- 7 weeks ago
The Nook turns a Ford Transit 148 mid-roof into a highly functional camper van, proving that the smaller the van, the more creative the engineering has to be. In Manasquan, New Jersey, Chris from Sequoia and Salt walks through a custom build made for a couple, but designed mainly around solo travel, weekend trips, and smart space-saving features.
The standout detail is the invisible magnetic shower system, which gives the van a full shower without taking up space like a traditional wet bath. Inside, the layout includes a Victron power system with 460Ah of lithium, a 12V Dometic AC, solar, a Max Air fan, an induction cooktop, a drawer fridge, a portable toilet, and even a built-in cat litter solution. The convertible bed can be used east-west or north-south, and the swivel seats with lagoon table help the cabin feel open and flexible.
This is a thoughtful van tour for anyone researching camper van builds, RV life, stealth van layouts, or compact custom conversions. It also shows how Sequoia and Salt balances comfort, serviceability, and budget without overbuilding the space.
Ideal for viewers searching for van tour, camper van conversion, Ford Transit build, tiny van shower, magnetic shower system, van life setup, and custom RV design. It’s also a strong pick for anyone comparing weekend van builds, solo travel vans, and space-efficient camper layouts.
The standout detail is the invisible magnetic shower system, which gives the van a full shower without taking up space like a traditional wet bath. Inside, the layout includes a Victron power system with 460Ah of lithium, a 12V Dometic AC, solar, a Max Air fan, an induction cooktop, a drawer fridge, a portable toilet, and even a built-in cat litter solution. The convertible bed can be used east-west or north-south, and the swivel seats with lagoon table help the cabin feel open and flexible.
This is a thoughtful van tour for anyone researching camper van builds, RV life, stealth van layouts, or compact custom conversions. It also shows how Sequoia and Salt balances comfort, serviceability, and budget without overbuilding the space.
Ideal for viewers searching for van tour, camper van conversion, Ford Transit build, tiny van shower, magnetic shower system, van life setup, and custom RV design. It’s also a strong pick for anyone comparing weekend van builds, solo travel vans, and space-efficient camper layouts.
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00To build a van, the smaller you go, the more challenging the engineering comes to see how
00:04we're going to adapt and fit all this stuff in such a small space. You know, working with a
00:08customer and walking through how their life is going to be on the road and being like, okay,
00:13so what are we going to do to make this work? This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures
00:17YouTube channel, back here in Manusquan, New Jersey, and I met up with Chris with Sequoia
00:22and Salt. Today, he's going to give us a tour inside and out of the Nook, so join us.
00:28What's going on, Patrick? Chris here from Sequoia and Salt Camper Vans. I have a new,
00:32really interesting floor plan for you today. This is called the Nook. It's a little back
00:37story on the customer. They're looking for a van for, it's two people, but really going to be used
00:43primarily with one person. So she wanted to have something that is just going to be a really solid
00:49weekender, maybe some longer trips in the future, but for now, we're going to focus in on just having
00:53really good weekends. This is a Ford Transit, 148, mid-roof, 2500. So as you walk around, we didn't
01:03really add a ton to the exterior of the van to fit within budget, so we added some running boards,
01:09nice sturdy running boards. If we come to the back, you'll see our shore power connection,
01:15tow hitch receiver, some rear windows. As I open up, I'll just kind of go through the garage. We'll
01:22start with the garage on this one, and I'll tell you the reasoning behind that is because it's like
01:2710 degrees here in New Jersey. It's windy, it's cold, and I want to get in that van, so come
01:31on,
01:31let's go through this. So on the back of the garage, you'll notice we added our fuse panel. It's got
01:38our
01:39breakers and our 12-volt fuses in here. Below that, outlet garage lights, and we made the rear of the
01:48van
01:48pretty easy to access for serviceability, so this just tips over. We slide this out. Hold on, a little
01:56angle here. So can you get in there? Yeah, there you go. This is the power system, so we're with
02:02a 460
02:03amp hour lithium battery. Our MPPT, Victron power system, 3000 watt inverter charger system. We started
02:12adding these great fans to our power systems to really suck out all that hot air that's going to be
02:18inside of the unit. Nice and large for any sort of storage or serviceability, like I said before.
