VAN LIFE TOUR | Full Time Living in The Smallest Sprinter Van Converted Airstream Interstate

Hello, this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel here in Turkey Swamp Park, beautiful campground in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Freehold Township. And I'm here with my Airstream B190 today. And I bumped into another Airstream owner, Christine, and she's going to give us a tour today of her Airstream Interstate. Now, this is a short sprinter chassis, and it is a four-wheel drive. This is my Airstream. This is an older one. This is a 97 that I had converted to four-wheel drive. But anyway, Christine's going to give us a tour inside and out. Hello, welcome to New Jersey Outdoor Adventures. Hi, Patrick. I'm Christine, and this is the Black Pearl. I call her Pearl for short. She is 19 feet long. She's a Mercedes-Benz chassis with a 144-inch wheelbase, which is the shorter version. And she is usually getting about 18 to 20 miles per gallon. It's a V6 turbo diesel. And I've been doing this camping and RVing for a long time, and I had bigger units. And I just decided I wanted to be able to go a lot more places. Being four-wheel drive, it allows me access to go anywhere. So I looked around, and I found this Airstream Interstate 19, and it has everything that I wanted in a home. I gave up my apartment in June, and so this is my house now. And I spent some months thinking about different storage places and little storage hacks, a lot of them from your channel, New Jersey Outdoor Adventures, and some other YouTubers. So I'd like to share with you some of the things that I have done inside. Come on in. So as you come in the door here, you'll see this is the C-Zone. This is all a panel with all touch control. I can go from monitoring the batteries and the tanks. It has a, let's see, it has a freshwater tank of 21 gallons and a gray water of about 16 and a black tank of 9. And then I can switch it, and I can go to climate, turn on the air conditioning or the heat, and different modes. And then it controls everything from here with all of the shades, the water pump, the vents, and the ceiling lights. It has a step-on hold here, and I put, this is one of the things, I added little puck lights coming in and out, just easy to touch. This is the main battery shut-off disc. If you come on in, welcome. So this is the kitchen and living room, and all in one. So I'll start here in the kitchen, and you can see that this model has a regular sink with a spout. It actually has a hose that comes out, so it's retractable. You can actually pull it outside if you needed to. It's great for washing pots and things. It has a nice deep sink. This is a two-burner stove. It is propane, and it works great. I cook all my meals, and I'm really able to do everything I need with the two burners. This storage is just this one area, so this is all built-in, came with this, and it has all of my needs for a kitchen drawer with different spatulas, lighter, things like that. And then these two cabinets are all my pots and pans. I have two fry pans, cast iron, and then I use Sea to Summit cookware. They stack inside each other, and I have a lot of collapsible bowls and strainers. On the sides, I've hung little hooks, and I get things up and out of the way with my little hot pads there. And then, you know, just only need very minimal, you know, a couple plates, bowls, cups, and that's it. And on the floor here, I just have some burrugs. I got these from my apartment. These were on the back of a chair, and they're just easy to wash and throw in, and this flooring is like a weave, woven, and it's really durable. It cleans well. Just sweep it out or vacuum with the little mini vac, and it cleans up nice and easy. All right, moving back, some of the storage things I did, I added this little metal strip, and it just stuck right to the aluminum. And then these are magnetized for all of my spices, and as I said, I like to cook a lot, so I use a lot of spices. This is a little pull-out drawer and a table, so it's nice and convenient to come out, and then I can have more space to work in the kitchen. It has, this is another add-on. It's Velcroed on, so it's just extra basket. I don't have a lot of cabinet space for things like this, so having something just decorative out like that really works well for when I actually need another bowl or basket. It has a microwave. I don't usually use the microwave. It stores all of my breads and chips, so it's another little space to store. Moving to the back, I'll stay up top here. This is one of the two cabinets that it has. It's organized with two felt storage bins. I think they're from Ikea, but this is my summer side, and then the other cabinet has my winter clothes, and that's plenty. You'd be surprised. Moving around the top here, these are two sliders that open for a cabinet. I have a beach towel. I actually have my, I'm a hiker. I hike the Appalachian Trail sections. This is my tent, and this is just an extra fleece robe blanket. All throughout the van, you'll see the different nooks and crannies where I've stowed away all of the things that I need for my hiking and backpacking. That's where my tent is. On this side, this is another cabinet