Lessons

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Quin’s Sprinter Van Tour

(upbeat music) Come check out my van. (upbeat music) All right, man. I wish I had a cool name for this van. I've just made too many, anyways. All right, so we'll start over here. This is obviously the cab where I drive, but when I'm parked, have a nice place like what I do right now, lots of times I'll flip around these swivel seats. So that converts the cab into usable space. When I'm chilling at campsite and whatnot, this down here is a footrest, just like I'm using, but also it is shoe storage. And sometimes I move this thing around, like I put it at the foot of the bed just to be able to have this nice little step up to the bed. This was kind of a last minute decision to make this box. And I think it was a good one. So this also swivels around, like when I'm picking up food, like a gas, like a drive through or something like that. Also times I'll pick up the food and swivel this around, like this, to this position. And then I have this table that flips out just like that. And if ...

I want to be extra fancy, I have this tablecloth. So eating fries or whatever, don't want to get this table dirty. I'll get the tablecloth dirty and then wash it. And what kind of table is that? Well it's made out of Poplar wood, which all the wood in here is Poplar wood. So it's three quarter inch Poplar wood that's doubled up with the hinge. So in terms of what type of table this is, is a custom table, the mount is a lagoon table mount. It's really common and cool way to basically use the space, make a convertible table that kind of can be pushed out of the way and then pulled in and used in like versatile ways. So like, I could use it on this seat, just slide it out like that. Or I could flip it in and use it more here. And this is also my convertible desk space. So I can use this for eating or for working. And obviously, this is another bench. This is more so the bench that I use for when I'm working. So I'll just pull out my laptop. And sometimes I just use it like this, not fully flipped out, or if I'm working for a long period of time, lots of times I'll flip it out and then I can bring on drinks and whatever. It's just a nice little workspace. And when this door is closed, I have this nice big window. So I have this nice view for when I'm working. When I plug in my laptop, I have an outlet down here, just a little, just a standard house plug right there, and a trash can right here, a trash can you can pull it in and out. Also, put this away. This bench is my fridge and this one is the freezer, Ice cream, some veggie burgers, some frozen fruit, ice, nice on a hot day like this. All right, so that's, well actually, I guess I'll highlight this here. This is another design thing that's been developed over the last four years. I really feel the need to utilize this space above the cab. Some vans come with this stock, but the sprinter definitely does not. So what I had to do was this was like one of the first projects I did in the van. I had to take off the liner that it came with, cut it down, fashion this weird like mounting bracket. And then I made this storage up here, 'cause it just seems like super wasted space, unused space. I don't need so much head space when I'm sitting down here and I still have plenty of head space. So it's really important to kind of visualize all the spaces in the van that are not being used that you could potentially utilize for more storage space like this, because I figure I'm always gonna be sitting in this cab area as opposed to this area I'm gonna be standing. And I don't want any storage space kind of closing in this air space right here. For some reason, I'm like super nitpicky with, I don't like upper cabinets. Most of the vans that's you see on the market have upper cabinets for good reason, because they wanna utilize this space. But I honestly love how this one turned out without upper cabinets to make it feel bigger than your average sprinter van built up. So yeah, got storage up here. This is usually where the passenger, or if I have a second person, I'll just tell 'em to throw their clothes up here. This is just some extra jackets, a towel and some cans of spin drift. So kind of just random storage up here. This is a false board that pops up and I pull down the blackout curtain. So when I'm not, when I'm just pulling into a truck stop and I don't wanna flip these things around, I just want to be more stealthy and go to bed and get up early and take off fast. Then I'll just pull this to block out any like extra light and just for a little privacy, pull this, fasten it like that. And then these actually there's these little pieces in here they're magnets, but I always end up so you can throw 'em right here. I always end up just kinda like shoving 'em in there and it kind of stays like that. So this can fully black out. And then, the last thing I'll