- 25 minutes ago
The Ford Transit Overlook build makes a strong case for being the best camper conversion layout for van life, with Roman from Vanture Customs walking through a compact 19.5-foot AWD EcoBoost Transit packed with smart, modular features. From the hidden magnetic shower pan and stowaway Murphy bed to more than 10 feet of convertible counter space, this van is built to feel open, flexible, and ready for off-grid travel.
The tour covers the exterior upgrades too, including Flatline armor, skid plates, Falcon AT4 tires, Van Compass suspension, a winch, roof rack, awning, and lighting. Inside, the layout includes an EcoFlow power system, solar charging, a Dometic RTX 2000 air conditioner, an Espar gasoline heater, cedar ceiling details, marine-grade cabinetry, and a garage area with serious storage. It’s a detailed look at a Ford Transit camper van conversion, RV alternative, and overland-ready build for travelers who want comfort without giving up mobility.
Created for fans of van life tours, camper van walkthroughs, Ford Transit conversions, and off-grid RV builds. It also fits searches for Transit 350 AWD EcoBoost, modular van layout, Murphy bed camper, hidden shower, and full van build review for digital nomads and overland travelers.
The tour covers the exterior upgrades too, including Flatline armor, skid plates, Falcon AT4 tires, Van Compass suspension, a winch, roof rack, awning, and lighting. Inside, the layout includes an EcoFlow power system, solar charging, a Dometic RTX 2000 air conditioner, an Espar gasoline heater, cedar ceiling details, marine-grade cabinetry, and a garage area with serious storage. It’s a detailed look at a Ford Transit camper van conversion, RV alternative, and overland-ready build for travelers who want comfort without giving up mobility.
Created for fans of van life tours, camper van walkthroughs, Ford Transit conversions, and off-grid RV builds. It also fits searches for Transit 350 AWD EcoBoost, modular van layout, Murphy bed camper, hidden shower, and full van build review for digital nomads and overland travelers.
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TravelTranscript
00:12Today we're looking at the Overlook build in the Ford Transit model. This is a Transit 350
00:20all-wheel drive, EcoBoost, Twin Turbo, the whole nine. The whole child's been talking about this
00:25build for three years now and we finally did it on the Transit and now we're doing the
00:31shakedown test pretty much on this off-road path in the Bill Lamb lands of Jersey. We're
00:39gonna give you guys a tour of this sweet layout and yeah I'm really excited because this is my
00:45favorite build yet. Welcome back to the show this is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures
00:51YouTube channel here at a wildlife park in New Jersey. I just met up with Roman with Venture
00:57Customs outside of Philadelphia. Today he's going to give us a tour of the Ford Transit all-wheel drive
01:02Overlook and this thing is really cool so join us. Hey this is Roman from Venture Customs. Thank you
01:09for having us back on the channel finally and we've been cooking up the Overlook. It's our newest
01:15highest trim build. I'm super excited to show you guys. Let's dive on in. This is on a Ford Transit
01:21now because Ford's seem to be pretty superior compared to Sprinters. Over 3,000 areas to service
01:28them. EcoBoost, Twin Turbos, Gasoline. Sprinters have only 500 places to service them so we're leaning
01:35heavily towards Ford and working with them and I really like their product. This thing drives great,
01:40the cockpit's great. Let's just dive on into it and we'll kind of show some differences there.
01:47Starting with the running boards, flatline running boards as well as some skip plates underneath there
01:53to protect the essentials. Upgraded tires, we went with the Falcon 84 tires. They're in my opinion better
02:02than the BFG OK3s, OK2s. We had issues balancing those. Method wheels. Moving to the front of the van, we
02:11put a
02:12beefy bumper in the front to protect it from stuff on the road. You never know. It definitely helps
02:18protect the van from getting totaled if it ever hits anything. Fairlead winch from Flatline.
02:24Winch itself is 13,000 pounds from WARN and a Baja lights, fog lights to help see better on the
02:32road.
02:32The headlights on these aren't the best so these are essential as well. And as you can see that beefy
02:38flatline van skid plate to protect the intercooler, oil pan and all the goodies that you don't want to
02:44damage in the middle of nowhere. Moving on to this side, the client didn't get the window. That's an
02:49option. You can remove certain things out of this overlook build and subtract contract. There's over
02:54300 options so this thing is pretty custom even though it's a set build. You have the option to put
03:01the
03:01water fill port on the outside so you're not making a mess on the inside. You have the Line-X
03:07flare spaces to expand the width of your van. Transits aren't that wide so this is essential.
