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Vendor Interviews & Marine One Specs From Adventure Van Expo TN 2022
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May 2, 2025
I wanted to do some commentary on the Vendors I interviewed at the show, it was a big part of the event and I wanted to share my thoughts with everyone. Visit the blog at https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more. Interested in Nick building your van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com
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[Music]
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thank you [Music]
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hey guys welcome back to the live stream tonight we are going to be going over Adventure van Expo 2022
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so in this stream tonight I'm getting ready for the holidays this weekend so
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I just wanted to kind of recap a couple of things with the adventure van Expo show in Chattanooga Tennessee
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um a little details about Thomas's van if you guys didn't know or people who haven't watched the video yet
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and then also talking about the vendors that I did the interviews with so this would kind of be like a little inside
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commentary on what I filmed in the video and then that way if you guys haven't seen the video you'll know what to kind
1:04
of expect with the interviews because I think the interviews with the van shows
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is a big thing that I want to do um going forward we already did it last year
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we did it this year for the Ben show and then for uh the Chattanooga show in Tennessee but yeah I want to keep that
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up go to more shows there's one in Florida and the name just escaped me
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um Thomas has taken the van to that I may be able to go to and also film interviews for that but I think it's a
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really good way to just get an inside uh look from a van builder at asking you
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know different vendors questions finding out what they do what they can offer their services stuff like that
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and uh just in like typical fashion we have a little cheat sheet here for everybody
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and so what we're going to do is uh we'll kick it off by going through this
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cheat sheet but then I'm going to hop over to the video I got it muted but I want to go through
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and just do some commentary on top of the vendors stuff that I really enjoyed and then
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talking about some other things but first off
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um we've been doing a lot of video on Thomas's van it's not everything is up to where you guys can see it it's going
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to be really exciting in January because the fan will be in the shop we've got the live stream set up it'll be
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his van will be directly behind us so you guys will get to go through we'll go through everything we'll go through the
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power system um and uh before I get ahead of myself
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so this is what we'll do so when the the van comes back in um so he has a 2020 Ford Transit 350. uh
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it's an all glass passenger cargo and it has a rear AC so you can get
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transits upfitted all kinds of different ways um humble Road likes to take this approach
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and uh this is not why Thomas did it um but there's different reasons why you
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might want to get all glass um I think the best benefit of getting an all-glass van is if you need to have
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if you need to have the van serviced and you're not you know not able to replace windows or you don't want to replace
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windows and you need somebody else other than yourself to replace the glass so you can
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do like Safe Light Auto you could go to a Ford dealership and they would actually be able to have the glass and
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fix it in case you're on the road and it gets broken um but if you ever watched Humber Road's
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YouTube channel they typically buy Vans that are an all-glass van and then
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they'll either black out the inside or you know do what they need to to kind of manage if a window is going to be
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covered that sort of thing um but that's Humber Road's opinion that
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if you're out in the middle of nowhere and you need the glass replaced uh you can have somebody do it other than
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yourself um the rear AC was pretty cool because
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that's something I really am excited to show you guys when the van comes back in the shop because
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uh I could pretty much do anything in my head when it comes to actually putting
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the pen to paper moving the rear AC to the middle of the van
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you can physically move the unit but who is going to make the uh
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compressor lines because they have to make new compressor lines there's nothing on the market
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and somehow magically Thomas found somebody in Myrtle Beach that was able
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to do it so that's pretty that's pretty cool so if I move move it again it's kind of
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far but you know there is a connection there um
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moving on down let's see here we've got
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so this is just what to look forward to when the van comes in we'll be breaking out all of these systems and going
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through them live stream Style we'll be going to the 400 amp hours of sok lithium we already did that in a
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live stream when I was showing you guys about cost so if you go to the channel
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and then go to the live streams I've got a hilarious thumbnail
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[Laughter] so that was my German Shepherd Nova with the sok batteries
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saving some money but this right here uh my solution for overpriced lithium batteries how to choose the right
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battery for you what I do in that one if you missed it is I go through and I help you
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understand the spec sheets for different battery companies like battleborn and victron energy and kind of understand uh
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the wording and stuff like that that they use to describe the battery so that when you're shopping around you kind of have some
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vocabulary to understand what they're talking about and you know make a decision based on either on your budget
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or if you just kind of want to go with the name brand but that's all in that video
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and then we have um we'll be going over uh doing a review of the max fan Deluxe
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so the deluxe is the fan that has the remote control it also allows the fan to
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reverse so you can pull there inside the van and you can blow air outside the van and he has two of those so the theory is
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well you can do this you have one pull in and then you can have one blow out so you can circulate circulate the air
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then next we have the 20 gallon fresh water tank so this tank is from Titan
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DIY kits and uh what's pretty cool about the show is I saw a lot of Vans use the
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DIY kit from Titan Vans um just like myself because it's a really really good system so this is the
