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Today Nick at Van Builder HQ, Nick is discussing the Best Vans For Your DIY Camper Conversion! Tune in! It is the first Van Builder HQ Podcast! Numero uno!
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[Music]
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[Music] two one
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hey everybody today i got nick here and i wanted to cover a
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big topic which is something you'll research in the beginning of your van building journey and that is how to
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choose the best van for a camper conversion i got a couple topics i'm going to go over with nick
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because he's our expert today and he's in the process he's built a van he's building vans
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and i wanted to touch a different a few different points everything from why are you
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doing a van conversion we're going to talk about budget size maintenance mileage safety yup yup
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all the different versions but i guess the first question is how do you choose nick what are the
1:01
options what are the where did you where would you start if you were brand new kind of maybe talk to us about that yeah
1:08
so if i'm if i'm brand new and i'm trying to figure out what van to purchase the first thing is
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it's probably budget it's just like buying a car that's you gotta find something that is affordable is it gonna
1:19
be your daily driver is it gonna be something that you're only gonna use on the weekends that's where i would
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start and then with that thought in mind get on youtube watch a couple of videos
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because they might change your mind they might say oh i didn't know i could actually use
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this size van for a daily driver but then also outfit the back of it to be used as a camper van
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so once you decide what direction you're going a daily driver or a weekender camper van
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you can branch out from there and say okay now that i know how i'm
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traveling in this van what do the capabilities need to be does it need to be
1:59
normal size extended that sort of thing oh yeah and yeah jump in if you have any questions
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at the top of your head what are the price ranges typically for
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different builds or if i'm looking to build a van is it
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5k 10k 50k 100k what are the different budgets people typically choose from so
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you have the kind of bootstrapper you have the couple looking to build something to do
2:29
the full van life not just part-time right or you have the max people that max it out
2:34
maybe they're retirees or something or just people that go out to moab or whatever i don't know
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tell me the different budgets and people what people are looking to do
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with it so if you're getting started find out your budget and find out your use okay
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that would be the first thing are you a weekender or do you live in your van that's it there's two things
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now are you got a couple options are you gonna buy an old
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ford van little v8 van fix it up on the inside it's old but you're happy because you
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like the classic look or whatever conno line yeah like a ford econoline is that kind of your style
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or are you a little bit more are you looking for something that's
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newer possibly more reliable because you're not that good with car parts and stuff like that which is completely cool
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so you want to get something new to feel safer on these long distance trips that's cool so
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on the left side you got the econoline you can get that used craigslist
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dealership and so after that point up fitting the van is pretty much the same so what we're
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going to do is we're going to we'll equalize everything so whether you go with the old van or you go with a new promaster
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transit or sprinter you've got those vans now you're on the next
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step and this is capabilities so your old van do you want it to be two wheel drive or
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four wheel drive based on where you're going your new van do you want to be two wheel drive or four wheel drive
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then you can step up from there now you're really at an equal playing field and now you're just focused on the
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interior parts of the van so that is where you're gonna sleep are you going
4:27
to cook inside your van what about size so size would be based on people yep yep
4:33
so size would be weekends are living in your van as well as if you're solo or you're a
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couple that sort of thing so that would be the next tier up
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and that's where you need to talk about space now
4:50
some people are different some people need a big old van and then some people like
4:56
the small more minimalistic type of van what is big old van square foot wise or is that
5:02
the extended mercedes yeah so the language is not really square foot it would be more how many
5:08
feet long is the vehicle okay so like 20 24 feet that type of thing
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that's how it goes and there's usually typically three different sizes of vans there's your
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standard van which is a short wheelbase medium wheelbase
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and long wheelbase so short wheelbase the rear axle of the van will almost be
5:32
like at the very back of the van it'll look funny it's like a little mini minivan no not a minivan
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don't say that that's very confusing because the minivan is actually a completely different van
