Hi, Odyssey camper here. Today
I want to talk about my new Nissan nv200 cargo van and why it might be the perfect minivan for a camper build-out.
The first thing I should say is that the Odyssey isn't going anywhere.
I'll continue to do reports from OdysseyCamper.com as well as reports for the nv200.
I should also say that this isn't my vehicle.
This vehicle was provided by a company I work for and
they gave it to me to be able to move machinery around and things like that.
So any camper build I do on it has to be completely reversible. That might be important you if you lease a vehicle
and you have to return at the end of the lease without any alterations.
So when I put insulation in, where I'll be using things like 3m
industrial tape ,you might be using a spray-on adhesive. So just keep that in mind as the build goes forward.
The first thing I'll do is a quick walk around of the vehicle. It's not the most handsome vehicle out there, for sure.
In fact, it's kind of ugly in my opinion,
but
what it does do really well is it's a box and as such it makes a pretty good platform to build on.
So let's take a look inside.
The first thing you'll notice when you look in the back of an nv200 is that it's a big box
and that's what I think will make it perfect for a build-out.
There's no trim to get in the way,
you can do your own insulation or what not and the floor is almost perfectly flat.
That was a big challenge in the Odyssey as the floor drops down in the front of the Odyssey,
so it's really hard unless you build a floor platform to get everything level.
The other thing you may notice is that this NV200 has
the extremely rare reversible front seat option. If you want to learn more about that look at the link down below.
It'll bring you to my website and I'll talk all about that. A
nice feature of the nv200 is that it was designed for contractors and as a result, it has a lot of unique cargo van features.
One of them is these tie-down points in the floor these I believe are held in with m8 bolts
These are fairly sturdy loops so you can put tie-down straps and our six of them. There are two at the back two in the middle
and two near the front.
There are also inserts
Welded in at various points. So right behind the door, there are a couple of inserts those look to be M8s or
maybe M tens. I'll measure them in a later video.
And then there are some in the back
corners up above,
in the ceiling,
And so all these can be used to attach
shelving, a bed, or other things without really damaging the vehicle at all.
In addition to the threaded inserts that are welded in place there are also
bolt holes used for access panels. So to get to the taillight
I believe you remove this and these bolts can be used for something as well.
So there are a lot of attachment points that can be used without having to drill any holes in this body.
If you're doing a permanent build out on your own van, then by all means drill holes where you want, put attachment screws
where you want, but again, I'm trying to keep this so that can be reversed.
In the next video. I'm going to do measurements on the inside. So I'll give you the measurements of the door side to side
Floor and whatnot. So look for that in an upcoming video. For the rest of this video
I want to talk a little bit about the vehicle itself. I
already spoke about the stunning good looks to the nv200 so I'm gonna leave that out.
Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, or lack thereof.
Under the hood of the NV is a 2-liter four-cylinder engine that makes about 140 horsepower. I'd
describe it as industrial. It's loud.
It's thrashy. It gets the job done, but it's not a performance engine and that's linked to a continuously variable transmission
which essentially means it uses a couple of belts on a pulley arrangement to make it simple and it has a continuously variable
gear range that actually helps quite a bit in this vehicle and it's not like earlier CVTs that I've driven.
It's smooth driving. You don't feel any shifts. It always seems to be in the right gear
So it makes the best out of the engine that's in there. I
mentioned this is the SV model.
so this
Nissan NV comes in an S and an SV and the SV gives you a couple of things like the floor tie-downs and it gives
you a body-colored bumper There are a couple of minor changes in trim levels,
but essentially the vehicle is the same in the base and the top-line trim level.
It also comes with these tiny little wheels. Now these look like they're like 12-inch wheels, but they're actually 15s
They're 185 mm wide and
they're designed for the load capacity of this van, which is 1,500 pounds.
So one complaint a lot of owners have is it's difficult to find tires. I found a solution
that doesn't use these tires. It does cut about 500 pounds of weight carrying capacity out of it
but I don't anticipate needing 1,500 pounds. A thousand will do and that's quite a bit of weight for a little van like this.
This van has the optional windows
so there's a window in the passenger side and then rear windows with a defroster on one side. I
probably (if I ordered this myself) wouldn't have chosen the windows.
But they're there so I'll make, I'll work around them, and make do with it. On the roof, I forgot to mention these tie-downs.
There are also plugs in place already that you can pop out and you have bolt down
areas. There are six of these designed for a roof rack. So the holes are already there.
You don't have to peel off any trim cut anything like in the odyssey, build stand-offs or anything.
You can attach just about anybody's cargo rack to the top of that.
Nissan does their options a little bit differently on this fan than you might expect. Rather than order everything from
the factory, a lot of it comes from the dealer. They're dealer installed options.
One of the options that this one has is the grates on the windows. So if
someone smashes the window
it makes it difficult for them to do a smash-and-grab if you have tools inside or whatnot.
