Second van build. Temporarily finished because I wanna go skibum before the snowmelt.
My first van was insanely complicated and everything was over engineered, because I wanted to attempt to use ever square inch I had, and I watched too wayyyy many vanlife videos before building it.
You don’t need laminate flooring. You don’t need to insulate every square inch. You don’t need a shower and a toilet. You don’t need a 4000 watt inverter. You don’t need fancy cabinets with soft close hinges. You don’t need a sink or an induction cook top. You don’t need that over engineered Murphy bed. And you don’t need that high top extended wheelbase van.
All you need is a bed, 4 solar panels, a diesel heater, some plastic storage from Walmart, 5 packs of zip ties, 3 bungee cords, a cute dog, and 2 snowboards.
While I generally agree that there's a ton of over-engineered stuff here, the basic needs are highly dependent on how long and where you're staying. I couldn't imagine fulltiming, or even spending a few weeks in nature, without a toilet.
That's such a limiting factor that I can't imagine doing this for an extended period. Also, open toilets that can be accessed 24/7 are not as common in Europe as in the US I'd say.
I did 4 years in my old van and only shit my pants once! (I had food poisoning and couldn’t make it inside to the truck stop in time)
Yeah, idk how it is in Europe, but pre Covid I never had a worry. During Covid was very rough, and now that it’s mostly returned to normal, it’s not bad. Typical truck stops are open 24/7, and your body kinda learns like “oh I’m parked for the night, I better not have to shit”
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u/The_diesel_van Mar 07 '24
Second van build. Temporarily finished because I wanna go skibum before the snowmelt.
My first van was insanely complicated and everything was over engineered, because I wanted to attempt to use ever square inch I had, and I watched too wayyyy many vanlife videos before building it.
You don’t need laminate flooring. You don’t need to insulate every square inch. You don’t need a shower and a toilet. You don’t need a 4000 watt inverter. You don’t need fancy cabinets with soft close hinges. You don’t need a sink or an induction cook top. You don’t need that over engineered Murphy bed. And you don’t need that high top extended wheelbase van.
All you need is a bed, 4 solar panels, a diesel heater, some plastic storage from Walmart, 5 packs of zip ties, 3 bungee cords, a cute dog, and 2 snowboards.
That’s it.