Silas the Sprinter - Van Tour
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- A look inside my 2005 Sprinter, Silas. I built out my van with some help from my brother and now live in it and travel around climbing, skiing, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors with my two dogs and my best friend. This video attempts to give viewers a tour of the inside of the van and highlight some of my favorite features. I've seen extremely professional build outs- this is not one of them. Hopefully it can give you some ideas for your build out, show you that it can be done on a tight budget, and inspire you to do whatever it is that you're passionate about. This is my first time using the GoPro editor, so there is pretty much zero editing because I'm still learning how to use the program. Adventure on!
Thanks for sharing. I love the swivel chair and appreciate your info about the electrical/battery stuff.
Snowboard cabinet: genius.
Laura, thanks for being realistic and humble about your setup. It gets the job done.Some YT armchair nomads really need a reality check.
Hi, thanks for filming this and showing us all your build out! This is really helpful and appreciated!
Chris
I love it you made a super job building it you have everything you need and you still have room to walk around well done
Awesome, I will be doing the same in about 11 months. Can't wait. Tired of paying rent! I'm done.
Great video! I love your snowboard shelf door. Take care!
Love everything about this!
Love the layout of the van.
Ohhhhhhhhhh Mannnnn That Is Sooooo Epiiiicccccccccc!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I NEED ONE OF THOSE(when i get old enough to drive)
THanks for the tour Laura! I'll be starting my sprinter build in the next couple months, so I appreciate all the walkthroughs I can get my eyes on!
Hope to see you on the road, trail or rocks some time next year!
Looking forward to more videos! I'm just about to move into my 4wd camper and climb and travel around Australia for a couple of years, so as soon as you mentioned climbing I got excited!
camfoodooismrocker36 Sweet! I really want to climb at the Grampians one day! Have a great time out there!
love the van. it is inspiring to fix one up and go traveling
great design, the chalk board cupboards are a nice touch, I might do the same but with whiteboard :)
Nice video...thanks for sharing!
AwwWWW, such a cute sweet innocent Lil voice! lol. You remind me of my lil sis.. Good luck with the van guys, looks cool! 👍✌😆
Hey Laura I am so impressed with all the storage you have......I better to get to work on mine....its the one thing I noticed now I have spent time in it...not as much storage as I thought. You have given me some good ideas...thank you!
Thanks for taking the time to video for us! You gave me some great ideas. I hope you are making a ton of money doing voice-over work. If not, you should seriously look into it. You can tell just by the comments on here that you have the cutest voice and that could become a nice career for you!
+Kent Willey Thanks Kent! That is so nice of you to say. I'll look into it!
glad to have found your channel to subscribe to, i'm always looking for ideas for our little weekend van. have a good 2015.
This is an awesome van and an awesome first video. There is a whole Van/RV lifestyle movement going on right now and you would fit right in. I subscribed so I can follow your adventures. Keep making these type of videos and your channel will blow up quickly once the community finds out about you. Keep active and have a great time out there. Thumbs up! :-)
love your van
great video....Thanks for sharing :)
Awesome setup!
sounds like you have a phenomenal brother!
good luck out there..
Very cool. Subbed!
I like the tile idea for the countertops
+Van Roamer Thanks! It has been really nice to have an easy to clean surface there! The tiles were all leftover from a project at my mom's house.
Awesome!!!
Hey Gnarly van .. thanks for sharing :)
Great video!
Nice, really creative
Really nice tour, soon as i find a peice of land .just a homebase to park my class b widebody
You should make some more videos. You are good at it.
What about ah Defecating Bucket?
Great job on the van!
+Ray Galli Thank you!
Keep on truckin'.
I need your voice to narrate my life.
another option is to limo tint the windows, put a shade that scrolls across the front window and or like a curtain to go across just behind the front seats
you look just like Fiona Gallagher off shameless!! cool van by the way
lol yep sure does
I like the Tahoe sticker!
Nice job Laura Patton.
Smart girl! :) Cheers from Portugal
+destroka Thanks!
cutest voice ever
Nice build!
Very cool! I dig it :)
Love the Van, love Girls who like the vanlife :P
nice vid. im getting a quilt now.
nice set up you should do more videos more often.
Nice van mate.
hey looks so cool
Thumbs up 😊👍
life goals
very good job
well done! see you on the road :)
Sprinter should design both seats to swivel backwards !
plutoplatters Yea! That would be great if they came with double swiveling seats! It's such a nice feature.
Awesome! Thanks :-)
good job!
Hi there! Just wondering if those reflectix front window covers draw unwanted attention in urban areas! Thanks for sharing! The van looks great!
sweepswoop Hello! So far we haven't been rousted sleeping in any urban areas, but I also have black out curtains behind the drivers seat so I can be a little more stealth by leaving the relectix off and just closing the blackout curtains.
