want2snowbird wrote:

This is my first post after hundreds of hours of lurking. DW and I are early 50s empty-nesters and enjoy traveling. Over the years, we've owned a pick-up camper, a Class C MH and a travel trailer. DW is retiring next June and we'll have more time to indulge in travel during my vacation time without the hassle of work schedule conflicts.

We've decided that our best RV option at this time is a camping van. We'd like to modify a full size passenger van and install two very good captain's chairs, a queen size bed and a porta-potti set up. We don't require fully self contained. We want to keep it simple and on a budget. We're travelers looking for a bit of comfort on our trips. We live in a nice home in the country and don't need to camp to get away from it all; we live away from it all.

juliev wrote:

We met a guy on a ferry in Washington state that had converted a Chevy cargo van. The inside of the van had been insulated with the styrofoam stuff, then had thin plywood walls over the insulation. He had built in a raised platform bed, with storage underneath. He had a small kitchen cabinet (attached to the floor) with a small sink that drained to a bucket underneath. The running water was provided by a 5 gallon water container with a spigot that sat on a small shelf over the sink, held in place with a bungee cord. The porta-potty was stored under the bed (slid out from under quite easily) Cold food was kept in a small ice chest which was set up to drain out through a tube to a small hole in the floor. Dry food was in one side of the kitchen cabinet.

I thought he had a perfect little camper there. It was very well thought out, and very inexpensive and I suspect it would take very little carpentry knowledge to build.