The Supercar Registry - Van Life = Happy Wife!

Greeting fellow Yenkonians!

About a month ago we picked up a 2023 Mercedes Sprinter van to “supersize” Kelly’s old Ford Transit Connect. I had converted the Transit to a mini-horse hauler and camper. Affectionately known as “The Pony Express”, it served her well on taking the mini horses to camps. Rooftop AC, fold down bed, storage compartments, and a two horse stall to boot. Very functional, but very cramped. So it was time for an upgrade and the Mercedes 2500 Sprinter cargo van would be just the ticket. You know how getting into another car make/model is daunting with not knowing the full scope of what you’re about to get into? Van RV conversions with Sprinters is a whole other world! I can equate it to getting into Corvettes and dealing with all the Corvette people and NCRS overthetopness. There’s a whole “Van Life” mantra out there. Although my first impression of this was Chris Farely’s SNL skit of Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker.
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So what do I know about building an RV out of a cargo van? Nothing. But then again, what do I know about building a car from nothing? Exactly!!!!
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So first thing was protection from the weather and such. That means an extension on the extension to the shop I had already built a year ago. What do I know about…wait, we’ve already been down that road. Anywho, several 2x6s, 2x10s, concrete wedge anchors, R-Panels and three days later and we have an RV port. I left the bottom open for airflow through the port to prevent lifting and such. This all engineered correctly since three days after I built this we had a gust front come through with 65mph winds and fortunately, no pieces left the scene. Now it’s onto the van!

The mighty Merc 2500 is in the word famous Amazon Doppelgrau (dark gray) so if the van conversion thing doesn’t work out, there’s income to be had! Kelly had designed the floor plan and we laid things out on the floor to make sure everything fit correctly. What was going to be a fold down bed in the back doubling as a stall for the ponies quickly turned into a permanent bed and the ponies being trailered to and fro via the “Pony Box” which is a small utility trailer I converted into a horse hauler (of course I did!). First up was off to the RV place to have them install a side window in the sliding door and windows on the back doors. The is place had seven van conversions going on with everything from off-the-grid land rovers to a mobile Botox injection studio and even a remote X-Ray service. Amazing what some will do with these vans. I started laying down 3/4” cabinet grade plywood and secured with 1.5” self tapping screws along with construction adhesive. I didn’t do this on the smaller van and noticed a lot of squeaking going down the road over bumps. This provided a rock solid end result and the 3/4” thickness is great sound deadening from road noise. Speaking of that, Dynamat along the roof and walls covered by 1/2” plywood makes this a nice quiet and well insulated ride! I took the van down the road after all the framing/paneling was installed and zero squeaks and everything was rock solid.

I ran the electrics and plumbing and pressure treated the lines before the walls went up. PEX plumbing will make a plumber out of anyone! I decided to do the electrics like I did the last one which is just run hard lines to plugs on the exterior of the van so there’s no fuses to deal with. Basically, just run extension cords to the shore power hook up. AC is on it’s own circuit and the other things are separate. I checked out the amp draw and decided to leave the AC on it’s own circuit. I will say that cutting a 16” square hole in the roof of a brand new van is a little unsettling. There’s a shower and a sink but no potty which means a gray water tank but thankfully, not black water tank. Don’t want to deal with that sh…well, you get the picture. The 40gal gray water tank slips right under the driver’s side in an empty space like it was designed for it. Actually, it was! And RV supply house provided that along with several other RV specific thingies we needed. The shower features a retractable door which squeegees the water off when you close it. It’s lined with interlocking water proof panels which make shower installation a breeze. A two gallon hot water heater under the sink provides just enough hot water to do a quick shower and wash your hands at the sink.

Other features are a swivel seat for the passenger and a removable table that swings around and is adjustable high/low. Fridge/Freezer combo along with a microwave. Three outlets strateegerly positioned throughout and two overhead ceiling lights on a dimmer switch round out the conversion. I hooked this up to my shop’s 50A with a splitter/converter and powered everything up with no issues.

So let’s see: plumber, carpenter, electrician, tilesmith (tilesmith?), laminate floor installer. Add those to the resume!! Pricing these things out almost makes me want to list the van for sale. What they go for when done like this is astounding. But nah, I don’t want to do this again and I have a car to finish and two more to do behind that one!

Cheers
Dave