- 30 minutes ago
A free 2001 Toyota Sienna becomes a full-time home on wheels in this inventive DIY minivan camper conversion. Chris spent two years building the “Van Go” setup, then hit the road after retirement with a small-space design that packs in off-grid living, storage, and comfort without relying on hookups.
The tour covers the van’s standout features: a large 24V battery bank, solar panels, an Iceco refrigerator, electric cooking, portable AC, cloud-connected security cameras, a 13-gallon water system, and a clever lampshade sink. Inside, repurposed wood cabinetry, cedar tongue-and-groove ceiling, folding bike storage, drawer-based organization, and a fold-out bed show how much function can fit into a compact camper van.
It’s part van life tour, part budget build breakdown, and part real-world RV conversion walkthrough for anyone researching stealth camping, tiny home living, or off-grid travel. Chris also explains how he keeps everything powered, why he chose an all-electric setup, and what he’d tell anyone starting their own minivan build.
Built for fans of DIY camper van conversion, minivan camper tours, van life on a budget, and off-grid travel. If you search for full-time van living, Toyota Sienna camper build, stealth camper ideas, or practical tiny home on wheels inspiration, this tour fits right in.
The tour covers the van’s standout features: a large 24V battery bank, solar panels, an Iceco refrigerator, electric cooking, portable AC, cloud-connected security cameras, a 13-gallon water system, and a clever lampshade sink. Inside, repurposed wood cabinetry, cedar tongue-and-groove ceiling, folding bike storage, drawer-based organization, and a fold-out bed show how much function can fit into a compact camper van.
It’s part van life tour, part budget build breakdown, and part real-world RV conversion walkthrough for anyone researching stealth camping, tiny home living, or off-grid travel. Chris also explains how he keeps everything powered, why he chose an all-electric setup, and what he’d tell anyone starting their own minivan build.
Built for fans of DIY camper van conversion, minivan camper tours, van life on a budget, and off-grid travel. If you search for full-time van living, Toyota Sienna camper build, stealth camper ideas, or practical tiny home on wheels inspiration, this tour fits right in.
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TravelTranscript
00:00If you can dream big you can put it in a small space and that's the whole point of this
00:05build.
00:06I'm a big dreamer and if you don't have the skills to do all this you better have a friend
00:10that has all the skills because this is a lot of work. Enjoy life and that's what I do.
00:16This is Patrick from New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel down here in Jupiter,
00:20Florida and just met up with Chris. Chris has a really cool DIY minivan camper conversion
00:24that he lives and travels in full time and this thing has a lot going on. It's pretty intense.
00:30He's going to give us a full tour inside and out so join us.
00:34Hey Patrick, it's really good to meet you. Thanks for coming down and checking out my minivan.
00:40It's a 2001 Toyota Sienna, 249,000 baby miles and it was my daughter's for a while
00:50and my truck got totaled and I went to her one day and said I want to convert this
00:56and travel in it and she's left because her and her boyfriend were going to do the same thing.
01:01They're going to buy a glass either. I'm not like that. I'm going to build my own. So
01:07this is my build. It took two years and it only took two years because I had two years
01:12and my plan was to take my retirement and hit the road. So I finished it and then when I
01:19got my
01:20first retirement check, I took off and so I've been more or less on the road full time for the
01:27last few
01:27years. We'll take a walk around the outside. We'll give you a tour. First thing you're going to notice,
01:34we've already set up. I have two solar panels. There are new power 200 watt 24 volt solar panels.
