Cwalker935
Member
Lida (my wife) and I took an epic road trip last fall and drove across the Southern United States all the way to Yosemite National Park. We really enjoyed driving and seeing all the sights. We drove our Toyota Rav 4 which got a little cramped and uncomfortable after weeks on the road. Since we were touring a lot of National Parks we thought that camping might be a good alternative to hotels at times and started talking about the possibility of getting a vehicle more suited to long road trips with the option of doing some camping. We also thought that we might want to take Gibbons (our dog) along on occasion as well.
I could not justify an RV since we like traveling abroad at times and probably will not take enough road trips for an RV to make sense economically. I started reading about stealth vans which are basically conversion vans and started researching cargo vans as an alternative to an RV. I decided that a Ford Transit was too small and started looking for the next larger sized cargo van and found the Nissan NV200 as an alternative. It is still small enough to get reasonable gas mileage.
After shopping around, I got a decent deal on a 2015 NV200. It had been used as a painter's van and came with a ladder rack, metal shelving and a partition between the cargo and cab areas. It was also pretty beat up but had a good running gear. I took out the shelving and partition and sold them on Craigslist.
We then insulated the cargo area, put in a floor and ceiling and Lida made some material to cover the window panels that I had insulated. There are few straight lines and lots of contours in the cargo area so getting the floor and ceiling to fit close was difficult. I did not want to spend a lot of time or money so I did not sweat the small stuff. Given the condition that it was in when we bought it, I knew it was not going to be a show piece. I added a jack-knife bed that folds out to a bed, built a fold out table for a Coleman stove, and bought a 12v powered cooler, and a portable jump starter for backup power. I added a small shelf over the wheel well opposite the bed and a drawer under the bed. I also bought a small tarp to tie to the ladder rack so we could have a cover for cooking.
It will be a tight fit for sleeping so I will have to behave when we are traveling. It might get a little chilly for sleeping if I upset Lida. We will not camp all the time so maybe I will be able to act up every now and then. It definitely looks like a DYI project but I don't care since I am a bit of a redneck ( I know that might come as a shock to many of you).
Living Room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Conversion Inspector
Not a thing of beauty
I could not justify an RV since we like traveling abroad at times and probably will not take enough road trips for an RV to make sense economically. I started reading about stealth vans which are basically conversion vans and started researching cargo vans as an alternative to an RV. I decided that a Ford Transit was too small and started looking for the next larger sized cargo van and found the Nissan NV200 as an alternative. It is still small enough to get reasonable gas mileage.
After shopping around, I got a decent deal on a 2015 NV200. It had been used as a painter's van and came with a ladder rack, metal shelving and a partition between the cargo and cab areas. It was also pretty beat up but had a good running gear. I took out the shelving and partition and sold them on Craigslist.
We then insulated the cargo area, put in a floor and ceiling and Lida made some material to cover the window panels that I had insulated. There are few straight lines and lots of contours in the cargo area so getting the floor and ceiling to fit close was difficult. I did not want to spend a lot of time or money so I did not sweat the small stuff. Given the condition that it was in when we bought it, I knew it was not going to be a show piece. I added a jack-knife bed that folds out to a bed, built a fold out table for a Coleman stove, and bought a 12v powered cooler, and a portable jump starter for backup power. I added a small shelf over the wheel well opposite the bed and a drawer under the bed. I also bought a small tarp to tie to the ladder rack so we could have a cover for cooking.
It will be a tight fit for sleeping so I will have to behave when we are traveling. It might get a little chilly for sleeping if I upset Lida. We will not camp all the time so maybe I will be able to act up every now and then. It definitely looks like a DYI project but I don't care since I am a bit of a redneck ( I know that might come as a shock to many of you).
Living Room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Conversion Inspector
Not a thing of beauty