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one that we got for Thomas comes with all the fittings and hoses
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I used PEX a fittings I'm a big fan of that as you guys might have seen in
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other videos but what's so nice is you can get the tank here tight DIY no
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affiliation I'm just giving you guys some easy uh links here
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and then the rear spray down shower system this is this is a big deal it's
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expensive but here's the thing um I'm really good at sourcing
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Parts uh I did it throughout my whole engineering career as far as you know
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finding stuff that was you know 20 30 years old had to be fabricated I mean stuff that
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was really difficult to find and I tried to just Source this myself
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you know for Amazon thinking I could find this little system it's a scandivic system
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and for some reason they're always out of stock on Amazon they're really hard to
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buy anywhere else so whatever connection they got that's
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really awesome but hey you can just pick it up over here this is what's so nice about it look at that
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it's just a super clean rear wash down and uh yeah I really like it
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so we'll do a whole um live stream about that then we'll move into the hot water
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heater and so I went with this AO Smith it's from Lowe's
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and kind of the same thing I'm trying to find components that if
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something happened in the future uh it wouldn't be crazy to find a replacement
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now this doesn't have you know in the van the van that he has it doesn't have to be an AO Smith
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um but we bought the AO Smith because of the this uh profile
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this 14 and a half by eleven and three quarters by 10.38 it was just perfect I
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mean it it fit like a glove underneath his sink and we had no room so I wanted
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to do the Bosch hot water but
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this is the Bosch four gallon hot water and it's very bulky so it's kind of fat
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and it's not tall you guys can see that foreign
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so this this AO Smith it's it's very tall it's a tall what is this video
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that's a terrible video um oh here we go heck yeah
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oh this is this is fancy so the AO Smith it is uh
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it's very boxy so it's not fat and it's very tall so you're able to
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uh connect everything kind of the way you want it um so we use this uh
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what was the other reason
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that's right uh Thomas's sink was right here above where the AO Smith sticker is and so
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that is where the Bosch um so AO Smith has the the dial valve
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down I mean the temperature settings down here at the bottom and then uh
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see why or why is our stream having trouble
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hmm okay we're back in the green
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but you can see on the Bosch see how it's up to the uh
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right hand corner or left hand on your screen so I needed it to be at the bottom because if I use this one
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then the sink would block it and you you couldn't control the temperature
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and as you guys see this is not an isotherm um
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uh hot water heater they make a slim line I know we're going we always going to
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tangents on the string but why not
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so isotherm makes a slim line right here it's a very slim tall
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you can do it upright or horizontal uh it's just it's just very expensive
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so you get AO Smith it's 260. versus a thousand
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and trust me they do the same exact thing um
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now I get you can so the isotherm there are more benefits there's a
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you can set it to be a very very hot temperature and they have a dual mixer
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valves and let's see here some people
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see I don't think this is the one
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you know what we will do a video in the future I'll get more prepared on that one
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um yeah so the foreground gallon hot water tank this one it's awesome uh the seven gallon gray water tank
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check this out I know this is a very expensive gray water tank but hear me out on this one
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it comes with it's food grade NSF so it's a food grade piece of
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plastic it doesn't really matter since it's gray but um
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it has a big opening at the top so you can actually clean it out you know you can scrub it out if you needed to
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it has a cap so you need to pull out your van stuff isn't sloshing all over the place it comes with a handle
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it comes with a hose and this hose just happens
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that hose just happens to perfectly fit right here on this uh
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P-trap I know it's not really a P-trap if you want to get technical but this is uh I think Camco makes this this is what
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is the uh if you purchase this this is what you're going to screw onto just a normal tank
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like a normal um sink
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a sink that you might buy from Lowe's so this hose goes right on it and this
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is what we put in his van and I mean there was no extra space this was perfect so it's very vertical
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does a good job so we'll be doing another stream on that talking about that a little bit more in detail you
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guys can see how it fits in his van um
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we'll talk about his fridge we'll talk about the red Arc system
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so we're using the uh total Vehicle Management System
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which includes the red Vision the red Arc red Vision which is the uh you have
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this interface pad and then you also have Bluetooth that you can control via
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the redarc app it's amazing everything in your van can be controlled wirelessly
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and then you have 10 different circuits you have five 10 amps
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circuits and then you have five 30 amp fused circuits
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and there's a little better picture of the fuses they're right in front of you you can
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see them really really clearly I mean this kit is so nice this is all
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that it comes actually with uh two temperature sensors um all the cabling you needed uh you
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probably won't use this if you're doing a DIY because you might have a whole bag from Amazon for your crimps or your lugs
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yep it's just a it's an excellent I'd say A you know bomb proof system
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and then what we've done is we've coupled that with the manager 30.