5:45
some people do van life in minivans but that's not what we're talking about so you got the short axle
5:51
the medium axle that is your typical vanity on the road our typical cargo van
5:57
the extended wheelbase or elongated version
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those are ones that you see that are typically like the amazon vans where
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the you have a long you have a long axle so typically like around 140 inches of
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the axle and then the back of it you have this you have this big old kind of butt hanging out and that's your
6:21
extended so that would be the full size oh yeah i can use my hands so you got your short axle medium axle
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and then extended long and people like the short ones because
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for example a lot of solo female travelers they like to go with the
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shorter axle and this is not specific to females in general this is just
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it's a van it can be overwhelming anybody can go more places with a smaller one well it's not just going
6:52
more places imagine you've been driving a car like your whole life whatever
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some people have never driven a van it's it's sometimes it's extremely intimidating that's really the number one things and so a lot of
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female solo travelers that they want to do the the whole van life thing but they
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want to get into if they're going to solo they want to be able to feel confident in driving the
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vehicle they don't want to feel you know scared semi truck driver well scared
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that they turn it and this big old thing that they're not used to goes all over the place and so size can influence
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who's what type of driver a lot of drivers are comfortable female drivers are comfortable with typically maybe the
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smaller van the smaller vans it's just easy to maneuver it's easy to get into parking spaces and it's both male and
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female but female van lifers the only reason i'm specifically saying that is because
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if you are not comfortable with a van it's a great idea to get a smaller van it's easier to
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work on easier to drive all that good stuff when you get into the bigger vans they
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can get really big you're talking like 25 feet long so if you're comfortable driving something like that cool
8:05
but and what size is medium so medium is what i got your vans back behind you are medium these are medium
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these are not extended so if i can go oh they're high top that's that's what's
8:17
different yeah so if i go to see this one
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[Music] and usually in size directly corresponds
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with budget as long if it's something newer yep obviously
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and let's see we got a here's a good example oh that's a good picture this is this
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far outride website they're awesome they've just got content for days to help you understand
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so if you look at this so this van that's shown is my personal van
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however if you notice where the tail light is this is the short wheelbase
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so when this sliding door bar intersects with the tail light that's the short wheelbase
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and you guys can go down and see the tire regular wheelbase 129
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inches so my van it's low roof but it goes boop right there it goes to 20 feet long
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and that is a 148 inch wheelbase that's 147.6 but
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everyone knows it as 148. uh can you scroll up just a like a half an inch to see the there it is a high
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roof medium roof little roof oh okay let's see that now let's do this there we go
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so mine is right here and then you move your mouse a little bit you got to do a circle with it what
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you're talking about right here oh okay
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and then i have to turn that feature on make it pop up big okay so right here the back of the van
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this is my van so short medium and then here's the long so the
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long wheelbase is going to be 22 feet
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and that's really long it's all more hanging over and you can see where the tire is
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so notice all of that real estate back there male or female it doesn't matter it's just
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it's more about as a driver what are you comfortable with have you driven a honda civic your whole life or are you a
10:30
pickup truck driver and you kind of feel okay about trucks because turning this right here with
10:36
this end is way different than turning with this end is this is this are these sizes only
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true for mercedes sprinter vans and ford does dodge have
10:47
something similar yeah so the the market is pretty much going to be standardized because if we go to the ram
10:54
promaster does it have the three different sizes oh yeah because it's there's uh
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they all have to be competitive so they're almost exactly the same the only thing that's different so can
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we get into the differences off the top of your head for each one
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yeah so we got so for example promaster same thing 136
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right here see it's got the short end they got 159 so instead of 148 they've got a
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here we go actually it has a couple has four instead of three
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so they get the 118 inch very tiny got the 159 that's typical sorry 136.