Thats a lot of plywood. The glue used for it contains formaldehyde. It is slowly released.
Nice video. Great lifestyle. I was a little shocked to see all of the 3/4 inch plywood. And the 3 x3 or larger framing. All of that could have been done with 1/4 inch ply, even the bed would have been fine with 1/2 inch plywood. This would have reduced the weight of these additions by 60 to 70 percent. Just sharing for others that are trying to go there. Nice Job. DRd. (Frieda Herbe). Now!
Awesome I subscribing
Never knew about that Yeti4000 solar power generator. Very cool. Nice rig! By the way, you are absolutely cute! Why aren't there enough "nomad" ladies like yourself out here :(
Love ur voice, reminds me of Azura skye
Hi Lucas! It's a 144" wheelbase
Is it a high top?
+Laura Patton I want to live like this. How do you make money for food, gas, fun, etc?
+Carla Pena Hi Carla. It is not a high top. I am 5'4" and I can just stand inside (I insulated the ceiling but not the floor).
+Abby Schulte Hi Abby! I usually work a seasonal job (right now I am working at a ski resort) and then I take the rest of the year or the next season off to travel and play outside. Sometimes I will work longer and then I get to travel longer. If you can find a job where you can work remotely, that is the ideal situation! But living in a van saves you a lot of money, so even if you aren't making a lot at a seasonal job, it still goes a long way.
Laura Patton thats so awesome! Thanks for the responce :)
U r awesome.you have a new suscriber
Laura, instead of having to remove the head rest in order to rotate the front seat, would it be possible to 'unrecline' the seat a little? Maybe it would be an easier option, I don't know.
657BIueArmy That would be awesome! Unfortunately the passenger seat doesn't recline or scoot forward or backward :( It's not too big of a pain though!
Cool van. Subbed your channel. Make more videos!
Hey there, Laura. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. I'm getting a sprinter and taking off this upcoming summer and was planning on for sure the goal zero yeti 400, but was unsure about solar - guess I'm a skeptic / seems too good to be true! SOOO, now I'm really interested in those boulder 30s... Do you really think you need both? What would it be like with just one? You would just have to use the computer a little less? i.e. is x2 boulder 30s ballin' out of control or are 2 what's required to run a computer for a few hours each day without have to plug in somewhere? Your thoughts would be much appreciated.
+John Houghton Hey John! I think it really depends on your usage. For us, we can power the lights, fan, charge our phones and cameras, and occasionally charge the computer and still keep the Yeti full. By the time the sun goes down each day, it is always fully charged up again. But, we charge our computer pretty rarely. I know the computer I have (MacBook Pro) drains the battery pretty quickly if I try to charge it at night (after the sun has gone down and we are no longer getting input). I definitely try to only charge my computer during the day. That being said, we are almost never below 60% on the battery at the end of the night, which I guess means we have some excess power. I think you could get by with one boulder 30 if you are pretty conservative and/or if you also charge your Yeti while you are driving (you can just plug it into the cigarette lighter or you can do some fancy thing to wire it in with the alternator and it will charge while driving I think). Woo! That was a verbose response. Let me know if you need clarification on any of that.
+Laura Patton thanks, Laura!!! That's really helpful. Lots to consider for sure.
Should've shown more of that solar panel! Oh, and what model is that fan?
It'a a Fantastic 1250. There is some more information about the solar on my new van on the blog!
Hey laura the vans looking cool, just finished mine and I'm ready to roll. Where have you travelled to ?
Lee Bartholomew Awesome! Happy travels. We have been all over the west this year: CA, NV, UT, AZ, NM, CO, WY, ID, MT, OR, WA, British Columbia and Alberta. Next we are headed to Alaska.
Great little build out, what do you cook on or did I miss it?? A propane stove perhaps.
+Al Fries Hello! I cook on a two burner Coleman camp stove. I just stow it away when not in use!
+Laura Patton Great, and a source of heat if needed.
How did you mount the Boulder 30 panels to the top? Did you need to buy mounts? Think of getting those panels and the Yeti 150 for my van, and if I like them, upgrade to the Yeti 1250 and Boulder 90.
Looks great! was that blanket made from left over shirts or that's just how it came?
TwistaFlip Yup, it is made out of a bunch of my old t-shirts. I didn't have room or a need for all of them in the van, so I turned them into something a bit more useful!
thank you so much for sharing!! Is the Goal Zero Yeti 400 a good choice for light inside the van and charging two laptops, one dslr, a drone and two GoPros? Toni
The Yeti 400 is awesome for our needs! It is more than enough for charging our phones, cameras, GoPros, powering our lights and our fan. If you are going to be charging laptops frequently you might want to bump up to the Yeti 1250, they tend to use a bit more but if you are careful about it and only charge them during the day when you're getting input, it can work.
