In my previous video, Corbett O'Toole shared
how van life isn't only for the very able-bodied.
Vanlife is for all! In this video, we get to see how
her van is laid out for her specific priorities
and how she moves in and out of her van as a solo
Nomad using a wheelchair.
My name's Corbett O'Toole. I'm 70 years old.
I use a wheelchair full-time and I decided to
become a nomad. So it's a 2011 Ford, Econoline 350.
It had a high top roof. It had a finished interior,
which wasn't that important to me, but it made
it so much easier because it meant I could move
right in. I want my van to have three zones.
I wanted to have a come in the door, kind of
if it was sticks and bricks, it would be like
a mudroom. I wanted a mudroom. Then I wanted
like a bed… kind of quiet area, kind of some storage
reading quiet, listening to music and then
my front. I wanted my front to be my work area.
Eating, writing (I write a lot). All that stuff.
I got it pretty empty. It had one jump seat, like
a bench jump seat. It had two front seats. I
made the decision early on to take out the front seat.
I really needed the space, and it's now my kitchen area.
And I'm really glad I did it. I have a chest fridge, freezer.
I knew I wanted to be able to Boondock or dry camp
or be off grid. However, you want to say it. So
it was really important to me to aim for - I didn't
have it at the beginning - but to aim for going
where I had a complete power system. So I have
400Ah of battery right now, and I've got a solar panel
on my roof - 250 Watts. I've tied into my alternator.
So when I drive my batteries are charging, when
I, when there’s son, my batteries are charging
and I put in a shore power port on the outside,
just a plain old regular three prong plug one,
so that I can charge up that way. So, I have three
different ways to keep my batteries charged up.
And for me, I just wanted simple. I need a bed.
I need a work area. I'm going to have a more formal
table when I get done. Simple storage.
I tie everything down with straps. I find that
webbing straps are better for tying things
down then paracord by itself. But I use paracord
to hang everything. So it's a pretty simple build.
We just we took out some of the pretty facing
that was here and put in a shelf here. The front
here had this storage but it was like a little
teeny tiny opening and we opened it way up. So
that has this lip. And it also gives me the ability
to have my curtain rod hiding. So I can drop
down for security safety and quite frankly for insulation.
And I put up some black fabric on the outside
and reflectix on the inside. And when I decide
my design, when I do my beautify plan, which
comes later, which is when everything's going
to get painted and covered, then I'll figure
out what the fabric should be on the inside.
But for now, it's good. This is my kitchen area.
And it's my footwell, you would think my footwell
would be dead space. My footwell, is amazing space!
Because first of all, in the front corner, I
have a five gallon water jug and I was advised
to keep the cap on it and just put the, the dispenser
on and off as I need it. Secondly, I have two cords.
Now, you might think I would get confused. I'm
not confused. If it's the plain colored cord,
it's the vacuum cleaner. If it's the SOS cord, it’s the jumpstart
my car or cord. And with handles, because
I need handles on this, I pull out my little stove.
So, all that space is being utilized and stored
without having me have. Nothing gets like,
nothing goes away, and can't be found. I have
a little folding table. Eventually, this will
be replaced by something a little fancier and
more permanent, but it's perfect for now.
I have this pole here and it sits right in that
little space. I just pull it forward, sit it
down, and then if I want to work on my computer
or watch a movie, I can do that.
Or if I want to cook, I put my stove down here and
then my pot is high enough that I can see into it.
Where as if it was the same height as this, I wouldn't
be able to see and for cooking. So I wanted my
cooking area to be really safe for me. So, I have
my stove area, lowered. Cooking. I have enough
space so that I can do my prep area here, do my
dispensing stuff, from the pot into the bowl.
And it works out really great. And it doesn't
take up very much space at all. And it's a fridge!
I'm getting new storage tomorrow here. So this
will all be organized, but I love these deep pockets.
It's a deep pocket thing from Ikea. It's really
really handy and it's really convenient. So
when I'm sitting, you know, when I'm docked,
this is a perfect spot for it, but when I'm driving,
I want to see out that window, that feels like
really important safety. So what I did was I
made this system be really simple. So that
all I have to do is slide it down and on the far
side of the storage cabinet, there’s another carabiner.
