- 37 minutes ago
Built on a Ford Transit 148 Extended chassis, this custom camper van walkthrough follows Chris and the Sequoia and Salt team as they reveal the “Super Lounger” in Manasquan, New Jersey. The big idea is simple: prioritize the interior where life actually happens, with a dual-lounge Murphy bed layout, a spacious feel, and an off-grid power system built for real travel.
Inside, the build features white Starboard walls CNC-cut for a clean finish, whitewashed bamboo trim, ceiling and under-cabinet L-track, and cabinetry with Blum undermount slides. The galley includes an Isotherm 130 refrigerator, deep sink, Contour microwave, and a Wanderer filtered drinking water system, while the rear lounge converts into a drop-down Murphy bed and seating area.
The van also highlights a 920Ah heated lithium battery bank, dual 50A DC-DC chargers, a Victron 3000W inverter, solar, and Aqua-Hot hydronic heat. This is a detailed van build tour, Ford Transit camper conversion, and off-grid vanlife layout review for anyone researching custom camper vans, Murphy bed van layouts, and practical RV interior design.
Ideal for searches like Ford Transit camper van, custom van build, van tour, off-grid vanlife, Murphy bed camper layout, and Sequoia and Salt camper vans. A useful watch for van conversion ideas, interior layout planning, and anyone comparing high-end camper van electrical systems and space-saving designs.
Inside, the build features white Starboard walls CNC-cut for a clean finish, whitewashed bamboo trim, ceiling and under-cabinet L-track, and cabinetry with Blum undermount slides. The galley includes an Isotherm 130 refrigerator, deep sink, Contour microwave, and a Wanderer filtered drinking water system, while the rear lounge converts into a drop-down Murphy bed and seating area.
The van also highlights a 920Ah heated lithium battery bank, dual 50A DC-DC chargers, a Victron 3000W inverter, solar, and Aqua-Hot hydronic heat. This is a detailed van build tour, Ford Transit camper conversion, and off-grid vanlife layout review for anyone researching custom camper vans, Murphy bed van layouts, and practical RV interior design.
Ideal for searches like Ford Transit camper van, custom van build, van tour, off-grid vanlife, Murphy bed camper layout, and Sequoia and Salt camper vans. A useful watch for van conversion ideas, interior layout planning, and anyone comparing high-end camper van electrical systems and space-saving designs.
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TravelTranscript
00:00We're here to support our customers' dreams, and I think that this van came out really awesome.
00:05It's very light, it's airy, it feels big, and I think that's really important.
00:10They focused on the inside. This is what was in their budget, and that's what we went with.
00:14Hello, welcome back to the show. I'm Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.
00:19Back here in Manusquan, New Jersey, I met up with Chris with Sequoia and Salt.
00:23He's going to give us a tour of his latest creation on the Ford Transit 4x4, so join us.
00:29What's up, Patrick? Chris here from Sequoia and Salt Camper Vans.
00:31Thanks for filming us on another awesome video tour of a brand new van.
00:36This one's called the Super Lounger.
00:39Shh, we just came up with that name like two seconds ago.
00:42All right, so it is a Ford Transit 148 extended wheelbase.
00:47We sent it out to Quigley to do a Q-lift on it, so that gives it a nice lift.
00:52It gets it up to the height as what you see in the Mercedes Sprinter vans.
00:57It, you know, has all the bells and whistles that Ford Transits have on them.
01:03This has the LED Bi-Xenon HID lenses.
01:07These are probably best of the best right there, okay?
01:11So let's walk around the side here.
01:14You'll see that we have a nice bump-out window here, a little Safari window.
01:19It has integrated screen, integrated blackout shade.
01:21On the roof, we have a Dometic RTX 2000, 400 watts of solar.
01:28As we walk to the back of the van, you'll see that we have our shore power port.
01:34Above that, we have another Safari-style window that is in the bed area.
01:40On the rear of the bed, we have our diverter valve, spray port.
01:46This is for exterior shower and our water pump.
01:49On the driver's side rear lounge or bed, you'll see that we have our fuse block.
01:58Fuse block, cool.
02:00It's got all the stuff in there, good stuff.
02:05Water fill.
02:08See that water fill right there?
02:10And then we have an exterior outlet.
02:15On this side of the van, the passenger rear, the customer wanted to have a sliding window
02:20and not a tip-out window, so we put one of those in here.
02:23All right, so let's go inside.
02:26Every single one of our vans, most of them, you'll see, we have the drop-down table.
02:29So we added that nice, strong, heavy-duty magnets.