03:13This guy is actually taller. He could only fit in the Ford Transit so it's not the only reason he
03:18went
03:18with the Ford Transit but it's the best one for him. Then in the back we added the leaf springs
03:25from
03:25the Van Compass, the adjustable Falcon shocks, Sumo springs to prevent some of the swaying from the
03:30out of weight. And yeah you see the spare and some of the other goodies under there like the
03:3850 amp short plug. This thing can take 50 amps because it has the EcoFlow 5 kilowatt inverter charger
03:47in there. Next to that is the solar input so if you want to expand your solar array on the
03:52outside
03:52somewhere else that's not in the shade that you're parked in that's a great add-on. And then this back
03:59of the van looks freaking awesome because you have this rugged looking box from FVC as well. You can
04:06attach little things all over like the shovel and other items. It's locked right now but this top little
04:13basket here I would typically use this for bringing firewood you know just make sure you're not bringing
04:20some endangered species or any diseased firewood to your local forest. You can add more things up
04:28there. This is a nice tire carrier ladder combo. You might as well get both. You could still climb up
04:33over the tire. Still mount things. Let's climb on up actually check out our camel rack.
04:43As you see we mainly only use camel racks and it's pretty obvious they're the most well engineered
04:52over engineered roof racks because you know why not better to over engineer. This is a very solid roof
04:59rack it structurally reinforces the entire van more than the van itself comes with. A lot of all the holes
05:07were designed around strapping everything down these panels are super solid they're from custom marine
05:13products you can walk on them put the chairs on them they're the best only walkable panels on the
05:21market so we like them they work and they're solid also we paired this with the 360 degree lighting
05:29package in the front we have a 50 inch led bar on the sides we have a bunch of these
05:35six inch led bars
05:37uh because the transits racks the way that they're designed uh so it can kind of bring light right
05:44to the outside here and right now this roof rack is actually pretty hot you do have the option to
05:49get
05:49the gray that's the cool to touch option on this roof rack it makes it 20 degrees cooler and then
05:56the
05:57Dometic air conditioner 12 volt air conditioner you have the option to get the new v3 v-lit air conditioner
06:03that has the venting option also behind that you have the star link this guy's going to be
06:10all over the place who knows where he's going to end up he doesn't even know where he's going to
06:13end
06:13up and i think that's the most exciting way to get into van life is no plan throw all your
06:19gear in
06:19your dog and just see where the wind takes you all right
06:34what else we got here oh nice beefy bumper in the rear uh has more grip than the original one
06:42all the
06:43sensors still work fine which is really important and the hitch below that as well it's reinforces
06:50the rear when you're backing into things which you probably will
06:56and this is the rear of our what started out as a skyline build is now the overlook build and
07:03the
07:03transit it somehow works even better on the transit because you get a little more space to play with
07:09you have more storage on the doors from van essential they are essential for vans and this is
07:17a beautiful panel the guys just created for this guy only first time and i think i fell in love
07:23with
07:23it because watching them laminate and create this bracket for the speaker system cutting the hole back
07:30there i was like watching artists paint the mona lisa it was it was fun to watch and it looks
07:36amazing
07:36not everyone can laminate like this l-tracks all over the place in the back here this is our garage
07:44area still huge plenty of space for storage he's gonna have a big dog crate here that he's gonna bring
07:49with him these l-tracks recessed and bolted into the floor he added this step which you can actually
07:55source from ford it's metal way better than the plastic stuff it comes with definitely recommend that
08:01uh as you see we carpet everything we don't leave any metal exposed or anything that looks unfinished
08:10um back here you have the shower this is a second place to shower in this van and it's out
08:15the back
08:15here this is my preferred method of showering but when it gets hairy outside you can shower inside if
08:21you need as you can see it's all nicely labeled our guys put in a ton of time to keep
08:25this nice and neat
08:26you can actually monitor this whole electrical system and fuse is blown through your phone
08:30anywhere on the earth moving up you have carport 12 volt usb c a gfi outlet so when you're showering
08:39out the back of your van you don't trip anything or hurt yourself while you're listening to music
08:45and showering out back like this setup is just freaking perfect this is a button to control your garage
08:53lights we call this area our garage because it's huge we have venting nicely cnc finished sealed
