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Join me as we take a tour of Stephen's DIY van build. As a Professional Hiking Guide and Cattle Herder Stephen has created a very utilitarian van build that covers all his cross country travel needs.
Visit https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more.
Interested in building a van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com
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0:00
yeah to be in Van life all van life is you own a van and you're traveling in it
0:05
if you have a van that's Bare Bones and you've got one of those little portable power packs that you charge up from a
0:12
wall charger and you've got a couple gallons of water and you've got a blow up mattress in the back you're doing van
0:17
life you may not be doing van life the way that a sprinter is doing van life but you're still doing van life that's
0:23
that is Van life so there's many different stages and areas to it and just understanding that you don't have
0:29
to have this perfect built out van to be part of this community all right guys we're at the Florida van
0:35
life Gathering and I actually have a local here this is Steven and we're going to take a tour of his van I like
0:41
it because it's very simple very utilitarian and I think it'd be a good perspective of there's all kinds of
0:47
places to start in the whole van life thing you don't have to have a ten thousand dollar victron electrical system to have fun in a van so check out
0:56
this van [Music] howdy howdy yeah Stephen walk us through
1:01
first tell us what year make and model this van is yeah so this is a 2003
1:08
Chevrolet Express van uh three quarter ton so the reason I say three quarter
1:14
ton it doesn't really make much of a difference between a half ton and a three-quarter ton the only difference is you're gonna have better brakes and a
1:21
little bit better suspension system so just as far as van life goes that
1:26
makes it you know better peace of mind on the road so if you can get the three quarter ton I'd push for that but again
1:32
a half ton it's not going to be any different it's gonna be the same size as this van or the same engine same
1:37
transmission everything like that let's talk about the kitchen Galley yeah so this is the kitchen up here I just
1:43
wanted somewhere that I can throw all of my bottles and Seasonings and honey and like soap or anything like that so I can
1:50
just grab it while I'm at my sink and not have to really mess with or I'll cook right here so I don't want to be digging through stuff to get my
1:56
seasonings so I built that up there to be able to grab stuff easy in here I just have a little mini food storage
2:02
area so I'm able to fit all of my dry goods in there and also obviously a couple bowls on the bottom once you move
2:08
over yeah I like the latches just super like screen door latches super simple and
2:14
I've had some people ask about whether like doors will come open and 90 of the
2:19
time know if you latch it and you leave it latched like that it'll come open yeah but as long as when you latch it
2:26
you throw that lash down it stays shut while I'm going down the road and I go down I don't stay on pavement I go into
2:33
the back country as much as I can this van bounces around and the latches are great I will say I
2:41
originally I had smaller hinges on these doors not even smaller hinges smaller screws
2:46
whenever you're installing these you are going to want to put some deeper screws in because when you're going down those
2:51
back roads all that wobbling is gonna pull those hinges out if you have those short screws in and that's a
2:58
cheap very easy fix to where you're not having to spend a ridiculous amount of money for super expensive hinges it's
3:04
just a little bit longer screws and I haven't had any problems since then and then with the sink instead of having a
3:10
giant gray water tank below I just have this five gallon bucket that the sink just drains directly into and I have to
3:18
dump that maybe it really depends on how much I'm cooking in here but I'd say maybe once a
3:24
week once every two weeks and it's really straightforward to dump you just pull this up and then pull it out and
3:29
you actually have a water filter yeah I installed a water filter because I'm very conscious about what I put into my
3:36
body as far as what I eat and what I drink so I that was one of my requirements in here was I didn't want
3:41
to put an actual water pump that's why I have the foot pump that's because I was worried about power because I live with
3:48
my dog as well she's not with me here she's actually with my parents but I live with my dog so I wanted to make sure that I could keep the fan running
3:53
24 7 for her so anywhere where I didn't feel like I needed
3:59
the power to be drawn I would use something that didn't draw Powers that's why I use the foot pump I love the foot
