VAN TOUR  | Amazing Van Conversion Tour by Couple with NO Experience

Hello beautiful people, I'm Krista, I'm Brian and we are Van Gaal Adventure and this is our van

tour

, come check it out in 2019. We sold almost everything we had, packed up what we had left and hit the road to build our van. At my parents' house, what we thought would only take three months, took us nine long months and a lot of blood, sweat and tears to build in the humid, soggy climate of the Pacific Northwest, with the help of some friends, we finally got out. road. august 2020 and we have been traveling and hiking since this is our beautiful baby beatrice the white whale she is a 2019 dodge ram promaster we got her when she only had 10 miles and she has front wheel drive and a sexy mom before we came in, Be sure to subscribe to our channel to stay up to date with our adventures and other tips and advice about van life on the road, let's see what happens inside the van.

Hello, welcome to the taxi, come in and you. I have my collection of cobia masks and my favorite part here are my light switches that I put in to turn on the lights outside. I have an LED bar on the front on each side and the back lights it up like a stadium, another thing we have. Added this nice curtain and it rolls up, we want it to be able to slide back and forth, but it's a nice cabin divider so you don't see all of this up here and another feature, our last feature here is the swivel chair and seat from the passenger, just do this. clamp, turn it like this and that's it, ours squeaks a little, I think we need a little grease down there, this is my favorite part of our entire truck and it's the kitchen, the slab we have here is actually a hemlock slab and This is a full piece and then it comes out of the sink and this is our cutting board so we didn't cut the rest of the counter and then all the van users need this so this was something we bought to use as a colander. it comes out again so it appears as a colander but we actually use it as a drying station for our dishes so it's definitely been a space saving idea of ​​how we did it and I wouldn't change a thing about it we take the end .

I slab this piece and we cut it from the back because I knew I wanted to have an area for fruits and vegetables and also have herbal teas and maybe some plants and things like that that weren't going to get in the way when we were cooking, so we made this container for fruits and herbal vegetables that's what you call it another good feature in the kitchen is the max air fan it's a must have it can suck or blow air it's great for cooking when um. Yes, you are cooking, especially us because we have a butane and propane stove, so we need to ventilate the place while we cook, obviously, but this thing is powerful, so we have a rotating faucet like everyone else and also this detachment. it's already filtered water but then we have another filtration system we just wanted to double our filtration and this is for drinking water right here so if there is non-potable water we can still fill our water tank with it these are some of our spices and herbs. that we use regularly, there's a bunch of them here, there's two rows of these larger jars and then a row of these smaller jars and then if we look up, this is our glass jar tincture capsules area, area of tea, so we have a lot of things that we just have on hand, like beans, coconut flakes, chickpea flour, some herbs, spices and then some of our personal things that we carry every day.

We wanted to make sure we could stack things so that even if we weren't going to use glass jars we could stack much easier because of this second area, we installed gas struts on each side of the cabinet which keeps the cabinet door open and also we have two latches, I put two here just to reinforce it, I left a lot of glass here when you're off the road and you're going over bumps like all that weight just opened this cabinet at least it did once, so I put a second latch here, so we haven't had any problems as these are our other kitchen cabinets they are quite large so just like random sauces tamari apple cider vinegar things that we use a lot and also our tea cups we also have a citrus juicer and our vitamix, so we make smoothies with it all the time and then we have our other kitchen cabinet, which is basically cups, plates, mixing bowls and our kitchen utensils.

One advantage of having this wall here is that we made a little space behind the driver's seat to put our brooms, mops and some extra shoes and very important things that we must have. a broom in your truck because you will use it 10 times in this little space here. This is a decision that took me a long time because I originally thought we weren't going to be able to use regular tile. We had to use vinyl and it was getting very confusing but we noticed a lot of people in Venice saying their tiles didn't break, it was something we were a little worried about but so far it's been fine so we just went with a Tile normal subway.