with my storage bins, and these are all heavier winter clothes. Up front, I have a couple places where I have winter coats actually stored away. This is the electrical and solar system panel, so whenever I hook into shore power, I have to select the service amps that I'm using. I'm on a 30-amp service right now. This shows you the battery remaining and the solar hours used for the 250 watts of solar that are on the roof. And again, I have another C-zone back here, so whether I'm in the front or in the back, I can access everything for the coach from these two C-zone panels. This is the Truma hot water heater system. It's a combo, and so if I wanted to turn on, this would be for heating the RV. This would be for heating the water, and then it shows you the options that you have for choosing your power source. So you can choose it to have, let's say I want to turn on my hot water, and then I click that one, and then I'll turn it on to hot, and then I can turn over here, and I can say propane power, mix one, mix two, and choose it. All right, moving down in the back, so around here, I have a lot of things that are USB-powered. This is just a little clip-on fan, and then I have this little nightlight, and then I also have a lantern that's USB-operated inside this storage box. I have two of these storage boxes, one on each side, and this one stores my Goal Zero. It's a lithium battery. It's the Goal Zero 200. I also have a solar panel for that to charge it. Right now it's plugged in to the coach through a regular outlet, and this is the lantern I was telling you about that's also USB-powered. In effect, I could live off-grid even if I didn't have battery power from the coach, because it likes to be plugged in. Pearl likes to be plugged in. It has a lot of things that are attached electronically with the energy sources. This is a lagoon table, and so it's really great because you can swivel it different ways. You can position it if you have people sitting here. You can put it off to the side. Yeah, so it works really well, and it's a beautiful design from a nautical ... I actually found it from Patrick's van, one of his van tours that he did. He has this in his van, and I liked it so much that I wanted to bring in the natural wood tones that I have here with the bowl and the basket and the tabletop. All right, this has a TV, which I don't use too much, but it's got a little strap. You can pull it down, and you can swivel it actually to show up front if you swivel the front seat around. All right, moving through, this is the pantry. It's really ... This is my solar oven. These are just different things you would need in the kitchen drawer. This is all my food in the pantry, and I have more food stored in the back in bins, so that works out really well. It also has a pull-out pantry, which I love. It's one of my favorite things, and I use this all the time. It's easy to pull out and to get to my tea and my honey and the different things that I use on a regular basis. It has a compression fridge, which is great because I don't have to worry about being level to use it. It has a freezer inside, and it has a really nice-sized refrigerator. As I said, I live in the van, and everything I need or could possibly need would fit in this size refrigerator. It really works out well. That's the freezer, so it works out really nicely. This is the air conditioning system. It's really loud, so I'm not going to have it run right now, but it does work really well. I also have a ceiling vent and fan. A lot of times, I like to just open the back two windows and turn on the fan and shut the screen door on the side here. It also has a full screen that drops down. With the back doors open, it's really nice to sleep on a nice, cool night with the doors open and just the screen down, so it works out really well. This is the bathroom. Yes, it does have a full wet bath. In the bathroom, there is the toilet. I got this little wooden mat for it for the shower. This comes out and pulls up and hooks up on here so that you have the shower, and it has shampoo, conditioner, and hand soap. I added this little shelf here with the three tiers just for extra storage and a little tower for TP. The bathroom is very functional and very spacious, and I love it. These are some things that I found from watching different YouTubers. These are little micro towels. These are the bath towels that I use. I have two sets of them, and they're really folded up nice and small. There's three towels in here, and the bath towel is really quite large. It has a nice little hook, and I can hook it right up on these. I put these from one of my other motorhomes. They hang right over the door, and so it gave me a lot of extra hanging space for things like that. These are quick-drying, and they really work well. I can also use it for extra beach towels in a pinch. You can see, if I step in here, how nice and spacious it is, and it has a fan, too. I can turn the fan on, and that eliminates any moisture, and everything dries. The shower curtain would pull across, and then everything on this side is able to get wet in the shower, and it drains down the bottom and into the gray tank. I also keep my laundry basket in there behind