hey everybody eric here from nomadic fanatic hope you guys doing well we've got old vanna
white and miranda here in the front yard and we're doing some more uh van stuff today i
want to get you caught up on a few things some exciting news some other projects going on with
getting the van road worthy i know miranda looks sad over there it's almost like she's looking at
me like really you're gonna leave me here at base camp for a year well waiting on parts sorry lady
thanks for joining me guys i will be uploading this video with some nomad internet link below
if you need some mobile unlimited internet which i'm going to be taking with me in the van
for projects today we are sanitizing this tank i've been uh measuring the space on top
for solar panels been talking with wayne about that unfortunately i'm having a little bit of a
problem finding stock on amazon and other places uh again due to covet related shutdowns last year
um there's certain things that you just can't do right now you can't get the parts
so this solar project is kind of it's all over the place it's scrambled but i'll get back to
that later i'm just doing some measurements i want to show you the inside but what i pulled out
i pulled out this homemade dresser system that the previous owners installed i actually had removed
this temporarily for my reveal video but then i didn't have anywhere to put it so i put it back
in it's got the curve you know because of the van wall like that and it is so incredibly heavy it's
crazy but it's a really cool invention uh he put these little dowels on on the side and you
just pop those out and that's how you get access to all these drawers so for them this was more
important than a shower for me not gonna work i need that shower and i am lucky that i actually
found a camper van where someone did not remove the shower completely let me show you the progress
in here by the way i will just mention the rooftop air conditioner is not working it is blowing some
air but it's not cold air anymore more on that later so the shower area here you can see i've
added a nice curtain that kind of blends in with the other turquoise colors there this is this
piece right here i don't actually like it because it's clear but it goes around the base of the
air conditioner to close off the bathroom so that people don't see you through the front windshield
so that's different this slides out and i will show you so we've got the normal shower head with
an on off button there and i don't really like the yellow color of the tub let me move this over
i don't like the yellow color of the tub itself but um i was having trouble figuring out at first
because you turn these and it just pours the water here and i'm like how do you get this to
pour water i had to actually watch a youtube video so once you turn the water on here you actually
pull this up like that that is what initiates water to come out of this and then you can turn
it on on and off but you know it's not a huge shower but it's absolutely necessary to have one
if you're going to full time in a van so this shower drains directly into my gray tank the
toilet goes into the black tank and of course the sink up here goes to the gray tank as well today's
project as i've lifted up the couch and jackknife bed is to sanitize this tank and if you saw my
last video we had some antifreeze pink antifreeze going through i have sanitized this a little bit
more water's still up there about three quarters of the way so i'm going to drain a little bit out
of this and then we're gonna add the bleach and go for a drive i just opened up the low spout to get
a little bit of the water out of there you don't need those fancy chemicals they sell at the store
this is my water tank i'm gonna put a funnel right here and insert my bleach right into there there's
a ton of other videos out there so i'm not going to show you this process but i'm going to put
the right amount of bleach in there add a little bit more water to get the bleach all the way down
that funnel then we're going to go for a drive and it's going to be bouncing and shaking and sloshing
around making sure the bleach chemical gets up to the top of the tank that i just showed you in
there and then we're gonna go somewhere that has full hookups probably a state park nearby and pay
for their dump station so that i can re-sanitize and get all the bleach out of the tank and the
lines all right got the bleach put in there i turned on every faucet and flush the toilet to
make sure i smelled bleach coming through the lines so we should be good ready for our drive
i've had some people say you know eric you're gonna miss not traveling with the car and you know
it's gonna be so difficult to leave but but that's the cool thing about a camper van is that it still
is your daytime adventure spot so let's pretend i'm at a campground right now it really wouldn't
be that hard to leave really you would just unhook your sewer cap and leave it at camp and these
camper vans don't have a long cord that needs to be brought back into the rv you just twist it
unplug leave it on the ground ready to go and in most campgrounds that's going to be okay to leave
your sewer on the ground there maybe you want to put a cap on the end that sticks into your rv and
your cord will be there fine so we're ready to go let's go drive around i was originally going
to get rid of this passenger seat over here but the fact that it rotates around like that
it's such a comfortable place to sit it's a it's worth leaving man i'm definitely gonna leave that
and then also have the couch seating behind me so um gotta figure out a new place for the litter
box since i'm keeping the passenger seat here i just leave it turned around and then i gotta pop
pop that back so i can still see the side mirror but it works well i stopped in here to
dump my tanks and they had a cancellation so i'm plugged in dumped my tanks still got uh
sanitizing the uh freshwater tank it's probably still got a little bit of bleach in there uh
but i got a nice little corner spot here i do have my new sun shade on there it's by boujarvi
it's got magnets and stuff in it i wouldn't do that if i were boondocking i would just put the
shades up inside but if i'm in a camp in an actual proof campground it just makes everything easier
it's good good good got the kitties in the rv the other rv with air conditioning and food supplies
i am going to spend the night here and really have my first campground hookup thing it's nice to have
power since i don't have batteries or solar or anything like that i like sitting up here in
the passenger seat and facing this way trying to think of how to put it all together like where do
i want to put a tv i mean if i were going to use the couch which comes out to a full bed if i'm
going to use the couch to sit maybe you'd want it up there in the window but if i'm going to do most
