Budget Van Conversion | Chevy Express Camper Van
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- Check out my GMC Savana/ Chevy Express camper van budget build that I just finished up! Not including the price of the van, I was able to build the interior of this van for less than $5,000. It's a fully capable 4 seasons camper van that I've stayed in while it was -18 degrees outside. If you have any questions, feel free to comment them below or message me on instagram, "Taylorvanbeeek"
I built my Chevy Express passenger van, but it doesn't look as good as yours because I am not good at woodwork and cutting. But overall, it's comfortable for me because it goes with my flow. It feels good to enjoy our own build. You should be so proud.
Oh yeah it's so much better building your own van! Then you know how to fix it too if anything breaks.
Nice job Taylor! What an informative video as well. I can vouch for you for sure because I got to stay in with you in it for 6 days. Very comfortable and quite ride with the wood work you've done in it. Keep up the great work!
You did an amazing job!! I'm so impressed!! I'm a girl so I need a porta potty and a sink. Lol. That fan is absolutely amazing and the wood looks great. I love the way you talk to your dog like she's the most important thing in the world. It is just so cute!! Shows you're a good person and I wish you all the best. Hope your mom is doing well.
Thank you!
Simple, stylish and stealthy! Awesome job!
Thank you! 😊
Nice work, the van looks like a beast.
Noooice. I'm glad you went ahead and did all that. I went ahead and got some ideas from you.
i went ahead and laughed at your comment, thanks
17k is a steal for what you have. Amazing.
Thank you! It was a fun project to build for sure!
The lift and wheels look 🔥🔥
Wish you the best, be safe out there, bro!
Very cool. Looking forward to more content!
I just came across this video, very sharp looking ride, a great and practical job on the interior, good to see that you kept the rear hvac and worked around it for your design, anything to help cool or heat your vehicle while running i think is a bonus, nice video :)
Thanks!
Good to see you again my friend... Happy New Year...
Happy new year!
Looks great inside and you did a great job on the woodwork.
Thank you! First time building something this in depth!
Love the Dog! True Man! Good Job, Bro! 💯
Thanks 💯
Nice build! Love your new set up and wow it didn't cost a ton to do it. Looks like I have some videos to watch and catch up on. 🙂
very cool design brotha
Great job! Hope you're doing good out there on the road - maybe we'll cross paths soon!
Thanks and for sure! That'd be awesome
Looks great man
Awesome job!!!
Thank you!
Your baby is so precious! We used everstart batteries when we first built our bus, and they worked just fine. A lot of people think you need to spend a lot of money on fancy batteries when doing a build, but those batteries work just fine for all your basic needs. We've been living in it for over 3 years now, and we've since been able to upgrade to lithium. Should you decide to upgrade someday, I highly recommended Big Batteries. They sell 170 amp batteries for about 900 dollars where battle born batteries arr 100 amp for the same price. Everybody gets battle born, and there are so many other options that are a lot more affordable and still excellent quality. Have fun on your adventures with your precious baby, and be safe!
Thank you! I'll definitely check out some nicer batteries once these hit the bucket
@TaylorVanBeek just make sure you don't totally drain them, or you'll kill them, but you may already know that. We did that a couple of times. Luckily, it still fell under the one year warranty, so we just took them back to Walmart and got a replacement. For what you need to power up, the battery bank you have is definitely enough We're running appliances like a microwave and an air conditioner so when we finally had enough we invested a lot in our solar system. You have a great setup.
Nice Job!
By the way, a very beautiful design. What's nice about this van is, it's not too big, so it's easy to move around.
Sweet van! Love your set up and woodwork. I have a 2005 3500 15 passenger and love it! I must say though, 5000 smackaronies seems far from a "budget build", at least for my budget lol "married with 3 kiddos",, so far I've come up with a removable camp set up for roughly 700-800 bucks just because I need to use the van for other purposes. If I was to do a permanent build, yours is an awesome example of what I would want to do, besides a Quigley 4x, winch bumpers, and a high-top of course, if I hit a JACKPOT ha ha, thanks for the video and information! Nice work! Keep up the sheVANigans!
Yeah I guess I meant budget in the sense of a full 4 seasons camper van that's a permanent build haha I've camped in this van in -18 degree weather. And it's got every amenity needed for full time living other than a shower. But I'd love to have a quigley conversion! I'd like to do bumpers on mine also! If this wasn't my daily driver, I'd do a high roof
@@TaylorVanBeek your van is absolutely beautiful bro, I'm not to savy on material pricing thats for sure lol, everything is getting expensive and 5 g isn't a bad price compared to many other builds, and yours looks great man! Probably the coolest clean express I've seen, I dream of Quigley, winch bumpers, and high tops at night bahahaha 😂 not too sure about a high top in the Washington cascades though, seems they get in the way and can grow leaks from the backwood bumpy roads...
