Convert Your Minivan: Adventure Awaits With These Simple Tips!
How can you have it all? If you know how to convert your family van into a camper van, you can have a great daily ride and the right adventure vehicle.
Spending every night during your adventures in a hotel can become expensive. If you want to take your family on the road and enjoy exploring the country during the summer months, you’ll want to convert your family minivan into a camper that can be the ideal vehicle for all the stuff you need. You don’t need a large conversion van or cargo van to have the camper that you want to enjoy when it’s time for a fun night in the wilderness. All you need is a little creativity and a few tips.
Get the bedding right
Staying at campgrounds is much cheaper than spending the night at hotels. That said, the first thing you need to do to have a camper that works for your entire family is to create the bedding that will make them comfortable. In order to make room for a family of five or more in a minivan, you need to utilize the vertical space. There’s enough room for cots that work like bunk beds in most minivans.
What about pillows and blankets?
Blankets and pillows from your own bed can be fine, but you might enjoy using sleeping bags much more than bringing blankets along. Some sleeping bags pack down to a very small size to make them convenient to carry along. Even if it’s cold outside, when five of you are breathing and sleeping in a small space together all night long, you’ll stay pretty warm.
How will you organize the storage space?
Whether you sleep in your converted camper van or not, you need a place to put everything that you’ll carry along with you. Yes, you could tow a small trailer or load up the roof with a luggage carrier and plenty of gear, but the rear of your van can be a great storage space as well. Once again, focus on going taller with storage totes that can stack on top of each other. If you have a trailer, make sure the stuff you put in your van are the essentials you might need while driving.
Cooking is an essential part of your adventures
Unless you plan on visiting restaurants for every meal, you’ll want to figure out how you can cook while on the road. If you know that you’ll spend time at a campground, it’s easy to bring propane cookstoves, propane lanterns, and some cooking items to make a meal over a hot stove at your campground. During clear days, you can have a fire and cook over that fire to enjoy a wonderful meal that you can’t get at home.
Can you make your van dark?
Not all vans have sunshades, and these shades only cover some of the windows to block a little of the light. If you want to ensure your family sleeps in and enjoys a peaceful night, cover the windows with foam sheets that can be taken down in the morning. These foam sheets can block out the light and keep your family quiet and dark for as long as you want. This is a great way to keep the light out and enjoy the calm of a dark vehicle while sleeping.
Where will you go number two?
We all poop, and part of converting your minivan into a camper van is to make sure you and your family have a place to go to the bathroom. Some people bring a shovel and bury it, but others prefer something that looks like an actual bathroom. You can pack a camping toilet and have something that looks like the real thing when you’re off the grid with your family. Most campgrounds have actual bathrooms, but not all of them.
Let the night air in
You can’t close up all the windows and doors, especially when it’s summer and you’ve got five or more people packed into your van all night long. Turn your van into a makeshift tent by using some screens attached to magnets or Velcro to cover open windows and keep bugs out. This is a great way to let the night air into your vehicle so that you can enjoy it. You don’t have to cover all the windows to have it dark, just those that face East, where the sun rises.
These are only a few tips to turn your family minivan into a camper van without losing the ability to use the vehicle for your daily needs.