foreign [Music]
hey guys welcome back to the live stream it has been a while so I want to get everyone updated on what's been going on
in the shop where I've been where I've been traveling and all that good stuff so let's hop on
the computer over here and this way we can get a more detailed update of what we're
going to talk about in today's live stream and essentially that is the updates so
we did two I did two major events one was the Florida van life Gathering
that was in Dade City Florida and then the next one was the uh
Southeast Adventure vehicle Expo which was last weekend and that's in
Stark Florida so we'll talk a little bit about that because that footage is not dropped yet but we'll be doing that next
week and then the next one is the uh cattle herding Nomad shares his DIY camper van build
that video is also up right now so if we hop on over to
let me pull up here so I want to go over the two videos and just to give you a little commentary on
what's going on Daniel how's it going go and do
[Laughter] good to see you guys I know it's been a while so this will be a good update
um and if you guys have been wanting to ask questions or anything like that you know put it in the comments below
um definitely we'll answer that I'm not sure how long the stream's gonna go we're gonna go over
these two events so we'll go over the video from the van life I'm gonna do some commentary on it
uh commentary on this uh cattle hurting Nomad so that's Steven that's his video
of his camper um I think it really showcases a good point of view for
real world scenario in using a van not just kind of the the Glamorous stuff but
more utilitarium and then we'll go over some shop projects and then update you on that uh
Southeast Adventure vehicle Expo that I covered last weekend which don't have
footage for yet I literally am editing it right now um then hopefully we can get to some of
the comments that are in the comments section uh yeah so let's kind of uh
the plan for today's video um let me get back up here just a minute
so I'm gonna go and pull up the Florida van life Gathering video
and uh yeah so I'm just going to scrub through it and go through some um
footage here there we go make sure the volume's off
okay so this was in Dade City Florida and it was uh with it was with lacuchi River Park
all right we got the guard dog taking care of the shop all right moving back to yeah
Withlacoochee River Park and this was um it was an awesome event so it's the
inaugural event for uh the Florida van life Gathering
and for it to be a first event of its kind I'm gonna just go right here to the
Drone footage
and for this to be uh the first event of its kind
I mean the first event in general uh there was over 300 fans so I think
the last count when I talked to Josh was about 300 57 van something like that
um pretty wild for a first time event like this uh every single van was
completely different you know there was all kinds of different layouts all kinds of different builds
and for me as a filmmaker diyer and doing this channel it was actually kind
of overwhelming and I actually did not uh get all the interviews that I wanted to
do um what I did was I focused on the vendor interviews
and we went through um a bunch of different builds
Let's uh let's see here
so what I did is focus on the vendor interviews um that way next time
if there's any other vendors that I didn't catch I can do that next time but the bulk of it was to show you guys what
kind of vendors are showing up to these events because if you go to these events you'll be able to camp and then you know have
conversations with all the van lifers that that came to it and so
um that is kind of reserved to next time where I'll probably do a lot more
interviews I mean you could do 30 40 interviews with these Vans I mean there was
schoolies there you know the school buses and stuff like that but just focusing on the vendors because
I think this really shows um what you can expect if you are
looking to purchase of them so
let me skip uh up over here
so two things about these shows that I think you can that's really enjoyable is you can go in
two different directions if you're a diyer you can talk to these professionals and kind of see what they
built and then how they have the layouts most of their layouts are driven by what
their customer wants as much as I've talked to them I've been looking for spec builds and
stuff like that where stuff is pre-done and mostly what I'm finding out is these Vans are
uh you know built to spec from the customer not necessarily the Builder
like Justin for example when I was asking him in this video about the layout uh asking what drives it what drives the
different uh you know countertops the colors and stuff like that he says
mostly customer driven and you know if people want to fix bed versus a shower
storage additional seating stuff like that it's
more customer driven so you can fast forward to that part of this video I'm just going to skip around a little
bit more
uh this was Alex from Scala conversions uh he's out of Naples
and something that I really enjoyed about this
tour was the Simplicity of it in the layout so I'm gonna get more technical detail
than he did because you guys can watch this obviously maybe you already have but this is a crew van from Ford so it's
a mid-roof Ford Transit and as a crew so what that means is
Imagine like you have like a landscaping company or something like that this is the van you would buy because the back
has a seat that can be removed and it has two glass windows so the
occupants can see outside of the van but the back of the van is completely cargo style
now it's kind of a hybrid between a passenger and A Cargo and you can kind of cheat with this van
because the interior is it does have somewhat of a interior uh system already
in place it's going to be that typical passenger van interior however
instead of having all the seats in the van it's just going to have a removable middle row
and that way if you're a contractor and let okay let's just say landscaper say you have uh some guys in the back that
are helping you with you know mowing yards or something like that you can have you know your gear in the back
guys up front pulling a trailer that sort of thing um but what Alex has done is he has
taken advantage of that where the interior is already done the seat's already in place and then he just kind
of fitted up with you know a bed and some other amenities to turn it into a conversion van
but what I like about it is in a second he's going to show you how the bed folds
over the sink and makes really good use of the space I like how he said in this video that
you know if you're going to Home Depot or you're buying a washer and dryer or something like that you can take the seats out and you have a whole area to
load stuff in you can take it home put pop the seat back in you know pick the kids up that sort of thing uh it's
very utilitarian now as far as the systems go
um oh here so he has a he even has like a pull-out bed for a kid uh that's really cool
um yeah and I'm going kind of fast because I want to get through a lot of stuff but if you guys have questions definitely stop me in the comments and
I'll pause and you know talk more about something you have a question on but other than that
I'm Gonna Keep moving on uh so see very clean storage on the
right hand side flip it up got the sink right there it's kind of hidden
really nice I like the hidden microwave this is this is a great idea
