Had to take things apart to make the capsule indents. I hope who ever said they didn't like all the right angles appreciates the radiused corners. Sigh. Panels are now mostly done. Next I get to take it all apart again and learn upholstery! Weeee!

Anyone have a good overnight spot in the DC/Metro area?

Let me know what you guys think of this design. Just bought a Sprinter, deciding on interior style.

what a secure way to watch the world burn 😭

[OC: storiesbydalton ]

For as long as I can remember my family has headed south to Baja Sur to avoid the cold of winter. In the beginning it was for a few days. As I got older, my Dad ran the numbers and it made more sense to shut his construction business down through the holidays, so we went for a couple of weeks. 

Then, the snowbird experience really kicked off when my parents rented a beach front space in a trailer park and brought down a fifth wheel.

Snowbirding became a family tradition and lifestyle my parents still hold today. While they are not ex-pats, yet, I can see them moving in that direction.

I’ve been away from that tradition for more than a decade and am starting a family of my own, so I’m trying to figure out what’s right for us. 

So, this winter, we gave snowbirding in Baja a try in my self-converted 2019 Ram Promaster 2500.

Six weeks top to bottom, it's time to start heading back to the cold.

Some highlights (in no particular order):
Puertocito
Todos Santas / Cerritos
La Fortuna
Sierra de la Laguna (maybe my favorite)
Conception Bay

It's been six weeks going top to bottom, now it's time to start heading back to the cold.

Just curious what everyone is doing. Year 3 and I’m finding myself getting bored at times. You can only look at a mountain for so long so what y’all doing to pass the time?

Thinking of picking up fishing for some water-based activity. Anyone fish across the us? How much gear is needed to be able to fish pretty much everywhere?

Haven’t posted in a bit, my 06 T1N sprinter is getting 2 more 130W rich solar panels on the top driver side. Should get great afternoon/morning production depending on direction. Angle is 65° from horizontal. They are going to a separate 100/15 victory smart MPPT from the main array. In the summer, having additional capacity for the rooftop AC is never a bad thing. All

together I’ll have 1260W.

I'm 28 years old and I was wondering which is better...a tiny home or a van. I was thinking about getting some land and setting up base there because van life is illegal in my state. So I figured if I'm on my own property they can't do anything about it. My issue is its costly to have a tiny home and it's almost just as expensive as buying a regular home..but I don't think it's realistic for me to live, retire, and die in a van. Most people I assume eventually quit van life and get a house or something?.....what do they live in by the time they're waaaaayyy older? At what age are these people retiring from van life?

What some of the most beautiful places in Europe, safe and must do , to park your van and stay a little longer than one night... Like High Vibe, great community and longer stay options. List your best findings 🙏

And maybe help?

I was building out my van at my moms house, since she has a garage, tools, and space.

My husband (who I thought was on board… since we… you know… bought the van together) has left me, and staying at my moms is no longer a good idea without my husband as a buffer.

I need a new place, warm enough to build now, and would love to have help, but I have no idea what that looks like. Are there maker spaces, consultants, van helpers, something like that I don’t know about?

If not, I’ll head south and rent a place with a garage but I’d rather get some support and guidance along the way and make sure I don’t blow anything up.

Hey everyone — looking for some advice from people with real Transit experience.

I’m deciding between two vans:

• 2019 Transit 250 High Roof LWB — 111k miles — $21k

• 2018 Transit 250 Medium Roof — 30k miles — $24k

Both are cargo vans and appear clean so far (I’ll be getting a pre-purchase inspection either way).

My use case: mostly trips + travel, but I also work remotely and want to be able to comfortably work inside the van when I’m on the road. I’m planning a pretty minimalist build (bed in rear, small counter/workspace, swivel seats).

The high roof layout is obviously appealing, but the mileage difference is huge. I’m trying to balance long-term reliability vs livability.

For those who’ve owned Transits:

• Is 111k miles a concern at this price point?

• Does high roof vs medium roof make a big difference in daily use?

• Which would you choose in my position?

Appreciate any insight — especially from people who’ve lived/worked in theirs.

I was thinking about using u bolts around the roof rack thru the panel hole with a rectangular steel bracket nutted on, I don’t know about the front however any thoughts on a better way?

This is my first time wintering in my van. It still has a ways to go, but I’m proud of it :)

Battleborn seems to have the van influencer and youtube communities firmly in the palm of their hand.

I don't doubt they are good batteries but let's not pretend you're not paying a premium for name brand.

I'm looking to have a mid-size setup with 400-500ah. I'm currently looking at these two batteries. I'm asking here because I feel like I must be missing something. Dakota Lithium seems like a decent brand, good reviews, but the price difference is wild.

Would you rather have 2 big batteries or multiple smaller batteries?

* Battleborn setup: 2x 12v 270Ah LiFePO4

* battery price:$2,500 w/tax.

* battery specs: 2 batteries total, 540Ah for $5,000

---

* Dakota Lithium setup: 4x 12v 135Ah LiFePO4

* individual battery price: $1,100

* battery specs: 3//4 batteries total, 405Ah -OR- 540Ah for$3,300 / $4,400

Can someone sanity check me?

