Back in January, we shared that our fleet of camper vans was growing with the purchase of two, 2012 Ford Transit Connects. With the success of Dolly (our 2010 Ford Transit Connect camper van) during the 2020 spring and summer rental season, we were eager to expand our business and get a couple more units on the road.

We also got a tremendous amount of van life fan feedback that indicated, to us, our process, thinking and design was well received by camper van enthusiasts and conversion DIYers.

We’re in the process of working on FAQ responses about the first conversion and will soon be sharing a digital download of our build out plans.

Are we onto something? We hope so!

We continue to be attracted to the first generation (2010-2013) Ford Transit Connect for a couple reasons:

• cargo area height (the 2nd gen head room reduces)

• their boxier shape (the 2nd gen is more rounded, bullet shaped)

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the camper van conversion, here’s a little background on the vehicles and our plan for the conversions.

PURCHASE CONDITION

Both vans were previously owned by a security company, and in overall excellent condition with relatively low mileage for being nearly 10 years old; 65k and 75k respectively.

For having been commercial vehicles, the exterior condition was great. Minor paint scratched from what looks like a frequent brush with the side of a garage, leaving short imperfections in the paint. We plan to attempt a DIY fix of this, stay tuned.

The interior cockpit/drivers area is in excellent shape. Again, for a contractor/work vehicle, this great of condition is hard to come by when someone is using it daily.

The cargo areas of the vans were equipped with steel shelves and racks, plus the windows had security caging. These existing components have already been removed and sold on Facebook Marketplace, fetching a few hundred dollars we will put back into the conversion.

Both vans had roof racks, which we will keep, as is, and retrofit with exterior storage. The vans also had electrical conduit tubes. We considered using the tubing for a shower system, but in the end decided against it because of the unnecessary water weight and space it would have taken away from storage.

CONVERSION PLAN

The new vans will undergo a similar build-out to Dolly, our original camper van conversion. We will only make minor changes, as we feel the overall design is functional and user friendly for any level camper.

The main conversion components will be broken down into storage, electrical and comfort, but in the 2.0 blog conversion posts we are going to dive deeper into some of the minutia of these decisions and any changes we have on that deviate from the original build.

TIMELINE

The conversion of both vans will take approximately 1 month. We will be setting up shop in a friends barn to aid in the process. The vans are already available to rent on Outdoorsy, so we are working towards a completion date of April 1.

BUDGET

All in, we anticipate the conversions to be roughly $4,000 per van, not including the purchase price of the vehicles. Based on market research, we consider this to be a very frugal conversion. Also, John is not factoring in his time/cost of labor into the budget.

Stay tuned for more posts about the conversions process! Interested to hear more about a particular part of the build? Let us know!