I’m selling my trusted companion, Marshmallow the Van. We’ve been on so many adventures over the past 5 years, so this is kind of sad for me. I am finally building my first tiny home now that I have found all my favorite places to live with Marshmallow and eventually I want to have a tiny home for each location. We had a great time, but its time for someone else to find their favorite places…
Marshmallow started life as a Pensky rental vehicle and if you squint hard enough in the right light, you can just barely see the outlines of that former life. I build out the van in 2021 and have been living full time in it since then. When I built the van while I was still living and working in the city (DFW) so I built it with stealth in mind. With the curtain drawn, it blends in as just another work van. It’s nearly impossible to tell there is a house on the inside, and so it’s great for city camping.
The entire van has 3M Thinsulate insulation except in the floor which has 1 inch Foamular and the two ends of the bed which have 1/2 inch foamular. The floor of the van is Lifeproof full vinyl planks (no wood content, so no issues with humidity) Most of the build reflects what I think works best in a small living space. Things like the Owach slam latches for all the cabinets (nothing to catch your pockets on and if the cabinet is closed it’s also locked), hidden Blum soft-close drawer slides since they are over-built, can’t be seen, and have enough pull force to trigger the slam latches.
The kitchen layout is another area I tried to maximize the small space. The lower cabinet functions as many things. Water tank, grey water tank, diesel tank (for the heater), outdoor table, deep sink, cutting board storage that can be put on the bed for more “table” space, and the full size Simple Human garbage can fits neatly under one side. (this trash can is superb by the way. One of only two things I HAD to have in the van with me.) There is also a convenient water pump toggle switch on the side of the cabinet. Of course there are also 120v AC outlets for powering any cooking appliances you may have. The induction hot plate that comes with the vehicle boils water in 2 minutes flat! Also the butcher block counter top is finished with Odie’s Oil for an easy to maintain and food safe surface. It’s easy to maintain too, Every 2 years just apply bit with a scrubber and then wipe off the excess with an old T-shirt. (no need to wear gloves even, since it’s food safe and smells GREAT!)
The upper kitchen area also is extremely functional. There’s magnetic utensil storage (those black bar looking things), a mirror for bathroom tasks, bright can lighting for seeing what your cooking, small storage rack, and a mini cabinet with enough space for 10in plates, coffee mugs and other dishes.
The bed area makes up about half the living space. The bed is a full size mattress that is unmodified to fit. (replacing covers or even the mattress is easy!) The bed supports are extremely over built since I’m a rather big dude I wanted a SOLID bed platform. The bed is dual direction with a Suzi Happ cup holder (made for arcade cabinets) on one side and the kitchen counter on the other side for your nighttime water bottle. I wanted to make sure my head was never on the low side of a tilted road. The cedar wood slats of the ceiling offer convenient handholds to get out of bed easy, but also function as wire routing, so long USB cables can reach from the battery overhead to wherever you need them to be. (I used a large tablet for a TV, so that is how I kept it powered) There is also one of the CO detectors above the bed for safety. There are TWO fan options in the bed area. The Maxxair fan can be vented open to blast you with outside air, or switched to pushing the inside air outside. There is also a Sirocco II fan that can be rotated and folded to the perfect angle when you NEED MORE AIR (lol). Let me just say here, sleeping while it rains is perhaps the greatest memories I have. (Also you can leave the vent open WHILE it’s raining!!!)
In the garage area there is a cavernous space with NO support pillars in the middle. This give you ultimate flexibility to store whatever you need to take with you on adventures. The Bluetti AC200P house battery is stored in this area (with its control panel facing out through a cutout into the living area. This battery has been a workhorse for the past 5 years for me. Plenty of power for the lights, fans, fridge, internet, and cooking appliances. There is about 3 days of power in the battery if you have poor sunlight/ it’s raining, but the 400w of solar panels on the roof will charge it to full in one good day of sun. I have it wired to also charge up from the shore power outlet. That same outlet is used to power the Whynter 10,000BTU portable A/C unit. This A/C is enough for braving the Texas summer at night, but not enough for the daytime when it’s 107F outside. The A/C is strapped in place with flex cord so you can reposition it away from the pass-through door to the garage. This access door allows you to get in the back without leaving the vehicle, which is great when it’s pouring rain outside and you need to grab something from back there. Also you can fit full-length 12′ boards through this door if needed.
The cabinets behind the driver’s seat are the greatest thing. The bottom drawer houses the Alpicool APLT50-LG refrigerator/freezer. it is DC powered and has an LG compressor so it’s built to last. One or both compartments can be set to freezer temperatures, but that will likely use a lot more battery power. I left both zones in fridge mode. It has a 50 liter storage size, so plenty of space for all your cool storage items. Also there are locking latches on both sides of the fridge cabinet door to ensure it’s safe while driving. The three upper cabinet drawers are the same size. One has a tilted spice rack in it for all your spices. (If you can’t tell I did a LOT of cooking in this van haha!) (I highly recommend a Zojirushi rice cooker and an Instant Pot cooker BTW!)
In the cab area there is a curtain that you can pull out from behind the driver’s side to block the sun / looky-loos. The curtain has magnets sewn into it to ensure it covers the ENTIRE cab area and stays put. From the outside of the vehicle it is not possible to tell if the lights are on EVEN AT NIGHT. (perfect for stealth adventures in the city) The Passenger seat has a swivel built in to rotate it to face backwards into the van. Perfect for getting work done on the laptop. (The sink blocker / cutting board works as the perfect lap desk) There is a Chinese diesel heater under the passenger seat for those cold winter months. Sadly it's not working right now because it seems there is coke build up on the glow plug. Easy fix, or just swap out the whole unit for around $200.
Finally the van has smart lights throughout that can be controlled with the Google Nest Speaker with your voice (or use the switches when there is no internet). The main light strips are RGBW lights from Flexfire LED (because they make the most color accurate LED lighting) so you can set them all to purple for movie night or whatever color you fancy. The kitchen can lights are just daylight (5600K) white, but they can be dimmed all the way down. The Van DOES NOT come with internet, so you will need to account for that part.
There is no bathroom / shower in the van. I used gyms for that in city and Gatorade bottles / Luggable Loo for adventures. I did cloth baths for cleanliness when away from city gyms. It took some getting used to, but it uses WAY less water and you come out just as clean! Also the kitchen faucet can be rotated to face outside the van for quick wash downs when you're too dirty to even get in the van to begin with haha!
Van Hardware Details:
- Brand new transmission with transferrable 3 year / Unlimited Mile Warranty from Reman-Transmission.com (ends Feb 2, 2029)
- Fairly new tires and brakes (less than 5k miles on them)
- Just had the oil changed
- No codes whatsoever
- Full tank of gas! :D
Known broken things:
- The passenger side cargo door swing release lock doesn’t work for some reason.
- The driver side cargo door has damage from someone trying to force the door closed when the weather stripping was misaligned. (Common failure / problem for Transits. It’s functionally repaired with a thick bar of aluminum. See pictures.)
- There is a dent on the front of the roof on the driver’s side from someone trying to go through an entrance that was too low. (VERY hard to see in images)
- The fuel door cover has one of it’s hinges damaged. (still closes, but feels loose)
- The passenger seat vinyl stitching is starting to loosen.
- The Chinese diesel heater glow plug is coked up and needs to be cleaned / replaced.
- Minor scrapes and dents all over. (Extra stealth value hehehe)