Be careful with the Mr. Heater producing carbon monoxide, we use a catalytic propane heater because it does not produce carbon monoxide
Rent free and stress free!!! :D this my goal
+Robert Silva Yup! It sure is nice to have mobility and flexibility and not have to pay rent!
Hi Laura, I'm going to put a vent fan on my van, too, but don't want to hardwire it in to my van's electrical like some manufacturers suggest. Can you tell me how you connected your fan to that Yeti 400? Did you have to put a cigarette adapter onto the fan wires, or did you make it work some other way?
Beau Bryant Hey Beau. I wired my fan and my lights into switches and then wired the switches into a cigarette adapter which I plug into my Yeti. So I switch on the adapter on the Yeti and then I can choose to switch on both sets of lights and the fan or one at a time and still only use one port on the Yeti! I hope that makes sense.
The wood and the tiles are just adding weight and thus increasing you fuel consumption.
Phu Quoc The Sprinter definitely drives better with a little bit of weight in there! We get 25 MPG on average.
You may know this already just tilt the seat forward then spin it, you don't have to take off the headrest!
Can you make a video of your new dodge van? I'm looking to get a windsurfing van.
+mchristofas Hello! I will certainly make another video tour when the van is all done! I will be doing most of the build during the spring, but will be doing small projects in between now and then. I will detail all the steps of the build on my blog: silasthesprinter.blogspot.com
Renault espace has folding seats with swivels could fit well I mother vans including transit connect!
How intriguing Freeman, you mother vans? Would you perhaps mother my Transit 300 swb if you get the chance?
are you travel around the world? please visit Malaysia.
Everything looks good but where's the toilet!!!😱😱
The great outdoors! :) Or public restrooms
Hello Laura,
I'm planning on getting a sprinter and traveling/living out of it as well. My biggest concern is taking care of my dog, though. My biggest concern is for his comfort if I have to leave him alone in there for a few hours (especially in warmer climates). any tips on this?
Steven Bourg Hi Steven! Usually the dogs only stay in the van if it is cool weather, otherwise they always come out with us. If we do leave them in there, we will leave the fan on for them, lots of water and the windows cracked. You can also look into installing one of those bigger A/C units on top that can run while the van is off, those seem pretty useful!
Hi Laura
Now that Summer is upon us, any feedback/comments on if the van was insulated well enough to make it thru the Winter?
DavidisDawei Hello! We certainly stayed plenty warm this winter! We only had to use our heater in Jackson, WY when it went down to -15 degrees. Other than that we were nice and cozy.
Laura Patton oh yes, -15 is a little cold ,
I loved Jackson, but I was there in July - very comfortable then
- they had a very nice 4th of July fireworks
Did you buy your van used? How many miles were on it when you bought it?
more videos! :)
Can you connect your fan-tastic fan vent to your goal zero?
Yup, we have it hooked up with our lights to our Yeti generator.
Laura Patton what kind of lights are those, they are perfect!
How do you attatch the cut-out insulation pieces to the windows?
how much for the swivel adaptor ? cool ass van
About $250 for the adaptor. Very easy to install!
hy laura, is your sprinter the long wheel version? i had one too, amazing vehicle, but sadly it was stolen from me 6 months ago, i was planning to make a cmapervan out of it and travel europe but sadly i've never find it.
Dumy Jobby Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that. Mine is a 144" wheelbase, which is the medium size.
Laura Patton very cool conversion by the way :)
Hi there,
How did you connect/wire your lights/fan to the Goal Zero Yeti? I'm looking to do the same. Nice set up!
Cheers,
Greg
+Greg G I'm guessing she just uses the front connections. Probably that main big 12v plug. We just don't see the cable because she was currently using that plug for something else.
Personally, I think you would be better off just getting a standard AGM battery, charge controller, and inverter. That's basically all the Yeti is... only it is in a pretty box. You pay a TON for that pretty box though.
That Goal Zero 400 only has... well, about 400wh. For the same price (about $400) you could get 1200wh, charge controller, inverter AND a solar panel. All you would have to do is create a pretty box for it and you have basically the same thing as the Goal Zero 1250 (minus the solar panel). The 1250 goes for about $1,500 btw.
But yeah, the Goal Zero is pretty. And I could see it being useful if you move your power source around a ton. Doing that with a standard setup isn't that easy unless you create special quick connects for the solar. Granted, that would probably only cost you an extra $30 or so. But like the Goal Zero 1250, you wouldn't be moving it around much unless you put it on wheels. A 1200wh battery alone weighs about 70lbs.
