Skip to main content

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

Post a Comment

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
1 comment
Read more

We have a van. A WonderVan!

We have a van! We technically bought it a week ago but it had not had all its inspections on it so it wasn't final. This last week they did a myriad of things including a new windshield, new rear breaks, new filters, basic services and a smog test. Then they detailed it. We are so happy with our experience at Jimmy Vasser's in Napa and an extra shout out to Raymond. We headed up Friday afternoon, took it for a quick spin, signed the papers, wrote the check and headed back home.  Our new girl is a 2014 Dodge Ram C/V. C/V stands for cargo van. What she really is, is a Dodge Caravan minus the rear seats. There are even hatches to wells where the seat components went. She has a tow package, a rear camera, bluetooth and more. Dennis loves the cup holder because his water cup fits nice and snug.  Of course, the measuring tapes came out and pads of paper to sketch ideas but that's for another post. For now here's a video of her arrival and a peek of the inside.
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more