21-YEAR OLD trades Apartment in Seattle for LIFE ON ROAD in SPRINTER VAN
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Matt Sanda lives full time in his camper van that he’s named Ruby. He wanted to adventure more and save on rent. Living in West Seattle paying twenty six hundred a month for a condo didn't really appease him, so he decided to get a van and completely cut that expense out. He found Ruby on Craigslist. Looking every day at various vans, going from Sportsmobiles up to Sprinter vans, non built out, built out. He chose to buy one that was already built out because he didn't necessarily have the time to build one out, and he didn't really know what he needed. That whole process took him about, give or take, a year.
He was torn between getting a Unimog, a Sportsmobile or Sprinter van because he knew that the van, or whatever he was going to get, was going to be his home for an extended amount of time. So he wanted one to fit his needs and after a lot of research he found one and negotiated a great price. As fast as the expense goes, it probably would have come out to the same as building one out. If he were to do it again though, he would have bought the shell, put an air mattress in the back, and slowly built it as he went along.
Ruby is a 2006 Dodge 2500 Sprinter van that just happens to have the Mercedes logo on. She has 180 thousand miles and runs she's brand new. He ended up putting plastidip on it, but if he were to do it over he would have done it 100% differently. His first mistake was that he did it in the sun, which you're not supposed to do. He did it in lines straight from the can and it streaked really bad and gave it this grittiness from the heat. If he were to do it differently he would either pay someone to do it or they go straight Rhino Lining on the full van. The hood wasn't in that good of shape when he got it and he was scared of little little places rusting. The dip ended up giving it more of an aggressive look with the black hood and the black rims. He likes it better than plain white.
Underneath he got a 46 gallon fuel tank. The van averages 24 miles to the gallon so he gets upwards of a thousand miles a tank. It's nice knowing that he can go that kind of distance without having to worry about running out of gas. Come around back he’s got the Propane Shower. For him, the shower was 100% worth getting. It's good for cleaning off gear if it's salty or if you have muddy bikes or if you want to take a shower. He runs it off a little one-pound tank. Sometimes if it's hot enough in the van it'll heat up the water and you won't have to run the heater at all, but the propane will last, give or take, three months. It has a little quick disconnect fitting to make it easy to set up quickly. Once he turns the water on, have it prime and hit the switch, he has a shower. He has different nozzles so he can clean off his van if he wants to.
The van has a big seven foot deep garage under the bed. The space is 33 inches tall, but he wants to raise it more so he can fit his downhill mountain bike straight up in it all the way. He has an 1800 watt inverter, and a 25 gallon water tank. For power, he has two 240ah batteries and then another set of two 240ah batteries in the corner, which gives him a 960ah 12v battery bank in total. To charge it, he has two 250w solar panels. There's also an isolator that charges his house batteries off the alternator when he’s driving.
Inside he’s got his little cutting board that pulls out and his double burner propane stove. He has a drawer that holds pots and pans with a beefy magnet that pulls it back, but he also uses the lock for extra safety measures. After he went off-roading and everything kind of shifted and flew to one side of the van, he implemented locks on cabinets to prevent that from happening. For cooking he has a 12 pound propane tank. Underneath the cabinets he also has a diesel heater that's pulling straight to the van’s fuel tank tank. He can run that for 24 hours straight and it will only use half a gallon of diesel.
He’s got drawers that hold silverware, as well as a sink and garbage underneath. And then the sink top also doubles as a cutting board. Water is fed to the sink with a 12 volt marine grade water pump. He has to fill up water probably once every two weeks. Matt uses a Dometic DC compressor fridge with an assortment of food in there, as well as in his little pantry. An Ideal piece of equipment for van life for Matt is a dust cleaner to clean off your hood or your dashboard, batteries, laptop, solar charger. Same with superglue.
Matt’s favorite part of the van is his little closet that he has under the kitchen seating. It’s a collapsible system that comes out and you can hang your clothes or put various other objects in there. He decided to keep it folded down so he wouldn't have to put them up every time he wanted to grab a sweatshirt or something. On the inside under the table is the doorway to the garage, which is good for putting paddle boards along or surfboard through.
He has a little cassette toilet which he would highly recommend going away from because it isn’t a pleasant process to empty. He’s looking at getting a composting toilet. For sleeping, Matt has a queen-size bed with four inches of foam and then springs underneath for extra comfort. Another thing he would change is all the siding on the walls. There's a million and five screws in there so he can either put some burnt wood up in full-length pieces or he's going to keep it and put some little glow paint on each one of the screws and so when you turn the lights off, it'll be like the night sky.
He would say is that it’s totally worth going for it, but you should definitely do your research. You don't want to get something that you, down the road, figure out that you absolutely hate. Establish a budget. Figure out what your needs are and what you'd all be putting in the van. It's okay to be different, so if you're miserable at your job, quit. Make sure you have some financials saved up. It's scary at first and then when you transition the first week is the most stress-free week you can imagine. His message is to do what you want. Don't be afraid to get off the path of being normal. Sure, a lot of people think it's impractical and stupid to live in a van, but they don't do it and they don't realize the kind of freedom you have and it really helps you out with gaining more financial freedom. If you pay it all up, all you have to pay for is insurance and cell phone and gas. He is easily able to keep it under a thousand a month. If you have a stable job, that's good for putting money away and you have a lot of money for travel. Go cheap at first until you figure out what you really want, and then dial in the setup from there.
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