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We:Boost Install Part 2 | NEW! DIY Camper Van Converstion Course Coming Soon Let's talk about it!
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May 3, 2025
NEW! DIY Camper Van Conversion Course Launches October 1st 2024! Don't Miss Out! :https://vanbuilderhq.com/camper-van-conversion-blueprint/ Don't forget to check out Odyssey Custom Vans latest build currently For Sale here: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/ Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help you: 1. If you need a vetted parts list, download our → FREE DIY Van Build Cheatsheet to help you save time and money on Van Parts and Gear: CLICK HERE: https://vanbuilderhq.com/ 2. If you want to get Done-For-You Van Build help, book a → FREE Consultation with my Calendly Link: CLICK HERE: https://calendly.com/odysseycustomvans/intro-call
View Video Transcript
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[Music]
0:26
he [Music]
0:53
hey guys welcome back to the shop today we're going to do two things we're going to finish up installing the wee boost
0:58
and the Ford Transit behind me and we're also officially launching the camper van
1:04
conversion blueprint which is our DIY camper van conversion course so pretty
1:09
excited about that and uh I'm going to dive into that right now so let's hop over here on the website so you guys
1:16
have been asking a lot of questions online both on the uh YouTube in the
1:22
live stream and in the comments so we got a bunch of really good questions to answer and not only that um I wanted to
1:29
start organiz izing all this into a course that you guys can check out it's going to be launching later this year
1:36
October 1st 2024 and again it's the DIY camper van
1:41
conversion course and I'm calling it the camper van conversion blueprint really it's just everything
1:49
that you guys need to know start to finish on how to build your DIY camper van of your
1:54
dreams everything from finding the vehicle to maintenance and taking care
2:00
of the van so this is the page that's Linked In the description below if you
2:05
guys want to go to it and what we're doing is we're doing a pre-order right now so if you guys pre-order the course
2:12
before it launches October 1st you're going to take a discount as a thank you for supporting the course and uh here's
2:20
a couple things that we're actually going to be including in the course when you get it and when it comes out so on
2:27
this page we've got uh some info down here we' got me and then we've got a
2:32
couple of bullet points on what's included in the course and what I want to do right now
2:38
is I'm actually going to hop over to the form my notes you guys are actually going to see my real notes kind of
2:44
building this course out and my plan is I'm going to go through this um probably
2:50
each live stream and if you guys have something that is missing in here that you see something you won't answered
2:57
within the course um that's what I want to do I want to see those questions as well as uh yeah any
3:05
comments you guys have and feedback as this is getting finalized and put together um yeah I think it's going to
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be really exciting a great piece a great something to put in your toolbox doing
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your DIY van conversion and also the DIY van build cheat sheet which we'll talk
3:24
about a little bit later so we're going to go through this uh now this is just our outline um probably going to make a
3:32
changes along the way as far as the details that go into it kind of what stays and what goes but right now we're
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just going to go through step by step each one of these modules just do a quick overview and then we're actually
3:43
going to get into the van here and we're going to finish up the web boost install
3:51
um so I've got all the stuff taken care of on the roof all that good things so um we're going to get back to that so
3:59
that'll be the fun part of the live stream today but right now let's go through
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this all right the DIY camper van conversion course so here's the outline
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so the first thing we're we're going to do is do a big overview of the course
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tell you about all the modules that's in it um that'll be kind of the first section of it and talking about the
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benefits of a DIY camper van conversion so for example you know why would you want to convert a van into a camper van
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um the obvious question is hey I want to want to go out I want to Adventure I want to go see national parks see the US
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um but there's other things where some families that I have built Vans for where they want to go see a newborn or
4:40
their family um and have some type of accommodations that they're not having
4:46
to stay in a hotel uh but they can stay outside of the home but they're still
4:51
with friends and family so um different benefits on what you can get when you do
4:57
your van conversion uh and then overall I would say cost so by doing it DIY
5:03
you're saving the labor cost um you might be able to get some components that are not with big RV
5:11
manufacturers uh and with that you know sometimes DIY can be better than a RV
5:16
manufacturer as far as quality goes um just my opinion but that's kind of the
5:22
be that'll be like the first part then we'll move into actually choosing your van there's all kinds of different vans
5:28
that you guys can choose from you know different size vans low medium high roof
5:33
uh the length of the van um even brand so choosing a van if you're Mercedes fan
5:41
a Ford fan or even a Dodge fan you know each one's going to have their own in particular or particular van that they
5:48
might want to go with um we'll talk about the capabilities you know is are you gonna
5:55
