- 1 week ago
What is the best feature of the Winnebago Adventure Wagon? The defining feature of this unique vehicle is its integrated modular L-track system, which allows you to completely move, customize, or fully remove the entire interior layout in under 30 minutes using a single wrench. This hybrid build bridges the gap between traditional custom camper vans and industrial cargo carriers, offering an unparalleled level of long-term flexibility.
On this episode of New Jersey Outdoor Adventures, Patrick meets up with Marc to tour his incredible DIY custom camper van. If you are currently sketching out camper van builds, this video is a must-watch before you cut your first piece of wood. Most people building a custom van fall into the trap of creating a permanent, fixed-layout design. Mark explains why he abandoned traditional building methods after his first two conversions and turned to a modular framework that allows him to change his entire floor plan as his lifestyle changes. Because this rig started as a rare, limited-production joint venture between Winnebago and Adventure Wagon, it allowed him to bypass the biggest hurdle in the community: securing official RV certification, financing
On this episode of New Jersey Outdoor Adventures, Patrick meets up with Marc to tour his incredible DIY custom camper van. If you are currently sketching out camper van builds, this video is a must-watch before you cut your first piece of wood. Most people building a custom van fall into the trap of creating a permanent, fixed-layout design. Mark explains why he abandoned traditional building methods after his first two conversions and turned to a modular framework that allows him to change his entire floor plan as his lifestyle changes. Because this rig started as a rare, limited-production joint venture between Winnebago and Adventure Wagon, it allowed him to bypass the biggest hurdle in the community: securing official RV certification, financing
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00:02everything in front of the bed can be completely removed really like within a half an hour
00:07completely so if you had a million dollar art collection you wanted but you didn't need the
00:11kitchen and you wanted to transport it you could hello and welcome back to the show on today's
00:16episode of New Jersey Outdoor Adventures I met up with Mark and Mark has a really cool DIY custom
00:23camper van what's unique about it it started off as a joint venture between Winnebago and Adventure
00:28Wagon and what it was it was a starter camper van that came with some L-Track vent fan windows
00:34a seat
00:36a refrigerator a sink and a little bed platform and then you were supposed to build it out and
00:40complete it the way you want well Mark I think he nailed it he built this out into amazing custom
00:45camper van and wait till you see the inside he's going to give us a full tour inside now so
00:50join us
00:51hey Patrick thanks for having me on I appreciate it I really do um yeah I'm really looking forward
00:57to showing you this van mostly because I've seen so many of your videos and really enjoy watching
01:01them so here's my chance to get a sneak peek for you guys as you mentioned this started off as
01:08a joint
01:09venture between Winnebago and Adventure Wagon and Adventure Wagon makes all this incredible stuff this
01:15whole L-Track concept enabling you to lock anything in with bolts pretty much it's the idea and behind
01:23that is insulation Winnebago kind of as you said they put in a toilet and a fridge and a bed
01:31system
01:32so that it could be sort of an official RV so you get you know the certification insurance and
01:38you know the ability to finance the way you would with an RV but it was pretty stripped and the
01:44thing
01:45that I really liked most about this whole concept with Adventure Wagon was the ability to move things
01:50around so if I decided that I wanted to change the configuration or if I were to sell it and
01:55somebody else wanted to change the configuration they don't need to remove everything and destroy
02:00it they just literally can move things around so kind of some of the things that I've added since I
02:05bought it is the roof rack from white top adventures I also got rims on the wheels you know the
02:17covers for
02:17the windows the little rack here and lights the fog lights this is all white top adventure kind of
02:26stuff which is really a great company one of the other things that I really found kind of weird about
02:32the original build is that there was no window this whole thing was kind of like a dark hole so
02:37I cut
02:38this window out put in a new window here it's a slider I think that's pretty much it on this
02:45side you know
02:46these are sort of standard things that come with the Winnebago Adventure Wagon these these small windows