02:26Close this one up. This is a 12-volt water heater. It's a 110 or 12-volt water heater. We
02:45put a 20-gallon
02:45water tank. Very basic power, power and water system for what we do, but again, it was really important
02:51that we fit within the customer's budget, and this is how we did it. And everything is expandable in
02:56the system, so we could add more batteries if the customer needs to, but just to start, get out
03:01there. The way that I was taught, and I'm going to explain this because I feel like this is really
03:05important. When I first started surfing, I was told, you cannot upgrade your surfboard until you learn
03:11how to surf on the surfboard that you have. So any customer that's going to come to us, I'm going
03:16to
03:16challenge you, and I'm going to say, you don't need everything under the sun. Let's get you exactly what
03:21you need to start right now and expand it for the future. So that's really important.
03:25So you see the back of the bed, a nice bamboo lip, bamboo ceiling. Let's go to the front of
03:31the van
03:31here. This is our water intake. So we do everything outside of the van, and then you have a gray
03:39water
03:39valve underneath. On the roof, we have a Dometic RTX 2000 AC unit. That's 12-volt. We have a 200
03:46-watt
03:47solar panel, and then behind that, we have our max air vent fan. As we enter into the cabin,
03:52you'll notice we have a nice drop-down table. We had a good magnet in there, so it's self-supporting,
03:59or I mean self-supporting. It magnetizes. On the side here, you'll notice that we added a sliding
04:07door with an integrated screen. We added a fascia for the bottom step here because if you know,
04:13you've ever seen a transit van or you've ever built one out or have seen one with a big white
04:18spot,
04:18there's kind of an eyesore in these vans, and so we added a fascia there to block that.
04:24The cabinets on the outside, this is a nice hard shell laminate. We build this, we use this laminate
04:30quite often. It's very durable, and it has a nice texture to it as well. Our flooring, we went with
04:36a company called Two Tech Two, and it has a nice insulation feature and padding underneath the
04:44flooring, and it's very, very durable. So if you're someone who gets out, gets dirty, that's a good
04:49floor for you to have. As we enter into the cabin, Patrick, get in here. I know he wants to
04:56get in
04:56here so bad. Get in here. Go! All right, so this is going to look a little darker, but I
05:05am, I tell
05:06people I'm 5'10 or 5'11, but in reality, I'm 5'7 or 5'8, but I'm not going
05:12to let you know.
05:13This ceiling right here is a midsize, so you can get a good sense how much space I have above
05:20my head.
05:20So I wouldn't say I'm uncomfortable in this van for my height. You know, if you're standing
05:27straight posture, yes, but if you're just standing like regular posture, you can get around this van
05:33just fine. You see, we have, we added two swivel seats in the front with a lagoon table for them
05:39to share. On the floor, we added, the flooring we use is called Kusa, so we did a one-inch
05:46Kusa floor.
05:48It's a fiberglass composite board, which is, it's used in boat decking, and that's what we use
05:53underneath our floor. And then we added a shower pan that's built right into the floor.
06:03The way that you're going to use that shower is we have a shower curtain that will click in
06:10to the ceiling. And then this shower pan is a special shower pan that's, it's magnetic.
06:16So the, you know, the magnets will stick to the bottom there and that'll fully encase you in that
06:22shower. Instead of going with a regular fixture in the sink, we added a quick connector port,
06:28and then you can just quick connect here. And what's nice is that you can use this as just a
06:33regular for your sink. Just click it on, use it as a sink, or you can take it, pull it
06:37off,
06:38connect it in here, and then use it as your shower. Instead of having to take off the, you know,
06:43the front part of a, you've probably seen a video where, or a few videos on, this is the easiest
06:48way
06:49that we figured that this could work for us. All right, so on this side, we have our large
06:55driver's side galley induction stovetop. On the wall, you'll notice this is our switch panel here.
