hey so i'm gonna give you a tour of this
stealth camper that i converted
i lived out of this van in san francisco
for a year and i was able to park
overnight almost anywhere i wanted to
even in front of people's houses so
let's get started
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so the design of this conversion is very
simple there's two major parts
the first part is the base cabinets down
below this is where i store most of my
stuff
and where i sleep on top of the second
part
is the cabinets in the back which houses
my plumbing and my electrical
so let's start with these bottom
cabinets so this compartment here is one
of my larger ones
and here i keep some clothes
some cookware camping stuff and larger
items
here is my foam mattress that i sleep on
and this unfolds to cover the whole
length of these storage cabinets
if you take a look at my passenger seat
you can see that it's folded down and
pushed all the way to the front
and this allows me to add this extension
which gives me more space for my bed
so this compartment here is basically my
bathroom
here i keep my cassette toilet
uh basic bathroom stuff and toiletries
in that bin
on the other side have dirty laundry
and cleaning supplies so basic bathroom
stuff
and i even have a shower in this
compartment so what i do is
i take this whole lid out
then i take all the stuff that's in the
compartment out
underneath all this stuff is a shower
pan with a drain
that goes straight through the floor and
into a gray water tank that's mounted
underneath my van
then i take a board that unfolds to
create the stall
for my shower right now you can't see it
but underneath that lid
is a sink in the faucet and that's where
i get my water
the inside of my van it's not tall
enough for me to stand up in so i do
have to crouch or sit down when i'm
showering
not the most convenient thing but hey if
i wanted to shower in a parking lot
without anyone noticing
then the option is there
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alright so in the back here is my desk
last sink right now it's a desk because
the lid is closed and it's where i
sometimes work from
right next to my desk are wall outlets
and usb ports so it's a super convenient
place to charge my phone and my laptop
how i set up the seat for my desk is
pretty simple i take the lid
and i fold it in half then i sit on top
of it like a bench
then i take some of the stuff out from
underneath so i have a place to put my
feet
then i can slide the lid up so i can sit
closer to the desk
so now i'm going to show you the sink
so this is where i brush my teeth wash
my dishes and for the past couple months
i've been shampooing my hair in this
little sink because the showers at the
gyms are closed
and i don't feel like setting up my
shower that's inside my van every day
this faucet here has a built-in
electrical switch in it so that when i
turn on the water
it also turns on the water pump and when
i lower the handle down it turns
everything off
right next to my faucet is my shower
hose hookup and
my soap dispenser
so right next to my desk is a little
compartment where i store
some small tools and some charging
cables
right next to that is my reading light
that i use every night
when i'm getting ready for bed on the
side here is a little hand towel holder
and this here is probably my favorite
storage compartment
so this drawer is probably one of the
more intricate things in my van
it uses what would have been dead space
on either side of the sink basin
you see that's the sink right there so
in the house this would normally be a
dummy drawer front so it would have been
wasted space
but i wanted to use every single last
square inch of this van
and this joy is a really good example of
that
there's also a cool hidden feature with
this joy
you see in that gap right there i can
reach my hand through this gap
and turn a valve that switches the tank
that the pump draws from
this is going to make more sense when i
show you the back so let's head back
there
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all right so let's continue on with the
plumbing system so down here are my two
fresh water tanks
and this right here is my wallet pump
now the pump draws water from one
of these flexible hoses that feed to the
bottom of each of my
tanks when i finish one tank i have to
switch
to the other one using that valve right
there
and having access that valve from the
inside of my van
means that i don't have to walk out here
and open this door
again the idea is i'm in a city and i
don't want to enter and exit my van
unnecessarily and potentially attract
suspicion
now behind my two tanks is the drain
pipe for
my sink and it is a flexible pipe that i
curved in a way to act as a trap in
order to prevent some of the odors in my
green tank from entering
my van the pipe
goes uh through the floor and eventually
ends
in the gray tank that's underneath my
van now how do i
empty the tank well in theory this
switch right here is supposed to open
a mechanical ball valve that's attached
to the bottom of the tank and empty it
that way
but i never use it this entire plumbing
system
had no leaks except for the grate tank
there's a small
tiny little leak that causes it to drip
until it's empty
and because it drips so slowly it only
leaves inconspicuous puddles of water
which eventually dry up and this
imperfection ended up making my life
easier
because i don't have to go out of my way