as well as the cooktop stove a lot of debate on what type of stoves
are you going to use in a van build do you want a induction stove do you want
gas do you want something portable portable induction or built-in and
you can really go two different ways you can get really simple like this which uh me personally this is this is what I do
when I go to all these events you know I have a single burner stove I've got a flip up table that pop up in the back
um it's just nice because you know the the smells are not kept in the van
and you're probably going to cook in pretty decent weather and you can have uh like a 10 by 10 tent that you um
you know pop up and cook under so I would I would say that is uh
I mean that's that's the way I do it um
Oh wrong screen there we go plus you know keeps the Clutter off the
the cabinets now one thing he has down here in the bottom is this is a
uh portable AC unit and
um so the portable AC units uh they are not that efficient
um it's not something that I would necessarily recommend uh it does kind of get the job done but
you really have to make sure that you're managing the exhaust so essentially what you're doing is the way that these
systems work is you are pulling the air from inside
the vehicle you are passing it over to cool it
uh and then that exhaust is kind of going it needs to be going outside the van almost like a dryer duct from
you know a washing uh like a clothes dryer and not only that but this has to be an
inverted uh power source so you're going to have to need you're gonna need like an inverter that's at least
uh two thousand three thousand watts to be able to run this um not only for to kick on and start
running uh because there's there there's a surge at the very beginning when these systems kick on
and uh but if you just want to run it for maybe one to three hours to take off the edge
I think this may be able to do the job for you um but understand portable AC units uh
they're not it's not like a magic wand it's not really going to do what you
think it is um it will take the edge off but uh only
that I would say um but Daniel yeah this would be a great
weekend travel setup I mean that's what I do with my van if I go meet up with my friends usually
I'm the one always cooking so I take the van I can make my coffee I can keep the refrigerator running for two days
and uh that's kind of how I use it but again yes this would be a perfect you
know like a weekend getaway type of uh van and what's nice about this layout is
these components are very very budget friendly
so not so much the AC but um if you notice he has renergie
components and his removable seat so let's go in here let me fast forward
okay so on the right hand side we have um
we've got renergy components so we've got let's see this box
this right here is just a battery monitor from renigy I've had it in my van for almost five years zero problems
very simple um I know renegie is not a victron
component but uh sometimes you know simpler is better
this is this thing hasn't ever failed um up top there's a Chinese diesel
heater so those are off of Amazon extremely cheap
and I've had mine again almost five years no problem
uh I've run it all night keeps me nice and warm
and then we have a Max fan remote control over here so very simple components nothing
complex and simple helps with budget so if you're
worried about budget going simple you can still have fun on the weekends
and that's what intrigues me about this build is everything he's done is it's very simple and it makes uh
van life achievable achievable for some people that some may feel like it's Out Of Reach
let me fast forward a little bit
and then in the back he's just got the tank for the diesel heater I've been asked a lot of questions about
do you smell the diesel from the tank and the answer is no uh most of those
tanks uh I've not been able to smell it in my van and it's right beside my bed
um it can be scary to think that a fuel tank is in your van but as long as it's diesel uh diesel is not as volatile as
gasoline pretty far from it so an explosion is not going to happen
it's more of a slow burn so maybe that gives you guys some peace of
mind if you're kind of on the fence about getting a diesel heater and having a tank inside
your van and then he goes really simple simple RV
you know wash down the shower that's actually the back of the fridge and I know it might not look nice but
remember if it can stay ventilated have that air circulation behind it to uh you
know cool the coils that only helps extend the life of it makes it operate more efficient
uh he does have a 2000 watt inverter so that must be enough for the ace uh
that AC unit to run a little storage area on the back left fire extinguisher
and then he's got the bug net on the back so yeah very very simple setup
right there on the right you can see that is where you can see the level of the fuel in the diesel tank
and just really really clean but look so look deep in here if you
look right here Ford is giving you this interior ceiling area so that is stuff that you're not
having to DIY it's already in the van and then it looks like he just you know
covered some wood with some nice like Silk vinyl and uh just made a simple simple setup
but I wanted to go through that one because I I like the simple setups
as technical as I am I think they're they're cool
now this is a Shelby she's from Modern Times vanco um
and this is another example of how to get into van life on a budget I don't
it's not really intention this video I was trying to update you guys but uh while we're just talking about it
this Sprinter van I think has like 150 000 miles on it it is not new at all
but you know they've cleaned up the back and put a build in it even has a shower
um tons of storage and you know it's all Wood Construction uh there really wasn't any 80 20 to be
seen which is it's okay um
but if you're looking for this homey aesthetic and you're on a budget you know
just because the van's old doesn't mean you can't build out a nice build in the back
you know these used vans they're meant for Expediting deliveries
um so they're they're they're pretty tough
and this is a dinette layout um a lot of people like this because it
just feels homey um you can have tons of storage underneath there
so see they get the water tank now they were completely finished with this but they brought it to the show anyway and
then right here simple power system battery inverter
they only had 200 amp hours but um they're using the Renegy I think it's like a 50 amp this is about the mppt and
a solar charge controller built in together so you know consolidates on
space but very simple you got breaker for the inverter breaker for the incoming power
power headed over to the um the fuse panel
nice and easy nothing overwhelming to troubleshoot if you're just a first timer
um and they did a really good job on the slatted ceiling and uh this I thought this was the uh like the hecky Dometic
uh Skylight but this is actually uh from eBay so it's it's so wild would you find with
um you know different uh different builders and uh like I said as much as I want to
talk about the technical side of Vans and you know you know getting on the real engineering side and techie side something about
this event brought out more of the DI wire
and uh I really enjoyed that so much so that there was a video
um I'm gonna shoot here let me pause this where I'm at 2912. so this right here
