Engineer builds a campervan in a Dodge Grand Caravan | Solar electricity, running water, fridge

Hey, my name's Nick. I converted a Dodge Grand Caravan into a camper van, and I'm about to give you guys a tour. Come on in. I traveled over 43,000 kilometers in this van over a nine-month period, and these are all the places that I visited. So this is the first thing that you see when you walk into the van. This is in couch mode, so what I built myself is pretty much a bed that converts to a couch and vice versa. So right now this is in couch form. I painted myself a nice little mural in the back here. So that's my little van and mountains, trees, animals, and ocean just to motivate me when I'm traveling. Beneath the bed system here, we have two drawers, and these drawers are big enough for, you know, all my clothes, my toiletry, my filming gear, all that kind of stuff, and even enough for two people. I was traveling with my girlfriend for most of the time as well, so it was enough for two people's clothes and all that stuff. So I have a little locking mechanism here to prevent them from sliding out when I break. It's happened a couple times where I forget to do that, and these drawers come flying out and crashing out, and it's actually broken a couple of railings that way, so always got to remember. So I'll show you what they look like inside. They have a lot of volume. As you can see, I put all my clothes, my camping gear, my hiking gear, filming gear, toiletries, all that kind of stuff, so huge amount of space. So I'll show you how it converts down to a bed. It's pretty simple. Just flip that down, and then this piece of mattress comes here, and there you go. That's all you have to do. And this is pretty much a full double bed. It's 48 inches wide, which is just a few inches shorter than a double bed, and it's the full length of one. I think it's 72 inches. Flipping it back is very simple. You just throw that back, flip that up, and now it's in couch mode. Next, I'll show you the kitchen setup that I have. So I pretty much built this whole kitchen area out of scrap wood that I found, so most of it was free. The only things that cost money were the handles, the screws, the fasteners. So I built myself a nice big counter space here. In the back here, I installed myself a spice rack. Next, I have my cutlery in little slots here, forks and knives. This is toilet paper, but I use it pretty much as just regular kitchen towels, just to clean up messes. In front here, we have the two drawers. Top one is usually for food. I'm not traveling right now because of COVID, so it's pretty empty. But this is enough for my food for probably three to four days worth. That's how often I usually do groceries. The second drawer is where I keep all my kitchen stuff. So cutting board, frying pan, pots, spoons, can openers, that kind of stuff, and whatever extra food that doesn't fit here will usually fit in here as well. Underneath, the first thing we have is the camping stove. It does a portable butane stove. Super handy. It runs off butane canisters. So these things you can find pretty easily at Walmart or camping stores, outdoor stores. Next is the garbage can. Again, very small and compact. Yeah, super small and compact. Just slide it back in, and there you go. Next, I have just a hand towel hanging here. I use for, you know, drying my hands, dishes, and that kind of stuff. And this is actually a piece of wood that slides out for extra counter space, or it also doubles as a desk. So I'll put my laptop here, my mouse here, and this is where I edit most of my traveling videos. The sink here I made with just like a regular aluminum mixing bowl. I cut out the bottom, put myself a little drain. This is just a faucet that I bought at Home Depot. And again, an extra spray nozzle to go with it. So I'll show you what's behind here. This is where all the plumbing is. I put in just like this little corrugated cover just because it's really ugly. You'll see in a second. Pull that off, and I have access to all my plumbing down here. So like I said, this drain just goes down here, up through the tube here, and down into this big gray water tank. It's 20 liters, 5 gallons. I have to empty this out maybe once every two to three weeks. Depends how efficient I am with my water. I don't use a lot when I'm cleaning my dishes, so every two to three weeks is enough. Coming from the external battery is my water pump. It's a 12-volt water pump. So this takes water from my freshwater tank, which is under the ground. I'll show you guys that in a second. So the water pump takes the water up from there through the intake, and then through the output, I have this little split. And this split, one of them goes to the faucet, and one of them goes to the spray. So they're super convenient. This comes straight from the battery, like I said, and it has an emergency on-off switch. I usually keep it off if I'm, you know, storing the van or parking it for a long time, because if my system springs a leak, the pump will pretty much just keep pumping water, because it's always sensing that negative pressure. If I'm not careful, I could, you know, come to a van that's filled with 20 liters of water all over the floor. So that wouldn't be good. So I'll just show you, it works pretty easily. Just flip that up. Works great. This one as well. One other thing that I store under my kitchen is my toilet. So if I move these things out a little bit. This is a port-a-potty. I only use it for emergencies. I don't use it too often. I usually just use whatever facilities are around when I'm traveling. If I'm near parks or state parks, national forests, or if I'm just driving through towns, I'll use gas stations or grocery stores. Like I said, this is just for emergencies. It doesn't smell at all, really, as long as you maintain it properly. The only times it really smells is when I drive from really low elevation to high elevation quickly. The pressure will start to build up because of the lower atmosphere