These I'll probably take out and store, but there are convenient bolts in place to attach a different kind of panel
So that'll be one of my projects and those are on every window in the back.
One other option this van has is backup sonar,
so it beeps as you get closer to something and if you're making deliveries where you're backing up to a building
that'd be pretty handy. It does have a backup camera
So in the navigation system, you also get a backup camera and this has nav.
So strictly speaking,
I don't need the sonar but it might come in handy and who knows might keep me from backing into a tree someplace.
The more I look at this vehicle the more I think that they ordered every possible option on it, including the dealer-installed options
They've even got the nv200 floor mats, That's a good quality mat. I wouldn't necessarily buy floor mats. I'd go to the aftermarket
I wouldn't buy them from the dealer, but they're there.
And I have navigation. So far the navigation system has been really useful. I like it better than using Google Maps
First of all, it's not tracking where I'm going out all the time
but it also
interfaces with Sirius XM radio and gets traffic updates. So I've had it actually reroute me around traffic jams and whatnot.
So that's kind of nice and I imagine it uses the signal from everyone that has serious
So it's probably a better system at least has more data input than Waze or something like that.
And then I
installed this $12 holder for my phone that bolts to the
floor behind the seat.
And another little neat feature (this thing's full of little neat features) is
this hanging file holder. It's designed, you know to hold
brochures or whatnot for someone who is traveling around.
So there are all kinds of little features like that that make this van good for a contractor
but I also think, like I said, it's going to be good as a camper. So
whether you choose the aforementioned
dealer-installed
reverse seat option, or the standard seat, the seat has a neat feature when I reach over and I grab the
recline lever, pull it and then reach this level lever. Sorry.
The seat folds down and there's a nice place to set your laptop or your McDonald's bag or whatnot
So there's a nice little storage area there something to keep your pens from rolling around or cylindrical objects
So that's a nice feature and that's probably the way the seat will be most of the time while I'm camping in the vehicle.
I
still have access here to the front and aft
setting for the seat so I can move it back or bring it forward
One other feature I forgot to mention
The 60/40 rear split door, or maybe it's a 70/30,
basically it's designed to open wider on one side. This will be your curb side in the US and
So the wide door opens toward the curb and then the narrow door
opens up toward the traffic side and if you should choose to pull these levers you can open the door all the way out
to load cargo and it doesn't hang out in traffic too much. I probably wouldn't chance it
but if you're making large deliveries in New York City and traffic's crawling, that'd be kind of useful
When I see it as is a great way to get ventilation into the van.
With a full-size screen or one of the tents attached to the back of this you'd have pretty good flow through the vehicle. So
That's really important when you're trying to stay cool in the summertime.
The question I know I'm going to get
is whether or not I'm going to put a roof fan in this and with the doors open in the back
I don't think you really need one
It would be nice to leave the doors closed and have some ventilation.
The problem is that I see between these cross pieces is about 10 inches and most fans are 14
So either I have to find smaller fans or I have to cut one of these cross braces
which I'm not crazy about doing because as I mentioned
It's a leased vehicle and really I should check to make sure there wouldn't be a problem putting a fan in the roof
So for now I'm gonna leave that out. But if you're doing your own install consider that.
Climb up in the roof here.
All right. Now I'm standing in the back of the vehicle.
I have pretty good access to the roof and you can see the roof rack
holes up there.
So other than cutting across brace putting a fan in here wouldn't be that big of a deal
I'm gonna hold off on that, there are enough videos online showing how to install vans fans in cargo vans.
I don't need to do one, I just thought you should know that info.
So friend asked me how the NV 200 was to drive
and I said,
well, it corners like a UPS truck. It accelerates like it as a sail attached to it and it breaks, some time this afternoon.
So as far as a performance vehicle, I wouldn't recommend it. But what it does well is it's a big box.
So if that's important to you
that's what you buy it for that and it gets pretty good mileage. I'd say gets better mileage than any minivan I've ever driven
So it has that going for it. looks as I mentioned are subjective,
so you make a determination whether or not you can live with the looks
I think it's gonna make a fun vehicle for a build out.
The first thing I'm going to do though is get rid of these tires.
I'll let you know what I found and show you
how to swap those out and improve the handling and stopping characteristics of the vehicle.
So that concludes my introduction to the Nissan nv200
cargo van in SV trim level, I
think it's going to make a pretty interesting project.
If you're looking for a small minivan (a really small minivan) with nothing inside it, no trim to work around.
You just want a big box. I think it's a pretty good blank canvas
In the next video, as I mentioned, I'll be doing interior dimensions and I'll probably handle the wheel alteration at the same time.
But for this weekend, I'm going to take it out on a quick trip. I've got some customers to visit.
I'm gonna throw a cot in the back like I did in the Odyssey and head out on the road to
learn a little about the vehicle and decide exactly what I want to do with it. I hope you follow along. Thanks for watching!