02:51they came with the van back here I've added a step and then something kind of cool to make it
02:59a little
02:59bit more stealth if you look down here you'll see here's the 30 amp connection right there so if we're
03:08at a
03:08campground we can just plug in on the back here got the whole bed system so these are two costs
03:17to
03:17everybody remember for a moment this thing was basically completely empty with the exception is L track
03:22and this wall paneling so we've built out bamboo cabinets all throughout the bottom and I took my
03:31sort of design inspiration again from that company white top adventures so they made these cabinets up top
03:36there and again it's all bolted in through the cell track so back here I've got a hot water system
03:45with a 30 35 gallon water tank it's heated by propane so if you want a hot shower and there's
03:54curtains that
03:55go around on the sides there if you just want to quickly rinse off your bicycle or something you don't
04:00even need to bother with the whole hot water you can just plug in right there and you know hose
04:09off
04:09your dog or your bicycle or whatever it is but if you want to take a nice hot shower there's
04:14a whole
04:14configuration here for that all right over here on the left side we've got a ladder you can go up
04:25on top
04:26little roof deck up there this is something that did come with adventure wagon it came with these
04:37was a 3500 watt hour battery system which is plenty and that's you know can be charged by either the
04:44solar panels up top there's two 200 watt solar panels or it can be plugged in it also charges while
04:51it's
04:51driving so I'll put that away and this is all this is just to turn the solar panels on right
04:58there
05:00let me get that and over here if you need to access
05:07anything in the battery it's quick access there everything's attached with bat with magnets
05:18up top there we've got this kick-ass boom box kind of thing it can be removed but if you
05:25play it inside
05:26it's pretty amazingly loud it's got disco lights little side reading lights and cup holders phone holders
05:34that kind of thing I've got this is something that did come with Winnebago these all come off if you
05:40want
05:40them to magnets there's magnets throughout the whole thing or you can just zip it closed that's for the
05:46shower let's see these cabinets in here you know lots and lots of room from cabinets as you can see
05:59it's just pretty much empty right now this is super super solid metal and bamboo you know one of the
06:07things that nice about bamboo aside from the fact that I think it looks nice it's super strong very
06:12strong wood this this insulation you know protects from sound but also behind that is is special
06:22insulation to keep it nice and warm and went there and cool in the summer and these lights is this
06:29did
06:29come from you know you hold them on get brighter and lighter they also turn red there's like a red
06:35setting
06:35in here um there's a fan which can be folded away turned away entirely what do you want me to
06:44talk about
06:45here sorry lots of bedding pillows um these these mattresses here this is for the queen size mattress
06:57and I'll open that up in a few minutes and then this one here is for a full-size mattress
07:01which is up front
07:03so you can actually hold up to three people three adults or maybe even four if two of them are
07:08kids
07:10all right um back here I built this toilet box and one of the things that's nice about this
07:20is that it's all self-contained in there um you know the again magnets holding everything together
07:28and again all these things can be moved and removed this came from from Winnebago nice fridge freezer
07:37um this here I built there's a whole cabinet you know there's pots and pans there's an induction cooktop
07:43which can go over here put the induction cooktop right there cook your food
07:50and then in here we've got another set of water tanks this is three gallons of fresh water and that's
07:56the the dark water you know when it when you're using it and the reason why I did two separate
08:01uh things is first of all this is filtered water so good for drinking and secondly if you're just
08:07running into a walmart or something you want to fill up with water um you're not going to want to
08:13do that
08:13with a big 35 gallon tank you can just run into a place and put your three gallons of water
08:18in there
08:18and get nice fresh water um is let's see is the ac on
08:31so this is a water system
08:39here and if you're not using it you can turn it off
08:41I've got a coffee maker these everything again everything's all connected with magnets so if you
08:46want to change things out and move things around there's a soap dispenser here microwave
08:53um this is also a white top adventure cabinet but then I customized it to build to hold the
