hello everybody welcome back to our
channel we're Eamon and Bec and for the
last year and a half we've been living
in our own self converted Sprinter van
if you know us you might be thinking
that this is our van that that is not
the case this is actually my dad's van
and we spent about 30 days a few months
ago converting it from nothing so today
is the day you've all been waiting for
we're gonna give you a full tour of
bob's van all right without further ado
let's introduce Bob hi I'm Bob and I'm
65 years old I now live in a van that's
60 square feet and what inspired me was
my son and his fiancee they've been
doing it now for about a year and I've
seen their community and what life has
been like living in a van and it's
actually fantastic so now I've been
doing it for I think about three months
now before I give you a tour of my van
what I'd like to do is introduce you to
my roommates this is Batty/ Batman and
this is Lucy and finally we've got the
granddaddy of them all Barkley and by
the way Barkley happens to be 18 years
old or 106 human years so now what we
would like to do is give you a little
tour of the van so Bob's van is a 2008
Sprinter van and we chose that because
that's the same year and van that we
have ourselves we're super comfortable
with layout we thought we'd build
something very similar for my dad so
you'll notice even a lot of the design
aesthetics are really similar to what we
already have this is the captains area
here and this here is what I call the
perch or the copilot's area we've got
two co-pilots on staff today
of course Batman and Lucy so I thought
that this had to be built up high enough
we can take it apart in two seconds if
there's a
human passenger with us how I built this
is just it's just a platform we've got
two sides that fold down right so this
part comes apart there's a bolt here
that comes apart and then there's a wire
that I've got hooked here to the frame
that comes here so that holds it up here
that can't fall down and then I can just
take it apart put it behind the seat and
take this pole out and it's now the
seats ready for a human passenger so
it's important to keep a nice clean van
so I've got my I got a special on some
dishwashing detergent so I've got my
three pack container here and of course
it's always important to have a little
treat for the pups this is my kitchen I
think it's five square feet thanks to
Eamon and Bec and their experience
they have a small stove *fridge in their
van and they suggested to get a much
bigger one hundred and ten liter I believe
and a big thanks to the Dometic for
hooking that up because I love it it's
just fantastic is it two burner stove
right here works great I'd have to turn
on the fuel but it's not on right now I
felt that the counterspace being used to
living in the house the counterspace was
a little tight and at my 10 square feet
kitchen so I thought we would build this
little thing which is a cutting board
and I could use that if I wasn't cooking
anything I can use that to add to the
counter space so and that seems to work
out very well and I can cut things up
here and make sandwiches or whatever
propane tank is housed underneath here
this just slides over it covers off the
fridge rather than have something come
out like that I thought that would be
more convenient I've got a grey water
container here a normal barbecue propane
tank and then we happen to have just a
grey water and going directly through
the van and onto the ground if it's just
like dishes or something like that water
system is that I think a 12-volt pump
and has to switch you on here safety
switch to turn it on and off you know I
don't think you want to leave your pump
on all the time in case there's a
problem with the water it's used to work
well and then you've got a filtration
system here for pure water so the water
filter he's talking about is the same
one that we have it's a two-stage water
purification so it's a carbon and
sediment filter because you can fill up
from any hose it just adds a little bit
of extra purification and safe to drink
out of
when you live in this environment you
really are grateful for you know for
what you have because you realize how
much waste you go through when you're
not living in this kind of because
you're bringing all the water and the
first time I was here I sort of filled
up the sink and realized that I just got
rid of like a hundred pound jug of water
that I had to go and get and bring back
into the van so after that you put a
little bit of water in a bowl and you
put a little soap in there and you end
up doing the dishes and it's a little
weird in the beginning but eventually
it's becomes normal got this magnetic
knife holder which is why find fantastic
you know exactly where your scissors are
all the time or your fancy knives and
then this is our cupboard worth of food
we got lots of room here how about that
light oh yeah the light Rodeo Drive man
yeah we got a we're gonna put a
shout-out to Eric for that Eric is is a