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what's more typical is the 159 and then the really big one is the 150
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i'm sorry no they have three 159. what people really enjoy about the
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promaster is the width of the van so the interior width is huge 75.6
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whereas the doesn't it's not going to show the width here yeah
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so this one
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and it doesn't actually show the width i forgot about the with this here anyway the sprinter is not as the
12:19
transit is not as wide as the promaster very wide and believe it or not
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the sprinter
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the sprinter van is the smallest on the interior is the smallest
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if you notice same lingo here same jargon 144 170 170
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ext is extended so you can see what the manufacturer is doing is
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they're taking the axle and they're sliding it back i was muted sorry
12:59
are you talking about width uh i talk about width and length so width wise the mercedes is the
13:05
smallest next would be the transit then the widest would be the promaster
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and then mercedes follows along the same thing so let's let's talk about differences not just size
13:18
why do people choose usually one brand over the other what's the typical factors choosing a mercedes
13:24
or a ford or a promaster so the different reasons is it just might be
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your brand you're a four guy you're a mercedes guy or girl
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and uh the ram promaster just being extremely honest it is not
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the most comfortable van i've driven i've test driven the van it is not comfortable for long rides
13:51
some people might have a different opinion i've driven one it's not comfortable the seating height
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is so high i'm six feet tall and i'm where i'm at in the van is the roof is right here and
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the windshield is like right in front of my face the main reason people like to buy
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the promasters is because
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of their price so promaster
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if you go to let's see here
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trying to find promaster here
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so they start at 32 000 so they're extremely they're very affordable in the van world
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and you can start building yeah pretty quickly budget wise
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okay so what let's go to uh so we'll just do this real quick so ford transit
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ford transit what's the why do people like building in ford transits let's see here but i'm
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just going to knock out this price real quick real quick so they're all starting at the same price but i will tell you it
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goes up really quick so typically 42 so so ram is
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that this is a 136 inch so that's the catch so 136 inch for 32
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crew van let's just call it like 38
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and then mercedes sprinter the mercedes price
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so notice how the industry has set this up for advertising it's very
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important to look at this you look at three of them 32 35
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36 okay so they're all the same that's this is a
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this is a high roof 432 this is a
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mid roof for 34 and the sprinter is a low roof for 36.
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so pay attention because until you get up into
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these cargo vans and you go to to build it this is for mercedes you think that's a
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deal 36 000 this is what you're getting you're not getting the van life van because you need to go up to at least
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the 144 and then once you do 144 six cylinder
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so all the upgrades actually change the story right i do like how mercedes visualizes
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this for you because this is exactly what you need to pay attention to low roof not really considered van life
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144 that's your normal that's what peop this is what the winnebago rebel is built out of
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that sort of thing six-cylinder diesel or four-cylinder diesel these are pretty typical even the
17:07
four-cylinder gas but notice what happens you are building a van you're putting
17:14
you're building the inside of it you're putting furniture in all that stuff so you i would not suggest you ever go with a
