Minivan Campervan Tour Part 2: Bonus Features and Common Questions Answered

Hey guys, welcome back to the van. This is the van tour part two This is to answer some common questions that I've had and to show you guys some bonus features So let's get right to it. The most common question. I had is how to access my water tank So I showed you guys in the previous video a shot of the water tank down below in the ground storage But I completely forgot to show you how to access it. So I'll show you that right now And this front leg of the of my kitchen actually pops right off just like that and I Can access my water tank just like the other side here. So I just strapped it around with some rope so it doesn't Fly around while I'm driving Avoid spillage just pop this out and then I can fill up it in any freshwater location put the leg back on and I've never had problems with this popping out by accident. There's a lot of friction and forces on it So it just kind of stays in place on its own Another common question I get is What the material for the window coverings is made of and how I made them. So This is the one for the back window there and it's called corrugated plastic You can buy this type of material at any kind of hardware store or Office supplies store. It's what the what big like poster boards are made of To make these things I just used some paper I Taped it to the windows and traced out the shape of the window And then I used that template on one of these big boards and just cut out the shape and then I just kind of Shut it into the windows Sometimes they wouldn't fit. I would have to either cut some off or like add strips of it to make it a little bit thicker And they don't hold in with any velcro or adhesive or anything. It's really just friction So they're just slightly bigger than the frames of the window and because the frames of the window are kind of angled inwards you could just Wedge it in and the friction is enough to hold them in And the same is for these ones here kind of just cut them to the exact shape of this with a little bit of extra on the edges and That little bit of extra is just enough to kind of wedge them in and Then one other thing I added is just these Twine handles it helps me just pull them out Otherwise they get too stuck and I can't get really get my fingers in them So they just have these little handles put them in and pull them out Another feature that I forgot to show last time was my bug screen So a common question I get is how to ventilate the van while I'm sleeping and the two back windows can pop open Their manual they're not electric so I can open them from back here I just cut some bug screen to the shape of the windows obviously bigger than the window itself and then I used like a credit card or something and Shoved it into the crack all the way along Yeah, so I just put it into the the crack all the way around the window and then around the handle you kind of Leave some slack Otherwise, it's too tight and you can't open the window I've seen some vans with the bug screen on the outside But it seems to me a little bit more complicated to put in and then you need to you know, add some adhesives But this way it's a little bit simpler. You just add some slack around the handle and you can easily open it from this side of the screen and While we're on the topic of ventilation and the back windows If you've set it up like mine, you feel like you don't get enough ventilation It was often during the summer. I was also a bit too hot. It wasn't circulating the air enough So I got a USB powered fan that I just plug into the solar charge controller and then I attach it to the seat belt in the back and Then you switch it on and it helps get a bit of air circulation during the night So in the first video, I quickly showed you the blinds that I have behind the front seat But I didn't show you how I actually installed them so what I bought is This quarter-inch metal rod at Home Depot I bought two of them actually and I just kind of bent them from here Following the shape of the roof and I just kind of tucked it behind this piece of plastic molding here bent them to shape and then I kind of Pushed them up behind this little plastic tab Coming from both sides and I just zip tied them together so they don't fall off on either side And I've never had a problem with this falling off. It's been like this ever since I installed it. So surprisingly strong this thing So that's what the curtain slides on Another thing I forgot to show was how I anchored my bed down to the van so if I didn't anchor it it would kind of slide around while I'm driving and Also, if this was down and I sit on that it would just kind of tilt up So what I did is I strapped it down To the van so that it doesn't lift up or move around and I just used these kind of strap ties but this goes back down maybe a few more inches back and then there's a hole and They kind of converges down onto one of these. There's another one back there for the back seats and So I just tied them into that I strapped it down super tight So now it doesn't move around or tilt up when I'm on it. So it's very sturdy So there are a couple other features on the bed that I forgot to show last time the first is this thing here and So when the bed is down and the mattress is on it if this wasn't here the mattress would kind of slide off So I just kind of screwed this big piece of wood in to stop the mattress from sliding off And it doesn't really impede my sitting at all. So and one more feature I made on the bed system Is this thing down here? So there's actually a little ledge that this piece of bed sits on it's an added support Just to hold it up It's not needed it's not necessary if I didn't have it here this would still be strong enough But it's just an extra support Another thing I didn't show last time was my mattress upholstery. So I got The mom of my friend to basically custom upholster my two mattress pieces and she actually put a zipper all the way around it That makes it really easy to come off and to wash it. So one final bonus feature I have for you guys today is Something that I actually didn't design but it kind of just happened by fluke So I'll show you that now it has to do with a seat in the middle here So, like I said, I didn't design this at all It was very just a complete coincidence that the middle seats actually happen to fit perfectly Right in front of my back my bed or my couch So if you want a third person in your van and you want to sacrifice a bit of storage in this area You can actually have this third seat legally Properly installed while still having the bed and the kitchen Another option is if you want to sacrifice all the luxury of the kitchen area You can take all this out and put the other seat on this side. So that way you would fit four people you would have a Quite a bit less storage. You wouldn't have all the storage in the front here But you would able to fit four people legally and you would still have a bed So again, I'll just show you how quickly it goes in It's a little hard to get the strap. But once you get it There you go. I hope you liked all those bonus features and hopefully I answered quite a few of your questions Again, let me know if you have any more. I'll be glad to answer them for you. Thanks guys