We're building an off grid camper van for our homeless assistant

hey everyone gather around it's story time with uncle rich and we're going to talk about the events that have forced me to make this video against my will we're going to take a pause from ice-t the v8 swap tesla to address something that you didn't know you needed to witness you see i have this righty youtube channel i rebuilt the flooded tesla a long time ago and then the channel has grown to broader automotive content like a custom cyberquad an audi rs7 an electric rat rod a sherp and all kinds of other cool things now most recently we made the decision that we needed to continue to grow and bring on another employee to do stuff and now well we have linda her primary job is answering calls testing out projects cleaning cars taking selfies playing basketball riding scooters and eating more popeyes than the rest of the team and well whatever else it is that linda does but to be fair i don't think i've seen lina do any productive work she's usually taking calls at the banana and working on a laptop that she hasn't logged into but i will say when she does show up for work she's a very fun person to be around so linda was putting a trip to texas and she wanted us to help her go over her car to make sure it was safe to drive the 2 000 miles so we paid her a visit at her home which the gps location led us to a parking lot and it turns out linda lives in her car an rv also known as a recreational vehicle a van down by the river that she bought for 500 now judging by the instagram photos that she posts i thought she was in the lavish apartment in new york and just couldn't afford clothes turns out only one of those things is true but as my best friend thanos told me reality is often disappointing linda is in fact a vagrant she parks at various walmart parking lots across the country because apparently that's a free parking space on the monopoly board of life now we went to her home in a weird undercover boss type video but not really undercover because she knew who i was and when i was coming but it was good to see how those on the payroll lived once we got there i did what any good boss would do entered her home videotaped her great depression living conditions and then went to walmart i got her some gas cans two new batteries and then made her a toilet out of a five gallon bucket and cat litter then i went home and slept very well knowing that i helped someone today well apparently the internet didn't like it a bunch of totally normal and non-creepy guys came to her defense and said things like i bet she smells like soap i can't believe you're gonna let a pretty little white girl all alone in a van drive by herself and send her down here and i'll take good care of that ass now i'm not sure what that last one meant but i don't think linda is bringing a donkey with her which is debatable to some but i have a hunch this guy's intentions are not pure of heart someone even went as far as to call me jeff bezos because i don't pay my employees a fair wage and they are forced to live in a 500 van they got a facebook marketplace in my defense we did leave the van better than we met it but linda and bertha her van's name made their maiden voyage to texas when unfortunately while on the road a deer was so disgusted by seeing this thing on the road it ran directly into the van and ended her trip prematurely and while waiting for roadside assistance linda used the five-gallon bucket bathroom that we made you are welcome now after some tape and plastic linda barely made it to texas and i continued to receive hate messages from that video i actually lost most of my testosterone after reading those comments so i can't sit back and watch one of our own live in a gypsy commune so we decided to build her a new home but after about 10 minutes of searching i realized that due to the pandemic off-grid and rv living has absolutely skyrocketed and the price for new and even used vans are ridiculous so because i don't mind putting in a little work i hopped on my favorite website www.iai.com to look for a good deal on a van for my assistant now here's the thing there's tons of vans out there but which one do you choose so at first i browse the ford f-350s specifically ambulances but the problem with ambulances i find is that even though they're built to last and already have the provisions for power and heating in the back a lot of the space is given up to the storage and removing those storage built-ins isn't an option so the second vans were the ford econoline high-top vans there's a lot of headroom to walk around in and i also looked at box trucks school buses and even a few bread delivery vans ultimately i wanted to get her a diesel so unfortunately a lot of the options i was looking at disappeared as diesels aren't as common in the configurations i was looking for now school buses are cool for conversions but the sheer size of them makes this take way longer than we can spare so after searching on iaa we finally found the van a retired fedex mercedes sprinter van we put in a bid and won it for seven thousand dollars so if you're looking for your next project when you go on iai.com here's a hint use code say 50 for half off registration so you can see what they have now the sprinter vans are some of the most popular off-grid slash rb conversion vans in existence we got the 170 inch wheelbase one which is the longest that they make so linda has more room for taking selfies also it's a diesel which i'll likely be tuning it to get more power out of it not only that but there are hundreds of companies that make parts and accessories for sprinters another plus one for the sprinter if it's owned by a major company is for maintenance reasons they typically maintained a little bit better than if it was owned for personal use like a plumber or the contractor up the street that you don't trust because he barrels around the neighborhood too fast now here comes the fun part seeing what we got ourselves into and while turning a van into a home she blows yeah as you can see we've immediately had the fedex logo we don't want to end up like another youtuber that uh bought a vehicle with another company's logos on it and god sent the cease and desist order this logo baby look at this paper next to this wait this is isn't this your first mercedes oh it's a carrier vehicle it's playable gas oh that's the best yeah you want to keep it on that the whole time yeah dangerous one wet that's me what do you think man do you like it dude this thing is this kid could sleep five people six people look at this yeah i can look