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Video Tour of the Isotherm Freeline 140 Refrigerator / Freezer

Check out our quick video tour of the relatively new Isotherm Freeline 140 refrigerator/freezer. This unique refrigerator/freezer has been designed specifically by Isotherm for the “RV market”. With its tall but slim dimensions, it is particularly suitable for compact vehicles that want a spacious fridge. Its excellent insulation ensures very low energy consumption to save batteries. It also features a “door block system” which allows the door to stay partially open when it is not used (in storage, etc.) in order to prevent the creation of mold and smell in the fridge.

Installing the Mabru 12-Volt Rooftop Air Conditioner in Your Camper Van

Introduction Well, it’s summer in Florida, so what better time to dive into the world of air conditioning for your van? In this blog post, we’re going to take an in-depth look at installing the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop, 12-volt DC air conditioner. We chose this unit for its quiet operation, energy efficiency, and overall value. I have one in my personal van, and it keeps me cool even in the Sunshine State’s scorching heat. We’ll also discuss how to modify the unit to fit a standard 14-inch by 14-inch hole, just as I did in my own van. You can find this unit for sale in our store, and as always, you’ll discover a wealth of information on our website at vanlifeoutfitters.com, including a handy spreadsheet comparing various 12-volt rooftop AC units on the market. Before we dive into the installation process, let’s first discuss the tools and materials you’ll need Jigsaw (or your preferred tool for cutting the roof opening) Metric socket set/wrench ½” drill bit and a step bit Caulking gun and sealant (we recommend Loctite Marine PL or similar) Small zip ties Plastic bag or plastic sheeting File Rustoleum paint (or similar) to protect bare metal “Solar entry gland” for passing the wiring harness into the van roof (and grommet) Roof adapter, butyl tape, or PVC shims (if needed to fill in roof corrugations) Lap sealant (such as Dicor, if needed) Let’s start by unpacking the contents of the Mabru AC unit’s box and understanding what you’ll use and what you might not need Paper roof-cutting template Manual (though we’ll provide you with a more detailed guide) Bag with 15mm nuts and LED lights (for fastening the unit with brackets and optional interior lighting) 6x mounting bracket pieces (for unit installation) Bag with the remote control and wires for optional LED lights Bag with rubber spacers (not used in standard installation), large black screws (for flanges on installation brackets), wire ties and mounts (for wiring harness routing) Plastic “L-bracket” things (not used in standard installation) The Mabru AC unit itself Note that the video shows some hoses at around 29 seconds. These are no longer included. They were for routing the condensation from the base plate to somewhere else – perhaps to use that water for another purpose. You can see the “ports” on the baseplate where the condensation drains onto the roof where those hoses, or something equivalent could be connected. Turns out no customers used them so they omitted them from the box. The video below shows all the items in the box in the same order as the list below… Finding the serial number Before we dive into the installation, it’s wise to locate and make a note of the unit’s serial number for future support or repair needs.  Starting in the summer of 2024, the serial number for the units is located inside the RV cover. Prior to that it had been in a different spots including behind the interior vent panel inside the return air compartment (example photo). On newer versions, you can also find the serial number inside the remote battery cover as shown in the photo.  Step 1: Finding a suitable location & cut opening Begin by finding a suitable location for the AC unit on your roof. We’re often asked if it’s better to have the AC in the front of the van or the rear of the van and this really comes down to personal preference. For me, I prefer to have a Maxxfan over my bed area in the rear of the van because I actually use it more often and I also don’t like having cool air from an AC blowing directly on me. Others want their bed area to be the coolest part of the interior space so they may prefer to have it located in the rear. The other consideration is to look for a “bay” between the support ribs of the van roof that is wide enough for the unit to drop into but not too wide such that the support brackets that must span between the ribs would be too short. Once you’ve identified the placement you must transfer that to the exterior. There are many ways to do this but many installers will use a small drill bit to make a pilot hole from the interior that marks one of the 14 x 14 opening corners. By doing this from the inside and then using the paper template on the outside, lined up with the corresponding corner on the template, you can have confidence where you cut your roof opening. Preparing the roof opening You can install the unit into a standard 14” x 14” roof opening or the Mabru’s native size of 14.62″ long x 20.125″ wide. The unit comes with a paper template that includes both roof opening sizes and bolt-hole location. The easiest method uses the native opening size (no modifications), but we’ll guide you through modifying it for a standard 14” x 14” hole. Cut the template and use it to mark your roof opening, ensuring precise measurements. To use the paper template, cut out the opening with a razor blade or scissors. In this case, for the 14” opening, we’ll be cutting along the dotted line. Some installers prefer to transfer the template to plywood for a more rigid template. Prep pro tips: tape plastic underneath to catch metal shavings and use a large piece of plywood with a blanket underneath to distribute weight on the roof which will prevent indentation. It’s also very helpful to tape the area of the sheet metal that will be cut out to help stabilize it and prevent it from falling through and shearing during the cut. You might even stop periodically during the cut to re-tape areas. Cut the main roof opening AND drill the 4x mounting bolt locations with a ½” drill bit. If you’re using a jigsaw with a metal blade, you can expand the pilot hole you might have made earlier when locating the installation area, or you can drill a new pilot hole in one corner, inside the cut-out line that is wide enough for your saw blade and then drill another hole opposite the first. Most installers are using either a jigsaw or metal cut-off disc on an angle grinder.  File the edges, clean the area, and apply rust-prevention paint to all bare metal. Installation using a “standard” 14″ x 14″ roof opening The photo shows the unit turned upside down with the baseplate facing up. The area with the blue painter’s tape indicates how the unit would drop in over a standard, 14” x 14” roof opening. You can see that the area for the cold air outlets (larger, upper rectangular hole) and return air (lower, smaller, 2x, rectangular openings) fits comfortably within this space. However, the interior panel/vents are wider than 14″ (about 18″ wide) which you can see in the image below. So, if you want to install the unit into a standard opening size, you’ll have to do some basic modifications. Since most of our customers want to use the 14″ x 14″ (standard size) roof opening, this is the process we will detail in the rest of the post. Step 2: Installing the Gasket and Sealing Place the gasket around your roof opening (and bolt holes), ensuring it forms a rectangle. You’ll want to place the rubber gasket around your openings. It ships flattened. Start by stretching the two sides apart from each other to begin reshaping it into a rectangle (video of this process below). One side has an adhesive below a protection tape and the other side does not. We place the side with the adhesive down onto the sheet metal of the van so that it will stay positioned while we seal it. The gasket should form a rectangle around the perimeter of your roof openings – both the bolt locations and the 14” opening (see photo below). It can be difficult to get the gasket reshaped and positioned correctly but it is possible with enough care and time.  For van models with a prominent roof curve (IE Ford Transit), You may need to cut the gasket so that it fits snugly around the outer bolt holes.  