Mary: If you watched my bus rebuild video, then you've
already met David Wall. I think I can pretty safely say that he
was one of the MVPs of the build. And afterwards I got to
talk to him about his life and his van. And they're both pretty
interesting. Here he is.
David: My name is David Wall. And I've been on the road for a
year this month. I am 72 years old. Born in 1950, mid 20th
century. That sounds old, doesn't it? This is a 1989
Dodge Ram 350. I paid $800 for it. It's a retired disabled
veteran transport. I was born in Northwest Arkansas, Huntsville,
Arkansas, just east of Bentonville, Arkansas. A lot of
people know about Bentonville 'cause of Walmart. So I grew up
around that and saw that all developed. Charlotte was a
waitress in Centerton Arkansas. It was her and the cook - that
was all that worked there. And we went in and ate there every
day, me and a friend of mine, and we just slowly became close
friends and we had only known each other three months before
we decided to get married. A lot of people said, "That will never
last." Well it did. It did. And when I retired in 2012, we took
off and headed straight for the Gulf Coast and live down there
until we came to Arizona. When we was building this van we'd
take excursions out from home and spend a week, two weeks all
around Tombstone and in the Chiricahua Mountains over in
that part of Arizona. We did a lot of camping in this, figuring
out how we wanted everything set up. From the backs of the front
seats to the doors back here you have nine feet of living space.
It seemed big to us. It was plenty of room the way we had it
laid out. We had a set of four pieces of furniture that we
bought from a yard sale. When we decided to built this van out we
decided to use these so this all matches. Storage in here, this
is this is my miscellaneous drawer. This is utensils and so
forth, silverware. This is water storage. My wife picked this
out. Charlotte picked this out and we got all this at Home
Depot it's actual drapery material. The colors and the
pattern and all that was her choice. The interior - when we
did put the shelves and these units in and the bed at first, I
probably spent three weeks and then of course, the curtains,
all this was later on as time permitted. This all, and
deciding where the pictures are going, living in it for a while
and deciding where everything's gonna go probably took three
months. Yeah, we started out with 100 watt system from Harbor
Freight. You get two 25 watt solar panels. You get those two
lights and you get a charge controller for that. I think it
was $150. I bought an old trailer from a friend that was
desperate for money so I got a good deal on it. It was a
motorcycle trailer. I took the sideboards off and built it
basically like a stick and brick. It's got four inch
insulated walls, four inch insulated ceiling. And I just
framed it up like a house and attached it to that trailer,
just so we didn't have to keep unloading and loading stuff out
of the van to get into it. Like right now this is all I haul in
here. I don't haul anything else in the van. It's all in the
trailer, It's seven and a half feet by five and a half feet
wide. I built it just tall enough for me to stand up and it
makes it convenient. I can just pull in and park, didn't have to
spend an hour rearranging everything. We spent six months
in this before we ended up in Ajo because of the COVID. And we
were set in a friend's backyard there for all of 2020. And then
we was full time and this after that. So we was on a road trip
in this through Louisiana Texas when she - she had a heart
attack. We liked the same things. That's what made it so
good. So cool. She loved fishing, loved outdoors, and we
just did everything together. Not only were we in love, but we
were best friends. And she passed away in '21, so...
January 22 I went to the RTR and that's when I decided to go go
full time. I was living in a fifth wheel in Yuma, and went
straight back to Yuma, figured out what I needed to use in this
van, and put that fifth wheel in storage. And hit the road and I
been on the road since. I turned a front seat around,
which opened up a whole new area all around while you're living
here. I got my fridge. I think it's a 28 quart. These shelves,
this is all clothing, clothing, storage, clothing, clothing over
here, clothing over here and a few miscellaneous things from
here to there. And above the seats, they left, they left the
actual van roof up. So that's just a catch-all for everything
as you can see. That's as neat as it gets.
Mary: And I guess you probably bumped your head a few times
before you came up with this.
David: You noticed that. This is the absolute best cure for that.
A pool noodle.
Mary: Let's hear about your cooking.
David: Two burner coleman camp stove. Propane.
Mary: And you just use the little green bottles.
David: Microwave, since I've got enough battery power to run it.
Mary: And that's your -
Unknown: And I use Mister Buddy for heat.
David: t's fine. Yeah, this one's my second one. And as long
Mary: How do you like Mister Buddy?
as you vent well, you're safe. And it's all you need in this space.
Mary: And the bed - what's the -what have you got under there?
Unknown: The bed is is 28 inches wide. 72 inches long. And
the day I went to Walmart to buy a mattress all the head was
eight inch memory foam. So I have an eight inch memory foam
mattress. That's all I had that day. And I wasn't willing to
wait.