4:05
pump I will say I've discovered that a water pump doesn't really draw any power
4:10
so if you're concerned with power if you have a little bit extra I would add the water pump in there the foot pump isn't
4:16
bad it gives me good water pressure I have had it fail once so there's a
4:22
bearing down here or a gear that essentially just became smooth from using it for so long and that was a
4:30
pretty easy fix so I I would recommend the foot pump if you're okay with having
4:35
to manually get your water going but like I said if you have the available power I definitely think an electric
4:42
pump is fine you don't really have to worry about it killing your battery because again that that power is only going to be getting drawn when you have
4:48
that sink turned on and it's going to be for a couple seconds and you get a Schrader valve here for winterization
4:53
yeah so this is I bounce although this date city is my hometown this is where I grew up I've lived here my entire life
5:00
went to high school in Dade City I cannot do the heat I am a cold winter
5:05
person so in the summer time I leave Florida and I go out to California and I manage a pack station out there up in
5:11
the Sierras so I get to live up at 10 000 feet in the summer and not have to deal with the heat and then once that
5:17
job's over I'd come back to floor as soon as the hot air leaves and then once the hot air sets in I head out again see
5:24
I have this winterization set up just because so the pipes that I used are called PEX pipes which they're actually
5:30
winter proof they the this type of pipe you don't have to worry about bursting
5:36
or anything like that they can freeze and they'll be fine this however my foot pump is entirely
5:42
plastic so I can't have water freezing in here so I have
5:49
yeah so I've got one valve back here behind it where I can shut off the water
5:54
going through the foot pump so I blow all of the water back into the tank so
6:00
I've got a 20 gallon water tank below my bed so this will blow all the water into the tank and then I have another valve
6:06
down by the tank where I can shut it so it doesn't allow any water to be drawn to the pump and then I can also blow all
6:13
the water up out of the filter and into the sink so there's no water above the
6:18
pump either so that way if it ever freezes there's no water in here and this cannot freeze and it cannot break
6:24
and I have been in this van in single digit temperatures and it's been perfectly fine and I've had to I had to
6:30
blow it out but it worked great nothing in the pump broke like I said I had to replace the pump once but that wasn't
6:36
because of cold air that was because of of just extended use and it wearing out
6:43
which I mean with how much I used it to be honest I'm surprised it lasts as long as it did so like I said I recommend
6:49
these if you're okay with using the manual pump yeah this one specifically is the well w-h-a-l-e yeah yeah the whale gusher
6:58
that's the one I had got before I just got a replacement of it because like I said I didn't have any problems with it
7:03
the water pressure I get out of my sink is it's but it's not I'm not going to sit
7:09
here and say it's the same pressure you're gonna get from an electric pump but it's very similar and you're not
7:16
having to add an electric part in and deal with all the wiring and that sort of stuff what I found is
7:22
the electric is kind of wasteful yeah you're getting exactly if you need to wash your hands yeah you can get your
7:27
hands wet soapy yeah and then rinse them off at a certain rate yeah I like it too because it's almost being in a van also
7:34
we're in an enclosed area that there's not a lot of true airflow like with the
7:39
homes air conditioner part of the job of that air conditioner is it is a dehumidifier in a van we don't have that
7:46
and especially in Florida you have to be extremely conscious about keeping this
7:52
area as dry as possible because if you let water start getting in this van yeah
7:57
it that's why I keep the fan going 24 7 if I can because it I just need that airflow coming through here to pull any
8:04
moisture out because if not again especially in Florida you're immediately going to have stuff like mold and that
8:09
sort of stuff growing in your van and part of that with the foot pump you can control the water pressure much better
8:15
to where it's not splashing all over the place and that sort of stuff whereas if you have an electric and you pull it on
8:21
full blast then you put a bowl or something like that underneath it and all of a sudden the water goes flying everywhere and you have your whole
8:27
countertop soaked then all of a sudden you're in a problem whereas with this it's it's a little bit harder to make a
8:34
giant mess while you're doing your dishes or that sort of thing so just give me that peace of mind that nothing
8:39