I'm really proud of this because it's part of the band I actually made with our friend Miro, so shout out to Mirosh for showing me how to grout. I think that's what it's called. How to do some grout work. So he screams. Thanks to Miro for helping teach me how to do this, so here we have a

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of switches, one is for the gray tank and we can turn it on and off with an electric ball valve that is connected to our big tank outside, so when we are in the appropriate area, turn this on and our 11 gallon gray water tank empties.

Another switch here is for our natural toilet which has a fan that runs constantly 24/7 inside the toilet and that hose that sucks up all the contaminated air. That's why it never smells in here, but when we shower we have to remove the toilet and unhook that cord. I didn't want to have a live wire hanging around the shower above the shower so I added the switch that I can turn on. we turned off that power just a little extra safety feature we put a bunch of different little nooks around the van so if you wanted a plant or you wanted books we had an area to do that so this little area houses our plant which in It's actually pretty good, not bad, wait, I thought you were about to leave, but you're definitely back, welcome to our entry.

We have our carbon monoxide monitoring station here now that we have propane and butane stoves. It's good to have it to make sure. We are safe and have two dimmer switches, one is for the under cabinet lighting and the second is for the overhead lights. We used puck lights and LED strips under the cabinets. We have a

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of nice hooks here, like for storing shirts or jackets. fold them up and down, you know, get your eye out here, we have our little storage lofts, which we have yoga mats, our window coverings and some random things, just a couple more random things.

You don't have a lot of space in a van, so I really have to think about the things that are going to matter, but this is one of those things that we don't necessarily need but definitely wanted to bring, so that's your moment of peace for the day. . These are our beautiful cabinets, but we chose this type. in retro green because Brian and I are quite into retro and vintage things and then down here this is our trash can, we custom made it to fit the size of the trash can, we have our first aid kit down here, more clean just things like that and our filtration system and that's our refrigerator so we have a Dometic f what is it?

It's our Dometic cfx65dz, yes that's what it is and it's a refrigerator and a freezer, as you can see we've got a lot of stuff here. and then we have a freezer that's full because we make smoothies every day, so we have a lot of fruit that we process now. The reason we went with this type instead of the traditional ones is because we knew we were going to be able to fill it versus if you open the other door, things could just pile up and fall everywhere and they just close and come back here , done, so for cooking we wanted to take up most of this slab area so we decided To not put our burner on top we decided to use something that could actually stay in a drawer and originally we had an induction burner that was in here, but we realized that it consumed too much energy, so we changed it for this candy. a small number so this is a propane stick butane stove and so we keep it here when we cook so we just turn it over put the butane in turn it works incredibly well and you can take this outside, so under the passenger seat. we have a wabasto heater, it is powered by our gas tank, we have a tap that connects our fuel tank, it also runs on electricity, the fan, but the combustion section is powered by our gas tank, so it is a panel digital control, it is next to our bed.

We'll show you in a second and we can set the timer three times a day, seven days a week, what we want the heater to turn on and what type of chair we want it to turn on, and we have it mounted right above our bed. So when it's cold outside we usually turn on the heat before we get out of bed, this heater has been great, we've been in some super cold weather, I think as cold as 15 degrees in Stanley, Idaho, and it keeps the van warm. It gets used a lot during those cold times, but it keeps the truck warm.

He does a great job. Oh hey, while I'm down here, I'm also telling you that our underfloor is only a half inch of plywood for our subfloor that we didn't insulate. the flooring in regards to that, this flooring, the actual flooring is a bonded vinyl floor, it's designed for a floating system where you just lay it on the floor, you don't glue it down, but I glued it down, hooked it on and works great, they say We're not supposed to do that, but I did it anyway and I'll do it again. This is our corner. Brian and I work full time while we're on the road, so it was very important for us to have a place where we could work without bumping elbows because Brian and Ice already saw that it would probably be a problem if we were working next to each other and We also wanted to be able to look outside while working so we weren't cooped up to the side. the bed also I wanted a place where we could not only work but I could also do my makeup and we also wanted a couch and we wanted another bed so this is literally our all in one space and I think it's pretty unique.

