VanTour - Update of Simple MiniVan Conversion

I finished with the spring cleaning of my modern day covered wagon I'd love to give you a short little tour I don't have the car top carrier back on top yet my attic but I'm out at a last minute trip just over the over the Oregon California border next to the Klamath River I'm checking out to see if I need everything that I brought with me or not I kind of threw stuff in there at the last minute but we'll see but in the meantime I'll give you a short little tour my minivan camper was all shiny and clean and then I've been on gravel roads for the last couple of days so it's gotten a little Dusty but this is the the side I go in on the passenger side and here on the right you can see a little hassock footstool I've got bungee to the bed so it doesn't slide around I have a mat next to it so it's nice when it's muddy or dirty I can just step right up there sit on the little housing and put my shoes on that rubber mat I've got a piece of Masonite underneath it because well I'll show you I put a cookie sheet on there I slide it over to the edge I put a cookie sheet on there and I can use that to cook on when it's windy too windy to out back or on a picnic table or something I can put it right inside here the other day I did exactly that it was threatening rain so I was cooking at this spot right here and if it started to rain all I had to do was hop inside and close the door of course I leave a window cracked because I'm using a butane or a propane stove and I've got a carbon monoxide detector right there and a fire extinguisher safety first so that works very handy that's a very handy setup there and then I just shove it out of the way on that Masonite it slides easily and you can see my wood and 2x4 bed I'll tell you more about that on the other side I store my clothes underneath in the back and I've got various pieces of gear there underneath the bed I left up the back part of the seat I I had it down on the floor to test it and I went out to a park to do some spinning and it started to rain so I decided okay you can't spin in the front seat you can't spin outside but with my little spindle I could sit inside on this little seat and comfortably spin I can sit there and edit on my laptop I can read a book I can eat dinner I can do all kinds of things so that that has proven to be handy as well in the front currently I'm using an ice chest so I seat belt it into the seat there so that's not a projectile got water there I've got my coats and some snacks and I've got my portable power station right now it's plugging in a a smaller power station and a little power bank I use to charge up my phone here's the driver's side oh I forgot to tell you I've got some of those pull-on screens that slide over the windows and that works in the front I haven't figured out anything for the back yet but I'm working on that here you can see one of my alpaca mats that I put on my seats it's from the alpaca fiber from our alpacas that we used to raise we sent it to a rug mail in Texas to have these made as well as big room size rugs it's wonderful and we share them we used to share them every spring and then they can grow fiber again in the next spring we share them again it was wonderful so here in the door I've got my binoculars I've got some pepper spray I've got some hand sanitizer I've got a flashlight got one of those handy dandy little tools to break your window and cut your seat belt if you're in that in need of that and an ice scraper because we were using those until just recently and I put a little towel in there it's handy to have but it also stops the rattling I've got my solar panel now it's an older one but it still works great it's only 100 Watts um but it Powers my little 300 watt portable powered bank and until I figure out what kind of Electric Refrigerator I'm gonna get I don't know how many more solar panels to get or how much of a bigger power bank to get so in the meantime it's serving my purposes it Powers my laptop my iPad my cell phone the lights um fans other miscellaneous things behind this behind the solar panel you can see on the right that's my ham radio go bag I just got my ham radio license and so if I'm out of cell range which I am right here I can use my ham radio to contact somebody in case of emergency there's some of my window coverings I got I just broke down and got WeatherTech I've done the reflectix before but I just bought those quickly this time and then I've got the um the rain guards those are marvelous you can open the window a little bit get some ventilation and let out carbon monoxide even though it's raining behind there and that you can see it there's a tub with food and tools and things like that I've got tarps and tent poles and things like that there I have my clothes back underneath behind that go bag and you can see the spread normally I have shapes and blankets and stuff on this bed this time I just threw in the sleeping bag but you can see the linen Jacquard coverlet that I've got on it underneath is a wool felted mattress that I made and there's