Off Road Camper Van Expo Lake Tahoe - 4x4 Van Life Tour

Hey everyone, I'm back in Tahoe. We're in Homewood, California today for a van expo. There's a ton of 4x4 off-road vans. We're gonna check them out. I'm super excited to show you. So let's get started. The first one I'll show you is an off-road machine. Sadly, they weren't giving tours. This baby's made by a German company called Box Manufacture. It's a 6x6 on a 26-ton chassis with 480 horsepower. I think this thing's like as big as I am. It like comes up to my neck. Okay, exaggerating a little. According to the owner, the tires run up to $2,500 each. Definitely a pretty penny. There's like 300 hug nuts. Obviously, I meant lug nuts. The liftgate holds roughly one ton and holds the spare tire because you obviously can't find a spare at your local Goodyear. It holds 230 gallons of diesel and 230 gallons of water. 18.5 ton weight gets a whopping six to eight miles per gallon. Next, let's check out some sportsmobiles. I wanna show you guys some sportsmobile vans. This is one of the original companies who started 4x4 off-roading vehicles. This is the more classic style. It's sick. It's got a Rhino layer, sidesteps, 4x4 off-road. It's got the sweet truck bed liner spray, so it's kinda like a Rhino layer. Great for drivers like me that run into everything. It's also equipped with a Fox 2.0 shock system. Then if we head around back, axe in case you wanna chop a tree or dig yourself out of the snow. Okay, let's head inside. It's nice and spacious inside. The sofa folds down into a bed. It has a small fridge, sink, and microwave. The outlets are all 120. There's a small porter potty that slides away, but no stove. Let's pop into the loft. The pop-up has full stand-up height, so plenty of head clearance, and it has an optional extra bed that lowers onto the side rails for extra sleeping room. It's a gas engine with a gasoline-fired furnace and water system, so no propane to worry about. The whole thing is run on either electric from the battery and solar, or from gas that powers the motor, water heater, and furnace. Sportsmobile also has several different vans they offer for conversion, one of which is the Sprinter van. Here's a quick look inside. It has a similar layout with a spacious center console, sink, microwave, and fridge, a little more headroom with an optional loft bed, and a large fold-down main bed. Next, I'm gonna show you a company called Trail Kitchens. This company makes modular units for van build-outs. They include all the hardware and plumbing, which can save some time and headaches for those of us that aren't always that handy. Here, let me show you one. So everything's already hooked up when you buy the modular. This is the water filter, the water pump, everything with the sink, and the, you know, what's that called? The sink. Temporarily forgot how to talk. You can pick and choose which ones you want in your van so that you don't have to build them out. You don't have to have all of them. You literally just pick the ones you want. This is another modular setup. It's a little bit more built out so you can actually get through the whole van. This is a modular bed frame, so it turns into a bed. The modular sink. These are all modular drawers. And then there's a fridge to my right, and lots of drawer space. So this is great because if you want to upgrade your van or move everything around, you can just take all the modules out and put it into a new van. Next are the Santa Cruz vans, super stealth camping vans that look like the typical minivan. So this is actually another van company that's using these trail kitchens. You just pull down on the lever, pull it all the way out, and then these slide out, and you have a full kitchen. Two burner stove, sink, two prep stations. Super convenient. This is just a normal minivan, camper style. So this pops up, you can stand up entirely. There's the little table, fold out the bed, which this fine gentleman kindly demonstrated for me. There's a bed up here! And no, there's not! Look at that! Got a nice little bed up here. So you have your typical soccer mom van. The top folds down, camouflages entirely with the van. You can't even tell where the pop-up comes up. 100% stealth. You would never know anybody was camping in this thing. Except that this is a Santa Cruz camper. Overall, the Santa Cruz vans have less storage and space to move around in, but seem great if you want something super low profile that you can take out just for weekends or short-term getaways. If you've been to Santa Cruz, you know how little parking there is and how quickly the campgrounds fill up. So this is nice if you want to stay in town and still be stealth. The last couple of vans I want to show you are the Van & Vans and then the Tourig Vans. Both mainly focus on custom build-outs on the Mercedes Sprinter line. Links to both of these companies are below. The Van & Vans seemed ideal for you if you love to mountain bike a lot. The Tourig Vans were more leisurely and plush. And lastly, I came across a custom build-out that had a great water storage idea. It had a solar shower or alternative water storage method mounted on the roof. Another great idea, heated by the sun. I've come across a couple of vans that have done this. This was made of a pressurized black ABS pipe, but have also seen it made in acrylic and aluminum. Okay, I think that about sums up the van highlights. Next video will feature four-wheel pop-up campers, a lightweight truck camper ideal for off-roading. Thanks so much for watching.