Also for our band we have this table in a lagoon, so it moves and this also unclips to open up on my dresser, so I'm really excited about this. B did a really good job on this and has some beautiful ones too. The lighting in Hollywood, as you can see, is very high, of course, and then it turns on. We noticed that when we started driving it was moving all over the place and we have a couple small dents in our cedar. We simply secure this when we are about to do so. It's sturdy and it doesn't come loose and it also falls over and it turns into a couch that Brian will show you and it also turns into a bed because we thought maybe someone would want to come travel with us from time to time until now.

It hasn't happened yet, but one day we'll be ready, we'll be ready to have company when they come, so it's crazy and this goes into couch mode and I'm going to try to do it right now, look at this, this comes out into couch mode. these pillows are multifunctional, they go on the bed, double as a sofa and hold extra clothes, so a little tip for van life is that you don't have a lot of space for clothes all the time, so we have clothes inside, so that there are extra sweaters, like sleeping shorts, things like that, so all of our pillows, except the ones we sleep on at night, are multifunctional, so you save space and you can take things out when you need them, behind these walls and everything. walls on the ceiling we used insulation and what we used for insulation was havelock wool.

We wanted to do something that was non-toxic, so we chose the havelock. It was easy to install, good luck, good place, we will leave you a link. down in the comments check it out I want to do another shout out to the needle and I'm at Chamicom Washington so she made these that are waterproof and stain resistant they're actually made for outdoor furniture so they're awesome and they're super comfortable, they actually have velcro so this back part comes off and also the bottom one and inside we have a bench that opens so it's like we have room for food in our normal cabins, no so we just put them down here, well, let's talk about the second bankInside, it's where we charge all of our electronics, so we have a couple of slots in here for our laptops.

I've made some little foam dividers here to keep them secure and tight, and while you're at it. here you can upload it. I've installed an outlet back here, you can't see it now and any other miscellaneous electronic devices we have and we keep it secure and closed. We have this little guy right here. This is another closed one. hook, so we just put this down, we have our ipad, we'll put on a movie and Brian and I can snuggle up on the couch and we can watch movies at night and now I'll put it in bed mode, this cushion can be taken out. this this is for the back support and we have these things here and we install these little ones there there's one on each side and they lock together flip this over and we have two more on this side I want to see on that side Take a look there and then these slides.

You have this, oh yeah, it's basically like a six-foot-long bed. I feel pretty good. Where would you give this Airbnb what rating? uh, five stars, five Airbnb stars, super host, super hose, sweet and for the window. Covered We had my beautiful Aunt Janet. Thank you so much. She actually made our window covers, so an important item to have in her truck are these window covers. We bought them at Van Made Gear, so there are magnets here and they are insulated, great for stealth. The camera is essential. Up close it looks like the lights are on outside and we have those for all the windows except one but they are all covered and it also comes with this carry bag for storage arm so under the driver's seat here is our switch battery isolator, we have a blue switch c mlr and what.

What it does is connect the alternator to the rear batteries that power the entire truck, so when I drive, it charges the battery with the alternator. There are a few different ways to charge batteries. There is solar power on the coast and alternator, and the alternator is used. a lot when you don't get a lot of sun outside or shore power to charge the battery, so another way to do it is when you're driving to your next destination, your batteries charge while you're driving so it's very useful. useful tool to have oh hello, welcome, welcome to our beautiful luxury shower room area so we have our compostable toilet down here and this is a head of nature.

We are very happy with this purchase. We strongly recommend that you don't smell any odor unless you let it go for a little too long, we have a mirror so it's not actually glass. I ordered it custom. I forget what it's made of, but you can check out the link below, so the other part here that we have is that Brian built these

amazing

shelves and it probably took another week or two weeks, how long did it take? it was like another two weeks plus about two more weeks Brian did an

amazing

job on this and we also have this so this is a portable device so you can use it wherever you want or you can just pour it in there or you can just set it down and be ready to go.