07:02It's nice. You can pull this entire thing out. Everything is accessible in the back of it.
07:06This is our velet gas heater, our water tanks, our fresh water, our gray water, our energy switch
07:14for our Victron system, gray dump inverter switch, and then your lights, accent lights. So we like to
07:22add these accent lights on the bottom, which is really nice. Also in the galley, we have a 110 outlet
07:28with USB built into it. So we have USB and USB-C. Our walls, we go with our traditional shiplap
07:33walls
07:34that we make in-house. If you notice in between the walls, this is where there's going to be seams
07:39in the van. So we add a nice trim, and you'll see that we extend the trims throughout both sides
07:44of the
07:45vans, and all the way back. Our ceiling is a bamboo ceiling, and our trims are also bamboo, which is
07:50really nice. We added some L-track on both sides of the walls. What's great about the L-track is
07:56it gives
07:56you a lot of different options. They make L-track clips, L-track loops. In this case, we want L
08:02-track
08:02clips, and so the customers, we got the customer some soft bags that she'll bring along with her
08:08for some added storage both on both sides. So I'm going to start, I'm going to work my way down
08:15here.
08:15So we have an induction stovetop that's inset into our bamboo countertops,
08:22locking drawers with dovetail construction. This is our cat storage box. This is where she's going
08:32to have the litter box for the cat, again with a nice lock on it. Nice big deep drawer.
08:45This is a portable toilet. So if you've seen some of our past videos, I'm absolutely obsessed with
08:52all the bag toilet options out there. This option is really great because, you know, you do your
08:57business in it, you click a button, it heat seals it, and then cuts it off. So it'll cut off
09:02the bag,
09:02you'll put a little pan, like a little garbage pail, your garbage pail for your kitchen, you'll probably
09:07put it underneath this, click the button, it'll just drop it right into the garbage pail. And
09:13there's no off-gassing inside of your van for 30 days with that bag in there. So that's quite amazing.
09:21Some more drawers. This is just an access hatch for our heater, which is behind that. This is the
09:31isotherm 65 drawer fridge. It has a little freezer section inside. Another drawer.
09:42Tip out of your sponges. Tons of space underneath that.
09:48I'll show you this one. I'm going to click. There you go. I'm going to show you that one next.
09:54So, uh, we went with just shelves inside with some shelf pins. So she'd like to move it around
09:59depending on what her storage is at the time. A contour RV microwave.
10:07Another drawer that I'm going to show you in a second.
10:10And then our access to the rear of the van.
10:16All right. So above me, just to sort of finish out the rest of what you see here, this is
10:20our
10:21Dometic RTX 2000. And then with the bamboo face trim, this is the, um, Max Air vent fan.
10:30And if you see what we did, we kind of padded out the side of it. It looks like it's
10:34hard to see.
10:35It looks like a shadow, but we padded it out so that it can sit flush in this space. If
10:38you notice
10:39that the ceiling and the roof inside of this van is quite bowed, we wanted to maximize the amount
10:44of space for her to walk in the center of it. So by doing that, we had to make some
10:49exceptions,
10:49which is like how, uh, we finished that on this wall. This is a duetto gen three, which is, uh,
10:57that 12 volt hot water system that you saw underneath. Um, again, we have another outlet over here.
11:04So this bed works in two different sections here. So you can slide out this section and you can pull
11:11the bed all the way open. It comes with two, two, um, mattresses. If you were going to use it
11:18in this
11:18orientation, that's where you're going to pull this drawer out to help you get right inside the bed,
11:27which is really, really nice. And then you push this away. You're going to slide this into position
11:33one, lock it off, and then you can open up this position, which is nice because we made it
11:43a nice drawer as well. And it helps you get it on and off the bed.
