14 Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Campervan

Rent a Van First

• One thing we do like is that it provides a nice large seating area that can accommodate quite a few people if desired. But for us the reality is that we almost never have anyone else in our van other than just the two of us. We find that converting the bed from couch to bed each day is such a daunting task that most days we don’t do it, which means if we are working in the van we are stuck sitting in bed all day. This may sound nice every now and then but it gets old really quick. Even on the days we do convert from bed to couch we honestly don’t find them to be that comfortable. So moral of the story is rent a van or a few different vans with different layouts so you can feel out what you like and don’t like. We found that looking at pictures is great for inspiration but its not the same as stepping into the van and really getting a feel for it.

Understand electrical needs and how the system really works

• At the time of building our van we were pretty ignorant to all things dealing with the electrical system. We had watched a few videos and knew the right products we wanted to use but we really felt in over our heads when it came to installing them. We were both still working full time at our 9-5’s so we opted to hire someone to hook up our system. This was a great decision for ease and piece of mind to know it was done correctly. But this meant we basically had no idea how anything really worked and at the time we did not really understand how this type of system worked and the amount of power we planned on using. Looking back now we really wish we knew then what we know now because likely we would have done a few things differently. 
• When you live in a house or apartment you really don’t think about how much power the things you use daily are drawing. We knew we would be using a toaster oven to cook almost everyday so we thought getting a bunch of batteries and having a really big system would make sure we never had to worry. What we didn’t think about was how much we really needed to get the system charged back up. We thought having 600 watts of solar and a 30 amp dc-dc alternator charger would be all we needed, well this is true if we are diving a lot and remain very conscious of the power we are using but sometimes this is not always the case and sometimes its very cloudy. So long story short we wish we understood this before our build so we could plan better but we also didn’t know there were other options like this that allow you to charge up very quickly without having to plug into shore power. We love staying at camp grounds and plugging in but this gets too expensive and for us the whole reason we chose vanlife was to go to places off the beaten path so being able to stay off grid is key. We still can but with having a better option to like mentioned above we would be able to do so more comfortably. 

Spend the extra for 4×4 and interior upgrades

• Looking back I don’t know if financially we would have been able to swing it but since we financed our van we feel that it would have been worth it. We wanted to buy new but save as much as we could so we opted for the RWD base model Sprinter van. It does still have some nice features but there is a lot to be desired with the base model. There is no screen up front for apple car play or music and we spend a lot of time driving so having this would be really nice. It also would give us more hands free options and a better back up camera system. We do have one in the rear view mirror and so thankful for it but its definitely much better with the upgraded package. We fell this would make driving so much easier and more comfortable. We also wish we would have gotten a 4×4 because there have been a few times where we really wanted to go to a camp spot of drive to a certain view but couldn’t because we couldn’t risk getting stuck. Having 4×4 doesn’t mean you are invincible but it would give us a little more confidence to go on some more off road adventures. We do have to say that the 2wd sprinter has really impressed us on what it can do and the places it has taken us but would love to have the option for 4×4. If this isn’t in the budget for you like it wasn’t for us then we would recommend getting this phone mount for the sprinter van so its easy to use the gps and change music when you are on the road.

Be intentional with storage

• When we were building our van we gave ourselves plenty of storage space but we were not intentional about what would be going into those spaces. If we would have thought more carefully about what would be going into those specific places it would have made things more neat and easier to use. We have added shelves and slideouts since the build to make things easier but overall would have been earier and more functional had we though of these things as we were building.