pressure at higher elevations. So the pressure inside will actually slowly start to seep out through tiny holes. So when that happens, it's just a matter of taking it outside, releasing the pressure inside, and then putting it back in, and then it's usually fine after that. So this is a Dodge Grand Caravan with Stow-N-Go. I found that super convenient because the seats in the middle and the back fold into the floor. What you can do is you can just undo three bolts for each seat, and you can fully remove them from the van. So that's exactly what I did. I stored them somewhere else while I was traveling, and pretty much all the area under here is completely empty and great for storage. I'll show you that. So lots of empty space down here. This is usually where I kept my dirty laundry, my recycling, our camping stuff. Down on the other side here is my freshwater tank. So that's 20 liters, five gallons about. So again, that comes up through this tube, which I showed you guys earlier. I have my cleaning supplies, my laundry detergent. On the roof of the van, I installed a 100-watt solar panel and just fastened it to the roof rack rails. So the wires come in through here into the solar charge controller, and then these wires go down through the back into the trunk to the external battery. So the whole electrical system that I have is fully independent from the car's system. From the battery in the back, I have three things that are powered by it. The first thing coming from the external battery is the water pump, like I showed you guys earlier. They're both 12 volts, so I just connect them right one to the other. I add a fuse in the middle just to protect the electrical components from any surges of electricity. The second thing that I have running off the external battery is this thing here. This is a inverter. It inverts the 12-volt DC from the battery into 110-volt AC, which is what regular appliances that we have in North America run off. So from here, I can charge my toothbrush, my razor. I could have regular lights going off it. It even has a USB slot to charge phones, camera gear, small fans for the hot summer nights. This has an independent on-off switch as well, so I can turn that on and off without having to disconnect it from the battery. The only thing I have plugged into that right now is my lights that I have set up in the car. So they come through here, through this little dimmer. So this thing, you just switch it on and it increases the light's brightness. It's super convenient. You can have it nice and dim or really bright if I'm reading at night. You can see they're kind of just like wired up all the way around the van into different spots. I have it kind of bunched up in the back for reading, and I have it bunched up here as well to give more light when I'm cooking and it's dark out, just to light up the whole kitchen area. And the third thing that I have running off the external battery and the solar power is my fridge. So I have this coming from the battery down here, and this is the fridge wire here, so it comes all the way here. And this is a Dometic 12-volt fridge. I think it's the smallest one they have on the market. It fits very conveniently between the two front seats. It's about 11 liters of storage, which is enough for, I'd say like three to four days of food, depending on how much cold food you buy. But it's good enough for me and I really like it. It's very efficient as well. So I'm inside the van now with all the doors closed and the windows kind of open up, and I'll show you what I have for a solution for window coverings. So I use the same material that I had covering the plumbing area. It's this kind of corrugated plastic. So I have it, this like black material here. And so I cut them to shape of each of the windows. So I just slide them in just like that. I have these two for the rear windows. I have this one for the side window. And this one I don't usually take out, but I can flip it down and lock it under the faucet just like this. So I just flip that up like that. And then the final one and the last thing I have is just these two little curtains, just like that. So these separate the two front seats from the rear. That way to, you know, people walking by, they still see the front seats as they are. So they don't suspect anything weird. I see a lot of vans with, you know, coverings on the front windshield and the two front windows. So to me, that kind of looks suspicious. So I like it the way I have. Everything looks black. And even from the outside, it's almost impossible to tell that these windows are covered with something. So they just look like normal black. They just look really, really tinted, which is great because this van is super stealth. And it's great for camping out in, you know, somewhat urban environments. I'll show you guys what it looks like when I turn the lights on. Starts really dim and then they get pretty bright. So I'll show you guys the trunk now. Like I said, it's a Dodge Grand Caravan with stow and go. So I took out the rear seats, gave me tons of storage in the back. And I'll show you that right now. Piece of wood there. And I have all this storage under the trunk. So I have, you know, all my camping gear, extra blankets. I kept all my tools and stuff in here while I was traveling. And then under this towel is where my external battery is. Here back down. So this is the other side of the van. I'll show you what it looks like when I open up this side. So again, pretty much everything that I had in the kitchen is accessible from this side. The drawers can slide out here just like that. And I can even use the water out here. I have another cover here covering up all the plumbing. All the same things I showed you earlier, but from the other side. So if I need to do maintenance, it's really good to access it from this side. I have lots of space to do that. Put that covering back on. I hope you guys liked that tour. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.