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fifteen hundred this the class has to do with your weight
17:27
capacity fifteen hundred twenty five thirty five
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so if you notice engines are directly related to how much weight the
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van can haul which makes complete sense they're so weight they're related is also a factor not just
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size yeah and length also the weight so think of wheelbase roof height this is
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livability powertrain is moving
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where you're living and then also where you're going so you're just on strict highways six
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cylinder would be fine maybe the 3500 series but if you get these so
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these are your payload capacities so payload is that's your battery system your sink
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your water storage your bed system your interior panels your upholstery your
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vent fan it's all the nuts and bolts that you put in the van to make it livable
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this is what you can do to get this number to figure it out you can take your van that's hollow you can
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take it to a truck stop on a cat scale and you can weigh it and say okay here's
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my weight all right and you can rent a van from enterprise rent-a-car
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all that stuff you can just rent a van take it get it weighed and then start getting an idea of maybe what you need
18:50
to buy or what you anticipate you need to buy i'll finish this thought here in just a second
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and this is what it's all yours yeah this is what you're living in this is
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the engine you need to haul your butt across the us and go travel if
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you're gonna my suggestion is like a 144 range
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a six cylinder does not have to be diesel just happens to be that mercedes this is what they do
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and 3 500 3 500 is worth it you don't want to be so
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close on this edge that 100 couple hundred pounds payload's gonna mess you up because you can actually see there's
19:33
only 500 pounds between these two but if you move up
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this is quite significant because instead of what about hold on let me finish that thought
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okay so 3 500 all right so notice how marketing wise they got you on this 36
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and you're like i'm going to mercedes for 36. actually the van you're going to live in
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how you're going to be able to haul it and to make it safe so that your van is not
20:03
over its gv rw that's a legal thing by the way so it's
20:08
not only safety but that's how our road system is paid for
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so you are taxed on the amount of weight your tires are
20:19
putting on the ground but at the same time it correlates with safety because
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if you're above this number engineering wise that van is not designed to
20:31
take turns the bearings axles the tires you're not safe and there's a lot of
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vans on the road that are above gvrw which is it's scary but
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it's because people don't know this or they tried to skimp and say that's okay i'll just get the four
20:49
cylinder and i'll do this one because i need to save money but then you load up the whole entire van
20:55
with something like this it looks good it moves but it's not safe it's dangerous
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so notice we have we went from 36 to 45 and then here's the ultimate van life adventure
21:08
van build 144 4x4 diesel
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not 2500 you probably need a 3 500 extra duty so once we click on that
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notice how we went from 36 000 to now we're at 58
21:27
480 why diesel so again like i said earlier diesel
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doesn't matter this just happens to be how mercedes sells this
21:39
uh 4x4 you can't oh the 4x4 yeah so the ford transit those are the ones that i'm
21:45
building what i like about them is you can get them in uh
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four wheel drive let's see here see ford you need to improve this that's
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it that was very difficult so i'm just not even going to use it so 4x4 now you're into now guys this is just the
22:07
price of the van with nothing in it this is just a van
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this is nothing this is no interior this is no water nothing it's just a van
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so that is why people go so long story short let's get back to
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the whole reason we talked about this that's why this right here 32 000 for a
22:31
high roof 136 2500 cargo van that's why a lot of that's why a lot of