be doing something where you don't need two wheel drive you're gonna be doing a lot of highway driving or you want to have some all-wheel drive or four-wheel
6:01
drive capabilities take it off-road um places like that and then you know do
6:09
you want to start with a used van do you already have a van that you want to convert or are you doing this Clean
6:15
Slate starting with a brand new van we'll talk about some advantages of the new Vans advantages of used vans and
6:22
really think about it they're cargo vans they can be beat up pretty good but they're going to uh withstand that
6:29
because turning into a DIY camper van is not as Extreme as you know a delivery
6:36
van so I would say used vans are actually a pretty good place to start depending on
6:42
your budget but if you're going to be able to do financing or you have saved up uh and you're ready to pull the
6:49
trigger on buying a brand new van then new van is also great as well um don't
6:56
forget new vans come with warranties and when you buy a new van you can purchase an extended warranty uh that covers uh
7:03
gives you ton of coverage so um uh Brian and Robin actually we put a extended
7:10
warranty on this van so even though this van has uh it's a new van it only has now uh
7:19
probably a thousand miles on it you can actually within a three-year window opt in and get a full extended
7:27
warranty that takes you well above 75,000 miles um it pretty much is kind
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of a payto playay type of situation where as much as you want to spend is as long as you can stretch out that
7:39
warranty uh just remember to purchase it within that three-year manufacturer window um so for example that's going to
7:47
be in the course and I can walk you guys through that whole entire thing the whole entire
7:52
process um and then this right here this is a this will be a sneak peek in inside
7:59
the course um I haven't launched this video and I've not posted it on YouTube but uh before John and Susan bought
8:07
their van uh they had me inspect a used van that they were going to consider purchasing and I actually did a full
8:14
start to finish video driving up checking out the van taking photos uh
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inspecting the van you know rust where the person who actually built it before
8:26
they were going to buy it you know what kind of craftsmanship did they have um it was a good second opinion before
8:32
you're spending quite a bit of money on something that you're not really sure um
8:38
is going to be a good investment for you so that video would be is going to be in
8:43
this course and uh yep you can only find it within the DIY camper van
8:50
course next we'll talk about planning and designing your camper van and your build
8:56
layout we'll start with a use case for the vans so identif ify your hauling needs so vans come in different uh
9:04
varieties there's heavy duty or kind of light duty for example my personal
9:10
Adventure van is a 150 chassis so essentially uh it has to do with the
9:15
load that the van can carry think about Springs so the springs and suspension of
9:20
the van are what's going to be carrying that weight and depending on how uh beefed up you have that will kind of be
9:28
a one to one on on the max weight that you can carry so think about what you're going to be doing if you're going to be
9:34
high uh you know doing mountain bikes not that big of a deal um some people
9:39
put motorcycles in the back of their Vans uh and then you have friends family kids
9:44
pets and all that is going to add to the weight of your van and so even though you do your full buildout think about
9:51
who is going to be in your van and what you're going to take and store in your van as you go on
9:58
trips um kind of mentioned that seating and sleeping Arrangements this is going to
10:04
affect the layout of your van so for
10:10
example uh the last couple bills that we've done most have been a East West
10:17
configuration as far as the bed goes John and Susan's opted in for the north south so if you don't know that what I'm
10:23
talking about um that's a good reason to get this course because we're going to go over what what north south bed means
10:30
East West uh it's essentially how what direction you're sleeping in the van now
10:36
depending on what direction you sleep in the van it's going to be less area for you to have your
10:41
kitchen and kind of dining area um or if you flip it around you might be able to
10:47
increase that area if you're going to be bringing additional passengers you're going to want to maximize that space so
10:53
bed configuration is definitely important uh moving on down to bathroom
10:58
options if you have an enclosed bathroom that's going to take up a ton of space versus
11:04
if you just had a portable toilet located underneath the sink for emergencies um kind of two ways to go
11:11
but all these considerations uh need to be done in the planning process before you actually start building your van um
11:18
because it will get expensive if you have to backtrack and change your
11:23
mind uh and then shower options you can save space by doing an outdoor shower um
11:29
but then again if you want that indoor shower or hidden shower consider the
11:34
space that it's going to take up uh sizing appliances and
11:39
components we'll go over choosing the right sink there's tons of different sinks um to choose from uh selecting the
11:47
appropriate appliances so do you guys want to do a 12volt fridge do you want to do a kind of a chest fridge
11:55
uh like the cfx series from uh do Medic or you want to do a higher end isotherm
12:03
Cruise 130 which is in uh Robin and Brian's
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van or maybe you want to do microwave so kind of selecting appliances
12:19
and this is uh yeah so that'll be all covered there then we move into um
12:25
off-grid Power Systems there's Hands-On turn or TurnKey systems
12:33
so Hands-On means you are putting kind of all the Lego pieces together yourself these are individual components and then
12:38
when I talk about TurnKey systems this would be like the ecoflow that John and Susan have um kind of a black box but
12:47
the benefit is installs quicker interface might be nice and simple and