that shouldn't be growing in here isn't growing yeah and you said you're mentioning the fridge yeah yeah so the
8:46
fridge the way I set the fridge up and this was to be honest with you complete accident originally I was planning on
8:52
putting the fridge over here but when I built my bed frame and then as I was
8:58
looking at my bed frame I was like you know what it looks like my fridge would fit perfectly underneath my bed and
9:04
originally this was going to be an area for my dog The Hangout area for her but she doesn't really like enclosed areas
9:11
too well and this fridge just fit so perfectly in here so I built this roller
9:16
for it on the bottom I put oh what are they called they're like if you were to
9:21
if you were a mover and you were using like the rollers that movers use I essentially just took the wheels off of one of those dollies and put them on the
9:28
bottom of this so it rolls out past the bed I built this cabinet out as
9:34
a stopper so it can't come flying forward and then on the left side you have a freezer on the right side you
9:40
have a freezer on the left side you have a fridge this is the icico brand it's a step below what's the medic yeah
9:48
Dometic it's a step below Dometic I haven't had any real problems with this I did have to replace the fan in it
9:56
because one of the the fan blades broke off but that was a fairly easy fix it took a little bit of
10:03
figuring out but he sent me the part for free it got me within a couple days and
10:09
I've also I've had this fridge the entire time I've lived in the van and like I said it's worked pretty great it
10:14
I've only got 300 watts of solar on the roof and 200 amp hours of gel battery Banks so actually 100 amp hours of
10:21
usable power and unless I have a half to full day of of cloud coverage this thing
10:29
never drains my batteries and stays running all the time like I said I leave my fan going all day long all night 24 7
10:36
and the batteries don't run out I love this fridge even if I wasn't in a van if
10:41
I was in like a house or a yurt or whatever I would probably have something like this in my house even if I had a
10:48
normal fridge just to have is like in the living room or something like that as a just a nice thing to keep cold
10:54
drinks in or whatever and this thing is incredible a really icico fridge and it just it fit perfectly underneath the bed
11:00
this over here was meant to be a seat when I first installed it but because of the curvature of a van which I think
11:06
this is something to point out you can it's a great idea to have a seat
11:12
over here but if your van doesn't have straight walls you're never going to want to sit here because your back is
11:19
going to the curvature of this wall so I've just made this into a storage area at this point I'm eventually going
11:26
to build another cabinet right here to just have more storage in because I like I said I don't use it as a seat and
11:32
that's what I built it as but just keep that in mind if you're building out a van that to look at the curvature of
11:37
your walls and how they're gonna line up with your seats and that sort of stuff because you don't
11:42
want to be sitting on a wall where your neck is is getting pushed way far forward my bed also just happened to
11:49
work out perfectly to where I'm about five seven five eight and I fit
11:54
perfectly across toes touching one side head touching the other side if you're
11:59
in a van and you're trying to be on a more base budget but you're worried about it getting hot especially at night
12:06
like I'm a hot sleeper so I need it to be cold one of the things and again this was also somewhat of an accident but I
12:13
installed this window right here which obviously this is where I sleep at night and if I have the fan running to where
12:19
it pulls air out of the van it essentially creates a wind tunnel through this window and then up to the
12:25
fan and it makes it to where even if over here it's 75 80 degrees in the van
12:31
right here by this window it'll be 65 70 degrees significantly cooler and it
12:37
makes sleeping so much easier in the van installing that right there plus also
12:43
sleeping with my dog and that sort of stuff it makes me feel slightly safer because she's right by the window as
12:48
well so if she hears something at night she's right there it's not like there's
12:54
a window away in the front of the van that she's having to go look out or something like that like she can see
12:59
what's going on outside right there so it makes me feel much safer as well once
13:04
you move over this is just a smaller cabinet I keep all of my bathroom goods and that sort
13:09
of stuff in there soap that sort of thing in here the top part of this is all of my clothes and then in the base
13:17
part down there I've installed a diesel heater I haven't had to use it yet so that's why it's
13:23