So all I have to do is unhitch this hitch that,
and then it just sits in front of that that set
of storage boxes, out of my way out of the vision.
So, like, I have a clear line of sight while I'm
driving.
I'm reusing the um seat belt straps as tie-downs.
I put um grab rails that I just tied on. This one
is a swimming pool pole - that's a long story -
but it's a swimming pool pole and I'm just tying
it down with paracord and I have it on both sides.
So in this side, it helps me move around in the
bed and on the other side, it helps me because
I do some standing and stretching and helps
me move around that way. So when I leave my van
I use my grab rail.
I can also slide over if I wanted to.
There's not a lot of room but it is just enough room.
We measured it before we set the bed or anything.
I have my control on the hook, magnetic hook, I deploy
and make sure my doors are wide open.
So the control has, you know, basically a fold
function and then up down function. So now I'm
going to go down.
And I need to have something solid under it
or the lift doesn’t go down.
And my friends put some plywood here so I would
have a nice handy dandy landing pad.
And sometimes I even have a dining room, but,
you know, it just depends on how much plywood we have.
And I like to store this up, and I store up for two reasons.
I store it up because people walking by aren’t gonna
trip on it. They're going to see something
this high and it gives me a place to put the control
and it gives me the whole plywood to work with.
One of my big concerns was killing my driving
battery or getting stuck on my lift. So one of
the things I did was I went to um, believe it or not,
It's the audio places like the places that install
audio stereo, and I had a remote start switch
so that I'm going to start my engine.
And that means what I'm using by lift, I'm not
draining my engine, I’m keeping my engine going. And if I forgot for any reason
to turn this off, in about eight minutes it turns
itself off, so I don't have to worry about that.
And I always get on my lift backwards because they've
done safety studies. And if there's a problem
and you're on backwards you’re safer. And also it
means when you come out forward, you always
see whether or not the lift is there so that you're
less likely to fall down and go boom. Okay, and
so I just, I almost always hold on, it’s just helps.
And I always park on this side because that's the
way the wheels pivot the easiest. And I just
fold it up
before I got a van. I was living in a school bus
and I really wanted mobility, but I really wanted
to think carefully about what kind of van did
I want. Because I have a bunch of different needs.
So I use a wheelchair. So I knew I needed a van
with a lift and typically vans with lifts have
them on the side door, but for me, I didn't feel
like I would have the layout that I wanted if I
did that, even though that's the more common
layout. And I needed a van that had a high enough
roof that I could stand up. So I wanted my transfers
to be easy. I wanted something really reliable.
I wanted something really affordable and easy to fix.
So I knew I wanted, from the beginning, something
like a Ford Econoline. And I probably wanted
a 250 or 350 because I wanted the extra length
because coming in with the wheelchair, took
up extra backspace, so I didn't want to 150.
And when I started looking, what I found was,
there's a lot of use 350s that have lifts already
on them that are used in small towns and communities,
to transport people to senior programs and
various kinds of Alzheimer's programs, different
kinds of stuff. So I wanted one where most of
the seats were gone or easy to remove and I wanted
one with the floor was rubber. What of the advantages
of having it be kind of a quasi… a transport van
for people, is that the floor is non-skid and
that was really important to me. I wanted it
to be clean. I didn't mind if I kept some of the
rails in because I could use it for tied, for
tying my furniture down. I didn't wasn't sure
where everything was going to go. And I knew,
I really wanted to just have the flexibility to try.
Well, what if it was here? And what if the bed
was there? And what if I didn't know what I wanted,
I love the fact that I can just go. That I have everything with me.
I have my bed. I have my kitchen. I have my Mobility.
You know, I use a wheelchair, so my van has a lift.
I can just go and I can get as close to Nature. The thing
I really love the most about being in a van is
the unexpected. Every single day is unexpected.
And if something interested me, I just pulled
over and went. Oh, let me look at this. Let me
play with that. Let me explore this. If I got tired,
I just pulled over and took a nap. Like that freedom,
which you have in a van, I didn't have a my school
bus and I certainly never had if I was in sticks
and bricks and renting a car. So um, and I can have
a snack and like, anyway, it's a good life. This is indeed
a good life. I am so grateful Corbett was willing
to share her story to help other women get on the road.
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is Joni with TheGalavan. Enjoy your journey.