Where do i start?
Taking on a van build can be overwhelming at first, but with the right information you can set yourself up for success. The first question you need to answer is ‘What Vehicle is Right for You?’ Once you know what platform you’re building on, you can start researching the features and products you want to take with you on the road. For full builds, we start by putting together an outline with our customers to try and capture the scope of the project. It’s just a Google Doc with products, material choices, and examples of previous work. You can create a copy for yourself here.
LEt’s start out pretty broad. Here are some of the resources we’ve found over the years that Can help get you on the right track:
Van Build Blogs and Forums: These have a ton of information. It can be a lot to sort through, but if you take your time, these sites will show you what’s possible and answer most of those questions you might be contemplating as you start planning your project.
FarOutRide - guides and blogs following along multiple van builds. Highlight: Van Electrical Calculator
r/VanLife and r/vandwellers - Reddit can be a great resource for learning about lifestyle, DIY building, layouts, components, and anything else you can think of.
Gnomad Home - Good build guides to inspire some ideas. Highlights: Choosing a layout
Explorist.life - great resources to help you understand off grid electrical systems
Facebook pages - VanLife - USA, Van Life Marketplace, Colorado Van Life, Self Build Campervans and VanLife. There are tons of communities and useful resources on Facebook that can help point you in the right direction.
Parts Depots: Get ideas for the parts and features you want to use in your van with these collections of products tailored to the camper van industry. If you’re building a van yourself, you will find most of the materials you need on these sites. They also have helpful guides, blogs, and other resources to help you out.
If you build a van here at CAV we will go through the design process with you. We use a CAD program to lay out all of our custom cabinetry before it eventually goes to the CNC machine. This is prabably more than your average DIYer needs. Here are some options that can help you visualize the build and get a plan on “paper” before you start:
Hire a designer - we can give you basic dimensioned drawings for a reasonable fee ($65/hr?). If you would like fully rendered drawings, we have worked with Vancept Designs (link) in the past to help our customers visualize every little detail of the project.
Vanspace 3D(link) - for $X you can drag and drop a visual for yourself. The program is intuitive and can get you a 3d model without having to deal with a designer. If you know what you want already. This will help you visualize everything.
Are you looking for a deep dive? Here are some more specific resource to help you really dial in the detail.
Design Your ideal camp site with hand-picked products from our Amazon Storefront page
Replicate that process section from the tiny planet site we were looking at.