The Prepper Thread

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Zapatta

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I was on Maui for the Japan Earthquake tsunami. Buncha Kanakas were wading through the Foodland parking lot and chucking whole fish in the back of their Ford Rangers. Zapatta Zapatta

Pfft we can pull food off the trees on the side of the road here. Send dogs to find pigs in the bushes and walk out on the rocks at beaches for seafood. Only the pussy white folks will starve here ... at first. Cans of SPAM will = $100 in no time. I have $10 of K in MeatCoin in my pantry right now.
 
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Big Phoenix

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Pfft we can pull food off the trees on the side of the road here. Send dogs to find pigs in the bushes and walk out on the rocks at beaches for seafood. Only the pussy white folks will starve here ... at first. Cans of SPAM will = $100 in no time. I have $10 of K in MeatCoin in my pantry right now.
Those pigs and chickens are gonna go mighty fast when the store shelves go empty.
 

Zapatta

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Those pigs and chickens are gonna go mighty fast when the store shelves go empty.

Way easier faster to go out in a boat and get Tuna then crawl thru bushes for pig. My friend was out for 3 hrs yesterday and caught 5 x 150 lbs. Yellow Fins. I'll die from mercury poisoning before I starve.
 

Gravel

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So I like to think of it as the ultimate bugout bag at this point (and while any RV technically meets that standard, a van is a lot more portable and easy to just go). I'm just about done re-doing it; previously I had the kitchen on the passenger side.

Back.jpg

Front.jpg


Details:

It's a 2018 RAM Promaster 2500, extended with a high roof (can stand if you're about 6'3" or shorter) that we bought used with about 11,000 miles. Put 1" insulation all around, except for that one spot on the passenger side sliding door, as I'm still not sure if I want to put a window there.

Have a 100A lithium battery, and 200W of solar panels on the roof. 1000W inverter (you can see the 110v outlet behind the drivers door; used to have 3, but we didn't really need them...I may upgrade this to a 2000W inverter at some point so we could run a microwave or something), and also a battery isolator (connects lithium downstream one way to van battery, so it will charge off the alternator. You can reverse it if needed to jump the van battery off the lithium if required).

Can also see the 12V 50 quart fridge (can also run on 110v), the lights are 3W LED pucks, dimmable, with 2 circuits (one in front w/ 4 lights, one in back w/ 2 lights), cassette toilet. Both of the seats are on swivels, which I probably should've taken a picture with them turned. There's overhead storage built into the van already, and there was already a slight step behind the seats which I made larger for shoe storage, and then carpeted.

Water system is currently a 5 gallon grey tank (bucket), and 5 gallon potable water canister (have 2, for 10 gallons). Behind the sink faucet is the switch for the water pump, so it actually functions like a normal sink. MaxxAir Fan on the ceiling/roof, and a sliding window I put above the bed (cutting holes in the side of your van is stressful).

Part of the reason we went with the Promaster is the dimensions allow you to sleep sideways, whereas most (like Sprinters) aren't wide enough to do so, and means your bed takes up a lot more space. Also put screens on the back doors and sliding door.

Trying to think if there's anything else noteworthy. Lots of storage under the bed from the rear. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Built the entire thing myself, so I know it inside and out.
 
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Kiroy

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So I like to think of it as the ultimate bugout bag at this point (and while any RV technically meets that standard, a van is a lot more portable and easy to just go). I'm just about done re-doing it; previously I had the kitchen on the passenger side.

View attachment 278241
View attachment 278242

Details:

It's a 2018 RAM Promaster 2500, extended with a high roof (can stand if you're about 6'3" or shorter) that we bought used with about 11,000 miles. Put 1" insulation all around, except for that one spot on the passenger side sliding door, as I'm still not sure if I want to put a window there.

Have a 100A lithium battery, and 200W of solar panels on the roof. 1000W inverter (you can see the 110v outlet behind the drivers door; used to have 3, but we didn't really need them...I may upgrade this to a 2000W inverter at some point so we could run a microwave or something), and also a battery isolator (connects lithium downstream one way to van battery, so it will charge off the alternator. You can reverse it if needed to jump the van battery off the lithium if required).

Can also see the 12V 50 quart fridge (can also run on 110v), the lights are 3W LED pucks, dimmable, with 2 circuits (one in front w/ 4 lights, one in back w/ 2 lights), cassette toilet. Both of the seats are on swivels, which I probably should've taken a picture with them turned. There's overhead storage built into the van already, and there was already a slight step behind the seats which I made larger for shoe storage, and then carpeted.

