Wednesday was an interesting day, and I’m not just talking about the events in our nation’s capitol (ugh).
I’ve recently befriended a local-ish fellow, Viktor, who has a Ram Promaster he’s looking to build out, and it turns out we have similar ideas/goals on the topic. Viktor has a property that he’s looking to turn into a sort of vandweller retreat; a few spots that would make for good camping spots, and he’s building up a decent array of tools (powered and unpowered) in the basement of his house that he plans to make available to folks who want to bring their rigs up, stay for a few days and work on their buildouts.
Wednesday worked out to be a good day to drive up to his property, hang out, get to know him better (I’d only spent an hour chatting with him prior), see what he’s got going up there. I think it’s got some good potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of it come springtime. I also wanted to see what he had going up there as he had offered to let me park a van up at his place indefinitely, come up and work on it there, so it behooved me to see what was up with my own eyes.
On my way home, though, as I pulled into my subdivision, lo and behold – a vandweller rig, just down the street from my townhouse! I’ve gotten a pretty good eye for these things lately. I thought to myself “I should scribble up a note and put it under his windshield wiper”, and then promptly did nothing of the sort.
The next day, I’m heading out and I see the van is gone, and I realize my mistake! But as I drive past the common drive for the row of townhouses it was parked by, my brain says “maybe turn your head to the left and see if he’s parked up outside one of the townhouse garages” – and there it is, garage doors open, van doors open; someone’s around! I park, trot on up, find the owner, chat him up, and make arrangements to come back later in the evening and get the nickel tour. Victory!
And that’s exactly what happened. The fellow texts me in the early evening, and I grab a few beers to share from my newest low-fill stash and walk down the street. Evan is this guy’s name, very friendly – more friendly and open to chatting than I really expected; after all, I’m just some rando stranger. We chat about his van, his buildout, things he wished he’d done differently, etc. etc. ad nauseum for about an hour.
I learned that his base structural plan is very similar to mine and Viktor’s – it’s very dependent on 80/20 extruded aluminum. None of that on his bed frame, that I could tell, but all his cabinets (both floor-mounted and roof-mounted) are framed with 80/20, and it sounds like he also used 80/20 as a structure for his solar panels. Evan mentioned having gone through forty 12-foot lengths; on the face of it, that seems impossible to me – where would it all go? But the floor-mounted structures, there’s a lot of cross-supports in those, so I’m going to take him at his word.
Another very convenient similarity between Evan’s build and my own plans is the whole rearward area. He’s got his bed platform raised high enough to fit bikes in beneath, which is exactly my plan. I’ve got all sorts of measurements on paper – going to need 64″ of length, about 34″ of height to fit my road and trail bikes in, staggered slightly lengthwise and snugged up together side-to-side, with the seatposts down; but being able to see it with my own eyes, to evaluate how the space works (especially when it comes to remaining height above the bed surface to the ceiling) was very reassuring.
We also chatted a good bit about Sprinters (his is a 2017) and new-vs-old models, specifically on the diesel-engine side. I learned a bit about DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) systems on the newer models, and how the older ones (one of which I’ve got my eye on) pre-date these systems. He’s got some relevant web links he’s going to share with me at some point.
(As an aside, regarding the 2006 model I’ve got my eyes on; it’s well away from me, out of state, and a friend/part-time vandweller in the area has agreed to roll out there and give it a good once-over for me!)
Seeing as Evan and his wife are going to be in the neighborhood a few more days, I’m hoping I can get another opportunity to walk down and peek at his rig more, especially in the daylight (it was well past sunset when I got over there last night), and to more specifically talk to him about his experiences on the road. The pair of them have been full-time in their rig for eighteen months.