Any words of experience on building out a class B RV? I’m 65, retired, freshly divorced, snowboarder with an IKON pass, backpacker and weekender. Making sure it’s age appropriate female friendly (aka wet bath with a door). Already Put down the deposit on both the Transit and the customizers, and going to meet with the customizers (Van Life Collective in Hood River OR, so they understand the PNW conditions and are also serious snowboarders) on thursday. It’s the high roof, extended length Transit. Main use cases are to camp at West Coast ski resorts, easy forest service roads to access trailheads, and road trips such as all of highway 1, national park tour, explore the PNW, maybe drive across Canada and loop back somehow to the Seattle area.
Basic build will be a queen bed size with lift (with rack for two snowboards), underneath sofa seats with table that converts to additional sleeping. Galley by the sliding door. Figuring out how big of a wet bath can be tetris’d in and some kind of toilet (leaning toward composting but undecided). About 20 gallon tanks for fresh and grey water. Whilst spendy, prolly doing an infinity shower and maybe a hydronic glycol heating system. Pre-wire for everything for potentially adding on things later if it makes sense after a season like starlink or A/C. Solar on the roof, and a walkway with room for two chairs. Driver and passenger seats swivel (standard transit swivel seats). 400 watt li-on batteries and converter.
Big decisions I need to figure out and would welcome the voice of experience on:
toilet options - composting, cassette and single use sealed bags
Do people really sit on the roof to watch the ocean and stuff?
maybe I’ll leave room for a two passenger extra seat and put in some storage that can be removed. Don’t really envision taking more than one passenger, but interested in getting to know a woman in Bend OR that has two grandkids so that might be something I want to put in.
experience with the infinity shower
I’m sure there are plenty of things I haven’t thought of. That said, would appreciate any words of wisdom
You are building a much nicer van than I did. I have 2017 transit 350 LWB regular height roof. I bought a slightly used 15 passenger church van. When I was first working on it, I wanted a roof platform. I didn’t do it and don’t miss it. These vans are tall, even my regular height one, and I would worry about falling, esp. when maximizing the enjoyment (drinking ETOH). Solar etc. is going to complicate it. We get a great open air view from either the side or back doors.
I took all of the seats out except the two front seats. This has occasionally been a little trouble. Can’t really pick anyone up from the airport or take them out to dinner. This is rarely a problem but has come up.
The traction with rear wheel drive and M+S van tires is poor. If you want to take it snowboarding I would get the AWD at minimum. I’ve been briefly stuck a few times.
I don’t have any advice on the toilet or shower. We have a shi shi bucket that my wife will use in the middle of the night. Otherwise we use the campground toilets or fast food places etc. We tend to get a room every 3-5 days on long trips.
I put a queen size bed in a N/S configuration. Works perfectly, lots of room. I have about 18" under the bed and that holds a lot of stuff. With a high roof I’m not sure you’ll need a lift if by that you mean the bed will raise up and down.
The van is very comfortable to drive. We spent 6 weeks in it (with stops at family and a few hotels) on a trip from Northern Idaho to Florida. My vertically challenged wife drives it all the time. I like it much more than I expected to. The van also acts like a pickup. I can put full sized ply wood flat on the bed. We put our kayaks inside.
Pro tip. When driving HWY 1 for the first trip, go North to South. If you know, you know.
I’ve also built out a box truck for a family member. Did solar, shower, etc. but not relevant for your build.
Subscribing to this since we are considering either building our own, or having someone build one out in a couple of years. We want to retire (early) and spend at least a year traveling to hike, backpack and bike.
I had never heard of the infinity shower, but that looks great in concept. We’ve thought of going with no bath except for a place to pee in the middle of the night, but there is nothing better than a shower after a day of biking/hiking, and that is difficult to do when out dispersed camping. We’ve used portable solar showers when camping from our Subaru, and while it works, it isn’t the same as a shower shower.