Are you looking for the perfect remote work setup for adventure? Look no further!
I custom built this van to work on the road on my photography business. I named the van “The Starship” as I’m an astrophotographer and this van was designed for me to travel around the country taking photos of the stars. I built it to have a place to edit photos and videos from my travels. I spent 8 months on the road and I’m only selling it as life has brought me back to a sticks and bricks lifestyle.
The van has everything you need to maintain a sense of a complete home on wheels. With 400amp hours of lithium battery you’ll have all the power you need even for a couple of days with no sun. With 640w of solar recharging the batteries is quick. For when the sun isn’t shining there is a 40a DC/DC charger. There is a 3000W inverter to power all your AC powered devices. There are AC outlets all over the van including 12v DC USB outlets if you want to reduce the usage of the inverter. All lights are on touch dimmer switches, you just touch it to turn it on and off and touch and hold to dim. There are 4 different light zones, the main living area, over the bed, under cabinet lights over the desk, and the under cabinet lights over the kitchen counter. The kitchen counter extends past the cabinets so that if you swivel the driver seat you can comfortably use the counter to eat or work on a laptop.
The van is insulated with 3m Thinsulate which not only helps keep the van warmer in winter and cooler in summer but also does a great job of isolating noise from the outside world. If you’ve ever parked next to someone running a generator all night long or a semi truck that is running all night you’ll know how nice it is to reduce outside noises from disturbing you.
There is a full kitchen with sink w/ drop in cutting board sink cover, propane 3 burner stove/oven, comes with 20lbs propane tank in a vented propane locker under the stove, and a huge mini fridge that is very power efficient. I only filled the propane tank 2 times in 8 months I cooked in the van pretty much every day. The oven is a good size can cook a frozen pizza no problem on days you’re feeling lazy. The van has a 3 stage RO water filter for clean and tasty drinking water. I wanted the van to be fully functional in the winter so I used a 5 gal grey tank under the sink. There is a 30gal potable water tank under the bed. The subway tile backsplash is peel and stick so you don’t need to worry about the weight of it or cracking etc. and would be easily repaired if anything happened to it. All drawers are on push to open drawer slides so they will not open on you while driving.
The listing says hot water heater uses gas, and that’s not exactly correct. To clarify I used an Isotemp 5.3gal water heater. This is from the marine world and works by tapping into the van’s coolant lines. Engine coolant is pumped back to the water heater when the van is running. The hot coolant goes through a heat exchanger and heats up the water. While it has a 5.3 gal tank for hot water you can actually get more than 5.3 gal out of it because it uses a mixing valve, if you adjust the mix you can get much more than 5 gal of hot water out of it. It takes only 20 min of running the van to make the water hot. Once the water is hot the tank is insulated so well that it will stay hot for 24 hours or more. This water heater can run off electricity as well, just plug it into the inverter but I never used that function as I was driving everyday I always had hot water. There are ball valves on the hoses that connect the water heater to the van’s engine so that you can isolate the water heater if you ever need to work on the water heater you can still drive the van normally with out issues.
To heat the van there is an Espar B4L 4k gas powered heater. Since it is gas powered it is tapped directly into the van’s gas tank. It’s super efficient using only about 1 gal of gas if you run the heater for 24 hours straight. This is a top of the line trustworthy brand. Not a cheap knock off. The heater is able to work at high altitude as well (this can be a problem on cheaper versions). Perfect for going to the mountains in the winter. The heater is very powerful. When I used the heater I would have one of my maxxair fans vents open so that I can let some of the heat out as it’s almost too powerful for the size of the van. The heater is vented into the living space of the van as well as in the garage under the bed and into the cabinet with the sink in it so that anywhere there is plumbing will be heated so no need to worry about freezing your pipes in the winter.
With 2 Maxxfan Deluxe Roof vent fans and the 2 bunk windows in the bed area you can stay relatively comfortable in hot weather by creating a lot of air circulation. I opted out of doing an AC due to how power hungry they are as well as they often create issues with condensation.
There is a good size desk area perfect for working on the road. There is a lockable hidden drawer under the desk that will fit a laptop. I used USB hubs to connect a keyboard and mouse as well as connecting a monitor to it. There is a wall mounted monitor arm that will come with the van. BYOM (bring your own monitor) With the included vesa mount arm most monitors can be use with this setup.
Worried about finding a bathroom on the road? There is a Separett Tiny toilet in the cabinet under the desk. The toilet is on locking heavy duty drawer slides to you slide it out and use it. The toilet is vented out of the van to prevent smells.
There is a stock driver swivel seat and an aftermarket passenger swivel seat. So you can hang out with friends you meet on the road.
With an outdoor shower you can get cleaned up whenever you want and best thing of all is it is hooked up to the hot water so you won’t have to be use freezing water.
There is a fixed bed set up which is easily removed in the event you need to do any maintenance to any of the utility systems. I built this van to be easy to work on any of the systems like plumbing, heating, or electrical. Most builds seem to cram all of these systems into boxes which is great for aesthetics but terrible when you need to work on them. Everything you might need to work on down the road is very easily accessible.
There is a ladder to get access to the roof and Running boards to make it easier to step up into the van.
I even thought about how to prevent moisture issues in the van from condensation. All the walls can breath. You will notice the cabinets (aside from the toilet cabinet don’t have backs to them. This is so that air can flow easily through the walls to dry out any condensation easily. I did put some pieces of wood that prevent anything from falling into the walls. I never had any issues with that. Not having backs to the cabinets also reduces weight.
The included Full size mattress is very comfortable. It’s 10 inches thick which does make it sit very high and could be a little tough to get into if you are short. I’m 5ft 9in and I had plenty of space for sleeping. Even when my girlfriend was visiting me on the road we can share the bed comfortably. The mattress is unmodified so that means you can replace it with any normal full size mattress and it will fit perfect.
Comes with all window covers. These were hand made by my mom and are not professional quality but they will do the trick to give you all the privacy you need. Also comes with curtains to separate the cab from the living space. The curtains attach with Velcro so they are super easy to put up and take down quickly.
Comes with Fire Extinguisher and Smoke/Co2 detector.
You’re perfect home on wheels is waiting for you! Let me know if you have any questions.