the toilet, so I have that. And then, moving up to the front of the van, this space here behind my seat, I just hung a hook, and these are some of my jackets and my ukulele. I also store here the cover for the window shades. I also have, actually, a shower. I love this. I don't know what it's called, the green elephant, but it pops out, and I use it out on the side of the van with the outside water access, and so I don't fill my tank so frequently. I have two camp chairs here that I store. I also have one of my hiking pads for backpacking that I use to sleep on, put my sleeping bag on. And then I have my manuals that came with the van, and I also have my little broom and a little dustpan, and all of that fits nicely behind my seat. And moving up to the front, you can see that this fabric here that came installed on the van is able to be velcroed, attaches to it really nicely. So on one of the van tours I saw, somebody had these velcro cargo nets, and instead of putting a shelf across here for storage, I wanted to keep the head space, and so I went online and found a whole bunch of these cargo nets, and then I wanted it to look nice, so I went and I got all the same little storage packs. These are by Eagle Creek, and these are a size small, but they really work well. This is my hammock, and so what you're looking at up here is most of the things that I found that I need to live. So this is all my hiking gear, backpack, my water filtration system for hiking, so I can filter water from a stream and have safe drinking water, and then an extra little day pack. Over here I have all of my rain gear for hiking, and I have emergency roadside flares and things like that. I have my junk drawer, which you would have in a kitchen with scissors and tape, and coming down this side I have winter coats, extra toiletries, and first aid, and like your medicine cabinet, all that in here, and then another winter coat. So this is my little space where I keep some extra things. These are my DVDs when I feel like watching a movie on my laptop, and this is my actual everyday toiletry bag, and I unzip that and it hangs in the bathroom, and everything is right there that I need. And then this is just to make it feel like home. These are some special things that people have given me over the years, and this is my pug. He died in May, but my sister gave me this to remember him by, and my other sister gave me that. So here's his little memory tag, Hurley. He's a sweetie. He was 13 years old. He was my co-pilot, so it's time for a new one, I think. Alright, and then just up front here is just the manual for the van, for the Mercedes-Benz manual part of it, and I store my water up in one of these little soft-sided storage bins, so I have all my different water containers up here. And then I guess I'll take you outside. On the way out, you can see this is really handy over the back of the seat-hanging organizer. So I have everything from all of my bills and letters and things in here, to I have my manuals and maps, and I have my ukulele music books. These are some Lucy lights that are solar powered, so I put them up in the front window and charge them, and this little broom comes in handy all the time. These cup holders here, and these are a couple of scarves. So, in the back, this area here transfers from my, this is heavy, I want to be really careful with it, I'm going to put this safely up here. So this area here actually converts to where I sleep, and the couch goes down, and I can show you with a push of the button up here. Now being by myself, when I'm by myself, I don't have to close both of these ottomans, so I'll close the one ottoman over here, and it takes up some of the floor space. And then I actually, I Velcroed these on this little pad so it stays when I drive, and that drops down. And so, this becomes my bed. I store my sheets in the back of the pillow, decorative pillow, and I put a pillowcase on it and take the sheets out, and this is a self-inflating camping mattress. It's super comfortable, and I put it out, and it self-inflates, and then I actually just cover it and make it like a bed. So I put on a mattress pad, and a fitted sheet, and a flat sheet, and I have a down quilt for the winter, and in the summer I'll just use the blanket, and it's really comfortable, really cozy. And so this gives me the floor space to, you know, keep walking through here and go out through the van. All right, I'll take you outside. So this is, because it's a full RV, as I said, it pretty much has everything, it does have an awning, and with the control C zone here, I can just click on the awning and I can open it up. And I have a mat, a rug, that I put out here with my chairs usually, and so it makes a nice really outdoor living space. So I'll show you the outside of the van, some of the other storage things that I've done. In the front here, I have found this on a YouTube channel to store all my leveling blocks. I don't have a lot of space in the back garage, and so they are stacked all the way along here so I have everything I need without taking up and wasting a lot of space in the back. On the door, I use this space for everything. This has my binoculars, a hammer, this is a medical