09:01microwave and these are just some more storage things you know I usually keep like paper plates and
09:05cups and things like that in here and again this is removable same thing with this
09:10this is paper plates and cups and you can just remove the whole thing if you want
09:17um what else oh here's the whole you know sort of brains right so we've got the control panel for
09:25the eco flow and then there are some things that really drain a lot of power so maybe you don't
09:30want everything plugged in there's outlets throughout but this one here is a little bit different because
09:35this turns on and off so if I want to run the uh the booster for the cellular in the
09:41middle of nowhere
09:41and you need signal it uses a lot of power so you you turn that on through this here and
09:46it shows you
09:47how much volts you have there's a tablet that's connected to the internet that you can also use it for
09:53the tv or uh you know the eco flow the whole eco flow sort of world lives on an app
10:00in there
10:03these are pop-up cabinets and here I've got these special pans for induction cooktops emergency kit
10:11some lights and things like that and then of course this is a fan um there's a remote for it
10:18you can exhaust or bring in cool air I do actually have a wave uh air conditioner that would go
10:26into
10:26here I didn't bring it with me today but the the exhaust would go in here and you would do
10:31that if
10:32the bed was in a different configuration which I'll show you in a minute um what else here's like an
10:38upper cabinet it's all enclosed so like if it gets hot up there you can close this off and I
10:43keep like
10:44you know I have a uh a whole awning kind of thing that stays up there you can also put
10:51some of the
10:52window covers up there if you wanted to um this is a booster for the cellular right there um this
11:01thing
11:01here you know this was just kind of ugly metal so I covered it with this sort of uh nice
11:06material
11:07and then we've got the curtains these close off entirely make total privacy and then these
11:14bug screens in the summertime you can close that off and it splits right down the middle
11:22and then here this you know it's right now I've just got a pair of pants and a rug and
11:28things like
11:28that but usually like if I go grocery shopping here's a good place to put it or if you want
11:33to have
11:33uh you know I don't know anything really it's quick and easy way to get in and out and now
11:38over here
11:38there's like a whole hangout area so right now this chair is like in the sort of hangout
11:43configuration if uh if you had three or four people hanging out but it also converts so that
11:50it's used as a regular seat with seat belts and it also converts into a bed and I'll show you
11:55that
11:55in a minute this table as I mentioned you know it can be used for anything a laptop or food
11:59or what
11:59have you um but it's removable that's the beauty of the whole lagoon system you just pop the whole thing
12:06out let me get this out of the way for a moment I usually keep that up here one of
12:15the cabinets
12:18all right so uh this is you know a proper seat you know with with seat belts and child safety
12:26latches
12:26in the back there for high chairs and so on but like I said it can go forward and that's
12:30obviously the
12:31way you should be driving it or using it when you're driving I should say
12:37so there is a technique to turning all this stuff around but like good to put this thing back first
12:45and then voila and then it's a regular seat you know for driving and of course you've got
12:55a little place to keep your stuff and actually have a little cup holder thing right there again
13:00everything connects to this l-track
13:13and then all right so we've got half a bed there right and then got this handy dandy table that
13:20I made
13:22this there's a cut out here these legs only you only need the back ones to come down
13:28you can make it a regular table but when you've got all those you get a long flat surface
13:48ah there that thing is I've been looking for that by the way this is what you need to completely
13:54disassemble this entire van it's the 14 millimeter wrench and you can turn it into a cargo van
14:04look at that look at that what if I take a nap pretty good huh all right so and then
14:11this the big
14:12bed here let me just get this out of the way a little bit I have room to move
14:20this thing pops off and this pops off and by the way this can also be a couch which is
14:28why
14:31I've got this set up as two different sections because if you just want a couch you can put the
14:38one mattress here in the back and you still have all this room and you've got another place to sit
14:43but if you want a proper bed get this out of the way for a sec this goes down and
14:55you start laying out
