Final design and the packages start to arrive....

We finalized the design. Our original plan was to install a built in fridge drawer but we found an electric cooler the will just fit in our tight space. We ordered a 36L KUPPET portable cooler. Because we need the mattress to be as long as possible, the cooler can’t be too deep. This model doesn’t have handles that extend from the sides and that makes it fit in a tighter space. It is capable of freezing temperatures but does not have zones so ice cubes are likely not in our future.

The cooler will be run off of an battery power bank/generator called the Eco Flow Delta 1300 Portable Power Station. Because of the size of our van and the fact that the main accessory we are running is the cooler, we felt we did not need a larger more complicated power system. The size is small but it packs a lot of power. Living in Northern California, rolling power outages during fire season has become common. It’s nice to know we could use it in a pinch to power the hot water heater or recharge our phones. Dennis has us set up with three solar panels to help make the battery last longer.

These were two of the most exciting (and expensive) packages but there was so many other things to order including the slide extensions for the kitchen pullouts, the toilet, the blackstone and the mattress.

Next we start to build the framework....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to WonderVan Adventures! I'm Sophie and this blog is about my husband, Dennis, and my adventures in converting a cargo van into a camper van. It will also be about our adventures on the open road when our camper van is ready to go. Why the name WonderVan? Well, Dennis worked for Wonderbread for over 30 years and it seemed like a sweet nod to his first career. Dennis now works as a school bus driver for the local school district and I work for a book publisher that specialized in sewing and craft titles. What made us want to take on this project? There are lots of reasons we decided to take on this DIY but the whole COVID situation has made us pretty stir crazy. I now work at home, which I'm very grateful about, but it feels like I NEVER leave the house. In many ways, I don't. We have been talking about getting a trailer, a teardrop, a used RV or other mobile "vacay" on wheels for a while and to be honest, I pretty much lost it. I started to stress tha...

Joseph Grant Park Camping Trip

As I mentioned in the previous post, our maiden voyage was to Grant Park near Morgan Hill (Lick Observatory sits about the park). A one night trip to test out the equipment, we picked a place close to home that also had availability. The drive up Mount Hamilton was steep, narrow and curved. As you reach the top, you drop in the valley behind and you find golden rolling hills spotted with oaks. We arrived before the 3pm check in and took a nice stroll in the valley bottom because there is no early check in. Our walk was flat and easy. The woodpeckers were very busy storing acorns in the giant oaks. The van and our build worked great but where we lacked in “equipment” was in warm clothing. It was cold and windy and we did not bring the right clothing. The rechargeable hand warmers that Dennis bought were a warm blessing. The park and campground itself was very nice. We had a great spot with no immediate neighbors. The bathroom was a quick walk down the hill and was very...

First Trip with Video Tour

I will give more equipment details later but I think it is time for a video tour. We took the van out on it’s maiden voyage the first Saturday of November, 2 months after taking delivery of our WonderVan. We headed to Joseph Grant Park in San Jose. I will do a review on the campground in the next post. Here is a video of our van in progress plus a bonus video of our Blackstone in action. Here’s a quick video of Dennis cooking in action...

WonderVan Adventures

Search This Blog