Very nice and practical
Thanks!
Great job
Thank you!
Fantastic
Thats an awesome build, absolutely love the wood! My wife and I just picked a very similar van just the shorter version and scored the awd. Were going to do the interior very similar also. Did you show how you went around the windows and the walls somewhere? Ive been watching all the vids on the van and cant find that part. Sweet ass van rhough man! Hope ours turns out half that nice
Thanks man! And I never ended up filming the rest of me building the van. Wish I would have! One thing I recommend if you're building out a 1500 awd is to do the 1/4 inch tongue and groove instead of the 3/4 inch like I did in my van. If I were to build another camper, I would have done the 1/4 to save weight. This build is heavy in my rig but it is a 3500 so it handles the weight fine
very nice
Damn brother, that’s a nice looking build! So you gonna start having some camping videos coming out soon?
That’s the plan!!
Might wanna clean that corrosion up on the batteries, also not sure if I missed it, but you really need a Carbon Monoxide detector in there. Nice van!
Yeah I do need to clean those up ASAP! And I do have a carbon monoxide detector but totally forgot to mention that!
Damn dude I’m thinking of doing a rebuild of my converted van. Come through to VA and help haha
If I was closer, I'd help out haha but this is by far my favorite set up i've ever done. And since it's a low roof and a passenger van, it's perfect for a daily driver. I don't own another vehicle haha
I'm a van guy, 2 weeks ago I found a 91 conversion van 98k miles for 3k. Anyways if the swing arm is fabricated one in". Longer your door will clear that tire.
Yeah I think there's a company that makes one but it honestly doesn't bother me at all that the tire stops the door. It opens up enough for me.
WE NEED MORE VIDEOS!!!
I'm going to start getting back at it! I miss getting out there and making content!
Nice van! With the limo tint can you see inside with lights on when it’s dark out?
Yes, you can still see in. You'd need really dark tint to not see any lights through the tint at night. During the day, you can have lights on and not see anything no matter how hard you try to look through.
That’s nice. I have the same van. Can you show how you finished the back where there are lots of wires.
If you want to send me a message on instagram, “taylorvanbeeek”, I can send you some pictures of the back. I just used tongue and groove wood and screwed it into the metal. Then tucked the wires behind the wood.
Hey man really enjoy your videos! I recently (finally) bought a 2015 express 2500 passenger with pretty low miles and planning on turning it into something similar to what you have. So love the ideas from your channel! 1 question tho is did you do the walls and all the wood work yourself as well? I seen the floor build video but never noticed any of the walls and framing. That's the part I'm trying to decide what way to do mine.
I did do the whole build myself. I was on a time crunch before I was leaving on my trip so I did not have a chance to film the rest of the build. I wish I would have.
Do u suggest a 5kw heater for a none insulated van ,other then the factory installation in it. ❤❤😊😊dealing with Minnesota winters.what do u suggest if iam not interested in ripping it apart to insulated.
Yes, a 5k would do plenty. I'd honestly still go with a 3k. My 5k on low cooks me out. I was in the Sierra Nevada mountains and it was -18, I still had the heater on the medium setting and it was in the 60s inside of my van
Do you prefer your sliding door or do you prefer the swing out doors?
Sliding all the way. Originally I wanted swing out doors but I got a good deal on this van. So glad I have the sliders. Makes it way easier to get in and out of in tight parking spots.
How did you make that bench seat? I really like it.
It's just 2x4 framing and some tongue and groove on top of it. Very sturdy and convenient to have another place to sit while camping.
Any chance you could give a link to the headlights? Also, did you have the van painted or do it yourself?
The van came that color from the factory. And I don't have a link for the headlights but if you go on amazon and type in "Chevy Express Smoked Head Lights" they should pop right up.
Is nice
Can you link the headlights
Can you tell me alittle more on your power supply, I'm getting a 2004 Chevrolet express 3500 and I Wana do the same thing
It's just 4 deep cycle 120amp hour batteries. It's a little overkill but it works great for my set up in my van. I've got a renogy charger hooked up to the batteries to charge them while driving. The batteries are hooked up to a fuse box and all the 12v is hooked up to the fuse box.
You don't miss having solar panels? How much do you have to drive a day to charge the batteries? Edit - you should probably install some thin curtain rods, all the way around the back of the van, for curtains at night.