this one says this is my story we're going to go over this one and this one is kind of the inspiration
with of that conversation I'm just having with you guys about
um uh budget DIY builds
uh let's see where was I
so I want to talk about that Steven video here in just a minute Let's uh crank through these real quick
so this is Peter with Rover Vans I actually met him last year in Chattanooga at the
adventure van Expo and uh he has this company uh that he has that
he represents or sales products for
and that is Vander Moon so I wanted to pause here and talk about that because
the van behind me this one right here this one is going to be
um this is the van that we are going to get back to um we just been traveling a lot and um
uh it goes on the priority list next week but because we've taken some time
on it uh going to all these shows has kind of you know got my brain thinking about
um working with certain uh individuals with certain access to products uh the
way that those products look and how I want my line of Vans to look for my
business obviously custom bands um
and I really love like the European style Vans uh and the components they
use is just there's just they're a little bit classier you know the stuff doesn't look as cheap kind of uh you
know not knocking on Winnebago but it's you know those the components in those vans are just
they are what they are you know um and I like uh these type of products
um so right here this is uh Peter rubber bands and he's going to show us this product
right here it's called the moon box and we're gonna I'm gonna show you this
product so this company is over in Poland and if
you go here this part will be in English but the rest um as you can see It'll be in Polish
but this Moon box is uh as you guys know I love Adventure
wagon components but when I see something that is more
aesthetically pleasing to me has better options for customers
and the quality is a little bit better um you know that's something that I want
to provide so if we go to Adventure wagon
if you go to Adventure wagons website they have something called mule bags and
you've seen me talk about this many times but the meal bags
uh they're great I mean look at them they're simple they're soft as far as you know not bumping your head
on them or anything like that but you know there's things that can be improved on in a bag like this one is
Aesthetics two is uh
like the way that it opens so if you notice here when uh Peter goes to open this bag
not only do you have like configurable configurable pockets on the outside they can expand eclipse for keys and stuff
like that but just kind of uh
it's right here when he opens the bag up it comes down
and then you have these zippered pockets and I really really like that it just makes so much sense so you can access
the stuff up top have like toiletries and stuff like that in the bottom um
you know the design is really nice and the coolest thing is he's made these custom brackets up top so that this can
bolt into an adventure wagon system so I'll pause here and if you notice this is an adventure wagon interior that he
has installed in the Sprinter so it's the same you know one that's in my Ford Transit
as far as the uh the spacing goes for these l-track rails
and so I want to uh have three of these in the the van behind me
um then that way I can actually do a product review on this and show you guys uh you know here on the live stream what I
really like about them um when I do uh get them in
now if we continue oh yeah let me back up here
so that's Vander Moon that's just the boxes well I didn't know that they also have
organizers so organizers um have basically been made for the
Sprinter Market and these backdoor organizers uh they're
really handy because you can access them from the bed or outside and you can actually have it
in three different locations um so if we look
so right here if you guys look at this video up top there's like a panel there's a middle panel and then there's
a bottom panel uh and currently they're only available for this printer but they're trying to
come out with these for the transit and I'm crossing my fingers that this month will be the month where maybe I can get
my hands on some um but if if you notice you can have like your
let's say recovery stuff at the bottom or if you're not doing super off-road
you have your power connection plug uh for your Shore power you've got your spray down you've got all kinds of knickknacks here
the upper panel uh if you don't have glass or you do have glass doesn't
really matter that can be where you put your cell phone to charge you can you
know put a book that you're reading or something like that and you can use it while the door's shut inside the van and
then up top you know maybe have like um
uh I don't know what you have up top it's a place there's a place for more storage
um so I really like these uh
and I mean I'm really I'm really digging in the industry to
find products like this and so going to these shows uh I mean obviously it's really good for
content for the channel to Showcase them but as a builder I'm literally trying to
find stuff that I am comfortable with uh recommending to a client for their van
and even though I can pretty much build anything that's in my head
uh when you get to the business section of it if a customer wants something or a build
date to be finished it's good to have relationships and products that you can actually pull from you know to make the
build happen and then stuff that you know that's quality um you know design wise colors that
match stuff like that so you can really put together a big build uh because what I've learned just from
uh building Thomas's van is you know once you hit the budget and the budget is
spent that is the components you have with you for the duration of the build so you
you'll you have to understand that down the line more stuff is going to be innovated more products are going to be
available so if you get the stuff that is good quality at the time of building your van
it's going to be able to stay there with you throughout your build whereas if you
kind of um uh cut Corners you know
you've already spent that so what I mean by my point is
up front if you can Buy components up front that you know are
quality uh you're making a better use of your budget um if that makes sense
check out the comments uh what is my opinion of the in-floor
underfloor hidden shower so I am doing an in-floor underfloor hidden shower in
this van now here's the challenges with that
uh so so one I think is a good opinion I mean opinion I think it's really good to have the
in-floor shower the reason I say that is a shower stall it just takes up way too
much room it just it's just I've gone through I don't know how many different sketches on this van and
it just the math doesn't work out to use that space utilize that space for that
because um you know the fridge footprint needs to be there and or like a drawer for a I
guess that toilet to be put in or a sink you know you really just especially in a 148 there's really not
too many places that you can fit uh so the in-floor shower I think is a good
idea now what I'm going to do is the in-floor shower is going to be in
the middle of the van um okay let me pause on location
the one thing to take into account is how are you going to take a shower
two schools of thought on this everybody knows how to take a shower but the water how how do you feel
comfortable getting rid of that water um