See photo below. Later in the installation process, the AC unit will be placed on top of this gasket and eventually bolted down such that the gasket will compress to create a waterproof seal. So, it’s important that all the bolt holes are inside the perimeter of the gasket. We recommend using a marine sealant such as Loctite PL Marine or 3M 5200 around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. Fill in any roof corrugations if needed and apply marine sealant around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. If your roof has corrugations where the gasket is positioned, you’ll want to fill these in before placing the gasket. There are a number of methods to accomplish this. DIYVans in Oregon sells very nice adapters, you can fill in the valleys with layers of butyl tape or buy/cut PVC adapters like we sell for a Promaster van. If you use butyl tape or PVC adapters be sure to follow up with a generous layer of Dicor lap sealant. Video of shaping the gasket into a rectangle Step 3: Mounting the unit onto the roof Lift the AC unit onto the roof with help (2-3 people). Typically it’s best to leave the unit in the box while lifting. We use a forklift which works great but not everyone has that luxury. Scaffolding also works well. Two people on ladders is tricky but it gets the job done. Once it’s on the roof, you can carefully unbox it and turn it upside down on the roof such that the exterior shroud/cover is on the van roof and the interior panel/vents are facing up. Since we’re installing this into the “smaller”, 14″ roof opening, you’ll need to remove the interior panel/vents and styrofoam air director to be able to place the unit through the opening. Start by removing the 4x, 10mm nuts that attach the interior panel/vents to the unit then you can lift it off. As you do, find where the wiring harness is attached to the baseplate of the AC along with a temperature sensor and carefully cut this wire tie to release the wires. Once the wires are released the interior panel/vent should lift off completely. Next, remove the styrofoam air director that is below. This will need to be modified later, so you can set it aside for later in the installation. With everything ready, you can now place the AC unit over the gasket/opening and bolt it down using the metal mounting brackets. We recommend that you recruit a few extra people to help you with this step. It works best with two people on the roof positioning the AC unit into the right place with another person inside the van holding the interior panel/vents that need to be passed through the opening and managed safely while the rest of the unit is positioned, otherwise, it will sort of dangle and can be damaged. The inside person can also guide the folks on the roof on positioning since the most difficult part of the process is getting the bolt holes lined up correctly so the unit can drop into place. If necessary, you can expand the ½” bolt holes with a step bit to make the 4x bolts line up for dropping into place. Be cautious not to over-tighten, and consider attaching the brackets to the roof supports. Step 4: routing the wiring harness There is an approximately 11-foot piece of wiring harness that comes off the unit itself that is terminated with a grey, Anderson connector (photo below) and there is another section of the wiring harness that is also approximately 11 feet included in the kit that has a pairing Anderson connection to extend the wire from the unit to your 12 volt DC bus bar. The wiring harness is two 6 AWG wires, one red for the positive DC supply and the other black for the negative. The positive wire includes an inline, 80 amp fuse to protect the circuit. Since the Mabru uses around 55 amps on max, it’s too high a draw to wire to a typical DC fuse panel/load center. So, many installers will connect the wires to the “right side” of a Lynx Distributor that is designed to attach to another Lynx Distributor to expand the connections available. You don’t need to use a fused terminal on the distributor because of the fuse provided on the wiring harness. Begin the wiring harness routing by deciding on the location for your solar entry gland that will provide a waterproof path for the wiring harness through the roof to wherever your electrical system is located. We recommend locating the entry gland behind the unit as closely as possible while avoiding any structural supports or other obstacles inside the van. After you drill the hole for the wires, that the entry gland will “cover” we recommend using a rubber grommet to protect the wires from the sheet metal, and don’t forget to file and paint this exposed metal as well. Also be sure to fasten the gland to the roof and seal it with a lap sealant like Dicor. You’ll also want to make sure the wires are protected by wire loom and any length of wire secured to the roof. Self-adhesive cable tie mounts work well for this purpose. Next, you’ll have to choose how you want to get the wiring harness through the hole you created. The tricky part of this routing is that the Anderson connection at the end of the section of the wiring harness (photo below) prevents you from being able to route the black and red wires through the “glands” on the solar entry since they cannot be separated. There are a few ways to manage this.\ Option one is to remove the wires from the Anderson connection temporarily to get them through the entry gland and then put them back. You can do this by opening up the connector with small screw driver. Option two  is to cut off the Anderson connector about 6” from the end with the connector of the wiring harness section that comes off the Mabru unit, separate the wires to get through the entry gland, and then splice it back on using 6 AWG butt connectors and heat shrink. Option three is to remove the exterior shroud/cover from the Mabru unit to locate where the DC supply wires connect to the unit itself on the left side (driver side) and disconnect these wires. This allows you to separate a section of the red and black wires to route through the entry gland and then you can reconnect the wires to the terminals on the AC. Below is a photo of these connections. With the AC unit mounted on the roof and the wires routed to the interior, we can move on to the interior installation! Woot! Step 5: Interior Installation Assemble the supplied mounting brackets and secure the AC unit to the vehicle. The brackets come in 6x pieces that will be assembled into 2x separate bracket assemblies – one for the passenger side and the other for the driver side. The bracket pieces are painted black but they often get a little dinged up in transport. However, they are stainless steel and, in most cases will be hidden away in your ceiling, so there is no need to be concerned about any small dings. You’ll take one “middle” section and pair it with two “extensions” (photo below). The “middles” do not have “flanges” on the end and the “extensions” do. Place a middle flat on a surface with the C-channel facing down and the bolt holes facing up then grab an extension and turn it so that this channel is facing up and the flange is on the flat surface. Then slide the extension into one end of the middle. Do the same on the other side of the middle. Now you have a bracket that can expand from both the front and rear to the length needed to span between the structural supports that form the front and rear of the “bay” you installed the AC into on the van roof.  The maximum span is about 30” from front to back when the extensions are fully extended. Below is a video of this process. Worth at least a few thousand words. Assembling the Mabru installation brackets Once you’ve assembled both brackets, using all 6x pieces, you can install them onto the passenger and driver side, over the mounting bolts from the AC unit that are now hanging down into your van. The holes in the brackets should line up with the bolts and you want the flanges on the end of each extension to press firmly against the van supports. If there isn’t a factory support structure where your bracket flanges land, you will have to install your own support with adequately sized metal or wood that is attached to the vehicle roof with something like a heavy-duty construction adhesive. The brackets are held in place with the supplied, 15mm nuts. You’ll want to tighten each of the 4x nuts in a rotating fashion – moving from one nut to the next in circulation so that you can create even pressure around the gasket. You want to make sure that the gasket (on the roof between the AC unit and the roof of the vehicle) shows some compression. Don’t exceed more than 15 newton meters of torque. Once torqued down you can choose to use the provided, black screws to attach the “flange” part of the brackets to the roof supports if you’d like. We don’t typically do this since the system is so tightly installed. Reshaping the styrofoam air director to fit your desired ceiling height and fit the 14”x14” hole Pause for a minute to take a look at the interior of the AC at this stage. On the baseplate, there is a thin layer of foam. In the front part, there are two rectangular openings. This is where the cooled air comes out. To the rear of that is one larger rectangular opening. That is where air is pulled into the unit from the interior of the van to be cooled. See the image below.   The function of the styrofoam air director is to, you guessed it, direct the cooled air to the vents. You can see that the shape of the foam is the same as the vents on the interior panel.  