09:01throughout the van as you see we don't do any exposed edge banding exposed wood that's not sealed
09:09there's actually a little bit of space in here these batteries don't have exposed terminals so you can
09:14store things in here without any issues this system has five-year warranty so it's a very reliable
09:22system they actually stand beyond their product and here you see some of our spaghetti it's nicely
09:28organized and everything is neatly tight and labeled for any builder or owner to navigate through
09:37moving over to our water side of the cabinet this big cabinet is actually the bed and water system
09:44this is the new gen 3 dueto 110 volt and 12 volt water heater heats it up really quick and
09:51you can
09:52winterize it without using an air compressor big over the wheel well tank with the heating pad keep this
09:58stuff from freezing in the winter and that's a nice little flow jet water pump you can pop that thing
10:04in
10:05out really easily with no tools and replace it if you ever do freeze your system uh let me get
10:12out of
10:13here and show you on this side of the van you have the beautiful trusty fiamma f45s awning manual crank
10:24so you don't have to worry about the headaches of the automatic one nice little led strip recessed into
10:29there to light up your area too not too bright so it wakes up your neighbors uh here i'm gonna
10:35have to
10:35do a patrick and take off my shoes and hop in with the with the socks so you can hop
10:45on in
10:47and see our overlook layout is pretty open soon as you walk in even though this is a fairly tight
10:53small
10:54build 19 and a half feet this thing can park in regular parking spots you have a nice cockpit this
11:00transit drives really nice i prefer it over the sprinter where you're sitting up this drives more
11:06like a normal vehicle feels light light and nimble nimble uh has the plant and cup holder but switches
11:15for all your exterior add-ons air compressor and a new one is the radio uh you have a nice
11:22little cv
11:23radio to scream out for help when you're stuck in the middle of the woods and you have no service
11:29and your starlink is not working for some reason you have the s-bar heater below the seat where it's
11:34tucked out of the way and it sips on fuel out of your fuel tank you don't have to bring
11:38any propane
11:39or weird fuel sources with you to heat your van or use it above that we have a nice shelf
11:46overhead shelf
11:47that's made out of aluminum and this nice curtain that's insulated blacks out the whole van quickly
11:53if you want to just do a quick camp out quick and dirty drop it down and then you could
11:59do your
11:59business inside if you want to keep this area open you have insulated window covers from van essential
12:04that just magnetize in there all right so moving up to the ceiling we have the beautiful smelling cedar
12:12wood that we ripped down sanded stained for the client and trimmed all around the
12:18stuff in the ceiling and as you can see there's a little curve to the transits it is such a
12:23pain in
12:24the rear to build around the curves and the boron steel in transits as everyone knows this is a great
12:30way to make this work and still use all the space above the ceiling there's closed cell spray foam insulation
12:39that creates a good r value and the thermal gap between this ceiling and the foam creates a good u
12:45value making this probably one of the most insulated possible cans of metal on the road and then you
12:53have this lamont's fan which is a really low profile fan that allows us to build over it with solar
12:58panels
12:59and decking so you can hang out on the roof and then sliding to the back of the van you
13:03have what you're
13:05seeing is the dometic air conditioner rtx 2000 that thing is quiet runs great we never had issues dometic
13:11stands behind their product so that's why we use all their stuff you have a nice little lagoon table
13:19that you can use to hang out with up to four people in this van and still not feel crammed
13:24you have
13:27these nice cushions that can handle a lot of abuse and this dry flush toilet is hidden in here
13:34usually it's hidden underneath the fridge in this build but this guy deducted the bench seat that
13:40folds down into a bed here with the seat belts and put in this bench that is more permanent he
13:45didn't
13:46need to bring any passengers you can always add that on in the future so it's not a big deal
13:51and then
13:53this side has just a ton of storage and then behind this panel you might be wondering what it is
13:59that's
14:00just the amp for the upgraded sound system it's nice and out of the way
14:06moving up you have this beautiful cabinet that is scribed into the curve of the ford transit that is
14:13that we're such a fan of uh build around all the stuff everything's nice and closed in
14:18making these cabinets super structural as you can see everything is edge banded all the wood
14:24is pre-finished and here we'll this is the shower curtain we'll get into that in a second
14:32move over here there's also outlets throughout the van
14:36quick note usb a and c as well as 110 outlets throughout the van