for me personally I don't think it's a big deal to take a shower with some
biodegradable soap and have it you know go on the ground you're going to do that
if you do an outdoor shower at the back of your van anyway but I know that bothers some people where
one they can't actually dump it because they're in a park which is understandable or two
maybe just you know don't feel comfortable dumping it in in the wild but
to be honest you're gonna take a shower at the back of your van it's really no different you're just
inside your van taking a shower so I know it's going to be very controversial that's just my opinion
the only way to circumvent that is now you have to think of okay I'm taking a
shower but now I'm going to start measuring my water usage gallons per minute versus my gray
tank that is going to hold the used shower water
um not only am I going to use a gray tank to hold the shower water but I need to only
devote that tank to the shower water and have my gray tank for my
washing my hands and dishes separate that's what so that's what I'm going to do with this van so I have
this tank right here so this tank was purchased off of Amazon in the future when we get to installing
this I'll tell you what where I found it but this tank fits
on this side of the van this side of the van so the gas tank is right in the middle
of van on the Ford so right across from the drive shaft is the gas tank and there's a little area
over to the driver's side that is this width right here
so this width um and this length this is the max gray tank that you can put in for ground
clearance so yes you can you can be like uh nothing against
Travato owners but all those components in a Travato are they're like three inches from scraping
the ground um uh so the reason I chose this is
this goes in between the uh unibody and it gives you maximum ground clearance so
uh it actually this height although it limits your gallons that you can have
for a gray water tank what it does do is it allows you to maintain
100 of the clearance that you had prior to the to the tank which is
something everybody has to sacrifice when they put a water tank under their van
okay so and this this uh tank is
um 20 gallons I think it's a 20 gallon tank um
yes the permanent wet bath it just it is it is difficult
um now I will say if you have a 170
uh versus 148 there is room for that
uh but if you are gonna make a shower definitely double down on it you know
make it a wet bath with a cassette toilet with the ability
to pipe in hot air from the diesel heater to make it a drying room for ski
gear uh surfboards you know if you're going to use that space really use it
um uh you know maybe do kind of what Winnebago does where they have like uh
shelving uh built into the the wall to where you can put like bamboo shelves
and you can use it as a storage closet I mean really make it a multi-use space if
you're deciding on doing that but you can do that with a 170 it's very typical but if you have a 148 and you're trying
to keep a small footprint just for driving wise um I think uh to go and do this question
the floor underfloor hidden shower I think it's good now I'm going to show you how I do it
because remember uh the location of this shower is going
to be either easy install or painful
the original location where I was going to put this in-floor shower I'd have to drop the gas tank which for me not a big
deal for some people that's terrifying um
I think I need to move the gas tank anyway because I need to access uh some locations for the fold up seat but
um if I drive it office obviously I'll make a video on that but I actually want to
uh I have a special fitting for the Webasto heater that is a Ford part
that Clips onto the Ford factory auxiliary fuel port so that everything's Ford as far as the
fuel going to the gasoline heater or gas fire heater but when you're putting that shower in
your floor remember you don't want to put it in a place where you may accidentally drill into the drive shaft drill into
the uh fuel tank uh you know hopefully no electrical
um and plan all this out before you start putting the floor in so kind of going forward
when I do this van and we get into live streams and some video on it you'll see that the floor all the holes and stuff
are cut before any insulation or anything goes down everything is already going to be pre-cut
rust preventative all that stuff and then we'll get into uh
installing the floor because once you have the floor in it's even more difficult to locate where you're
drilling things because at least with the floor out of a van you can count the ribs the corrugations and you can
reference off of those so that you can visually see you know one two three okay drill whereas if you put the floor in
quickly I mean you're almost guessing even though you're measuring
so I know there's a long answer but I think you guys know that makes sense so back to the video
the ones for the Ford Transit that he's making are going to be I mean not Peter the company of Andrew that makes these I
think it's a one piece possibly or it might be broken into three but
this uh I don't think the trends I don't think the transit has this uh top section I'm not sure I'm gonna talk to
him in a week or so and we'll we'll kind of go from there and figure that out
um Power Systems
so one thing I want to do is uh going forward now this is my van
Bitter hat on right now is really trying to systematize these
power boxes um make them a little bit more simpler
than a lot of stuff that I see now what Peter has here there's nothing wrong with it this is an amazing system it's
all victron components um excellent system but as you guys if
you're a diyer you understand that I mean it's very expensive to have
you know blue victron components in your van um
and so what I like to Showcase to you guys when I'm building the power system for this next van is uh keeping stuff
simple uh it's simple as possible because regardless if you can again this
is my van Builder Hat on call me text me email me if you are
hundreds of miles away and you need to reset something or something like that the simpler the system
more robust the system the easier it is that for you to be able to troubleshoot that
um and it's going to feel good that you have the ability to fix your your own van
not that it would be broken but things happen things happen
so Peter in this van has the Flatline vanco uh bed system and I purchased that
for this van behind me uh the adventure wagon system uh the Moab bed I can't
that the price of it is uh It is Well engineered don't get me wrong
the price is just um it's it's hard to swallow for a bed you
know I think the uh so if you go to products you go to Moab
Traverse elevator bed you know starting at 32.50
and then you need to get the mattress
um so 32 50 33 30
you know you're looking at 40 300 for a bed and uh
you know some budgets it's it's you know they want the brand and they want
um what goes with it but thankfully Flatline vanco has a system that's almost half the price
so that's what I went with um so this is what it looks like and
it's removable there's three panels and there's three bolts on one side three bolts on the other
and the panels come out they are pretty heavy but the night they're heavy
because they need to be they have their that there's that they're rolled on the edges to create that uh structural
stability for it to be able to hold you up so they're a little heavy but