If you were installing into the Mabru’s native (larger) roof opening size, the styrofoam air director does not need to be modified since the opening would be large enough for it to press against the baseplate with no modifications.  But, if you look at the 14” opening install, the air director is wider than the roof opening and where it passes the area where the Mabru base plate is visible you can see that the metal roof of the van is “lower “. Since it’s no longer one flat plane, we have to essentially reshape the air director so there is a notch on the driver and passenger sides. We’ve tried a number of tools for this and a serrated knife or a hack saw blade, removed from the saw, seems to work the best. You can hold up the air director inside the van in the area where it is installed – lined up with the bolt locations with the air vents facing forward and mark where the notches need to be cut. Below are some images of this process. Click on any image to open it larger. Once you have the notch cut, you can consider another modification: Depending on how deep your interior ceiling will be – which is normally a combination of the van’s metal supports, furring strips, and ceiling material if you want the interior panel/vents to be as high as possible so that it doesn’t come down into the living space as much, you can shorten the foam air director to the height that you need. This is optional. One additional tip on all this surgery: if your modifications are a little sloppy you can use foam tape lon the cut portions so that, when the air director is installed into place and the interior panel/vents are installed, it will be pressed up against the baseplate/van metal and the foam will compress to fill any small gaps. This is important because you want as good of a seal between the air director and the baseplate on the AC so that cooled air doesn’t leak into the ceiling cavity or anywhere else it’s not cooling your rig. Putting it all back together With the foam director reshaped, you can now reassemble it with the interior panel/vents. You want to re-attach the wiring harness and temp sensor to where it was wire-tied before. The temp sensor needs to be in that location, directly adjacent to the air return to sense the temperature of the air inside the van. This is how the thermostat on the unit works. Now you can re-install the interior panel/vents by sliding it over the 4x bolt locations and re-attaching the 10mm nuts to secure it into place. Note that there are two sets of bolts for the interior panel/vents, you can raise or lower the lower bolt to set the correct height of the interior unit if you’ve cut down the styrofoam air director. Return air: ensure proper venting for return air to avoid cycling issuesWhen the unit is running you can use the various vents to direct the cooled air. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to create a situation where the cooled air is going “directly” into the return air vent(s) such as pointing the cool air vents directly at the return area. If you do that, the thermostat will interpret this cool air coming from the AC unit as the “interior air temperature” causing the AC unit to cycle the compressor on and off too rapidly. Instead, you want the return air to be more representative of the actual ambient air temp inside the living space. Some customers prefer to make their own return air grille.  The return air trim ring that comes with the Mabru is unnecessarily large and unattractive.   Directly below are some photos of what some of our customers have done. Note, the return air grille should be at least as big as the return air opening on the baseplate of the unit itself, if not a little larger.  Finish wiringAt this point you’re ready to finish routing the wiring harness to your 12-volt DC supply – often the right side of a Lynx Distributor or other bus bar connection. Powering on, testing, and tips Now you can turn it on for the first time and ensure that it’s working! In our testing, with a laser thermometer, we normally see between 25-30 degrees F delta between the temperature of the air coming into the unit and the cooled air coming out after a few minutes of operation on “max” mode. When it’s really hot inside, this might look like 90 degrees inside the van and 65 or 70 degrees of cooled air coming out of the unit. Over time, as the interior temperature goes down from the cooling effect of operating the AC, the cooled air will get increasingly cooler. On very hot days, we recommend pre-cooling your van as you drive by running your vehicle air conditioner as powerfully as you can AND running the Mabru unit on high. The initial cooldown of the living space takes much more cooling/energy than maintaining the temperature. In many camper vans or RVs the house battery bank, that is powering the Mabru unit will be charging from the vehicle alternator while driving and some of that energy can power the AC unit without discharging the battery as much. Then, when you arrive at your destination a pre-cooled van can generally be kept cool by the Mabru even in low or eco mode. Obviously, the size of the van, how it’s insulated, the exterior color of the van, using insulated window coverings, and locating the van in the shade all help a lot as well. The remote control is pretty confusing so we have a handy “guide” that maps the buttons to the various functions. Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop air conditioner in your van! Now you can enjoy cool, comfortable journeys during even the hottest days.  If you found this guide helpful, please consider supporting our store for other great road-tested products designed to support DIY van builders like you. Stay cool out there, and happy van adventures!   As of 2026, we no longer have any stock of our flush mount interior faceplate. Bonus Instructions for customers who purchased a Flush Mount Faceplate for Mabru RV12000 Air Conditioner There are a few easy steps to relocate the electronic Control Panel from the factory trim piece to your new Face Plate. Step 1. Using a wire side cutter, carefully snip the zip ties holding the wiring harness and the temperature sensor from the inside of the return air cavity. This will allow you to move the factory trim piece off to the side for convenience for the next steps. Step 2. Remove the four screws on the black control panel housing on the back side. No need to pry up here as I did the first time… there are four more screws on the front side. Step 3.  Remove the Control Panel face sticker to reveal four screws behind it. You can add a little heat from a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the glue a little. Carefully remove the sticker using a putty knife or similar wide blade. The sticker is pretty durable, but you don’t want to nick it as you will re-apply it once the control panel is installed in the new flush mount face plate. Step 4.  Remove the four phillips head screws and the white trim piece. Pull the control panel forward and rotate 90 degrees, then pull it back through the factory trim piece. Step 5.  After the A/C unit is mounted on the roof as described in the other sections, cut off the 4 bolts so they are above your planned ceiling height. The front two bolts should be left long enough to secure the styrofoam deflector. Step 6.  Cut the styrofoam deflector so that it fits flat against the black bottom of the A/C unit (trim away the excess that hits the metal roof of the van. The table saw with a tall fence works great. Step 7.  To ensure the air will not short circuit, you can install 1” thick foam tape between the roof of the van and the A/C unit and cover it with aluminum tape. Step 8.  Hold the foam piece in place and mark the location of the ceiling framing. Then add the thickness of your ceiling material and cut the styrofoam to the correct height. Then install the foam, securing it with the two front bolts. You can also use thin foam tape to close any gaps to prevent the air from short circuiting. Step 9.  If you use very thin ceiling boards, such as ¼” cedar, consider installing 2×2 framing on the sides of the Styrofoam such that the screw holes in the Face Plate align with the framing. Otherwise, you can screw directly into the ceiling material to secure the Face Plate. Step 10.  Re-install the control panel removed in steps 3 & 4 in the same way, insert it through the hole in the flush mount faceplate then rotate so the screw holes line up. Install the white trim piece and four Phillips screws, then the face sticker can be re-applied. Step 11.  Replace the four screws on the black control panel housing on the backside. Step 12.  Use two new zip ties to re-attach the wiring harness and temperature probe from step 1 above. Step 13.  Secure the flush mount faceplate to the ceiling using screws of your choice. Thin foam stripping can also be applied on the bottom of the styrofoam deflector to provide an air-tight fit with the faceplate.  (You may need to glue wood or metal strips on the backside of the panel to help the screws grip into the control panel). As always, if you have any issues or questions with installation please give us a call or email us.