12:52
um if you're a DI wire might be a much more enjoyable install if you're not too
12:58
techsavvy um we'll talk about repairability and
13:03
upgradeability this has to do with working on your van good example if we
13:10
hop on over inside the van the adventure wagon kit notice how I can take the panels off I can access the wiring I can
13:19
put everything back together and take it apart I can take the cabinets down if you've built a
13:26
van and you glued and screwed everything together and you can't take stuff off
13:31
you know consider issues when maybe you have to change up the air conditioner in the
13:36
future or the fan or anything like that you're going to want to make sure that your van uh has some bit of
13:44
repairability upgradeability or access access is really what I guess what I'm trying to
13:51
say um and then we'll also talk about future proofing your power system what kind of components maybe Outlets
13:57
connections you can put so that in the future if you want to add something you have that and you're not having to tear
14:03
through the floor or the ceiling to do that we'll talk about choosing the power system uh and B based on your needs so
14:12
kind to help you put a list together uh or show you how to put a list together uh calculate the wattages um and the
14:20
current coming out of specific devices so that you can kind of get a ballpark
14:26
idea of what your use case uh your power uses is going to be we'll talk about different types of
14:32
Power Systems so what stores your battery uh stores your power your battery but then also what charges your
14:39
battery so solar generator Shore power DC todc charging on the highway um all
14:47
that good stuff maybe a second alternator we're doing a second alternator in this van so we'll we'll talk about that as
14:53
well all this boils into uh budget consideration
15:00
so you know if you really want a lot of power you might want to pull back
15:08
on uh you know highing components as far as bed systems kitchen Gall stuff like
15:14
that or if you have the budget think about maybe adding a little extra for
15:20
some room to grow as your uh van build expands um for John and Susan for
15:26
example they have a 5 KW hour eof flow battery but I designed the space so that
15:33
if they ever wanted to buy another battery in the future to increase their power they can just stack it right on
15:38
top of the battery that's already in there it's designed to do that and it's just it maybe would take 10 minutes to
15:47
make that install so think about that um and then also put that in your budget in
15:54
the future am I going to add another $2,500 to my power system you know kind
16:00
of think about if that's something or the system that you're installing if that's where you want to
16:07
go we'll move into the next part of the build which is building your water system uh we'll talk about trip dur
16:14
duration and water needs so if you're doing Weekender trips maybe not so much storage but if you're going out Arizona
16:21
for a week or so um maybe having a nice 40 gallon tank to uh hold some water
16:28
water while you're out on that really long trip talk about estimating water
16:34
usage you know this this can vary a ton so it you might be taking showers in
16:40
your van or you might not doing any of that you might just be washing your hands and and do some dishes after a
16:47
weekend Camp trip gray water do you want to have ease of use so
16:54
maybe just like a six or seven gallon jurry can or do you actually want to have something to wear maybe going into
16:59
colder environments and you want to have some additional storage so that you're
17:04
not having to you know exit the van every time that your water tank fills up
17:13
um also legal considerations for disposal you may want to have a gray
17:18
water system under your van just for the sole fact that you're camping somewhere where you cannot drain directly to the
17:24
ground um not that I recommend that but I do know people do that but if you
17:29
definitely are in a place you cannot do that having a dedicated gray tank under
17:34
your van um would be a smart thing to have talking about water cons system
17:40
water system components uh water pumps faucets and sinks there's a ton of these out there
17:47
and uh I've kind of have my three favorite that I'll talk about in the
17:52
course um that I like to use and have had really good success with we'll talk about compact versus res style setups so
18:01
this is a good example of are you just doing maybe an outdoor shower or do you want a full kitchenet with a sink um you
18:09
know spray head that s of type of thing room for your induction stove um that
18:15
actually kind of does play into uh your residential style setup hot water let me
18:23
tell you hot water is very nice in a van uh it's something really cool that happens I remember the first time I
18:29
installed a hot water system in a van and uh you're in a van washing your
18:35
hands with hot water it's it's really cool if you haven't done it I'm telling
18:40
you that's that's something that's pretty cool when you get to that point um and not only that if you have hot
18:46
water showering options having a hot shower at a campground out your own van really cool
18:56
um we'll move on to exterior enhancements uh roof rack is a big deal
19:01
for me finding a really good roof rack system and I put in a
19:08
couple a roof rack is kind of like the map of the roof of your van and within
19:16
that map you're going to have your AC air conditioning rooftop unit your max
19:22
fan solar panels maybe some additional rooftop storage and depending on what
19:27
roof rack you choose choose depending on what height of Van you choose and
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depending on what systems how big they are this is all going to play
19:39
into uh the roof rack setup on your van so it's really important um I had talked
19:45
to somebody about this uh on a phone call
19:50
and their question was thinking about doing a roof rack and
19:56
solar later and and I really was pushing them I said hey you know if there's something else we could take off the
20:01
list so that you could get the roof rack now because if you think about it the
