A look back at our van conversions, and why we made the switch from car camping to van life.
Our first van, Rusty, is a 144 low roof Sprinter Van. We flew out to Nebraska and purchased it with $144,000 miles for $4,500. Knowing that these vans can go 400,000+ miles made the high mileage not a concern especially for the price. We ended up investing $18,500 into the build and then sold it 2 years later for $35,000.
RUSTY: BEFORE & AFTER
I loved this van. It encapsulated a whole new ease and style of travel. Not that we didn’t LOVE car camping. We really did love it. Shoot, after a 10 day trip to Canada I cried on my way home wanting to continue to live in a crammed ’95 Camry wagon for longer. But with that said there were a few things that bothered me that I saw the Sprinter being able to help with.
- LEG ROOM: We were packed to the max. Things were packed on the floor between the seats and I barley had room for my feet. It worked and it got us to some amazing places, but it was just harder. We always made the joke that the car would throw up our gear when we got to camp or to a trail head and had to pack our packs.
- PACKING: The thought that I could have a vehicle that stored all of my camping gear and I could literally say I want to go camping, grab some food and GO. I hate packing, so this sounded like a dream.
- WEATHER: It’s never fun to admit you came home early because of the weather. You feel like a failure, like your not tough enough, or rugged enough, right? This has happened to us a handful of times. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do when its pouring outside and freezing and you have 2 toddlers to entertain while constantly trying to keep them dry and warm. Hiking and exploring in bad weather isn’t a problem for us. If we could have a place where we could escape the bad weather, cook, play games, and stay warm, then we could stay longer. We wouldn’t get rained out and have to return home early.
- QUICK EXIT: As parents we learned early on that we can get a lot of miles in driving when the kids sleep at night. We would leave after work and drive until 12 or 1am, pull over, pull everything out, blow it up, sleep, wake up early, deflate everything, stuff it tight, and put it all away. (We actually got pretty quick at it. We timed ourselves once and it was around 20 minutes!) But what if we already had the bed set up, pull over, get in bed, and then in the morning wake up and immediately get in our seats! Whoa… that would be amazing.
There are more reasons why we fantasized after a van, but those are really our top 4 that drove the dream.
Rusty did in fact create a new style of travel for us. We could go farther in a short period of time. We could go more often, because everything was already packed up. I think another reason why I loved it so much is because we put sooo much work into it. Yes, we did only spend $4,500, but that required ALOT of TLC.
RUSTY’S TRANSFORMATION
WHY WE BUILT A NEW VAN
You may be asking WHY? Why change? Why get a new one after all that work?
We really would have kept Rusty if it wasn’t for our choice of going full time. It was a perfect camping van. However, Rusty, lit a fire in us. A fire to never come home. The van made it soooo much easier to camp and go and explore. It seemed effortless now. What if we did this full time? What if we traveled even further? What if we quit our jobs and traveled the longest road in the world?
In the beginning we made the decision to travel the Pan American Highway in Rusty, however, to be honest… Scott never loved Rusty. Hince the name… It just had so much rust on the undercarriage and he couldn’t shake the thought of taking it on a 50,000 mile overlanding journey. He needed something that he could fix on the side of the road and not worry about the breaks fusing together because rust.
I was against this thought for so many months. I wouldn’t even entertain it. The thought of building a new van and starting the whole process over seemed overwhelming and gave me anxiety. It was fun building the van with Scott and I side by side and our endless discussions was awesome. Working full time, being parents and trying to build on nights and the weekends was harder to balance than we thought. The kids were troopers. We all gave up a lot, but knew we would gain more in return. When it came down to it, I knew the kids were growing fast and all of us sleeping in the same bed was getting harder and harder. It would be even more difficult when we were in the hot humidly of Central America. We had planned to add on a Colorado Campervan Pop Top that would be the kids room. This was a very big investment for a van that Scott didn’t trust. They’re around $15,000. Crazy, huh? Not only did we have to add on a pop top, but we also had to add in solar and more electrical ($5,000), sink and plumbing, and other items. It was all adding up quickly and came to the point where we both realized it was just too much to invest in a van that wasn’t clean and already had given us some mechanical issues. I gave in and realized Scott was right.
I never get attached to vehicles. It’s always been easy to move on to the next. However, Rusty stole my heart, and truly changed our lives. It’s because of this van our outlook on adventure expanded to the possibility of full time travel, and now when that it’s right at the door, I’m not letting it take us there. With a broken heart, I said goodbye to Rusty, and sent him off with a couple who had lots of fun adventures planned. We follow them on instagram and love to seeing Rusty still going strong and off to new adventures!
OUR NEW RIG: EL GATO GORDO
We’re super stoked about our new van, El Gato Gordo (The Fat Cat).
2008 Dodge / Mercedes Sprinter Van- 170 high roof, 2500 diesel
BEFORE & AFTER
Main differences:
- High Roof vs Low Roof = 1ft higher (allows for overhead storage)
- 144 vs 170 (wheel base) = 3ft longer (allows to add in a larger kitchen + kids bunk beds)
- 38,000 v.s 165,000 miles = lower mileage (peace of mind)
- Passenger vs Cargo = No need to add kid seats, windows, headliner, or side paneling. (saves an amazing amount of time)
- Nebraska vs Arizona = Rusty came from Nebraska where they used salt on the roads where corrosion was more of an issue. El Gato Gordo came from Arizona where this wasn’t an issue. (Full Paint & New Door – $7,500)
- More Options = A lot more options: LCD Display, aux diesel heater from factory, etc.
All in all the cost to move to Rusty to El Gato Gordo was a wash. With the money we made from Rusty we were able to purchase our new van and build it out for the same cost we were going to have into Rusty. Once again, Scott was right. It was the best decision to start over. A lot of work, but hard work pays off.
