Ottakee and everyone else interested in VanLife conversions. Here are photos.

[Faith-manor]

So I am going to put a bunch of photos in here of our minivan camper conversion. First, it should be noted that while Make and I not do super rustic camping, we also do not need a lot of amenities to make us happy. This is not the conversion for people who want a lot more options. He and I like to sit outside, like to be around a campfire, etc. For two of us, we can comfortably hunker down in the van and tail veil when it rains or is really cold.

This is an older model Toyota Vienna with recessed seats. We take out the bucket seats, recess the back seats, and slide the conversion in. It comes apart easy peasy in three pieces all of which are hinged so you can access storage underneath.There is a cubby for each one of us behind the driver and passenger seat, and long under bed storage containers under the main part of the conversion. We took a layer of an old memory foam mattress that we had, and a foam topper for over that and it has been the right amount of padding for sleep, and the I have a couple of quilts I made for it. The curtains were made from a set of six 48x84" panels that used to be a room in our house. I had them stashed away after we redecorated that room. We used thing, long bamboo rods (leftovers from a 4H kite engineering project) for curtain rods, and 3M sticky back hooks. The curtains just lay on the bed when we are driving along with our cooler, and a food box. The tail veil was from Amazon. It connects to the back of the van with the hatch open when we make camp and provides a 10x10 or so room that is tall enough for Mark to stand up in comfortably. We only use it when we are going to be in one place more than two days. Otherwise, we store the cooler and food box on the front seats when we sleep, and the camp chairs go in a soft side topper on the roof.

Mark made the conversion himself. It cost about $200 in supplies. Siennas now have the option of being bought with conversions. They are slightly more elaborate than ours, but not by a lot, and I think they cost $7500.00. 

 

We only get about 22mpg. So a goal for the future is to wait for the new hybrid Siennas to end up on the market used in about five years, and then buy a lower mileage one. Those get 35+ mpg.

[Faith-manor]

More photos.

[Faith-manor]

More

[Faith-manor]

I don't have a good shot of the tail veil attached to the van. You can see just a little bit behind Peter who is attempting to devour a smore while battling his moustache and beard.

[Faith-manor]

For the trip we took with our sons, we left the bucket seats in, set the cubbies on top of the bed and stored bags of items under them enough route, and took another sleeping tent plus camp cots for them. We were packed in like saridines with two coolers and more camp chairs as well. But all the fishing gear, kitchen equipment, etc. stored nicely in the long tubes under the bed, and pull out as needed.

When we do buy the hybrid Sienna, we will be taking the back bench seats out entirely. This will create a very deep well for storage so probably a new platform will be built with spaces for tubs and shelves. He will still do it in multiple pieces so we can have the bucket seats in if we want. This will come in handy with two grandsons who might want to tag along once in a while.

[ktgrok]

I had never heard of a tail veil! Is that something you can get for regular old dodge grand caravans? Having some extra space when camping would be awesome! We bring a tent, but extra space is extra space!

[prairiewindmomma]

Awesome! We've looked extensively at trying to hack these: https://roadloft.com/en/camper-conversion-kit/.   https://www.instagram.com/roadloft/?hl=en We want to be able to cook under the back hatch of the van and eat at the table sitting on the bench because we have so many rainy days in the winter. 

Congrats! Many happy adventures!

Do you have a 12v electric kettle yet? 

[Faith-manor]

29 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

I had never heard of a tail veil! Is that something you can get for regular old dodge grand caravans? Having some extra space when camping would be awesome! We bring a tent, but extra space is extra space!

Yes, they are adjustable to fit. I can use our tail veil on our Chevy Equinox if I want.

[Faith-manor]

15 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Awesome! We've looked extensively at trying to hack these: https://roadloft.com/en/camper-conversion-kit/.   https://www.instagram.com/roadloft/?hl=en We want to be able to cook under the back hatch of the van and eat at the table sitting on the bench because we have so many rainy days in the winter. 

Congrats! Many happy adventures!

Do you have a 12v electric kettle yet? 

No, we don't keep an electric pot. We can cook in our tail veil with the camp stove, so we have a perk pot for coffee which doubles for hot water for tea and cocoa.

[Faith-manor]

Also z though expensive we found a two burner Coleman camp stove with a refillable tank that can run on unleaded gas. We carry a pen gallon gas can now. We GRT a TON of cooking from that so for gallon. Way cheaper than buying those little propane tanks that you can't get refilled, making them undesirable environmentally speaking. It won't take long for the new stove to pay for itself.