01:45One is bolted down to the roof and part of the luggage rack system and the other one I built
01:51this
01:53framework so I could slide it on and off. So this actually nestles on top of the original
02:00and this is all stowed away when I'm traveling. Normally I only need the one solar panel to keep
02:07my batteries charged but I have the second one set up like today just to give it a little bit
02:14of
02:14extra oomph to get those batteries going. Of course the centerpiece of my van you see the back side now
02:22is my leg lamp that's a 17 year in the making project and I'm very proud of it. I've converted
02:29it from 110 to plug into a USB port so I don't have to worry about batteries or turning on
02:39the inverter
02:39to enjoy my leg lamp. You might also notice that I took out the front seat and replaced it with
02:50a stand for my ice cold refrigerator. This thing is awesome. My battery is set up for
03:0024 volt. This thing runs on 24 volt. It'll probably kick on now. You won't even hear it. This thing
03:07is so
03:07quiet and it sips power. Underneath is a tent that drapes across my tailgate. We're not going to set that
03:15up
03:15right now but it just gives me added space if I'm parked for more than two days at a time
03:22and I also
03:23have a portable AC unit which is kind of cool. No pun intended but in the summer nights I can
03:32set that
03:32up for air and this winter I reversed it and I blew the cool air out that way and let
03:39the hot air
03:39fill up my cabin so it acted kind of like reverse heat so I really enjoy that. I also have
03:47security
03:48cameras everywhere. Here's two of them and I do that because some places you park not exactly the safest
03:56place on the planet and so if my stuff goes missing you're on the cloud so everything goes straight to
04:05the cloud all my cameras. Okay here I have an electric bag so my cord for my shore power and
04:14my battery box
04:16is stored in here along with all my other electrical stuff but mostly when I pull up to a site
04:23I have
04:23everything I need right here. I have a conversion and I have a tester to make sure I have power
04:31so I don't
04:33have to dig my bag out every time. This is my hardware for my solar panel setup and I have
04:39a 24 volt 2,000 watt
04:42inverter. I wish I went to 3,000 watts but it was like twice the price. This is a breaker
04:51box for my solar panel
04:53and this box has all my electric in it. About seven kilowatt hours of power in it. People wonder why
05:02I want
05:02seven kilowatts of power in a minivan. Why not just go with some little jackpot? Well I wanted to be
05:11in the
05:12desert. I wanted to run my refrigerator for three weeks with no sun. That's just a plain simple answer
05:20is I want to have enough power to keep this going and to cook for at least three weeks. So
05:27that's why I have so much power. The rest of the van is just a van. I don't know how
05:34exciting it is.
05:36Typical Toyota of this year. The hood got rust spots so it's been sanded and primed. I'm waiting to paint
05:44that. But that'll happen in about a month. The front seat is just typical front seat. Didn't do anything
05:54magical there. Magic begins when really you open this door. You open this door, the first thing you
06:01notice is there's this big bulky thing. It's actually a folding bike and it's a really nice folding bike.
06:10Amazon had it for 500 bucks. Another website had it for 250. Team who don't tell anybody.
06:20And then I have my multi-purpose toilet seat stand. Everything in the van needs to have more than one
06:32purpose. So I have it okay. Took care of the number two. What's going on with the number one? I
06:39have a
06:40little pee bottom in here. The flooring is just your basic vinyl plank flooring. I put it in, laid it
06:50down
06:50first, but I had to put plywood in after I took the seats out because there's these metal hooks everywhere.
06:58So I had to gouge out the plywood, set the plywood in, put the flooring in. The cabinets are built
07:05in place.
07:05This cabinet has 12-volt switches for lighting.
07:16I've got rheostats for my red lights and then for my buck lights.
07:23What you can see is a cedar tongue and groove ceiling I custom did myself.
07:29I took all the duct work out for the AC to give myself an extra three inches of headroom because
07:35you
07:35need headroom and a small little van. Then I've got one tan power. I've got three outlets.
07:43One here, one on top and one on the back, which you'll see later.
07:50Name my van is van going because of the artwork. So I have three paintings for my granddaughter.
07:57She did when she was 10. I'm quite proud of them. And so they're centerpiece in my display.
08:03More art. More art. More art. Me as a baby. I put that up to remember my mom. It has
08:12passed.
08:13So all the cabinetry is repurposed wood except for the plywood. I bought saddlewood plywood and I stained
08:23polyurethane it all. And so I built all the cabinets. You'll see a slide out drawer. I've got
08:32three in the front and we'll crawl in later and we'll see those. In the back I have a 13
08:40gallon water
08:41tank and it's 13 inches high so it's really easy to gauge it. I've got a sink with water supply
08:51and that sink
08:52is actually a lampshade that I repurposed and it works out great. The faucet is just
09:02an RO faucet that I adapted and it's adjustable which is great because I can put a coffee cup,
09:11my tea kettle, a cup in there and turn on the pump. No spillage. This is my shower head when
09:20I'm out in
09:20the wilderness and need a shower. I have my shower curtain and this formable shower rod. So when I'm
09:30out in the wild I shave my hair because it takes too much water to wash it and then it's
09:36just spritz,
09:40wash, spritz for a rinse and I'm done. Less than a gallon for a shower.