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um which is this right here so the manager 30 this big thing right
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here this is your uh 30 because it's only 30 amps
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now you may want something more than 30 amps maybe you want 60 you know if your
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alternator can handle it but to make this work for his van we have
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um 350 watts of solar on the top so at 350 watts of solar
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kind of mitigates having to have a larger we went larger on solar than having a larger DC to DC
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and uh yeah the system works excellent
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and then we'll talk about the lat one of this right here Garmin power switch I found
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this because I went to Adventure van Expo this this is the stuff that I'm talking
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about when you go to these shows I'm gonna get right into this when we talk about the video when you go to these shows as a builder
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you'll you'll find just these little things it could be like a little fuse it could be I don't know like a screw or a
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clip or some type of interface that you've never seen before even though you're searching on the internet all day it's
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just something that somebody else found and then repurposed and you never thought to think to think about a unit
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like this so we just got done talking about the red Arc system right so imagine this
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redarc system now this is a robust system there's nothing wrong with this
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you technically could replace it but your your functionality is uh lower
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because here I'll explain so this is the Garmin power switch
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so I went to uh I saw um who did I see
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I saw Jesse from Valley High Vans shout out to Jesse and we were touring his van
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and he showed me the uh this Garmin power switch
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and I said what are you what are you doing with this power switch he says Oh wait we're controlling the whole van and I was like no way so this Garmin power
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switch uh it's really made for like uh quads ATVs
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um you know like you're going hunting or you kind of had that set up like you're
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going in the Backwoods and you need something that's waterproof and can you
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know be put under the Plastics of like an ATV type of thing and it's powering you know your lights or floodlights or
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light bar stuff like that so
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he showed me that he was using this in the van like I was using the red Arc system and
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I was I was very happy that I found this because guess what
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I can't wait to show you the technical part of Thomas's van
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my mouse can't drive the technical part about his van it's really over the top I mean
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the amount of Baja design lights you know the microwave the hot water and
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just just all the systems how they're integrated in the van we we ran out of room
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we ran out of room on the red Arc system and even though you know I thought we
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could plant a couple extra things but I needed another solution and so it was this Garmin power switch so not only do
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I have the redarc system in his van with 10 circuits that are wirelessly controlled but now we added six more
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so these six more we've got the front ditch lights which are Baja design we've
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got let's see we've got one two three four scene lights
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uh and then two other circuits I forgot
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what we're using those for anyway the point is this by going to the show
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I was able to finish something that was missing because what I was going to do and I I didn't want to do it it just
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I'd have to ha I would have had to install an additional
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um you know fuse panel I'd have to redo I'd have to install
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relays I'd have to it would have made it more complicated and you want something to be extremely
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simple especially for Thomas's van we wanted everything to be completely hands-free Wireless well other than you
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know holding the phone but everything is on his phone to control everything in his van
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the only thing that he can't control is the dimmer switch but he can still turn the lights on and off but that's the
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only thing technically that is not on the phone um it's challenging to have a dimmer
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circuit uh wirelessly I know you can do it but
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to keep things simple Garmin power switch and the red vision we wanted to uh do that the Garmin
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actually will is a dimmable circuit but um
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you can't now put this in the comments if you guys know this