they can be moved completely out of the way which is what I like so that you can actually use a van for other purposes
um let's come back here to the front if you notice uh Peter has a seat
and one thing that's a trend that I'm starting to follow as I do all these interviews and look at all this stuff is
these uh there's certain things that are starting to come out in the industry
um out of a use case and that is uh now this just my opinion
from where I've been but people want a van to go travel
have fun but they want to either bring their kids with them or friends with them now the
kids or the friends you know could be teenagers or whatever they don't necessarily have to sleep in
the van but to travel together maybe they're sleeping in a tent outside that sort of thing
um having two extra seats in a van is just it's it makes so much sense
so instead of having a little uh bench with no seat belts
that's additional seating for eating it makes just it makes more sense just to have a an actual dedicated seat
now the issue with this seat here is that it's permanent it's not a flip and
fold seat so the van behind me will have a flip and fold seat and uh Friedman seating that is what I'm
using for the seat in advance uh
these this one actually has some Shulman seats these are extremely nice especially if you're going on long trips
but anyway so having that really makes a difference
um so if you have the seats um the other thing was air conditioning
so in the back here you can see there's an RTX 2000 Dometic RTX 2000
uh so this has AC so now we have the seat we have the AC
and then we're going to have the power system I'm sorry seat AC and shower
so go and do what's talking about the floor under floor hidden shower if you have those three things
I think that isn't that is an excellent way to kick off I mean that that is like
the three requirements right now of an adventure van in my opinion additional seating air conditioning and
really substantial power all right keep on moving here we've got
[Applause] um so here's some more of the components like them
uh then he also has the installation uh or the when insulated window covers
all right um so as far as the event goes this was this was fun so these are all
uh the guys and myself and we are getting ready to judge the vans so we
got our clipboards and we are judging Vans for uh
the event so if you guys saw in the uh video earlier there were multiple rows
of Vans there's two Awards there's best in row and I think there's Best in Show
I think that was the two I know best in row was one of them so that because I was judging best in row so either row of
vans go through um I really like the adjusting process it was difficult because uh
you had you had vans that were had so much character had an amazing story
um but the quality wasn't there then you had vans that you knew that they were up all night really dialing the quality and
uh I'm a good quality person so I went with a more
quality van and uh it was hard it was very hard to um the judge but it was fun
so after the judging was complete moved into uh interviewing more
van builders um so this is Marion she's with livemore Camper vans so not only did I meet them
at this event but last weekend I met them uh or hung with them again at the
southeast Adventure vehicle Expo and uh
super fun so their Vans are very nice it's they're very very homey
so if you come in it's it's gonna feel just like a home very comfortable you got the shiplap walls really nice warm
you know stained wood [Music] uh this one even has like a little doggie door at the bottom
uh hidden toilet system more storage
uh this one is a multi-use cabinet so it can be a pantry it can be wet bath it uh
she even says some people use it make it into like a home office for doing work on the road remote work
um then we talked about let's see the kitchen so huge
area to do meal prep a lot of people like the kitchen on this side because you can look out you can also exchange
the uh the fresh and gray water pretty easy right by the door so that is
the same layout that I'm doing in the van behind me are pretty close
electrical components nice organized on the wall but again you see it's just a very bright but warm feeling for this
van pretty nice um Yep this one even had the RTX 2000
then if we go to the back um this is where we're going to have just additional storage we're gonna have
the power system uh we'll have the the water heater stuff like that again nice
and simple uh so this is Alyssa she uh was the one
heading up the southeast Overland uh event Expo
and that name gets me every time anyway so this is her introducing me to the event and then we went through her
vehicle which is pretty cool and this is the type of vehicles that were at this show is 95 over Landing there's only
about three or four vans there um but it's really cool so when this video does come out and you guys get to
see it you're gonna see a lot of really cool products a lot of gadgets
um stuff like that and the stuff that you can use in your adventure van it doesn't have to be
um just because it's an over Landing event doesn't mean you can't use it for your van a lot of
uh multiple uses anyway so this is her
her Forerunner
all right so we sit down we were talking about it um I was trying to be an instructor to
teach a course there but uh this timeline didn't pan out and um they were
they pretty much already had a list but before I came in so I was fine with just going there to film
and get some good content um all right let's get really quickly through here
time is flying on this live stream it's almost an hour I think my live streams are usually an
hour anyway um met somebody with a motorcycle it was pretty cool big schooly
I will get this next time guys I know I missed out on that awesome tour
um this guy's van was just story and really cool character for days
I mean this was a really cool story definitely check out this video to get the
um to go through and check out the full story about
um his van I mean look at that that is a story that's so cool
and then I wanted to hop on over here to this next tour
yep Derek so this is Derek's van it's cool I parked by Derek at the event
last week he actually was there as well the southeast Adventure vehicle Expo
and he did this epoxy work on his kitchen that's that's what he does and
I've seen a lot of epoxy art but this one is simply amazing I mean you can get
really really close up to it his van just feels it's like you walk into a vacation that's the best way I
can explain this build it is just it is so comfortable in this van it's
just the breeze coming through the way these epoxy panels are
very very nice he's got a victron set up in here um I mean look at this the sink he found
yeah amazing he's got a nomadic uh cooling AC unit
um so he has the uh issue I have where there's not enough room for more batteries he's kind of used up his space
pretty well um but uh as far as let me back up here got a place for his cat
but yeah just really nice inside here we got you know big drum
system got a multi-plus 2000 um all the wiring
and then oh yeah look at this
super nice um he's got a place for a hammock and then
walkable deck on top got 200 watts of solar and just awesome
and yeah that was pretty much my event I just went through cleaned all my stuff up
um got some really good drone shots earlier the event and uh yeah I'm very much
looking forward to this event next year next video I wanted to uh quickly talk
