In December 2022 I bought a 2014 Ford Transit Connect with grand plans to turn it into a campervan. I added solar panels, 200Ah worth of batteries, a fridge, LED lighting and even built a bed and a desk. I did a few YouTube videos about the build process, almost all of which I did myself.
Since finishing the build I’ve driven over 30,000 miles, driven coast to coast, to Canada and back, and visited 23 National Parks. It has been a wondrous road trip machine. I intended it to be a tent replacement, not something to live in long term, but even so I’ve ended up camping in it less than I’d expected. This was my first time building a campervan and with two years of hindsight I see that I did a bunch of things right, but there were a few things I’d do differently.
What I’d do differently
I designed the van in my head for months and did tons of research. If I was to do it all again from scratch, this is what I’d change knowing what I know now.
Overdoing overcapacity
When in the vast empty spaces of West Texas, who doesn’t want a handbag?
When I initially started designing the power system for my van, I wanted to err on the side of overcapacity. I never wanted to worry about having enough power to last a night, or potentially several days if it was cloudy or rainy.
Well, I succeeded a bit more than I probably needed to. With two 100-watt solar panels, two 100Ah batteries, plus a DC-to-DC charger, I barely ever make a dent in my power storage. The lowest I ever got, after running a small electric heater for several hours, recharging multiple devices, plus the fridge and lights, I got down to 60%. It was back to 100% by the end of the next day.
I’d planned to need more power than I ended up using, and designed the system to be even more than that. So doing it again, a single 150Ah battery and a single 100-watt solar panel would probably suffice given that for most trips I’m only regularly running lights and the fridge. Then again, with the power I have now I should be able to easily install an AC unit, but more on that later.
Going overboard with things I didn’t end up needing
A little bit of snow at Mt. Rainier National Park. Also notice the subtle “roof rack” that’s actually 2 solar panels.
Along with the panels, batteries, charge controller, and so on, I also purchased a 2000-watt inverter. The idea was to be able to cook in the van without having to buy propane and propane accessories. DC-powered kettles are exceptionally slow, hence the inverter. I even optimistically bought a tiny rice cooker.
Here’s the thing: I hate cooking and I love eating at new places. I bought the inverter with the hope that Future Me would be a completely different person than Actual Me. So it goes. I never installed the inverter, not least because it’s huge and heavy. Instead, I bring a little Jetboil with me to boil water for dehydrated meals. Often I’ll just get something cheap at the local Walmart. That is, if I can’t find something interesting to eat wherever I am.
Better organization
I can’t conclusively say that the Hollow Mountain gas station and convenience store in Hanksville, Utah was the inspiration for Boulder Hill from classic 80’s cartoon M.A.S.K. but come on, look at it!
Everything in my van works and works great. It doesn’t look like it works great however. I love the design stage, I like the build stage, but the “finishing touches” stage is forever elusive. I would love to add more organization. The biggest issue is that converting the van to “Night Mode” to sleep (more on this later) requires temporary relocation of a bunch of stuff that has a home during “Day Mode.” Also, while everything that’s connected to the new batteries has a fuse, with several things like the lights and USB outlets running through an automotive-style fuse box, it’s all a bit… higgledy-piggledy. Maybe someday I’ll become the type of person that has elaborate, perfect, aesthetically pleasing, wire runs. Anything is possible.
Better heating/cooling (or any)
Going international in Vancouver.
This is probably the biggest change I want to make with my van. My intention, as I mentioned above, was tent-replacement not mobile apartment. As such, I didn’t intend to use it in the winter or during the height of summer. Ironically enough, my first two trips in the van were in the winter (including to the Super Bowl). As my love for the van grew, so did my desire to use it more, well beyond the Spring and Fall seasons I’d initially intended.
Maybe I’m just soft, but even with a good sleeping bag winter nights in the van weren’t awesome. If anything, the high heat visiting Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in the summer was even worse. Vanlifers with larger vans can handle this far easier, often with roof-mounted heat pumps or diesel stoves. I don’t have room for those. Also, the part of my roof that’s not covered with solar is glass.
