Another new guy here

dusmir · Aug 18, 2013

Hello all, been lurking on here a while, finally decided to start posting. My name is Jay, the 'dusmir' is actually just the first three letters of my kids Dustin and Miranda's names. My dad, who passed away in '03, spent most of my youth dragging me around the country seeing the sites, and almost all of it in an old ford 'minihome' van with a hightop. We would go for weeks at a time, sometimes stretching into a month or more, traveling.   I have been to 47 states, Canada and Mexico so far, and plan to see the last three, Maine, California and Hawaii before I kick the bucket. I basically grew up on the road, and he most certainly passed me a traveling bone, I still average around 50,000 miles worth of windshield time a year, but not in a camper, for my work. I have been thinking really hard about building a minivan with a stealth interior, that looks like a work van but can be a stealth camper at the same time. I'm thinking fold up/hidden bed, tool and parts cabinets that double as camper things. I'm working on the boss to let me build him a mobile office in a utility trailer, he kind of likes the idea, I want to use it as practice for my own project. I also have started a rebuild of a 1985 VW vanagon weekender with a chevy engine conversion that my wife and I plan on taking out to the east coast next year, so I plan on being pretty busy, and will try to post a few photos to show what I have done.

ilovemyvan · Aug 18, 2013

Hello Jay and welcome, What a great childhood you had. Here's a link of someone who just finished  converting a VW, engine swap included <a href="http://www.tosimplify.net/2013/07/optimism.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.tosimplify.net/2013/07/optimism.html</a> He just finished a couple or so weeks ago. Enjoy your adventures. Nicole

concretebox · Aug 18, 2013

Welcome to there forum. Are your kid grown or will you be taking them with you?

dusmir · Aug 18, 2013

Actually, HE is the reason I found this site! I started looking for interior ideas for my vanagon, saw his blog, he linked to this site, and here I am. I've been following his build for a while now. All that time traveling did give me the chance to meet people just like ones on here, and some are quite interesting. We drove down the Alcan highway back in 79 or 80 when it was mostly gravel. Dad had built a grill guard from expanded metal to keep the rocks out of the radiator, and when we were close to mile zero we met a young woman that was living in her van and just starting the drive up to Alaska. Dad gave her the grill guard and installed it on her van for her, she traded some very high quality nature photos for it, even though he said no, she insisted. My mother still has those photos 30 years later. I think she was the very first full timer I can remember meeting. Back then I didn't know I was boondocking, I thought that was just how you did it. We went to Florida and up the east coast in a 67 VW bus he had built a sleeper top for. Popped up like a VW camper but sat on a roof rack, and had a ladder to get up to it. Our kitchen was an army footlocker converted to a chuck box,(my sister still has it!) and his and mom's bed was a cut up and modified futon couch I think. Everything would come out and the stock seats fit back in, because he would also haul around a bunch of boy scouts from time to time and it was his daily driver. I can't remember staying in a campground but a couple times that whole trip. In Florida I think we stayed on beaches most times, something you probably can't even do now. That is what got me thinking about a dual purpose camper/work van. I'm on the backside of my 40's now, my youngest is 18 and moved out, so it will just be my wife and me. They have done their fair share of camping/boondocking, (in MY 65 VW 'stealth' camper I used to have) and my son practically lives in a '69 VW camper now. The wife wants a few more comforts than I'm used to, but I think I can get her into the idea a little at a time, I've got to include a porta-pottie though. I'll start her slow, maybe stay at a couple nice walmart lots first, then move on to other areas. Solar power will help, I don't think she would do it with candle lanterns and flashlights.