new member first van biuld

[Ezrider92356]

so i have purchased my first van for conversion. my brother has done a couple vans already and certainly a inspiration. iv been threw just about every type of camper made over the years, and nothing ever seems to fit just right. i think a van will be a good fit. decent fuel millage easy to drive around can pull my boat behind it. not planning to full time, just camp/road trips/vacations. 

im a owner operator truck driver by profession. and a bit of a jack of all trades.

i have been casually looking for a van for probably about a year. i was really hoping to hold out for a high top van. had a specific trip in mind that is coming up real soon and there was a good buy on this extended length van its a 2000 dodge 3500 extended length van. paid $1800 for it, has 125k miles on it and appears to be in good shape mechanically. has a little rocker rust but otherwise the underside is pretty clean. 


now from the time of purchase till my planned trip i have 5 working days on the van 

first day was spent cleaning everything up. 

second day was rather unproductive as well. messed around trying to get a plan of the layout together. and got a few curtains hung. 

third day i built a bed and started on the kitchen. 




4th day i finished the kitchen cabinet. sink and plumbing


i should have 1 more day to work on it before the trip witch will probably probably be spent doing oil change/tune up type stuff and hopefully adding a auxiliary battery bank and power inverter. planned trip will be around 700 miles from a-b-a figuring in other stops and sightseeing probably 1000 miles kinda a long trip for a just purchased older vehicle but it seems mechanically pretty sound. 

i will probably create a build thread on this project after i get a bit further on it.

 

[Firtree]

You’ve been busy.
Enjoy your trip, that’s the most important part. Looking forward to what you learned, what changes and additions

 

[highdesertranger]

Welcome Ez to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you. highdesertranger

 

[cyndi]

Looks like you have everything you need for a comfortable journey. Well done!

We'll want to hear about your trip, too!

Enjoy

 

[brenbren]

Thanks for providing pictures of your new build!

 

[A Savage Adventure]

Welcome, Ezrider92356! You've been busy!

 

[Ezrider92356]

thank you for the warm welcome. i have a lot more plans for the build what iv gotten done so far is just the start to make it ready for the first trip. it will be kinda nice to take it on its first trip before its done as it may point out things i will want to include in the build i wasn't planning on or might point out things i was planning on being un necessary.

my one day of additional prep time i thought i was going to get went away due to delays. im not going to end up getting home till a few hours before i had planned on leaving. so that is probably going to mean no more building before the trip, just oil change and good mechanical check over load up and go. i may just load up the stuff to install the house battery and some other things and work on that at some point during the trip. might end up leaving a little later than originally planned but we will see.

the trip has a pretty loose itinerary the only real plan is the first stop. about 350 miles into the trip (its a long 350 miles though lots of back roads around a 8 hour drive time) so the plan is to leave about 24 hours before we need to be there leaving in the evening. drive the first 3-4 hours leaving lots of time for a leasurly trip to the first destination the next day. then after that we have things in mind but no real set plans and about 5 days till we have to be back, probably going to shoot for 4 days though to leave a day to unpack and get a few other things done.

after the trip is done ill certainly share the story of the trip with you guys/gals. i may make a video on it not sure yet. i do have a you tube channel but the content is mostly heavy truck repair/shop related video's so im not really if i will make a video on the van trip or not yet. but if i don't make a video on it ill still certainly write up the story and post some pictures here on the fourm.

 

[MotorVation]

You got a great deal on that. I have the same van. I paid more and the tires were toast. Other than that no real problems after one year. The largest difference is that you're way ahead of me with your build. I've been accumulating everything I need but until last week I didn't get any of it in the damn van. I bought a fridge and put it where I think it should go and I'm gonna build or just cram everything in somewhere around that.

Not a very good plan I know, but hey, gotta start somewhere. I plan on heading out in December so I still have some time. I want to put my bed length wise along the driver side but the rear heater and ac is right where I want to put one of the legs. I have one of the bench seats turned sideways directly behind the driver's seat and am hoping to be able to keep it there and use it as a "couch." Maybe I'll put the house batteries underneath it.  Can't make up my mind. See what I mean?

Anyway, good luck with yours. I have the 360 and the mpg is actually pretty good..

 

[Ezrider92356]

yeah i planned a 4x6' bed legnth wise that would fold into a couch. and the kitchen on the opisite side of the van, but when i started laying out where things would go in the van it was a huge space user in that configuration. would have left very little room for cabnets on the other side folded into a bed and not much room to walk in couch mode. putting the bed in the back ended up being able to have a 5'7.5" x 4' bed and a lot more free space. i am 5'7" so i can lay flat on the bed and my other half is shorter than me, for me the trade off of 4 inches of bed length for tons more floor space was worth it.

plan in my head for the drivers side from the back to the front is another foot or so of cabinet/counter space, fridge over the wheel well raised up with storage above and below it. followed by a sitting area then behind the drivers side im hoping to biuld a bathroom/sit down shower. but that is going to take some thinking and figuring out how to make that work so that space is just going to be left open for now.

just throwing some stuff in there and looking at it really isn't that bad of a plan, sometimes it can be hard to picture the layout till you start putting some things in there and moving them around

mine has the 360 as well. i have not put enough miles on it yet to check the fuel millage but the gauge doesn't drop like a rock is a good sign...lol

 

[QinReno]

I think you're going at it the right way. Build some, take a trip,  see how it works out, and get ideas for how to proceed with the next phase. After the first trip in my van, I completely changed the entire layout. You don't want to eat up all the floor space with too much build.