- 2 months ago
A family-focused Mercedes Sprinter camper van becomes a true mobile hotel in this custom build from Sequoia + Salt, designed for a tall crew that wants comfort, storage, and serious off-grid capability. Patrick Botticelli tours the van with Chris in Manasquan, New Jersey, and the standout feature is the Lippert EuroLoft elevator bed, which lets the van keep a huge U-shaped lounge while still offering a full sleeping setup at the touch of a button.
The walkthrough covers the exterior and interior details that make this 170 AWD Sprinter so specialized: Agile Rip Kit suspension, Black Rhino wheels, Rome-built accessories, Baja Designs lighting, a Flatline Van Co roof rack, 400 watts of solar, Starlink Mini, a Victron lithium power system, Aqua-Hot hydronic heating, and an Isotherm fridge. Inside, the build uses white oak finishes, custom cabinetry, a large shower, and a layout built around six rear seat belts and extra-long seating for a very tall family.
It is part camper van tour, part custom RV build review, and part behind-the-scenes look at how a professional van builder turns a customer’s lifestyle into a one-of-a-kind travel rig. For anyone searching for camper van tour, Sprinter van build, custom van conversion, mobile hotel van, off-grid van life, or luxury camper van ideas, this tour shows how craftsmanship and function come together.
SEO note: ideal for viewers interested in camper van tours, Mercedes Sprinter builds, custom van conversion ideas, luxury RV alternatives, off-grid travel rigs, and professional van builder walkthroughs. It also fits searches for family camper van layouts, mobile hotel vans, and high-end van life craftsmanship.
The walkthrough covers the exterior and interior details that make this 170 AWD Sprinter so specialized: Agile Rip Kit suspension, Black Rhino wheels, Rome-built accessories, Baja Designs lighting, a Flatline Van Co roof rack, 400 watts of solar, Starlink Mini, a Victron lithium power system, Aqua-Hot hydronic heating, and an Isotherm fridge. Inside, the build uses white oak finishes, custom cabinetry, a large shower, and a layout built around six rear seat belts and extra-long seating for a very tall family.
It is part camper van tour, part custom RV build review, and part behind-the-scenes look at how a professional van builder turns a customer’s lifestyle into a one-of-a-kind travel rig. For anyone searching for camper van tour, Sprinter van build, custom van conversion, mobile hotel van, off-grid van life, or luxury camper van ideas, this tour shows how craftsmanship and function come together.
SEO note: ideal for viewers interested in camper van tours, Mercedes Sprinter builds, custom van conversion ideas, luxury RV alternatives, off-grid travel rigs, and professional van builder walkthroughs. It also fits searches for family camper van layouts, mobile hotel vans, and high-end van life craftsmanship.
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00You're getting the perfect camper that works for your lifestyle and if you want to have all the
00:05bells and whistles we can do all the bells and whistles. If you just want to start and focus in
00:08on the the interior floor plan and then we work out a plan for the next five years on exterior
00:13modifications that you want to add to your system we can do all of that. This is Patrick with New
00:17Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel. Today I'm in Manusquan, New Jersey. I just met up with
00:23Chris with Sequoia and Salt. He's going to give us a tour of his latest creation on the Sprinter
00:27All-Wheel Drive. This thing has an elevator bed, so join us. What's going on? Chris here from
00:34Sequoia and Salt Camper Vans. Thanks for coming on another video. Patrick, thank you so much for
00:38having us. Behind me is our newest layout that we just finished for a customer. It's based on a
00:45Mercedes Sprinter 170 All-Wheel Drive. Okay, let's work on the outside and then we'll get all the good
00:50stuff on the inside. So on the outside of the vehicle, we'll start with our running boards.
