Living in Colorado in a Sprinter Van Conversion
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Michael Was finishing up college when he decided that he wanted to travel more. While he was already doing road trips during the spring breaks, he decided to take his exploration beyond the united states. When he graduated he ended up going to Europe and central America for a few months of backpacking, After returning home, he began looking for ways to continue the lifestyle full time.
He already had a few friends that were living in vans, which proved to be a great resource in finding out all of the information he needed to know on the topic. This lead him to buy a van of his own. The vehicle he ended up getting was a 2006 Dodge Sprinter which he converted himself.
He went with a sprinter because of their reliability. He has family friend’s with businesses that use sprinter vans with over 500,000 miles on them . While they may cost more than other options available, this personal experience with high mileage sprinters convinced Michael that it would be worth the investment.
Inside he has a kitchen with running water that is operated by a 12 volt pump that pulls water from a 5 gallon tank, with an additional 5 gallon tank for grey water from his sink that he has to empty manually. It isn’t a complicated plumbing setup, but it gets the job done.
For cooking he uses a two burner coleman stove which he runs off of one pound propane canisters. For electricity he uses 12 volt power directly from two 100 amp hour batteries. This allows him to charge his phone and laptop, as well as power a roof top van to keep the space ventilated. Since he is able to charge all of his devices over DC there isn’t a need for an inverter in his setup, which allows his setup to be super efficient.
To charge his battery bank, Michael has installed a relay isolator which draws energy from the van’s alternator while driving, as well as two 100 watt solar panels that he has attached to his roof. Since he doesn’t have a ladder on the back of his van to access the roof, he relies more on the isolator in winter when he is unable to easily clear snow off of his solar panel.
He has the interior lit with LED Strip lights which have low power consumption, but require 24 volt electricity. to provide this, he has a step up converter installed. For safety, he has carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in his vehicle. The smoke detector is mounted above the electrical components, even though the 12 volt system is low voltage and probably won’t cause an issue.
Michael works several different jobs to maintain his lifestyle. From restaurant work to freelance photography gigs, he’s able to cover his expenses and save money for future upgrades to his rig. Eventually, he wants to be completely self contained so he isn’t reliant on public spaces, so he plans to eventually put in a shower and composting toilet.
He advises people who are interested in the lifestyle to have realistic expectations. While it does allow him to spend more time outside and pursue outdoor hobbies like skiing and fly fishing more than he would be able to otherwise, it isn’t always glamorous. A lot of the time he finds he’s sleeping in a Walmart parking lot, especially while travelling.
He also encourages people to not worry too much about getting the build perfect the first time. By having a mindset that the van is a perpetual work in progress, Michael has given himself the chance to try different things, learn to skills, and make mistakes to learn from. For him, The result is not simply the van conversion itself, but the skills you obtain in the process of building it.
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