Today,
I'm going to take you on my stealth camper van tour that is built for urban van
life Australia. So let's go.
[I'm awake I'm done with sleeping Man on the move I'm leaving.
I'm my own chaperone . And I'm taking me out. Where to I don't know .
But I'm taking me out
[inaudible]
[typewriter - Stealth Camper Van Tour For Urban Van Life Australia]
Welcome back to my channel. My name is Mitch Asser. If you're new here,
make sure you hit subscribe for a lot of videos on van life as I travel around
Australia.
Also while running my digital business and sharing that journey as well with
you. But today I'm going to be talking about, uh,
I'll give you a tour of my stealth camper van.
I've been living in this van now for just over 12 months and pretty much self
camped most nights of the year. Um, in this video,
actually talk about why I am paying for more camping this year at caravan parks
and so forth. And you can check that out after watching this video.
But today I want to share with you some of the,
just take you on a bit of a casual tour and nothing fancy but just help you see
inside the van.
And I'll give you some tips along the way about what I do when I'm stealth
camping as well. So let's go inside. Now,
the first thing behind me here is the wall across there. So the,
the door and the wall is built so that you can close the door at night and
there's absolutely no light that will actually get out if I've got the lights on
inside.
So that's pretty important I find not only does that help keep it more stealth
so people can't see any light in or out when you're in here. Um,
but it's also really good for insulation as well.
Sorry about noisy birds that we've got here in Australia. You feel,
it sounds like a velocirapter, but it's actually a cockatoo. Um,
so basically, um, by having that door closed, it allows for, um,
no light to get in or out. But it's also good for installation.
I think it's also good for noise because it is quite thick timber as well that
keeps that close. So that's um,
that's a pretty important part and I really enjoy that part of it.
It does mean that I need to jump over that and see every now and then,
which can be a bit of a challenge, but um,
it's pretty much all good most of the time now be behind there.
So basically behind there I've gotten 1000 watt inverter,
which healthy run to 240 volts where I'd need to. Um,
there's not a huge amount of things. I don't need to run two 40, but eh,
it's there if I need it. So the other thing with that, uh,
that I find with handling the inverter in this place is that it actually,
um, let me just pop you off here for a second. Well,
having it in the inverter down there,
it's actually in the hottest part of the van. So like I said, the, the, the,
when the door closes, it keeps the rest of the van insulated. Right? However,
if I am,
if I'm parking somewhere where the sun is like coming in through the windscreen,
I've got that door close. It also makes the front of the van like a sauna,
so that means the inverter has got to run its fan in order to cool down so it
starts to chew a load with the batteries.
I do have two batteries under the seat in the front.
So the two deep cycle back batteries, 105 amp hours,
they're good enough to run basically the lights that you can see up here and
runs the fridge full time runs the 12 volt pump thing,
pumps of water sink or the shower,
which I'll show you in the second end of the sink,
which I'll show you in a second.
But I find that if there's not sun for maybe two or three days,
the battery starts to drain pretty quickly and I've got to start either
isolating the power that's coming into the back of the van so we don't drain the
batteries too much or going to a caravan park and, and pulling out the,
the 12 volt plug for the fridge and then plugging in the 240 volt into the
caravan park. Um, power instead, which you know,
is sometimes a bit of a challenge back and go to do what you can. Um,
I'm also suspicious on the quality of the battery.
I really need to get that checked because I think when I got the van,
the batteries weren't so good because as soon as I plug in anything,
240 volt it drains the batteries immediately. So, um, yeah,
in this video actually talking about why I can't upgrade the battery system as
much as I would like to. And then I share that, you know, the,
the things that I've done instead that allow me to use my things like my laptop,
um, pretty much all day, every day by, you know,
using some external batteries instead.
So continuing on with the casual tour here, um,
in here we've got the shower and toilet.
So this screen is a,
one of the self-cleaning screens. Um,
so it just slides back in and it sort of cleans itself. Um, in the,
we've got a composting toilet,
so it's one of the lines that's where it splits solids and liquids.
I saw a solid set of back liquids in the front,
which makes it easy to clear out. Um, I don't use it too often.