14:44moving over to the kitchen as you can see we have a huge thinscape
14:48countertop we're talking over 10 feet of counter space when you have the bed up
14:53you have a nice cutting board that pops out big stainless steel sink that's deep you can do plenty
14:59of your dishes uh this is just a place that i just throw the stuff into before i get going
15:05on the van
15:05and then if you don't have enough counter space and you need to cook your cooktop pops out right here
15:11this is induction cooktop one of the best ways to cook in your van you have plenty of battery to
15:15do so
15:15you can also get a cutting board on top of that which extends your counter space below
15:22everyone pushes this this is a false face because of that cooktop below that you have huge drawers
15:30that are pushed to open you don't have any bulky hardware to deal with and everything is nicely
15:36pre-finished nice drawer slides they're marine grade they hold up really well we've abused them and used
15:42them for many years and they work great this is a little controller for the water heater that v3 110
15:50volt water heater so you can set your temp always need a little trash can at least a little one
15:55in
15:55van and then a ton of storage in here too to hide stuff quick easy access to your water drop
16:01filter
16:02and yeah below that you have even more storage which is pretty impressive and such a well-equipped
16:10build this is why they called our skyline overlook build like the swiss army of builds because everything
16:17like folds out when you need it it goes away when you don't moving up above the sliding door this
16:22client chose to have his picture frame that's live action uh so he's selling all his things like i
16:29said he wants to bring some of his home with him that's why these builds these people go with our
16:34builds
16:35uh you know i feel like they represent your house pretty well because this is you know you're looking
16:41at similar controls you would at your house um regular outlets would be nice to have these at your
16:47house 110 volt uh it's not looking too crowded like some of these uh bills you see they look like
16:53airplane cockpits with all these uh complicated controls all that is kind of tucked in right here
16:59neatly on the upper cabinet you have your s-bar controller which you just simply set it to like
17:0565 degrees and forget it you have your waggle monitor showing 95 degrees in here me and patrick are
17:13just cooking inside and then here you see the ecoflow control panel super easy input output like you can
17:20monitor all this control this on your phone very easy for the clients to use 10 kilowatts in this system
17:26itself uh there's up to four different ways to charge it uh yeah we love the ecoflow systems they're
17:33great you can also upgrade to the victron if you like to geek out uh like some of our electricians
17:38and go in the victron three-in-one air fryer microwave great thing to have with you nice big
17:47dometic fridge uh it can run on 110 volt or 12 it's only a 12-volt compressor so just run
17:53it on the 12-volt
17:54vents through up here and has a lot of different options it's really quiet and really efficient below
18:02that we have massive drawers this van has even more storage than the sprinter version of this van
18:08of this layout because you get almost a whole foot more space to play with like
18:15this thing is massive and it's a nice huge step you have so much storage below it really solid not
18:21going
18:22anywhere and then moving up the floor as you can see our famous shower pan this thing got millions of
18:30views on youtube and because it's so great it just pops up when you need it you have the magnetic
18:37shower
18:37curtain when you need to shower inside magnetizes into the north south magnets into the ceiling
18:49boom boom this and then shower up there's magnets on the bottom of the shower pan
18:56and you're done the shower pan is powder coated made by our fabricating shop and it's stainless steel so
19:05it doesn't rust or anything uh and then the shower head itself actually sits right here
19:13it pops in right there you do on off and do your business you know you're showering pretty quick
19:20usually and that shower head connects to your faucet over here so that you just set your temperature that
19:26you want and shower up then your nice grain matched floor goes right into here your floor while we're
19:35down here is actually made out of the lawn seal material it's super solid and durable we build it
19:40with insulation out of six pieces and glue it all up out of the van it comes in as one
19:46piece so it allows the
19:47van functionality of the factory floor to breathe and that makes it last a lot longer too
19:54but yeah waterproof flooring so you're not worried all the cabinets are sealed
19:58we've tested our chauvin the sprinter it's been absolutely drenched in water many times and all
20:04the cabinets are still perfectly fine moving into our nice little working area here if you'd like it
20:11that way there's a nice recessed led as well as a nice recessed led on this upper cabinet this kind
20:18of