Mary: And what's the bedframe?
Unknown: It's just two by two's and two by four's.And half inch
plywood, with holes cut in it for ventilation. If you're gonna
enclose the bottom you have to ventilate because of moisture.
You don't think about it, but especially with memory foam
mattresses, the moisture out of your body will wick through, go
all the way down to the bed platform. And if it can't dry
out, you know what wet causes - it causes mold. So you have to
ventilate that.
Mary: And you is this a Max Air? The fan?
Mary: Are you happy with it?
Unknown: It's similar to a Max Air. It's called a 2012 is the
name of it. It's remote controlled 10 speeds. Goes both
directions. And it has a rain sensor on it and it closes itself.
David: Oh, yeah. Plus I have two twelve volt fans.
Mary: One going forward, one going backward.
David: Yup. Up to 85 - actually, even up to 90, 90 degrees, those
fans keep it comfortable for me until the sun goes down and it
cools off. I put in 5000 Watt air conditioner.
Mary: 5000 BTU, Right?
David: Yeah, yeah, BTU. Air conditioner. But I have to have
a generator running right now until I get a little more solar.
I built this rack for the solar. I bought a normal ladder rack
which wasn't tall enough so I cut some flat bars and extended
it up high enough to get it above the high top. The van has
two 250 watt solar panels. I was hoping to get more than that.
But space wise I ended up with 500 watts up there. And just
went through on Amazon and found that style charge controller,
its a 40 amp MPPT. And I've got two, two batteries underneath
the bed. When you decide what you're gonna run off of it, you
add all that up. And then you figure out what size of the
solar system you need. I oversized this, my system, for
the short daylight days and the cloudy days. So the size that I
built it I can go three days without sun and still be fine
because I still draws in a little. But three days without
sun. And that was my goal was to get big enough to use everything
and not even had to worry about it.
Mary: So when you start out with 100 Watts, you could run
everything but if it was a cloudy day you were chasing
power.
David: Right. Yeah with just 100 amp hour battery pack. Yeah.
Mary: And that's what made you upgrade from there.
David: Yeah. Anybody that's gonna be a minimalist and try to
live in a SUV or minivan 100 watt system or 200 watt system
is all you're gonna need.
Mary: So you've got solar on the Van and solar on the trailer.
David: Yeah, same amount.
Mary: And is this solar tied into the - are they separate?
David: Separate.
Mary: Separate systems.
David: Yeah.
Mary: Okay. Yeah. So let's see what we got in here.
David: if you can see -
Mary: Look at that!
David: That's my secret. Five cubic foot deep freeze. That's
why I have solar in here. Full light system, 1000 watt
inverter. I've got my generator, I've got my extra gas, extra
water, miscellaneous,
Mary: Your five gallon bucket.
David: And my toilet. This is also my porta Potti. Hanging
close, fishing tackle - that whole top shelf is fishing
tackle. This is like miscellaneous tools, this is
tools, that's tools, that box contains my green tanks. I've
got 20 extra green tanks,
Mary: And you refill your green tanks off of - .
David: I have my my big tank. Yeah. Gasoline for the
generator, which you can can see on the other side of the potty
box.
Mary: But you must not use your generator much because you got
plenty of solar.
David: Right, right.
Mary: Right. Just use it for things like this build.
David: It's for emergencies. Yeah.
Mary: And you got your flamingos over here.
David: I carry a charcoal grill, it's set outside over here.
Mary: And you're you got a bicycle.
David: I got an old bicycle, yeah. That's for emergencies in
case I get stuck out somewhere and the van won't start. I can
ride the silly thing, I just don't very often.
Mary: So what's the biggest advice you'd give to somebody
looking to start out in a van?
David: Start out as a minimalist with the least that you can,
because it's easier to add to than it is to get rid of later.
And practice before you before you try to do it full time. Buy
it, go out camping and traveling in it a week, two weeks at a
time. Practice. And then when you get out there you'll stay.
Mary: Do you see this as a long term?
David: Yes, I do. Certainly. Even if I changed out of this, I
would get a truck and start pulling the fifth wheel. If I
ever thought I needed that much room. This is so easy and
convenient. For me. Size wise. This is this is great size.
There's efficiency apartments that aren't much bigger than
this.
Mary: Why don't you talk about your YouTube channel.
David: My YouTube channel is called David in the Desert. I
just launched it a couple days ago. Look it up. If you liked
the content, don't forget to hit the thumbs up and subscribe.
Mary: I already did, I thumbed up and I subscribed.
David: Thank you for that. That's what keeps us YouTubers
going.
Mary: And I see another channel up there. MaxMiniTV.
David: Yeah, I love that show.