09:48So this just unhooks here and it just slides in right into the old
09:56area. This is the original plastic and I just drilled a hole and set it up and
10:04I have a water filter for my water pump for my potable water but this is not hooked to the
10:11potable
10:12water, the filter. The filter is actually under behind here which is a tag. Velco is your friend
10:19but this just detaches from Velcro and I store things in here that I'm not using at the time.
10:28These are my window covers and then it just pops back in and stays secure. This will come off too
10:37if I ever need to access the tank. This is a unique design that I designed. I spent many hours
10:46trying to
10:46figure out. I actually have two table legs on here. A shorty like me for hooking on the back.
10:58It hooks on the back when it's not being disagreeable. And then I set up my cooking here.
11:07It's my 110th hour here. So I have electric skillet and my electric tea kettle.
11:14Everything is electric. I don't mess with gas or anything. I have so much power.
11:19I don't need to worry about it. So the second leg is designed to set up on the side door.
11:28So the leg folds out and then we have these plastic strips. I'll go ahead and hook it up and
11:36then I'll slide it on.
11:38And this hooks to the side here. The leg comes down. You can secure the leg.
11:49And this thing does not fall. So I can cook and often do here. That's why I have the 110
11:55outlet right there.
12:00So getting in and out of this thing is kind of fun when you're short because it's just kind of
12:06easy.
12:11So this is a five inch foam mattress. I use an electric carving knife to cut up.
12:20This is the only thing I didn't do myself. It's not the best job, but it was done by a
12:29single mother who was pregnant.
12:31So the professionals wanted $200 each. She did it for $60 for both, but I gave her $200. Money well
12:39spent.
12:41And here in my box, you know, when I built this, got to have a shunt. I was like, oh,
12:47okay, whatever.
12:48Got to have this for the solar. Okay, whatever. But this is the important part. This turns on the inverter.
12:55I don't look at the shunt. I don't look at this ever. I actually have an app I can monitor
13:02all my battery health with and condition. So now it turns on the main power in each one of the
13:12outlets.
13:19So I've got some other things in here that usually get in the way. You have to kind of move
13:24things,
13:24but I built all the drawers and in this one I don't have slides because real estate in a small
13:33space
13:34comes out of premium. So I put felt on the bottom of the drawers and I put my dry goods
13:40in here
13:40and they just slide along the floor. This one I have clothes in and this one I have tools in.
13:48So when I go to set up the bed, I pull these out so far and then I have a
13:56piece of wood on hinges
14:00that flips up and flips out and lays right on the inside of the drawer on a piece of wood
14:08here.
14:10And then I just drop this cushion behind it. It folds out to almost a twin size bed. But
14:20we'll do that if you guys want to see it. But right now we're just going to keep going.
14:30Over here I built three drawers. Now once you see my power on this side
14:38you have to modify the drawer because all my power is over here. So I had to make it look
14:47like a real
14:47drawer. Something's jamming in it right now. They have catches, but when you're driving down the road
14:56sometimes they swing out. I don't care how good they are. So I took some linchpins, took the loop off,
15:03and those are my locks. And these are all hinges. There's all my health stuff, including candy.
15:12And my pills, my vitamins, and then my cookware is down here. My electric stove and my frying pan, which
15:24is
15:25a granite coated animal-catching frying pan, which I love, love, love. Thank you, Ladybug. Thank you,
15:34Dee, for this. It was her idea. Saw it on the channel. Fell in love with it. Loved this frying
15:41pan.
15:42I can wipe it out with a paper towel and spray it with my little sprayer, which has peroxide in
15:50it.
15:51Now this is my overhead cabinet. This is the last thing I built and I debated. I'm so glad I
15:57built it.
15:58It's got a funky shape. People love that. When you do something like this hint,
16:03get these to level and then you can cut any shape you want. My daughter had bought these and wasn't
16:12using them. And they're little storage bins and they fit in here perfect. And my drink mixes, tea and
16:19coffee, and miscellany stuff and bags. And whatever I have. I also have, see it lit up,
16:28a motion sensor, where at night when I open it up, the lights come on. Underneath here,
16:38this is my latest edition. So when I lay in bed at night, I want to watch TV. I have
16:44an iPad.
16:45And so I put my iPad in here. I put my Bluetooth speaker behind it. And now I have a
16:53surround sound
16:53movie, which is pretty cool. And it just folds away when I'm not using it. And normally I just store
17:00this here, pile a bunch of stuff up on it. Here is just the shelf. Don't mind the extra camera.