No, I've got a buddy who builds vans and he said that solar panels do almost nothing unless if you have a bunch of them. He told me if my battery bank is big enough and i drive a decent amount, I wouldn't need them. Ended up saving like $1000 not putting solar panels or a solar charger in this build. It would take me 2 weeks of off grid living before my battery bank ran out. If My battery bank was completely dead, it would take around 12 hours to fill them back to full charged. I've got 480 amp hours of battery bank with a 40 amp charger.
@@TaylorVanBeek Okay good info. So basically you need to drive about an hour a day to keep up, roughly. As in 12 hours for two weeks. Since your van is not too extra big, that would not be too bad on the gas mileage. I drive an hour a day in my car just going around to the supermarket and fast food lol. Although, I think if you have the batteries already, which you say you do, if you got even like 400 W up on there, which would not be too much money, I think it would help. Probably cut your driving down to half an hour a day. Which is a lot more doable. Your type of setup would definitely be good more for like a road trip though.
@@saratemp790 the problem is the solar panels aren’t expensive, the solar controller is pricey. But I’ve got roof rack bars up there now and always have things on my roof so the solar panels wouldn’t help much. I drive every day regardless anyways
@@TaylorVanBeek yeah if you're always driving then you don't need them. Makes sense.
Great job Taylor...are you back in Florida again?
Yessir I am!
Awesome can't wait to see more of your Florida adventures.
Good evening , what kind of mpg do you get??
about 13 on the highway and 10-11 city
Can you stand straight up in it ? ( I'm 6,0)
nope, interior height is around 4.5 feet
Love this van Should of found a way to put that diesel outside stinks lik crazy
Thanks! And I've honestly never noticed the smell of diesel inside the van. The tank is sealed pretty dang good. Was afraid to keep the tank outside with how cold of areas I was going too. Didn't want the diesel to gel.
@@TaylorVanBeek facts…
all that insulation for what when you got all that glass
It still helps maintain temperature way better than no insulation. Also quiets the drive way down while going down the highway.
I'd like to know where everyone is getting all this money to do all those upgrades at once
I’ve only got like 5k into upgrades. Not that much money. I just worked and saved it up.
What are the dimensions of the bed?
The bed is 54 inches wide by 75 inches long. It's a full size mattress. I'm 6'1" and fit on the mattress great.
Where do you live. I’m about to get one maybe you can show me how to do it! I live in Rancho Cucamonga! Bad as build!
I appreciate it man! And I'm down here in Florida
It's easy to come out and say you did a great job with this build but how good is it really is my question. I want to do an express build myself. This is a good build craftsmanship wise. Floor plan is blah. Technology is blah. Not saying this to hate but if I'm going to spend 17,000 dollars. What I find is that people that come from other builds or other types of camping out in vehicles or even backpacking or traveling lifestyles don't actually know what to do when they get a van. You would think their passed experience would help them supercharge their version of a van build but it doesn't and they just end up wasting their money and the space in their vans. For your build you didn't make your version of a van, you made your version of the ultimate pickup truck bed camper that you couldn't actually do inside of a pickup truck bed because that's what you know and that's what you're accustomed to. In my opinion at this point to really maximize a van you have to know about the van not other things because all the other experience doesn't necessarily convert.
So what would you have done differently with a low roof GMC Savana van? I feel like this is about as good as you can do with this model van. It’s got 12v heat, an oven, fridge, rooftop fan, power to power all of your accessories, etc. the interior build only cost 5k. The total Investment with purchase of van, lift, wheels, tires and interior build is 17k pretty dang cheap for what this thing consists of. It’s not like you can put a shower on the inside of a low top van. What else would you add?
@@TaylorVanBeek A high top. I would add a high top roof. I'm in the market for a 25/3500 express/savanna extended right now, and I see 2006'ish vans for like $6,000. Sure I don't want a rust bucket, or a can of worms, but I still think a good deal is out there that would free up space on that same budget. I found a company that makes a 24 inch aerodynamic high top for American full size vans for like $4,000 not including installation (HTV - Hight Top Vans company in Washington). I Just hope I can find an installer that would help me for like $1,000.
Van $6,000 + top $4,000 = $10,000.
