Yep. That is snow. We got snowed on pretty dramatically.
But when I shot the video that I'm going to show you today, it wasn't snowing.
In this video, I'm going to introduce you to my friend David and his amazing.
ProMaster 3500 van.
Now I call this a stealth fan because I call all white van stealth vans because
they kind of are, you know, white van.
You can get away with pretty much anything compared to the circus wagon here.
But David uses it not really for urban stealth, but more for um,
wilderness boondocking. Let's see what that looks like. Here we go.
I quit my job, sold my house,
and now I'm traveling full time.
Hi I'm David, and this is my van. This
is Dunbar. He's four and a half years old.
He loves going hiking and biking. I always knew that I wanted to do something,
whether it be hike the AT or backpack across Europe.
And then I saw van dwelling and thought that it was an amazing opportunity.
I thought about it for a while, started telling people that I might do it,
and then I bought the van brand new in March, so I was like,
I can build a van. I don't have any experience or anything, but I,
I figured I could do my best.
I'm an electrical engineer.
So the electrical was probably the easiest part of it.
It's funny because the electrical is what most people say is the most
challenging thing to do it themselves.
Yeah. Yeah. Everyone I was talking to that had vans was,
were telling me about how the electrical was actually the scariest part,
but I had no woodworking experience,
no propane experience,
no plumbing experience at all. So it was kind of learn on the fly.
Probably propane was the scariest part for myself.
I have a 13 gallon propane tank mounted behind the rear axle and then my stove,
my furnace and my instant hot water heater are all run off of propane.
I have a thousand Watts of solar on the roof and I have 600 amp hour lithium
Battleborn batteries. So that I'm able to run a, um,
I have an air conditioner that I'm able to run off, with solar. So this is,
this is my, um,
my water fill and then my water tank is in here and you can see the,
the level of it.
So I have 46 gallons of water underneath this bench here and then I can fill it
up from the outside and I can check the level, um, while I'm,
while I'm filling up so I don't overfill.
So is your plan to be off grid a lot?
Yeah.
I'm not planning on being in RV parks or anything like that so I can go fully
off grid for three to four weeks without having to
plug in or do anything. I got my bottle opener, which is the must have.
Most important thing.
And then I have my fridge over here, um,
which is just a 12 volt truck fridge.
And then I have a suburban oven with the three top burners,
with a pretty big drawer underneath where all my pots and pans and everything.
I tried to have to maximize my counter space as well as make it multifunctional.
This piece of counter actually removes and it becomes an extra seat right here.
And then it also can drop down into place here.
And I have these supports that come up and it can turn into a second bed if I
need to.
And you did all this yourself.
Besides the, uh, the cushions and the curtains and everything. My mom did those.
So, um,
this is my propane furnace and then I have a CO2 and smoke detector with the
thermostat. I have my sink next, um,
with a deep sink cause I don't like to do dishes too much. And then, um,
I have a three-stage filter underneath the sink.
So I have filtered drinking water, um, and then to like maximize space,
that's just a little flip out drawer for utensils and random things.
And then I have a uh, large pull out table.
You certainly do.
Yeah, so I can fit three people pretty easily
and it's on a 500 pound drawer slides. So it's very sturdy.
This is one of my favorite things about the whole build.
And then I have my Nature Head toilet
hidden underneath the bed and that's on drawer slides as well,
so that slides out so I can use it.
And then I have my laundry chute right here so it goes into my laundry bag.
So, um, throw all my dirty laundry underneath the bed.
So it's kinda out of the way. I, I bought a, uh,
a queen size mattress and then I cut it to size with uh,
one of those electric turkey carving knives.
Yeah, it works great.
It's the cutter.
It's a short queen, so it's queen width, but as long as a full mattress.
One of the main features that everyone likes is I have a window AC unit in this
cabinet. So this was probably the trickiest part of my build, um, because
normally window ACs need to be sticking out of your window.
So I needed to be able to vent it. So I have um,
computer fans that are controlling the intake and the exhaust of the, um,
of the AC as well as I have drainage underneath and it's so drains out,
um, of the bottom so it collects any water. And then drains it out.
Um, to the outside of the van.
I saw a couple tutorials on how you don't want to not,
um, separate the intake and the exhaust. So that was kind of a big thing. But,
um, other than that I kind of did the plan and everything myself.
So a lot of people will put them on the floor and then it's a lot easier to
exhaust and stuff, but then it cools up your floor.
So I have it up here so then it can go directly onto where I'm sleeping and keep
me cool on top of my bed. Yeah. So this is where, um,
my dog rides when we're, we're, uh, we're driving, I throw his, uh,
his bed up here and he rides shotgun and uh, does a terrible job at navigating.
So we don't spend a ton of time in the van. We are mostly outdoors.
The only times I'm really in my van is whether I'm traveling, cooking,
sleeping, really or, or it's raining.
I have my bike and my snowboard and my everything else.
And I built this first, it's a, uh, a pullout drawer for the bike,
so it slides out so it's easy to take off and put back on. And then
I sized everything around that.
So I built the height of the bed to be right above the seat of the bike and
everything else. This is where it started and the build went out from there.
I have a boogie board back here. I have a snowboard. Um,
I got my snowshoes. Um, all my hiking gear -
- and your shower.
Yup. And my outdoor shower. Yeah. So I can throw up a, uh,
a shower curtain up across the back. I have no travel plans.
The only thing I need to be is I need to be in Los Angeles for January 1st,
because some of my family's going out for the Rose bowl.
So that's the only place I need to be.
I'm not working currently for the next year two. Um,
or until I run out of money. It's, it's, um, I'm just going for it.
And what's your plan once you run out of money, do you have one?
I don't really have a plan yet.
My initial plan was I was gonna maybe sell this after I was done traveling with
it, but I, I put my heart and soul into it.
So I don't know if I'm going to sell it.
What if you never want to stop traveling?
I might be able to get a remote job. Um, so it's,
I really have no real plans, so it's all up in the air.
OK. That's brave.
Yeah.