still uncovered up top I know some people are probably going to be like there's a diesel heater right below all of your clothes I know I need to install
13:30
a or not install but I need to build a cover over the top of it to create its own little but that was just the best
13:36
spot for the diesel heater to go as far as air flow for where it's at and then also for airflow for where it's pushing
13:42
the air actually light I have had to use it once this was it's not the wabasto it's the just the basic Chinese version
13:49
from Amazon I believe her name is Linea and akayla she has a YouTube channel she'd turn her dog she has a video on
13:56
there of her installing this one she has the link to what the diesel heater is it's an Incredible video on how to
14:02
install it how to troubleshoot it if you have any problems I essentially followed her video on how to do it and I also had
14:07
a buddy that helped me out with this heater though the one thing to be careful with and keep in mind
14:13
you will not be running this heater like all day long you'll run it for maybe 10 minutes 15 minutes and then you're going
14:20
to want to turn it off because it works it gets this van hot and it gets it hot fast
14:26
so just keep that in mind if you maybe want something that you're not looking to really warm up the van or you're
14:33
really just looking or you're not looking for something to keep the van warm you're looking for something to just cut the cold off in the morning this is a good thing but if you're
14:39
looking for something to keep the van warm throughout the entire day like if you're in Canada or something like that
14:44
in the winter time where it's just you need it running 24 7. this might not be the best option for a van because it's
14:51
probably going to get your van a little too hot so just keep that in mind and I'm sure you can play with the settings but that's what I've discovered with
14:58
this one is it because of the small area and how fast it works it does change the
15:05
temperature in here fairly fast yeah yeah same thing with mine it's at
15:11
the lowest setting I still have to put the vent fan on even if it's like freezing 32 degrees Yeah it's fast and I
15:16
again like I said I've been in zero degree temperatures in this van and I actually didn't have the heater when I
15:21
was in zero degree temperatures I installed it about two or three months ago and then I went up to Tennessee and
15:27
did a fencing job up there and one of the days while we were up there it dropped down to about 20 30 degrees so
15:33
we turned it on then for again for maybe five ten minutes and on 20 to 30 degree weather after five or ten minutes we
15:39
were like hey we should turn that off we're sweating in here yeah I know it's not a it's not a bad thing necessarily per se because that's it's doing the job
15:46
that I want to do like the jobs that I do in the life that I live unless I'm on the road going between here in
15:53
California I really don't spend a whole lot of time actually in the van I'm most the time out doing other things so I
16:00
don't need this heater to keep the van warm throughout the whole day I need the heater so that way when I first wake up
16:06
in the morning and I don't want to get out to 30 degree weather I can roll over click the heater on stay underneath the
16:13
covers let it warm the van up and then once the van's warm then get out and be able to put my actual daily clothes on
16:19
and not freeze to death while doing it so for my purpose of the heater it's actually a really good thing that it
16:26
works as fast as it does because I like I said I can wake up in the morning roll over click it on and within a couple
16:32
minutes I can be ready to get up and get ready in a comfortable van whereas if I
16:37
was say working from my van and working out in a national forest or something
16:44
like that doing remote work it might not be the best idea because you're going to have to cycle it on and
16:50
off a lot throughout the day you're not just going to be able to leave it on while you're in here working it's it's almost certainly going to get too hot
16:57
for you to where you're not going to want to be in the van so maybe looking into something that doesn't have quite as much power as this diesel heater I
17:04
know it's hard with heaters in the van because it's either like the propane heaters or you jump up to a diesel heater and a
17:11
propane heater there's many problems with as well so I think that's one of the things in Van life where it's a
17:16
pretty fine area of just finding which is the correct choice for you and knowing even the correct Choice there
17:23
might be a couple things that don't line up perfectly with you but
17:28
it's just a necessity having heat if you're going to be in an area where it's going to be freezing you need to have it especially being in a van and if you
17:35
have the money and like it's an option for you I think it's a great here like I said just be prepared for it to work