Miles Van Camper Tour

Video Tour of "Carmen": The Van That Won Best In Show At Peace Love & Vans 2023

This is video features in-depth tour of the van that won Best In Show at Peace Love & Vans Florida 2023. Over 100 vans competed in the DIY Build competition, and we narrowed the field down to 12 Best In Row vans. The final round of judging was tough and there were so many incredible vans. At the end of the day, this van affectionately named “Carmen” by owners Ted and Mary Milburn (IonDesignVan on Instagram) checked off all the boxes. It featured a very clever floorplan, charming character, meticulous attention to detail, highly advanced systems, efficient use of space and attractive interior design choices. A few of our favorite features of this van include: Dedicated Secondary Alternator Charging System w/ Lithionics Batteries and Victron Energy Components. Mabru Air Conditioner w/ custom vent grille and Webasto Air Top 2000 Heater for optimal temperature regulation. Fiamma F80S awning that extends their living space and a Fiamma Carry-Bike on the rear doors for bringing along their bikes. A living room with Murphy bed that converts the space into a bedroom. Full kitchen with lots of counter space and custom-built organizers in drawers and cabinets. High-end finishes and interior design choices. View the full van tour video to see more about this van and its amazing owners. Be sure to check out our store for the best, road-tested products available for your van build.

Configuring a Victron Cerbo GX, BMV-712 or SmartShunt and Connecting with VRM

This post was originally published in 2023. We think that the content in this blog is still useful, but some things have changed just a little bit: new GUI, new features, same great powerful capability! Check out our refreshed blogs like Setting up Victron's Remote Monitoring, and inviting Vanlife Outfitters to your system and Configuring your Victron system with VRM for a updated take on these important features.  This post details how we suggest you configure a Victron Cerbo GX for a camper van/RV and, once you’ve done so, how to connect it to Victron’s free remote monitoring and control cloud service called VRM. This guide assumes that you have a MultiPlus inverter/charger as we show in our free example wiring diagrams. While you’re here, you might also be interested in our blog post about how to monitor water tanks with a Cerbo GX or how to wire up a cooling fan that is turned on automatically using one of the Cerbo GX’s relays and a clever 4-in-one Ruuvitag sensor (temperature, humidity, air pressure, and motion). Cerbo GX VersionsFor a period in 2024 Victron was offering three versions of the Cerbo GX as we detailed in this video (Cerbo GX, Cerbo-S GX and the MK2 model). As of 2025, Victron eliminated the Cerbo GX and the Cerbo-S GX so that there will, once again, be only one single model which is the MK2 version. In other words. the Cerbo GX MK2 replaces the original Cerbo GX and the Cerbo-S GX is no longer available. Victron Energy also offers the Ekrano GX which is similar but has an integrated touch screen.  For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to all “GX Devices” (all versions of the Cerbo) as the “Cerbo GX” in this post since they all use the same underlying operating system (VenusOS). Cerbo GX Configuration 1. Connect a Touch Screen The primary, in-person monitoring and control interface to the Cerbo GX is either the 5″ Touch 50 screen or the 7″ Touch 70 screen. These touchscreens can be powered from any 12-volt USB plug – either one like this in your rig, or the USB port that is right next to the HDMI port on the Cerbo GX itself. The video and touch commands/data require an HDMI connection. If you are placing your touchscreen far away from the Cerbo GX we’ve found this 25′ HDML extension cable paired with a HDMI female-to-female adapter works well. 2. Power on the Cerbo GX You do this by plugging in its DC power supply cable into the bottom of the unit and making sure the other side of the wire is wired up to your DC positive and negative bus bars/battery terminals. There is an integrated, inline fuse on the DC positive wire that is supplied with the Cerbo GX. Once power has been applied, it will take a minute or two to boot up but you should see some of the LED lights on the Cerbo GX turn on and the touchscreen coming on during the booting process – first with the Victron Energy logo and later with one of the standard screens (pages). 3. Connect the Cerbo GX to a Wi-Fi Network Tap on the lower right portion of the touchscreen to open the menu bar to access the Menu. Then choose “Settings”, then choose “Wi-Fi” and then “Wi-Fi networks”. This should open a list of available Wi-Fi networks much like any computer or mobile device. Next select the network name you wish to connect to and finally, press on the empty “field” area on the right side of the password row. This will open a virtual keyboard allowing you to enter the password for the Wi-Fi network. After you enter the password and return to that network’s screen, you should see that the “State” row reads “Connected”. If it doesn’t, it’s likely you need to re-enter the password. 4. Update the Firmware One of the great things about Victron Energy equipment is that their developers are continually improving the apps and firmware which means you get extra features and stability every time you update the firmware or apps. To update the firmware (the version of Venus OS running the Cerbo GX), open the Menu, choose Settings, and then Firmware. From this screen you want to make sure that “Check and update” is selected on the “Auto update” row and then press the “Press to check” button. From there you’ll either be guided through the update or it will report that you already have the latest version. 5. Customize System Name Open the Menu, choose “Settings” and then choose “System setup”. Take a look at the first two rows on this screen. The “System name” should be set to “User defined”. You can then press on the empty field area in the “User defined name” row and enter what you want to name your system. 6. Label AC Input 1 We like to choose the appropriate “label” for the AC Input 1 on the MultiPlus inverter charger. In most cases this input is fed from Shore power. From the same “System setup menu” (Menu -> Settings -> System Setup) press on the AC Input 1 row and choose “Shore power”. 7. Enable Remote Console One of the cool features of VRM (more on that below) is the ability to remotely control your Cerbo GX using the remote console. To enable this we need to update a few settings. Start by entering the Menu, choose “Settings” and then choose “VRM online portal”. Make a note of the “VRM Portal ID” from this screen. We’ll need that a little later when we connect the Cerbo GX to VRM. Then scroll down until you see the the “VRM two-way communication” option and turn it on. Now go back into Settings and choose “Remote Console”. We recommend pressing on the “Enable password check” and choosing a password that you will need to enter when using Remote Console from VRM. Then make sure that “Enable on VRM” is turned on. Finally, you need to power cycle/reboot your Cerbo GX before these settings take effect. One simple way to do this is to pull the power supply plug from the bottom of the Cerbo GX and then replug it. 8. Boat & Motorhome Overview & Units Open the Menu, choose “Display & language” and then turn on the “Show boat & motorhome overview”. This adds a new “page” or “screen” to your Cerbo GX that allows you to control a MultiPlus inverter state (on, off, inverter only, charger only) as well as the AC input current. Next, choose “Units” from the same “Display & language” menu and change to F from C (Fahrenheit). Settings -> Display & language -> Units -> set temp to F (From C – available in Venus OS 2.9+) 9. Enable DC System Open the Menu, choose “System setup”, scroll down to “Has DC system” and turn that on. What the heck is this? Basically, it just tells the Cerbo GX that there are DC loads in the system that you want to monitor – such as your DC load center/fuses. When turned on you see the DC “box” on the display screens/pages. In a van/RV, there is almost always a DC system but in some other applications, such as an off-grid install, there may not be any DC loads. 10. Set Time Open the Menu, choose “Settings” and then “Date & Time”. From that screen, press on “Date/Time local” to set your local time and then press on “Time zone” to select your local time zone. 11. Bluetooth Settings Open the Menu, choose “Settings” and then choose “Bluetooth”. From this screen, you’ll want to make sure that Bluetooth is turned on (“Enabled”) and then press on “Pincode” to set the login code to connect to the Cerbo GX via Bluetooth using VictronConnect. 12. Configure Your Battery Monitoring If You Have a Victron BMV-712 or SmartShuntYou need to tell the battery monitor about your batteries by connecting to the device via Bluetooth with the VictronConnect app. The default password/pincode for Victron Smart devices when connecting via Bluetooth is 000000 (six zeros). Once connected click on the “gear icon” in the very top right portion of the screen and then click on the “Battery” row to open the battery configuration screen. You should be able to find these specifications in the documentation from your battery manufacturer. For SOK batteries, check here.  Battery Capacity: total amp hour rating of your battery bank Charged voltage: varies with battery & manufacturer - see datasheet Note that this number should be about .2 or .3 volts below the absorption charge voltage set in your charging devices Discharge Floor: 10% (or, more conservatively 20%) The discharge floor is used to calculate the “Time-to-Go” or “Time remaining” info on the battery monitor. Lithium batteries can be discharged completely but it’s not recommended to go below 10-20%. By setting this to 10% or 20% instead of 0%, the battery monitor will change its calculations to provide for this “reserve” power. This value is also for triggering the relay at a certain state of charge (SOC). Tail Current: varies with battery & manufacturer - see datasheet Charged Detection Time: 3m Note, this setting, along with the “Charged voltage” above is what triggers a “synchronization” to 100% state of charge. In other words, if your battery bank gets to the “Charged voltage” setting for 3 minutes, it will be considered fully charged by the battery monitor and, from that point, it will track actual power consumed from the batteries (amp hours) to calculate the state of charge. This algorithm gets better after a few charge/discharge cycles. Peukert Exponent: 1.05 Charge Efficiency Factor: 99% Current threshold: 0.10A Time to go averaging period 3m Battery SOC on reset: Keep SOC State of Charge: leave defaults Synchronize SOC to 100% button In normal operation you probably won’t use this feature. However, if you are certain your batteries are fully charged, but the normal charged detection mechanism isn’t working (a combination of the batteries reaching the “Charged voltage” setting for the length of time specified in the “Charged detection time” setting), you can press this button to manually “synchronize” to 100% state of charge. Zero Current Calibration button This option can be used to calibrate the zero reading if the battery monitor reads a non-zero current even when there is no load and the battery is not being charged. Note: most battery manufacturers recommend that you make sure your batteries are fully charged at least twice per month which allows the battery monitor to synchronize to keep the state of charge calculations. This video has some great information. If You Have a Lynx Smart or NG BMSIf you have the Lynx Smart or NG BMS, it means you’re using Victron's Smart or NG lithium batteries and, therefore, the system already knows almost everything it needs to about the batteries. You just need to connect to the Lynx Smart NG BMS via Bluetooth with the VictronConnect app. The default password/pincode for Victron Smart devices when connecting via Bluetooth is 000000 (six zeros). Once connected, click on the “gear icon” at the very top right part of the screen and change the 3x settings shown below in the “System settings” section. 13. Add Ruuvitag(s) Ruuvitags (available in 3x versions with varying levels of waterproof) are wireless (Bluetooth) sensors that can provide temperature, humidity and other data to your Cerbo GX. We like to use one inside our van, one outside of the van, another in the fridge, etc. The integrated Bluetooth connectivity on the Cerbo GX is not strong enough to support the Ruuvitag Pro so Victron recommends that you add a third-party USB to Bluetooth adapter. We’ve found this TP-Link model is affordable and works great. Once you’ve connected the USB Bluetooth dongle, pull the plastic tab from the Ruuvitag to activate the unit with its internal battery. Next, open the Menu on the touchscreen and go to “Setting” and then choose “I/O”. Make sure that the “Enable” switch on this screen is turned on. After a few seconds, you should see the Ruuvitag you have powered on appear in this menu. Once it does, turn on the switch next to that device as well. If you’re adding multiple Ruuvitags, we recommend that you do one at a time so that you can write down each Ruuvitags unique ID and make a note of “where” you’ll be placing that particular Ruuvitag. This will help you give the Ruuvitags meaningful names in the next step. Once you’ve added all the Ruuvitags you’ll be using you can rename them something meaningful. Start by reopening the Menu which will bring up the “Device List”. You should see each Ruuvitag listed here. To rename, press on the Ruuvitag you wish to name then press on “Device” and then press into the empty field in the “Name” row to bring up the virtual keyboard and type in the name you want to use. You might also be interested in our blog post about how to trigger a fan controlled by the Cerbo GX relay with at a particular temperature as measured by a Ruuvitag. 14. Consider Customizing the Logo on the Cerbo GX Screen This video details the process. In our experience, a 800 x 440 pixel image works well for aspect ratio/size. If you don’t get the aspect ratio right it squishes the logo. Also, we recommend using a background since transparent images don’t look good. 15. Consider Adding Tank Monitoring If your rig has water tanks – fresh or grey – you might want to check out our tank monitoring blog post to be able to monitor your tank levels on the Cerbo GX. 16. Consider Adding GPS You can add a USB GPS receiver such as this one to your Cerbo GX which is a really cool way of tracking the location of your van/rig. And, once you connect up your Cerbo GX with VRM (coming right up!) you can even configure a “geofence” area on a map and receive notifications if it goes outside of that area. Connecting your Cerbo GX to VRM 1. Create a VRM Account Start by establishing a VRM account for yourself on this page. These accounts are “free for life” from our friends at Victron! Once you register, they will send you a confirmation email that you have to open and confirm. Once you’ve confirmed, login to VRM. 2. Add Your “Installation” Next, navigate to the “Add installation” screen in VRM. Then choose “Cerbo GX or Cerbo S-GX” option. You’l need to enter the “Installation ID” which is the “VRM Portal ID” you may have written down back in “step 7” above. If not, refer to “step 7” to find this information on your Cerbo GX. You can also name your “installation” on this screen. Once you’ve provided that information you can press the “Request access” button to proceed to the next step. Note, if the Cerbo GX has previously been linked to another VRM account, and that “VRM Portal ID” and you try to “Request access” when establishing your new account/installation, the email address used the first time the Cerbo GX was added to VRM will be sent ane mail and you’ll see a message on the screen that reads “An email has been sent to the administrator adding new site”. The easiest thing to do is to have the original owner/account holder forward the email to you. If that isn’t possible you can reach out to your Victron dealer (which might be us!) so that we can try to manually override this for you. 3. Update Preferences In VRM, click on “Preferences” in the left-side navigation (if you don’t see “Preferences” you’re likely viewing an “installation” so you’ll have to click on the “back” button at the top of the left-side navigation first). Next, click on “Display preferences” and configure the options on this screen to your preferences. We normally change “Units” to Fahrenheit and Gallons. 4. Enable Widgets In addition to the main “Dashboard” report that shows much of the same information you’d see on the Touch 50 or Touch 70 screens, you can add a super wide range of “widgets” to the “Advanced” view in VRM. Widgets are basically domain/device-specific reports/charts. Below is a screenshot from the “Advanced” view in VRM showing 3x widgets. To enable these widgets start by navigating to your installation by finding its name in the left-side navigation in VRM. From there click on “Advanced”. New installations do not have any widgets activated so you won’t see much there yet. To choose which widgets you’d like to see, look for the “widgets button” near the top right part of the VRM interface. Below is a screenshot of this button. That will bring up a list of the various devices in your system such as the “Gateway” (your GX device – the Cerbo GX), battery monitors, solar charge controllers, Ruuvitags, etc. Basically, anything that is connected to the Cerbo GX. You can then click on a device to reveal a list of available widgets for that particular device. Below is a screenshot showing some of the widgets for a Victron SmartShunt which I have renamed “Battery Monitor – AW Battery Monitor”. You can see that there are 7 widgets available and many of them are colored blue which indicates that they are active/selected. To add/remove a widget from a device menu, simply click on its name once to activate (shown in blue text) and click again to reactive (black text). Widgets can be reordered to suit your preferences. Also, as you scroll through the data in one report, you’ll see the various reports are linked together. Many of the widgets/reports can be made larger by clicking on the “expand icon” in the top right portion of the widget. 5. Enable Inverter/Charger Control If you want to be able to change the “mode” of your inverter/charger (on, off, charger only mode, inverter only mode), go into your installation, navigate to “settings” and then “general” and toggle on the Inverter/Charger control as shown in the screenshot below. 6. Considering Sharing Access If you purchased your equipment from us (thanks), you can take advantage of our world-class support including adding us to your VRM account so that we can help you troubleshoot remotely when necessary. Or, perhaps you want someone else monitoring your system for other reasons. Whatever the reasons, to share your system, navigate to that “installation” in the left-side menu by clicking on the “installation”/system name. Then click on “Settings” and then select “Users”. From this screen, you can use the “Invite user” button to invite a user. If you want to invite us, at Vanlife Outfitters, please share with our service department email address which is service@vanlifeoutfitters.com. Victron also offers a "Share" link, but Vanlife Outfitters technical support can not use that method. Please use the Settings -> Users -> Invite User steps above to share access with support. 7. Consider Adding a Micro SD Card Anytime your Cerbo GX has an internet connection, it will push the date from the system to VRM but if you’re offline this isn’t possible. You can add a Micro SD card to the Cerbo GX (built in slot) so that all this data can be stored locally and, when you’re back online, it will upload the data captured during that period! Other Cool Stuff (for the Classic GUI only) If you want to really go big and see tons more information/data on your Touch 50/70 screen you can add something called GuiMods which is pretty cool. This video details the process. Note that the updated "New GUI" (really Victron, that's the best you could do for a name?) no longer supports GuiMods. The New GUI incorporates many of those powerful mods into the standard Venus OS release. Our recommendation is to make sure that the New GUI is running on your Cerbo. We think you'll like it!

How to Begin Your Vanlife Journey Sooner...What Are You Waiting For?

Video Tour of a Secondary Alternator Power System

An in-depth tour of an advanced Victron Energy power system we installed into a 2022 Sprinter van that features 4x charging methods. Dedicated Nations secondary alternator kit with the Wakespeed WS500 alternator (around 120-150 amps depending on RPMs) From the vehicle alternator with a Victron Orion DC-DC charger (30 amps) Solar charging with a Victron 100/30 MPPT charge controller Shore power charging up to 120 amps with the Victron MultiPlus II 12/3000/120 If you’re interested in this system, we have a detailed blog post about it including a FREE wiring diagram and we also offer a best price product bundle to get you all the parts at the best possible price! If you’re interested in higher voltage systems, check out our 48-volt secondary alternator blog post.

The Definitive Guide To Vanlife Safety - Stay Safe On The Road

This post is all about how to stay safe (both you and your van) on the road. There have been a couple of high-profile stories regarding vanlife and van safety in the news just as vanlife was becoming mainstream. As a percentage of actual vanlifers, I tend to think that vanlife-related crime is a very minor, barely existent issue. However, I acknowledge that I am writing this from the perspective of a larger-than-average athletic male, trained in self-defense. I do subscribe to the motto, “better safe than sorry”, so I thought it would be good to talk about things that you can do to keep your van (and most importantly yourself) safe on the road. First I will talk about ways to keep your physical van and property safe and then, more importantly, I will talk about keeping yourself safe. Protecting your van and valuables: Take Photos for Security & Insurance Take detailed photos all around your van including the exterior, interior, and your personal property in the event your van gets broken into. Most insurance companies will want to see these photos before binding your policy. Keep these photos stored somewhere you can access such as Dropbox or Google Drive just in case if you wind up needing them to submit a claim. Keep valuables secure It’s a good idea to keep your valuables safe by installing a safe, locking drawer or hidden compartment into your van build. In the unlikely event that someone breaks into your van, they probably won’t have the time to get into your safe and if you have a hidden compartment, they might not even find it. Invest in an anti-theft system I have an aftermarket anti-theft system installed in my van for multiple reasons. First, it’s obviously a protection against your van being stolen. Second, it’s nice to have a “panic button” next to you in bed, in case you hear someone lurking outside your van. Lastly, it will most likely be an item that could reduce your insurance if you have one and thus essentially pay for itself. You can purchase one on Amazon, I recommend the Viper security system without remote start because it’s less expensive and less complicated to install. If you want a security system with a remote start or don’t want to install the system yourself, it might be a good idea to get it done at a local shop or Best Buy. You could even buy “The Club” steering wheel lock (yes that thing from the infomercials in the 90’s). Anything you can add to deter a thief is a good investment. Use a GPS tracker Having a GPS tracker hidden in your van and paying a monthly subscription might seem like overkill, but once you have one you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. If you have a Cerbo GX in your van then you don’t even need to pay for tracking since it’s included in victron’s VRM (Victron Remote Management) portal (you’ll need a GPS antenna). Not only can you monitor your entire system with VRM, but you can also set up a “Geo Fence” and set up notifications to alert you if your van leaves the “Geo-Fence” you created. You’ve invested thousands of dollars in your home on wheels, so why not have something that lets you know where it is at all times? Imagine coming back to your van after a few days away and it’s not where you left it. How would you feel? Now imagine being able to look on your phone to locate it and letting the police know exactly where it is…sounds like a much better outcome. I do a lot of backpacking and travel a lot away from the van and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to be able to look at my phone and know where my van is. I personally use the Cerbo GX since it’s already in my system and it’s free. If you don’t have a Cerbo GX then you can check out the Tracki. It’s inexpensive and has great reviews. The monthly subscription is pretty competitively priced as well at around $12/month and it may pay for itself if your insurance carrier offers a discount on your premium for having it. *side note: if you are going backpacking or doing a lot of long-distance hiking, you should also invest in a Garmin In-Reach. It’s different than a GPS tracker that you would hide in your car. It has an SOS beacon for search and rescue and syncs with your phone so you can stay on the trail, receive weather alerts, and a ton of other features. Buy a fire extinguisher You’re probably going to be cooking in your van and maybe you have candles. Maybe your engine catches on fire. It would really suck if your van caught on fire and you didn’t have something as basic as a fire extinguisher to take care of it quickly. You’ve invested thousands of dollars into your van build, invest a few more dollars on a fire extinguisher. When the first question everyone asks is “why didn’t you have a fire-extinguisher?” you’ll feel pretty silly if you don’t. Protecting Yourself: Lock your door each night This one is pretty basic, but sometimes I forget too. Get in the habit of checking and double-checking. I keep my key on the countertop next to my bed every night. Update your Social Media on a Delay It’s a good practice to wait until you’ve left a location to post it on social media. In addition to that, it’s always a good practice to never let anyone (except friends and family) know exactly where you’re camping or how long you’ll be camping there. Putting something masculine that suggests police or military in your dash or outside your van. If you’re a solo female traveler it can’t hurt to display something that would make a would-be, shady creeper think there is a 6’4” 250-pound Navy Seal in the van with you. If you’re a solo traveler in general, you can also put out two camping chairs out at your campsite so that any unwelcome visitors will think someone else is traveling with you. Get a dog (Adopt don’t shop!) Dogs have far better hearing, smell and instincts than humans. If a dog senses danger the will most likely alert you. If it’s a big enough dog, it will even be able to protect you. Even if it’s a seven-pound Yorkie, it will probably make enough noise to alert you that someone is outside and make a shady creeper think twice about breaking in. If you do get a dog, please consider investing in a Ruuvi which allows you to monitor conditions inside your van remotely through Victron’s VRM portal. The Ruuvi also has a motion sensor which might come in handy as well. Affinity Plate I purchased a “Support Law Enforcement” license plate from my state (Florida). It has a little badge on the plate and I can’t be sure that a thief has ever seen my plate and decided to pass on breaking into my van, but I don’t think it hurts. I also think this plate goes a long way toward interactions with the police whether it be violating obscure city ordinances or getting out of traffic infractions. Keep self-defense items close to your bed It’s a good idea to keep self-defense items near your bed. I do this in the unlikely event that someone actually gets into my van when I’m asleep. Maybe I forgot to lock my doors or maybe they used a slim jim, regardless of how someone could get in, I like to be prepared. A taser, butcher’s knife, large machete, or bear spray in a drawer next to your bed would be perfectly reasonable. Some people might want to have a handgun and that’s fine too. Whatever you feel comfortable with is perfectly fine as long as you’re prepared to use it. Take a self-defense course Speaking of being prepared to use your designated self-defense items, it’s a good idea to take a self-defense course. I like to learn a couple of new skills every year and a self-defense course would be a great way to get started with this annual practice. If you are a female, having self-defense skills is an excellent way to neutralize the size advantage a male attacker might have on you. Keep alert items close to your bed In addition to self-defense items, you should keep your cell phone, a pocket alarm, your keys, and a strong flashlight close to your bed. Obviously, you’ll want your phone close to you in case you need to call 9-1-1. A pocket alarm is a device that makes a loud alarm noise when triggered. If you don’t have a panic button on your anti-theft system I recommended above then I recommend this as the next best option. It’s a good practice to keep your keys next to your bed for a few reasons. First, it’s good to know where your keys are in case of an emergency, and keeping them in the same place each night is good practice. Second, if you need to move your van in a hurry or in an emergency you can grab them quickly and go. Lastly, if you bought the anti-theft system I recommended above, you can hold down the star button to activate panic mode if there is suspicious activity outside. A powerful flashlight is always a good, inexpensive thing to have if you want to shine it outside to get a look at what’s going on outside. If you can afford floodlights outside your van, then I recommend those too. At the very least you should get a powerful flashlight. Many times it’s darker outside than it is inside and it can be difficult to see outside without a flashlight. Updating family or friends You should make it a habit of letting someone you trust know where you are on a daily basis via call or text. You can call them your Guardian Angel and it will make them feel special. Let them know that if they don’t hear from you for a couple of consecutive days to check in on you. Hopefully, you have a friend or family member you trust who cares about you and will probably be doing this anyways without asking. It’s also very smart to give that person or multiple people your location via your phone or via that GPS tracker you bought from my suggestion above. The GPS tracker doesn’t necessarily let the person know you’re ok, but in a worst-case scenario, they will at least know where you are and can let the authorities know to check on you. Have a lockable wall/door to separate your cockpit from your living cabin The extra benefit is that it will provide additional climate and sound control as most of the temperature fluctuations and noise in a van are let in by the windows and windshield in the cockpit area. Park smart (especially when urban/city vanlifing) Park in a way that allows you to drive away quickly (don’t forget to close all your cabinets before you go to bed or the items inside will fall out when you’re making your escape). To ensure a quick exit, you don’t want to leave anything on your driver’s seat either. You don’t really want to leave anything of value on your seats, dashboard or in plain view from the windows for that matter. If you’re parking in the city, choose a well-lit area in a decent part of the city. Don’t park in an industrial area, you know like the area the villain in a Batman movie would have his headquarters? Don’t park in the hood either…if you see drug addicts, non-artistic graffiti, abandoned houses, or stray dogs…you’re in the hood. See if there are any designated areas or Harvest Host locations around. Come back later (especially when urban/city vanlifing) I like to scout out a few areas during the daytime to get my bearings, know my surroundings and make sure it’s going to be a decent area. I will then come back, later in the night after I’ve done my nightly routine. I like to do my nightly routine somewhere other than where I’m sleeping so that I don’t attract attention to myself or my van unnecessarily. Invest in a dangerous gas detector This is a must-have for anyone doing vanlife. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a propane tank or a heater. Don’t mess with fate. Something like an inexpensive smoke and carbon monoxide detector could literally save your life. Invest in an exterior camera / light system As mentioned above, if you can afford an exterior camera or floodlight system, then by all means go for it. I know that this is beyond most people’s budget and it might be a tad bit overkill, but as the saying goes…whatever helps you sleep at night (literally). Make a nightly routine using all the above information (mainly for urban/city vanlifing): Scout a safe, well-lit location (to come back to later). Go somewhere else to get ready for bed (don’t attract attention). Put up window covers at dusk so people can’t see inside (for city and campsites). Make sure you don’t leave valuables sitting in view. Display something like a “Navy Seal Hat” or “Police Decal” Return and park in a manner that allows you to pull away quickly. Double-check the area. Visually inspect to make sure it’s safe. Let your Guardian Angel know your location. Make sure you set your alarm, lock your doors, have a weapon near your bed, and leave your key in a convenient location. Vanlife Outfitters has been supporting DIY camper van builders since 2016. We have a large collection of blog posts, videos, tips, resources, information and products to help you on your journey into vanlife. We are experts in all things vanlife and we have a store that features all of our recommended and road-tested products. If you got any useful information from our site please let us know…and if you’re in the market for products to build out a van please consider supporting our store!