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vans people doing professional and diyers are getting this ram promaster might not be as comfortable
22:46
it doesn't have four wheel drive it is a front wheel drive vehicle so it's not a rear wheel drive like the
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transit it's a front wheel drive technically front-wheel drive does better in snowy conditions because the
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engine weight is directly on the tire and for snow traction
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having more weight on the tires helps traction for snow that's not necessarily
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that's not the same with mud okay so let me get back out of here and jamie can ask
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the next question safety mileage safety do these factor into your
23:21
decision are are these vans pretty similar in their performance and safety
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so the whole old story of unreliable cars and stuff like that's kind of gone anything that's
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older than i said 2005 ish is going to be extremely reliable regardless of the
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mileage the car is 2005 or newer yeah really any car is going to be pretty good 100 000 miles
23:47
if you're buying a van with 100 000 miles and it's like a fedex delivery van or like ups
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or something like that because fedex uses them amazon uses them these style vans
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you gotta remember all these vans do is they just get up in the morning throw
24:04
stuff in the back they make deliveries and they come back they're regularly maintained oil changes
24:10
tires and stuff like that they might have a couple dents and dings but yeah the engine reliability is pretty high so
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i would not take mileage into account as heavy as if you were in the mindset
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of buying a used car for your family at your home it's not the same with a van because
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cargo vans they're made everything every component is just a
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little bit tougher a little bit tougher for because it's what about harder in terms of the transit the
24:40
sprinter the promaster what about safety is that
24:45
something to consider in my opinion that's just my opinion they're all equal
24:51
they have airbags they got anti-like brakes um
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yeah so here's a factor that's been you can tell a story about when
25:01
looking for a van to convert availability is a factor maybe you can shed light on
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availability of a van yeah so right now as we're making this video
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vanderbilt availability is it is rare right now
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and it's confusing because a consumer it's hard for a consumer to
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go to a dealership and order a van right now
25:30
and have actually get something on order because there's this word called allocation
25:36
and what allocation means is it's pretty much your place in line
25:42
compared to it's your place in line so obviously
25:47
dealerships are going to have the first place in line certified upfitters may have the second place in line even
25:55
professional van builders they might be third in line and then you ordering from your ford
26:00
dealership might be fourth in line or something like that so
26:05
allocation has a big allocation is the rule that everybody kind of plays by
26:12
of who gets the van coming off the assembly line who who gets to have that
26:19
and it's weird because i've caught a bunch of businesses i've gone to dealerships myself personally i've done
26:25
the whole thing bought those two vans and
26:31
there's really not a straightforward answer because for example the interior conversion kit that i'm putting in it's
26:36
the adventure wagon interior conversion kit they actually got allocation for some mercedes
26:42
vans which is that's really cool like that's super cool that they were able to get that but other van builders that i
26:48
watch on youtube and they've had they're going they're a business but they've had to go on the right the route of more like a consumer
26:55
purchases in the van so that's so odyssey owns these two vans but the way that i
27:01
had to find them was i had to it probably took me four months maybe
27:06
five months to find just those two vans last year the reason it was so hard was
27:14
all the major dealerships had zero for sale i went to a dealership out of
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outside of charlotte north carolina and i pulled up and i'm smiling and i'm like what is going on and they had
27:26
300 ford transits on their lot 300 white vans
27:31
you're just like oh i'll just i'll walk in here buy a van
27:37
every single one of those vans was already bought and paid for by fedex
27:42
every single one of those 300 vans were just they just needed a place they were just
27:47
waiting to get like the fedex stickers and have an outfit or put in the shelving for packages
27:53
it all so get back to allocation hundreds and hundreds of vans i've all
28:00
been allocated to fedex and amazon and all that stuff so
28:05
thinking you're going to go to a dealership and get a van man that's so in the so that will be
28:11
that will factor into okay what size you get budget but also budget might
28:18
not help because you might have to change what you're looking for because of availability you