17:42
really well not just like good really well and then just just additional
17:47
storage yeah it's essentially additional storage for now because I still haven't built this cabinet over here this is
17:53
going to be my close main close cabinet for like my shorts and that sort of stuff for now I'm just keeping my shorts
17:59
and I don't even know what they're called like storage tupperware box so I keep that down here I'm very big into
18:05
fitness I go to the gym I train I go rock climbing a lot so this is where I keep all of my
18:10
supplements proteins all that sort of stuff and then like I said my dog lives with me so this is where I keep all of
18:16
her toys all of her pills anything like that her winter vest and then this is actually also where the tank for the
18:23
diesel heater at this is where I keep the diesel at you can mount it either inside or outside there's been some
18:30
people that when I've told them it's inside they get terrified I've never noticed a diesel smell in here even when
18:37
we were installing it it's never put out a smell though I do need to edit it a little bit because as of right now to
18:43
fill it up I have to pull the tank out and fill it up and then put it back in so I need to make it to where I can fill
18:48
it up from the side right here but I just wanted it inside because on the underneath of these Chevy vans there's
18:54
not really a lot of good spots to mount stuff and if you start putting a lot of
19:00
the fuel line on the outside of your van you can start running into a lot of problems of the fuel gelling up in cold
19:07
weather because diesel fuel will it won't freeze but it'll essentially
19:12
become like a gel like a hair gel think of it like that so if that happens it then can't really move through the line
19:18
and then you won't be able to use your diesel heater so obviously in cold weather you you need to be able to use
19:24
your diesel heater so it's ideal to keep as much of the line up in the van although it sounds scary and again this
19:31
is diesel this isn't gas if it's gas to me it's much more terrifying to have it in the van because gas if you light it
19:38
is going to explode if you try and light diesel it won't explode it just burns so it's a much safer liquid although it's
19:45
I'm not saying it's safe it's just safer than gas to have in your vehicle so if you're installing one of these in your
19:52
van and you have the choice between a gas and a diesel heater I would all the time go with a diesel heater because
19:57
it's just using that diesel to me is going to give you a better Peace of Mind especially if you're
20:04
installing the tank in your van and again if you do it correctly I've never had a smell never had a leak nothing
20:10
like that I've again been in I guess not in zero degree temperature when I had this heater but even a 20 degree
20:16
temperature nothing gelled there's maybe about a foot section of line that's on
20:21
the outside of the van because the heater essentially the way the heater is set up there just had to be a little
20:26
section that goes on the outside and then up underneath the heater but other than that all of the line is within the
20:31
van so that way it's it would have to be cold inside the van for a really long
20:36
time for that diesel to start gelling up so it just makes it to where you can have also peace of mind that your heater
20:42
is gonna work when you need it to work nice so what's the power in the back yeah
20:49
so I'm gonna swing around the van and show you and I'm gonna meet Steven at the back because I want to show you the front of this van
20:57
[Music]
21:02
the 300 watts of solar all ready check it out guys [Music]
21:11
just a fun adventure machine with the two Windows over here and I think you got
21:17
the Vanda windows from Van Windows Direct yeah yeah so I got all my windows from then wanted to direct another company that I cannot
21:25
give enough recommendations for they are there are some van companies that you know aren't the best to work with Van
21:31
Windows Direct obviously never been paid but I'm not a YouTuber anything like that
21:36
they had some of the best customer service I've ever seen as far as the van Community goes the second I'd call they
21:43
would try and get me in contact with some of the knew what I was talking about when I had problems with my windows they were there to troubleshoot
21:48
one of my wind I don't remember if it didn't come with a screen or if the screen broke but they didn't question
21:54
anything they immediately sent another screen again any any problems I had they would immediately help to troubleshoot I
22:00
really liked working with band Windows Direct yeah so in the very back you've got that Renegy it's a combo system so
22:07
it has both the mppt and the DC to DC yep yep yeah so just starting from the
22:14