that's not how we're doing this that's not how we're going to build this dude we're halfway done stevon for those wondering this is a mercedes sprinter 170 wb which is the wheelbase this is the big daddy the other ones are like what 140s 144 this is the high roof first and foremost get these racks out of here these racks are heavy duty racks uh clearly and uh they can support the weight of my 200 pound ass so uh but they don't really serve much purpose for what our intention is so they have to go so if you like rats if you like them big and strong let us know we got some big big strong racks for you and then this subfloor too is something that you have to uh take up and see what's underneath there and you come to the front cabin one room for activities up here you're in the uh pseudo seat yeah this is the weird seat that's only like a half jump seat i guess they don't have passengers here very often but it's still quite comfortable it's a little pretty comfy but if you think about it think about how strong this this partition is for a second this partition has to support the weight of a two to three hundred pound person just pulled it down right here this is a strong partition i think it's going to be interesting to say at least to get that out what's up boys she's on the large side i said amazon delivered to the front door this is aesthetics dude this isn't an amazon prime leave it coming speed limiter governor 65. that's enough chad that's uh i don't want to hear it do we have um it's a mercedes i have uh scheduled not here okay all right at some point we'll figure that out we're gonna run to michael okay no that's not that's low priority what you're not the one driving it back and forth this is good so low priority that papa squash this is the biggest thing that we have to take down this thing is solid and if you the reason why is because there's actually a seat attached to it in the front that's what these big bolts are for these are actually seats uh a folding seat on the other side this is tied into the roof roof ring yeah so enough it doesn't look like anything's welded it just looks like additional pieces in here this is how you find airplanes this is like a that's probably bullet we have used for that yeah we have to use these guys we can use that yeah as long as you should just look at that brian could stand up how does it feel there is a cross member though sorry sorry all right remind everybody if you're not going to stand here well actually you know the floor's going to be a little bit higher so there might be as i said the floor is going to be higher there's going to be a ceiling so actually brian is what six five not many vans you could stand up fully upright no you know and i'm not gonna be as tall as you any time soon that's got to go for sure oh boy yeah that never worked so we got here on the roof looks like uh somebody doesn't know their height limitations this little bean was knocked off and we got the fan that's all busted up lack of caulking nice visible hole back up cam feel nice okay we're getting too close to uh not having any structure holding this end oh yeah she's got some weight a little bit so they really wait hold on look at this three duct tape chad you thank me for something yeah that's good yeah she needs a little love a little tlc yeah i've seen worse people lived in i know right i've seen worse what do you mean kitty literally five gallon bucket doesn't account honestly yeah what are you hey and by the way she did use that to be fair oh my god is it free stuff back there perfectly good snowball wow there we go my beautiful floors now what oh oh that is nasty the wraps back there how many m m's did they eat that's nasty all right let me get the trash bag and gloves and they said [Music] marvelous look that's a nice little jump seat i like that i like that too that's not bad we can hang that on the wall dude you can put the shirt in the back if you wanted to have some shirt all right we're gonna make this a special rider seat so put this like in the back in the middle no we're keeping that for sure that's what that's going to put that in the middle on the high rise yeah that's enough no seat belt and then go off-road and if you stay on it you win a prize that's an awesome little jump seat so stephen if you tilt your end in a little bit i think it's just that it's torqued hey oh wow osha okay there it is these are nice racks though i gotta say look at that that is impressive look at how much more space you get this is freaking great coming down chad's just really excited wbc who butt chad all right so there we go now we can [Music] hey the fire signature is there yay free friday extinguisher yeah it may be very expired i'm still gonna use it for something of course just to hose down some on thank you very much are you sure you're having again i it wasn't quite going in i hate having that problem yeah don't you yeah that'll be all too familiar i'm dying to see the massive pile of rust underneath this floor oh god i can't wait discoveries to be made [Music] that's nice velcro what's under the floor oh not bad dude it's really not that bad nothing i would have expected worse yeah same yeah more vacuum action even worse yeah i mean shove back baby oh we're saving the hell out of this thing we need for the template yeah that's what that is that's the template for the floor that's awesome yeah thank you fedex thanks for the hours of guesswork not happening from rich everything exactly i'd probably cut like six holes in the middle and call it okay cut it short and smaller yeah yeah i'll cut a triangle i need a solid strip there's just three triangles here what is this this is the meaning of this doesn't do anything what are your thoughts we drove it we've experienced the inside the inside's nice man the inside is really nice the outside's nice it dries nice it's really not that bad at all man i i like it i think it's a good thing i think it's gonna the inside is gonna fill up really nicely and we're gonna have a sweet ride in our hands man you just like having that mercedes logo seriously i know it's a key isn't it the one thing i noticed though there's no like it's that you tell you're the base model you know how there's no buttons nothing on that wheel there's like there's no buttons for the really actively used like the radio wheel oh yeah what look at that they did it again wait they did it again steve you ate my half of the time i did half of my house was fixed i did uh come on it's really good um but honestly the problem with this is that there's no there's no radio that's why there's no buttons in the