Fortunately, there seems to be some new options that might be perfect. The EcoFlow Wave 2 and Zero Breeze Mark 3 are portable heat pumps roughly the size of my van’s fridge. I plan on getting one this year. It only needs to heat or cool a small space, and honestly 10 or so degrees either way would likely be plenty. We shall see.
A sampling of the 23 National Parks I’ve visited in the van, which include parks as far from home (Los Angeles) as Everglades, Badlands and North Cascades.
What I’d do again
With either luck, extensive planning, or a bit of both, I managed to get a few things right with my first campervan build.
The right van (for me)
Crossing the Continental Divide with the folks near Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. As you can probably guess, we didn’t sleep in the van.
There’s no such thing as the perfect van, but I definitely found the perfect van for me. The Transit Connect is an absolute gem of a vehicle. It’s built on the same platform as the Mazda 3 and European Focus, so it’s not too big. It’s minivan sized, which means you can park it just about anywhere (vital in crowded National Parks). It’s the long wheelbase model, so there’s enough space behind the front seat for me to lay down. It’s wide enough that if I want to widen the bed there’d be plenty of space for a companion, human or canine.
Mostly, though, it’s surprisingly great to drive. My other car is a Mazda Miata, so you’d think something tall, long, and comparatively heavy, would be a brutal reduction in zoom zoom zoom. It’s like the saying about a fish’s ability to climb a tree. As in, it’s brilliant at what it’s meant to be. It’s the Miata of Minivans. The 169-horsepower, 2.5L inline-4 has plenty of grunt, 171 pound-feet to be exact, allowing for reasonably terror-free passes on two-lane mountain roads. It’s wonderfully comfortable, calmingly quiet, and has a panoramic windscreen that lets you enjoy the countryside you’re driving through. I’ve averaged 25 mpg on most trips, though I’ve gotten as high as 40 coming down out of Yellowstone National Park.
Your mileage may vary (it’s usually around 25).
The proof is probably in how much I can drive it. I did a 10,000 mile road trip in my Miata and I averaged six hours a day. More than that was grueling. I’ve regularly done more than double that in the Transit Connect and arrived feeling less wiped than six in the Miata. That’s not a knock against the Miata, it’s perfect for what it is, just as the TC is an epic road trip machine.
Some key accessories
I ran a strip of LEDs in the rubber surround trim in the panoramic roof. It looks awesome at night.
I’ve added a handful of accessories that have had an out-sized impact compared to their prices.
Custom-fitted shades: I got these shades for the windshield and front doors. Not sure how much of a difference the mirror vs black sides make with hot and cold, but they fit great and darken the van nicely. The rest of the windows in my van were heavily tinted by the previous owner. Most Transit Connects, most campervan builds in general, use commercial vans with no windows, but I specifically wanted windows so it was more like sleeping outside. It is.
The retractable shade for the panoramic roof was the only thing in my van that didn’t work when I bought it, and at a cost of around $2,000 to repair it… I bought this instead.
Magnetic screens: I wanted to be able to sleep with the windows open without getting swarmed by bugs. These magnetic screens worked great. I just crack the rear windows and attach these outside. I also bought plastic rain guards for the same windows.
Backseat organizer: This $10 organizer has been a huge improvement, offering a small table to eat at inside the van.
I also recommend a trickle charger for your campervan if you’re not driving at least once a week. Doubly so if you get a Transit Connect because the battery placement was designed by sadists.
Or is it perfectly powerful?
No Fratellis were harmed in the taking of this photo.
I know I said I went overboard with my power system’s capacity and that’s true… to an extent. I also like that I never have to worry about power, and have the headroom to add things without worrying I’ll run out. I’d say a little extra solar capacity is always good to have, not least because no matter how you wire it, those panels will usually only produce a fraction of their maximum potential. Now that it’s paid for an installed I’m not going to take anything out, but one less battery, or a single 150Ah, would have saved a bunch of money initially.