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the power switch um you can pre-dim it and save it as a
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setting but you can't just dim it up and down you have to go in the settings every time if you want to change the
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value so that was kind of annoying all right moving over to the main part
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of the video so let's go ahead and pull up
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um the video here we're going to go through we're going to talk to one two three four five six seven eight we got
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eight vendors um I'm excluding myself but eight vendors at this show that I
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interviewed very very cool
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um so let's click on this one and then uh yeah I'll fast forward this
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we're just going to talk about the eight vendors and then hopefully if you guys have any questions put those in the chat
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but that'll pretty much be the stream tonight
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so we are going to first start off with red Arc Electronics
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there we go so we're talking to Eric from redarc
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Electronics um so they have offices you know all over
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uh in a couple places and I'm gonna say all over the US I know there's a there's a
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office in Charlotte so if I need anything I contact them but really uh if you need customer service I
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still think when I called in you had to wait for Australia time to do customer service
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um the one thing about redarc is their systems are just bomb proof super solid
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they're awesome the interface is a bit of a challenge to learn once you've
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learned it I mean it's it's pretty cool
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um I'm gonna let me add my uh face in here
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it's kind of weird doing commentary and you guys can't see me um let's see here
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how about this one there we go
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perfect
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all right how's that pretty cool right all right yeah so uh let's see this is
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talking to Eric um I'm gonna bring this my notes into another window give me one second
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uh what's really cool that they also that's something they also do is they bring this truck and it is the
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um it's like a four-wheel drive truck that they would have in Australia and it's
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pretty cool um there's a I think four-wheel Adventures or something like that there's a Australian
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YouTube channel and they do crazy stuff they like they bring like spare axles
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spare parts on these trips because they go for days on end and pretty much all
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of them are geared up with a red Arc system in their vehicle so this truck the way that you're looking at it this is pretty much how
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they have their trucks set off set up in Australia in the outback
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they don't really do kind of the Jeep you know lifted Jeep type of thing I'm
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sure there's some over there but this is the format they use for kind of over Landing for example
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um and then what I did is just you know when you watch the video I'm telling him to give us just all the examples you know why this is such a good unit uh
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and then he told me this this unit over here on the right this red Arc uh inverter
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what's nice is they actually have this in the US now they used to only have the like European version
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um so now they have the uh like the 110 volt version which is
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pretty cool
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all right so that was Eric let's move on over to
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we've got Jesse Valley Hi so Jesse was the one that showed me
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um the Garmin power switch so it's in the van you'll see that in just a second
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now I've seen a couple of these vendors start to make these Power Systems so these are Power Systems that you can
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just buy on the spot and kind of kick start your build if you watch the Ben
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Redmond video Venture van expert bin we've talked to Wes from Tiny watt solar
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and they have a awesome awesome system I mean
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it that's a it's a very high-end system um now the system that Jesse has it's
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they're essentially the same system uh it's more of an aesthetic thing
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um now if you look inside I mean it's this it's
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pretty much the same components um don't quote me on that West I'm sure that there's something different with
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this one but uh essentially what you're doing is you're putting a victron system into a
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pre-built box and you know for some diy-ers that might be the awesome solution because you have
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somebody that is professionally building it for you you don't really have to worry about cutting the wires crimping