17:09This year I found these and they're great. I stuck them on with two sided tape and they just hold
17:16junk.
17:19I've got another 12 volt socket here. I have one there. They're everywhere. Don't buy these special
17:28adapters and put them in. They cost a fortune. You put in 12 volt sockets. You can get all the
17:35adapters you want. So when they switch to type C, you just got to buy the adapter. And I've got
17:42a ton
17:42of them and they're everywhere because they're cheap. So here's USB and a USB-C. So you plug them in.
17:52I've got cables here to charge my watch and my cell phone. So at night, I just put my watch
17:59and my
17:59cell phone up here and charge it. And these bags are awesome. I've got extra security stuff in here.
18:07I've got a shower bag, extra cables. It's my shower bag. It has everything I need. I'm ready to
18:15grab a shower, grab a pair of shorts out of my drawer, grab a shirt for my hanger, grab my
18:22shower
18:22shoes from under my seat, get on my bike, take off, go get my shower. So these bags are handy,
18:30especially in the small space, because you can put them anywhere. They're just out of the way.
18:36Chris, thank you very much for taking the time today to give us a tour of your awesome creation.
18:41I love the fact that this van has two sliding doors. That really opens up a lot of possibilities
18:46for doing a camper van conversion and a lot of flexibility. You didn't talk about budget.
18:52Was there a certain budget you had set in place to build this? No. The biggest part of my budget,
19:01believe it or not, was my battery bank. I've probably got $2,000 in this with all the switches,
19:09the battery cells, the BMS, the 24 volt to 12 volt converter. It all added up to about two grand.
19:18The plywood, three sheets at $50 a sheet, $150. The miscellany stuff, the puck lights,
19:26the LED lights, they're all pretty cheap. But this was the big budget item here.
19:32That and the refrigerator. Once I decided I wanted an electric refrigerator, then I had to figure out
19:38how much battery power I wanted. And it took a year to figure out whether or not I was going
19:42to have
19:42a refrigerator or just not deal with it. Once I made that decision, it was a touchdown from there.
19:51And you think like all in maybe under three grand? Yeah. Oh yeah.
19:54All in. And the plus, whatever the cost of the van is obviously.
19:57Well, the van was free. It was my daughter's. There you go.
20:00So the refrigerator was like $450. The bike was $250. But overall, the hardware, you know, it all adds up.
20:09So without the bike and the refrigerator, probably got three grand in it.
20:13And you know what? You're out here. You're not sitting at home, right?
20:17You're traveling all over Florida and you could go anywhere in the country.
20:21Actually, you were going to come up to New Jersey, but we had a snowstorm that paused.
20:25And I happened to be down here and we met up here.
20:28Yeah. Any tips to anybody that is looking to build out their own minivan convergence?
20:34Something that you had that aha moment or something you think is really going to help someone?
20:38Well, you know, a lot of people just take the seats out, throw a cot in and some shells.
20:44Do that. Really do that. Get started that way. I had two years. So I spent a lot of time
20:53moving things around, setting things up, figuring out what I wanted to do. And the whole idea was
21:00just because it's small, you don't have to live small. You know, if you can dream big,
21:07you can put it in a small space. And that's the whole point of this build was I'm a big
21:13dreamer
21:13and I have a small space. So I wanted to have as many of the conveniences of home as I
21:20could get.
21:21And that's what I went for. So I've got everything I can black out. I've got heat. I got air.
21:30I've got
21:30cooking. I've got more power than I need, got more solar than I need. But I'm a big dreamer. And
21:38if you don't
21:39have the skills to do all this, you better have a friend that has all the skills because this is
21:43a
21:44lot of work. But get started. Put a cot in, put some shells in, go. But I could have left
21:52two years
21:53earlier, but my plan was building a unique build, do a lot of trick stuff, and just enjoy life. And
22:02that's what I do. So I've circled the country twice in two years in this van and never had a
22:10want,
22:10never lost power, just really had a great time. Well, that's great information there. It's going
22:18to be very helpful to other people that may be taking a look at this lifestyle and seeing if it's
22:24for them or not. And talking about work, camping is work. It is. So when we wrap up this video,
22:30we're going to cut to a video of you just setting up the bed so they could understand because I'm
22:35sure some viewers are going to want to see what that's all about. Well, I appreciate you taking
22:38the time today. This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel. Thanks for
22:44joining us. Thanks, Patrick.
23:23Thanks, Patrick.
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