Joni: In this video, we get to explore a ProMaster City that was built out by Cascade Campers in
a single day! This van is a perfect part-time nomad solution, so if you aren’t ready to give
up your sticks and bricks, but want to explore more, check out this van!
And before we dive in, I just want to invite all the women watching to join
our Nomadic Women’s Virtual Happy Hour on Thursdays at 5pm Pacific.
You can find the link in our Facebook group, Gal Adventurers. Also, if you like this video,
it really helps others find it if you hit that like button, subscribe, and turn on notifications.
[Music]
Vivian: Hi! My name is Vivian Aldridge and I'm an artist traveling in a van and if you'd like to follow me
I am on Instagram you can find me under Vivian Aldridge. And this van is a 2019 City ProMaster.
I was lucky to get this van because I'm hearing they're no longer making this van anymore and
that's also true with Transit and Nissan. The company who converted my van is Cascade Campers
and they're located in Nevada City in California. They converted my van within eight hours and and
at that time too the van conversion only cost me six thousand dollars. Now it's up to ten thousand
dollars because they've upgraded all the systems including a lithium battery. So let me show you
what this little van is. By the way, my friends call it my Swiss army knife because it's so compact and
when I need things I just pull them out, you know. I just have to remember to put them back!
Okay, so I'm going to show you this section first. What I have here are five gallons of water.
I have a panel and this reads and tells me how much solar power I have. I have 100
Watts on top of the van and as you can see the battery is almost completely full and
I have a smiley face. And I'm told all I have to do is read the smily face. If it's smiling I'm
fine, if it's frowning I'm in trouble. I have never seen it frowning. This is an inverter.
And I also have down here this is my stove that I do all my meals on and it runs on butane.
And it fits very nicely in there. I
have a sink too. Um it's only cold water though and the water drains there and it comes out of
the bottom of the van. I don't have a gray tank so I have a bucket in the back and I collect the
water in there. I also have a refrigerator and underneath here is the house battery and the
house battery runs the refrigerator and then of course I have the car battery. Now, what's really
cool about this battery too is if my car goes dead I can charge the car battery with
this battery in the back so I don't need jumper cables. I'm and... I'm not reliant on anybody else.
Also what I have in here are lights. There's lights here... there's lights
here... um let's see and then I put in this light myself which I can pull off if I need to see
somewhere; it acts like a flashlight. Uh, let's see I have a disco ball if I want to party!
Um, I put in bungee cords so I can hang things and I have nets to, you know keep, papers in and
I have a net over here and as you can see I hang my kitchen stuff. I have a fan. When it gets really
cold I have a small ceramic heater that I put here and I put the fan here and it circulates the heat
in the van and I only use it when it's maybe 30 degrees then it becomes uncomfortable outside.
And as far as the bathroom I have a cassette toilet that... that works really well for me.
On my bed I have, as you can see, a sack of my clothes and this is my bathroom stuff. So when
I go to bed at night I take these off and what I actually do with them is put them up against my doors
because it adds like extra installation. My bed actually folds out. It can fold out all the way
if I wanted it to but I'm a small person and I don't need that so my bed is just
cushions like this but I also added a two-inch foam mattress on it and a wool blanket for warmth
and what I have a spring bag, another blanket on top, and my Mexican blanket here for cold weather
travel. Underneath are all the bins where I put my equipment like kitchen stuff and
yeah office supplies. So all down here are storage units and another place I have storage is up here
in the van. This is actually my art studio up here and I keep all my sketchbooks and anything that
has to do with art up there. Privacy curtains... this comes with a curtain that comes across like that
and the windows which I added. The van did not come with windows. I had especially
tinted so no one can see inside. And I also have curtains over each window for privacy.
As far as food is concerned, I keep most of it in here. I keep all my spices and condiments up here
and down here is my soy milk and other food stuff. And I I also keep quite a bit of butane in here.
And the other place I keep food is just like in a Trader Joe's bag in the front seat.
And I just try to keep enough food for maybe three days. I have two fans in here that
um just pop up and I can regulate the speed with a - with a dial.
The van is insulated. They insulated the - the top and the sides and the floor. They
put noise dampening material underneath the floor so that when I drive this is quiet and
this van is pretty quiet. And speaking of driving I get 30 miles per gallon in this in this unit!
I'd recommend this van if you are a part-timer and not full time because I can't stand up in
here and after two months I notice I start getting tired and I forget and I
and start getting more headaches than I want so... Joni: I’m so grateful Vivian was willing to share her
awesome adventure van. If you liked this video, please share it, and if you’d like to see more
van and rig tours, vanlife tips, and other information to help women get on the road,
hit subscribe and ring that notification bell so you don’t miss any upcoming videos.
If you’re a woman who would like to join in deeper conversation,
join our Facebook group, Gal Adventurers where I organize our
weekly Nomadic Women’s Virtual Happy Hour every Thursday at 5pm Pacific.
This is Joni, with the Galavan. Enjoy Your Journey!
[electronic music fades]