friend of ours that helped us out
putting in the electrical stuff in
cupboard lighting as soon as you open
the door there's a little switch right
here and it turns it on automatically
which is super handy Thank You energy do
you have that no I've just got my my
pantry here got some oatmeal some rice
some nuts and spices and then some
cereal stuff I've got you know a one pot
and one ball and one cup that makes it
easy for storage I think I have more
more tea towels than I have posting cups
oh and also I didn't tell you about my
fan here it's a maxi fan with a remote
control
now this thing what if you're not
careful it could zoom you up Scotty okay
be like suck it I'll just give it to
where you just turn it on and then it
goes in reverse to so it could suck the
air out of the cabin and a hot day you
would do that on a cold day if you
wanted it if you wanted some air come in
think Avenue and turn like turn it
around and have the air
I'm not really a carpenter but I you
know I'm willing to try something so it
took me a while but we finally got this
drawer and it's a cutlery drawer and it
works extremely well it works for a
bachelor I've got one plate actually I
got two plates here and I think a fork
in a knife so that works very well how
it locks into place so it doesn't roll
when you turns I've got a like a
male/female kind of adapter underneath
here so the male fits into the female
and it said it locks into place
six LED lights and that's more than
enough to light up this cabin and it
hardly takes any energy on a dimmer
switch and you turn it on you turn it
off and you can get like a romantic mood
at night and stuff if you're inclined
and the last overhead compartment is
clothing right now and you can see that
I probably need to get that a little
more organized but in time I'll have
that specifically span something that I
picked up or anything is pretty cool
it's a paper towel thing that doesn't
unravel the towels it's on some kind of
suspension here clips and then you can
just take one sheet at a time and I
think it looks neat it's out of the way
and you've got lots of paper towels
so now we'll jump into a little bit more
information about the electrical so for
this van layout we actually partnered
with go power they're a Canadian company
based out of BC but have international
shipping to a number of different
countries and the reason why we are so
excited about this partnership is
because of their customer service so I'm
not a professional when it comes to
electrical by any means but having a
company that you can actually pick up
the phone and call and ask them
questions was incredibly useful so to
run you through what we've done all of
the electrical is actually house right
in here and this is where the design
starts to change a little bit compared
to our van we made this box a little bit
bigger and a little bit taller we fit
our 250 amp hours worth of batteries
we've got a 2000 watt pure sine wave
inverter and charger and display so I
don't think we're going to be needing to
access this because I think it's very
reliable but if we do we can just take
out these six screws here and this whole
panel slides out and we can access the
front of it if you have to just look put
your arm in and make a and do something
minor you can come in from the top and
that's why we built this
we almost forgot to tell you about the
heater because it is still so hot
beautiful here in Canada but we did
install a s bar d2 heater and just like
our van we mounted the heater underneath
the passenger seat so it just blows the
hot air directly into the back of the
cab we briefly touched on the electrical
cabinet here where we're going to open
it from the top there's two other
sections one being the laundry which you
can see the laundry is here and it's not
cleaned and it's not folded next one
being the dog compartment which we must
have all the doggie stuff and that
consists of the dog bowls and their food
and toys and a lot of kind of stuff so
there's a couple other areas in the van
I haven't showed you one is really
really important to me and enter my
roommates and that's that we call that
the Batcave and it's underneath the bed
there it seems to work out very well at
night everybody sort of scuttles under
there and goes to sleep
alright guys so now we're in the bedroom
there's one other section that we're
missing from the mattress so we actually
bought a full double size mattress and
we cut it in half so that extra piece is
just at the seamstress we're getting
them to put like a nice cushion on the
back so once that in that's in place
you'll be able to sit back here a little
bit nicer more like a couch more like a
couch and then we also designed this van
to be able to sleep two people in case
you do get a boyfriend or girlfriend
whatever you decide never no we actually
did allow for the pulled out slot design
very similar to what we did so he's got
this just on logs and then we broke it