Tesla battery modules for power. 5.2kwh/250ah battery modules go for $500 each. I want 4, but I'll start with one first. No solar. Solar is too expensive. Just upgraded alternators. A 4,800 watt alternator is $400. I'd run GFCI outlets in the van. I like that you kept the stock heat and air. I would do something similar, so I want a passenger van to start with, or I'd be adding the stock blower to a cargo van. The heat and air would be stock in the front, but the back would have a diesel air heater for $100 as we know, but I will also duct in a 12v aftermarket AC system for another $800, use the stock blower with some DIY vents, and intergrade it all together. No visible protrusions outside, and no wasting gas on AC. Similarly I would get 6 inch max fans not 12 inch ones, because of their low profile. I'd have a shower in the van. Hot water from a diesel water heater $270, and a plate heat exchanger $50. I'd plumb a shower sprayer in the ceiling, and faucet mixer into the side of the high top. Could technically have one in a low top. I'd seen a girl shower inside of her civic, and I said there ain't no way she's gonna be outclassing me, just because my van ain't a sprinter. I can do better. I'd use curtains for the shower stall, not solid walls to leave the space in the van more open and versatile. I would only use Reflectix for all of the insolation; floor and walls and ceiling. You used away lot of space with pink foam, 2 inch wood boards, and tongue and groove planks. My interior finish would be more like the luxury conversion van builders did it, but just with better materials. Nice leathers, and high gloss wood finishes. Mimicking the aesthetic of a yacht, not quite a limousine, and somewhat like a private jet. The finish pieces would be dual functioning pieces just like how they are in a conversion van interiors. They function as covers for things like electrical panels, air ducts, and factory window sills. Saving space, weight, and making it look intended not accidental. I would have a cheap rubber floor at $100, on top on the Reflectix. Floor drain for the shower. Am considering heating mats for the floor but not sure. I would add a 65 gallon water bag at $35 for a fresh water tank, as they save space, and do not need to be vented. No gray water, black, cassette or composting toilet. Just a cheap collapsing toilet and male/female urinal bottle. You found yourself remaking the same thing that a sofa bed is, but just in DIY form, with thick wood, and taking up a lot of the space. I would just use a factory made van sofa for my bed. The nice luxury ones are like $1,300. A cheap one is like $5-600 though. A cheap amazon folding study desk at $140 for my initial countertop surface sits next to the bed. Something more fancy later. On that table sits a collapsing sink, USB water tap, and single burner induction total for another $80. A 4cu.ft fridge for $170 sits between the desk and the drivers seat back. Fortifying things like Hvac, plumbing, and electrical, make it easy to run appliances that make van life convenient. I would then add a mini clothes washer at $50. A mini clothes dryer at $600, and a mini dish washer at $100.
The build stops there at about $15-17,000 until I move in, and start saving up again. More upgrades will ensue. An engine swap for LS 6.2L or 6.6L, cold air, exhaust, HHO, ECU tune, LSD/Locking diff, GM 10 speed transmission, 3.08 gear ratios, wheels, tires, aluminum bumpers, light bars, bull bar, wench, flood lights, truck horns, bumper tool box, spare wheel rack, CCTV camera system, dead bolt door locks, security window film, onboard air compressor, magnetic ride control dampers, launch control, full digital gauge cluster swap from Cadillac escalade, braum alpha x racing seats, roll bar hoops, graphic wrap with company logo, and social media handles. Through, and through, it's got to be a great whip when it's done.
why would you blackout the tail lights on a camper? That's illegal in a lot of places. You're just limiting where you can travel to.
@@nniicckk1223 because it looks cool…never heard of that being illegal. As long as they can see the taillights illuminate, that’s all that matters. And these lights illuminate very bright.
lol, 24/7 for 72 hours.😂😂😂
Yeahhhhh I didn't think that one through haha
@@TaylorVanBeek I try not to do that much. It makes my head hurt.
So, I went ahead and skipped this video.
-Tyler "Nutcracker" Vanbeek
no one believe this liar, he is a fake !!!!
@@user-fi7bp1gb7z haha please explain how I’m a fake?
how do. you get away with the limo tent?
@@Thedudenurse in Florida, you can have whatever darkness tint on the windows behind the passenger and drivers window. But up front, it’s not legal. I haven’t had any issues with getting pulled over. Probably because it’s a van.
I cant find the van tech cross bars you mentioned on the roof. Can you post a link please
@@beYourOwnCrowd upfitsupply.com/product/vantech-h3-ladder-rack-system-for-chevy-express-gmc-savana/ here’s the link for these exact crossbars
@TaylorVanBeek
Wow ty so much for your response
I can't believe what you've done is just too good! Loved your video very much! Would love to do a collaboration with you, can you give me your email? I would be super happy!😊
Sure thing, my email is Taylorvanbeekhomes@gmail.com.