20:07
roof rack is going to designate where those holes in the roof of your van are going to be cut out and it's very very
20:13
important because it's really hard to retroactively add an air conditioner or
20:19
add a vent fan it's not impossible but it's challenging because if you do it
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later because you were trying to you know save some cost
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what you're going to find out is you might not be able to maximize the solar that you could have if you had a better
20:36
layout um or you're going to have to sacrifice
20:41
solar for AC for vent fan um it's all connected on the roof
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so in this course I'll teach you the most efficient way in my opinion how to
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do that and what the benefits are um and why I think budgeting for that might be
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really important uh because we talked about up here we talked about you know future proof in your van so that that
21:09
has to do with that um also exterior Storage Solutions so behind me if you guys can see um we
21:17
put in on Robin and Brian's van let's see if this will focus so this is the
21:23
Flatline vanco gear rack with the Flatline vanco uh rear storage box um
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this thing is awesome so I haven't really done a review on this hopefully you guys can
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see this on the video uh but this box will get some up
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close information on this but you can see this is a great way to have that
21:51
outside storage where it's uh wet gear uh other type of camping gear stuff
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you don't want to put inside your van but you do need on your trip so yeah exterior
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Storage Solutions um and then also optional upgrades
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exterior lighting so in this van for example we have the rigid Industries Amber scene light
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and that light is nice because you know think about it there's
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no lights outside ins your van when you buy a cargo van consider adding some optional upgrades then last part on the
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exterior enhancements when you increase the tire size typically your spare tire is not going to fit your new spare tire
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will not fit underneath your van because you've upgraded the tire size it has become larger so you could help get
22:48
better ground clearance that now you're going to have to upgrade to a rear tire carrier so consider that um as something
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to uh have its upgrade in the future okay coming down here at the end
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of this we're going to talk about finalizing your build uh one thing I'm really big on is
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safety safety checks in your van I'm talking about weight of your van making
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sure that your roof rack and everything you put on the roof of your van is not overweight so that you are outside the
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manufacturer's specifications um you'll you would be surprised at the RVs that are out there
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that are extremely overweight um and you just you can't know about it until you get the van
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maybe take it to a cat skills at a gas station or truck stop and actually see
23:43
the number for yourself all the vans that I build I go I take them out I weigh them I know the front axle I know
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the rear axle weight I know my conversion weight I know the rooftop weight
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and uh I'll always advise if we are getting close to that uh with my
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customers and if you're a DIY and making your own van safety is really important
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if you're going 80 M hour in the highway the Dynamics have changed on your van when you have a buildout and it's really
24:19
good to understand what you've done to change those Dynamics or those driving Dynamics when you're driving your van so
24:26
that in the then you have to make abrupt Maneuvers you're not
24:33
uh getting into a a bad situation so safety checks going through
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a whole entire list we'll go over registration legal requirements um this
24:45
is going to be the more detailed section where we talk about uh insuring your van uh people who can insure your van
24:52
converting your van from a regular van to an RV um
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banking uh let's see what else we'll go over yeah that kind of
25:08
stuff and then uh local regulations um I had that note
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there we'll pass that um and then finally personalizing your camper van so
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you've got your van you built it out youve got all the bells and whistles on it you've got it insured it's on the
25:27
road and you're ready to take it out now you're going to be putting all your stuff your bags your gears your mountain
25:34
bikes your camper van mattress you're loading up the water you know how do you make your feel
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your van feel homey and then at the same time we'll uh we round it out with
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actually talking about um how do you do maintenance and
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upkeep so other than adding personal touches like pillows and stuff like that and or I don't know whatever you want to