02:33That's what holds the table in the up position.
02:36It doesn't rattle when they drive, which is awesome.
02:38You'll see the port on the rear of the passenger-side galley.
02:43This is for the refrigerator.
02:45When we enter, you'll see that.
02:46We went with the woven flooring.
02:50This is from Two-Tec-Two and obviously stainless trim.
02:55As you come into the cabin, we have our two swivel seats.
03:00Can you see that, Patrick?
03:02Right above the swivel seats, added a headliner shelf.
03:06This is great.
03:06We were blessed to have a headliner shelf.
03:08It made this really easy to install because the customer's van came with this headliner section here.
03:15We went with a, this is the Go Code interior trim kit.
03:21Nice and finished.
03:23We love those dudes.
03:24They make some solid products.
03:26Okay, what else can we jump into?
03:29Let's go with the lounge.
03:30So we have a lagoon table.
03:32Cool.
03:33And underneath the lagoon table, the toilet.
03:41I'm going to stop right now and I'm going to tell you this.
03:46The customer actually didn't want a toilet.
03:48And Patrick, who's holding this camera right now, was like, Chris, they're going to want to see a toilet.
03:52So I just threw a toilet in there for you guys, for Patrick.
03:55People lose their minds if they don't see a toilet.
03:56If they don't see a toilet, they go crazy.
03:58All right.
03:59So behind this, we have just a nice large storage area.
04:05And this customer wanted this entire section to be able to slide out.
04:09So this becomes a nice bed.
04:12Hey, Chris, where's the cushion?
04:13Well, that's a good question.
04:15The cushion and the bedding, the customer is supplying themselves.
04:20So they decided that they didn't want to, they didn't want to use our cushions.
04:23I think our cushions are really good, but they're like, no, they want their own.
04:27And that's fine.
04:27It's cool.
04:28If you get this van, you also can supply your own cushions.
04:34This is that awesome tip-out window.
04:39Nice.
04:41Blackout shade integrated.
04:43Screen integrated.
04:45And you can see our bamboo trim and trim ring in the inside.
04:50So we use the bamboo accents.
04:52You see this in a lot of our vans.
04:54What we've been doing lately that's been kind of cool is we take these, we take the bamboo and we
04:58sort of whitewash it.
05:00It almost, what am I trying to say?
05:03What's the type of wood?
05:04We did it in one of the vans, but whitewashing the wood looks really nice.
05:07So we went ahead and whitewashed this wood.
05:09And then in the ceiling where you see the seams of all the, you know, this is what, four panels
05:15or three panels here.
05:16So you'd see a seam here and a seam here.
05:18And what we did is we added nice L-track to the ceiling, great having extra storage and stuff to
05:24mount things to is, you know, the best.
05:27The walls we went with a, what did we use?
05:30We use starboard is the product that we use to make our shiplap.
05:36And this customer did not want to have the shiplap look, but they want to have the white walls.
05:40So we went ahead and we, we built them the white walls.
05:42We cut it all on CNC.
05:46Upper cabinets.
05:47Let's do upper cabinets.
05:48Let's do upper cabinets.
05:50Nice big upper cabinets.
05:53We added a outlet in the top upper cabinet.
05:56These are our new style of cabinet.
06:00If you see it, it's like an inset look.
06:02Looks really good.
06:04And they have nice locks.
06:06This customer did not want to go with our leather.
06:08They went with our nice push locks and nice and sturdy.
06:12And while we're on this side, we might as well touch this side.
06:14I'm going to open all these up.
06:19So a ton of upper storage inside of this van.
06:23This is our power display right here, our Victron energy system.
06:28So the power system inside of this van, customer went with a 920 amp hour lithium battery system.
06:36And that was Epoch batteries.
06:41And then those are great.
06:42They have heated cores and they're, they have Bluetooth connectability.
06:46And then also they went with a Victron energy 3000 watt inverter, two DC to DC chargers, 250 DC to
06:55DC chargers.
06:55They have a dual alternator inside of this van.
06:57And we have the Victron MPPT.
07:01So it's a nice robust system.
07:03We do this a lot in our vans.
07:04A lot of our customers want it.
07:05Okay.
07:06And if I look down, if you look down below here, we have the upper cutoff lights.
07:10So this is the main light other than the upper lights that you get at the front door, you'll see
07:15that we have these lights, which are great.
07:17So we added, we're, we're trying to cut our lights even more.
07:20So you have lights from the floor right here, lights under the cabinet, lights above the cabinets.
