We bought our van (2020 Sprinter 2500 4×4 170”) in September 2020, built it out over 10 months, and hit the road in July 2021. Here are some of the upgrades and fixes we’ve made two years in.
Mattress
We started with a 6” memory foam mattress and cut it for cushions to be able to convert the bedroom to a dining room. We basically chase the sun, so we always eat outside. We’ve converted to table mode twice.
After two years, the memory foam seemed to remember me a bit too well and I wanted to add some more cushion. I added a 4” memory foam mattress and was able to buy it in a Olympic Queen size (68” x 80”) which is the exact size of our bed. (You can also buy sheets in this size.) I just had to trim the back corners a bit to fit the mattress. Table mode would be tricky at this point, but we can live without it to have max comfort while sleeping.
Shaker Doors
As we approached the end of our lease in 2021, the finish work on the van became a bit rushed. To save time all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts were just slabs of plywood. I redid every door this summer (22 in all!) in the Shaker style. I think it’s a great upgrade for the look of the van.
I redid the spacing on the center stack of the kitchen drawers. I’d initially done the top three drawers as the same height with a very tall bottom drawer. Well, as it turns out, a super tall drawer is a lot of wasted space. The bottom three drawers are now the same height while the top one matches the drawers on either side.
We have a few inches of space in front of the sink that just had a panel in front of it. I made it a door (with hinges and a latch) and added a flip tray for sponges, scrubbers and such.
The cabinet under the sink is a tall space. We nested a drawer under the sink (with a notch for the drain) and store spices there.
I added a shelf on the right side of the sink opening to effectively double the surface space things can sit on. It also holds the dish and hand soap containers (we have two pumps over the sink). We’d originally used a zip tie to hold those in place but we still had a couple of spills. Ironically, a spill of concentrated soap is a real mess to clean up.
Our original towel holder was a really simple arm. The towels would spin and unroll while driving. We’d wrap the towels with a bungee, but I eventually replaced it ($15) with one that keeps the towels from spinning.
We have a TV mounted on an extendable arm on the wall and quickly learned that the TV would come off the wall while driving. A couple of eye hooks and a bungee cord hold it in place while we’re driving.
Latches
We upgraded latches everywhere. I initially used soft close drawer slides which are insufficient to hold shut a drawer with any amount of weight when you turn the van. The top drawer of the dresser was the biggest problem. We store our two burner induction stovetop there so it’s heavy and higher up in the van. After flying open enough times a drawer slide will break. It’s easy to replace, but it’s $20 and you have to find a matching drawer slide. I added a latch as best I could, but it wasn’t perfect. We replaced drawer slides twice while on the road.
We now have two latches on each drawer (one on each side) and haven’t had a drawer fly open since adding them.
We added the same latches to each upper cabinet. Our previous latches also weren’t always strong enough. We added a small handhold to open each upper cabinet (a simple router cut). We also ditched gas struts and went to manual lifts. The gas struts warped our original doors (again, just plywood) so I simplified.
Electrical system
We have 5 100 Amp hour Lithium Ion batteries and a 3000 watt inverter. When I first tested the completed install, the system would tip over at about 2100 watts. I thought that might be a limitation of the batteries but wasn’t too concerned. Our biggest power draws were the water heater (pulls about 1700 watts) and a coffee maker (a luxury that pulls about 1900 watts max). They could run so it was good enough. Over time, however, the capacity started dropping. It tipped over one day when I was boiling water for coffee (using about 900 watts on the induction stove) and added 90 watts to the load while grinding coffee beans.
With some consultation, I was told to look for a loose wire. I spent several hours carefully deconstructing the system and found a loose crimp on one of the black 2/0 wires (a stranded wire with a diameter about the size of a dime). I’d used a hydraulic crimper during the build and it was a huge pain to get the crimps nice and tight. I was advised to just get a manual crimper for about $25. It’s like a guillotine and you just bang the crimp tight with a hammer. I was skeptical it would work, but after putting the system back together it pulled about 2400 watts. Better than ever!
In year two, we had another slow degradation in capacity. I pulled things apart again and this time redid every crimp with the manual crimper. It now pulls the full 3000 watts. So something else was always a bit loose, and the vibration from driving down the road was making things worse over time. Hopefully the better crimping has resolved this for good.
Plumbing
We discovered a leak in the plumbing after about 18 months. I found some water on the slider door step and assumed there was a leak with the sink. I checked everything and couldn’t find a problem so I chalked it up to some water splashing out of the sink. But when it showed up again a couple of days later I investigated further.
I got into the plumbing compartment and found a puddle under the water pump. The water had traveled all the way under the subfloor of the van to the slider door step. Yikes! Around the water pumpis the only part of the plumbing system that isn’t PEX. It’s vinyl tubing with clamps, and it was the only part that leaked when I tested the system after first installing it. It turns out you can over tighten clamps. I also learned that warming up the vinyl tubing with a heat gun before clamping helps sets the clamp.
There were multiple clamps in that area. I checked them all and made sure they were tight. I redid a few threaded connections around the pump with fresh putty but the leak persisted. The pump came with a strainer and it unfortunately cracked as I unscrewed it while further deconstructing the system. Maybe it was fortunate because that’s when I discovered that the plastic cap on the strainer was loose. We filter any water that we put in the van, so the strainer was redundant. I put the system back together without the strainer and it’s been dry since.
Fridge
After a couple of months on the road, we found a small puddle in front of the fridge. The fridge was lukewarm when we opened it. Some of the ice in the ice box had melted and leaked, and the compressor was off and wouldn’t restart.
I called Isotherm and troubleshooting involved pulling the fridge out and hot wiring the compressor to bypass the thermostat. It turned on. I then learned that you can reset the thermostat on the fridge by turning it all the way down (or up?) until it clicks. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A VERY GOOD THING TO TRY BEFOR PULLING THE FRIDGE ALL THE WAY OUT AND HOT WIRING THE COMPRESSOR! After the thermostat reset it started up again just fine. While reviewing the manual and troubleshooting, I realized that I hadn’t provided adequate ventilation for the fridge. If I had to guess, the fridge overheated, the compressor shut down, ice started melting and got the thermostat wet, and the fridge wouldn’t restart until we reset the thermostat. I cut a hole in the cabinetry by the compressor to add ventilation. We haven’t had any subsequent issues with the compressor.
After a year or so, the fridge really started to stink, and a thorough wipe down wasn’t enough to remove the odor. We defrosted the fridge and ice box. The ice box took a while – it had over an inch of ice built up around it. We now keep an eye on this and defrost every few months.
Organization
I added some drawer dividers this summer to keep things in their place. We now have slots for mugs and glasses (which otherwise chatter as you drive down the road), silverware, and various other things. We’ve added some internal shelves to cabinets to maximize horizontal space. And I’m addicted to buying the little plastic bins at hardware stores for a few bucks each. Loose stuff? Not any more!
We put a tension towel rod in the bathroom but the tension would give out after a few hours of driving. A few bucks at a hardware store for some cups to hold the rod solved that problem.
I wired the van with regular USB ports (hello 2020!) but we’ve since needed more USB-C ports. I added a simple plug insert with two USB-C ports to a 12V plug which we have in the kitchen backsplash.
The last little things I’ll mention is the welcome mat that we added to the slider step. We just bought a cheap one and cut it in half. It helps with wet/muddy/sandy shoes.
If any fellow #vanlifers have read this far, feel free to reach out with questions or for specifics on any of the gadgets I’ve described in this post. We get most stuff off amazon.