We saw some people who said they were hitting their handles when the water was turned on when they were using the bathroom or when they accidentally hit it, so we have These European shower mixers work great because you actually have to press a button to turn it on and we have hot water, so we turn on the hot water and we definitely have enough for a five minute shower each. 33 gallons of water and we have a seven gallon water heater, I think so, Brian nods his head, yes, we have a sweet little clothesline that runs across so that when we get wet bathing suits or towels we can put them on the clothes. line we decided to invite our friend sydney who is an amazing seamstress thank you sydney she made this shower curtain for us so I took a blanket I had from some of my trips to Bali and she turned it into this beautiful shower curtain , welcome to our bedroom. corner, this is our queen size bed that we had before we moved into the van, but we took a machete out of it and shaved a few inches off it to make it work with the rest of our van designs.

The only thing if you're going to cut up your own bed that you have make sure it's not fiberglass because that can be quite dangerous this is my side of the bed this is the other corner that I have we made sure I could put my cup of tea favorite here or a glass of water at night and it's nice and big so I can take it in and out and then we have some bed spray, some other little things and then there are some books in here too so I have a little corner for books here which is my secret, not so secret, jewelry area and then I have a place for necklaces and then I put a cork board in the back so I can put earrings and then I have things to hang earrings and just a little nook down here for bracelets and knickknacks and then Brian and I have some reading lights, they're very functional because we have USB outlets on both of us so we can charge our phones at night, it looks like Brian has up here, he's actually charging something on my side of the bed for any reason, so we have a charger.

Up there, which is pretty cool, we have a couple of big cabinets, so these are definitely bigger than the other ones we have in front and we have our bags of clothes. These are some compressed bags, I think that's what they're called. We have a decent amount. of space each for our clothes and Brian has his here the other thing that's in my corner is our light switches so we have three different dimmers here that are the same stubborn ones that we have in front, but this one then goes to our shower. We have another one here that is for these overhead lights and then we have this one here that is for under our cabinets.

Welcome to my side of the bed so I have a little nook and it's definitely not as fancy as the crystals so I bought this little cup holder I bought it at the Camping World store It's like five dollars There are different widths I could put bigger cups in there My thermos works great I have a night light here too and I also double this lighting with a place to hang my headphones and here's my little, my little pocket, just a little plastic thing that I hung there and I have my phone charger and I'm a happy camper.

Many people do different ways with their beds, they go this way or this way, we choose the left. and side to side, uh, version and recessed into the walls so that it gives you an extra, probably two or three inches per size, almost extra, like almost half a foot, so that I can stretch out and this is a much more economical way to do it. that some people buy those flares, you see, they're like those things that flare and come out to the side, they're like thousands of dollars when you can just make a note, carpentry a corner and frame it.

On a different note we set up some shelves for our shoes, we ordered them on etsy.com and they turned out great, we got four, the only thing is the fabric kept sliding off the rails here so I bought some toy wheels at the hardware store and just them I screwed them in so that they hold them in place and they don't slide up. Pretty easy fix for that, then I added some extra wood to the bottom to make it firmer and not sink. These doors have one. another feature here takes you up here, we have another clothesline and it goes from one side to the other and now you can hang other things to dry, like towels, when we swim, so we decided to use containers instead of drawers. or those big removable things, we have so many different things happening all the time that our plan keeps changing I guess, so we have to be flexible, so we have like 14 different types of containers in here, so there's a lot of storage space in here.

I'd say maybe like six or seven. I think there are 14 that you want to count. Let's do it. Hey, there's a pretty decent amount of us. We have many things. There is more and there is more. So Brian was right. We had exactly 14 boxes. I feel like you had an unfair advantage for this, hey yeah, so if you live on the road you need tools, power drills, power screwdrivers, battery chargers, drill bits, things like that socket set, I actually use them a lot, like that which opens here and you can see. the water heater and the water pump and then here is my gravity drain if I want to drain the tank here we have our electrical setup we have a magnetic door here it comes out we have our master switch here all of our main fuses For our 12 volt DC system , we have four 150 amp hour agm batteries from Full River, which gives us a total of up to 600 amp hours from the battery bank that we have and here is our master switch and here we have our ames global lf. 2000 watt sine wave inverter.

