There are many options when it comes to living in a home on wheels, all of which have their own Pros and Cons.
We considered all options, but to be completely honest, the reason we chose a converted van over an RV was simple… Customization! Finding the best van layout for you can be tricky but we suggest starting out with the things that are most important to you. This can be broken down into two main categories: NEEDs and WANTs.
First, we have a family of three (plus a dog) and it’s important that we can get everything we NEED into this home on wheels, and that is a lot easier said than done. Of course, some of those big and expensive RVs have everything you could ever dream of, but we also have a budget to keep in mind.
Second is what we WANT which is for our new digs to feel like "home". In a pre-built RV, that is much harder than a van conversion. Everything about an RV from the dealer is so standard. They all look the same on the inside, which is similar to an airplane. Lots of gray cabinets, white countertops, gray faux wood floors, etc. Just not our vibe. We want our space to look like home, and feel like home - We believe that a van can do that best for us.
By choosing to have a cargo van converted into an RV, we are able to design the layout however we want!
Will your van have a bathroom? Where will you sleep? When will you shower? How will you charge your laptop and will you have Wi-Fi? Do you have a way to cook food? What happens when it’s freezing outside? Well, how about when it’s 100 degrees? And the list goes on, and on, and on… These are the questions we get from family and friends each time we tell someone new about our advanture. And I can’t blame them. Unless you are absolutely emersed in the world of vanlife on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok then you really don’t know what to expect when we say “we’re going to live in a van!”.
Now, these are absolutely fair questions. There are still several we don’t have the answers to, and some that we won’t get figured out until we take that plunge, but that is part of the excitement! At this point, we have done countless hours of research, determining what we need, what we want and what we are willing to sacrifice.
We created the layout completely on our own and we found a company that is converting it to the van of our dreams. I will break down the decisions we made and why that was best for our family.
An important part is determined by the van we chose.
You can find our input on which van to choose from in another one of our blogs, with Pros/Cons for each, but what is important for this post is that we went with a 2020 Dodge Ram ProMaster, with the extended 159' wheelbase. This means that we have just around 80 square feet of “living space”. That includes around 13’ from the back of the cab to the rear doors and a little more that 6 feet in width.
We decided on the bed being in the rear of the van, with it being as close to the doors as possible. We have seen so many videos and photos of a van backed up to the most beautiful backdrop, doors swung open and the couple cuddling on the bed as they watch the sun set over the horizon. That is what we want, what we NEED!
There are two options for that incredible view. You can have your bed long ways (going with the van), or side ways (perpindicular with the van). When we're trying to utilize every possible inch AND leave as much room for everything else, we need to consider how to conserve space with every feature. The ProMaster allows us to set the bed sideways because of its 75" interior width, and that means our full size bed will only take up 4 and a half feet of the 13’ we get to design around.
Our 8-year old son played a large role in the layout of our van. We needed to be very specific about everything we determined was important. Something that was non-negotiable was a third seat for when we are driving to and from our destinations. The cab of the van will only hold two seats, so we needed to determine the best, and safest, way for him to get buckled in. Ultimately, we decided on it being directly behind the drivers seat and the company we decided to have custom build our van (Elevation Roads out of Cincinnati, Ohio) suggested we go with a bucket seat removed from an escalade, which will provide comfort and safety. This seat will take up around 9 square foot of space just behind the cab.
Next we needed a place to work on our laptops and eat dinner, as well as have a bed for our son. With a little help from Pinterest, we found a way to get both in one!
In the interest of saving space, we decided on a dinete that is only designed to seat two people. We have several other seating arrangements so this was where a sacrifice was made.
The dinette will be directly next to, and parallel with, the bed. Both seats facing one another, one on each side of the van - another example of how small the space truly is. The table will retract from the bed, so it can easily be securely/stored when we don’t need it.
The great thing about this dinette is that it will serve dual purpose, like most things. At night, we will convert it into another bed for our son to have his own space to sleep. A support board will connect the seats and cushions will fall into place to provide a comfortable place to rest. Perfect size for an 8 year old boy.
There is just enough room between the dinette and additional seat to squeeze in a small cabinet on the driver’s side of the van. This cabinet will be around 32 inches long and 25 inches wide. This will be a great counter space that we can use for storage or give us another working station. The best part of this feature is that to the naked eye it will look as though it’s just a typical kitchen cabinet.
But what you don’t expect is that when you lift up the counter top, you expose a composting toilet that will provide us a bathroom. Plus, when you pull up the curtain, it will transform into the wet bath that we will need when we don’t have a campsite with bathrooms included. The wet bath will be small, and it will require you to sit on, or stand over, the toilet when you shower, but it will exist.
Not the most conventional plan in the world, but remember, we need to make some sacrifices and not having a shower or toilet wasn’t one of them. Going with this design over a permanent one with fixed walls provides us a more open living space when the shower or bathroom is not needed.
On the passenger side of the van, along with the sliding door, there is some room for our kitchen. There will be 4 feet of kitchen cabinets, with a butcher block counter top. There will be a small sink with running water and a 2-burner induction stove top mounted in it. In the bottom we have storage on one half and a mini fridge taking up the rest. This will be imperative to our healthy living style we plan on committing to despite the challenges that we will face.
We did go with the high roof model for our cargo van, and that means the ceiling will be around 6.5 feet tall. We should be able to stand up without feeling cramped – I am 5’9’ and Stacey is a few inches shorter than me. It will also provide us space for 3 sets of upper cabinets.
1) Above the kitchen cabinets. 2) Above the third seat. 3) Over one side of the bed (where our feet will go).
This extra height also means that we can have our bed lifted up pretty high, which might require us using our dinette seats as a step up before bed time. The benefit of the high bed is that we can have a large “garage”.
For those new to this lingo, that is the space underneath the bed that is accessible when you are outside the van and open the rear doors. This space will be valuable to hold our water storage, our hot water tanks (so we have hot running water for the shower and sink), our electrical system and all the items we want to bring on our journey that doesn’t fit up front (tent/lawn chairs/tools/toys/etc.)
On top of our van, we will have 3 solar panels mounted to the roof. These units will be crucial to keep everything we have powered up and running, including air conditioning, lights, fridge, stove top, water pump for running water and the list goes on. The solar panels will share this space with our roof mounted air conditioner and Maxx Air fan.
We had to design a layout to sleep and drive with 3 people comfortably, a place to shower and go potty, somewhere to work and a place to cook! We are really happy with the layout and now we are relying on Elevation Roads to make our visions a reality.
They are in the process of converting this for us over the summer, and we will have to patiently wait our turn to join vanlife. We have really high hopes for the finished product and we’ll give you a better look at it once we have it in our possesion! We can’t wait to hit the road in our new tiny home on wheels and we look forward to seeing what it’s like to fit our whole lives into it.
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