Fridge
The interior of my van in “Day Mode.” The fridge is at the bottom of the image. The foam is for the bed. The stack underneath is the pieces of the bed, which stores nicely in the corner when not needed. Upper left is the backseat organizer mentioned above.
This is probably my favorite feature of my van: an actual refrigerator. There’s something so civilized about cold soda, cold water, botulism-free (hopefully) sandwich meats, a place for leftovers, and so on. Technically you could get away with a cooler and ice, but this is so much more efficient and less of a hassle since it’s solar powered and always cold.
I bought the 25-liter Dometic CFX3 which is basically the size of a typical cooler, minus a chunk inside taken up by the compressor. It’s pricey, but runs on 12v and AC if I want to bring it inside. I have two complaints, though. First is that the door is very difficult to latch closed. You’ve really got to push on it. The latch itself is plastic and seems cheap and flimsy. The other issue is the compressor. When it’s going it emits a hum like any fridge, which is fine, but also a high-pitched whine that’s not. It’s around 10kHz and loud enough that I can notice it while driving. I can really notice it when I’m sleeping on top of it. It makes me wonder if the folks on the development team at Dometic were musicians in their youth, because I’m a middle-aged recovering musician and I can hear it. On colder nights I’m going to experiment in keeping the temp in the fridge higher so it doesn’t cycle on as much.
Doing the work myself
“Night Mode” minus the foam cushions. The batteries and rest of the power system is under the platform on the right. The slab with the wood pieces sticking up is a desk I can use when sitting in the rear-most seat. This was a good idea but I haven’t used it much and it probably won’t make it into Van 2.0.
I learned a ton designing and building the power system for the van. I didn’t mount the solar panels to the roof, as I wanted something specific and fabricating metal brackets was too far out of my skill set. Wiring everything, including replacing most of the DC “cigarette lighter” outlets with USB-A and -C outlets connected to my new batteries, as well as building the bed, desk, and so on, was all very satisfying. It also gave me most of the knowledge I’d need if something goes wrong.
Ready for a night in. Any luggage (usually a backpack) fits on the right. The middle seat (upper right) serves as a sort of foyer when in Night Mode to take off shoes, eat, etc.
It also saved me a lot of money. All in, other than the van, I spent under $5,000. That includes the solar panels, charge controller, DC-to-DC charger, two batteries, the materials for the bed and desk, plus the fridge. That even includes paying for the bracket fabrication and the mounting of the panels. If I did it again knowing what I know now, I’d probably be able to get that under $4,000 easily. Do away with some of the luxuries I added, well under $3,000 seems easy.
So yeah, if you’re considering doing something like this, I highly recommend doing as much of it yourself as possible. Even if you don’t know watts the difference between a volt and an amp, there are tons of resources out there to help you with every step. For better puns, however, you’re on your own.
The road ahead
The plucky TC has tackled the grueling roads of Death Valley National Park multiple times with enthusiasm.
I love my van. It’s one of the best vehicles I’ve ever owned. My goal going forward, as I’ve mentioned above, is to make it more livable in a wider variety of climates. I want to go to Alaska, drive across Canada including a long stop in Banff, and most of all, see many of my favorite parks outside of the spring/summer seasons when they’re easiest to visit. Mostly because they also tend to be brutally crowded at that time (Yosemite is practically unmanageable when the weather is nice).
One option I’m looking into is something like the aforementioned portable heat pump which should offer compact heating and cooling. I certainly have the battery capacity to run it. Adding one would require some rearranging, so I’ll likely take the opportunity to come up with a lighter, easier to arrange, bed situation. And if I’m doing that, I’ll finally force myself to do some proper wire management and overall organization of my power system. Which is to say, I’m already working on plans for Van 2.0 in my head. Can’t wait to start.
As well as covering audio and display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips and more.
Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book, and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.