Water system is currently a 5 gallon grey tank (bucket), and 5 gallon potable water canister (have 2, for 10 gallons). Behind the sink faucet is the switch for the water pump, so it actually functions like a normal sink. MaxxAir Fan on the ceiling/roof, and a sliding window I put above the bed (cutting holes in the side of your van is stressful).

Part of the reason we went with the Promaster is the dimensions allow you to sleep sideways, whereas most (like Sprinters) aren't wide enough to do so, and means your bed takes up a lot more space. Also put screens on the back doors and sliding door.

Trying to think if there's anything else noteworthy. Lots of storage under the bed from the rear. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Built the entire thing myself, so I know it inside and out.

More pics pls. I want one! Need to be able to fit a wife and kid tho
 

Sludig

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So I like to think of it as the ultimate bugout bag at this point (and while any RV technically meets that standard, a van is a lot more portable and easy to just go). I'm just about done re-doing it; previously I had the kitchen on the passenger side.

View attachment 278241
View attachment 278242

Details:

It's a 2018 RAM Promaster 2500, extended with a high roof (can stand if you're about 6'3" or shorter) that we bought used with about 11,000 miles. Put 1" insulation all around, except for that one spot on the passenger side sliding door, as I'm still not sure if I want to put a window there.

Have a 100A lithium battery, and 200W of solar panels on the roof. 1000W inverter (you can see the 110v outlet behind the drivers door; used to have 3, but we didn't really need them...I may upgrade this to a 2000W inverter at some point so we could run a microwave or something), and also a battery isolator (connects lithium downstream one way to van battery, so it will charge off the alternator. You can reverse it if needed to jump the van battery off the lithium if required).

Can also see the 12V 50 quart fridge (can also run on 110v), the lights are 3W LED pucks, dimmable, with 2 circuits (one in front w/ 4 lights, one in back w/ 2 lights), cassette toilet. Both of the seats are on swivels, which I probably should've taken a picture with them turned. There's overhead storage built into the van already, and there was already a slight step behind the seats which I made larger for shoe storage, and then carpeted.

Water system is currently a 5 gallon grey tank (bucket), and 5 gallon potable water canister (have 2, for 10 gallons). Behind the sink faucet is the switch for the water pump, so it actually functions like a normal sink. MaxxAir Fan on the ceiling/roof, and a sliding window I put above the bed (cutting holes in the side of your van is stressful).

Part of the reason we went with the Promaster is the dimensions allow you to sleep sideways, whereas most (like Sprinters) aren't wide enough to do so, and means your bed takes up a lot more space. Also put screens on the back doors and sliding door.

Trying to think if there's anything else noteworthy. Lots of storage under the bed from the rear. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Built the entire thing myself, so I know it inside and out.
I remember you having trouble getting a dealer to sell to you as a non business. Found one or bought private party? Now that you are done and ready for a new project, how much for the van? ;p
 

Gravel

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Yeah, it was difficult finding one. There was a dealer in Thousand Oaks who had 4 or 5. We were actually getting ready to test drive it and someone else came in looking to buy it while they were pulling it around. I think he ended up getting one still, but it was like $1-2k more than what we paid.

Ours had a dent on the drivers side, which just so happened to be exactly where the window went. Worked out well.
 

Gravel

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More pics pls. I want one! Need to be able to fit a wife and kid tho
Apologies for the pic heavy post(s). Will put behind spoilers for anyone who doesn't want to scroll.

Van was pretty much bare when we bought it, except for some finishing panels that I've mostly removed (the sliding door is the only one I kept up). Put in some 2x2 struts that I used some Loctite to secure to the bare floor, added polyiso insulation between those, and then put a 1/2" plywood subfloor attached to the struts. I think I took pictures of this at some point and posted them (somewhere in Screenshots), but too lazy to find it. Used a shit ton of spray foam (combo of the windows/doors kind and the large gaps kind) to "glue" the insulation to walls and ceiling, and I've used it for a bunch of other stuff. There's spray foam all over the place in there...super awesome for a van build.

The next thing we did was cut a hole for that fan. Talk about butt clenching. Think it was a 14"x14" hole. Solar panels came a bit later (after I'd accidentally drained the battery all the way not thinking about the fact that I needed some way to recharge it). They're secured using 3M 5200 which is basically permanent (wires are run through the rear camera box at the top of the van). If I did it again, I'd just buy a roof rack and mount them to it.
roof - Copy.jpg

While the sides of a Promaster are about as straight as they come, there's still a shit load of stuff protruding. On each side there was a pretty big lip, and so I built the bed frame on top of that with 1x3's going from left to right, and about a 3" gap for airflow between them. It's a queen size bed with about 4" cut off from the bottom. I know I said previously you can fit a bed, but with the insulation and walls, I had to shave a bit off. You can see the screen, and then also some supports for the bed into the floor. Left side I built a shelf that fits 2 large plastic bins, and can fit 3 folding camp chairs below it (there's a small amount of dead space behind the tire that I could throw something we never use in).