00:55These are from the company Rome. For the exterior of this van, we went with actually a lot of Rome
01:01components, which we normally don't do, but they've been creating some really cool stuff and we wanted
01:06to use them. So this is Agile Rip Kit. It's their newest version of the Rip Kit in there. Some
01:13KO3
01:14chunky tires and our Black Rhino rims. I think those are called the Warlords. I'm not really sure. They're
01:20from Black Rhino and they're awesome. So moving in the front of the van, we have our Rome-built
01:25front bumper with our worn winch. This is a 12,000 pound capacity winch. Above that, you'll notice
01:34our lighting. So we have two LP9s from Baja Design and on the top of the roof rack, you'll notice
01:41that
01:41we have five LP6s. Those are some badass lights and those lights are connected to a, it's called
01:49a SwitchPod Pro. I think it's called SwitchPod Pro. SwitchPod Pro. Okay. So this is a Flatline
01:59Vanco roof rack. This roof rack has a Starlink mini on it. It has a Dometic RTX 2000 AC unit,
02:09400 watts of solar and a max air vent fan and like a huge roof deck. This customer, they want
02:16to take
02:17their family, go see some concerts and this is the perfect roof rack for them. On the side of the
02:21van,
02:21you'll notice we have a van windows direct slider window that has an integrated screen and blackout
02:28shade. Flatline Vanco ladder. We have two bunk windows also from van windows direct. Those have
02:35integrated screens, but they have blackout shades from van essential. Underneath it, you'll see our
02:42shore power port and that is just a shore power port, not from a specialty company.
02:48On the back of the van, you'll notice we have Rome-built, more Rome-built accessories. So we want the
02:53Rome-built rear ladder tire carrier, the Rome-built rear box. This is their large box. It's nice because
03:02they have the moly panels integrated in their systems. This is an adjustable shelf, ton of space
03:08here for any of that dirty gear. And this is held on by a Flatline Vanco rear plate. I don't
03:18know.
03:18I don't know the exact word. We have a tow hitch receiver. As I open up the doors, you're going
03:24to
03:24see some storage. On the rear of the doors, we added some van essential storage. We have been putting
03:29these on a lot of the vehicles. For any of you DIYers out there or van builders, it is just
03:35like
03:35you could be cutting this out all day and trying to make this perfect. They created a better solution.
03:40Why would you not want to have all this storage accessible? You know, you can put, I don't know,
03:47sandwiches and you can put soup. You wouldn't put soup in there. Okay. The rear windows, we have
03:56van window direct and we have the blackout shades also from van essential. On the back of our lounge
04:03here, we have our 12 volt fuse panel integrated with the 110 breakers, an outlet, our spray port,
04:15our diverter valve. So this is for your exterior shower and our water pump, secondary water pump.
04:21We're going to, and then also we have the blackout, the screen from bug wall. So it's nice about the
04:29bug wall screens. You'll see it in the front of the van when I show you in a second, but
04:32you can unzip
04:33the top. So in the seasons like this where we don't have any bugs yet, you can just keep it
04:37open. You
04:38don't have to have that thing rolled up and it, you know, it could be annoying some people. Okay.
04:43Close this. Our spray port on the passenger side of the van. So this is where you're going to be
04:50filling up all of your water tank just in case scenarios. If you fill it up by yourself and you
04:55forget about it, at least you're not getting any spillage inside of the van. Everything's happening
04:59outside of the van. We have a Fiamma F45 S awning. So that is the big one. That one's 13
05:06one. And I
05:07believe it comes out like 12 feet. It is like a huge awning. If I was the awning, I would
05:14be out
05:14here really big. So here we are on the side, we have another slider window. This one does not have
05:22an
05:22integrated blackout shade, but it does have an integrated screen. We have a nice little bungee
05:28section here so you can store your shoes. This is the newest flooring that a lot of our customers
05:33have been getting. It's called Two Tech Two. It's a, the herringbone I believe is the model. It's really
05:39nice. It's super, super durable and it's padded. As you walk in to the cabin, you're going to notice
05:47the two swivel seats. Okay. Pretty standard on most of the vans above the swivel seats.
05:53We added a van wife components, a headliner shelf with integrated curtain. Okay. Pop-up counter.
06:08Pop-up counter. Look how much extra space this is. This customer is very tall. So he actually
06:15preferred the counter to be this high. We normally give them the adjustment if they want to have it
06:19a little bit lower. Something that we, if you look on the side of this cabinet, Patrick, it's really
06:23nice, but we added charging station, inset charging station. All of, let me go through the materials
06:32now. So we went with the Minetta, Minetta woven fabric as all of the trim fabrics. All of this wood
06:39is white oak that we then finished, uh, with the whitewash. That's how you get that finish that looks
06:49like this. And then we went with a white oak that we stained on the vertical or the lower cabinets.