kit that came with the van, aside from the medical kits I have from hiking, just rags, towels. This is a wind-up battery for weather and emergency, so I keep that handy for times when I need to tune in, find out what's going on with the weather. Then I just have some WD-40 tape measure, tire pressure gauge tape, so all of that really can just store it away there. This seat here, it does swivel, and so if I move the seat to the proper adjustment, I can just swivel it around. As I said, I don't do this too often, but it is really nice to be able to turn it around and you can then sit and watch TV from the back, and so it works out nicely. This is a really great feature, this is a screen, full screen, so this is all screened. I can choose to open the door all the way or stop it here if it's cold weather, and the screen with the fan and the windows open really circulates the air and it's quite comfortable. This is my fresh water fill, so I have a fresh water tank, 21 gallon tank, and I would fill it here. I like it here because it's secure inside the van door, so nobody could open it on an outside part of the van and put anything in it that would be unsafe, so I just hook up a regular garden hose to that and fill the tank there. This is just an access panel. This is an outlet on the outside so that I can plug things in here that I might need. I actually travel with a toaster oven, so I use that a lot, I put my little table here and put the toaster oven on it. This is where my propane shut off valve and fill is, so this little switch here would go down to turn off the propane, and this is where I fill it, and that's the bleeder valve that has to be open when you're filling the tank. And in the back is the garage. I probably should have put the seat up because you can see a little bit better with the bench up, but again, I store, I use everything for storage. I use a lot of these Rapid Velcro things. This is for my electric cord. This is a little adapter for the electric to go down to 110, and then this is all things for keeping the van clean. In the back here is where I store my bedding. These are just stuff sacks, so you just saw that I used from my hiking gear, and so you'll see that I have a mattress pad and a quilt for when I need it in the cold winter. So under here is my garage. This is the shorter version of the Sprinter van, being 144-inch wheelbase. It has a much smaller garage area, so I had to be really careful about what I brought, what I needed, and how to store it. Everything has a place, and everything fits in its place, and everything is safely spaced so that the automatic chair going up and down isn't interfered with. So this is an extra water hose, and I have a utility shovel, and I have those for times when, you know, if it's cold weather, you have to dig out the snow, you've got a shovel. And then I have, this is my cooking stove and kitchen for my backpack, and all of the fuel for it. This is my table, and that really works out well. It's just a nice, easy folding table, and you can adjust the height. I use that a lot. And that's from GCI Outdoors. I have two of these. These are from Ikea, I think, and they're little octopuses for hanging my laundry out. So if there's a hook on a site, you can hang that out, but I also bring my own shepherd's hooks that are foldable. And so anytime that I have wet clothing, bathing suits, and towels, I can hang them outside. This is my sleeping bag, as I said. I have almost everything I need in the van for a backpacking trip all the time. So I have a toaster oven, which takes up a lot of space, but I really like my toaster oven, and I use it a lot. I have some small storage bins. These are all my bungee cords and Velcro fasteners. Hopefully don't need this nice snow scraper. I also keep hidden little things in here. These are for my forks for cooking on the fireplace, for marshmallows and things like that. This is for my water. These are my hoses, my filter, and all of the things that I need for water hookups. And this is for my electrical. I have another extension cord, and I have a cable for cable TV if they have a hookup for it. And then I have another one, which is for all of my extras. I have chalks for the wheels. I have a really nice axe for chopping my firewood. Extra toilet paper, chemicals, and this is for my tablecloth. Extension cord for when I just want to hook in and use an extension cord right from the electric post at campsites. On this side, my laundry detergent. I have a cold bag so I can keep drinks cold to go to the beach. And then these are my little hooks that I use to, they fit together, of course they don't come out right now. That's one thing about van life or camping in a van, I always have to move three or four things to get to what I need, but that's just part of it. So these are just hooks, I'm not going to put them together for you, but you can see that they screw together and it's a nice little shepherd's crook to hang my little laundry hook. And then I have a toolbox. And again, I watched a YouTube channel on things that you should have and travel with in your van. And this is just a funnel for putting some things in the engine for the fluids. I have my, oh, up top, I velcroed