Digital nomadic van for two people to stay comfortably for months.
Author: Sanket Sahu
Date: Sept 10th 2020
Inspiration: letsbe.us
Van: Merc Sprinter 170 EXT
Availability in India: Not available
Dimensions
Our first van was the Sprinter 170 EXT wheelbase is 289 inches bumper to bumper, with 180 inches of interior length from behind the driver’s seat to the back doors. The interior height for the high roof is 6’4″ and the maximum width is 95.5 inches
Closest match: Traveller 4020 wb
This vehicle is 1.5 feet shorter than the 170 EXT Sprinter but I think it's good enough. I tried looking for the sprinter in India, it's not available.
Things to buy
Floor plan of 170" EXT Sprinter (mirror image)
This is just a basic idea. The source files are attached.
Exterior
- Propane Tank: This is the LPG tank that we get here in India.
- Fan
- Roof rails
- Door screen
- Ladder
- ...
Interior
- Pretty much the same thing
Electric
Kitchen
- Stove & Oven: Can we do induction over LPG / Propane stoves?
- Induction: What's the challenge? Power?
- LPG: A bit of safety issue
- Fridge
- Faucet
- Sink
- Filteration system
- Oil diffuser
- Spice Jars
- Magnetic knife bar
- Organizers
Plumbing
Gray water tank
Reference: 18 gallons (68 liters) of Gray water tank.
• It would be great if we can fit in 30 gallons.
Bathroom
Toilet
Explore options between portable and compost options.
Compost toilet
- Not sure yet
This is just the starting point.
Unanswered Questions
- Power:
- Inverter only: Are we going to consume everything using the inverter?
- Inverter + small generator: Like two modes of power (parking and running).
- Solar panels: Need this too.
- Induction vs propane
- If we have small generator setup or something then Induction works well, we won't need propane at all. Same for oven as well.
- Portable toilet vs Compost toilet
- Can we make the water tanks 150 liters or more?
- Drinking water: I think we can install the filters for this.
- AC power: Would we have to keep running the vehicle engine all the time for the ACs to run?