26:00
put in your van um we'll pass it up and talk about uh
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maintenance and upkeep so checking your tires rotation
26:12
uh Tire load ratings which are really important you do not want to buy new
26:17
tires and then the tire shop Goofs gets the wrong load rating for your van makes
26:22
it very dangerous that's going to be in the course as well regular maintenance tips um simple stuff as far as you know
26:30
oil changes Tire Care uh suspension and then other items for
26:36
long-term care you know checking for leaks tightening up bolts
26:42
uh along those lines and um just give your van tip top shape so when you go to
26:48
take it out on the road it's kind of a worry free experience um then we'll talk about some
26:55
real life examples some case studies so the van that I've actually uh handbuilt
27:00
in this shop um we'll talk about U
27:05
different components that some clients have used uh some troubleshooting some common issues and all that good stuff
27:13
and then last but not least this is the last there it is let's see there we go um we'll do a
27:20
big summary uh and we have we'll have additional tools and resources so some
27:26
recommended books websites and forums speaking of forums we will be including a forum in this course it'll be a
27:32
private Forum where everyone that gets the course has access to it and they're going to be able to ask questions we'll
27:39
put questions that come in from the YouTube channel we'll put questions that I come across when I'm installing stuff
27:45
and uh then we'll also do live q&as with um myself like we're doing right now
27:51
with the live stream and uh you know really this is just building a community of support so
27:59
that if you have a question why you get into the DIY process there's a place to go there's a resource uh on top of the
28:07
course itself which is explaining each one of these parts of the van billing
28:12
process so that was a mouthful hope you enjoyed
28:17
that uh really excited to check out this course and again this is the DIY camper
28:26
van conversion course called camper van conversion blueprint and you guys can pre-order it
28:32
right now all you got to do is click on this link and uh I'm actually going
28:38
to open this in a new tab and uh yeah if you guys would like
28:43
to purchase this we're doing a pre-order discount and you can buy it now that
28:50
gives you a spot and then when October 1st comes around you'll get the course at a discount for pre- ornate and yeah
28:58
that discount is just a thank you for getting this course out there and um
29:03
really looking forward to finalizing wrapping this up and putting it together for you guys in the meantime
29:10
if you have any questions the stuff that we went over stuff that you did not see here but you
29:16
want in the course put that in the comments below type that into a live
29:22
stream um I want to hear the feedback all right
29:28
that's going to wrap it up for the camper van conversion blueprint the new DIY camper van course that I am
29:35
launching on October 1st so look forward to that we'll be talking about it in every live
29:40
stream um before we get back to the van I just want to talk real quick about the
29:46
van uh the DIY van build cheat sheet if you guys have been on the live stream before you'll know what this is but for
29:53
you that don't know I put together uh an Excel sheet and and I organized it it's
29:58
the last three years of all of my purchases that have come to the shop and it's just a quick and easy way to glance
30:05
at everything that I bought it's organized power Hardware um bolts nut
30:12
screws solar panels water pumps uh and it's over 250 curated items
30:20
they're all organized and it's always going to be growing so we're getting ready to do another revamp of this list
30:27
and and no joke probably going to be adding about 100 120 more items to this
30:34
list there's so much stuff that I've figured I've learned before after making this one um so it's cool it's going to
30:42
be a sheet that's just going to always be growing and uh as I thank you it's
30:48
free it's 100% free and uh it's to help you save time and money with a curated
30:54
products list and the time and money you save is because you're going to be able to reference a seat a sheet of stuff
31:00
that I've actually bought and not only that if you guys have any questions always catch me on the live stream you
31:06
can ask about what products I recommend and uh be happy to answer that for you
31:11
but again it's completely free all you got to do is put your name an email address it'll be delivered right to your inbox and I think it'll really help you
31:17
out on your DIY camper van build as well and also this will be included um
31:26
in the course as well so if you don't pick it up right now um it'll also be in the course
31:33
itself but why not get it right now it's free name email address come right to
31:39
you and uh check it out okay let's get back to actually
31:45
building Vans we're going to hop over here to the Ford Transit Adventure van the
31:53
glacier build Robin and Brian's van and I'm going to actually go back to my face
32:01
right here and show you this is our wee boost setup so we
32:08
have our wee boost um this is going up to our rooftop antenna this is the plug that's going to
32:15
go inside the van to a remote little remote antenna right
32:21
here so what you do is you take this and bring it as close to your cell phone
32:27
device but this guy right here is going to stay in the van now the reason we did this is
32:33
again we want something that we can work on take in and out of the van uh if
32:38
you're going to leave the van for a long time and you want to maybe take this and use it for use it somewhere else I
32:43
installed this for Brian Robin so that they can do that so all they got to do is clip these two plastic pieces off
32:49
this comes out this unplugs you will have to remove that bolt but I did that so it doesn't flop
32:55
around in the van this is the cigarette uh plug that we put in the
33:01
other day we still retain the Quick Charge USB
33:06