06:55If you look on the bottom of the lower cabinets, look at the, the miter job. I mean, my guys
07:00are
07:00absolutely insanely good. Look at all of the additions, you know, adding the brass. So above
07:07the countertop or the countertop, look at this. Can you see this Patrick? Maybe. So yeah, you can see
07:16it looks great, right? So we lit up underneath the countertops. That's how custom specific this
07:23customer wanted their van and we gave it to them. So all the trims, white oak trim throughout the entire
07:28cabin. This van, so, you know, comparable to the other vans that we've built, this van took 800 hours
07:35of labor to build this. This, that is like, this is very nice. Okay. Slider window here. So from the
07:46outside, you can see it with that blackout and then the screen, our walls are housemade shiplap panels.
08:02These are really durable. So you're not going to have any problems with scratching. You're not going
08:07to have any problems with dirt. It's really easy to clean up. Again, if you finish all the finish,
08:12the miter finishes for all of our cabinetry, it's perfect. They make, I'm going to open up these
08:20upper cabinets here. On the right-hand side, you can see our Victron battery system. So we have a
08:26Victron power system with, oh my goodness, it is 3000 watt inverter and 920 amp hours of lithium battery
08:36power. That is a nice, chunky system for this customer, especially if they're using this AC unit
08:43that's only going to be pulling at eco. It's pulling 20 amps per hour. So they're going to have a
08:47lot of
08:48time when they're using this van. You'll notice that we made, we did our multiply cabinetry. That's all
08:54the face frames of our cabinetry is multiply. Our self-supporting hinges underneath the cabinets.
09:00If I run down the line here, we have our accent lights, under cabinet lights, our toe kick lights.
09:05We have our countertop lights and we have our bed lights. Okay. We have our gray dump and our
09:11Starlink switch all built in here. All right. So I want to touch on something really quick.
09:15So the customer came to us and they have a sensitivity magnetic waves. So we hired a
09:20consultant. That consultant taught us how to rewire the negatives in the engine and add the specialty
09:27like metal fabric that we put throughout all the power system to ensure that there's no metal
09:32magnetic waves emitting from those sections of the van. That's just us going above and beyond for you
09:38guys, our customers. I'm going to move back to the first drawer that you see, which is our induction
09:45cooktop. So there's a portable induction in the passenger side galley. We have an isotherm
09:521-130 refrigerator with a nice freezer inside. Inset sink. You see this in all of our vans. Nice cutout
10:00on the top. One of these things. Sponge drawer storage underneath the sink. Above the sink, I'm going to put
10:12this back because above the sink we have an outlet. This is our heating system. It's a hydronic system from
10:18AquaHot. It's the 125D.
10:21We added some nice, you know, this is like they're like specialty hooks. Kind of cool. Above that we have
10:27our inset contour microwave. Love this microwave. It's like micro microwave. Upper cabinet.
10:40All right. Now we're walking back. Shower. I was like, is there more drawers here? Okay. So this is a
10:46nice large shower. This is the biggest shower in the center of a van that we've done before. This is
10:51a 36 inch shower pan.
10:57With our bag toilet that most of the vans that are, most of our customers are asking for now.
11:04This adds so much extra space inside of your, your shower.
11:09Retract, retractable,
11:12whatever.
11:15One of these. This is nice because you can use this in two sections. You can disconnect.
11:20I just realized that if I, if I'm like, if I'm messing up, what I do, I realize I just,
11:24now I'm just going to make noises. Like, so this is our,
11:33this is our shower head. What's nice about this shower head is that you can disconnect it here and you
11:39can use it in the rear of the van.
11:40And for the next video, we'll make sure to get all that water out of there.
11:44And this, what's cool about this shower head is if you twist the top, you can use it in the
11:48back of the van as just a regular sprayer.
11:50Spray your kids down, spray your dogs down.
11:53This is a hard shell marine laminate that we use inside of the shower.
11:57The Maxair dome vent fan, which I didn't mention on the roof. It's got an integrated light. It's awesome.
12:04Okay. Now let's walk into the lounge.
12:10But before we do that, I'm going to open up these doors, get some light in here.
