Minivan conversion

[becida]

Have you weighed the van?

 

[ride4321]

Siennas are so fun!  Here's mine in partial camp mode.  (rear kitchen not in)



Yours looks so Permanent and nice carpentry work!

I'm not full time so my stuff comes out pretty easily if I need to haul animals or wood or ?  I'm trying to cut the umbilical cord and upgrade to a V8 G20 for summer road trips.  (I can't stand Texas heat ANY MORE!!)

Not permanent at all. 4 bolts holding the shelving unit and 2 holding the boxes to the floor. Once those are removed then the floor just lifts out. The floor is heavier than I'd like but solid.
Do you have a picture with the kitchen in place?

When you get a chance, pics of your chuckbox, please?

Is this directed at me? I'm not sure what a chuckbox is.

Have you weighed the van?

Haven't weighed it but I'd guess the bed, shelves and floor weigh about the same as the center seats I removed.

 

[Urban Fisher]

ride4321, I find your above response about the weight humorous! I built out a little minivan myself. I made a couch/bed combo with a ottoman type thing out of wood. Many people I showed it to were the same..."Man you better check the weight on that thing". I'm thinking...what I added weighs less than half of the seats I removed! Those factory seats are heavy!

 

[ride4321]

I figured once I remove the rear seats and add a kitchenette back there that will be a wash as well. Then it'll just be the "stuff" I pack that'll be additional weight. Shouldn't be much more than one or two passengers worth of weight I hope.

 

[ReverendMother]

Hi there! I have a Sienna. Check out the video of my build. The less "furntiture" you put in it the better. Soft storage works well in the "ovalness" of the interior. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=f0oveQ6nqf4
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=VztXr5rceT4

 

[John61CT]

I'm not sure what a chuckbox is.

A removable kitchen setup, googling will show many great examples.

 

[John61CT]

Hi there! I have a Sienna. Check out the video of my build. The less "furntiture" you put in it the better. Soft storage works well in the "ovalness" of the interior. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=f0oveQ6nqf4
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=VztXr5rceT4

That video link did not work for me

 

[RVTravel]

Links should be

 

[ride4321]

Hi there! I have a Sienna. Check out the video of my build. The less "furntiture" you put in it the better. Soft storage works well in the "ovalness" of the interior. Good luck!

I really like your ideas and will steal a few if you don't mind. With the curved wall the netting and hanging backpacks make a very good use of space without having to build anything. I also use that side of the van for sleeping and can see not having any visibility on the drivers side. With my cabinet I've lost most of the visibility I had for shoulder checks when changing lanes.
Love the tub also but I doubt I'll go that route. I'll probably use a popup shower tent. But good dual purpose idea. You got me wondering if I'll really need a kitchenette back there. I'll likely carry a small table to cook on and that space in the rear could be used for lots of other things.
Nicely done.

A removable kitchen setup, googling will show many great examples.

I'll do a search. I've seen a bunch of different designs but didn't realize that's what they were called.

 

[ReverendMother]

Links should be

Thank you.  I was in the channel studio when I grabbed those. Duh!

 

[ReverendMother]

I really like your ideas and will steal a few if you don't mind. With the curved wall the netting and hanging backpacks make a very good use of space without having to build anything. I also use that side of the van for sleeping and can see not having any visibility on the drivers side. With my cabinet I've lost most of the visibility I had for shoulder checks when changing lanes.
Love the tub also but I doubt I'll go that route. I'll probably use a popup shower tent. But good dual purpose idea. You got me wondering if I'll really need a kitchenette back there. I'll likely carry a small table to cook on and that space in the rear could be used for lots of other things.
Nicely done.


I'll do a search. I've seen a bunch of different designs but didn't realize that's what they were called.

Thank you and glad that some of my ideas helped!  As it turns out, I am not using the bin as a tub so much, but rather, the kitchen is stored in there.  I got rid of the plastic top and have a wood board over it instead so I can access the inside easily.

 

[ride4321]

I'm finally going to get a chance to try the van out for camping. Heading to Florida next week to visit my kids. Looking forward to just pulling over for a few hours sleep instead of having to get a room or campsite on the way down and back. I'm in the process of getting a permit for free camping on fish and wildlife land near my kids. There's actually about 5-6 different sites to camp for free within 30 minutes of their house. This area is right next to the county park I normally rent a cabin in. Park entrance is $2 a day so I can just go there and grab a shower and use the restrooms, easy peasy. Short test, only 7 days but it'll give me a good feel for the bed space inside.

