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Hello,

I've posted a few pictures of my van here a while ago. I have made a video tour of my van. A lot of my inspiration for this build has come from fourms and youtube videos along with some of my own creativity. I wanted to share a more indepth video than I was able to do with pictures.

https://youtu.be/HMoY4YcRHSM

I guess that would work. I couldn't imagine it being comfortable under there.

I put the doors in because before I just had a curtain that you could move out of the way to access the under bed storage. If I hit the brakes to hard stuff would start sliding into the living area. I covered everything with the cloth because my wood working skills were going bad fast on this project. I think it ended up looking pretty good.

Latest update. I have installed cabneit doors for access under the bed.

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I have a total of three batteries. I used a set of heavy duty jumper cables for semi trucks to wire them all up. 1 battery under the hood 2 mounted to the frame. I plan to add a disconnect switch to separate the 2 from the starter battery.

Hula Hoop may be a good idea for shower rod. I have not come up with a good option yet for easily hanging the shower curtain.

I'm all about doing things cheap and re using existing stuff. My sink is a Roasting pan from goodwill. Painted white and a drain installed in the bottom. My stove is a disassembled butane camping stove mounted into a dollar tree cookie sheet.

I use a weed sprayer and a kitchen sprayer for the sink. I have a bucket under the sink for the grey water. I agree that dumping it out is much easier than emptying a traditional grey water tank. The reasoning for the battery operated shower is because I dont have a drain in the tub. I figured if I needed a pump to pump out the tub I might as well have one to take a shower with.

My battery system is 2 of the best looking Junk Yard batteries I could find. I am currently running a 400 Watt inverter. Its one I had lying around in the work shop. I have debated a higher inverter but I haven't over loaded this one yet. I dont really run that much power 1 Lamp, laptop, cell phone charger, and a fan. I have lasted over 24 hours non stop full usage with my current setup.

Right now my batteries only get charged when connected to a Battery Charger. I have not integrated it into the vans charging system yet. I'm still debating on the best way to do this. My current plan is to use some old jumper cables. Cut the ends off and add them to the battery terminals. Then put battery shutoff switch inline somewhere. This way I can charge the batterys during normal driving and easily disconnect the house system from the starting battery while camping.

Id be curious to see your battery setup. I try to keep things simple but sometimes I mentally overbuild.










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The bin you are referring to is going to be for the shower/toliet. It is a bench to sit while not in use. It has just enough room to put a shower curtain up and use a battery operated shower. No plumbing yet but warm water up on the stove your good to go. Portable toliet also fits in there and the shower curtain could be used for privacy. I know many van builds don't worry about showers and toliets. But you never know at 2 am after eating some hot wings might be glad to have it.

I decided to make the galley hidden. I wanted the counter top useable as most the time I don't need a sink or stove. I did not want to have to set something up every time I wanted to cook or use the sink.

I do not have a refigerator yet. Right now at most I'm spending the weekend in it. An ice chest under the bed is fitting the needs for now. I'm also not certain about the power drain on the battery system to run a fridge.

I have the opening doors on the galley just because I found the cabinet cheap at a thrift store and I liked the size. I have clips to keep them closed while driving.

I replaced the nuts on the seats with big wing nuts so that I can configure the seats as a couch. I'm still searching junkyards hoping to find some decent captains chairs. Ideally I'd like them to face each other and a table in-between like a tiny dinette.

Thanks for the positive comments.

I have been working the last couple weeks on my van build. Its far from done but I wanted to put a couple pictures up to get suggestions, advice, ideas.

To start with my van is a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500. It started as a Mark III conversion.
My requirements were:
Sink
Shower
Toilet
Stove
Storage
Fixed Bed
Decent Battery Power
Open floor space

It turning out to be kind of like a Swiss army knife. It does everything but is not the best at everything.

Currently my plans are to use the van for weekend trips.











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