3.0 Port right there it's a 65 wat um charger it's got an on and off button
33:12
really cool comes with a USBC um and USB a cable and then we got
33:17
the cigarette lighter which is the power for the Wei boost and it has its own
33:23
independent off on switch so see nice and neat
33:29
we even didn't put screws through the back we did our half inch uh trust head screws which are work
33:37
trust head screws work really well in a van if you guys are trying to find uh trust head screws just look it
33:46
up and then these two ports if you guys are wondering what those are that is the
33:52
12vt power supply that's switchable for the indirect lighting underneath the cabinets
34:00
all right so I'm going to move to the van and we are going
34:09
to get this back installed hopefully I don't have to take off
34:16
the we boost to kind of put this all back together
34:23
um let's see here trying to figure out where to start
34:44
first okay what you can't see inside the van
34:53
is uh is this how you know this is
34:59
live I had a whole I've got a whole presentation
35:04
right here for you and uh I didn't even show it to you it's because I talked about the course and I've got Let's see
35:11
we G to go back is this it let's see does this
35:18
work there we go okay let's go to the computer let's look
35:26
up we boost [Music] and all right it's possible I may cut
35:34
this video and make this a wee boost install video right after we getting done
35:40
talking um I'll probably do that in post all right so now we are talking
35:47
about the web Boost cell signal
35:56
booster all right wee boost I always wondered why they called it weeb boost
36:01
the company is Wilson Electronics and I got the shipment to my shop and it
36:08
said Wilson Electronics and I said what who is that and so I didn't know it was wee boost so I just kind of put it to
36:13
the side and then I opened it and it was the wee boost so if you see something come in the wh mail and it says Wilson
36:19
Electronics it does not say wee boost it's your we boost all right why do you need a cell
36:25
signal booster you're probably building it Venture van you're probably up in the mountains and your signal is maybe one
36:33
bar with a Wei boost you can actually increase it maybe one or two bars
36:40
um and yeah so this is the website the antenna that we
36:48
purchased um so Brian did a little bit of research on this and he brought this
36:53
to my attention the ones that they've had uh
36:59
let's see here RV these are the ones that they you normally see now the drive reach was not
37:07
available that's a new one uh but these other
37:13
ones they had a fixed mounting position and what Brian found was the
37:20
drive reach Overland has this articulating arm and I actually thought this was a dial where you loosen it and
37:27
then tighten it back in place but it it's really it's better you pull it out
37:32
and it indexes in three positions vertical 45° and flat for storage so
37:40
that's pretty cool and I actually thought this was a DI checking my audio um so this is the
37:49
kit this is what you're going to get in the kit so you'll get the antenna it's a spring-loaded antenna um you're going to
37:55
get some cable cord um all this good stuff some clips
38:01
now uh I've overdone it with the mounting system I made my own mounting system out of 8020 but that's just me
38:09
there are enough components in here to where you can do your own mounting setup
38:14
uh whether it's on a roof rack rail or you drill some holes and use the additional Hardware that they have to
38:19
mount the antenna all right so that's what it is
38:25
um it's about 550 bucks and
38:32
uh that's how much it cost um let's see what else here it works
38:38
with an& T-Mobile Verizon US Cellular and
38:44
Dish two-year
38:49
warranty and so here's a couple things that I did not
38:55
use I was going to direct re wire it with the 12volt power supply if I had
39:00
done that um it would not been uh it would just made things a
39:06
little more complicated as far as taking it out putting it back in um this
39:12
Hardware cable the picture does not uh show what it looks like in real
39:19
life in real life the module is a big chunky box and they don't show that in
39:25
this photo which is odd yeah it's a big chunky box takes up a lot of room so
39:31
that's why I went with making the cigarette lighter work um you can also have a mast
39:37
extension not sure why you would need a mast extension the length of the Mast
39:42
right now on top of the van I'm going to go ahead and measure it I'm going tell you how high it is from the pivot arm to the
39:50
top of the
39:55
antenna so from the pivot arm to the top of the antenna is 28
40:01
in so that's over 2 feet I'm not sure why
40:07
you would want to add an additional 18 Ines to that so that's just my opinion um the cable they give
40:15
you is is long as well so
40:21
yeah but yeah it's called Drive reach Overland and we're going to take you
40:27
through through the install so a couple things on the van
40:32
we're going to get ready to cut a hole right here in the van and just like we cut the other holes
40:40
in our van we need to get a center punch we need to uh make sure that underneath
40:48
this inside the van this area right here is not obstructed when we drill through
40:54
it we're not going to cut through cables or insulation or anything like that so we're just going to go step by step and
41:02
talk about this so first you need to not only find
41:08
out where you're going to drill but just like these right here my solar gland fittings that I have you're
41:15
going to need to figure out what you're going to use to waterproof this
41:21
connection um a product that I don't recommend I may change my mind in the
41:28
future but for right now um let's see what this thing's called it's
41:34
a rooftop solar
41:52
box okay if you guys see this
41:59
uh although it uses the same fittings here as I use I don't like the
42:05
way this has people installed this because you have to cut a massive hole
42:11
in your roof then make sure that you seal it and then you still only have two
42:16
small wires that can come out um now there's other companies you have
42:24
like this one as well uh I just my personal opinion on these