point out up here, put this away. Ah, man, it just shoves up in there. If I made this again, I'd probably make this compartment slightly bigger so that it wasn't as hard to put away. Didn't take so much time 'cause it's very tight in there. And then the last thing up here is this separate storage area. These are blackout for the windows. So this could just get shoved up right in these windows for when I want to black out and have privacy, push it out the window, black out, all these windows have privacy and still have access to the cab area. There we go. Are they insulated as well? Yeah, these are, I also have a one of these blackout insulation pieces for the fan, this little one. So, this one has snaps. These ones are magnetic 'cause there's metal around the windows up there, these snap right in there. 'Cause when I have this van blacked out, this is a massive source of light. So it's nice to be able to black that out too. And if I want to have a little bit of that fan of ventilation, lots of times, I'll just snap it up like three snaps and have just a little bit of airflow. And then right here, this is the Espar diesel heater. This is just where you turn it on. So you hit that button set the temperature, hit send, and then the heater that's stored under this is activated and this is where the heat comes out. One last thing is the broom storage. It's always nice to have this handy when you have these hardwood floors and the broom actually extends out, sweep things out like that. All right, I don't know. I guess I made this extra cabinet right here just because it was a sloping floor. So anytime I put stuff between those two seats, it would fall back into the van, it was super annoying. Wanted to level that out and also just add some more storage under there. And that's where I keep all my like registration and all the car papers. Onto the kitchen, this is the kitchen. It has dual extensions that flip up. Symmetrical countertops, this is where I cook. This is where I basically clean wash dishes, all that stuff. So over here, when I'm cooking, I need that extra space. I'll flip that up. And generally I'll come over here and grab cutting board. So back there is some secret storage, I also have my tablet. So this thing I can throw it up anywhere and watch movies. I can also like for instance, throw it up here. So it kind of just like stays in like that and put it there, there any of here. Sometimes I throw it up on the ceiling even when I'm in bed and it kind of just hangs down right in front, right there, put that away. And I have like built in charging cords for all the electronics down there. So yeah, this is where I cook. Have some other hidden storage right here. This is what like the most of the spices that I use on a day to day basis, salt and pepper and hot sauce, olive oil, it's really satisfying to have those things just readily available. So I just flip that open and this is kind of my cooking setup, ready to go. To initiate the induction stove, I have to turn on the inverter. And that is with this flip right here, flip that turns on, you can see some of the other stuff I have here. This is 99% battery right now, 'cause it's nice and sunny day, this is just the main lights you see those go on and off and a USB charger in case I need that. Oh, I'll flip that down. This is also just a bedside light slash I guess just cooking table light. And it dims, all the lights in here are dimmable so flip it and then you dim 'em and then up here is a wireless charger so that I don't have to deal with cords when I'm going to bed. Just flip that up there and now my phone's charging. These are all drawers with their own purposes. Given this one doesn't have that much purpose, it's just a junk drawer, it has my surf wax and poo pourri. This is my notepad where I draw up new van designs. So just if I have an idea, I'll draw it up on here and see if it makes sense. Then down here, this is just kind of miscellaneous bowls, spatula, different cups have a loaf of bread in there. Yeah, so random storage stuff. This is an organized cutlery drawer with also my plates, knife and just kind of like a random spot for sunscreen and pencils and other stuff. This is where I keep the pots and pan. So I have one pot, one pan, works great, don't need anything more. This is an overall junk storage. That being said, it always has my blender. And I open this thing up every day and make a smoothie. And then it has some like kind of deeper storage. Like sometimes I buy like milk in bulk or something. So I got like milk and soy milk or whatever down there and more storage just up here. So all food stuff there. Flip this, flip this back, flip this down. And this is actually where my toilet is, so that flips out, and pulls out. So you just flip this guy up and you it's got a urine diverter and a waste diverter, and this is a composting toilet. So anytime you use it, you just come down here and you