the plywood bed and the two before so you can see a little bit more about how it's constructed has a unique story of this bed the neighbor has power tools and I have a sewing machine so I rebound an old quilt of his in exchange for him helping us with power tools so between he and my husband and I we built this bed and we made it to very specific measurements the floor is like six inches higher in the back of the minivan than it is in the front so I had to make the legs according accordingly so the ones in the front are six inches taller than the ones in the rear but what I wanted to be able to do was fit the tubs that I already had for gear in the front and then I've got a shallow tub in the back that I want it to fit underneath there let me show you that I normally have my folding chair strapped across the back of this rack and another fold up chair a bag chair over to the right so I always have two chairs with me um I adjusted this rack so that it's the same height as the platform that the platform of the bed and then the low the tub at the bottom the bin down there slides out and you can see the the fold up table to the right in the center between the stacks of things um and that is Magic I'll show you conveniently the lid opens in two parts so I can just pull it out part way and it supports itself because of it the rack and I can access the stuff in the front I can pull it out all the way prop it on one end in the car and the other end on this folding table that I've had for probably 20 years that just happens to be the right height perfect and the table folds up in between it's great the other thing I can use this for a cooking station and a prep station I'll put in a picture of doing that I was making um grilled cheese sandwiches from sourdough bread that I made and cooking some bone broth I had my little have my little butane stove there and it works wonderfully I put the cookie sheet underneath the stove and I put up windscreens so that works marvelously in all my gears right handy there on the right hand side I've got bone broth and things like that I've got my cast iron cookware I've got that black bag is not a doctor bag unfortunately I don't have those skills it's my tool bag I have some levelers there in case I'm on not level ground I've got a big long rug that fits next to the front door or next to the side door where I get in and out I've got my fire kit some food now interestingly and I planned it this way and it actually worked the some of the tubs on the upper shelf they're accessible from either the outside or the inside so if I wake up and it's raining and I don't want to go outside I just pull that tub out and I can cook I can make hot water for washing up or I can make hot water for tea or for bone broth I can cook a little bit of oatmeal things like that very easily that's proved to be very handy got my utensil bag there and off to the far left of the rest of my the larger pieces of the window coverings like for the front living front windshield and this back window here I've tried to attach everything securely to something else that's stationary so I've attached the rack and the bed frame to hooks that are in the floor I've attached that hasket to the bed when I have my chairs in here I have those bungee corded to something I and that's the ice chest is seat belted into the seat I don't want things flying around um up here on the top is a paper towel holder I just put a bungee cord there and as long as I keep it down low the paper towels don't roll all out about by themselves and then when I want to use them I just slide that little a little hook up a little bit and I've got a handy spot to have paper towels that I can reach from the inside or the outside I like that a lot oh one other thing I don't think I mentioned this hassock also stores my portable toilet it's more like a bucket system and I use horse pellets in it I triple bag it I've got the oh of course I've got the antibacterial wipes I've got all that sort of business haven't had any issues with it it's been very handy in the middle of the night when this poor old lady needs to get up and go potty I don't have to go outside it's great and in front of it you can see an antenna that's a magnetic antenna that sticks on the top of my the roof of my minivan and then I hook that up to my ham radio I've just got a little handheld ham radio but that would work perfectly in emergency purposes just down from the campsite that I'm at it's a lovely Klamath River the river is really full right now so quiet and peaceful every so often a truck goes by up on the highway way up there but this is down next to the river and it's wonderful sun is shining it's glorious I hope you enjoyed the little tour I gave you of my minivan camper my modern day covered wagon this is a lovely spot to sit and watch the river I'm glad you're here with me today thanks for watching

Channel: Pioneer Grandma

Views: 5,766

Keywords: Van Build, MiniVan Camper, MiniVan Conversion, Van Tour, Simple MiniVan Build

Id: sLaPiYjuccQ

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023