about was uh this video from Steven I'm just gonna briefly talk about the beginning here and then I'll let you
guys watch it but what he says here in the beginning I'm gonna uh play it and I
think it will come through well I'm not sure so
anyway what he's talking about here is he put his definition of what doing van life is is so accurate and it was just
right at the end of our video and it just encapsulated exactly what
van life is not talking about how you don't need a fancy Sprinter van to do van life you know if you've got some
simple items you know phone charger stuff like that nice vent fan or something like that in the bed you're
doing van life so watch this video uh he's got a really cool story as far as what he uses his
van for uh he does cattle herding he's a professional hiking guide up in the
Sierras um he's a you know Builder handyman uh
kind of a jack of all trades just cool dude and not only that he was at
Southeast Adventure vehicle Expo and we got to hang out on the second day
um and grab some lunch and uh it was awesome good to see him again but yeah definitely watch this video the story is
really cool about how he designed his van um
and uh yeah how he the reasons for how he had everything laid out as well
all right back here we talked about these two things we are going to move to uh the shop projects to kind of wrap up
this video um let's see we've got a question really quick
jigsaw blades all right let me grab them
all right here we go so go and do uh eight blade I've gone through eight
Blaze for one window hmm
all right so I'll show you this real quick and keep asking me questions but I use the Bosch T Shank
um metal very thin metal very very thin this is at Lowe's
this is what I use um
sure you're going through a lot of blades uh
let's see I'm trying to think why you would be going through so one thing you want to do is you want to let the blade
do the work you don't want to force the blade forward because you're going to
heat the blade up and it's going to get so hot that it literally is
I don't say necessary melting but it's it's taking this cutting edge off and
you're real it's basically like you're cutting with a blade with no teeth so that may be like if you're pushing it
you want to let it kind of eat through the metal on its own
if that makes sense um
yeah and you you want to use something like Bosch at a minimum I wouldn't get don't don't get any non-named brand you
know Blazer that have like white paint on them type of thing you want to make sure they're for metal
uh don't get wood so this one says wood
I see the metal seems thicker the more Ford in the van the smaller window in the back was like butter
okay so in the the Vans through the manufacturing process there is
multiple different types of metal used in the van uh uh van for the roof is going to be super
flimsy van for the uh different structural points of the
van is literally going to be a completely different makeup of metal and
it can yeah it's gonna eat your eat your blades up
and that might be just kind of going with the territory because
uh there are certain places where I had to drill into the Ford van into a certain
type of metal that was the structural frame for the van and I had I had to buy a drill bit that
literally costs sixty dollars a piece it was a full carbide drill bit not carbide tipped full carbide bit
to get through that and it only lasted me probably one install
um this metal seems thicker but going do you have a Ford
I'm pretty sure you had a Ford you had a Ford Transit not a sprinter
um so the thicker the more Ford okay okay
uh hold on one second
I'm gonna grab a piece of metal give me one second
foreign
so is this what you're cutting through that is destroying your bits
so this part right here these are structural uh this is a structural member for the
windows cutouts this right here I don't cut out with a
jigsaw I cut this out with a cutting disc
so I go through here and I make three Cuts one two and three
and I cut this out first then I cut the actual sheet metal the
outer sheet metal to the van because this stuff is this is this may be what's eating your
blaze up uh
yeah the hard part about this is that you don't want to cut through
when you cut this out it's hard you don't want to you don't want to cut through to the outside of
the van you just want to cut this off okay so check it out
the uh so right here if you go to videos and you go to
go to
Ford Transit sliding door t-vent
okay let's see here hold on I got you go to here
um and you're gonna go um
okay so here is okay I already have a video on this a Ford Transit sliding door t-vent window install
so as you can see behind there this is the piece okay
that I cut out and so what I did is
after I found out how I was going to do it on the front I come back
and I had this Milwaukee grinder
and let's see if I get a better come on where are you
I know that's hard to see but this grinder
okay here's the grinder this is what you want right here let's see this
this thing is what I use so [Music]
I got there's a reason that it's this small it's so that you can you don't have this
big whole huge grinding disc whatever and not only is this the reason I like
this one is it goes forward and then it goes reverse so you can switch the
direction which is really important because if you're going to the top maybe you want it One Direction and if you're on the bottom maybe you want it in a
different direction um but yeah this is the exact reason that
affiliate store up so you guys can click on this and grab it off Amazon but
try this um I know you probably don't want to buy
something like this but the good news is it's their M12 line so you can use this you can buy a drill I
mean you can use this for multiple things um I don't think this was too bad
price wise but check out check out this video
and I think it'll help it'll show you what I did before I actually started cutting and
then here I'm using that very thin uh
uh where is it
yeah right there so I'm using that very thin
blade and I'm cutting this secondary
use lots of tape use lots of tape so you don't scratch stuff up okay so that's what I did
perfect hopefully that helped next all right excellent question thank you
for asking that question all right let's talk about okay we talked about the spec build update
oh no let's talk about it that's why it's on this list spec build update
so if you guys have seen the Winnebago Adventure wagon partnership
looks something like this
um so a Winnebago has done is they've taken
a sprinter they have installed a
Adventure wagon kit into the van
they've given you a little this is not a kitchen Galley because there's no sink they give you
like a little pop-up sync
it's very sparse see that very sparse
their website it's not doing too good
foreign so see they give you a little pop-up sink little
I mean it looks kind of cool uh the problem everyone has with this one comment wise is the price is very
high so as you see there is no shower there
is no battery system there's a portable battery system there is no
toilet there's a portable toilet there's not a fridge there's just a portable
fridge there's not even any seats there's just
one bed and although it says it starts at 153
000. this van at the shows specked out is one hundred
and seventy thousand don't quote me on that that is what I've heard from YouTube videos uh I wasn't physically at
the event but that is what they say that the price is on the sticker is 170.