of my seating right here with this cool little pop-up table for my laptop and stuff maybe i
would want to put the tv right there like a little 12-inch 14-inch tv i don't know or maybe take down
that rack and put it right there or something so just kind of feeling it out and i think the more
i spit the more time i spend in here the more i'll kind of figure all that stuff out look at
this view outside my van living in a van down by the river well it's actually a lake but yeah
in my very next video we're gonna have both kitties in here the cats have not been in
here at the same time we have only been having one cat in here at a time while i'm doing projects and
stuff so um the litter box was gonna go where i'm sitting right here but now gotta find a new home
and one of the things that's definitely leaving eventually is this furnace just a huge waste of
space completely inefficient you know what all you need is a little wave olympian the size the size
of this actually it's even smaller than that and it'll just mount right here to a piece of wood and
go into the same propane line but that thing goes all the way back if we go behind here there it is
even back there oh by the way there's the table i didn't think i shared that but the table and the
mount that thing plugs in right there in the floor but it's useless to me because it blocks off the
whole area and you can't get back to the bathroom so but yeah where else could i put a litter box
i haven't decided what i'm gonna do with this area because you got all this up here
somebody put in a little pipe hanger to hang a bunch of clothes right there but
i guess temporarily that's probably where i'm gonna put the litter box just take out this i
don't know what the point of that really is but the litter box here i also thought about utilizing
the shower space for it you know because van life you shower like once every other day you know and
uh if i could have it there and then be able to just move it to the toilet while i take a shower
and then after the shower move it back to you know so i'm just thinking about stuff that's the water
heater i do have a new water heater coming because i don't have any hot water right now and then
moving back this space is all water tank so that water tank is runs from about the edge of the tub
right there all the way back to halfway through this stops right about where this pillar is and
then this is all empty right here which is going to be battery storage and charge controller and uh
the inverter and everything but future projects future projects yeah in the meantime my showers
yeah the old baby wipes it feels weird without the kitties though i do miss them i just saw them
an hour ago but van life y'all what do you think of van life this is fun man living in a van full
time while i'm not full time yet but when i do hit the road officially and leave base camp with
the van and the van only maybe maybe an e-bike or something uh it's just gonna be living full-time
in the van and when i come back to base camp again i don't have a bed in the house i don't live at
the house i don't even sleep in the house i sometimes shower in the house but i'm still
gonna be living in the van full time for quite some time and this is exciting also you know i'm
five foot five so i'm a shorter guy but um how much room do i have for my head to the ceiling
about 12 inches about a whole foot here does get a little narrower in the back by the air conditioner
about three or four inches right right there but i really like this setup i'm holding the camera here
exactly at my eye level so i'm 5'5 this is my eye level so you can see these these windows up top
even at night you don't really need to cover them because people can't see you
they can see you through these windows so i'd cover all all that stuff but these windows up here
i can't see any of the other campers from my eye level now if i raise the camera up
of course you can see out there or maybe get on my tippy toe no i still can't really see the campers
on my tippy toes up there but i probably won't be closing these at night unless i'm stealth camping
there's also a curtain that goes across that top and this cab over area i'm still looking
but i want to find the best suitable storage bins up here for storing like boxers and socks
and winter clothes and jeans and shorts and stuff like that you know and there's
a there's a lip here but i want to make sure that it could still fit so i could pull it up and out
and use this for storage but also i'm thinking about putting a little kiddie ramp right here
they just how's that go again they just walk up here and jax can have some privacy from
tara or tara can come up here when jax is being a pain you know so yep got my nomad
internet hooked up here with a shot there so i can get some good wi-fi i'm using my jackery 1000
right now on dc there because i don't have solar yet all right first official van meal
what's it go i don't have any food i thought i got something hang on oh we got pringles by the way
if you're in an rv and you like chips i highly recommend you get these pringles ones
they're so compact volume they don't you know it's not a whole bunch of wasted space of a bag
of chips that would take up all four of these cans of pringles right here anything like this that's
really compact and it's done that way on purpose it's great for rvs but okay i got some of these
ready meals there's swedish meatball oh wait a minute over here mac and cheese in the microwave
i don't have any running water right now so i don't want to make something that i
that i have to clean i did get this for water for uh coffee and rinsing other things
and i got my microwave to test out so what's it gonna be eric
i wouldn't go with this swedish meatballs ready meal i'm gonna have 280 healthy calories
yeah okay i don't think this microwave got a whole bunch of use i don't think previous
owners were full timers it looks almost brand new here pop that guy in there for a minute
well it works i actually tested all these tested all this but you know the refrigerator
is weird it runs great when it's plugged in but on gas it doesn't do so well i've noticed
let's see how this turned out
it's not all about the looks let's at least try it first
it's actually really good holy cow that is delicious it's like a microwave dinner
but you don't need to keep it frozen or cool it just sits in the cupboard
expires in 2023 so these are great these are these are at walmart
little hormel instant not instant but ready to eat after the microwave
all right
uh luckily there's there's no leaks in this rv i've not found a single source of water anywhere
in the fiberglass turtle top on top so it's actually just got people thought these were
leaks when i did my first video this is just dirt on on the seams it's nothing to be worried about
but yeah i'm gonna enjoy the rain we'll see in the next one guys bye-bye
hmm