28:23
might go through that example that i just showed you and you're like okay nick thanks i'm going to get the 144 i'm
28:28
going to get the the four by four i get this and then so you get your piece of paper you're like this is what i want
28:34
and then you have to completely change your mind because nope those are not available your first
28:40
option not available your plan b not available well what's my plan c it's
28:45
like so this could be a good segue yeah this so this could segue into
28:51
pre-built do you buy pre-built or do you do diy what's how do you
28:58
decide which road to go for that yeah so what i've been viewing on
29:04
viewing is so my personal van that i drive
29:10
it was it's a diy van i built it out and there's couples that are doing diy
29:17
so they're personally buying the van it's obviously not a business or anything so they're financing the van completely like
29:24
they're like they're buying a car just like they're buying a car um
29:30
what's cool is if you do the personal financing you can actually like state farm is actually known right now for
29:38
easily ensuring personal vans to be upfitted
29:44
that's another topic we can talk about maybe i'll just do a quick blurb on it but imagine you got the van and you build it
29:50
and then you didn't even think about oh yeah how am i going to insure this van because legally
29:57
when you convert your van it is no longer passenger vehicle it is a it's
30:02
it's considered an rv and if you get your van and you up fit
30:10
the interior of it and you don't claim it as an rv it may not be cut when you get in a car
30:16
accident it may not be covered because you were not up front with the insurance company to say
30:22
okay i'm buying this van for the purposes of upfitting it
30:28
and there's a process where you can say hey there's the van i'm going to turn it into this you got like an
30:35
example picture and then you can do a progress build which is showing pictures of the van
30:41
then when you're done with the van conversion a state farm for example will just flip a switch and it went from
30:49
cargo van to rv the cool thing about that is if you do
30:54
it right you've got documentation for what needs to be insured in the van and number two
31:01
you have a lower premium on rvs they're cheaper than a
31:06
than normal car insurance because the idea is that it's on the weekends you're driving it on the weekend it's
31:12
not a daily driver but all those topics you can discuss with your insurance agent see i'm not a professional here
31:18
i'm just someone who has highly researched all this so that when my customers want to buy a van say hey nick
31:24
what do i do here and here or whoever's watching this video i can give you what i've
31:31
researched so to help you out so with the diy you will have to do some work on getting it
31:37
insured from a regular car cargo to a rv maybe talk about
31:43
build price differences of diy imagine it can range from low to high and then the pre-built
31:50
is more probably has a certain ceiling or maybe it doesn't tell me
31:55
about budgets for those two so budget how people look at diy versus pre buying
32:01
a pre-built like a revel gotcha so when i was an engineer there was a sign on this this one supervisor
32:08
shop and it was a big old sign it was always funny because it was for the other departments who
32:13
wanted help from him they had to read it every time they walked into a shop and he said if you want it
32:19
if you want it good and fast it won't be cheap if you want it cheap and good it won't be fast
32:25
and if you want it fast and cheap it won't be good use that for how you're going to
32:31
approach it if you're doing a diy you can do it slow and good but it won't be fast and so that is my advice to diyers
32:39
is you're going to be paid you need to be patient a typical di wire is going to take about a year to build their van so
32:46
one year so you buy the van in a year you'll probably have it to where you would like it
32:53
where people go to the pre-built option you get a lot of benefits to a pre-built
32:59
option one depending on who you purchase it from there so i just wanted
33:04
to stop here so it takes a year probably because you have a job in a life is that why that's why you're saying it takes a
33:11
year yes and even if you had time devoted to it there's a learning there's a whole
33:16
learning curve that's happening while you're building the van ah oh good sir because you can be just like
33:23
like all of us where you can buy it off at amazon it gets your door in two days but amazon's not
33:30
bad remember you can buy from the manufacturer through amazon just make sure that the
33:36
seller is like battle born batteries or something make sure it's
33:41
the seller the store seller is the company make sure you get it from the company okay sorry go back to your revel
33:47
this is the pre-built pre-built so
33:52
i got some words on the rebel i've been to a bunch of shows and stuff like that i've got to see it i haven't gotten to drive one but
33:59
i liked it yeah and uh the thing is has to do with quality so
34:07
when you get a pre-built van number one
34:12
you're having your your touch has like whatever your aesthetics are it's not going to be that it's going to
34:18
be whatever the you know company designed to be mass-produced
34:24
for scale pricing all that good stuff so you might have to hold back on
34:29
details and then do that later but so quality might be the issue where you can
34:34
get the van quickly but it might not be you might have to change a couple things to really make it your own which is okay you might want to
34:40
go that route because you're like a diy will have more personality yeah have more personality but buying the van
34:46
quickly uh this is where the economies of scale comes into play because pricing