and to be honest the Sprinter and just the adventure wagon with nothing else
um I think that is high and I think that's why a lot of people are
um kind of wondering why it's kind of so sparse for such the
price on the flip side of that I think this is a great
place to start for a DIY that's wanting a higher end
Finish as a diyer and not only higher in Finish but
something that they can put motorcycles in they can put a whole group of
mountain bikes in maybe they actually have some type of uh you know mountain biking tour guide or something where
they want to be able to safely attach a bunch of items to the
interior of the van and you know take it on that trip so I do
think it's a good blank canvas however for what's included
so this is their uh let me zoom in here this is their PDF brochure
and so it shows you what I guess this is what that's what I've been confused with the YouTube videos is what is actually
included um I I did I saw one that was empty and then I saw one with this these bags and
stuff in there so you get one additional seat so that's three people kind of
confusing um it's just kind of confusing because
um it's as if the adventure web products
are kind of just displayed in here almost like a store it doesn't really have a Rhyme or Reason
as far as layout but
it's hard for me to say that because uh the van behind me that is
what I want to do with this one however it's a base I have the same concept as
far as what I'm going to do with this van behind me but I'm going to improve on
uh you know what I've seen in the industry by creating
City Life Planet Fitness uh
that's funny um but when I do when when I do this build here you guys
will see you know it'll have a working kitchen Galley it'll have a significant 600 amp hours of lithium for the air
conditioner it will have an air conditioner it will have windows so this
van uh there's no windows except for the back
windows there's no air conditioning system uh there's there's no fixed sync there's
no gray water there's no passenger
driver side window for the back there's just the vent windows in the back
it just has a vent fan when it's that's kind of crazy that that's all it has for such a high price
the what it is is not bad it's it's I think um
uh what it what it's uh featured as you know price wise because I love the adventure wagon it's
very safe it's a very safe system that you can bolt things into however they need to significantly upgrade this
kitchen galley um I would not go with a cooler style fridge I'd have something a little bit
more uh you know permanent so that because remember you can take
this whole entire bed system out and you'll have you'll have a ton of room
um they want this to be to where you can take everything out of the van but
I don't know if that's what a lot of people would enjoy I think people want the modularity to be in the van but
as far as the usable items in the van I'd like to be user more user friendly
for example this kitchen guy I keep talking about there's no gray water tank in here it's literally a water tank with
a pump that pumps into a plastic basin that you have to take outside the van
and dump uh it's pretty wild I don't know
it's it's an outdoor kitchen that's bolted inside the van is what it is it's kind of weird
um but uh
yeah so I'm excited to show you what my interpretation of this is when I build
the van behind me uh okay Moving On Moving On
so as we get further into [Music] um
the build process with the van behind me you guys can expect an adventure wagon install review so a review of The
Adventure wagon finally being installed we can walk around real quick talk about
what was hard what was easy and see the overall finish of what you get in the kit before I begin putting in
the floor system and the additional components uh we'll have a new video out coming
soon from the southeast Adventure vehicle Expo
so this is what we went to and uh just a little video here of
what they have at the event now this is really really cool so
this event they started off with I think like
18 vendors and a hundred overlanders this year there were 85
vendors and 500 overlanders or campers if you know uh
people at the event I mean not just people vehicles 500.