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the wires where everything's going to fit um Jesse here was also telling me that
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you can get it in different finishes they can stain the uh um bamboo if you want it stained or
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anything like that and this one currently was only doing uh 400 amp hours which I mean that's a good
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amount of battery but there's still room I I think you could fit 800 amp hours of victron in
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there victron energy uh batteries are more energy dense so they're smaller
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and uh I learned that by re-listening to this interview I know everyone was talking about
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um or I was talking about you know how sok is is better which I like it you
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know for the the price um but these batteries they are more
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expensive and I think it is due to that they're packing more power the same power but into a different form
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factor and then I'll fast forward here uh this
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is when Jesse goes to show me one of his builds and we were talking about the Titan Vans DIY kit on the back right
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there on the right then inside he's got a battle board and set up he's got five battleborn
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batteries um in just a second we're going to talk about I didn't get to ask him this
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question um I wanted to it had to do with the I was complimenting him on the ceiling
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and then I asked him if that was the RTX 2000 a Dometic RTX 2000 AC unit
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and he said it was but what I didn't get to ask him was
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only 500 amp hours of battery and technically by my calculations for
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like a day and a half are like two nights you're gonna want at least 600 amp hours
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of lithium to to drive that thing so he might have something under the
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hood that I didn't see as like a secondary alternator for an example and so you know he's hey he's not worried
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about um you know recharging that thing quickly
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uh these girls were fun over at go camp uh we kept laughing and I kept having to do
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a retake on the video so I had to do I had to do like three times we were
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trying to make sure that we got uh uh like each one of the girls had um a certain
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thing that they were working on within the uh the organization and um we're trying to
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make it organized for you guys so that when we did the interview it would be you know we do this we can also help
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with this and this is something extra we do I was trying to organize it but I think
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I think trying to be a little too OCD is what made me have to do some retakes so
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anyway that was kind of funny um but this is go camp campervans.com
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and uh they're kind of like outdoorsy which actually they pretty much are
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outdoorsy um but they only focus on kind of the van life
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Camper vans you know like transits ProMaster sprinters uh they probably do
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stuff like um maybe like travado and stuff like that whereas I think outdoorsy ended up doing
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um they were trying to do everything and
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they wore everything so they weren't niched down into just Camper vans so
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outdoorsy I think it's like trailers RV trailers uh motorhomes it's it's more
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Broad and then um go camp is a take on just van lifestyle
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vans so this little Insider information for
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you um yeah so another awesome guy that I met was Richie from fanfare
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so after I set up let's see here um
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so basically Richie came over to the van and we were talking about Thomas's van and I said oh do you have a band at the
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show and he said oh yeah yeah um I was like oh man let me let me make a video for you so I uh
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let's see here so Richie I got the video done and uh it's ready to go so I need to I need to
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find I need to send you this link as soon as I get done tonight with this stream
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um but this uh this Sprinter was
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very very nice um I love the layout the Flatline vanco
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cabinets they look so Sleek he's got the bamboo
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on the sink and uh get the theme is just really really clean
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and it's funny I was there interviewing him but then it didn't it took me
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watching the video afterwards to realize that both his gray water and his uh
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fresh water are underneath the van because for some reason I was like man this is there's so much space so much