into two sections so it's much easier to
do as a single bachelor and the couch
back support will come over here in the
daytime and that's exactly or in the
night time that's 17 inches so it's a
full to finish this side of the bed we
put a track below and a track above put
these inexpensive panels on that are
slidable that just you can close them up
or open them up however you want you can
even take them all the way out so you
can access whatever you want
a bit I just got my water and that's
that's where my water we ran a line
because of my back I don't have a grade
back we thought Amon and BEC have their
water underneath the sink and it's a
little more difficult to bend over and
unhook it and put it back in so because
of my back Amon had an idea to run the
line back here and I can just take the
tanks out from the ground position that
was brilliant
and that works fantastic and I agree
that was brilliant one other thing that
we did just like on our belt guys is we
did these on quick disconnects so a lot
of people ask us where you can get these
we bought these at Home Depot but we'll
also put a link in the description below
they're actually just gardening hoes
quick disconnects I found a nice little
place to have tools I think that when
you have a fan you need your tool bag
and there's always little things you
need to fix there's things you need to
tighten up and all that kind of stuff so
my tool bag that Siri got this from the
side of the road which is a great place
to pick up some stuff if you want to
save some money and it'll be a little
creative so just I'll hook that up on
the side similar to Amanat backs I'm
started copying everything that they do
why not they're good and that just comes
down like that and then I have a little
thing that will hold it up here so it'll
be level and then I can sit here and
type or eat breakfast or just use the
table as I wish so I think my dad's
biggest concern before he moved in the
van was AC he's a big AC guy he likes it
nice and cool so how was the summer
summer was great and I think the main
reason mid summer was great because we
have two ways to get the air in and out
of the van without AC so that's a big
thing that I think we might actually try
and figure out another solution is
another air intake two vents right in
the roof so this one is just a manual
roof vent with screen there's no fan on
that but that really helps create a nice
draft in this space now this was a
little bit more tricky to configure
because we wanted the two vents we had
to configure the solar around there so
on the roof we've got 100 watt flexible
go power solar panels and those are
amazing because we just literally tape
them down around this fan
figured out there's three of them
there's three of them and it was super
easy to connect we just got the extra
connectors yeah and it was just female
male area here is our control panel area
and it consists of the Espar heater
remote control dimmer switch for the LED
lights up top it also houses the fully
functional informational gold power
station that tells me that the batteries
are 90 percent charged apparently that's
as high as you can get batteries charged
as ninety percent and it tells me how
much voltage is is being used at any
time and where the low-voltage is and it
gives you everything you really need to
know it's really so easy and I also have
a place to charge my cell phone I guess
a USB port my laptop and a DC power
outlet here and AC double AC outlet so
on this end here is these is the control
for the inverter which is that big box
here and what that does is that changes
from terms of electricity into AC and it
also charges the batteries with shore
power so once I plug in shore power this
little box here is charging the
batteries then if I want to plug in my
toaster it turns the DC power into AC
power allows me to do my toaster and I
also happen to have and this is how you
control it here it's real simple it
automatically turns on when you put on
shore power but you can control it here
with the on and off switch and I also
have a beautiful recycling box
well thank you everyone for touring
around my van I hope you enjoyed the
tour so guys we completed this van in
just over 30 days we have a full build
series if you're interested in learning
how we actually built the van and we
have lots more information on our
channel about fan life and that kind of
content
we're also linking below all of the
items that we purchased for Bob's build
so if you guys have any specifics that
you're interested in checking out it'll
all be linked below also if you have any
specific questions for Bob
you know send him your questions we all
know you love Bob so send him your
question and we'll try and do another
video answering some of those questions
so once again guys thanks for sticking
around be sure to subscribe to our
channel like this video if you like more
stuff like this and we will see you in
the next one hey guys Bob here
hey Bob
after a bunch of all that's a rock