geargrrl
Angel Diva
Looks like I've been asked for an update on the van adventure that I missed after I posted about the purchase.
First, the bathroom. It's a real bathroom in a 21' van. Like, stand up and take a shower. Doors for privacy. RV dumping. No peeing in a bottle or portapotti set up. This was a must for the hub, and after spending the summer mountain biking having a nice hot shower at the end of the day is amazing. There is a sink that folds out from the wall, and you put up a curtain to keep the cabinets dry.
We did 10K of mountain bike trips last spring, summer and fall. We've been in rain, and gotten stuck in the mud, driven on highways and dirt. It handles great once we got rid of the delivery truck tires and
put traction tires on it. We are on the fence about taking it to the snow. It's really a 3 season, not 4 season. The water has to be drained out of it. The stock insulation isn't great, but the furnace is awesome since it is a built in system with ventilation. Mainly, cuz it is FWD not 4x4 or AWD, hub is a little concerned but I am working on him. There are some really active FB groups for this particular brand (Winnebago Travato) and there are a lot of folks successfully dry camping on ski trips in it.
For vans in general, there are tons of FB groups and forums, either brand based (Sprinter/Promaster etc) or van life based. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You have to figure out what your needs are. For us, the Mercedes/Sprinter build is out of the question due to our interpretation of service issues, and having driven the Quigley lifts on some of the Dodge and Fords, we don't like how they handle at all. So there are
always tradeoffs.
First, the bathroom. It's a real bathroom in a 21' van. Like, stand up and take a shower. Doors for privacy. RV dumping. No peeing in a bottle or portapotti set up. This was a must for the hub, and after spending the summer mountain biking having a nice hot shower at the end of the day is amazing. There is a sink that folds out from the wall, and you put up a curtain to keep the cabinets dry.
We did 10K of mountain bike trips last spring, summer and fall. We've been in rain, and gotten stuck in the mud, driven on highways and dirt. It handles great once we got rid of the delivery truck tires and
put traction tires on it. We are on the fence about taking it to the snow. It's really a 3 season, not 4 season. The water has to be drained out of it. The stock insulation isn't great, but the furnace is awesome since it is a built in system with ventilation. Mainly, cuz it is FWD not 4x4 or AWD, hub is a little concerned but I am working on him. There are some really active FB groups for this particular brand (Winnebago Travato) and there are a lot of folks successfully dry camping on ski trips in it.
For vans in general, there are tons of FB groups and forums, either brand based (Sprinter/Promaster etc) or van life based. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You have to figure out what your needs are. For us, the Mercedes/Sprinter build is out of the question due to our interpretation of service issues, and having driven the Quigley lifts on some of the Dodge and Fords, we don't like how they handle at all. So there are
always tradeoffs.