that's Jeeps forerunners vans
um incredible so it was really cool fun event uh what's really awesome about this event
is there is uh obstacle courses so you get this really rugged obstacle course
if you're into over Landing there's also a back course that is
um in the back of the property that you guys can go on uh
Royal Enfield was there so that was a motorcycle um that's a motorcycle brand they brought
their demo trailer I got to ride infield Himalayan you guys know I'm into ADV writing this
is my baby over here 99 KLR 650. but
um it was an awesome event it's very fun tons of vendors there's 85 vendors all
kinds of really cool gadgets gear uh that you can use for Van life as well it was pretty cool
um you know this is very family friendly event there were tons of kids there uh
they're just people you know relaxing people bring their friends um it was and there's so much space
there if there were 1500 people here or vehicles I I almost think there there
will be enough room because 500 Vehicles there was definitely enough room
anyway if you want to have a uh Overland Experience with your van check out this event uh next year but I
have a video just like I did for the Florida van life Gathering that I'm going to be putting together for this event
um that way you can get a get my perspective of the event and what I really enjoyed about it
all right getting ready to end this let's see here new video next week okay comment section so let me
really quick just hop on over here
if there's something um this is exactly why
building my own yeah way less expensive okay so go and
do I hope you're talking about that Winnebago because I agree with you
um that is a high price and you really can get the same
experience I mean if you've got a Mercedes that was you know had a couple thousand miles on
it and you bought the adventure wagon kit I mean you're really getting the same experience
um let's go to comets let's see here
oh go and do I just saw your comment right here
perfect yep I'll reply to that with what I told you in this video um
yeah definitely use that very thin metal and uh
it's okay to go through blades Just Don't Force It um I mean it might be expensive going through Blaze but definitely don't force
it the last thing you want to do is have like a blade break off you know make sure you're wearing eye protection
um all the good stuff because you know just take your time
be safe for sure sheet metal is very dangerous if you guys if you work with it
you're always going to get cut up um I do as well
um I'm just going through here really quick
let's see here trying to see if I can
look at this go through this window without just showing you my dashboard
there you go that's okay there we go
um
okay yeah I know that's hard to see there you go
um this is a new order I'm just going through here
um so Scott you said uh Hey Nickelodeon videos you're putting together I am installing the exact same image where I
can get to my Ford Transit extended van I'm also building my floor system floor B2 and eighth inch thick
with uh including the vinyl you touched on the fact that the lower panel would need to be cut to sit on the floor but
you never finished the adventure wagon series I know that um we'll be getting into yes I'm planning
on finish the adventure wagon install um and I'm going to show you how to cut
uh those trim pieces so essentially I'm going to give you a
quick answer right now before I do the video those uh the wall trim pieces what you want to do
is you want those all removed then install your floor then what you're going to do is you're going to take the
maximum height or where the top of the floor is you're going to take the top of the
floor put a tape measure and you're going to measure from the top of the floor up to the l-track channel and then there's
going to be a gap it's going to be a quarter of an inch or less and that's the lip that's holding the panel on
um if your floor is going under you want it to be underneath that Adventure wagon
panel then all you're going to do is add that uh Gap to where it holds the
panel at the top and your panel is going to sit on the floor now I have not figured out how I'm going
to do this yet but the panel um
now needs some type of like a toe kick or some Corner mold all right quarter
round for it to be able to stay in place visually I don't know how I want to do
that yet so hopefully in the next month I know you've this was a month ago that you
asked that question but hopefully I can get you a better answer as far as
a visual more aesthetic way to finish it because if you have the panel on top of the floor it's gonna be okay but the
Venture wagon panels can move because they're only supported on three sides not four so that would be the only thing that I
would need to figure out what to give you advice on but thank you for that question
um nice tip about holding of the A-frame
pieces with a hush mat the only thing I'll do different I would drill out the holes before install ing the hush Mount and install to
prevent yep you have trapping metal that's true that's true
so he's just talking about keeping sticky stuff away so you can still vacuum and blow out the filings before
you put those in
um so Bruce is uh talking about a with a revel upgrading the system so
that he can run the AC all night so that's going to be really challenging because
you're going to need minimum of usually about six uh well no it's going to be even more challenging because
the AC on a revel is ran off of DC or uh
uh 120 volt AC power from like Shore power it is inverted but as you guys
know it's probably it doesn't only last but maybe what three or four hours that's not all night
um I don't have an answer that question right now I'm going to be installing RTX 2000 this band so
stick with me maybe I can answer you with uh what about power system I'm
putting in the van behind me
oh it was a very nice comment one of the best reviews in the entire universe that was the Adventure van Expo Redmond
Oregon that video is doing that buddy videos kicking butt I really enjoyed doing that so hopefully I get to do that
again
um yeah and a bunch of these are just older comments so uh yeah I'm gonna go look at my tabs
really quick uh I'm gonna stay on here for about two minutes so if you guys have a question go ahead and ask that
while I'm closing these windows on my computer and uh but that's pretty much going to be it for this live stream today so I'm
gonna close these windows put any questions remaining questions in the comments and hopefully I can get to them
if not we'll do another live stream next week when we really get back into the
the flow of things
yeah but I think we've gone ahead I think we got everything
all right guys while you were asking those questions in the comments uh be sure to check out vanbitterhq that is
our blog um and we are this is where all of our
content as far as uh more detailed breakdown of
examples such as 16 amazing camper van lighting ideas where we go through and
talk about recessed lighting strip lighting all this type of stuff uh with links as well to certain products clever
storage hacks how to sanitize camper van water tanks um there's just a few we got more on the
way but this will be a dedicated place where you guys can go and read more
thoroughly through stuff that we cover this is also uh
like to shout out Odyssey custom vans this is my van conversion business so
this is the business that gives shows you uh or brings you these
Vans to work on so that we can share the content teach you guys how to do your
DIY build and uh but if you're not doing a DOI build and you enjoy this content but
you're looking for a professional van Builder I'd love for you to gonna come on over to odysseycustomvans.com
come on over to the website click on the contact Tab and on the contact form you know
first name last name email phone number and then in the message box you know tell me your story about why you're
wanting to do a professional van build where you want to go and uh you know
what got you excited about starting this journey of a build process I'd love to uh get in contact with you and see what
we can put together as far as the build goes but other than that guys I don't see any
more questions in the comments so thanks so much for sticking with me to the end
of this live stream um if you have any questions after the stream is over put them in the comments below I'd be happy to answer them in a
future video and uh yeah check out next week we got those videos coming through of the
southeast Adventure vehicle Expo as well as more content from the shop and until next time I will see you guys
in the next live stream
foreign