back I've got 200 amp hour gel I went with the gel just because they're a
22:19
little bit more expensive but they're better for the environment and feel like if we're doing van Life part of why we're doing this is because we're trying
22:25
to to help the environment out so I figured it was worth spending the couple extra bucks on getting the gel batteries as
22:32
soon as you go up I just have this as a box to keep all of my fuses and whatnot separate so none of them are touching
22:37
it's just a rig boxing kit this is kind of what he's talking about the beginning of the video you don't need to have the perfect victron or renergie anything
22:45
like that solar system this was the part that is the most confusing to me but once you learn the
22:50
language of solar and especially if you have someone that understands electricity there to guide you through it and help you out it's a pretty simple
22:57
thing to figure out once you know the language as long it's once you know the language
23:04
and um knowing how to safely put the fuses in the correct places understanding how to
23:10
know which size fuse you need to use because you can use two larger fuse and you can use too small of a fuse so
23:17
just understanding all that once you put it all together it just starts becoming Plug and Play Almost of just plugging
23:23
stuff together the correct way and then they all start working together so as you move forward got the 2000 watt
23:29
renergy inverter that thing's worked incredible I really honestly don't have to use it a significant amount because
23:36
most of my stuff is hooked up directly to the batteries just because if you can
23:42
anytime you have to send energy through the inverter you're losing a little bit of power because anytime you have to
23:48
transfer energy from AC to DC or DC to AC that transfer causes a little bit of
23:54
power lossage and again living with my dog in here I wanted as little power loss as little transformation of energy
24:01
as possible so anything that I could wire directly to these batteries where they didn't have to go through the
24:06
inverter I did so the fan is wired directly to the batteries the fridge is
24:11
directly to the batteries and by directly I mean they're not wired directly into them there's a series of
24:16
fuses in between and that sort of stuff there's a power block in between that again has fuses on either side of it so
24:23
there's multiple checks and breaks between the fridge in here but the power to the fridge is coming directly from
24:29
the battery so there's no transfers of DC to AC or AC to DC so it just makes it run a lot more efficient yeah and you
24:36
actually got a wash down too yeah so this is like I said I live half the year in Florida essentially in
24:42
half the year in California while I'm in Florida and while I'm in California I
24:48
have Endless Options to shower and that sort of stuff because I have friends and family both here in Florida and California in between it's a little bit
24:56
different so this is what I use to shower uh on the road if I'm ever out in
25:01
the middle of the country and I have a Planet Fitness membership so I'll use that but if I'm ever out in the middle of nowhere and I don't feel like driving
25:08
an hour to Planet Fitness this is a five gallon tank I believe this is a heart
25:13
tools tank so you can buy it at Walmart I think it's 60 or 70 bucks it's pretty cheap it's
25:20
oh come on it's like I said about a five gallon tank oh you just put a 20 volt battery
25:27
into it right here so it's just like a drill battery essentially and a little bit larger but essentially a drill battery put it in there this hose hooks
25:34
up to that right there and whenever I use it I'd say I fill it up about halfway with normal water and then the
25:42
other half I'll try and boil slash heat up and put in here and then you have hot water and then on my doors I have two
25:48
hooks that I have set up here and then a shower curtain so you can put the shower curtain between the doors
25:54
there's a shower pad right here you can throw down here and then you have hot water so it's effectively an off-road
26:01
shower that you get and like I said if you boil about half the water you end up with water that's pretty much as hot as
26:07
you're gonna get in a normal shower and for 60 70 bucks and it just lives back
26:12
here 99 of the time I've really actually only had to use this thing
26:17
three three times I believe because you know the majority of the time like I said I'm either in Florida or California
26:22
where I have a lot of friends and that sort of stuff that will let me come to their house and then also in between there's Planet Fitness is fairly common
26:28
but for those times that I've been in a beautiful camping spot or something like that and not wanted to leave it this has
26:36
been my option and I actually found this from another van lifer um they they had kind of showed me this and and told me