14:55the mattresses this goes all the way back
15:06it's probably easier to do from out back
15:16there we go it's in between a king and a queen basically this is genius I love what you've done
15:23with a motorhome that was just barely there and I say barely there let's give a little bit of
15:30background on this so Winnebago and adventure wagon you know came together to build out this concept and
15:37it was pretty smart because there was a lot of people doing their own DIY camper vans and the
15:43challenge they were having was they couldn't get RV insurance they couldn't get an RV loan if they
15:51wanted to trade it in somewhere it wasn't really an RV it was a converted van so Winnebago was able
15:56to get them partially there legally an RV it's got smoke detector CO detector fire extinguisher safety
16:05glass egress all the vent fan all of all the things that are required for it to be considered and
16:10sold
16:11as an RV and then you could DIY it yourself absolutely right and this was based off the Winnebago bolt
16:17chassis
16:18so Winnebago built I bought a whole bunch of these chassis to build out the bolt they discontinued
16:23the bolt and they had these chassis this is what they came up with that's why these were limited
16:27production they only had a few hundred of them to sell and they all sold pretty quickly there
16:33were some four by fours there were some real-world drive some 170 inch wheelbase and some 140 this one
16:40has dualies which I like because it makes it very stable when you're driving on the highway yeah and you
16:46know now you got a fully functional camper van and if you ever wanted to add an indoor shower
16:50an indoor bathroom yeah I could you can't there's room for it yep and if you decide you want to
16:55change
16:56it around later that's what's great about this L track you could literally undo things and absolutely
17:02around yep no doubt you take this roof locker here and you can move it up and put it here
17:07and put the
17:07microwave in the back you can do a rear kitchen especially everything in front of the bed can be completely
17:13removed really like within a half an hour completely so if you had you know a million dollar art collection
17:18you wanted but you didn't need the kitchen and you wanted to transport it you could and then new these
17:24sold for right around a hundred thousand something like that yeah and then you could I mean you originally
17:29they're probably more like 125 and then yeah and then you you could easily put anywhere from nothing
17:35into it or another hundred thousand dollars you could yeah yeah I'm somewhere in between custom van
17:40now this is your own personal van that you use but you also you sometimes rent it out oh yeah
17:45absolutely I
17:46rent it out and this is the third one that I've built now the first two that I built were
17:52more sort of
17:53conventional RVs where you're just stuck with whatever the layout is and you know I updated them and I fixed
18:00things that weren't working and then rented it out and eventually sold them the one thing that was so frustrating
18:06is that when everything is sort of pre-molded and pre-built you can't really move things around so
18:12that's when I found this L-Track concept that's what I really fell in love because now all of a
18:17sudden I
18:17can make it exactly where I want it and then maybe a year from now you know I use it
18:22in an entirely
18:23different way I can change things around or if somebody buys it and they want to change things
18:27around they don't have to rip everything out they can literally that wrench that I showed you
18:30that's pretty much what they need to start moving things around wow that's great now although
18:35Winnebago doesn't sell the adventure wagon anymore you could still just buy an adventure wagon that
18:41company's still around absolutely they they they man they're a manufacturer primarily and you can take
18:48any van and and buy this stuff and that alone is probably 35 40 grand just to buy it so
18:54you could
18:54buy as a kit and do it at home or you could bring it and then there are upfitters that
18:58will do it
18:59sure okay I'm sure they charge something for that I'm sure a viewer is going to want to rent this
19:04out and try it out so I'll make sure I put a link somewhere in the description so our viewers
19:09can
19:09easily click over and check out is it on a website or outdoorsy um I I have it through all
19:15the
19:15different share platforms but I also have a website for roven.com r-o-v-e-n-n.com roven
19:22.com
19:23I'll put a link in the description mark thank you very much for meeting me here today
19:28my little mountain bike park Patrick thank you this is Patrick in New Jersey's outdoor
19:33adventures youtube channel I'll see you soon thank you very much Patrick I appreciate it
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