Where Do I Start!?

[Mamamia]

It would be so much easier just to buy a 22 ft. Class B, ready to go!

Now I am recalulating my "home sweet home on wheels"
To a cargo van. I have 9 months to get ready!
I already know my mapped out the 1st, and so places I would like to go!.

So here is my question,
When converting a van What is the first 5 most important things to do to it?
I already know about the insulation of wall's, floor, and top.
After that? What's next?
Thank You my soon to be.... "Living a Simple Life Tribe"

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[lenny flank]

That's not an easy question to answer, since it depends on things like: what's your budget? Do you plan on urban camping from city to city, rural boondocking, or staying mostly in one location? What's the level of comfort and covenience that you need for yourself?

I urban camp from city to city, and I am also free to move with the weather, north in summer and south in winter. So I can get away with a much more "minimalist" setup than would somebody who boondocks all the time. For instance, since I never have to deal with extremes of heat or cold, I have no insulation at all, and just carry a few different sleeping bags with me to deal with the changing weather. Since I urban camp, I also don't need longterm food storage so I have no fridge (just a small cooler to keep leftovers for a day or so). My electricity use is pretty low, so I just have a 100w solar panel system.

When I first started out, I kept everything as simple and cheap as possible, intending to upgrade everything a piece at a time as I traveled. But what I found was that I either was not using a particular piece of equipment very often anyway (I've only pooped in my toilet maybe six or seven times), or that the cheap version I already had did the job just fine and I didn't need to upgrade. So now, almost 2.5 years later, I still have basically the same setup that I started with. I have a folding cot and sleeping bags for a bed, a hand-cranked laundry machine, a solar panel for electricity, a plastic-molded fish-cleaning sink for washing up, my alcohol-fueled backpacking stove and a frying pan for cooking, a set of shelves with storage bins, a "Lady Jane" camper's bucket-toilet--and that's about it.

It has served me well and I have no plans to change any of it. But then, I am a longtime backpacker and am accustomed to living pretty primitively. Whether or not such a simple setup would suit you depends on your level of comfort and convenience.

 

[Mamamia]

I agree!
Well I now can see the area's I'm going to need that you can get away with. One being the bed! I bought a 10" memory foam mattress, one of those kind in the box, it's going in the van or 22 ft. class B / C. Budget of what I can afford .
Yes most the time I want to boon dock, staying at a camp ground would be luxury I would splurge on now and then.

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[lenny flank]

Well, for everything that you need to do, there are usually a few different ways of doing it--and one of them will probably suit you.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I agree!
Well I now can see the area's I'm going to need that you can get away with. One being the bed! I bought a 10" memory foam mattress, one of those kind in the box, it's going in the van or 22 ft. class B / C. Budget of what I can afford .
Yes most the time I want to boon dock, staying at a camp ground would be luxury I would splurge on now and then.

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Hiya Mamamia - I almost gasped when I read TEN INCH mattress, lol!  I have a 1 ton cargo van.  I gave a lot of thought to the bed/mattress/storage equation.  I'm 6'2" (or at least used to be) so needed a North-South sleeping arrangement.  Settled on a std twin bed right behind the driver's seat and a standard twin mattress (which I already had).  Put a walmart 1 1/2" memory foam topper on it.  I can sit on that bed, bolt--upright without touching the roof and still have 13 1/2" for totes underneath.  The twin mattress is 6".  The topper, at only 1.5 inches adds almost nothing to that when I'm sitting on it, but makes a wonderful difference when I'm spread out on it.

We've chosen to live with limited space and so try to make best use of what we have.  Your setup sounds perfect for a Class-anything other than a standard van.  Or perhaps you don't need as much under-bed storage as I.  When we first start out we only know what we think we want.  so that's what we go with.  If it turns out that we were wrong, then we try something else

 

[tx2sturgis]

Yep....you need that Class C with the propane oven for baking those HOMEMADE pizzas! Yum!

Everything else is just extras....

 

[deadwood]

This December I'll have had my van for two years. And I am still working on the build. In the begging I just had a temp bed setup that I made and a cooler. With just those I started camping and urban camping and going on longer and longer trips. I wasn't sure how simple or complicated I wanted my build to be.

