Deeper Down The Fantasy Road Trip Rabbit Hole :: THE CAMPER VAN

winstonwolfe (71)in #travel • 6 years ago

As mentioned in a previous post, I've decided that if this trip happens, I'm going to use the minivan I inherited from my mom. The amount of money that would go into renting an equivalent vehicle could very easily be used to fix issues, thoroughly inspect, as well as do a light "camper conversion" to the one I already have. Since it would just be me, I can use my space incredibly wisely and actually put things in it which would allow me to sleep in it every night but the nights I stay with out-of-state friends... because screw hotels, right?

As I've been doing my research to see what others have done, I've seen some super cool conversions that have been giving me some great inspiration.

If you recall, I said the minivan I have is a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country. This is crazy lucky because this van - along with its Dodge clone, the Grand Caravan - has a particular feature which makes it ideal for a camper conversion.

Stow & Go Seats

Right off the bat, I knew that meant it would give me space to put a bed back there, but what didn't occur to me until I saw the first video below was that I could remove those seats completely, freeing up that storage well where the seat would fold into.

Check this guy's conversion out (scroll to 3:30 if it doesn't auto start there). That was the first video I saw of a conversion to a van like mine. This blew my mind. It felt like I was taking a class on camperfying my own van. I was hooked.

The next video was one I found which gave me a different take on the idea I originally had for the bed, which was simply to throw a full-sized mattress on the floor.

And then this one I found probably the most impressive. Lots of woodwork, electrical management, good organization (although I would probably change a thing or two):

I highly doubt I would actually do what that lady did since I'm only going on about a 3 week trip, so I wouldn't necessarily need something so permanent.

Nevertheless, all 3 of these videos gave me some fantastic ideas on things I can do with mine. I look forward to getting started with it as soon as I have the resources.