Married Couple Leave Suburbia for a Converted Sprinter Van
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Emily and Joe are full time vandwellers that go by Permanent Road Trip on social media. Prior to moving into their van Joe spent 20 plus years in corporate finance while Emily spent about the same amount of time in nonprofit. After 20-some years, They were each at pretty senior positions at their organizations, so when they made the decision to make this huge change it was a pretty big adjustment. They sold their house and a large majority of their stuff. Every chance they got they were getting out of town to go do something, like skiing or going mountain biking, paddling. They were probably camping in a town about 100 nights a year. It just made sense. They just thought, "why not do this full-time?" They realized that they didn't want to take that tent up and down every night, so finally they decided they would do it.
They looked for a couple years, a couple of them that they just missed, but they finally found one. They spent about six months rehabbing it and turning it into a really cool little house and they've been living in it for about seven months now. It was in South Bend, Indiana. It had been used by an audio-visual company to run speakers and sound equipment back and forth from South Bend to Chicago. It had 25,000 miles on it when they got it.
One of the first things they did was put all-terrain tires on. They have been incredibly helpful. they skied all winter and had no issues whatsoever. They did buy some Thule chains they put on once, but they didn't need it. The tires and the weight of the vehicle was plenty for all winter.
One of the things they did was taking that bench seat out. That was a little bit more complicated than you might imagine. When you take a bench seat out you have to buy the pedestal. You don't have to, but you're going to want to swivel for sure, it makes the space a lot more usable. The seat they got came from a sprinter, which they love. There's an air compressor built right into it.
They’ve got a lot of stuff jammed in the sink. They've got their propane tank which is a six pound cylinder. It's about eight inches in diameter and lasts about two months. They cook almost every meal on this primus camp stove. They never have to have the green bottles, which makes cooking way cheaper and puts less waste in the landfill. Propane is super safe especially if you're only powering things that you're turning on and off. Maybe a different story if you're powering a refrigerator or something 24/7, but the propane tank has a hand valve as well as a check valve. Secure it properly, you're going to be fine.
For showers they’re using this Eccotemp shower. It's really nice to be able to come out and take a shower anytime they want as long as they can find a private place. Super easy solution for hot water If it's raining or if it's wintertime and they’re in the mountains they have another surface they can put it on.
They have their gray water discharge, all they do is open this hatch, pull the gray water out and discharge it into an appropriate place. They have their furnace put in underneath the passenger seat for heating in cold climates. There is an auxiliary valve straight from the diesel tank that powers the furnace. It takes about a half a gallon of diesel for 24 hours to keep the van nice and toasty all winter long. They insulated their van very well, from the floor and ceiling to the walls and cab, which helps them keep the heat in.
They noticed on one of their first trips some of the places had an amber light and they realized that was because it doesn't draw bugs so they wanted to put an amber light out there in front of the van for when they’re sitting outside. So far it has seemed to work well for them
The guys that helped with the carpentry did a phenomenal job building this stuff out. They cut this big hole in the ceiling and put the fantastic fan in. It’s awesome because it pulls air in or out which is great for ventilating, which is really really important in the winter when it's cold. When it's freezing cold it’s important to pull in enough air to offset the hot air rising out to keep condensation down, which in turn prevents molding. Between the roof van and their CR Laurence vented window they’ve had zero problems.
In their kitchen they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where they wanted everything arranged and what they've ended up with works really well for their needs. They have a regular bar sink that’s a little bit bigger than what you might see in some other vans, which is nice for doing dishes.
Their bed is a full-size, and then they have a little bolster. It's actually like the last eight to nine inches of the bed that they cut off of, and then just made a little pillow out of it. It allows for sitting up against something soft when you might be sitting in bed reading, but then also at night they can extend it across which makes the full-size bed. Their bed is lower than most vans. If they had the choice to do the build over, they would have raised it another couple of inches for additional storage.
The cabinets have four sections. All seasons, everything is in these cabinets. Emily negotiated two and a half and Joe has one and a half. This mountain scene is actually cut by a friend of theirs in Cincinnati who has her own shop. Cut by laser, has a good smoky smell still to it seven months in. The doors on the cabinets open both ways, so they can have access to them from both inside and outside. Their fridge is a great size for them, four and a half cubic feet. It feels roomy all the time.
They didn't really want to have a whole bunch of stuff hanging off the van. They do have a few solar panels up top as well as the fan, but they're pretty discreet and that was important to them. They wanted to make sure that they didn't look like a camper.
For power, they have 300 watts of solar on the roof that charge two 6v 250ah AGM batteries. They also have a 2200 amp alternator so if they’re driving they definitely have a lot more energy than they need. All of their stuff can easily fit right underneath the bed. Even though, as Emily mentioned, it’s a little lower than most people go. The reason why they did this is that they’re on 26 inch rims, so getting the bikes in can be a bit of a challenge. Even though it’s tight, they’re able to get both of their bikes, their helmets, their shoes, their water bottles, everything that they need for biking in that one drawer. That's a big part of what they do, so that's why they dedicated so much space.
They have a 25 gallon freshwater tank that is pretty easy to fill. They just pull off a cap, open the valve, open the vent and fill from the side. That goes straight to their sink. They've got a sure flow water pump that will pump five and a half gallons per minute. They also have a seven gallon gray water tank. Ventilation is one of the most important things in water tanks for vans. If you don't vent that gray water tank you're going to not only have unpleasant odors in your living space, but you’ll also pop your seal.
Joe’s favorite thing about this van is the double doors. They have access to their food pantry from both sides of the van which makes it so much easier at a grocery store. They have storage for shoes.
They used to go out to eat four or five nights a week and just by making like a minor change of going out only once a week, they were blown away with how quickly things can just allow you to save. For seven or eight years they really knew they were saving for something. they were very intentional about it. They realized that they’d rather have that $40-50 bucks later when they were travelling instead of in the moment when impulse would tempt them. They did that for a really long time and they got so good at it they started making a game out of it. Buying the Amazon gift cards at the grocery store that would give them points for fuel, they would use credit cards so they could get that extra percent off. Next thing they knew they started to save a lot of money and it made their experience a whole lot more fun.
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