 

[Urban Fisher]

Good luck ride4321 and have fun! This is the exact reason I love my minivan camper. I live in an apartment complex. They don't allow over night parking of RV's. They also don't allow you set up a tent in the parking lot nor on the grounds in general. So if I had a new RV or a tent I wanted to try out, I would have to find a camp site. Not with my minivan! Heck I have camped a many of times in my complex's parking lot and they have no idea! The weather was so nice this past Saturday night I decided to sleep in my minivan (in the parking lot). Then Sunday after the Super Bowl (and after a few too many drinks) instead of driving home from a buddy's apartment complex...I just slept in his parking lot!!

 

[ride4321]

Had to postpone my trip a month and am in FL now enjoying the van life for a week. So far I'm very happy with the way its working out. Stopped half way down and slept in a truck stop for a few hours last Friday night. Got into GA and found out there was no air so that sucked for the rest of the drive down having all the windows open. Got it charged up yesterday and if it's not leaking I'm good to go. So I've spent 4 nites sleeping in it so far and sat out a few storms today inside. The mattress is amazingly comfortable for a cheap 4" memory foam. Storage under the bed is much larger than I thought. Was able to fit almost everything in there with the exception of a few larger items which went in the back area. The cooler is behind the passenger seat and takes up too much space but makes a decent table. Organization is key and I suck at that. I've been in a campground since Sat nite only because I wasn't able to get a permit on the Water Management area until tomorrow so that's when I'll get a chance to do a few nights of primitive camping.
Nice to be away from the cold and snow. It's gonna suck heading north again on Friday.

 

[ride4321]

Just got home after 8 nights in the minivan and it worked out well. Had plenty of space and I took more stuff than I needed. Comfortable sleeping and I was pretty warm for having no heat with a few nights in the low 30s. I averaged around 26 mpg on the highway. The free campsite was awesome and I had the place to myself. There were about 10 sites at this location and another campsite on a different road had some more sites, all vacant. Here's a pic of the one I stayed in.

 

[frater secessus]

That sounds like a complete success.

Any changes you are planning to make after that experience? Can you talk about what stuff you took but was unused?

 

[ride4321]

I was visiting my kids and thought they'd be staying with me but they slept at home most nights. I took two tents, a 4 and 2 man. Figured I had room so why not. I also took a 2 burner stove, small weber kettle grill and my jetboil. Used the jetboil for coffee every day but only used the other two once each. Figured I'd be cooking more with the boys but didn't have to. Took two sleeping bags, a cheap Coleman and my colder weather mummy bag. At 34F the last two nights the crappy coleman did the job fine in the van but would have sucked in a tent. It wasn't buggy but if I wanted to read in the van at night I'd have to make screens because the few that were out came in with the light on. My cooler, a cheap coleman, took up a lot of space but it was full while I was down there. If it was just me I could get by with a smaller cooler.
If I just took what I needed most of it would fit under the bed. A kitchenette in the rear would be nice and would add more storage as well as function.
I was concerned the memory foam might be stiff in the cold, not an issue.
A curtain and reflectix would be nice when camping at rest stops so I'll add them. It was pretty bright at both stops going down and coming back.
If I were going long term I'll have a small trailer for a bike and that will add additional living and storage space.

 

[frater secessus]

Nice write-up, thanks!

 

[ReverendMother]

Sounds like your process of getting used to living in a minivan is close to mine.  I purged a whole lot of stuff that I thought I needed but didn't. I even bought an 8 person tent for more space when camped but ended up giving it away.  My gear is down to almost what I would take on an excursion backpacking trip.

Speaking of which, my excursion backpack became more useful as a laundry bin than clothing storage.  I found that if I separated my clothes into stuff sacks for each type of clothing (socks, shirts, pants), it was easier to find what I was looking for quickly.  They also hung nicely behind the driver's seat and I could still put my feet somewhere. Additionally they squish what is in the netting into the window. Also, the "bowed" area in between the bed and the door makes for great soft storage of things I don't need right away like paper towels, toilet paper, etc.

One other thing, I found bookdocking in a minivan to be difficult.  Water and waste management becomes a part time job unless you are staying at an LTVA. I have huge data requirements so I need wifi.  Plus, without access to a bigger solar system (no, not the Steve Hawking kind), it is hard to keep electronics charged.  

Minivan life works better if you are doing a BLM/suburb combo like in Lake Havasu City where you have a few places to sleep for two weeks at a time nearby (Craggy Wash, Standard Wash) and places to go during the day like the library.

 

[ReverendMother]

Oh yeah and one other thing about why I haven't put a kitchenette in the van...

Moisture

It isn't as much of a problem in desert areas, but in humid and wet places, you'll soon be seeing and smelling nastiness, not to mention food smells and splashes.