07:27That's all controlled from this switch right here.
07:30And at nighttime, instead of just shutting off all your lights like this, you can keep just the bottom lights
07:38on.
07:39So it cuts off under the cabinets and above the cabinets, but just keeps the footlight on.
07:42So if you plan on using the toilet, then that's what you would use.
07:47Okay.
07:47You got your gray dump right here.
07:49That's automatic switch.
07:50And I'm going to close these up and we're going to keep on moving.
07:53So this is the inside Dometic RTX 2000 with a nice bamboo trim ring.
07:59We went with a, I think it's called solid surface is the countertop material.
08:05I guess it's not good to say, I think, but we use so many darn materials
08:08when we build these campers.
08:09So I'm going to say this is a solid surface.
08:12It's nice and thin and durable.
08:14We added two showers in this van.
08:17So this is from Tetravan.
08:19This is the mixing valve and then the quick connection port for the shower.
08:22The customer plans on bringing like, they make these like portable, like portable dog baths.
08:29And so we'll install like a little port on the floor that they'll be able to run the hose straight
08:34down.
08:34It's a quick, quick, easy shower if you want to have it, but they're not sure if they're going to
08:38really use that.
08:39So that's why we added a second shower port.
08:41This is the ISO Therm 130.
08:46That is a freaking massive refrigerator.
08:50Do you see this?
08:51It goes from like the floor all the way up here.
08:53It is, it's a big refrigerator guys.
08:58Underneath our sink.
08:59You'll see that customer, nice deep sink.
09:01We add this in every single van and the customer added a clean water drinking faucet.
09:11So that I believe is, this is called, yeah, the Wanderer.
09:14So it's a great system.
09:15So you can drink the water that's in your tank.
09:17They have a 35 gallon tank.
09:22Okay.
09:24Behind here with that extra storage space, we just made them some nice cubby shelves.
09:30On the driver's side.
09:34Would you look at that?
09:36It's beautiful.
09:36It's beautiful.
09:37It's just a work of art.
09:41Contour microwave.
09:43One of the things you actually probably won't notice, but I'm pointing it out, for, it honestly is not a
09:49big deal.
09:51Most people, when we're designing these, everyone wants everything to be symmetrical.
09:55These cabinets have to be at the same height as this cabinet.
09:57That's just kind of how it works.
09:59Inside of the RV market, I feel like we break a lot of rules.
10:03And one of the rules that we broke here is this cabinet is lower than this cabinet.
10:07And at the end of the day, it is not going to ruin your trip or ruin your night.
10:13I just think it's interesting because this customer did not want to have us put this in the upper cabinet.
10:18We went ahead and put this in this cabinet here, which gave them extra space.
10:22And now they have more space.
10:29Nice drawer.
10:31Dovetail drawers.
10:33Multiply finished cabinets.
10:35Hard laminate exteriors.
10:37Another drawer right here.
10:39Bigger drawer.
10:40Undermount slides.
10:42I think the company's called Bloom.
10:46We went with a C-Deck top.
10:49This is a 500-pound track sliders.
10:51And we added a drawer underneath it.
10:54Makes it nice and easy for them to get in the bed.
10:57Okay.
10:58So we have some outlets.
11:01We added a 12-volt USB outlet on the side.
11:07Our geo...
11:09No, these are just regular outlets.
11:10It's not GFCIs, but just regular outlets with the USB ports installed on them.
11:15We have an AquaHot system.
11:17This is the hot water heat inside of this cabin.
11:22That's all through AquaHot.
11:24But before I get to the bed, I wanted to kind of just show you the guts of our system
11:29right now.
11:30So on the passenger side, we added these nice little pop-outs.
11:35That sounds great.
11:36You just tip it.
11:38Okay.
11:40So give you a nice view here.
11:45The idea is that this is not going to be pulled out a lot, right?
11:49Like you should never have to pull this out.
11:51What we have, you can view your water from your monitor in your cabinet.
11:55This is a 35-gallon water tank.
11:59And we like to add...
12:02So we've been looking into like getting custom water tanks made now because a lot of our vans are custom.
12:08And so it's been a challenge to try to find a universal tank.
12:11So this one is one of those and we added a nice port on the top of it so that
12:16you can drop in there.
12:17And you can clean this tank after a while.
12:19Everything in an RV is going to need maintenance at some point.
12:21So you can either bring it to us or you can do it yourself at home.
12:24And this allows you to, if you want to really, really winterize this thing,
12:28you can open this up and take a wet vac and suck all of the water out of the tank
12:32so that there's no water sitting down there at all.