34:54
availability even warranty work buying it from like winnebago they actually
34:59
have repair centers and i'm gonna go on a quick tangent
35:05
about that whole thing so me personally building these vans out here my philosophy is when you build
35:13
a van it is you're building a van for i'm building a van for you to take out
35:20
into the wilderness so there are no repair stores there's no
35:25
mechanics there's no garage so if you take one of my vans out like it's supposed to be
35:32
taken out into the wilderness you need to have the systems and components be up to par for that type of
35:39
environment such as lithium batteries that might have a battery heater to keep them warm so then
35:46
when you're snowed in and the solar panels are taking in that light that you can still charge your batteries
35:52
even though it's 20 degrees outside just for example so even though
36:00
vans that you may buy from a manufacturer have those warranty programs
36:05
god forbid you ever have to use that because if you're 200 300 miles out
36:10
in utah or you're up in canada you're going to like alaska or whatever the last thing you
36:17
need is some type of failure and what i've seen and these are just
36:23
youtube videos and just me researching all this stuff over the past two years there's a couple corners cut
36:28
maybe a little bit like electrical wiring pumps interior panels that are not like little grommets and stuff
36:35
breaking it's all these little things but you think if you put that much money into a vehicle i'm talking about other
36:42
not winnable specifically but that whole industry of the pre-built if you build your own van
36:48
i think you have a little more control of that if you buy your van from a professional van
36:54
builder that you're in contact with and you can grow with a project you'll really understand
37:01
how your van is built so that if a problem does arise
37:06
you have a little bit more you're a little bit more empowered to say hey nick walked me through this i know where
37:12
this goes i think we can fix this like this whereas winnebago
37:18
i'm not hating on winnebago it's just the videos i've seen still more to that direction there's a youtuber and he's
37:25
doing like a full review of it and he was actually speaking to one of the technicians in winnebago and we have
37:32
a video too when we toured a winnebago you do no we do from the oh yeah we did
37:39
from man wait there's there's a lot of adventure land there's a lot of stuff right adventure manager
37:47
adventure van we have a video check out that video i just want to be honest in what i've seen
37:52
because i think it's so important if if the company you're buying it from
37:57
again that brand that i keep talking about right now i don't want to keep using their name but if you go to pick it up and somebody
38:04
can't walk through every switch every fuse every like thing
38:10
with you there and they don't really understand it it's just like well this is kind of you know this is what it is
38:16
um that's a red flag if you're a hands-on person like me
38:21
if it breaks i'm just gonna fix it but if you're somebody who a normie like me
38:26
yeah like jamie for example he's gonna go out with his family and i'm gonna poke fun at jamie for a second so
38:32
let's just say he was the guy that drove a civic forever so now he's in a van so ford fusion before fusion okay so now
38:40
he's in uh a ford transit he's never driven a big van so that's the first thing that he's working on
38:46
he hasn't installed or replaced battery systems or water pumps that's the second thing he's
38:52
got his whole family he's out on the road and the whole reason he bought the vehicle was to have a good time with his
38:58
family but if you've and this is why like the professional van builder
39:04
builders that are across the us with these kind of small shops is you can be with the builder
39:11
and watch the progress builds like the videos like i make for example
39:17
and by the time you get your van you know how this was installed how this was installed where this product came from
39:23
you're more competent and comfortable versus the alternative might be less about how
39:30
to not fix things but what's going on it's that thing that doesn't exist anymore it's the relationship that whole
39:35
joke of the car dealership we're like oh we won't have a relationship with our customers it's not just
39:41
i don't think that's the definition they're using but what i'm saying is
39:47
with independent van builders you can you 100 can have that you can have that relationship so
39:54
the two or three months it takes to do the build you get progress updates you got three so it's kind of like you're in
39:59
between a diy pre-built being a custom van upfitter because yeah they get you
40:05
get some influence on the build as where a pre-build is already
40:10
set in stone and then not only that but there are also indep i guess we'll call them independent van builders like myself
40:17
where you can have a customer bring in a vehicle that maybe a partial build so
40:23
they're like hey nick i love this sink this is the sink i want i already went and bought my toilet i bought my water
40:29
tank but i don't know how to hook it up and then i can take it from there that's that relationship i'm talking about
40:36
because like a great example of this is uh humble road so he's he's got a
40:41
youtube channel he's a professional van builder and i see
40:48
through his videos that he has that relationship so that when things break a
40:53
van is a blank canvas you're creating something that's never been created before so there there are going to be
40:58
problems now they're not going to be huge problems they might just be like like a screw or
41:04
something that you and the client dreamed up in your head it's never existed in reality and you try it and