Originally when I had the kitchen on the passenger side, we had the fridge going under the bed (also why there are air gaps on either side, so it could vent). Decided to move the fridge up front, and store the toilet and trash can there with a backstop. The fridge had been sitting on top of those massive drawer slides (400lb weight limit?), but I'm considering building a large drawer (that piece of 3/4" plywood will be a side), and then a similar platform as the one on the left to store more boxes on top.

On the right side at the far back is an extra 5 gallon potable water jug, a 5 gallon bucket for showers (small box on the left is a submersible shower pump/head thing), a shower tent, a 2 burner camp stove, wrench set, giant yoga mat for my wife, and the outdoor rug we put on the sliding door when we get to a campsite. Also, those wooden panels on the doors are ones I cut to replace the black plastic ones that came with the van (mentioned above about when I tore all that shit out).
storage - Copy.jpg

Here's a view of the front-ish. Originally only had the passenger swivel, but they're super nice to have, so now there are two. Also have the reflectix window covers. You may have noticed previously that the counters aren't a single piece. They actually originally were, but I cut it and had one piece on the left behind the driver's side, and the kitchen was on the passenger side. They're decently flush now, but kind of annoying. Used Waterlox to "seal" them. Shoe platform also used to be shorter (used to be flush with the cab floor), but I raised it a bit. It also used to have the same flooring on top of it, but I decided on carpeting it to make it feel more home-y. 2nd screen on the sliding door. The flooring is waterproof vinyl which I figured was the only choice with camping. Forgot to mention also that there's a tension bar above the cab storage that those blue curtains are on. They're blackout and also help keep the temperature in the back a bit better.
seats - Copy.jpg

Not much here, but you can see I recessed the bed a little bit to maximize how much bed length we could get. There's a 12v 2 port usb there, and after moving the kitchen there was a small cavity that I figure makes a good cell phone hole.
usb - Copy.jpg

This is the Dometic fridge. We did a 5000ish mile road trip last year and it's sufficient for a little over a week's worth of food. We have significantly more cabinet space now too, though, so we can do a lot more dry goods than previous. I should mention all the cabinets are built from scratch (3/4" birch plywood), and custom fit to the van walls.
fridge - Copy.jpg
 
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Gravel

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You can see the inside of one of the cabinets here. There's a 1x3 that stretches all the way across the top of the van, bolted with rivnuts every 2ish feet. Then the cabinets are bolted into that. Have gas struts on all of them to hold the doors up.

Sink is 14"x16", and 8" deep (bar sink), and a normal kitchen faucet (I hate the van builds with shitty little faucets). The soap dispenser is actually the 2nd one. I really like it, but it was free hanging and on a trip to Yosemite last year I guess it was brittle and broke. Pictures under the sink later where I hope I've solved that. Using Dr. Bronner's soap we can dump the "grey" water anywhere (biodegradeable). There's also a cutout for the sink (in my last pictures it was in the sink) if we need the counter space. I doubt we will, cause that's a shit load of counter for a van.
sink - Copy.jpg

Same deal as the bottom of the rear doors, except there wasn't a black plastic piece on the top there. It was just an open cavity. Installed some smaller rivnuts and put those in. I should also mention that I treated those pieces of wood, and a massive spot around the sliding door area with a mold/sealant product so that hopefully the wood doesn't have issues with water. I also on the last build had spackled and painted over the screws for the walls, but spackle doesn't hold up super awesome with 70-80mph roads. Oh, and I should also mention now about the framing. So I have 1x3's at the top there, but there are also ones running along the middle part of the van and bottom. There are then "floating" ones connecting all those, essentially like you'd have framing a wall (although the spacing is weird because of the van shape). So essentially if I took all the walls off, you'd see wall framing with insulation between it.

Anyway, there are also soft close hinges on all the cabinet doors, which you can see. As well as the magnets to hold them closed.

One of the things I dislike though is how the cabinets aren't completely flush (you can see the difference in this one between the old cabinets above the bed, and the new ones above the kitchen). Because of how fucking wonky the van, it was a god damn nightmare to get stuff flush. The cabinets below the sink used to be flush, but when we took them off to paint those got fucked up too. Oh well.