spin this dial and it churns up the soil in there and it turns any waste into more soil. All right, go on to this side. Just a lot more storage. This is a false drawer with cleaning supplies. Oh, this is actually a hidden little oven toaster oven. So this is where I make cookies and toast and brownies and all that good stuff. This is kind of a catchall storage down here. A lot of cleaning supplies. And this is a water heater. I think it's a 2.5 gallon water heater. So when I take showers, I turn the dial down here and that heats up the water and I'll have a hot shower out the back. We'll get to that later. More storage, all food, avocados, sweet potatoes, bananas, onions. And this is where some more like spices are and just plastic bags and random stuff in there. Just like the other side, I have a matching secret compartment right here. This one isn't spices like the other side, this is like my bathroom. Just kind of toiletries and stuff like that. These are some of the things that I use the most, deodorant and combing my hair, shampoo, all that good stuff is up there. This is another light that I can turn on and off, bedside light. And then this is my bathroom set up. I flip this up and this is where I brushed my teeth. And I got the mirror ready to go, little cup to use and a sink. This is just the main water and this is filtered water. So if I'm gonna drink straight out of it, I just use this guy and cup I use to drink water and I usually leave the water pump on. But if I ever wanna turn it off, like when I leave for a long period of time, there's this little switch down here, I didn't want to have it visible because I've put it on the counter before and it gets water in it. And then it shorts out the whole system. So I wanted to have it close to the sink, but not like easily damaged. All right, so this is my bed. It is a queen size bed minus a little notch out in the corner, the back two corners, just because I was fitting it to the van. So yeah, it's a good size queen size bed. I added on a feature called flare space. That's the company's name, but really it's just a modification you can do to the back panels of the van to enable you to sleep sideways or enable a tall person like me to sleep sideways. Because if I didn't have that bump out on the outside of the van, it would've been about 5' from wall to wall. When I put the bump outs and maybe we'll go out and I'll show you when I put those bump outs, it goes to 6'8. So that's about 10 inches, nine, 10 inches of extra space to be able to sleep this way. If I didn't have that modification, I would have to somehow bring this bed and go front to back. And it would extend out all the way out here. And I wouldn't have room for my kitchen. So really, to be able to fit everything into this short wheel base, I needed to do that modification to be able to sleep comfortably. So there is storage under the bed. This is where I grabbed my computer last time. But yeah, so I charge things here. There's an outlet like a built in outlet. So when I'm charging like drone batteries or camera batteries or whatever, I can plug it in, set it up here and drive down the road. And it's just charging. It's a nice secure place for electronics, 'cause they don't really fall around in that small space and all this is secured with different locks. So I lock this to keep my laptop safe. And then I also lock this one, 'cause this is where the majority of my camera gear is, a bunch of different cameras and lenses and drones and tripods and whatnot, all the cords. And then this is my everyday clothes. Not very organized, but that's the reality of van life. And then this one is actually just access to the under the bed storage. So if I ever wanted to, I could like throw like a long surfboard from all the way back there through the front seat. So I could fit like an 11 foot long board in here. That was the general idea. I've never done it, but I like the idea that I can. So this right here is just the top of my backpack that carries my inflatable standup paddle board. I usually, I access it from the back though. A few more storage things is storage under here. So a random package and just different bedding, it's so hot right now. Normally I have multiple blankets on here, but I didn't want this blanket. This is my AC unit. So I should probably pull that out and show you guys how the AC works. Pull this. All right, so this is the Zero Breeze Mark II air conditioning. I like the idea of having AC in the van. Unfortunately it doesn't really work all that well, it's not super powerful. It's probably like the equivalent of like one of the vents up in the front of the van. And normally you have like four vents in the front of the van. So it's like not super satisfying, but it is nice to have a little bit of cold air on you. But yeah, so I pull out these things, I turn it on. Let's see. Pop it on, right now it says it's 87 degrees. So you can see how