Building your van can be challenging sometimes. Are you in the process already, or are you looking for handy advice? I’ve listed 10 things to consider. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts on this.
Weekend warrior, long haul or full time?
It’s a good idea to think about how you’re going to use your build. This determines the van itself, the size and looks of it. There are many ways to think of it, are you going to future proof or just build to your exact immediate needs? Take some time to figure this out, then decide what to do next.
Restrictions
In our area, it’s cheaper to still register as a panel van and NOT as a motor caravan. This comes down to different regulations, higher taxes and insurances. However, in many countries it’s cheaper to register as a motor caravan and you might get better protection in case of theft and so on. So make sure you know how your state or country deals with this.
For us to go stealth and legal we kept the metal partition between the driver area and the living area. We also made sure to run our propane less than 1 metre between stove and the safe locker for the propane. These things helped us to fly through the inspection.
Electrical
As you might now, we have a Goal Zero Yeti 1400 Lithium in our van. We love it! It’s such an easy system for us and we charge it about once a month, when we have access to shore power. As you can read in the post about it, we rarely use the solar panel we bought to go with it. However, if we ever come around to install a roof rack we’ll be mounting it there. By then, we’ll have no shortage whatsoever.
We didn’t run any cables before installing the wall panels, except for the one to the roof fan. This is a big no-no. Try to make sure that before you build, you know where you want outlets and so on. We didn’t even prepare for the solar cable from the roof. I feel like that might have been a rather big mistake.
I would have loved to have outlets in the kitchen, the bed area and the seating are as well as in the garage. We ran some extension cords, both 220v, 12v and USB. It works fine, but there would be less clutter if we would have thought of it before. And hey, less clutter in a van is a deal breaker!
Heating/cooling
Think of what you need. Where will you be travelling? We prepared our van for four-season with insulation and heating. When it’s hot, we crank our both roof vents and use the fan to pull out air. This gives us a nice breeze.
When it comes to heat, we had only our propane heater for some time. I DON’T recommend it. Propane burns to form water and carbon dioxide. This means the moisture will be present at all times. And moisture is something you want to avoid. It worked alright, but not near perfectly.
We were gifted an old electrical radiator meant for camping. And this spring, it has been a life saver. We’ve been parked with access to shore power so it kept us toasty and dry. The van also dried out, and everything feels fresh now. In our next build, we’ll have a diesel heater for sure. The burning of diesel doesn’t produce water, but you’ll need a vent to the outside for the combustion.
Most vanlifers should have several ways of keeping warm, in case of the failure of one of the systems.
Food storage
How are you going to keep your food cool? What amount of dry food storage do you need? For how long are you planning to live on the food in the van? And where is the best place to store all of this according to your layout?
These are all questions that are important to think about. Remember though, food takes a lot of space and you might shift things around to accommodate everything. But if you want to minimise stress, have a plan.
I keep all the spices close to the prep area, heavy things at floor level and lighter everyday things like coffee high up. And when it comes to cooling, we have a standard 12v cooler that we owned already. It’s not fancy in any sense, but we owned it and it was working. We’ve used it everyday for two years now and it’s still going strong.
Cooking
We’re cooking on gas! Our propane stove is a regular camping stove with a grill that we used in our cabin as well. My dream is to have a two burner stove with an oven. I have my eyes on one, stay tuned to get to know which one and why.
You could go with an alcohol stove, electrical or even a diesel induction cook top. The diesel version is developed for boats and produced by Wallas. I find that one very interesting. To be honest, I’m not very sure about propane and would love to change it up for the next build. Not sure how to go about the oven then though.
My new blender is my love, and our DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine is also living in the kitchen. Which gadgets do you want to bring?
Ventilation
Ventilation will save your life! Seriously. You’ll need oxygen and you’ll need to vent harmful gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. When your’e cooking inside, it’s really nice to vent the fumes and moisture. And when it’s hot, you can cross-ventilate.
Mould loves stale air, so having a good airflow prevents from that. We have a build that lets air flow free everywhere, even under the bed, behind the kitchen and in the closet.
Clothing
Where will you house all of your clothes? Do you need to dry outdoor gear, or hang your business suit somewhere? Do you need a lot of space for all seasons? Do you love hats and shoes? Decide what your needs are and go from there. That’s really the beauty of building your own van, it’s totally customizable.
We went with hanging as well as folded storage, because those were our needs. Our folded stuff are in packing cubes making it easier to overview. Everything is in the same big, deep drawer and we have one each. Also, most of our shoes live in the garage, in IKEA shoe cabinets, that works really good for us! All our clean workout gear is in our gym bags all the time.
Keeping clean
Keep yourself clean, keep the van clean and keep your clothes clean. The Scrubba wash bag is fantastic for small wash loads! Scrubba also have this version, a 4-in-1. We sweep our floor, vacuum the crevices and crannies now and then and use absurd amounts of baby wipes.
There is a water tap and a manual foot pump in our kitchen, which is key for dishes and cleaning.
Our gym has a very nice shower, as well as our office. Our friends also let us use their shower if we need to. Not needing to bring litres and litres of water in the van keeps the weight down and we have less hassle filling and dumping.
Keeping sane
Living or staying in such a densely packed area makes it a challenge some days. The key for me is to keep organised and clean. I love incense and diffusers for a fresh smell when you wake up and don’t feel like opening all the doors just yet. Also, only having your favourite coffee mugs and other china, doing the dishes and fresh fruit helps. We have our stations with gadgets, notebooks and such to keep us busy.
Building your van will be an adventure. If you’re building your van yourself, you might have more time to think of your choices. This list is meant to go over the 10 things that determined our build, and we hope you’ll find it useful.
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