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leg room you think I would know that right but um yeah just being in the moment I just
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kind of overlooked that and he talked about how one of the tanks is heated so I got a hot water
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I mean not hot water it's a heat strip on the bottom so it doesn't the tank doesn't freeze
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so a cabinet here you know fridge but what's really nice is
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hit this little Lounge area over the right hand side
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and uh let me see if I can back up there here you go so there's a lounge here on the right
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hand side and this exact layout is what I was going to do with our spec build
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behind us but I really want to get that shower built um just as a
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design going forward but what's nice about these little seating areas is they are just pretty
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much 100 storage so if you really need the storage I mean there's a toilet in
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there there's three drawers and there's a compartment so that type of style is going to get
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you a lot of storage um and these big boxes on the uh the
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sprinters they have and they're big the the Ford Transit you can put the heater
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underneath the seat we can't do it in Thomas's because he has a rear heat
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add-on option I think we've never seen this before in a van but
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there's a massive duct work underneath his passenger seat so I don't think even
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if he wanted to put a heater there that's we couldn't put it there
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um but the sprinters have a big box uh underneath the seat that you know has plenty of room for that
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it's typically where I always see those placed and then we're just talking you know
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about the cabinets and I'm just saying how I like the cabinets um let's see here and then we go underneath
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the bed and again everything's just super clean
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um he did a really good job I love the coin the lawn sell coin uh on the panels
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that's very difficult to do to get that seam like that because you really only get one shot to you know cut
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that out for that door so that's that's pretty it's pretty tedious if you see something
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like that at a show um that's a tedious job as you guys can see
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so he actually has isotherm slim that he's using
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foreign but anyway I thought this build was really nice
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let's see what was under here yeah so here he's got some victron components solar disconnect
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everything's looking good then we checked out the back
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I'm gonna put my jacket on I'm sure everybody is freezing this week but that winter
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system coming through um but yeah he's got enough room he says
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that the bed can be easily taken out and he can put you can fit bikes in the back so
36:11
and you can see got the Titan van spray down so pretty
36:16
cool and then you guys Pro if you guys
36:23
already seen the video we take a trip up on the roof of the van
36:28
and this is actually a flatline vancoat roof rack but I think they've been doing it for
36:34
the sprinters much longer than the transits so there's a different couple different
36:39
uh the way they mount it
36:44
they've got a little bit more there's more tie downs that I can see
36:50
and um yeah I think I think there's just more
36:55
space too you can actually see my van in the background
37:01
it's a kind of cool shot but yeah those are that's I think Trex
37:08
decking that you put them on top um pretty cool I think that's 350
37:14
watts of solar but yeah I like this van it was good Style just really clean just nice and
37:21
clean um and then for the wheels let's see did
37:27
we talk about the wheels yeah here we go so you got black rhino and then I think you said the only tire
37:34
that they could fit on there was the Pirelli scorpions because he modified the fender
37:42
and then if you guys watch the video I I tell you about what the uh the tire size is
37:47
but yeah Fanfare go check them out Richie at vanfare
37:56
and then you got this guy obviously custom vans you guys get to see exactly what I do
38:02
here in the shop so there's no uh no tour needed
38:09
um I'll just do a brief commentary it's gonna be brief anyway because I get it interrupted there's a
38:15
there's a a dog and a somebody checking out the van so I had
38:21
to stop the the tour which is fine um but you know Thomas has got the ca tuned
38:28
bumper on the front we got the lp sixes um
38:33
he's got this awesome camo on the hood and we actually have the Raptor Grill
38:38
installed on his van uh we just didn't didn't have time
38:47
to do it uh there's a Dometic awning that we had to go with
38:53
so I'm gonna make a video about this um but
38:59
the uh let me get back to this video this awning
39:06
for some reason I'm not sure if Flightline Vancouver uh missed this but
39:12
the f-35s awning on a mid-roof so high roof no problem but a mid-roof
39:22
when you expand a non-self-supporting awning
39:27
it barely touches the door so what we had to do is we actually had to go with a Dometic
39:34
self-supporting awning because we couldn't do the Fiamma f45s uh
39:42
so just a heads up on that I do want I do have a video talking about that
39:47
um concern it just has to do with the the angle so
39:52
a high roof you can see would have a steeper angle and I would have a shallower angle because
39:58