[Ottakee]

Thanks for all of the information.  Ignore my ask for this thread on the other thread...I posted that and then scrolled farther and saw this 

I could do this with a roof rack and/or bike rack.

I would really though like a little camp toilet for those middle of the night trips.

[popmom]

10 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Thanks for all of the information.  Ignore my ask for this thread on the other thread...I posted that and then scrolled farther and saw this 

I could do this with a roof rack and/or bike rack.

I would really though like a little camp toilet for those middle of the night trips.

I have a Thetford Porti potty and a pop up tent to make a camp site restroom. I would never camp without it! 

[popmom]

@Faith-manor I love your van set up! 

My dream is to get a Ram Promaster van and do my own conversion. It will probably never happen, but I can dream and pins tons of stuff on Pinterest! 😂

Edited August 4, 2021 by popmom

[Faith-manor]

9 hours ago, popmom said:

@Faith-manor I love your van set up! 

My dream is to get a Ram Promaster van and do my own conversion. It will probably never happen, but I can dream and pins tons of stuff on Pinterest! 😂

Thanks! A Pro master is nice because it is taller, and it is a very good performer in accidents so safety is a bif consideration. You can get more storage and stand up inside. That is one reason I would consider a taller van. But we want to cover such long distances that we need something that gets good gas mileage so we are likely to buy a hybrid minivan in the future.

The Chrysler Pacifica is out because currently it only goes about 35 miles on electric only, and the battery pack is in the back under the bench seats so those seats do not stow, and you cannot get extra cargo space by removing them (ie. using the bench well like we can in the Sienna). However, since we have a five year wait before we absolutely want to make the transition, we can see if their design changes.

That said, we are pretty brand loyal. Christopher and I were in a Sienna when we were t-boned in 2014 by a woman driving like a bat out of hell who was playing on her phone and ran a stop sign at high speed. Two firemen and a state trooper told my husband that Christopher would have been dead if we had been in any other mini-van or smaller vehicle because the Sienna had the best engineering for t-bones available at that time, and even the old models came with side curtain airbags (saved Christopher's head) when no one else but the newer Odyssey minis and none of the American SUV's had them as standard features. It made me very emotionally attached to the brand. 

I have recently purchased a Chevy Equinox for my regular driving now that I do not have a rocket team of teens to transport to practice and competition launches. It has just enough cargo space for Mark and I to use for our own personal rocketry trips. It came with all the safety features I wanted, gets the same safety rating as the Sienna, and gets much better gas mileage. I have adjusted to the smaller vehicle. I can use it solo camping because with the back seat folded down, I can just sleep in the back since I am only 5'4". But poor 6' Mark absolutely cannot, so even though our tail veil fits it, we won't be able to camp together in it. I am going to do a solo camping trip in it in October. I am excited about that prospect!

I am also going to take another photography workshop. Some car and camp gear companies will pay Vanlifers for photos they can use in promotional materials. I also absolutely love our National Park and National Forest service and am willing to donate photography to them for their use. I need to up my game and abilities in this regard. I have taken one beginner and one intermediate photography class, and am taking fairly decent photos now. I need a lot more practice though, and I also need the advanced class after I get that practice. Most of what I post here has been quick, cell phone shots, not anything with my good DSLR.

[Tree Frog]

I have friends in Germany who camped this way 35 years ago. We visited them a couple of years ago and they were still driving the same VW Vanagon, taking their grandkids camping. It looks like a great way to camp! I think, though, that their Vanagon was built for camping as it has a sink (but not toilet) inside, which is different than what your dh built.

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, wilrunner said:

I have friends in Germany who camped this way 35 years ago. We visited them a couple of years ago and they were still driving the same VW Vanagon, taking their grandkids camping. It looks like a great way to camp! I think, though, that their Vanagon was built for camping as it has a sink (but not toilet) inside, which is different than what your dh built.

Yes, we didn't do any kind of sink. I really like doing dishes outdoors, and Mark always helps after every meal. We warm water on the camp stove in our galvanized bucket. We also use that bucket to warm water for washing up. So far we have stayed in campgrounds with showers, but eventually we will try dispersed camping. We do have a portable composting toilet that we can take with us, and we will probably buy a solar shower. But when you disperse camp, you have no potable water source and have to carry it all with you. So, water conservation becomes the name of the game!