steering wheel those maybe sense and this is why all the amazon prime people all the ups people and all the fedex people that's why they don't have earbuds in their ears when they want to actually you know listen to music and stuff uh that's why they do it man that's why they're partying out but you know what we don't have that here and i'm not putting a radio in but i'm gonna do instead what are you gonna do raycon's baby they're perfect they fit in your ears look at this look at this color look at this color ready red what do you got here and even this is the big surprise when you open them in case you forget what earbuds you're using they tell you every single time and look at these look at this design it's like a red sports car you're driving a big goofy white van with the brick aerodynamics you could have these in your ear and you'll still be cool at the same time and it's not even it battery life is great six hours and they sound awesome man just buy them by the god so when you're ready okay if you have a van or a vehicle where your radio doesn't work uh you have people in your life you want to tune out and not talk to them at all go to buyreicon.com rich rebuilds and you could save 50 percent off your own pero raycons or just click on the link in the description below now now just buy them they're good just buy them buy them suck it rich yeah it's in there good let me just let me do a sweet first this stuff's so caked on i'll get a sleeve yeah dude i bought pressure washing yeah yeah go ahead do it yourself or just kind of the diy [Music] [Music] you may need to get that fire extinguisher oh yeah stop now that bolt may be stuck in there a little bit easier that one for a little while yep well we could be what it's going up in the air too we're gonna bury it we'll look underneath and see what's going on go ahead oh that's not how i expected it to go that went up a lot easier huh [Music] yeah that side's coming up easier [Music] nothing that's even cleaner this is clean man is it really yeah that's clean that's really clean nice one down three down i guess yeah no i don't like that okay it's not filled with water at least yeah i was gonna say at least there was no puddle in there and we just had a blizzard so fascinating that tells you a lot yeah it is dry yeah so wait i bet you all the all the crud and crap built up underneath them is probably acting as a plug yeah so what they do here what is that oh yeah that's strange what a weird thing to do i've never seen you clean something so much that's amazing what the hell what's the overall richard realizes he's going to be living in this so he's like i might as well make it make it clean damn right dude yeah i spent extra money on like insulation and stuff gonna have to it gets cold and eighty dollars later with the car wash right [Music] look at this little rusty little area here huh a little bit oh right there by the sub subframe there yeah that's not ideal something to take note of well the rest of it's not bad it's not bad at all i might need some new shocks there oh yeah for sure on that side that side exhaust looks kind of new yeah that mid-pipe is definitely oh yeah they changed that for sure a popular thing to do is to do like the uh there's a 20 gallon water tank uh clear water and green water tanks can fit oh there's tons of room under here for stuff now yeah if you really wanted to to minimize it and have it underneath all right can i have uh two grilled chicken meals please uh number five uh don't want what sorry hold on sorry about that go ahead uh two of them and they were both with waters yes please 44 82 of your first one 44 thank you yeah bridge wallet baby only one it's the only way see when you have a meal at wendy's that costs 44 and you want to save some money use my code description box below for a chance to get a wallet because bridge baby all carbon fiber you get rid of that whole george castanza wallet used to have this thick disgusting leather wallet like he was some like wall street tycoon but now he's like a regular slim sexy it just works they're all loctited loctited nuts every one of them every last one that's where tesla got it from then they're always stealing parts from uh well remember that's right the steering rack is uh mercedes then we have oh it's good ooh piece of guinea there you go yeah so there's still mysterious parts and they still they say i didn't have all [Music] how did it happen everything's locked today this is a germans well either way this this little headliner needs to come up to get some serious insulation action wow usually they have wiring in here oh look at that there's your antenna and there's your plug rich go get an alpine deck i'll find maybe on your salary what is it sony explode for you [Laughter] exactly there were holes in the side that were from doing the hazmat sign and i noticed on this hole in this hole you can kind of see it through the smoke this is all body filling this is about a 16 to 8 inch worth of body color filler height so this was definitely touched up at one point in this life there were holes in the side that were from doing the hazmat sign and i noticed on this hole in this hole you can kind of see it through the smoke this is all body filling this is about a 16 to 8 inch worth of body color filler height so this was definitely touched up at one point in its life that wasn't in the service records how peculiar [Music] damn yeah that's from that side really bad it's pretty bad yeah as you can see oh boy oh boy is right and i just keep opening it up whenever i'm down under there you have a wire wheel yeah on my cart i own a dodge truck this is you know par for the course [Music] i think it's mostly just here that's not that bad i'm curious to pull the wheel off to see what's like on the other side [Music] well boys and girls i hope you enjoyed this episode apparently sprinter vans rust from the inside out something i apparently overlooked when shopping for vans but we're gonna figure this out somehow hit that subscribe button to see how we get out of this mess and don't forget to follow me on instagram richiebeekid and i will see you all next week you

Channel: Rich Rebuilds

Views: 1,034,354

Keywords: cars, teardown, mechanical, salvage, rebuild, how, to, fix, whats, inside, ev, repair, electric, vehicle, how to fix a tesla, salvage repair, Van, vanlife, offgrid, sprinter van, mercedes sprinter, solar van, iaai, rv life, diy van, off grid van, sprinter van living, living in a sprinter van, off grid living

Id: HfvIqQMPeNs

Length: 24min 22sec (1462 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021