Hey guys,
in today's video we're going to tour an incredible van dwelling with an
impressive solar system.
But first I want to tell you how you could win your very own customizable tiny
house and support a great cause at the same time.
Imagine winning your very own tiny home built by modern tiny living with a value
up to a hundred thousand dollars.
And the best part is that you get to fully customize the design.
I think if I could customize a tiny house with that kind of budget,
I'd make something totally unique. Maybe there'd even be a slide somewhere
to potentially win the tiny home of your dreams.
Visit omaze.com/THGJ donate
$10 and enter for your chance to win.
Every donation is supporting a great cause.
Omaze is partnered with path at charity on a mission to end homelessness.
Path will remain on the frontlines of the COVID 19 crisis and now more than
ever, their work is saving lives.
I know my tiny house has changed my perspective on what can actually be called a
home.
And no matter if you want to live in a tiny house full time or plop one in your
backyard as a guest house or granny flat,
owning a tiny home will bring so much joy to your life. I can attest to that.
All right guys, let's take a tour.
I'm Dave this here is Dunbar
We are in the beautiful area of Sedona and I'd love to give you a tour of my
Van
Before I moved into the van.
I was working as a test engineer for a company that made transducers for fish
finders and other applications,
so I was at a desk writing computer programs and I actually love my job,
but I just wanted to get out and start exploring.
I've been on the road for four months. Coming from New Hampshire,
I drove down the East coast and then went West kind of through the middle of the
country. I love being out in nature,
so I tend to try to be out in BLM land or other trail
heads to be out there and not really around busy streets or anything like that.
I first came across van life on YouTube. I think like most people,
I saw van tour and got addicted to watching van tour videos.
That's how I came to build my van.
I kind of watched a ton of van tours and picked and chose the parts that I
really liked and tried to incorporate that into my van.
I always knew that I wanted to do something in my younger years before I
retired, so whether it be hike or backpack Europe,
I always wanted to do something that wasn't just strictly working.
I came across main life and I thought it was perfect to get out there,
explore the U S and be able to take my pup along with me.
When I first started to think about building my van,
it took me about six months of planning exactly what I wanted in the
van layout and then once I bought my van,
it took me about six months to build it out.
Having no prior woodworking experience or propane
experience or anything,
electrical was a lot easier coming from an electrical engineering background,
but other than that I was new to everything. I'm moved back in with my parents.
I had sold my house, so I was homeless until I built this out.
And then my sister actually sold her house as well, so her,
my brother-in-law and my niece also moved back into my parents' house.
So it was a big family reunion and they all chipped in and helped
me to, uh, to help build it out. Bought the Van new
which was $36,000 and then the rest of the buildout was
about 45,000 having that robust electrical
system really increased the costs so I could have definitely done it less if I
didn't have that crazy solar setup. But I really wanted the air conditioner,
so I needed it.
I went with a Ram ProMaster 3,500 2019 I went and bought
new because I'm not very mechanically inclined,
so I wanted something reliable that I could take to any shop in the country and
have everything fixed right on the spot.
I went with the 3,500 which is the longest ProMaster that extra 14 inches of
room really helped get the layout that I really wanted inside.
So I have a pretty crazy solar setup.
I have three 335 watt panels on my roof and this was the most that I could
Tetris onto the top of my roof. So I have a total of 1,005 Watts.
I have six 100 amp hour lithium batteries in the back for a total of 600 amp
hours.
And this beefy setup was to allow me to have a air
conditioner in my van. You can see the vent for the air conditioner right here.
So I have a window AC unit in one of my upper cabinets that's vented to the
outside through this fence.
So the other two things on my roof besides my solar panels are my max air fan,
which works amazing to help keep my van cool for Dunbar or
to vent when I'm cooking. The other thing on my roof is my cell booster.
I went and it works amazing.
It helps me when there's not a lot of cell phone signal.
It helps me to have enough cell signal to actually use my cell phone for my
cooking setup. And a couple other things.
I have a propane tank mounted behind the rear axle and you can see the
remote fill right here where I can fill it up. Very easily.
The other two things that run off of my propane are my furnace and my
hot water heater, which are both vented right here.
I also have a chore power plug here so I can plug in if
my solar is not doing the trick.
Let's check out the garage.
This is where the whole build started.
I started out building the bike rack because I love to mountain bike,
so I built the bike rack, put my bike in there and then I was able to get the,
the height of my bed and then the whole build went back from there.
But I have my entire electric set up so I have my charge controller,
I have my inverter and then I have pretty much all the electrical besides the
wires running to each piece of equipment. I then have my boogie board,
my mountain bike, a bunch of backpacking bags.
I have my snowboard stuff that will just get me outside.