12:34This is the Aquahot 125D.
12:38This is one of the two kicks that are in the van for the heat underneath.
12:41This one's obviously underneath the bed.
12:43And you see how we, when we design these, we want to make it in a way that a customer
12:48can visualize how it works.
12:51All this stuff looks crazy to a customer at first.
12:54But if you sit here and you kind of watch how the water goes into the tank and how the
12:58water comes out of the tank,
13:00this is past, this is right here, our blow-off valve for winterizing in between uses.
13:07So if the customer is only going to go for a weekend, they can come out and they can blow
13:10all their lines super easy right here.
13:13Do we want to move on? Let's move on.
13:15And then also appreciate the L-Track with the LED strip underneath it.
13:23Guys, what's going on? It's a quinn saw.
13:26I think, I think we're just getting better and better and better.
13:30So, um, above this section here, customer wanted some like hidden cabinets, um, for belongings.
13:38So underneath their mattress, you need, you can't just like grab it.
13:42So what we did was we made it pretty basic, put the magnet on it, opens it up.
13:50And like, if you feel it, there's not a section over here.
13:53Oh, oh, don't break it, Chris.
13:57Cool.
13:58Um, they have one of the Sirocco 2 fans.
14:02These are great 12-volt fans.
14:04Again, this is our bamboo trim beauty sliding window.
14:10Okay, on this side, I'm just going to pull the entire thing open just to make it easier.
14:15So right here is a, well, there you go.
14:19So this is extra space.
14:21When we designed this cabinet, we saw that there was some extra space here.
14:25Um, this is a wheel well down there, so we're not going to utilize that space, but we wanted
14:29to give them some extra storage.
14:30Any added storage is such a, is such a plus inside of these fans.
14:35All right, cool.
14:38Cool, cool, cool.
14:39All right, cool.
14:41So this is our power system.
14:45This is, uh, Epoch 460, 460, so 920.
14:49And above that, we have our Victron 3000 inverter.
14:53Look at how dialed in clean this power system is.
14:57Our guys are like, they're artists.
15:00It's, it's amazing.
15:01So this fan right here, um, we started doing this and developed this like cool little concept
15:07that when you turn on the inverter, we have a special port on the bottom of the vehicle
15:11and it sucks all that heat out of the vehicle.
15:14Some people, we even, we put vents on the fronts of cabinets.
15:17Some people want to have vents in there.
15:19We still do that.
15:20But realistically, if you have a cabinet like this, you want to pull all that air from
15:24the cabinet instead of expecting it to just vent out, suck all that hot air out.
15:29It's going to make everything work a lot better.
15:32All right.
15:33And so this is our two 50 amp DC DC chargers, our MPPT and our Serbo.
15:39This is basically the brain of a Victron system that is going to send all that information
15:44to that seven inch display in that top screen.
15:47This one right here.
15:51So this is, and then we have our monitor here.
15:54This is what's monitoring our freshwater.
15:56And then our gray water tank underneath the vehicle clearly has no water in it.
16:00And if we wanted to dump anything here, we just have to click the gray dump system is
16:04super intuitive.
16:06All right.
16:07Moving on.
16:10I love that Patrick helps me.
16:12He helps me while he's filming.
16:14He's such a gentleman.
16:16Patrick, you're such a gentleman.
16:21Cool.
16:22All right.
16:23And he's breaking things.
16:26Golly.
16:27All right.
16:27So now let's talk about the bed.
16:29The bed was, this is a really interesting piece we made here.
16:33This is a custom bed.
16:34The customer wanted to have a Murphy bed that did all sorts of different moves, which was
16:41designed from a scratch piece of paper to 3D to CNC.
16:45And then we tested the crap out of it before we actually brought this thing to life.
16:49So a lot of this was just never invented.
16:52So we had to make our own version of it.
16:54So we added some pistons on the side here.
16:57All right.
16:59And so now when you give it a nice little pull, easily it drops down.
17:05All right.
17:06So it locks in the top position.
17:07It also locks in the bottom position.
17:09So when you're driving, it locks down.
17:13So what's really cool about this bed is I'm going to climb up on here.
17:18The customer wanted to have a bed that would be a Murphy bed, but then also if they were
17:21hanging out in their van, it becomes a nice little lounge.
17:28Obviously there's no mattress on here, but if there was, you'd see how it worked with
17:31the mattress.
17:32And then on the opposite side, it does the same.
17:35So if they're sitting out, like we are in Manasquan in this awesome parking lot.