+Greg G Hey Greg! I wired my lights into two separate switches, front lights and rear lights, and my fan into a third switch. That way I could have things on independently from each other. Then I wired the switch box into a 12v plug. I turn on the Yeti and then I can turn on the lights and fan by flipping their switch into the on position. I didn't have any use for the 12v in day to day life so that's why I chose to wire everything into that and save the USB and AC ports for phone, computer etc.
101perspective Thanks so much for all of the info! Due to lack of time to work on this right now the Goal Zero is looking pretty appealing, plus I can get a bit of a discount too. Cheers, Greg.
Laura Patton Ahh, ok that makes sense you just wired it into the 12v. I think this would work the best for me too. I just assumed the 12V port was for charging the Yeti and didn't know you could get power from the same port. Thanks so much Laura!
Greg G
Yeah, I thought it was going to be difficult also. However, it was amazingly simple to hook everything up.
The only hard part was finding the best way to mount the solar panel. However, you will have that issue anyway with the Goal Zero.
You run 2 wires from your solar to your charge controller... with an inline fuse on the positive wire. Which you probably will need to do with Goal Zero also.
Then you run two wires from the charge controller to the battery.
Then you just connect all your 12 volt stuff to the battery... to include your inverter.
You want fuses on the positive side of everything... to include the wire coming from the charge controller to the battery. However, to simplify that I just got a "Blue Sea Systems ST-Blade Battery Terminal Mount Fuse Block Kit". It's good for up to 100 amps... with each device going up to 30 amps. It comes with a block for the negative side also in order to connect wires too.
Basically, all the Goal Zero does is hook the inverter cables up for you. And instead of hooking wires directly to the battery, it provides fancy connections. That's it. And even those fancy connections can be bought. For example, my inverter connects to a 12v lighter socket. I didn't want to cut the wire and connect it directly to the Blue Sea System. So, I just bought a $12 female lighter socket and connected it to the battery... and the inverter to that.
The entire setup (to include running the solar wires through the roof) took like an hour. And most of that time was spent prettying everything up.
That said, if you have money to burn then Goal Zero will save you time and it looks pretty. Just keep in mind that you will have MASSIVE limits on storage unless you buy one of their $1,500 systems. But one of their $400... 400watt systems (which I think is actually 200 watts usable... maybe someone knows) would be fine for you if you are only charging a laptop or something. Just don't expect to be running fans, fridges, etc, off it all night and stuff.
how did you come about the van I didn't know you could buy this year in america or did you some how inport it?
I got it on Craigslist. It is a 2005, you can find them in the US!
sooo cute, stupid auto spell on youtube screwed up my spelling ;))
The Goal Zero comes in really handy, got one for CHRISTmas:now to install the solar panel :-) Thank 4 sharing Check out my G20 Conversion Van :-)
+RVing LiveThe Dream Nice! I love getting things for my van for Christmas. Good luck on the install!
'Denim'? Insulation ?
Yup! It is very easy to work with and does a great job!
+Laura Patton I have never heard of denim insulation - don't know if we use it here in Australia. I haven't enquires but I will, thank you x
We use it in the UK for houses (In the walls) etc
If ur trying to keep the heat in, why is the side door open?
Tom the Anonymous RUclipsr y r silly, & a waste of time
Ur comment is a waste of time u pleb
What do your dogs do when you are skiing?
We take them backcountry skiing with us to tire them out and then they chill in the van if we are resort skiing.
thats me
Hi i didnt notice a bathroom or fridge what do you use?
+John Sepeda Hey John! No bathroom or fridge! I just got a new van and I'll be putting a Yeti cooler in it. For the most part, I keep dry staples in the van and get my fresh fruits and veggies once a week, or more frequently if the weather is hot. In terms of bathrooms, it's public restrooms when I'm in civilization, otherwise the great outdoors.
What MPG do you get from your van?
loh1110 We average 25 mpg
Laura Patton Has it been reliable? I heard this van is unreliable and very expensive to fix.
Jeff Wright Ive been reading the van forums and many claim the reliability is similar to a VW, a lemon or good.
+loh1110 I drove one for a living for over a year. They are good reliably but they are far from an Amercian van. You gotta treat these sprinters like queens. Preventive maintenance is a must for these vans. If you can keep the right fluids in it along with regular schedule maintenance then you shouldn't have much trouble. They parts are extremely expensive to replace. Expect to wait atleast a day or two to get a part unless going to a Mercedes dealer or Freightliner dealer. When I plan to hit the road again this time van dwelling I plan on getting a sprinter or the equivalent of the Ford or Dodge.