41:11
then maybe you have to tweak it after a road trip or something so the reason i'm harping on the whole
41:16
relationship thing is if everybody's on the same page going into it being like okay nick
41:22
i like this cool shower concept you design you're both on the same page that
41:28
it's a one-off design there might be some tweaks that have to happen after a year of it being on the road so i see that in his videos
41:34
the clients are really happy that that communication is open and then that feedback is important
41:41
because not only does it help the relationship but in the future it's like hey we made these few tweaks
41:47
because i got feedback from the four vans i got on the road that this works the best
41:53
stuff like that i gotta maybe we can i know each one of these topics are probably our hour or so
41:59
each week yeah just to wrap up the this call in
42:04
understanding how to choose you know the best van for your camper conversion where to look how do people find vans
42:11
any sites you can recommend or sites dealerships what
42:17
how do people find their van i'll tell you how i found these two vans because i think it's
42:23
the best way now okay that's in my case i need hollow shells of a van i don't want a prevail
42:30
pre-built fan obviously so we're looking for empty cargo vans yep so what i did is
42:37
i went to all the major dealerships first and nothing then the ones then i went to auto trader
42:45
car gurus and stuff like this and then you can find these because these are this is a rare these two vans
42:51
are very rare because at the moment well they're just rare in general
42:58
because of the build because number one they're 148 high roof
43:04
they're not extended high roof or 148 high roof that's the sought after van because it's not
43:10
huge in the rear end you can still park it in a parking space number two one of them
43:16
has the ecoboost turbocharged v6 so having a 148 high roof with the
43:22
turbocharged v6 that's rare what's ultra rare is having a 148 high roof
43:28
ecoboost all-wheel drive it's like you keep getting that and then
43:34
what makes the fan number one even more rare is that it's got the full technology package
43:41
and it has all real leather uh interior
43:47
you know all black how did you find how did you find where did you look for your van how did you find it
43:52
oh like i was saying auto trader car gurus these ad sites if you're looking for if you're a
43:59
customer looking for more of a pre-built van or something that's been already started
44:05
van life trailer van life trader rv trader is facebook
44:11
marketplace or craigslist or is that not recommended or i don't think those are helpful because
44:19
the problem with craigslist is sometimes the ad libs onto like forever so you're
44:25
basically looking at stuff and getting excited when there's a freshness that what no prob
44:30
maybe somebody's already bought it it's just the listing is just lived on and then van life trader
44:38
uh unless you know who's building it that's questionable because
44:43
what's nice is i bought these vans from the dealership so nobody else has owned these vans they're technically new so
44:49
those websites you listed look at the dealerships any other
44:54
if you're buying out if you're buying a van new or slightly used go to the dealership first you might spend more
45:00
money but the problem the but the benefit of that is its source you know how that van
45:06
has been come through the channels if you go on like auto trader cargurus
45:11
or craigslist or whatever or van life trader those channels it's probably a for sale
45:19
by owner i got these at i got there were two dealerships one is in ohio one was in
45:25
ohio and the other one was illinois i think and
45:31
the one in ohio was a normal-sized dealership and then the one in illinois was like a very small
45:38
dealership i think something like that and it was a little bit more of a manual process they had a handwritten
45:43
sales quote on an old-school type of paper they're really old-school sales guys it was carbon copy yellow oh it was
45:49
it was carbon now i'm not lying but i had next day air carbon copy stuff that i signed which was that's wow because
45:55
everything else everything else i've done is always you're on the internet clicking stuff yeah but these are rare in-demand vans
46:02
which is nice platform to start from but i'd say these are more of i would call it a higher end build just because of
46:07
the components that are going into it so the reason it's all-wheel drive the turbocharged v6 type of thing that
46:15
kind of goes with where my direction is whereas if you are a consumer
46:20
and you are on a budget we get back to that whole conversation of the ram promaster
46:26
or like used ford transit like a fedex band or something like that
46:33
got it i think we can wrap up today on how to choose the best fan for your
46:41
camper conversion nick i appreciate you sharing all these topics the website the
46:46
blog will be up probably maybe a week after this comes out or so but yeah these were
46:53
great great information but yeah if you're any other any other things you want to promote
46:59
mention no just um yeah check out the the van builder hq it's a resource there for you
47:06
to to learn about everything that i'm doing in the shop a bird's eye view of everything that's going on here
47:12
as far as how i'm building and installing things and really this again it's a resource so if you guys have any
47:18
questions send us those questions put them in the comments however you're seeing this video we answer all
47:23
questions we answer we'll make a video on every question and yeah but hope you guys enjoyed it and
47:30
i'll see you the next one [Music]
47:51
you
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