it would be have more time for a drop down but since a mid-roof is so low it's a it's immediately impacted by the
40:05
sliding door so yeah future video talking about that
40:12
all right let's go over and hang out with Justin from site 7 campers uh
40:18
again they they have an awesome company super cool guy
40:25
but we go over to his van and I've saw them at a couple shows but I never
40:30
said hey got introduced to him um but they build great Vans they do uh I spoke to one of
40:37
the welders or fabric Fabricators and they do everything in-house so they weld
40:43
all of the um let's get in here
40:48
so as you guys are seeing um so all the cabinets you know that's tube steel I don't think it's aluminum
40:55
I'm pretty sure it might be tube steel and so that's that's all one off welded
41:01
uh because he says all the Vans they do they're pretty much all different and so you know having a cookie cutter
41:09
one they don't really do that too much um because each one has you know a specific layout to the customer
41:16
but if you guys look at the way they do the ceiling I talked to him about how they
41:22
routed the wood out to do that and it's like a double
41:28
um it's like shiplap but it's like a double ship lap so
41:34
if you guys know what shiplap is it's a board then it has like a recessed routered corner so imagine like a double
41:41
recessed routered corner and so that's how they're able to do this uh
41:47
just kind of no C no see the screw
41:53
um where you can't see the nails or the screws that they use to actually hold the ceiling in
42:00
and uh yeah I was really intrigued I was like ha look at that I was like how do you
42:06
how do you do this um so extreme tension to detail
42:12
very very nice van
42:17
and at the end of the ceiling I think they have the nomadic cooling unit so they're they're in-house unit
42:24
which is it's a really good unit it's expensive but it's very good
42:30
now this is the extended I think this is the 170 Sprinter
42:36
um see what else I was going to tell you about this
42:41
the paper Stone so that's a paper Stone countertop and they actually see and see their logo
42:49
into it I thought it was it was so cool I thought it was a chip and then looked closer and it was our logo
42:56
again super clean you know knobs and stuff like that I just I love the
43:02
cleanliness to this van and then you have a huge sleeping area back there you can have a bunch of
43:08
people hang out in this van um
43:14
look at that I mean that dinette is very very big I mean that's almost like a king-sized bed once you break it all
43:19
down but check look up here at the cabinets I mean look at that metal fabrication it's very very nice good job
43:31
um then they get a power system under the seat with victron components and then they got battleborn batteries in the back
43:41
uh let's see here I was yeah this is where he's telling me about the paper Stone I think
43:57
mm-hmm and yeah we talked about the outside
44:05
I wonder if that was I think he was telling me that was a luminous roof rack but they had the f45s on there too
44:12
and yeah that was an awesome
44:18
awesome van build very very nice excellent job next we're talking to Dave
44:27
Dave from campervanseating.com which is also Friedman seating
44:34
so the seat that you see him with his hands on right now that is actually the one that's behind me
44:39
in the van it was just a super cool seat because it
44:46
has you know leather seat it folds flips out of the way
44:52
it's got double uh shoulder harnesses and he was telling me about uh the rate
44:59
the hit the the safety rating or something like that from the head rest maybe some standard
45:05
or whatever and then this part was super cool look
45:11
at that so that is what we're putting in the van behind me so it flips up you got all that room
45:18
and it's just gonna be awesome I don't know if he showed me the table set up there it is
45:25
so this same seat we're going to go inside his van and so the same seat it's just got a camo cover so you could if
45:32
you get this van you can change the cover you don't have to have a leather and then inside
45:38
um here there's a table and it just snaps to the chair it has two different heights so it's an extension of a you
45:45
know work area meal prep whatever you want to do and then it goes down to these two
45:51
sliders that hold it inside the uh the seat itself so you actually have a
45:59
place to store it sometimes when you're doing like Lagoon table mounts you have to fabricate some
46:04
way to hold the table while you're traveling and this thing is it's already integrated right into it
46:12
and then moving on down here um so say bye to Dave and I say hey I'm gonna come back and
46:18
get that seat and then next we move up to uh Josh
46:25
so Josh this was this could not have been more perfect timing
46:31
so Josh uh is from Rome rest and they make custom mattresses and they've
46:37
actually been the mattress industry for a while so they've made medical grade mattresses and then now they're moving into kind of the Overland Adventure
46:43
Market um which is perfect segue and you know Thomas and I have been
46:50
trying to fit something on this bed to make it usable but the Comfort
46:57
wasn't there because it doesn't matter how many memory foam mattresses you make if you don't have something that literally custom makes something
47:03
tailored to your needs it's really hard to find a solution so roam rest is that solution
47:11
they make mattresses that you can buy for Adventure wagon kits for like
47:19
Flatline fanco bed system I think uh I'm pretty sure Rome rest does their
47:26
mattress um looks exactly like the same material so I wouldn't be surprised if that is
47:31
what they're using which that's awesome because it room rest is the quality is
47:37
incredible um I'm not saying this just kind of I met Josh uh Thomas came over quick
47:43
because we had to do a couple things to his van before he went on a trip up north and he had gotten the mattress in
47:48
that Josh custom made so what Josh was doing right in here was measuring everything for this custom mattress this
47:55
one-off custom mattress for this Murphy bed system which is awesome because
48:03
uh it's possible I may do a Murphy bed in here the problem the reason I can't do a Murphy bed in the van behind me is
48:09
because at the current moment has to do with the fridge I'm trying to use this isotherm
48:14
Cruise 130 but it's just too big and I might try and I need an option to do a drawer
48:21
fridge in the kitchen Galley that'll solve the situation but anyway Josh came through and so this
48:28
is uh so everything's ready for a mattress and Thomas's van but
48:35