So I started super simple and as time went by I got a good idea of what I really wanted. What was important to me and what wasn't. I can see the finish line. My lease is up end of September. So I have been in a little bit of a mad dash to the finish line so I can be ready to full time it starting October 1st.

I'm almost done and feel good I'll make my deadline. But I could have been done much sooner if I just jumped in and starting building things I thought I "might" need. I am glad I took my time and just used a simple setup to get started. It gave me the chance to think about what I wanted as well as use the van to get a great idea of what worked. Every time I finished a new project I would take the van out for a long trip and test it all out and then plan the next project.

If you have 9 months you can do quite a bit and not be rushed. I think I enjoyed building my van out just as much as I enjoy taking trips in it... well maybe I like the trips a little more. But I like the challange of building the van. It definitely put me out of my comfort zone which was a good thing.

 

[Mamamia]

I actually go the mattress with Wal-Mart online, clearence it says it weighs 60 lbs! Should be comphy! Lots of quilts and pillows! LOL

We learn as we go.

I have to climp a few hills to get there!
I want and need it bad brought, I shall find away! [emoji6]

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[jonyjoe303]

One thing to look into is how are you going to stay cool. Everything else is a luxury, if you can't spend anytime in your van because it's too hot.
Even in the winter as soon as the sun comes up, you going to feel the heat.
I recommend some sort of swampcooler, fans just won't cool you enough. AC requires generators or running your engine, doing it with batteries is not for somewhat just starting out. 
During your build your going to have to figure where your going to cut a hole to feed the swampcooler. Before you start putting in cabinets etc.
I been using swampcoolers going on 5 years, use it everyday summer/winter, somedays Its cool enough I don't have to use it but it's rare, and I'm always parked in the sun.
These are the vents I cut on the side of my van to feed the swampcooler. With these vents you dont have to open windows are roof vents.

I build my own swampcooler over a weekend, you got 9 months to build one, you won't regret getting one. I can keep this running all day long just on solar/batteries. At night time I can throttle it down to less than 1 amp.

 

[Gypsy Clipper]

I have been living in a 2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette(totally non-running)parked in a friends driveway for the summer while I put together my "final escape plan".
I sleep on a huge dog bed from Costco and a sleeping bag. I removed the center sets of seats. That's where I sleep. The back seat works perfectly to store books and my blanket and pillow while I sit comfortably on the sleeping bag and the dog bed.
I have a clothes line running between two trees and that's where I hang my clothes and bedding on sunny days to keep them nice and fresh.
I share my van with a great Pyrenees and a cockapoo. For the most part they sleep under the van unless it's raining or they need some cuddles.
I have two sealed totes for food and clothes.
The front of the van is empty.
I use a little camp stove and a cooler for all my cooking.
I have lived in my van for almost two years (it ran then)prior to this summer I have totally downsized my needs in my next van. I suggest buying the cheapest van you can and just get out there. Don't over think this. The freedom living like this gives you outweighs any discomfort by a million miles.My friend that I "squat at" works ten hours everyday and now after seeing how carefree and happy I am she and all her friends are preparing to do exactly what I am. I am a 51 year old woman. I don't have any prior camping experience. Everything I learned I learned on this forum or just by doing.
I absolutely love van life in any form!

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[Mamamia]

Thanks for the advice! Never thought of a swamp cooler!
I most definitely wanted to have a fantastic fan installed, I guess thats not enough?

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[Gypsy Clipper]

I have no fan and no cooler. Granted I wasn't always this easy to get along with. But I live in an area where the average summer temp is in the low 90's and the humidity is in the 70's.
I wear super lightweight clothing(mostly dresses) and when I am feeling sticky I rinse off with a gallon of water. I used to insist on air conditioning and every creature comfort you can imagine. I was a weather weenies.
The longer I "rough it"the easier it is. I am a minimalist now and I couldn't be happier.

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[TrainChaser]

Make a list of what you NEED and what you WANT. The two are not the same.

Swamp coolers only work in areas of low humidity.