to dump the water somewhere special
the tank empties itself so that's pretty
much the plumbing now i'm going to move
on to the electrical
all right so down here is my deep cycle
battery that supplies power to the whole
system
and it gets charged by these two solar
panels
up here and the two panels
connect to a charge controller that's
located in this upper cabinet
now the charge controller is pretty much
the brain of the solar system
and it knows how to deliver a correct
charging voltage to
the battery this right here
is my positive and my negative bus buy
and
these split power throughout the whole
system everything is protected by
in-line breakers like this and this one
right here and they also allow me to cut
off power to separate parts of the
system
this right here is my 12-volt fuse box
that uses these little blade fuses
down here is my thousand watt inverter
that's mounted above my battery and that
supplies 120 volts for my wall outlets
and this right here is the switch for
the inverter and the reason for the
switch is because
inverters always have a phantom load
meaning that they always draw a small
amount of current
from the battery even when it's not in
use
so this switch cuts off that circuit
entirely so i don't have to worry
about that and i mounted
the switch in a specific way that allows
me to have access to the switch from the
inside of my van
and the last thing is my automatic
charging relay now
this is supposed to automatically charge
my battery when the alternator
of my car is running and but in my
experience this was unnecessary
because i would park my car and not
drive it for weeks
and my battery would still be full from
just the solar panels
so that pretty much covers my electrical
system
this right here is a privacy cover
magnet that's magnetic and these cover
my windows
down here is my two mirror setup
that i use to cut my own hair and i use
this little
round mirror to get a little angle so i
can see the back of my head
now the idea is that i would drive
somewhere out in the middle of nowhere
where no one will bother me and that's
where i cut my hair
so that is pretty much the back of the
vehicle
and now i want to show you what it looks
like when i am inside the van
[Music]
all right so let's start out with
lighting so i have these
uh four bright overhead lights that i
can control with the switch
back here and also my reading light here
that's on this
flexible neck
uh as you can see i like hanging my
clothes uh which is why i made this open
closet using this
metal rod that's attached to the ceiling
up here is my rooftop vents last fan
and i will keep this open in the summer
when it's hot and at night when i'm
sleeping
and because this is such a small living
space i have to make sure i have good
airflow
that way i get fresh air and also i
avoid building up condensation on my
windshield
when i turn on this fan it draws air
from
the front to windows and up in through
the vent
on my windows i installed these uh wind
deflectors which allow me
to crack them open slightly without
people noticing that they're open
and they also allow me to keep them open
even when it's raining
um for my ceilings and walls they're all
insulated and my walls are lined
with vinyl upholstery
uh this right here is my ice chest and
it doesn't hold an awful lot of food
because i usually pack this thing with
three quarters of the way with ice
and it doesn't leave me with a whole lot
of space left but it does keep my food
cold for like
maybe a week and a half in winter and
maybe more like five or six days
in the summer now how do i cook
i have two options the first option is
this hot plate here and i would plug
this into a 12-volt socket
and it would heat up food in a glass
tupperware
now the only issue with this is that it
takes about
uh like two or three hours to get food
hot so
uh if i plan ahead before i get hungry
then it's not the worst thing
um the second option is a butane stove
now what i would do with that is i would
um take this ice chest and put it right
outside my van
and i'll put the stove on top of the ice
chest
then i would use my bed as a countertop
space
obviously this isn't stealthy anymore so
i do have to drive out
somewhere like a big parking lot where
no one will care and i would
cook there now i'm going to show you
what it looks like when i get access to
my toilet
so i open this lid up here and then i
have this bin
and just lift up like that just put that
aside and
right here is my toilet
and i can sit on it like like so
so super easy to get access to that now
the next thing i'm going to show you is
how i set up my bed
so this for mattress fold
out like this then all my bedding is in
this cabinet here
you know i would lay this out like so
and i use a
down sleeping bag
as a blanket so what i would do is i
it's
actually a mummy bag and what i do is i
just unzip it all the way
and kind of just use it like a blanket
like this
all right so i'm gonna put that away now
[Music]
hey so i hope you enjoyed this video and
if you're new to this channel you should
know that one of my goals is a create
community
that's why i'm planning meetups here in
santa cruz california where i currently
live
full time in the van so if you want to
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name is evan and this was the van
that's behind stories from a van take
[Music]
care
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you