what's up everybody what's up everybody
we are in Bellingham Washington we've got a really fun day planned we've been
chatting to this couple
who
we've chatted with online for years in the other not years I guess a year since
we both were doing our first van build and it was so funny the other night we were
sitting parked beside each other and this random came up with her minivan and
she's like oh so like how are you guys friends and we were all like the
Internet anyways so we are internet friends but what we really love about
hanging out with these guys is we absolutely love their van built so of
course we're gonna show you their van built and we're gonna talk about the
differences between Sprinter 144 yeah and Sprinter 170 big day
that's true if you if you saw this video you know the title but it's an exciting
day yeah it's something we've been we've been talking about hmm not a lot but a
little bit as in like you know next bill that what would we do and that's a huge
frequently asked question that we get from you guys is hey I'm looking at
getting in a band like what size should I get so we really want to dive into you
know sitting down with these guys figuring on what they love about their
van seeing if they could ever do something smaller and hash it out like
really casually so that you guys can make the best decision and end up with
the van in your dreams shall we go then did you find the right location yeah I'm
still having a hard time boom 35 hours freedom just kidding it's 40
hours of freedom
Seren Alex what's up homies you guys are looking fantastic thank you I know we
were like oh we're kind of matching here and there's two more family members yes
I got a cup your ears are you okay bam bam so these guys also live in their
self converted Sprinter van this is van number two for them so we're gonna jump
in and they're gonna give you like a quick little tour of how they've laid it
out and their setup welcome to our band so it's a 2014 170 Mercedes Sprinter so
first things first we got a closet with mirror some bags storage or a little dog
crate for our two pups we love that we've got our bathroom over here which
is amazing toilet and shower no number two is in our van and then we got our
big kitchen here so we have a farmhouse sink we've got our Dometic fridge and
just lots of storage a lot in here it's pretty amazing and then this is our
little work / breakfast nook office bed everything in one so we have this
fantastic table which is mounted on the lagoon pedestal so we've got lots of
mobility and flexibility with how we want to set up the back of the van and
hang out this drops down to make our bed it sits on these little lips we have
another piece that sits right here cushions all come together and it's
basically a king sized bed which is awesome because we like to sleep well
and it's six inches of memory foam you want the full two of our van you can
actually head over to our YouTube channel Seren Alex forty hours of
freedom and there we actually have a full tour of everything in the new van
don't really do proper educational videos too often so we're hitting you
guys with some education which means I'm going to the Internet so thanks to Steph
Davis Co she's got the stats here a little plug for stuff Dave's car okay we
don't believe you Steph Davis so we're gonna pull out a tape measure and
measure both vans okay so we want to give you guys the most factual
information you wanna die 14 feet or so 10 feet 10 inches okay Sarah Davis
you're correct yeah you want to hold this at the bumper bed we'll go 23 feet
6 inches now we'll do this one she was perfect I love her we all shut her down
so I'm like 3 feet that's it come on it seems like that wouldn't be that big of
a deal to do any media yeah but in your house that's what I'm saying so we're
here in Sarah and Alex is beautiful van this is van number 2 when you guys said
you were gonna do band life was 144 even an option or it was like right away this
layout in the bathroom and enough storage for like clothing and just the
things I wanted to have in here I started by driving a 170 and I was like
whoa this thing is like feels like a rig you know they need to like think about
your turns yeah where you jump in that and it still feels like a big truck but
you get very comfortable where and so they drive totally different so if
someone's you know looking at jumping in and test driving the two bands it's a
big difference right there I think the initial thought for me was like I'd
rather drive the 144 but I maybe rather live in a 170 yeah and then when you and
I started talking about what we wanted at a van life which was a lot of city
living for our business it was really to expand our company we thought we'd be
basically in tiny parking lots all the time which we are and we still deliver
in Toronto and so this toss-up between parking and driving would you do a lot
of in van life or you know yeah and even like when we say city life like of
course like we're talking major cities but even when we went to like Tofino
where it was like so busy and you go and you know pop in and grab a coffee or you
want to like try and find a quick parking spot within the town like I feel
like it makes a big difference to have a you can quickly parallel park your your
in bellingham Trader Joe's the laundromat that you guys went to write
that writing laws for the smallest parking lots of every time Bellingham as
a total has really small parking lots so with the 170 you definitely have to
change the approach and the way that you go through a parking lot and the way
that you park like I back this thing in almost everywhere look I'm backed in
right now you've got to make your priority list yeah so like what's your
priority list what are the must-haves and what are like well this would be
nice this is maybe a reason why we're doing it yeah and then you've got to
look at that and figure out okay well what's the best option for us and when
we did that it was definitely the 170 because built-in dog create a an
enclosed toilet shower and a big bed those were all huge priorities for us
there's no way we could do that in a 144 yeah our biggest thing is like we wanted
to be able to work and not just like wanna lay in bed all day set this up
every every day every day a last word it's like a Sunday we just feel like
being lazy yeah Sunday's International multinational intergalactic snuggle day
so our dogs Sunday one thing you have to consider is it's that much more
difficult to three and a half feet to turn around so you don't want to go so
far down a road that you don't know if you're gonna be able to turn around yeah
I'm sure you guys know like when you're driving and it's a bumpy road
everything's like shaking I'm so on edge when we do it like I don't even speak
I'm just like and he's having the time why are you know that I built it like a
tank like our bed is made of 2x4 is it's not breaking nothing's breaking the cups
might break out of it I guess I'm to me the cups are just as important
I hope you guys enjoyed this video with Sarah and Alex and their two pups we
sure had a lot of fun checking out their van finally in person and just like
chatting through some of the reasons why they went with the bigger belt and
something for us to look forward to in the future should we choose to do the
ones that I got inspired yeah cozy pants yeah it was a really nice fan it's not
as much of an adventure van as I think Alex said like it's more of like a house
on wheels of it's beautiful it's super comfortable I could totally
picture us living in something like that as well you know these guys hope you
enjoyed the video if you found it helpful make sure you give it a thumbs
up and until Wednesday but oh but a podcast first oh my gosh should we tell
oh no it's already happened we'll be back to like more vloggy style videos
it's so close to my face yeah what's wrong with your face it's gorgeous
some job hey later homies peace what just happened there did you have to ask
someone to move because your bands too big no he like said something rude and
so then it was almost a fistfight I'm just kidding yeah because we're big this
is just something that you know you might have to deal with when you get the
170 yeah when you have to have room for that shower that we're gonna take at the
end okay we're done