Living the Van Life in San Diego
Disclosure: At no additional cost to you, you can support FLORB by using the affiliate links below
One of Danny’s good buddies was one of the first guys he knew who got a van. When he first got it they were like, "what are you doing?" and then it turned out they were always in the van going down to the beach, going surfing, what not. He was just using it to do a lot of cool stuff and slowly but surely they all started getting vans. A couple of his other buddies got Sprinters and two of them moved into that, and Danny kinda just got hooked on the idea.
Danny’s van kind of popped up out of nowhere on Auto Trader and he just pulled the trigger on it. When he saw it he knew that was what he had to do. The van he landed on was a 2016 Ford Transit 250 high roof with 27,000 miles on it. Up top he has a rack by Illuminate with a 50-inch rigid light bar on the front, and then on the side he has a Sun Path 12-foot awning.
He opted to just go with making the bed permanent. He had initially considered a futon set up where he could have storage on one side, or Murphy bed setup where it could drop in and out, but with the two dogs he wanted to have a dedicated section that was comfortable for them. With the sleeping space he was really nervous about how high he made it, but it actually ended up working out perfectly with the storage containers that he put in the back, and the amount of room that the dogs have. While some people might look at the sleeping area and think it looks claustrophobic, Danny says that it's honestly more cozy. It also limits the dogs from jumping up on the bed and bothering him at night.
He made the mattress himself. You can get a custom cut Tempur-Pedic mattress and they run close to $4000, which in Danny’s opinion is an insane amount of money. He went to a fabric outlet, where they had all these different high-density foam. 40 is your typical seat cushion density. He bought a one inch layer of 100 high-density foam and then on top of that he did two and a half inches of the 40, and then on top of that he did a two inch gel memory foam topper from Amazon, so he was able to do this whole mattress for close to $140.
On the roof there's two 100w Goal Zero solar panels and they go down to a Goal Zero 1250 Yeti. He and his buddy Will did all the wiring themselves, which turned out to be a pretty simple process. For the countertop he did a glass epoxy pour, which took about a week to do. He found a bunch of old vintage maps and did a 4-day pour where he mixed like 50/50 hardener and resin glass epoxy. It was probably like the hardest thing he’s worked on in the van. He wanted one standout piece in the van to really set it apart. While it took a while, it was actually an alarmingly easy process. On a nice warm day you lay all the maps down, do your first seal coat and then you put the maps down and then you do a pour on top of that. It all gets aerated, so you have to keep heating them out so it's like a 24 hour process if you want to do it right.
He has two seven gallon tanks underneath for grey and clean water. Pumping it ended up way harder than it should have been. While he managed to get it done, finding the right pieces took him two straight hours to find. To heat the space he has a Buddy Heater, which has been great. He spent about two months insulating this whole thing. The layers are Rattletrap, Reflectix, two inches of rigid foam on the floor, one inch on the top, two inch on the walls, and it does a really nice job of keeping the temperature incredibly comfortable inside. All the finished wood is cedar. Red Cedar closet wood from Home Depot is what he used on the walls, which has a really nice cedar smell. You gotta oil it. He found out that in order to maintain the red color it’s important to get your finishing coats on while the wood is still fresh.
He has a Jetboil which he really only used for making yogi bedtime tea, which he highly recommends. He got a carbon monoxide detector mounted up near the ceiling next to his Amazon Alexa Echo Dot. She's on now, but he doesn't have Wi-Fi at the moment. It’s still a great addition that's great for playing some nice music, or using other smart features like checking the weather when he has connectivity. He has outlets for his cellphone and computer up on the right side of the van. For keeping food cold he has an ARB refrigerator. You can get this insulating cover for it, which is essentially a layer of Reflectix around the fridge, but the nice thing about this is it's a freezer or fridge. So you can set it to freeze or you can set it to fridge or you can even set it to freeze and the base layer will freeze and you can put anything you want refrigerated on top and it won't freeze.
For the flooring he installed click and groove waterproof flooring so that if the dogs spilled any water it wouldn't seep into his subfloor, which could be a potentially really big problem. Moving on to the back is kind of like where he finished the project. What he did back there was the dog space and the storage space, which each take up half of the underbed storage. He put bungee cord up in the front so that his storage wouldn't shift while he’s driving. Tupperware boxes, called HDX from Home Depot, are lockable, which is nice. He’s got one bin for clothes, so when he does laundry he just takes it in and out. He’s got bins for skydiving equipment, snowboarding stuff, wetsuits and dive weights, all of his outdoor equipment is compartmentalized. On the bottom he has smaller bins on rollers where he can keep his Everest camping stove and a couple other things cooking like spices, tea, bread, and other dry foods.
He was cooking originally inside the van and the vent fan wasn't pulling all the smoke out. It was getting a little a little rough in there, so he just quickly did another glass epoxy pour on top of a celestial chart for some more counter top space out the back. It folds up when he’s driving, and allows him to cook outside when he’s parked.
If you have any sort of wild side to you where you want to be clever and you want to get in touch with your creativity, then Danny think’s getting a van is a great way to cut overhead and speed up the processes of getting there. He was already doing a bunch of things that he liked, but the van gave him easier access to those things and allowed him to buckle down and pursue those passions more seriously. He’s gotten better at those hobbies, but he’s also made those hobbies a very crucial part of what he does regularly. Danny thinks he became a lot closer with friends and friends after getting the van. He’s able to be there for them like maybe help them out with something, maybe grab them groceries in turn for their hospitality of letting him sleep outside their house, but I've become so much closer with a bunch of friends that he already was close with, but now it's just it's much more just an organic, healthy, like love for those friends that he can spend even more time with them and that's what he loves about it.
Watch the Full Video Here:
