Practice English Speaking&Listening with: VAN TOUR | solo 65 year old moves into DIY sprinter van conversion

hello everybody welcome back to our

channel we're Eamon and Bec and for the

last year and a half we've been living

in our own self converted Sprinter van

if you know us you might be thinking

that this is our van that that is not

the case this is actually my dad's van

and we spent about 30 days a few months

ago converting it from nothing so today

is the day you've all been waiting for

we're gonna give you a full tour of

bob's van all right without further ado

let's introduce Bob hi I'm Bob and I'm

65 years old I now live in a van that's

60 square feet and what inspired me was

my son and his fiancee they've been

doing it now for about a year and I've

seen their community and what life has

been like living in a van and it's

actually fantastic so now I've been

doing it for I think about three months

now before I give you a tour of my van

what I'd like to do is introduce you to

my roommates this is Batty/ Batman and

this is Lucy and finally we've got the

granddaddy of them all Barkley and by

the way Barkley happens to be 18 years

old or 106 human years so now what we

would like to do is give you a little

tour of the van so Bob's van is a 2008

Sprinter van and we chose that because

that's the same year and van that we

have ourselves we're super comfortable

with layout we thought we'd build

something very similar for my dad so

you'll notice even a lot of the design

aesthetics are really similar to what we

already have this is the captains area

here and this here is what I call the

perch or the copilot's area we've got

two co-pilots on staff today

of course Batman and Lucy so I thought

that this had to be built up high enough

we can take it apart in two seconds if

there's a

human passenger with us how I built this

is just it's just a platform we've got

two sides that fold down right so this

part comes apart there's a bolt here

that comes apart and then there's a wire

that I've got hooked here to the frame

that comes here so that holds it up here

that can't fall down and then I can just

take it apart put it behind the seat and

take this pole out and it's now the

seats ready for a human passenger so

it's important to keep a nice clean van

so I've got my I got a special on some

dishwashing detergent so I've got my

three pack container here and of course

it's always important to have a little

treat for the pups this is my kitchen I

think it's five square feet thanks to

Eamon and Bec and their experience

they have a small stove *fridge in their

van and they suggested to get a much

bigger one hundred and ten liter I believe

and a big thanks to the Dometic for

hooking that up because I love it it's

just fantastic is it two burner stove

right here works great I'd have to turn

on the fuel but it's not on right now I

felt that the counterspace being used to

living in the house the counterspace was

a little tight and at my 10 square feet

kitchen so I thought we would build this

little thing which is a cutting board

and I could use that if I wasn't cooking

anything I can use that to add to the

counter space so and that seems to work

out very well and I can cut things up

here and make sandwiches or whatever

propane tank is housed underneath here

this just slides over it covers off the

fridge rather than have something come

out like that I thought that would be

more convenient I've got a grey water

container here a normal barbecue propane

tank and then we happen to have just a

grey water and going directly through

the van and onto the ground if it's just

like dishes or something like that water

system is that I think a 12-volt pump

and has to switch you on here safety

switch to turn it on and off you know I

don't think you want to leave your pump

on all the time in case there's a

problem with the water it's used to work

well and then you've got a filtration

system here for pure water so the water

filter he's talking about is the same

one that we have it's a two-stage water

purification so it's a carbon and

sediment filter because you can fill up

from any hose it just adds a little bit

of extra purification and safe to drink

out of

when you live in this environment you

really are grateful for you know for

what you have because you realize how

much waste you go through when you're

not living in this kind of because

you're bringing all the water and the

first time I was here I sort of filled

up the sink and realized that I just got

rid of like a hundred pound jug of water

that I had to go and get and bring back

into the van so after that you put a

little bit of water in a bowl and you

put a little soap in there and you end

up doing the dishes and it's a little

weird in the beginning but eventually

it's becomes normal got this magnetic

knife holder which is why find fantastic

you know exactly where your scissors are

all the time or your fancy knives and

then this is our cupboard worth of food

we got lots of room here how about that

light oh yeah the light Rodeo Drive man

yeah we got a we're gonna put a

shout-out to Eric for that Eric is is a

friend of ours that helped us out

putting in the electrical stuff in

cupboard lighting as soon as you open

the door there's a little switch right

here and it turns it on automatically

which is super handy Thank You energy do

you have that no I've just got my my

pantry here got some oatmeal some rice

some nuts and spices and then some

cereal stuff I've got you know a one pot

and one ball and one cup that makes it

easy for storage I think I have more

more tea towels than I have posting cups

oh and also I didn't tell you about my

fan here it's a maxi fan with a remote

control

now this thing what if you're not

careful it could zoom you up Scotty okay

be like suck it I'll just give it to

where you just turn it on and then it

goes in reverse to so it could suck the

air out of the cabin and a hot day you

would do that on a cold day if you

wanted it if you wanted some air come in

think Avenue and turn like turn it

around and have the air

I'm not really a carpenter but I you

know I'm willing to try something so it

took me a while but we finally got this

drawer and it's a cutlery drawer and it

works extremely well it works for a

bachelor I've got one plate actually I

got two plates here and I think a fork

in a knife so that works very well how

it locks into place so it doesn't roll

when you turns I've got a like a

male/female kind of adapter underneath

here so the male fits into the female

and it said it locks into place

six LED lights and that's more than

enough to light up this cabin and it

hardly takes any energy on a dimmer

switch and you turn it on you turn it

off and you can get like a romantic mood

at night and stuff if you're inclined

and the last overhead compartment is

clothing right now and you can see that

I probably need to get that a little

more organized but in time I'll have

that specifically span something that I

picked up or anything is pretty cool

it's a paper towel thing that doesn't

unravel the towels it's on some kind of

suspension here clips and then you can

just take one sheet at a time and I

think it looks neat it's out of the way

and you've got lots of paper towels

so now we'll jump into a little bit more

information about the electrical so for

this van layout we actually partnered

with go power they're a Canadian company

based out of BC but have international

shipping to a number of different

countries and the reason why we are so

excited about this partnership is

because of their customer service so I'm

not a professional when it comes to

electrical by any means but having a

company that you can actually pick up

the phone and call and ask them

questions was incredibly useful so to

run you through what we've done all of

the electrical is actually house right

in here and this is where the design

starts to change a little bit compared

to our van we made this box a little bit

bigger and a little bit taller we fit

our 250 amp hours worth of batteries

we've got a 2000 watt pure sine wave

inverter and charger and display so I

don't think we're going to be needing to

access this because I think it's very

reliable but if we do we can just take

out these six screws here and this whole

panel slides out and we can access the

front of it if you have to just look put

your arm in and make a and do something

minor you can come in from the top and

that's why we built this

we almost forgot to tell you about the

heater because it is still so hot

beautiful here in Canada but we did

install a s bar d2 heater and just like

our van we mounted the heater underneath

the passenger seat so it just blows the

hot air directly into the back of the

cab we briefly touched on the electrical

cabinet here where we're going to open

it from the top there's two other

sections one being the laundry which you

can see the laundry is here and it's not

cleaned and it's not folded next one

being the dog compartment which we must

have all the doggie stuff and that

consists of the dog bowls and their food

and toys and a lot of kind of stuff so

there's a couple other areas in the van

I haven't showed you one is really

really important to me and enter my

roommates and that's that we call that

the Batcave and it's underneath the bed

there it seems to work out very well at

night everybody sort of scuttles under

there and goes to sleep

alright guys so now we're in the bedroom

there's one other section that we're

missing from the mattress so we actually

bought a full double size mattress and

we cut it in half so that extra piece is

just at the seamstress we're getting

them to put like a nice cushion on the

back so once that in that's in place

you'll be able to sit back here a little

bit nicer more like a couch more like a

couch and then we also designed this van

to be able to sleep two people in case

you do get a boyfriend or girlfriend

whatever you decide never no we actually

did allow for the pulled out slot design

very similar to what we did so he's got

this just on logs and then we broke it

into two sections so it's much easier to

do as a single bachelor and the couch

back support will come over here in the

daytime and that's exactly or in the

night time that's 17 inches so it's a

full to finish this side of the bed we

put a track below and a track above put

these inexpensive panels on that are

slidable that just you can close them up

or open them up however you want you can

even take them all the way out so you

can access whatever you want

a bit I just got my water and that's

that's where my water we ran a line

because of my back I don't have a grade

back we thought Amon and BEC have their

water underneath the sink and it's a

little more difficult to bend over and

unhook it and put it back in so because

of my back Amon had an idea to run the

line back here and I can just take the

tanks out from the ground position that

was brilliant

and that works fantastic and I agree

that was brilliant one other thing that

we did just like on our belt guys is we

did these on quick disconnects so a lot

of people ask us where you can get these

we bought these at Home Depot but we'll

also put a link in the description below

they're actually just gardening hoes

quick disconnects I found a nice little

place to have tools I think that when

you have a fan you need your tool bag

and there's always little things you

need to fix there's things you need to

tighten up and all that kind of stuff so

my tool bag that Siri got this from the

side of the road which is a great place

to pick up some stuff if you want to

save some money and it'll be a little

creative so just I'll hook that up on

the side similar to Amanat backs I'm

started copying everything that they do

why not they're good and that just comes

down like that and then I have a little

thing that will hold it up here so it'll

be level and then I can sit here and

type or eat breakfast or just use the

table as I wish so I think my dad's

biggest concern before he moved in the

van was AC he's a big AC guy he likes it

nice and cool so how was the summer

summer was great and I think the main

reason mid summer was great because we

have two ways to get the air in and out

of the van without AC so that's a big

thing that I think we might actually try

and figure out another solution is

another air intake two vents right in

the roof so this one is just a manual

roof vent with screen there's no fan on

that but that really helps create a nice

draft in this space now this was a

little bit more tricky to configure

because we wanted the two vents we had

to configure the solar around there so

on the roof we've got 100 watt flexible

go power solar panels and those are

amazing because we just literally tape

them down around this fan

figured out there's three of them

there's three of them and it was super

easy to connect we just got the extra

connectors yeah and it was just female

male area here is our control panel area

and it consists of the Espar heater

remote control dimmer switch for the LED

lights up top it also houses the fully

functional informational gold power

station that tells me that the batteries

are 90 percent charged apparently that's

as high as you can get batteries charged

as ninety percent and it tells me how

much voltage is is being used at any

time and where the low-voltage is and it

gives you everything you really need to

know it's really so easy and I also have

a place to charge my cell phone I guess

a USB port my laptop and a DC power

outlet here and AC double AC outlet so

on this end here is these is the control

for the inverter which is that big box

here and what that does is that changes

from terms of electricity into AC and it

also charges the batteries with shore

power so once I plug in shore power this

little box here is charging the

batteries then if I want to plug in my

toaster it turns the DC power into AC

power allows me to do my toaster and I

also happen to have and this is how you

control it here it's real simple it

automatically turns on when you put on

shore power but you can control it here

with the on and off switch and I also

have a beautiful recycling box

well thank you everyone for touring

around my van I hope you enjoyed the

tour so guys we completed this van in

just over 30 days we have a full build

series if you're interested in learning

how we actually built the van and we

have lots more information on our

channel about fan life and that kind of

content

we're also linking below all of the

items that we purchased for Bob's build

so if you guys have any specifics that

you're interested in checking out it'll

all be linked below also if you have any

specific questions for Bob

you know send him your questions we all

know you love Bob so send him your

question and we'll try and do another

video answering some of those questions

so once again guys thanks for sticking

around be sure to subscribe to our

channel like this video if you like more

stuff like this and we will see you in

the next one hey guys Bob here

hey Bob

after a bunch of all that's a rock