much it cools it down as it goes. You read the temperature on it, but spin this, connect this in here. Sometimes it's a little tricky. (air conditioner whirling) Okay and then this is my extension to the extension. Put that in the corner there. And then this is blowing cold air now and it's super, super hot outside and I'm trying to sleep. I just literally put my face straight up on this outlet, it's about the best I got. I don't use it all that much, but it is nice to have. Nice power by the way. Yeah, it's gone down two degrees already. So I don't know if I'll buy it but. There are other AC options that supposedly work better, but I've heard that generally speaking, it's just really hard to cool down a van on a hot day. Even like the top of the line best AC. Really the only way to do it is to have like an AC that you plug into like a paid campsite and then you have like really strong AC blowing on you, but I'm generally not in campsite. So it's kind of a tough thing to find as a good AC system put this away. I'm feeling you wanna switch? Over here, this is another storage area. This is where I keep my day pack. So I just have my backpack ready to go, pull it out and I'm ready to hit the trail. And that, I mean, that's mostly everything here. I do have a secret little shelf for the person that's sleeping on this side, which is usually me, secret little shelf here to throw stuff I could put like if I have a mug or something, if I'm drinking tea, this is also a wireless charger. And back here, these are push vents. So what that is, it's just to create some ventilation over the bed. If I turn on the fan and I have it pulling air out, I shut all the other windows. Then it creates a massive like flow of air just right over the bed. So, saves me on hot nights. Yeah, looks good, check it out back there. I'll show you guys the bubble out modification I did also to be able to sleep sideways. This is also a vent after market van life window that I've put in. So I have three vents, one here, this is the biggest one. And then I have two on the back windows, all with bug nets. So I don't have to deal with the bug nets. This is the flare space bubble out modification. It doesn't look like much, but it makes a huge difference so that you can sleep sideways. So like this is 6'8 long when I sleep sideways now and the queen size bed is five feet wide. So right now it's five feet wide and I'm able to fit a lot more kitchen in the van as opposed to it being 6'8. Then I would have to cut down on what one foot, eight inches of kitchen, which doesn't sound like much, but it's like half the kitchen. I would have half the size. These are the vents that I was showing you on the bed flip out. And that just creates a nice airflow. And then back here is the bulk of the storage. Also has a shower, I'll pull out shower and flip it up here. And then if I'm in a place like this, like with dirt like this, I'll pull out this grass turf and throw it down just to not get muddy feet. That's the shower system. Right here is the water fill. So I have a hose in one of these totes and connect up the hose and fill up the water tank. The water tank is 32 gallons and it's made for sprinters specifically, it fits perfectly over the wheel wells, which is always kind of like an awkward space to use in the van. So, it's nice to actually square those out. And then you have usable space on top of the wheel well, so on top of the wheel well, that's where I actually deemed was the best spot to store my surfboard. So this surfboard is resting on top of the water tank, that's on top of the wheel well, and it pulls out. I wouldn't, I can't pull it out right now 'cause I have to pull out all this stuff to pull it out, but it goes in through the kitchen cabinets. So it slides under all the drawers that pull out in there. Gas can in case I run out, these are also pretty crucial, at least for what I do in van life. These are like max tracks. So if you ever get stuck, you can throw them under the wheels to get a little bit more traction and potentially get unstuck. But honestly the majority of the time I use these things is for uneven camping. So like right now the van is sloping slightly towards us. What I would do is throw these under the two back window or the two back wheels pull back onto 'em and ideally that would raise it up and I'd be able to sleep a little bit better. Pretty crucial when I'm on the road, especially like in the middle of nowhere I use 'em nearly every time I'm camping and I slide right in here. So for me, I've just really grown to really like one wheeling. It's fun, but it's also functional. Like if I am gonna be based in a town or something, if I'm doing a job in a town, I can just leave my van in one spot and I can ride this thing around town. It'll take me, I think, 12 to 18 miles without running out of a charge. So if I'm in a town, that'll get me around town super easy. Don't really have to