42:30
is they're they're too big and the hole to get the cable to rotate inside is
42:36
just has to be cut out as too big again just my personal opinion but I don't
42:42
like this right here um what I like to do is do each one of those gland
42:50
fittings individually so that if something happens to one cable I'm not having to disturb that whole entire box
42:57
in order to repair fix or uh maintain something so I like to
43:05
use that however coming to this product
43:10
this is called a company called scan strut it's a cable seill this cable seill has these little
43:21
uh grommets um let's see if I can find
43:34
okay so each kit is going to come with three different size grommets you get 2
43:40
to 3 mm 4 to 5 and 6 to 8 millimet diameter and this is what you're looking
43:47
at right there so see that so if I shine it to light you see how there is a uh
43:54
slit so that slit is what's going to go over your
44:00
cable so see how it comes over your cable and closes so for example if I
44:06
have this say this USB cable is for my roof I would open up this and it wraps
44:13
around my cable and then the fitting actually compresses on
44:18
that so see how that works and that squeezes it and seals the cable so the
44:24
benefit of this is if this cable is what I wanted to put on my roof see how the this is very big but
44:33
my hole is smaller so the diameter of this plug helps me
44:39
to feed that cable through the
44:44
roof um by cutting out a larger hole and then wrapping this around right here see
44:52
you wrap it and seal and then what I do is anything that doesn't seal
44:57
so you see how there's still like some room right there um all you want to do is take some
45:03
black RTV sealant squirt it in there and then
45:09
compress this and let it squeeze and ooze out wipe it off and then let it dry
45:14
for about a couple hours and perfect water seill they also make ones for very
45:21
tiny cables man this new that I'm using this
45:27
is the Sony zve -10 and it has this thing called Product showcase and uh it
45:35
is working fantastic so basically what happens is if I take this grommet and I show it to the camera it immediately
45:41
knows that I want to focus on this and then when I take it away comes back to my face so it's pretty
45:48
cool anyway let's go back to this so we got the scan strut cable seal three
45:55
different sizes the compression fitting and then this part that actually bolts into the
46:01
van all right let's uh walk through this so find out where we want to locate it
46:08
so we want to locate it right here so we take this punch down tool we
46:13
punch it down and we take that foam piece and use
46:19
it as a template to punch our through our four holes or Center three
46:25
sides go under the and make sure that we have nothing that we're going to drill through um that's either expensive or
46:34
dangerous I put a bunch of Blues painters tape and what this is going to do
46:39
is catch all of my fine metal filings make sure they don't get in the
46:45
van then I'm going to drill the hole out only drill the hole out the size of
46:52
whatever you're using so for example if this cable is what you are using and this is say it's 10 mm wide only drill
47:00
it out 10 mm the instructions on this are going to tell you to do a different
47:07
one like 16 Mill don't do that just do the minimum
47:12
amount of hole cut out on your roof the tool I have here this is called a deur tool it takes the burs off so
47:21
that when you put the cable up there you don't have to sand it and the cable won't actually cut
47:28
itself takes all the sharp edges off next this is the cable for reference see
47:35
how I only made the hole slightly bigger than this
47:41
cable next we're going to do Rust preventive we're taking some Rustoleum and we are making sure we
47:49
paint all of the holes that we just did extremely important make sure you do
47:54
this let it dry then we boost gives you this little bottle of Loctite and you're going to
48:01
Loctite the Top Antenna to the extension bar extension bar to the bar where this
48:10
cable has it's a very special fitting that the cable can exit uh and then the end is where
48:16
there's a spring that you're going to attach to it so for example that Spring right there you're
48:23
going to attach to it um um and there's the spring right
48:29
there so I'm going to talk to uh Brian and Robin and what I'm going to ask them
48:37
is you may want to remove this antenna at some time so I've locked tied the top
48:44
middle but I've left and top middle and bottom but I've left this very bottom
48:49
thread not lock tighted it's just hand tightened in there and I've put it so
48:56
that they want to ever take this in for the night say they stay in like a hotel room or something like that all they got
49:03
to do is unscrew this into the cable unscrew this by hand and the whole antenna can come off and go inside if
49:10
you're in like a kind know questionable area for example
49:17
um here is the first attempt at a bracket and
49:23
then I modified it a little bit and I love using 8020 because what I
49:32
needed to do is I needed to have the antenna set in and off of the rail and by doing a
49:38
double uh bracket here I was able to achieve that so this is what it kind of
49:44
looks like um put lock washers lock tied that this
49:51
is the start to the install on their roof so you can see over here on the
49:57
right hand side I have this mounted through the flatl vanco roof rack and uh
50:03
this 5/16 stainless steel bolt fits very well in the track um I did have to open
50:10
up this one because of the powder coating but don't worry about drilling through the roof rack remember it's
50:18
completely aluminum so you're not going to have any rust issues so I did that and then The Next
50:27
Step was uh just bolting everything in nice and clean as you can see this photo shows it at a 45 degree angle so you got
50:34
three different positions um so this is what you would unhook um if you wanted to take it uh
50:42
take this completely off I did have to reorganize a little
50:47
bit of the solar uh cables so getting back to this now that
50:52
I did all that this is dry so I took the double-sided tape off of this and I was