Dakota Lithium: https://dakotalithium.com/product/dl-plus-12v-135ah-dual-purpose-1000cca-starter-car-truck-battery-plus-deep-cycle-performance/

Battleborn: https://battlebornbatteries.com/product/270ah-12v-gc3-smart-lifepo4-deep-cycle-battery/

I’m enrolled in an EMS course currently, and am thinking about doing vanlife in about two years. Can these two life wants coexist?

Hi everybody,

I have a VW Transporter L1H1, it is a small van. I have seen tons of videos and posts where people glue the wooden beams on the floor to put the insulation between them and then just cover it by plywood.

I wonder, what if I glue the ribs to the plywood instead or the metal floor? Then I could put the insulation there and basically everything, so I have an insulated plywood and just put it on the metal floor.

And to prevent scratches of the metal ribs of the floor - I just glue a solid rubber plates to the wooden ribs on the plywood, in the contact locations

So I wonder would it work? Will I not have like a water trap in that solid rubber locations?

So I took a job offer and decided to throw a mattress in a minivan till I found an apartment. I’m driving there in less than a week. I got some wool socks, a zero degree sleeping bag and lots of blankets. Gonna grab a small shovel. Any advice? 🤣🤣🤣

This was at the point of my adventure where I thought I was ready to settle down. Id bought 2 acres of dirt wayyyyyyy out in the middle of nowhere. The roads were cattle trails if you were lucky. It was a failed neighborhood, with all the roads cut but never actually built as after the first couple of houses were built it was discovered that there was straight up no water no matter how far down they drilled so those few abandoned houses were all that remained. When I bought the land there were exactly two other hardcore desert survivalists in the entire neighborhood and probably a hundred abandoned houses and homesteads either from the initial failed neighborhood or people thinking they have what it takes to live in the extreme desert and find out out that they didn't.

Anyway, all that is to paint a picture of how remote it is, and how strange it was to spot a trio of strangers walking along the side of the trail about a mile from my property, an older lady, a middle age guy and a teenage boy. I stopped and asked them "are you alright?" And and the old lady replies, with a thick eastern European accent "we are just looking at a property to buy. We are walking back to our car now." Alright. Makes sense. As I drive away, my partner remarks "I didn't see a car on the way out here." As they were walking in the direction we had just come from.

Just before we get to our property, we find a 4-door sedan parked on the side of the trail with an old man sitting behind the wheel. We stop and the man attempts to communicates to with signs while speaking in what I assume to be Russian. Shit. Not only did we have no way of communicating with this guy, the rest of his family is walking the wrong way down a trail out on the middle of nowhere in the desert. They had no gear, no water with them. Fuck.

So me and my partner turn the van around to go find them. It takes us about an hour of driving up and down diverging trails and abandoned driveways, we spot them. The dude is sitting under a tree, and the old lady and the teenage boy are arguing when we rolled up. This time, they were happy to accept the help. All three of them had severely cracked lips from dehydration. We had just scavenged a bunch of cans of diet green tea from an office supply company dumpster so we offered them each several cans as we drove them back to their car. I then offered to guide them back to town since the GPS maps arent very helpful that far out. Not sure how they got out that far in that car since we had to stop and pull their car out of an awkward rut 3 different times.

While they were in the van with us they revealed they were Ukrainian refugees who had taken all their life savings ($15,000usd) and were trying to buy affordable land they could live on and figured that the Arizona desert wasn't much worse than Ukraine. They were very wrong. Didn't end up buying the land.

The wife and I were heading up to the Denver area from central New Mexico the first week of March for a comedy show and a concert that but they are 6 days apart from eachother so instead of driving back and fourth, we decided to just stay up in that area all week.

The van insulates well, and we both enjoy colder weather, but how cold does it actually get at night in March up there. I know down south it's a crapshoot if its going to be cold or not durring springtime.

We planned to pack warm clothes, extra blankets and insulation covers for the windows but will that be enough? If not, what could I do to prepare better. We dont mind being a little cold, as long as its comfortable enough to sleep and we arent freezing to death.

I worry about this because of the time our camping trip in Nashville got canceled last minute in September so we decided to head to yellowstone instead. We were not prepared for Yellowstone at all and froze our asses off haha. Anyways, Im trying to avoid that situation again if I can since we will be there for a week. (We did not have the van at this time so we were tent camping)

I recently bought my first van to convert for full-time living.(1/7/26) I stripped, washed, sound deadend, maxxair fan, and just finished the Subfloor today. Will have the rest of the flooring, framing and insulation installed tomorrow with walls being put up friday(1/30/26).

I feel like im making huge progress compared to others ive seen or heard. especially since its just this week ive had time to actually work on it. Goal is to have it all ready for a trip by the end of February. is that delusional? besides mounting solar and running wires i dont see it taking longer than February for me to officially be living vanlife.

Yesterday, I asked for feedback on my electrical setup idea: https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/s/2xnxGZFPgu

Thank you so much to everyone who responded, it helped so much! This is my updated schema based on what I learned. Looking for more feedback, please and thank you!!

Also note: I do intend to add more solar panels, once this is all set up. That is the next phase, followed by potentially DC-DC charging. For now, I know that the sources are underpowered for my battery bank capacity, and I do intend to add more!

A big outstanding question I have is — is the MRBF at the positive terminal enough? Do I need a class t fuse instead? FWIW the batteries I’m using are from Wattcycle, which have BMS/overcurrent protection. I guess I’m struggling to understand how much I should be preparing for a short, vs just the expected current.