Sprinter Van Buildout: Van Living 4
- November 2015
- Van Living Simple Living Travel
Whether you have a van, want a van or just like thinking about vans and small living spaces, there’s nothing more awesome than getting tours of other people’s buildouts or spending hours on the internet checking out pictures of other people’s buildouts 🙂
This post is about the layout of my Sprinter, converted by Mobius Concepts, and I’ll be doing another post about the systems, the batteries, stove, fridge, solar and all that fun techy stuff 🙂
One of the most beautiful setups I’ve seen so far is my friend Hayden Kennedy’s Promaster which he did himself: I was so wowed by the cedar tongue-and-groove paneling and the beautiful kitchen I completely forgot to take any photos! He said he’d made several designs, and then built it all in cardboard first to get a visual. I thought that was a genius idea, because I have a really hard time visualizing things on paper. He did make some changes after making the cardboard boxes, so it was worth doing for sure.
There are endless possibilities for the layout of a van buildout. Most climbers use some variation on the classic Volkswagen Vanagon setup, with the kitchen area behind the driver’s seat, and a bed in the back, and I always thought I’d do the same. When I became a brand ambassador and tester for Mobius Concepts, we spent a lot of time talking about not just layouts, but also living habits, which I found an interesting way to plan a buildout.
I’d seen a few buildouts with part of the kitchen area built halfway across the door opening, which seems like a smart use of space, since the slider door opening is really big. Chris, the owner of Mobius, strongly recommended that design especially as it allows for a big bench seat on the other wall. When you have two or more people hanging out in a van and cooking, it’s good to have seating for everyone. This was a design I hadn’t really thought of before, and it has turned out to be really practical and expansive in a small space.
The bench seat top lifts up for storage.
The passenger seat is a captain’s chair on a swivel base, so you can have four people hanging out without feeling too jammed in.
I had seen some great designs with cabinets along the ceiling beside the bed, and I really wanted to do that. Chris pointed out that cabinet doors add to weight and can be rattly, so he suggested cubbies with bungee webs, which has been much easier to use.
The cubbies extend out into the kitchen area, so we can use the front four for pantry space and to house a Goalzero battery (more on that in the next post).
The kitchen has cabinets, a Wallas stove/heater that runs off the van’s diesel (more on that in the next post) and a sink with a water pump
There’s a small step/mini bench seat at the foot of the bed to make it easier to get in and out of the bed, with another cubby space behind it. More storage comes from the attic partition above the driver and passenger seats, and this is a good place to keep the blackout shades for the dash and front windows. What to do with windows is always a thinker: if you’re like me, you want as much light and ventilation as possible. But you do need to be able to black all windows out completely in case you need to stealth camp (Walmart, Yosemite). We decided to have 2 small, horse trailer windows
Mobius also came up with a really cool feature for the back: the cargo backdoors don’t have windows, but when they’re open, there is a mesh screen at the end of the bed with velcro around it. So if you’re in a safe place where you feel comfortable leaving the back doors open all night or even just while hanging/cooking, you can have a big screen window in the back. There’s a headboard below it, so you don’t push the screen open with your head. I think that’s a great feature!
Having the bed raised allows for a really big “garage” in the back (this is also where three deep cycle batteries live, more on that in the next post). So far we actually haven’t been able to use all the storage space, both in and out of the van. But it makes life a lot easier and more comfortable–after so many years of the jam and shuffle, it’s a good problem.
Would love to see and hear more about other van layouts!
awesome layout. tfpu!
Maybe one day we will be able to have a Sprinter or something where we can stand up! Until then here´s our rustic setup, build from scratch and cheap as possible:
https://adventuredime.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/the-life/
Love love love….Super psyched for my own build out…Great layout! Im going to have to steal a few of those ideas for sure.
Great article! Induction stoves are now available.
Great article! Van building is a modern art.
I really like the setup you have, it’s beautiful and inspiring. It would be cool to hear your thoughts on how to perfect the van/setup…if anything, now that you’ve had the van for awhile
[…] Sprinter Van Buildout: Van Living 4 at Steph Davis […]
Steph – this is beautiful! Did the van that you bought have windows on the sides in the
back, or was it a cargo style/all-metal sided van where Mobius added the
side windows?