50:59
able to stick it down uh what you want to do is dip your
51:05
screws so these are you need to have these are uh you need like a trusted screw sheet metal screw that is not
51:12
self-tapping and then you want to make the hole smaller than the screw and
51:18
really get a good bite on this so dip it in that and then you're
51:23
going to put it through the hole and this when you screw it in and it sets it will be a nice weatherproof
51:33
seal so you can see how the screws went through the ceiling or the roof of the van and kind of that RTV has oozed out
51:41
around it so that not only is going to seal the bolt but it actually does a good job at kind of acting as like a
51:48
Loctite for the bolt so they don't uh work their way
51:53
loose um so that's the wire coming through and I just kind of set it inside so it wouldn't be putting weight on it
52:01
this is what it looks like after I screw down from the top we're feeding the cap on and right
52:09
there you can see we've got the grommet so The Grommet is in
52:14
place and then next we're just fitting everything together and right here this is the RTV
52:23
oozing out and then next what I did is I took my
52:28
finger and I smeared it around here to seal this complete area and the Slit and
52:36
the inside of the cable and then I just let that set up um after it set up I kind of cleaned
52:42
and wiped everything down and this is the way it looks so this right
52:50
here uh what's nice is there is a kick stand for the wee boost um it looks a
52:56
little silly to me it's made out of plastic uh it doesn't have any way to mount it it's just kind of like a rubber
53:01
kickstand that Clips on this pole uh conveniently the solar wires
53:07
that are coming out of the van pad this into the we Boost from vibrating so it's a nice positive touch
53:15
when you click it in and uh yeah this is the final
53:20
install looks really good
53:26
think you see the 8020 over there obviously you know before delivery we're going to clean up their van wash the
53:32
roof and all that stuff get all that dust out but that's the
53:40
uh the wire coming from the roof it's got a nice easy path zip tide
53:46
along here this is where you're going to be able to disconnect it it's okay for this to be exposed to the weather they
53:53
do provide a heat shrink sleeve if you are doing a permanent
53:58
install um I do want this to be have the potential to be removed by the customer
54:04
if if they want to and uh if they don't you can take me five minutes to
54:11
heat shrink it and I can lock tight the antenna so that you can't take it off so
54:16
it's really just about what you know Brian and Robin would like to do with this
54:21
um this install and let another view from the
54:29
side of the 8020 and uh like I said from here to the
54:35
end of this antenna is 28 in it just barely fit behind this uh rail uh rear Rail and just behind the
54:46
solar panel so we really had just enough room to make that
54:54
work all right right let's see that is okay and and this is what it looks like
55:00
from the ground so I wanted to make sure it was inset so you couldn't when it was laying down you couldn't see it from
55:06
outside of the van but if uh Brian and
55:11
Robin climb up the ladder they can conveniently just go over here pop
55:17
it up and get their wee boost antenna up and
55:23
running all right that is uh
55:29
yeah so that live stream took a little bit longer than I thought
55:34
so um running about an hour here so let's close this live stream out I know
55:39
you guys are anxious to see this we'll say that for another video um
55:47
where I'm going to finish this up only because it's getting late tonight all right guys I want to thank
55:53
you so much for watching this live stream remember check out the DIY conversion course that we are launching
56:00
October 1st you will get a discount if you go ahead and pre-order that course
56:05
um from now until October 1st when it comes out um just as to thank you for supporting the channel and purchasing
56:12
the course early uh I'm going to hop on over to the website real quick so that
56:17
you guys can see the course one more time again it's the camper van conversion blueprint it's the name of
56:24
the course um right here the pre-order link all you got to do is click on it in your
56:31
information go ahead and reserve it and uh come October 1st you're going to have
56:37
an awesome all-in-one DIY camper van conversion guide uh course DIY C
56:45
conversion course it's going to help you with the whole entire process I'm going to be teaching the whole entire thing
56:51
we'll have all kinds of different modules again check out the website for all all the details that we talked about
56:57
earlier at the beginning of this live stream remember pre-order save to day or
57:03
the course it launches October four 1st and uh I'm really excited to uh get it
57:11
put together for you guys um also the DIY van build cheat sheet want you guys
57:16
to check that out it's free put your name and email address I think it'll really also help you out with your DIY M
57:23
van conversion and uh last last but not least make sure to subscribe to Van
57:29
Builder HQ click that notification Bell so you don't miss any time that I'm going live I go live at random times
57:35
depending on what I'm building in the shop and it's always a good time for you guys to ask questions uh live while I'm
57:41
on the computer ask away I'll get the best answer I can for you um if we're
57:47
not live and you're watching this video after we've gone live put comments in the comment section that can be
57:53
questions um what I'm really looking forward to is I want to hear you guys' feedback on
57:58
course uh question suggestions so stuff that you guys would suggest that is in
58:04
the course I didn't go over put those questions in the comments and I'd be happy to talk about those in a future
58:11
live stream all right because it's going to get late tonight or it's getting late right now we're going to wrap this live
58:17
stream up uh thanks again so much for watching check out those links in the description below and we'll see you guys
58:22
on the next live stream [Music]
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