I've Built Over 15 Vans...Here's What I've Learned

I've Built Over 15 Vans…Here's What I've Learned: Video Presentation ** READ THIS BEFORE YOU DESIGN YOUR CAMPER VAN ** This blog post contains everything I changed or would have changed after 3 years on the road in my first van. If you would like to view this post as a video presentation please see the video above. One of the most difficult parts of a van build is figuring out the right floor plan and fitting everything you want into that floorplan. A big mistake a lot of people make is thinking they can fit everything they have in their house or apartment into a camper van. There are going to be some sacrifices and things you’re going to need to go without. The problem is, if you haven’t ever lived in a van, how do you know what you’re going to REALLY need and what you can do without. There are going to be things you thought you needed that you actually don’t and there are going to be things that you didn’t even realize you needed. You can do dozens of hours of research and you can go down the Youtube rabbit hole, but everyone’s needs are different and you’re not going to be able to know what’s best for you until you actually live in a van for at least a year. I’ve lived in a van full time for three years and another two years part-time. I’ve participated in over 15 van builds and I own a company that specializes in the best vanlife products for DIY van builders. I consider myself an expert in camper van design and floor planning and I enjoy the challenge of maximizing the functionality of tiny spaces. In this blog post I simply want to share my experiences and thought process to give you food for thought so that you can take whatever nuggets that resonate with you and incorporate them into your van build. Full disclaimer: Not everyone is the same! Some people want a cook’s kitchen and some people barely cook at all. Some people want a luxurious bathroom and some people are happy showering outside, at the gym or a campground. After living in a van for five years here are some of the things that I want you to think about. Toilet The majority of people choose to do a composting toilet and that’s what I did on my first van. While I was happy with the toilet, I actually never (not a single time) went #2 in that toilet. I went #1 in it all the time, but honestly I could have just as easily just used a pee bottle. The urine tank on a composting toilet is annoying to empty every couple of days and spending over $1,000 on a glorified pee bottle felt like a waste of money to me. Sure it was nice to have the toilet for #2 in case of emergency, but I found myself using public bathrooms all the time (gym, campground, gas station, hotel lobby, grocery store, mother nature). For me the solution I came up with for my second van build was a cabinet with a toilet seat on top and inside the cabinet was a bucket and a urine diverter. The bucket was lined with a trash bag (for emergencies only) and it doubled as my cleaning supply storage since I never used the bucket. The urine diverter was routed into an 8 gallon blackwater holding tank under the van. I only needed to empty the tank every few weeks and it was as simple as finding a dump station and flipping a switch. Doing my toilet this way saved me about $900 and was way better for my needs because it provided an emergency #2 solution and eliminated the disgusting chore of emptying the urine tank on the composting toilet. Alert: I understand this option might sound ludicrous to some people and you might be saying to yourself “Hell NO” and that’s ok. This is what worked best for me and my preferences. Shower Showers are one of the hottest topics in the van build debate. Some people won’t do vanlife without them. People like me are perfectly happy taking an outdoor shower or showering at campgrounds, national gym chains like Planet Fitness or Anytime Fitness, truck stops, rec centers, the beach, friends houses, etc. The argument for a shower in your van is obvious. It’s easy, convenient and luxurious to have a shower in your van. You can literally shower whenever and wherever you want. A shower in your van also usually means a private place for your toilet which is an obvious added benefit. The argument against a shower is that they are limiting to the floorplan and visually make the van feel tight and cramped. Another drawback is that they use a ton of water which makes having to refill and dump your water more of a frequent occurrence. One thing I decided on my next build is to do a convertible shower, like this one, for those times when it’s too cold outside, or I’m too tired to go to the gym or an available shower is just too far away to bother. My plan is to shower outside, at the gym or at campgrounds whenever possible, but for that 20% of the time when those types of showers aren’t available I’ll have an indoor shower available to me. I’ll be combining the shower with this greywater tank, but more on that below. Shoe cabinet Many people don’t account for shoe storage on a van build and to me it is one of the most important things to think about when designing your van. In a house, you are usually walking over a lot of grass or concrete before you get to your front door, so your shoes are relatively clean by that point. In a van, you’re going to be doing a lot of outdoor activities and are usually walking over dirt, sand or mud (like at a trailhead) just before you step inside your van. The last thing you want to do is track all that stuff into your tiny sanctuary. The solution I incorporated into my second build was a rubber lined shoe drawer near my front door. I could sit in the doorway and take off my shoes and not worry about tracking all that nasty stuff in the van. In my first van I didn’t do that and I ended up having to stuff dirty hiking boots under my driver’s seat and in other places they didn’t belong. By just having a dedicated shoe drawer near your door, you will save yourself a lot of time cleaning and a lot of stress of figuring out where to put your dirty shoes. Charging drawer This one is all about reminding you that your home on wheels is always moving. If you have a lot of devices that need to be charged then you can’t just leave them on the counter like you would in a house. There have been many (too many to count) times, especially when I was a vanlife rookie, that I forgot to put something away upon taking off on an adventure. As soon as I turned a corner, everything I left on the counter went flying. Cleaning up the ensuing mess is never fun and paying to replace damaged electronics is even less fun. The solution I came up with for this is a dedicated foam-lined charging drawer. Inside the drawer is a 12v and 110v outlet. You can charge your GoPro, Garmin, cell phone, DSLR batteries, Drone, portable charger, laptop, etc without ever having to worry. I also installed a locking latch on this drawer to make it extra difficult for would-be thieves to steal my goodies. Fridge at Eye Level I don’t