This thing is cool and in the back is our laundry chute, at least in the back, and I'll show you that inside the truck in a moment, here's our main fuse panel. I did a back end. door so we can go back there for all the wiring because we have to adjust something, but usually we don't have to touch that at all, so down below is our main fuse panel and the monitoring station, all the electrical wiring, all of these of all the electrical ends. Up here, down here, let's take a look inside, so at the top, this is where our AC breakers are and our DC fuses are.

Down here is our monitor for our state of charge, which lets us know how much power is in our batteries and also. how many amp hours have we consumed here is our remote inverter the inverter is what converts DC power to AC power here is our water meter for our fresh water let us know when we are emptying it completely here we have tank heaters for our tank gray we have a gray tank outside we have a gray 11 gallon tank outside so on those cold cold nights we don't want a block of ice down there in that tank so we turn it on and it stays at 60 degrees so it'll never freeze outside of the pipes, however, do not heat up and that is it for the power plant.

You don't want to have to smell dirty clothes. There isn't much space and you won't want to think twice. You built the van, so we created a secret area in the laundry room door, so it's right behind this bench here and we used some of the same things that we used in the shower, the same panels, so it's also waterproof and easy to wash. clean up another item down here is our solar panel circuit breakers, turn them on and off. If I were to work on the solar charger on the back or any type of electronic device, I could just turn it off knowing that there is power going down the lines. here we have our water intake and our power connection to the shore, it is locked so that no one can tamper with it.

It connects directly to our water tank which makes it very easy to fill the water and here we have our power on shore so you have two different options. when you go to like a trailer park, 15 or 30 amps a lot of times I have the table and chair set up, I'm working on my laptop, I like to plug it in here or if you want, flashing lights on the awning, we can plug them in. our lights here we're filling the tube with air with our air pump or something before we use the tube we can plug it in here just a good outlet one of the cool things we have in the van is this tailgate ladder next to the a company called circus bought it online uh it's very cheap affordable easy to install this clip just sits on top that's it and there's two screws here it's two screws and it runs in about five minutes or less, plus I added some grip tape. a little safer when going up and down because otherwise it would be quite slippery welcome to the roof here we have our storage on the roof we have a lot of clothes like winter clothes in different seasons along with our tables and chairs and some other recreational things but This thing is full.

I also installed these wooden planks to stop walking on the roof because I was doing that for months and I have three solar panels up here, each panel is 175 watts. Here we have our wifi amplifier. it's our antenna this is our wii boost which is a wi-fi booster so it works well for our places and this can work basically if you only have one bar it will take you to two or even three bars this is definitely a must for Bad life, I almost forgot the most important thing here and it is the amazing luggage rack we bought, the aluminum luggage rack, so it is lightweight.

The reason I bought this rack was because it is a flexible rack that you can make a lot of modifications to. Then we got this sweet awning from Thule, it's 10 by 10. We have legs that go down or you can mount the legs on the truck. I haven't done it yet, but that's what I ultimately want to do, thesesmall supports that come. right here or you can put them here and stick them into the ground. Everything we mentioned here as far as solar panels, everything on the roof, awnings, all of those items will be listed in our comments below.

I know we are kind. Just going over all of this pretty quickly, but it's all below. You can see it. There are links to everything. If you have friends or family building a truck right now, be sure to share this video with them so they can get some tips. your own brand build if you like this video give us a thumbs up and subscribe to receive notifications of our weekly video releases and if you have any questions about our truck build we will be happy to answer them just leave them in the comments. Next, thank you for stopping by, we want to thank everyone who helped us with our build without your help.

I don't know how we could have done it, so I want to start with my parents. Thank you very much and thanks to Sydney. For also letting us stay at your house and help with construction, let's give a big shout out to Connor Sisk. Connor helped me from the beginning, starting with the subfloor framing. Yes, the entire structural integrity of the truck is basically a shout out from Connor. to my good friend Matt Lawrence Hi brother, last but not least Nero, we salute you, we salute you, we would have been in a canoodle without you, it really took a village to make this fan dream come true, so thank you, I love you all, much love. you