17:41They just want to sit out and look at the Navy, the Army base that's right next to us
17:47in Manasquan, and they go, wow, would you look at that?
17:51That is the hockey rink.
17:53Wow.
17:55There's a skate park too.
17:56Oh, there is a skate park.
17:57There's a skate park.
17:58Okay.
17:59I really appreciate you taking the time today to give us a tour of this van.
18:03I know it's not 100% complete and they're bringing their own mattress and cushion and
18:09window shades and a couple other things.
18:11But I think you did great.
18:12You got a fan up top there for ventilation.
18:15You got some reading lights over here.
18:17It's got all the Sequoia salt stuff.
18:20Yeah.
18:20But I really love the evolution of your cabinetry work on the vans.
18:25It's just getting better and better.
18:27Not that it was ever bad.
18:28Yeah.
18:29But it's just precision now.
18:30Yeah.
18:31It's really, really tight how it comes together.
18:33Yeah.
18:33But it's a nice clean van.
18:34You know, I do like the ship lap look that you normally do.
18:37But sometimes it's nice to just have it look like a home inside.
18:40I agree.
18:41And that's what the customer wanted too.
18:42They wanted just basic walls, white walls.
18:45And like we're not against it.
18:47We've done a lot with the ship lap.
18:48We've done a lot with pine.
18:49We've done all sorts of different finishes on the inside.
18:52But we're here to support our customers' dreams.
18:55And I think that this van came out really awesome.
18:58It's very light.
19:00It's airy.
19:01It feels big.
19:02And I think that's really important when we're designing something for a customer.
19:05And I made a mistake at the beginning of the video.
19:08Oh, no.
19:09Patrick.
19:09See, I threw me off as the Quigley sticker.
19:11It says Quigley 4x4.
19:14But this is not a four-wheel drive van.
19:16This is an all-wheel drive van.
19:17Yes, sir.
19:17Quigley lift on it.
19:18Yes.
19:19Because I don't see a shifter on the floor.
19:21Nope.
19:21It is not.
19:22I'm actually curious.
19:24I don't even know if Quigley does.
19:25Do they even do those anymore?
19:27They probably don't have the market for it.
19:29But before Ford did the all-wheel drive, yeah.
19:31That's where everyone brought their stuff.
19:33But yeah, so this customer just wanted to get the suspension upgrade.
19:37It's not like a ball-to-the-wall $20,000 suspension upgrade.
19:41It is really just to get this thing leveled up and to better handle the weight added to it.
19:49This is what you'd call more like a, I would say, like a driving package.
19:53Yeah, because you mentioned in other videos, like, you can start off big and get every single accessory that you
19:59could possibly get.
20:00Or you can start off small.
20:01Like, they don't have boxes on the back.
20:03They have steely rims.
20:04Yeah.
20:05They don't have an awning.
20:06No.
20:07No.
20:07Yeah, so, you know, they can add that stuff later if they want.
20:09But they have the core built.
20:11Yeah.
20:12This is a perfect customer that focused on the inside.
20:15They focused on the inside.
20:17This is what was in their budget, and that's what we went with.
20:20And when we have customers like that, I focus on telling them, I don't want you to get the stuff
20:27on the outside.
20:28As much as it's great for business, for us to add more stuff on the outside of the vehicle, I
20:32want you to be happy with what we have in the inside.
20:34And let's figure out a plan.
20:35Again, it's sometimes best to know going out on the road and knowing how you travel to decide what some
20:41of the additions you want on.
20:42And for them, it was like, you know what?
20:45This came with wheels and tires on it.
20:47Let's, like, use the wheels and tires until we beat them up a little bit, and then we can upgrade
20:51and get bigger wheels and tires.
20:53And there's nothing wrong with that.
20:55And I'll tell you, like, everybody travels differently and packs differently, and I have the box on the back of
21:00my van.
21:01And what do I have in there?
21:02A floor mat, some wheel chocks, a little fire pit.
21:06I have nothing in there.
21:07Patrick, don't tell them all the secrets.
21:10But I can store it.
21:11I can pack it better, is the point.
21:13I just don't utilize it.
21:14So, you know, as my travels change, I have it.
21:18I can always grow into it.
21:19Totally.
21:20Well, I'll put a link in the description to reviews.
21:23Go over to your website.
21:24This will be a collaboration video, so you'll see the link to Sequoia and Salt if you guys want to
21:29subscribe.
21:30And I'll see you guys in the next one.
21:36Weeah!
21:40Oh, damn, got it!