on my hiking sticks and so you can see that they've been there for eight months, they haven't fallen down, and so they work pretty good. This here is the screen that comes down. I don't have access to the power button from here, but it comes all the way down, the rear of the van and secures all the way down here. And so you can have this full access with just a screen and sleep at night. All right, in the bottom here, there is a hitch. You have to undo these two little bolts and it is wired and capable of towing 5,000 pounds. And it's pre-wired for a braking system and lights. And so there is a receiver there. And moving around to this side, this is the electric where I'm hooked up to shore power right now. And then below it, you'll see that is the exhaust for the generator. It does have a generator on board. It is propane operated. And this is the city water. So when you come to a campsite and you hook up to the post, you can hook up the hose right there and hook up to the water source. And I always use a water filter, an RV water filter for that. Plus I filter my water again inside. This is the exhaust for the Truma combo system for the hot water and heating system. Moving along here, this part of the van has all of the access for your dumping of your tanks for the black and gray tanks. Also has the cable hookup if you're going to hook up to cable TV. And then this has a macerator system. So it's a very small hose and it has a macerator in it. So you would take this, take it out to the dumping station disposal area, and then you would open the tank and then you would turn on the macerator and then it would pump out all of the contents of that tank. And then you shut it off and you close that tank and then you open the gray tank. I do last. I do the black tank first and then I do the gray tank and then I turn this on after the tank is open and wait till the hose runs clean and dry. Not too dry, you'll break the macerator pump. And then I shut that off and close the tank. And this retracts the hose back in on the swivel inside the coach. And I don't know what this is. Service light. I think it lights up. Oh, yeah, there's a light. I haven't done this in the dark. Just found that. And this is for the outdoor shower. So in one of the bins in the back, I have a hose and it has a nice little faucet. And so you have hot and cold water coming out and I use it in my outdoor shower. It works really great. I've done that a lot this summer. Moving up to the front here, again, I try to use every bit of space. This is another backpack that I have. I have my gloves for when I fill the diesel and work on the tanks, just an umbrella, broom. These are my shopping bags. This is a set of fuses. My fuses are under here. And so in this fuse box, you can see there's a need for lots of different fuses to run this coach. So I have a multi-pack kit that allows me to, you know, hopefully have what I need. And this is where I open up this little door and fill the diesel. And I always double check to make sure I have the green nozzle. There's actually diesel. This is the first time I've had a diesel truck. And so it's a really nice, spacious cab area. Captain's chair here and comfortable, super comfortable. And I love sitting up there nice and high and driving. Great view of the road. It works out really well. Coming around the front, there's really nice new features on the 2020 version of the 2019 Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis. And it's a 2020 Airstream Interstate 19 RV. But they redid a lot of this area on the Airstream lighting and some of the name plating. And then the Mercedes actual van chassis has a really nice step up here. So when I want to work on the windshield or get to the wipers, this is where you would step. And it's quite sturdy and supportive. So you could get up here and you could reach everything that you need to. Works out really well. Christine, thank you very much for giving us a tour of your 2020 Airstream Interstate 19 four-wheel drive. And this is, just to repeat what we did in the beginning, this is a 144-inch wheelbase, 19-foot long, about just under 10-foot tall. And from what I understand, it's a pretty rare four-wheel drive. In your purchase process, and I know you mentioned you had other RVs before, what led you to a van and why Mercedes and why Airstream? Well, as I said, I do have a long history with RV life. From very large 40-foot diesel towing a Jeep to a tank camper in the beginning and travel trailers. So I've had a Class C, Class A, everything there is. And I wanted something that I could go anywhere I wanted to go. With the four-wheel drive and the short 19-foot body, I can park in a regular parking spot anywhere. I don't have any restrictions in terms of state parks and length limitations that would keep me from going to see some of the places that I want to travel and go see. So it has everything I need inside. I have found a place for all of the items that I actually need to have with me. And I still have some space for some other things to add to it. But this vehicle allows me the freedom to just go. To just go explore. To go see places. I've been cross-country in RVs twice. I've been cross-country in a car with