like to think of myself as an old man, but bending over or squatting everytime I needed to get something out of the fridge or put away groceries had my lower back begging for mercy. After 3+ years of an undercounter fridge, I decided enough was enough. If you can work an eye level fridge into your floorplan I highly recommend it. It will make your life a whole lot easier and it provides the familiarity of a house refrigerator. You can get an undercounter fridge and mount it on top of a cabinet or you can get a tall fridge. Either way you’re going to love not having to bend over everytime you want a beer. **Also, I recommend getting a fridge with a decent size freezer like these. I like to boondock and having a large freezer means you have a way of keeping food fresher longer. Throw all bin/cabinet I planned and planned my first floor plan and believed I had thought of everything. I thought wrong. Even though I thought I had accounted for everything I forgot about my backpack. When you get back from a long hike you can’t just throw your backpack on the floor…it will be in the way. You can’t just throw your backpack on the ground, you’re going to want to sit down and relax after a long hike. The backpack is always in the way! My solution for this was to dedicate a cubby specifically for my backpack. You could also add a hook and hang it up, but my backpack is heavy and it would bang around when driving. I suppose I could hang it up and strap it down, but it’s much more convenient to throw it in a cubby/cabinet.. I suppose I could also put it in the garage after each hike, but there are supplies that I frequently want to get in my backpack. To make matters worse, if you’re like me, you might have two backpacks! One for hiking and one for the gym. I use the gym backpack for workout gear, shower supplies, a towel and change of clothes. Thankfully my cubby fits both backpacks. Mattress Don’t cheap out on your mattress. Living in a van can sometimes be uncomfortable. But that’s ok because you’re trading comfort for freedom. The one thing you should splurge on is a nice mattress so that you can have a little bit of luxury and wake up well-rested for your adventures. I like the look of the and functionality of a dinette bed combo, but to me it’s not practical for several reasons. First, you’re going to lose most of your garage storage in the dinette setup. Second, when I’m done with a long day of hiking or kayaking, the last thing I want to do is build my bed for the night. Third, if I’m driving a long haul and want to pull off for a nap, I just want to jump in bed as soon as possible. Last, you can’t convince me that seat cushions that double as a mattress are comfortable. They might be fine for a month, but after a few months, you just can’t beat a well made mattress. **Also I highly recommend installing your bed as low as reasonably possible. It’s nice to be able to sit up in bed and makes the area feel a lot less claustrophobic. Quick Hits: Bug Screens Bug screens are almost a must have. I didn’t have one in my first build and I definitely regretted not having one. I was limited to my tiny windows for ventilation and it would have been nice to open my sliding door in some situations. Fortunately, Vanlife Outfitters carries some really good looking bug screens that are fairly easy to install and customized for Sprinter, Transit or Promaster. Quick Hits: Hot sauce/spice rack If you cook a lot, it’s really nice to be able to access all your spices and sauces rather than digging into a cabinet multiple times. You can also use part of the rack for storing other items that you need frequently Quick Hits: Pull out trash and laundry Don’t forget that you’re going to produce trash and laundry. Make sure that you’ve designated a place in your build for those stinky items. I highly recommend lining it with cedar. I like to have a small trash can so it forces me to throw out the trash before it starts to smell. Quick Hits: Larger sink or dirty dishes drawer I like a larger deeper sink than most people would put in a camper van. You can wait a little longer to do the dishes, you can wash clothes in the sink. I’m willing to sacrifice a few extra inches on my countertop for a larger sink. But that’s just me, you do you. Quick Hits: Larger Freshwater and Greywater Tank One of the biggest pain-in-the-butts of vanlife is finding spots to fill freshwater and dump greywater. This can especially be problematic for boondockers or urban stealth vanlifers. My first van had 20 gallons and that was a lot in comparison to some other van builds, but when planning my van builds from scratch, I don’t do anything less than 40 gallons anymore. It’s really nice not having to fill freshwater as often. On the flipside, my greywater tank was 7 gallons, and finding a place to dump my greywater was also an issue. Dumping your greywater on grass or the street, even if you use biodegradable soaps and toothpaste, is somewhat of a “grey area” (pun intended) for many vanlifers. I personally like to dump my greywater at an official dumpstation whenever possible and I never dump on public lands. Having a larger grey water tank like this one from Vanlife Outfitters really cuts down on the amount of trips to the dump stations. Quick Hits: Fixed dinette It’s nice if you can incorporate a fixed dinette into your van build. Some floorplans won’t permit this but I really wanted to be able to sit down and work or eat without having to enter into a process to transform my seating area. Quick Hits: 12v Air Conditioner I had the “Two MaxxFan Method” in my first van and that was fine for travel out West, mostly at higher elevations. If you’re going to traveling in the south, don’t have a high tolerance for heat or if you have fur babies, then you’re going to probably want to get a 12v air conditioner like this one. The downside is that you’ll also probably need a larger battery bank. As our climate changes and things really start to heat up, 12v Air Conditioners are quickly becoming a non-negotiable for some vanlifers. Quick Hits: Insulated curtain or wall Most of the heat and cold are going to come into your van through your cockpit. It’s good to have a plan to Quick Hits: Garage Drawer System On my first van I had the black rubber bins from Home Depot to store all my gear. No matter how hard I tried to organize my bins, based on how frequently I needed the gear, the item I needed always seemed to be in the back of the garage on the bottom bin. That meant I needed to take out all the other bins to get to the bin I needed. On my second build I added a large 42” long double drawer on 250lb drawer slides. Getting things out was so much easier. I also really like having a cargo pull out tray which is rated for 800lbs. I’ll never have 800lbs on it but it’s really smooth when I have all my storage containers with tools and heavy equipment on it.   Vanlife Outfitters has been supporting DIY camper van builders since 2016. 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