Van Tour｜ Quick tour of Samsara the Van, couple builds van to TRAVEL, rock climb and enjoy life

Welcome to our van, Samsara the van. I'm Bjørn. I'm going to give you a quick round tour of our van today. We built this two years ago. It's based on a minibus, a Mercedes Sprinter. We more or less ripped and replaced everything. So it used to be a 17-seater couch, which is now for two people, with pretty much everything you need to be on the road. What you see here is that we put the swivel seat, so we're able to turn the seat also for reading when we're on the road. It's very nice. Of course, not when we're driving, but when we're parked up. So over here, we have a very nice seat for the view. So we can sit here and enjoy the view through the door. This is actually our compressor fridge, which is quite big. It holds everything we need for food for a couple of weeks. It's early in the season, so now it's pretty much only things that we can drink in here, but they don't have too much food at the moment. But you will see, this is a really, really big refrigerator. And you also have a fridge over here in the middle? Yes, that's for driving. So when we're driving large distances, we don't want to stop the car to go into the fridge. So we have this, which we can put a six pack of water and just reach while we're driving. Yeah, good idea. And also we know that Mercedes Sprinter, they don't have too many cup holders. So that gives us two cup holders, which is very nice when we're driving. So this is our kitchen area. We chose to have only one gas burner, one hub. Necessity to have two, so we just want one. That's our choice. We build all the cabinets to keep the weight down. So this is to utilize the space as much as possible. We build in the cupboard drawers, which pretty much holds everything we have. It's my wife who's into the chakras, so I cannot tell you too much about that. But one feature I want to show is that we didn't think to rattle around, so everything has its space. This is genius. This is very cool. Very important to us. Everything is, we use the push lock system. Yeah. We had to modify those. It's very easy. So we just put a small metal bracket behind it. So this one actually locks behind the metal. Yeah. And then we have no problems. Well, it took a lot of miles and a lot of thinking to figure out. We also did something genius here, which is our knife rack. Wow, cool. Keep it secure. Yeah. Have all the knives. So you have space for everything here, right? Yeah. That's very, very good. And also in case we have an accident, everything's within the closet. Yeah. And everything is in its own position. So very, very easy. This is our gas container. So this is where we have our gas bottle. It has drainage underneath in case there's a leak. So it will automatically, the gas go under the car. Yeah. So we also of course have a gas meter and everything for security in this area. And we have a very small sink. This is the sink we want because we have very limited access to water in this car. So we didn't want a huge sink because it will take up too much water for rinsing after cleaning the dishes. Yeah. We also put these curtains, which is two-way curtains. So they're totally blackout curtains as well. Yeah. We put them on all the windows for easy use and also make it dark when we're sleeping. Yeah. Genius. And then on top we have the ventilator for, as you have in the kitchen. So we have a normal ventilator for taking out all the fumes when you're cooking. Yeah. So that's very, very good. So we don't have any smell in the van. Yeah. Nice. And of course we have the 12 volt LED lights all over the car. And here's the normal overhead storage. Yeah. What we did in this Mercedes Sprinter, which everybody is asking me about, is the genius thing of placing this overhead compartment, which we are able to actually store a lot of things. So you built this after, like this is your building, right? Yes. So my friend built this and utilized the space because the space over the driving seat is just very high in the Sprinter and you don't need it. So when we build this, we're able to really bring a lot of our stuff in this one. So it's a good storage area. It's the best. And meeting other van lifers around Europe, that's the number one feature everybody said. Really? Yeah. That's what they want. So everybody was asking about this one. Yeah. Nice. Okay. So this area is our seating area where we actually work. We work from on the road. So we have a 4G router in the car. So with an antenna as well. So we have Wi-Fi in the car so we can hook up our laptops and pretty much everything. It's very nice space. It's big space we can use for two computers, which is important for us. So one person is sitting on the bed, which is actually a queen size bed, two meter long, 170 wide, I think. I think 160, 170. The other one is sitting on the toilet area. Just build it like that. Nice. And it has its own place and we never have a problem with it. It sits there. It doesn't move around. We build a small bracket to keep it in place. Yeah. It's a short way to get it out and clean it. That's smart. And you also put storage underneath. In my life, you really have to utilize all the space that is possible to be utilized. And that's actually building a trash can. And I think that's brilliant because it's a small space. And if you just have the garbage bag hanging off the drawers, it will be in the way and you will have all your garbage on the floor. So I'm very, very satisfied with having my own space for the garbage. Yeah. Nice. And can you tell me a little bit about the pictures here? Because they're really cool, like small features of the van. Yes. My wife is very much into yoga and climbing, so a little bit commercial as well. We run a small climbing resort in Cyprus. So this is a climbing car. I'm more like the chef and the chauffeur. And my wife is really into the climbing part. As you also can see, we have our back wall that we flipped down to become a balcony. I will show you that from the outside. So welcome to the balcony. This is actually a place where you can enjoy your morning coffee. And it's brilliant. And you get a little bit up from the ground, so it's muddy and stuff like that. You can just sit there and enjoy. And if it's windy, we just put the side doors next to it. We have like three walls, so we are not in the wind. Yeah. So we just love this feature. Yeah. It's just very good. I'm a big guy, but this chain is actually up to 450 kilos, so it's no problem. We use this for cooking outside, use it as a balcony. Yeah. So you can use this as a table as well? Yes. That's cool. So whatever you want. So what we have done here is actually made a very manual system for getting a hot shower for the car. So we just refilled this. It's a 19 liter can of water. Yeah. Portable. Put this inline pump straight into it. Hook it up to the 12 volt electricity system. Yeah. And then switch it on. Yeah. And it automatically starts the hot water shower. So then the cold water goes into this, right? Yes. Straight into this one, which heats up everything on the fly. Yeah. So this is the small gas container for it. Yeah. And that lasts for like, I would say 20 to 30 showers. Really? Because you use so little water. Yeah. So we are two people using 19 liter for showering. No problem. So it's all about utilizing the space. So of course this is for like flip-flops, everything all the way up. But here it's all about, you have to have tools and you cannot go camping without an axe. Also use a lot as a hammer. Yeah. And we put this huge drawer. So now we're able to get into everything. And I mentioned my wife is sports climbing. Yeah. So we made this specifically for her quick draws. So that's her climbing equipment to have everything organized. Yeah. So this is two times 270 watt solar panels, which also goes as a ceiling over our door. So that was the van tour. If you enjoyed the video and want to see more van tour videos or tiny house videos, please subscribe and put a notification on the bell. So you get every video. Uh, if you want to build this kind of van, um, I've just made a course, uh, with in Norwegian online course, and I'm going to leave that in the description down here. So, uh, have a good day and check out the course.