12:20Is this not the dream? Are you kidding me? What?
12:24So this is a gigantic lounge. We made a U-shaped lounge.
12:28This is a specialty lounge. Part of it that makes it so special is that you,
12:32we added this dowel system in here so you can, you see them?
12:35So we had some dowels under there so you can just pop in the middle section.
12:39So this is, this can come out. These, this can be one large bed or you can sleep as two
12:45twin size beds.
12:47Uh, the customer is, this entire family is like really tall.
12:52I think the gentleman is six foot seven and his kids are like six foot four.
12:56So, um, they're primarily using this van to like go out to, uh, traveling basketball sporting events.
13:02And so we made these loungers like extra long so that it can fit this very tall family.
13:09Okay. So if you were going to build this bed,
13:13you just open this up and you can just slide out the panels.
13:18You take these and you just put them in, they lay them on top of these grooves right here.
13:23Super, super easy to build your,
13:26your bed to make this one large bed.
13:28Um, we're going to show you that at some point. Okay. Don't be worried lagoon table underneath that.
13:35We added some, some outlets on both sides.
13:39We added some, I think this thing has six seatbelts.
13:44Uh, yeah, let's, uh, let me see, Patrick, give me some guidance.
13:48Where do you want me to go next?
13:50And we go under here. Okay. So this is our water system.
13:56So this is a 35 gallon water tank.
13:59You see, this is our sensor for the water.
14:02What's really nice about these water tanks or how my team is doing it is that it's just all serviceable.
14:07So if you want to clean out this water tank,
14:09we add these hatches on the top side so you can get in there with a wet vac.
14:12If you want to dry it out and you want to do some maintenance on your system, um,
14:18um, on this side, storage in the front,
14:30sorry, actually better yet instead of breaking this van right now,
14:35I'm just going to take that off.
14:37There we go. So you can see, this is that,
14:42the metal we had that like metal mesh stuff that we had to install for this power system.
14:47So I feel like it needs a good dusting right now, but this is the 920 amp hours of lithium
14:53battery power.
14:54This is our 3000 watt inverter, all the bells and whistles to make this thing absolutely rock.
15:01It is complex. It is clean. It is labeled. It's serviceable.
15:05I mean, when you are getting a van from us, you bet your butt,
15:09we're going to go 110% because it's just so important.
15:12I'm going to show you the other side so you can get a good look of it.
15:16Oh goodness.
15:18All right. So this is our beautiful water system.
15:23So that's one of the kicks for the hydronic.
15:25There's two kicks inside of this vehicle.
15:27This is our AquaHot 125D hydronic system.
15:31This is all of the piping and pecs that's running through this entire van.
15:36This is a complex, this is a complex baby.
15:39So this we have added blow off valves for winterizing in between uses.
15:44You can notice that our tops of our seats,
15:49we've added a nice magnetic, these like circle magnets.
15:54It's kind of nice.
15:54It makes it easy to listen.
15:56This cabinet is not a cabinet you're going in every single day, right?
16:00You are going to fill up your water, look at your sensor over there, fill up your water.
16:04If you need access to this panel, it's really for maintenance and winterizing.
16:09So we went with this magnetic system because we feel like it was, does the job well.
16:15It worked for us.
16:16It worked for us.
16:16So we like it.
16:17All right.
16:18So actually we'll keep this messy down here and I'm going to show you up top.
16:26All right.
16:26What you guys have all been waiting for.
16:28So this is the Lippert Euro lift bed.
16:31All right.
16:32The mattress we put on here is a long full to accommodate for this customer's very, very
16:39long legs.
16:40And then we have our two pill windows.
16:43I showed you from the outside with our white oak trim rings.
16:47We have some dimmable reading lights.
16:50And behind that, you'll see our, that beautiful trim piece, fabric trim, that's from GoCode.
16:55So we get that fabric wrap from GoCode.
16:58All right.
16:58And now, yeah, get one last look at how beautiful this trim is.
17:03These guys did an amazing job.
17:05All right.
17:05What you guys have all been waiting for, because I mentioned it before, this isn't that exciting,
17:10but I'm just going to build the bed for you.
17:13All right.
17:13You put this up and this is where that time where Patrick makes that video speed up by
17:203000%.