So I also have a outdoor shower on the back.
I have a propane instant hot water,
so I can take as long a hot water shower as I want.
I have a 46 gallon water tank.
A shower takes about two to four gowns more often.
I use it to wash off Dunbar when he's gotten into the mud,
but it's definitely awesome to take a shower outside.
So coming into my van,
I have my Waterfill right here so I can pull up to a water-filled station,
throw a hose in there and fill up my water tank,
which you can see through the slot right here. I have a 46 gallon water tank,
so that lasts me about two, three weeks if I'm not taking a shower every day.
So we'll head on in, check out the inside.
Welcome to the inside of my van,
nicknamed sunny D because of the thousand Watts of solar and then
Dunbar for the D. When I was thinking about the build of my van,
I wanted to have kind of like an open concept or as open as you can have inside
a van. And then I also wanted to have a ton of counter space.
I went with a butcher block countertop. It's eight feet long, two feet wide.
It gives me a ton of area to prepare meals or really do whatever I
want up here. I also made custom cabinets on hinges.
I can store all my food, my dishes, really anything I want up here.
It gives me a ton of space for the sink area. I have my paper towels,
all my uh, mugs for drinking, whatever I'm in the mood for.
I went with a really deep sink because I really don't like doing
dishes.
I have a three stage water filter so I don't really have to worry too much about
where I fill up my, I do all my drinking water out of there. It works great.
You can also see the inside antenna for my reboost so that uses the antenna on
the outside, boost the signal so I can get it on the inside of my band.
So for the oven I have a three burner propane top with
a 17 inch of an underneath.
This works great for cooking all the stuff on top and then the oven is great for
cooking frozen pizzas.
If I stopped by a store or cookies or birthday cake, really, whatever,
it's just like a normal oven except a little bit smaller.
So I can't cook the Thanksgiving meal, but I can get a small chicken in there.
I have the fruit hammock, which is a van life necessity.
And then I have all my spices magnetised up here,
my knives and set of utensils and I have my fridge
down here, which is a truck fridge, which works great.
The only problem is the freezer is really small,
but Dunbar's definite favorite feature is the dog dish hidden underneath
the fridge. It's on jar size, so it's easy to slide in and out.
And when we're driving I take the dish out,
throw it in the sink so it doesn't spill everywhere. Works really great.
So one of my favorite features of the van is the curtain that my mom made.
It's just two pieces of fabric and then a layer of thin slate in between.
But I can pull it all the way across.
And then it keeps the heat or the cold from the cab entering the back of the van
and then it also keeps all the light out. This curtain works so great.
So moving into the dining room, living room, bathroom area.
First off, I have a laundry shoot,
keeps the smells back there so I don't have to deal with that.
Next is the table, which is awesome. Slides out,
can seat three people here pretty comfortably. It's on 500 pound door slides,
so it's very sturdy. This is probably my favorite part of the van.
So underneath the table is the toilet. It's a nature's head, composting toilet.
It works great. You can't smell anything.
I just roll it out and it's a good to go down here.
I have my temperature sensor,
which enables me to send a signal to my phone and let me know what temperature
it is in the van. So when Dunbar is in the van by himself,
I have a setting that if it gets over 80 degrees it'll send me alert and I'll
know to come back to the van immediately. He's getting too hot.
So I want with a permanent platform bed for a couple of different reasons.
I have my mountain bike underneath the bed,
so it allows me to store a lot of stuff, including the mountain bike back there.
I also didn't want to set up my bed every morning,
so I didn't want to convert it into a dining room and then set it back up into a
bed.
Part of the reason why I went with a pro master is because I was able to sleep
side to side rather than have the bed an extra couple of feet out this way it's
the width of a queen and then it's the length of a full,
it's been perfect for me. Dunbar does snuggle with me up there.
He loves stealing my spot before I go to bed.
And then he's kind enough to over and let me, uh, let me,
so in a van you want things that are multipurpose and this section of counter
top, when I want extra seating,
I can put it behind the seat and then this section becomes an extra seat so I
can sit three people at this table very comfortably.
It also can drop down into the center here and I have mounting brackets so that
I can form a second bed. Um,
if I have anybody staying over and I need the extra room at night.
So Don bird is about to go take me out on a hike. Um,
thanks for stopping by and checking out the van.
If you have any other questions or anything, check me out on Instagram. Uh,
vagabond adventure and, uh, if not, I'll see on the road.
Today's tiny tour was the last one that we shot before the lockdown.
So you might notice the content on this channel is going to be slightly
different in the coming weeks. Check back soon to see what I mean.
And don't forget to enter to win your very own tiny house by visiting
Omaze.com/THGJ