It's more of a, I guess a backup toilet.
I use public showers and toilets quite a lot. However, it's good if you're,
you know, if you're in the van at night and you parks,
and especially if you are stealth camping,
it's good that if you're in here not and you need to go to the toilet and then
you can actually use it rather than getting out in the van and like having a
pain in front of someone's house,
which definitely don't want to do because that's what causes a lot of issues
with people in their vans and people in their neighbourhoods getting annoyed at
vans. So definitely don't do that. But it's really good at that.
And I think for having like a really stealth be that you need,
that you want to use in the city,
having the toilet is essential so that when where those birds on, it's so noisy.
Uh, so that you're not annoying people. And in this video here,
I actually lived in the Sydney CBD, uh,
for the first six months when I got my van.
So you can go check out that video after this one where I give some tips on um,
where I parked and things like that. Also in this video, uh,
I actually give you further insights into how I find a new parking space when I
go into a new city and things like that so that you're parking in a place that
is first of all comfortable for you and safe but also a place like not going to
be annoying people too much and you can, you know, have a little bit more,
I guess flexibility we've got you're doing in van at night. Now the other thing,
excuse me,
now the other thing in here is the shower that I'm currently using to hang
things up.
That is something that I also don't use very often and like I would definitely
have it if I build it again. However,
that's just something I use some of the time.
It's good if I'm like parked somewhere,
I want to do a workout and then have a shower often. Then afterwards,
the challenge we've had when your shower all the time is that you've got to find
water all the time. Right. And that can sometimes be challenging if your,
if your on the road all the time and things like that.
So I don't always use the shower, but it's a good addition.
The only thing that I don't use ever is a hot water system.
I just don't need it in Australia. It's all like, it's already too warm. Yeah.
Behind me down there we have the kitchen.
So the kitchen space is actually quite large as you can see right there. Um,
it's probably bigger than what I need. However,
I didn't actually build this fan and then you can check out in,
in this video here, we're actually do a proper run through the van and you know,
um,
I would probably van tour but this is basically the kitchen I've got in there,
a big bowl of water because I like to have really fresh, good quality water. Um,
and it's got a nice deep sink in there as well. But I've got two gas burners,
um, which are quite good. The, the gas bottle is outside.
So that's the only thing that would probably give it away to say that it's not
a,
a delivery ban is that you can actually say the gas bottle on the outside,
um,
where the gas bottles go and then you can sort of see the solar panels on top as
well. But other than that,
it's a pretty good self camper van because there's no windows on that side.
There's no windows on this side.
And I've got the windows in the back fully covered up so no one can see in or
out and just doesn't look like a camper van from most of the time.
That's why I've never had an issue. But yeah, the kitchen space is quite large.
I mean it comes in handy sometimes. I'll also like, you know, imagine your,
my computer screen right now.
I have a stand where I can actually stand up and do my work from here.
Um, so because the, because the, the,
the space from the bench is actually so large,
so it actually bubbles in quite a good way, which is cool.
So that's the kitchen on a knife. You just got your normal stuff,
a couple of drawers, a couple of covers. Um, underneath here we've got
behind the mess there, there's the 12 volt pump,
which pumps the water through to the shower and through to the sink compared to
well and also fire extinguisher, that type of stuff.
Um, I've got a bench seat on this side down here.
And then underneath here is the, the fridge.
So I have a 40 litre Wayco fridge that you lift from the top. Um,
and that's where I keep all my food that I do need throughout the week.
Yeah.
And then at the back is my bed.
So for the first nine months I slept in my bed across ways like this and it was
pretty uncomfortable.
I had to sleep with my head in the top corner and my feet and the bottom corner
here. So like completely diagonal in order to have enough space.
So basically what I've done, yeah. And let me just pop this down a little.
If you can see down here, there's this strip along here.
So there used to be like a covering piece of timber that um,
made that look better. But with the help of my dad,
we knocked that off and we put a,
a Velcro strip here instead and they gave us a little bit of a ledge in order to
build a bit of timber that comes out this way as well.