17:20I look like a Looney Tune.
17:43Chris, thank you very much for taking the time today to give us a tour of your awesome
17:47creation.
17:48Some of the things that stood out to me on this van, I love those mitered corners on the
17:52cabinets.
17:53Gives it a really crisp look to it.
17:55Very clean lines.
17:57Also, too, I like the style of the white oak with the natural finish versus the white oak
18:02with the darker finish.
18:03I really like that look personally.
18:05Another thing, you know I love elevator pants.
18:08I can't get enough of those.
18:09You got six seat belts in the back, two in the front, so you can actually seat eight people
18:13if you needed to.
18:15It sleeps for adults, but I'm sure if you have a whole bunch of kids, they could sleep on
18:18the bottom.
18:19And there's even room down below for the dogs.
18:22A hundred percent.
18:23That's what we, that's, you know, when working with us, this is like what we love doing.
18:27We love figuring out how our customer works, how they plan on going out and enjoying themselves,
18:32playing what, who they plan on bringing along.
18:34And then we get to curate something custom and personal for them.
18:38And like, this is just a perfect example of what comes out of Sequoia and Salt and the,
18:44the material finish and the detail that is involved when designing something custom for
18:49a customer.
18:50Yeah.
18:50It could be like 800 human hours to build a custom van for someone, which is a lot of
18:55work and a lot of attention to detail.
18:57And I read all the comments and sometimes a lot of commenters like, oh, I would have
19:01done this.
19:01I would have done that.
19:02That's right.
19:03You would have done it different because every customer is different.
19:06Everybody's wants and needs are completely different than the rest of people.
19:10And another thing I read a lot of comments, people don't realize that vans like this are
19:15built for people that not necessarily are always going to be living in it or full timing
19:19in it or going camping in it.
19:21People use vans like this for weekend getaways for day trips.
19:24So it doesn't always have to be the same type of uses that you would automatically think
19:28it would be.
19:29Exactly.
19:30Patrick, you're doing all the talking for me.
19:32I get it.
19:33I mean, this is, this is like, is the perfect example of the customer who's not going to
19:38go as camping as much, but they're using this as like their mobile hotel for, for their
19:43lifestyle and having to go to a lot of sporting events.
19:45This is perfect for them in between travel from one location to the other where they
19:50can utilize this van and, and not have to spend the time in a hotel room.
19:55Something that's a little bit more custom and personal to them.
19:58And plus there's a lot of downtime during those games or those weekends.
20:01So like the whole family could come back here and eat healthy lunch inside their van,
20:05have their own personal space and not being a crowded, loud cafeteria.
20:10I got one more question for you though.
20:12Like I know a lot of builders don't like to talk about price because every van is completely
20:16custom, but do you have any idea or guidance on what something like this would cost?
20:20Yeah, totally.
20:21And I can't wait to share it with you.
20:23A custom van like this, you are going to be with the cost of the vehicle.
20:27You're going to be in that $330,000 to $360,000 range.
20:31And you don't realize like how much an all wheel drive Sprinter diesel is plus the cost
20:37of the build.
20:38Then you get to buy the solar panels, lithium batteries, a heating system, air conditioning
20:41system, and all this stuff.
20:44And this stuff, the boxes and the tire and the carrier and the roof, that stuff adds up
20:48pretty quick.
20:49Totally.
20:50I mean, that's, we are, we are, the way that we see is we're not the cheapest on the block
20:54and we don't want to be the cheapest on the block.
20:55You're not coming to us to get a deal.
20:57You're getting the perfect camper that works for your lifestyle.
21:00And if you want to have all the bells and whistles, we can do all the bells and whistles.
21:04If you just want to start and focus in on the, the interior floor plan.
21:08And then we work out a plan for the next five years on exterior modifications that you want
21:12to add to your system.
21:12We can do all of that.
21:14So we want to work with you and want to build you something that's very special.
21:18I think you guys do a great job.
21:19I'll put those links in the description.
21:21So our viewers can click over to your website and auto evolution.
21:25If you're watching.
21:26I'm right here.
21:28This is Patrick in New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
21:32Thanks for joining.
21:32Now we're going to do some past 5qs.
21:32It's just pretty quick bit.
21:34It's a pretty cool job.