11:48It's pretty clever. I like the fact that you could sleep east to west and north to south. So if
11:57you're
11:57a solo traveler and you're under six feet tall, you could sleep side by side and still have a step
12:04to
12:04get into the bed. And if you have your partner with you, you could sleep north, south with them
12:09and another step to get into the bed. I love that. It's a pretty flexible space. And it's a, it's
12:15a small
12:16van. So she'll be able to parallel park it wherever she wants and not have any restrictions on size.
12:23And it's not as intimidating. Sometimes people get intimidated by the really tall vans. Yeah. So
12:28I'm five feet nine. I can't stand up perfectly straight, but it's comfortable. Yeah, exactly.
12:34It's pretty comfortable. Yeah. It still has a shower, which I think is great. It's right here by the door.
12:40It's not a big box that's taken up a ton of room every single day. You know, when you want
12:45to shower,
12:46and when you're not going to the gym to shower or using the campground facility, you have your own
12:50shower. Yep. Yeah. I've never seen that brand of toilet before. I've seen a lot of the wrap-on
12:55toilets. Is this another one of their models or one of their competitors? No, yeah, it's one of their
12:59competitors. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. I really like that. That's what I like both of the models.
13:04They both work for us. You know, a little incrementally different in sizes and functionality,
13:12but they're both really great options. I really like this van and it's a testament to the creativity
13:17that's coming from Sequoia and Salt because to build a van, the smaller you go, the more challenging
13:24the engineering comes to see how we're going to adapt and fit all this stuff in such a small space.
13:29You know, working with a customer and walking through how their life is going to be on the road
13:33and being like, okay, so what are we going to do to make this work? You know, like,
13:37you want to bring two people, then you want to use your, you know, solo travel. I want to bring
13:41my cat with me.
13:42I want to have an inside shower. I mean, that's where we're shining in a van like this. As you
13:47can see
13:47that this has great functionality, great flow, maneuverability for a customer, and we kept it in such a small casing.
13:55You really did. You really nailed it. There is a lot of storage in here. It's not the most roomy
14:00van in the middle,
14:01but you have the driver passenger swivel chairs, and these are most likely where they'll be sitting
14:08most of the day. Look how much room you have here in the front. And going back to the toilet,
14:13I like that better than the standard dry flush toilets that like twist the waste and store it.
14:19Because if you're not out camping every single day or every weekend, that waste is just sitting in
14:27that cartridge. Yep. And it's, you know, sometimes people wind up throwing it away before the cartridge
14:33is used just because they're not going to be using the van for a couple months. Where this,
14:38the waste drops out each time and you throw it away. Exactly. And I think depending on the amount
14:44that you actually go in the toilet, because a cartridge holds 17 flushes. So in 17 flushes,
14:51you can imagine if you're really using it often, two people to conserve flushes, you might have two
14:58people, you know, peeing in, in one go. So that bag could get really heavy for someone to get it
15:04in
15:04and out of the van as well. So I love options like this. I love the innovations that are coming
15:09like
15:09this year in the market. And, and like, we're so on top of how we can better every single function
15:15of one of these vans. And like, this is like, to hit what you were saying before, I, this is
15:20a really
15:20great person that plans on doing a, a weekend or a short trip. This is not a van that you're,
15:26I mean, you could live in this, but this is not, the customer's need is not that. And if they
15:32did
15:32want that, then they probably would have gone with a larger van that had upper storage. But I,
15:37this is, I think a, you know, grand slam for such a small, small van. And everybody wants something
15:42different. I read all the comments, my videos, and everybody's like, oh, I would have done it this way,
15:47or I would have done it this way, right? Because that person has a different idea,
15:51different wants and different needs and different shapes and sizes than the next person. Yeah.
15:56So having a fully custom van is really key for some people because they, they can't find what
16:02they want and you guys could build it. Exactly. I'll put those links in the description. So
16:06our viewers could click over to your website. This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures
16:10YouTube channel. See you soon. See you soon.