when he goes to fold it up there's not a solution to fix that so what Josh is doing is he's um going to work with
48:42
Thomas and he already made it but he made a mattress that's a three section mattress so you've got a section over here on the
48:49
right the middle portion and then a section here on the left and that way Thomas just pulls off the
48:55
left and the right throws it in here and then flips the bed up so that's the theory
49:01
um everything has been fixed down right now so we're still working on that but as
49:07
far as the quality of mattress it's so nice
49:14
um so coming over here to his booth uh it's hard to see this on video but
49:21
the texture the mattress is it's very kind you could sleep on this mattress with no sheet that's how that's how
49:26
comfortable it is whatever fabric they're using is is pretty nice
49:32
but if you kind of sneak and look behind Josh you can see that they have these
49:38
tri-fold mattresses for the Winnebago Revel um
49:43
uh uh Storyteller stuff like that so those are you can go on their website
49:50
um and purchase them and I'm just gonna I'm gonna hop over there because
49:56
because I can do that let's see here room rest let's pull this in
50:03
um so you see right here go to Van mattress and go to platforms see Adventure wagon Flatline vanco RB
50:11
components fan wife custom builds and then down here you're gonna pick your bed
50:19
um then they can oh there it is that's the picture I want to show you so see right there so they've got the Revel on the bottom
50:25
left um Storyteller on the top right and then I don't know what the tri-fold and
50:31
Outback are but you see you can you can just you know purchase them right now
50:37
uh so pretty cool so yeah Revel storyteller
50:45
and let's see what else we talked about
50:51
and they actually had like a little mattress you could lay down at the show so if you come to these shows you can actually try out some of this stuff
50:58
um which is cool all right last but not least we have
51:05
Caitlin Caitlin is from romley and I'm really glad I ran into her because
51:12
uh you know we talked outdoorsy we've talked to go camp and so romley uh if I
51:19
have my information correct was created out of the need to ensure vehicles that
51:26
uh we're having trouble being insured by uh regular insurance companies like you
51:34
know uh just just pick one um because it has to do with the
51:39
underwriting it's a little complicated complicated on the underwriting if you're not like an rviaa
51:45
uh man I just butchered that didn't I the RV in Industry uh Association
51:54
um with financing as well as insurance if it's a manufactured RV it's much it's
52:02
pretty much you know straightforward to get uh
52:08
you know Title Insurance all that stuff but when it comes to taking a van and
52:14
now you're repurposing a cargo van or a passenger van to
52:20
you know quote unquote RV um if you don't say anything and you get an
52:26
accident all that stuff inside is not going to be covered and it's potentially you know you're not being upfront with
52:35
the insurance company so that can be another issue so romley came
52:40
in and has a team of Underwriters that understand the industry and I'm not
52:46
you know no affiliation but I'm just explaining what this conversation we had was
52:53
uh we're talking about how it's important to ensure your van because not just all the components inside but
53:00
um you know go ahead and make that transition to a you know an insured RV not a kind of
53:08
half in half out it's a van that I have a bed in type of thing um especially if you have all that money
53:15
put into uh I mean think about it you got your battery system you got your inverter
53:21
your fans your bed system your refrigerator hot water heater
53:26
I mean all this stuff is very expensive you know if you're doing a DIY build you want to be able to ensure all those
53:33
components and then so she is sitting with me and she's walking down uh walking me through
53:40
you know what it takes to do that so she isn't licensed insurance agent so
53:45
she can you know write policies um so for example when this spec build
53:52
gets put in the hands of the new customer uh they can reach out to romley and there's a connection to
54:00
make that whole process go smoothly we did this process on Thomas's van uh
54:09
I don't want to say the old school way but it wasn't as seamless as it needed to be there was uh the bill of materials
54:17
for his whole entire build uh everything had to be itemized and then that itemized uh bill of materials for the
54:25
van they got invoice was you know sent to the bank and then that was a
54:32
copy going to insurance that wanted to see photos of the necessary components
54:37
in the van it was it was not a easy process from what
54:43
Caitlyn tells me the way that you work with them send them photos even if it's
54:48
a progress build they can do it in stages to where it sounds you know about
54:54
not vouching for anything here but it sounds like it's a much smoother process
54:59
um I think kind of learning the the old school way but anyway so yeah that was um Venture
55:08
event Expo in Chattanooga Tennessee and it was it was so awesome
55:13
I'm leaving out a bunch of stuff here so I'm leaving out all the
55:19
the amazing time that I had with uh all the other vendors other builders uh other guys that I met at the the event
55:27
that um you know had their own companies um you know that they're building Vans
55:32
it was really cool to see that some of them are very close to North Carolina uh both North Carolina and Tennessee
55:38
and uh yeah so I just wanted to uh
55:44
work on let's say here just wanted to I don't see anything in the comments tonight so um
55:51
uh we will get those next week and we'll put a uh we'll schedule a little bit
55:56
more hard time for the 7 30 stream next week um
56:01
yeah guys we're just in closing uh for adventure van Expo just want to thank everyone that I met
56:07
there thanks for the conversation learn about new parts and stuff like that it made
56:13
everything just such an awesome trip the opportunity to bring Thomas's van to the
56:19
event was awesome as well and uh yeah pretty much that whole thing
56:24
um anybody out there that's watching this stream maybe this weekend tomorrow or even Christmas day I just want to
56:31
wish you wish you guys a very happy holidays a Merry Christmas and uh we'll be back
56:37
next week so this is not a New Year's End video but uh yeah well not stream
56:42
tomorrow and Sunday and then we'll be back next week and we'll be
56:49
working on the transit behind me so until then I'll see you guys in the next stream
56:57
[Music]
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