26:42
about it and I was like man that is such an incredible idea and again it's cheap relatively cheap for what it is from
26:49
Walmart haven't had any problems no leakages with it or anything like that this is a just kind of like a toolbox
26:55
it's a lock box but I use it as a toolbox because part of what I do on the road is handyman services so if I ever
27:02
stop somewhere and someone needs whatever their deck worked on or staircase worked on or something like
27:08
that I've got all the tools most of the tools that I need I'm not gonna lie
27:13
there's some tools that I wish I could bring with me on the road but what the basic of what I need is all in
27:20
here and it's a positive because it's a locked box so if I ever have just
27:27
important stuff on the road that I don't feel safe just leaving open in the van I can come back here put it in here lock
27:34
it and leave the van and then if someone really wanted to sure they could break open and pull this whole thing out and
27:40
take it with them but I really don't feel like anyone's ever going to go to those sort of lengths and if they do
27:47
then I guess they really needed to go to those lengths man this awesome build thank you for walking us through it yeah
27:53
Stephen do you got are you putting this on Instagram do you ever do yeah yeah so I mean I have an Instagram and I have
27:59
photos of the van on there I'm just to be honest with you I've had a lot of people like tell me I should start
28:04
YouTube and that sort of stuff because I mean like I I like I said I run cattle here it's here when I'm out on the west
28:09
coast I I'm a essentially a hiking guide I work for pack station where we take
28:15
people on hiking and mule and horseback trips up into the Sierras in between I'm stopping at really cool places but it's
28:22
just part of it is I'm a pretty like I'm doing this because I like being out by
28:28
myself and that sort of stuff so I'm not really the type of person that's constantly trying to put my life out there and that sort of stuff and also
28:34
just with running the cattle herds and the pack station and the helping nobody else lawn care honestly a lot of my time
28:41
just gets sucked up into those things to where like I I tried making a couple reels
28:47
here and there for Instagram to try and like get myself going and just one 15 second reel took me like four hours to
28:54
make and I was like I just don't have this kind of time yeah I'm gonna be like you can see on the van I've still got
29:00
don't worry we're gonna we got a video here as you guys can see you can come back check out this video check out what
29:06
Steven's doing yeah we'll connect so I'll put a link in the description below if we do have a link that comes through
29:11
in the future yeah but is Steven dot one two PL Steven with a pH so
29:17
s-t-e-p-h-e-n dot one two PL if you want to come on Instagram like I said I'm local around here Dade City Florida for
29:25
the winter months and then the summer months I'm in California if you have any questions on on Van life if you're
29:31
curious as the cost of the different parts of this build like you said this is when I got into van life I pretty
29:37
much just graduated college so I didn't have a lot of money but I also didn't want to just buy a van and essentially
29:43
throw a blow-up mattress in it I wanted a van that I could feel comfortable in so I really
29:48
tried to make this van as nice as I could while also not going overboard on
29:54
so there's a lot of areas in here where I cut corners but they're Corners that you're able to
30:00
cut if you're okay with cutting them if that makes sense yeah I always like to say there's no rules you know you can
30:05
you can build whatever you have and that was that was one of the things for my first van life event that I I really took away from it was that I really took
30:12
away from it was you don't need one of the professionally built out
30:20
Mercedes Sprinter vans to be in Van life yeah to be in Van life all van life is
30:25
you own a van and you're traveling in it if you have a van that's Bare Bones and
30:31
you've got one of those little portable power packs that you charge up from a wall charger and you've got a couple
30:37
gallons of water and you've got a blow it matches in the back you're doing van life you may not be doing van life the
30:43
way that a sprinter is doing van life but you're still doing van life that's that is Van life so there's many different stages and areas to it and
30:51
just understanding that you don't have to have this perfect built out van to be part of this community it's a community
30:57
that accepts really anyone that just wants to be in it that's true so Stephen yeah thanks so much for the tour of
31:03
course awesome sure I'll see you back over there we'll do it we'll see you guys later yeah take it easy
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