This one has the window. Came after the fan, but because it's not on the roof where no one would see (the van is like 8'6" I think?), it was so much worse cutting into the side. Dog fucking loves that window though. We take the reflectix cover off in the morning before we get up so she can watch.
window - Copy.jpg

Here's the electric, sitting behind the driver's seat. On the left is the fuse box (fan, main ceiling lights, rear ceiling lights, water pump, USB, fridge) and a fuse from the solar to the charge controller, middle is the charge controller which is hooked up to the battery, the solar panels, and the fuse box. Next to it is the battery isolator (connects to house battery and van battery; allowing the house battery to charge off the alternator). Below is a fuse between the battery and charge controller. Bottom is obviously the 100A lithium battery.

On the right side is the 1000W inverter. It has an extension cord that I just chopped up and connected to a normal 110 outlet. Previously I had a chain that also had one on the ceiling (we had a projector, but it was an asspain to set up so we decided to not use it anymore), and then one on the passenger side (which is now that light switch). We realized we don't really need 110 power that much though. The inverter has a GFCI built in. Below the inverter is another fuse between it and the battery, with a heavy duty switch to shut it off. Battery, isolator, and inverter are grounded to the one of the ribs of the van. There's also a false floor behind the driver's side (in that shoe thing I built) where there's a fuse between the isolator and van battery, and another one of those switches in case we don't want to charge. The isolator has a button you can push to reverse the flow in case you need to jump your car battery
electric - Copy.jpg

Last one, under the sink for the plumbing. Flexible p trap so I can unhook it from the grey tank (Home Depot bucket) easily. Ideally I'd like to get a 5-10 gallon water tank and mount it under the van, and then just run the drain through the floor. Left side is the water pump (12v), and it runs to a water accumulator which helps even out the water pressure so it's like a normal sink. Only thing is we don't have hot water. You can see the little housing I built for the soap dispenser. The piece of wood right below it comes out so I can put the bottle back in (screws in). We also had an issue last year with the barbed connector between the accumulator and tubing springing a leak (I think it got heavy and just pulled down over time), so now I've got a bunch of velcro straps to hold it up and keep it straight. It got water fucking everywhere and I was super pissed for our whole trip. I probably should've done this in something like PEX, but for some reason I couldn't figure out how to connect it to the pump. Just weird sizes and shit. In fact, I spent HOURS in the Home Depot plumbing aisle coming up with solutions to even get this shit working. I had to solder this fucking bizarre ass 3 way valve in order to get the tubing to connect to the two water lines for the sink.
plumbing - Copy.jpg

Anyway, that's about it. Think I covered just about everything, Chuk.
 
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BrutulTM

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Very cool project. What made you decide to do this over just buying a small motor home or slide-in camper?
 

Gravel

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I had originally thought about buying an Airstream, but then you need a tow vehicle. Started doing more research and there are a lot of campgrounds that limit you on size (especially out west). Really between those two things I just decided against towing anything (be it fifth wheel or trailer).

As far as small motor homes...those fuckers are expensive. And the whole van life shit started kicking off around the time we were looking. My father-in-law was huge into it and we just kind of rolled our eyes at him. But then we started watching some YouTube channels and got the itch.

Even the extended version of the ProMaster is 20 feet long, which fits nicely into a normal size parking space. It's definitely still big, but it's not so big that I'm intimidated driving most places (there were definitely some tight places in Utah and Yosemite though where it wasn't super fun; but those are places you'd never bring a tow).

Big reason we also didn't go with a Sprinter was cost. Not necessarily the cost to purchase (although that would've likely been upwards of $40k), but on repairs. You're basically stuck with Mercedes, whereas the ProMaster is a domestic and any mechanic should be able to work on it. Finding 2003-2007 Sprinters (I think those are the years) are super reliable, and not super expensive, but almost impossible to find.
 

Borzak

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I have a 9'-6" teardrop I built. I used the hell out of for a while before I got sick. Worked great for me since I was by myself. 6'-6" inside sleeping area, and the rest storage in the front and kitchen at the rear. Made it out of 4'x10' MDO plyywood (similar to marine plywood with a paintable coating, mot like MDF at all) and covered in aluminum. A/C and carried a small honda generator in the truck. White on top and yellow on the sides. Not real camo but most places I took it there was less than zero people around. It could go nearly anywhere my 4wd truck could go.
 

dizzie

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Nice conversion Gravel. I follow a couple of YouTubers that live the van life and have done conversions, it's pretty interesting stuff. I can't believe it when I see people living the van life in Alaska in winter or up in the mountains in Wyoming etc. Seems like a good idea to have something like this given the current climate.