my recycle bin etc and then this just pops up there's my toilet so i won't go into a lot of detail on the toilet but basically this is a two tank system this uh portion here opens up with this handle over here on the right and that is where the solid waste go and then there's a diverter when this is closed uh and then the urine will collect here in the liquid container now i do have a backup liquid container if you have a nature's head composting toilet get that back up liquid container i can't recommend that enough because the only thing worse than not having a toilet in your van is not being able to use the toilet in your van so if you wake up in the middle of the night and you realize that the liquid container is full you can switch it out real quick and you're good to go if you don't have that backup container you're out of luck so i think i've shown you most of the things inside the van let's take a quick peek outside the van so one of the first things i'll show you is the drawer that pulls out from the base of the bench and basically it's pretty standard on a lot of bands it's a great idea because if that bench is not accessible if the bed's down or someone's seated there you can still access the contents inside so let's take a quick peek yeah so i've got for instance my camel back here my climbing shoes my chalk bags under there i've got some some tools so that works out really well and i like it a lot also while we're here i also have another bank of usb and three prong outlets and then this is also a fan that helps keep my inverter cool in the summer so this right here is the exhaust to the heater to the wabasto so if you ever see that on a van that's exactly what that is and then the final thing i wanted to show you is where the water tank is accessed where i fill up my water tank and there's a key here open that panel and then you know water only don't put any gas in here that would be bad and then this just pops open and the water goes there now i did buy one accessory for filling the water tank and that is um this extension to the hose and basically what it is is it allows you to turn the water on and off so you don't overfill or you just don't want water splashing around when you're trying to get the hose in and out of the water receptacle and the other thing is this great little indicator light here when the water reaches a certain level that indicator light will come on and that's your that's your signal to shut it off no more water well i really hope that you enjoyed this tour of the samwise vangie i had a great time and i hope that van lifers out there that are researching builds found maybe a thing or two that might be of use or might be helpful to you in your search for your van build and for those people that are just curious about van life i hope you found the episode interesting or entertaining and if you did please give me a thumbs up i would really appreciate it i'd also like to extend an invitation to join me for upcoming episodes which drop tuesdays and fridays each week because i've got big news friends today is the day that i leave oregon and i'm setting off cross country on a different type of ann tour so i don't know where the road's gonna take me but i'm gonna have fun i'm going to get out there and do some grand adventures and i hope you'll join me for that i'd love to have you along so please consider subscribing so you don't miss out on any of that okay i'm gonna let you get back to the rest of your day i hope you guys have a great rest of your week too take care i'll see you down the road bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Van Tales: Stories from the Road

Views: 37,472

Keywords: van life, van life full time, solo female van life, van life vlog, vantales, vandogger, off grid living, full time solo female traveler, stories from the road, full time van life vlog, solo van life, van life travel vlog, van tour, van tour with bathroom, van tour solo female traveler, ram promaster conversion van, tiny homes, tiny home tours, tiny homes on wheels, webasto heater, maxx air fan, nature's head composting toilet, ogavans, off grid adventure vans

Id: zVXx8MngD6A

Length: 33min 27sec (2007 seconds)

Published: Tue May 25 2021