worry about the charge. So I have two of those 'cause generally, I'm in this van with somebody else and I have just a backpack ready to go. I have another backpack with my standup paddle board. So these are the things that I've found. I use enough to create space in the van for, so two, one wheels. Obviously I really like one wheeling. The paddle board is mainly just for fun, but it's big enough for two people also. So we go up to lake Tahoe and all these different scenic spots. It's nice to be able to experience the water on a board like that, different stuff in the totes. I keep this Patagonia duffle bag, 'cause lots of times I'll be on the road and I'll get a last minute job or something like that. And I'll need to pack everything into this and hit the airport. I have multiple wetsuits 'cause I surf a lot and I surf year round. So this is my summer suit, this is my winter suit, different booties 'cause I was surfing in like Washington over the winter. It was really cold. So I just needed some extra protection on that. Camping gear, these are two inflatable pads, boots, bare box, life, straw, water filter, lots of good stuff in there's kind of ready for the activities that I like to do. There's some climbing gear under there. There's a few harnesses and then this one over here. (screeching) (indistinct) Oh that'd be great. And then this is the second tote, got some underwater photography gear in case I ever run into a really clear and picturesque lake or ocean. This is yeah, that's the stretchy, the hose that I use to fill up my water fill, more booties helmets for skating in one wheeling, slack line, I have the extension cord, some snorkel gear. So the extension cord, let me explain that one. If I'm ever super low on power, for some reason, you know the sun's not out, I'm not driving my car. It's not charging by any of those ways. Then I can plug the extension cord into this piece. This is shore power. So I can run the extension cord to any outlet that I can find, it's a really long extension cord. So like I've done it with like even like random shopping centers. We'll have like an outside outlet, and I can just run it to that and charge. These are just the one wheel chargers that are hanging down right here. Not the most elegant, but this is my electrical system. It's all labeled, which fuses go to what the fan, the heater, the fridge, the lights. And then I have all these breakers that go to the stove, the inverter, the fridge outlet, all the different outlets that I have in there. They all have breakers. So if anything ever goes wrong, I come back here. This is the first place I check to see if a breaker or a fuse blew. And then this is just kind of like a little reach through access to a lot of the other electronics. I ideally am not using this at all, but I've had to come in and make a few changes and extra backpack that I use sometimes, I just kinda shove it up there. And then this is a safe where I tend to keep my hard drives and passport and maybe like the title of the vehicle or some really important papers. Unfortunately, it's not big enough to put like my laptop or a camera in there, but I already have like a locking compartment inside. So, I think I'm good on that. Back here, this is kind of hard to see because it's so small and claustrophobic, but this is actually a container for multiple sleeping bags. 'Cause sleeping bags are, are really big and awkward. I just wanted to make its own container so that it's tucked away. And that's the majority of the garage area. There is one more feature that I'll show you and it's this whole piece actually extends out. I made it real tight so that I don't have to ever worry about it coming out when I don't want it to. But this whole thing comes out. First, I have to take off this extra cushion down here because what it is is a bed extension. So that cushion fills in the gap and it makes it, it converts it from a queen bed standard queen bed to a king size bed. And it's generally made to be able to sleep outside and look at the stars so you can sleep with your heads coming out and then you're looking up at the stars all night long. All right, so this is probably the coolest solar panel out there. If I do say some myself, it's a walkable solar roof deck. A lot of people like to put decks up here to hang out and watch sunset and obviously also want solar panels up here. So it's just awesome to be able to combine the two. This is 500 Watts of solar and it's also big enough to potentially spend the night up here. I can pull the mattress from my main bed and just throw it up here and we sleep up on top. Thanks for watching my tour guys. Hope you maybe learn something or found something in here interesting. This is my fourth van and I'm super stoked on how it turned out, I've been living in it for a year and a half. And there's really not much I would change, to be honest. So yeah, I can't wait to see what you build.