So I've done that and now I've got a bit of foam that will sit on top. Um,
and then that basically completes a bed.
And so now I've got a full size bed that I can sleep in,
which has changed the game completely. I'm so much more comfortable,
can finally stretch out. And like if I do have, um, you know,
a partner in here at the time,
then there's way more room for us to be in here as well.
And instead of being too cramped up and not getting a proper night's sleep like
we were hoping for. Now the most important part in, um,
having a stealth camp in is making sure that you've got windows covered up
properly. So I bought this from a, um, camp events store,
uh, in Brisbane. So just on the outskirts of Brisbane somewhere.
But basically it's got the reflective mirror material on the outside. Um,
thing got these cool pockets on the inside. But it's, it's the, they're,
they're,
they're built purposefully for the sprinter van and they've got some for you
know, pretty much any type of van where, um,
the window sizes are pretty consistent across most models and they've got them
already cut out to, to the proper size.
So I bought a couple of them and they've been awesome.
Not only are they good to block out light and things like that,
but it's also good for insulation reasons. We try,
which is pretty cool because we knows a L let a lot of the heat in and out or
all. Yeah. Like they, depending on money you're trying to keep it cold or warm.
The windows are a big part of the disconnect for your insulation.
So having these have been really good.
I leave them on them pretty much all the time.
And because my windows out in the back are like really dark, you can,
you can't even really tell that there's a reflective material on the inside.
So it actually works really well. So having that is super important.
If you want to keep your van, you know, really still.
The other thing that I'm doing at night when I'm actually in here, um,
stealth camping is just not having these lights on.
So I've got downloads. You might be able to see one. Yeah.
So I've got downlights, I don't know why they put in so many downloads.
There's literally like seven in here.
I've already taken the globe out at the front one,
but there's just white much lie, right?
I'm not someone who likes a lot of wind, especially at night. I'm like,
when it's nighttime, it's time you goes like, so for me,
I usually just light a candle.
And that's something that you definitely can't say from the outside,
but because there's such a small space,
just having one candle gives you more than enough light that you need to move
around the van and find stuff and things like that.
So that's the other thing that are, that I'm doing as well. Um,
so I have created a playlist so you can check that out here with all of my self
camping tips.
So it's something that has been popular for me in this channel and it's
something that I wanted to really share because it's important to know these
things.
I know I didn't definitely didn't know them when I got started in band life and
I'm having to knowing them now,
it was actually pretty important or good to know and the of,
I sort of had to figure it out the hard way. Right. And so, um, yeah,
and then the only other thing is which are down beneath the bed there is,
I've got,
and you get to it from opening up the back door is I have an 80 litre freshwater
tank. Um, so I'll fill that up with fresh water.
Don't really use it for anything besides washing up and the occasional shower
and um, and then just a couple of shelves to keep stuffing.
So I've got in there a um, pump up stand up paddleboard.
I've gotten a bigger battery pack, which you can see in that video.
And I've got in there just a few other things as well.
Some of the like tools and stuff like that. So that's basically my self care.
But on the inside it's pretty like comfortable, right? Like,
and it looks good and I feel like I have a lot of space so I've worked for me in
here as well. I run a digital business from here and I'm always inside.
The biggest thing that I was that I wanted was somewhere where I can stand up.
So I got that. It looks great.
I've never had an issue in terms of camping anywhere. So, um,
so yeah,
there are quite a few things I would change and you can see that in this video
there's a lot of changes I would actually make evolves to build this van myself
again. So you can check that out and that video as well.
So all of the videos I've talked about and be linked up down below,
if you're new around here and make sure you hit subscribe as I'm about to go
travel all around Australia. The best country in the world,
and I'm going to take you on that journey as well.
I also do the occasional overseas trip.
I'm heading to the Caribbean and Costa Rica over the next couple of weeks,
I also talk about digital business,
so showing how you can also start a digital business so you can sustain this
lifestyle if you do desire as well. So hit subscribe. I'd love to from you,
comment down below, or send me a DM on Instagram at Mitch. Dot.
Asser and I'll see you in the next video.
[inaudible].