20:18become our signature uh design and you see some builders are starting to use a bit of it too and
20:24i think it just looks great uh this has a nice window it's so hard to open if it hasn't
20:31been open in a
20:32while and the buck screen uh these upper cabinets have the rounded corners as we found out you do not
20:42want sharp corners plenty of storage in these upper cabinets we actually had to shrink this one because
20:49when you're working on the countertop here it would be a little bit more in your face so
20:54this is the only one that really shrinks we still have plenty of storage here
21:00and then moving over to this side you have this beautiful bed dinette murphy bed system
21:06it's all enclosed looks like a closet this is why it's like a swiss army knife it opens up when
21:12you need
21:12it as you see there's a little fan but real quick you just extended your counter space into
21:18this massive l-shaped counter to like enjoy this beautiful view work do some stocks whatever you
21:25need and then you have this platform that folds down if you want to go full bed mode of course
21:32if you're
21:33a single person you can chop this mattress in half and only use that side if you want to have
21:39the rest of
21:39the space this mattress slides out fits in like a glove comes here smack it down once you throw your
21:49sheets that are usually stored right in this little cavity here with the pillows you don't even feel
21:54these seams this mattress is super comfortable we get really good reviews on it and you have a nice nook
21:59to hang out in here you can do a little shelf for bookshelves you have reading lights for the books
22:05charger on the bottom of them that nice little 12 volt fan moves good air around and of course you
22:11have your air conditioner right above you so on a hot blizzarding day like today you can actually stay
22:17nice and cold where you're running that day on eco mode which on eco mode you can run that thing
22:21for
22:22days and not really have the stress of having battery anxiety we call it roman i love the evolution of
22:30your products i think we've been filming together for five years now it's amazing to see from like
22:35start to like where you evolved in super high-end interiors really nice components and equipment
22:41very well thought out layouts and the production process has been refined so the quality is really
22:48top-notch i love the versatility of this floor plan i love the fact that you have options for sleeping
22:55for
22:55one it's like a murphy bed right so it's not a bed that's in your way all the time yep
23:00i always have
23:01a hard time figuring out where to put my sheets and pillows when i'm done sleeping that little nook
23:06back there that takes care of that and i think there's you know on that side the water side isn't
23:11there one cabinet left for like storage that yeah invented one yeah have a little bit additional storage
23:16plenty of storage right there too and then there's a base fan and then there's vans with upgrades
23:21right so someone yeah didn't want to go full boat they don't have to get all that exterior stuff they
23:26could really keep the price down initially yeah and then grow into it they could add the lights they
23:31could add the racks they could add all that stuff yeah so take us through like base van like what
23:36does
23:36it come with and then what are some of the upgrades that this one has uh this one has quite
23:41a bit
23:42upgrades uh you could definitely be at like i think with the van because we could source the van for
23:46you like
23:47around 150 for this van and the build but this van had the upgraded shower pan the upgraded heater
23:54fan you know all the roof rack uh upgrades up there it does come with the roof rack uh but
24:00the roof
24:01decking solar panel like there's the list goes on and on and you can still keep going on and on
24:05but the beauty is like you were saying our builds are starting to become pretty modular even on the inside
24:10like everything's bolted into the frame there's no self-tappers going into anything everything is
24:16can be popped off moved around changed around like this bench for example and uh upgraded down
24:22the road exterior wise that's always a thing that people come back for like things are always
24:27upgrading air conditioner starlink so that stuff can always be out yeah i noticed you have a lot of
24:31customers come back for upgrades later on yeah as they grow into it oh now i want to get those
24:36rims and
24:36tires and that suspension upgrade and that's good that your vans are flexible that you could grow into them
24:41i will make sure i put a link in the description so our viewers could click over to your website
24:46to
24:47see one of these how to build it pricing how to contact you and i appreciate you coming out
24:53meeting us out here in this beautiful piece of land wildlife management area yeah in new jersey it's
24:58only place where you can really drive on dirt roads it's like our blm lands here yeah besides the pine
25:04barns which is all sugar sand which you could get stuck pretty easily yeah it gets hairy i'll see
25:09you folks on the next one thank you all right see you guys thank you