just a tent. So whatever you can do to get out and go see this beautiful country, just do it. This has been a long time coming. And I've waited a long time to buy something like this. And I knew what I wanted. I wanted Airstream. I wanted the quality. I wanted the build. The Mercedes-Benz part of it, the engine, the durability, the years that this will last me were two of the factors that I found these two joined together were the right choice for me. So I can't say enough about the quality of the Airstream and the interior and the detail, the functionality. So nothing would have broken on it. It's built well. It's built to last. And it really, it's wonderful to live in. I love it. Do you do any stealth type camping? Because I can imagine a vehicle this size and, I mean, it just looks like a regular passenger van. I've had people ask me, you know, what's in there? And so a lot of people, unless they see the awning and then they kind of know it's probably an RV, they don't know. I don't do a lot of stealth camping, but I know I could. I could park this anywhere. And somebody would just think it's a vehicle parked for the night because it's very plain on the outside. It doesn't have any indicators that it's an RV other than the Airstream logo on the side trim. So yeah, you could be stealth. I don't boondock either because the batteries on this particular unit aren't set up for that. So there are lithium batteries and there are more powerful inverters like a 3000 watt inverter. This only has a 1000 watt inverter. And so it's not meant for that. And I didn't want to do that. I knew when I started this that I had a camping membership and that I was going to mostly be in RV campgrounds and that I would have shore power to hook up and to use all of the luxuries that this provides me. And that's my choice. But whatever is important for you, then look into that, you know, because this is not something you would go out and boondock for three weeks as it is coming off the lot. You would have to make some upgrades. And we saw the onboard generator and the air conditioning. Are those two things that you utilize a lot? So the generator I've run generally just for the maintenance of it. Every month I'll run it for an hour. I have used it a couple of times when my battery went low, when I was in a state park without shore power hookups. And I had some things running that required the batteries to be recharged. But generally speaking, I don't use them all that much. And you are a storage genius. All the things that you've done in here and now I got some ideas for mine. Do you have any suggestions for any first-time buyers, people out there right now researching Class B motorhomes, whether they're production models, custom, or they're building their own? Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for them? Yes. Think about what you want to do with it. Think about how you're going to use it. You know, like I said, this one isn't really set up for boondocking. But this is perfect for me to live in. And this is exactly what I need for all the comforts of home that I had left behind when I gave up my apartment. Find what fits your budget. You know, so not only research what you think you'll use it for, how you'll use it, but think about how much you have to spend on something. And then make sure that you're able to enjoy it because you have the money to go do trips and go places with it. Most people don't realize in RVs, you can get 15 or 20-year loans on them. So if someone was looking to get into this lifestyle of giving up an apartment, you could have a very low monthly payment if you decided to even finance one of these, whereas if you were going to build your own, I don't think a bank would give you a loan for all the materials. So you know, this will have a book value when you're done with it. So it'll have a trade-in and a retail value, which is different than someone doing their own home-built one because there's no book value. So it's going to be hard for someone to get a loan on it for the value of the conversion. Yes. And instead of paying rent, I pay my loan on this. So I do have a loan. I am not able to just buy something like this outright. But then you also have to think about getting it insured because this is RV certified build. This is insurable by a regular insurance company. So this is fully insured for the contents, for the engine, for any damage, anything stolen. So this has complete coverage from bumper to bumper for anything that might happen to it. If you build your own, I've heard it's harder to find the insurance companies that will cover. You might not have your build covered, just the vehicle. So things to think about. Thank you very much for taking the time here today. And I wish you much luck in your full-time journey in an Airstream camper van. This is the Airstream Interstate. Well, if you would like your van featured on New Jersey Outdoor Adventures and you're in the New York and New Jersey area, please be sure to email NewJerseyOutdoorAdventures at gmail.com. Well, this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel. Hope you enjoyed this video. Please like this video, comment, share, and subscribe. I love it. We'll see you soon.