Also wondering what the wheelbase was on your van!
[…] And, the other posts in the series, in case you missed them: To Van or Not To Van: Van Living 1 To Sprinter or Not to Sprinter: Van Living 2 The Buildout Priority List: Van Living 3 Sprinter Van Buildout: Van Living 4 […]
Steph- What did you use for the floor in your van? it looks nice and easy to maintain.
Hi Brandy, it was a cargo van, and Mobius added all the side windows (including the horse trailer windows toward the back)
170 🙂
Hi Steph,
Your Sprinter has the type of layout that I’m looking for. I’m 6′ 3.5″ inches tall, but everything I’ve read about the high roof Sprinters says that the roof height is 6′ 3″. Can Ian really stand up inside your Sprinter without hitting his head on the ceiling?
Due to my height, I’ve been looking at the LTV Unity (corner bed floor plan), which uses a Sprinter chassis with a bigger fiberglass body attached to it with a higher 6’5″ roof. I’m not sure how I’ll store an mtb in there though. The LTV Unity looks like an RV rather than a Sprinter, but I don’t think you can stealth camp in a Sprinter anymore because everyone knows they are RV’s, so I’m not sure the RV look makes a difference. I was getting pretty excited about possibly buying an LTV Unity, and you seem to be a big fan of diesel engines, but then I read some articles that claim that the Mercedes diesel engine has major issues:
(links omitted because they are being deemed spam)
Does any of that ring true for your Sprinter?
Then it seems like every appliance and system in the LTV build out has problems as reported by owners on the sprinter-forum. I’m starting to think that Sprinter conversions are just huge money pits. There’s a poll in one of the threads on the sprinter-forum where they ask if you would recommend a Sprinter to your friends–and only about half the people said they would. The comments in the thread are pretty disheartening. It sounds like it would be cheaper to just drive to a location with all your gear in a truck, then rent an apartment for however long you want to stay there.
Thanks. Be safe.
Hi Steph,
Your Sprinter has the type of layout that I’m looking for. I’m 6′ 3.5″ inches tall, but everything I’ve read about the high roof Sprinters says that the roof height is 6′ 3″. Can Ian really stand up inside your Sprinter without hitting his head on the ceiling?
I looked up your sponsor Mobius for the buildout, but they appear to be out of business.
Due to my height, I’ve been looking at the LTV Unity (corner bed floor plan), which uses a Sprinter chassis with a bigger fiberglass body attached to it with a higher 6’5″ roof. I’m not sure how I’ll store an mtb in there though. The LTV Unity looks like an RV rather than a Sprinter, but I’m not sure you can stealth camp in a Sprinter anymore because everyone knows they are RV’s, so I wonder if the RV look makes a difference? I was getting pretty excited about possibly buying an LTV Unity, and you seem to be a big fan of diesel engines, but then I read some articles that claim that the Mercedes diesel engine has major issues:
(links omitted because they are being deemed spam)
Then it seems like every appliance and system in the LTV build out has problems as reported by owners on the sprinter-forum. I’m starting to think that Sprinter conversions are just huge money pits. There’s a poll in one of the threads on the sprinter-forum where they ask if you would recommend a Sprinter to your friends–and only about half the people said they would. The comments in the thread are pretty disheartening. It sounds like it might be cheaper to just drive to a location with all your gear in a truck, then rent an apartment for however long you want to stay there.
Does any of that ring true for your Sprinter?
Thanks. Be safe.
Ian can stand, and he is 6’3″. As far as Sprinters go, I’ve had mine for almost 3 years now, and only take it on trips (so pretty light use). Ian is doing all the standard maintenance, and we haven’t had any other repairs so far. If I was paying a dealer to do the standard maintenance, it would be ridiculously expensive! So I think if you are a car person, and you can handle oil changes, etc, it works. If not, I would probably go with a Promaster instead.