“New Dog” Van Build Photo Archive

A photo collection of our van build process transforming a 2006 Dodge Sprinter into a camper van.

10 min readFeb 7, 2025

All photos in this document were created by the author and are posted here generally raw and unaltered.

Van #1

Our van build started with a misstep. We purchased a tall and extended 2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 (T1N), sight unseen, from a broker in California. (Story here). The description claimed the van was in good condition with extremely low mileage. The van itself was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As it turns out, the van was badly rusted. I drove it back to California and sold it quickly. Lucky for us, this era of Sprinter had become a hot commodity by the year 2018.

Our first van purchased May 2018: a 2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 (T1N).

The rust was particularly bad underneath the front door steps . This is a common problem with T1Ns.

Van #2

Several weeks after driving my new and rusted van back to San Francisco, California, a friend spotted a similar specimen for sale nearby in San Jose. It was a 2006 Dodge Sprinter 3500 (T1N), tall and extended, with low mileage. This time I could take a good look before laying down our money. I took the added precaution of running it by a mechanic as well. We were well satisfied and made our second van purchase.

The second van was already outfitted with the beginnings of another build: the subfloor, one wall and a roof fan. I stripped it of all but the fan, prepped it for my own build and began the long process of our conversion.

Our second van, a 2006 Dodge Sprinter 3500 (T1N).

This is a snapshot of a portion of the original partial build that came with the van. The floor insulation was far too thick for me at 6' 4". The van cargo area height measured 6' 3" before laying in the floor and insulation.

Building the shell of our new home

The first steps were cleaning up any rust and covering any bare metal with a rust preventative. We’d learned our lesson. These van’s are prone to rust. From there it was installing everything that required cutting or drilling through the walls or the ceiling of the van, smoothing and coating all those raw edges. I installed a side window, a second fan, our L-Track “roof rack” and hinged mounts for our solar panels. I also cut a hole through the ceiling as a passthrough for wires from the top of the van.

Next came the addition of sound deadener, insulation, subfloor, walls and ceiling. We set down a sheet of Marmoleum as our floor covering. Before laying in the walls, the electrical wires were threaded along the van’s structural supports, converging on the rear passenger side of the van where our electrical cabinet would eventually be placed. The wiring had to be carefully thought out, any future alterations that required power would rely on this buried grid of wires behind the walls. Each wire connection was triple secured with crimped butt connectors that included both glue and heat shrink plastic to hug the wires beyond the metal crimp.

All nuts and bolts passing through the van ceiling were secured with thread lock and all outer seems and connection points between mounted hardware and the roof panel were well sealed with lap sealant. The L-Track was further sealed with silicone and requires regular inspection and care.

After sanding away any spots of interior rust, I coated all bare metal with rust inhibitor.

I used a heavy application of sound deadener.

This is my first cut through the skin of the van, adding a window behind the driver’s side door.

The window placement. This one has a lower panel that opens on a hinge.

This is a glimpse of the roof assembly before the lap sealant was applied. These are three of the four 100w solar panels, (the middle two are hinged to lift toward either side of the van, the front panel is permanently fixed, and the rear panel, where I’m sitting, is removable). The white fan is our new MaxxAir fan and the black one is the Fantastic Fan that came with the purchase. (This was eventually replaced due to leaking). The aluminum rails along each side are L-Track, which accepts a range of different attachments. We use this as our roof rack.

I chose to install a roof mounted electrical box, for several reasons. The primary reason was to use this single roof penetration to run the solar panel wires, a coaxial cable for the cellular booster antenna and an additional power wire that can be clipped into roof mounted lights. These wires are stored in the open chamber of the box and are covered by a waterproof lid.

We opted to upgrade our wheels from 15" to 16" rims, choosing high walled All Terrain tires to provide an additional two inches of ground clearance. The upgrade entailed rebuilding and slightly shifting placement of the spare tire cage below.

Our floor insulation is minimal due to height constraints in the van. I’m already too tall to stand upright in the back. I used 1/2" polyiso board in the grooves and spray foam shaved flat over the ridges.

A 1/8" Neoprene sheet was laid over top as a temperature transfer break, as well as for dampening and a wee bit of cushion.

The subfloor topper of 1/2" plywood, screwed down through the van floor.

This is a shot of spray foam placed between the inner and outer metal walls of the van’s lower section, located near the wheel well. I used this hidden compartment to channel air from a gap near the wheel well to an uncapped hole underneath the van. The spray foam was used to constrain the flow of air between these two points. I replaced the round cap underneath with a screened vent cap. The interior gap near the wheel well would soon be used as an exhaust port for our toilet cabinet. The air is pushed through with a 3v fan at the base of the cabinet.

Most of the van was insulated with Thinsulate. I used it in the walls, doors and all crossbeam supports. Thinsulate is hydrophobic and can be fit into small compartments and around moving hardware.

We used polyiso board throughout the high roof cap of the van. The board has a very high R-Value for maximum insulation. I glued up 1" board throughout, then layered 1/2" board on top with channels cut through for wiring. Gaps were filled with spray foam.

DC and AC wire runs converging in the back where the electrical cabinet would be placed. The wires were run through the wall support channels where possible. Note the threaded tee nuts, silver rings in black paint, where the future bed frame support would be attached. The nuts took advantage of stamped holes that were part of the design of the van, intended for some unknown mounting option.

The interior, ready for its wooden casing. All wire connections were secured with heat shrink adhesive butt splice connectors, connecting each wire with a metal crimp, glue and heat shrunk plastic that holds tight to the insulation beyond the crimp. All sharp edged metal that wires passed through was first threaded with flexible plastic conduit to prevent wire wear. We used marine grade Romex throughout for our wiring. Each run was carefully calculated to install the correct wire gauge for its potential power draw and each wire was color coded at each end. Once the walls were up there would be no more access!

The ceiling was paneled with 1/4" luan plywood, made with marine grade glues to guard against any damage from future roof penetration water leaks. The embedded lights are warm dimmable LEDs, wired in two, 4 light banks with separate switches.

Most of the walls were paneled with 1/2" plywood, screwed directly to the van’s braces.

The subfloor was sanded smooth, but first all the cracks, crevices and screw indentations were filled with putty.

A single sheet of Marmoleum was cut to fit the floor — Inspection conducted by the Old Dog.

Marmoleum flooring glued and set with a heavy roller. All the edges were caulked with silicone to create an inpenetrable surface for water intrusion.

The floor came in at under 1 1/4". The ceiling panel is 1/4" thick. That leaves me 6' 1 1/2" of vertical room for my 6' 4" frame. That’s not ideal, but the best I could do in the circumstances.

Building the components of the home

Having a heavy duty van, I chose to build heavy and sturdy. I gambled that I could engineer the build to my liking on the first go around, building solid walls that we could lean on and mount things to. We wanted solid cabinets and built stations that didn’t move when used heavily or if tasked to support our body weight. Most of the components, cabinets and “stations” were built of high quality baltic birch, a voidless plywood with a clear consistent grain that is light in color and handsome. We used a combination of 3/4" and 1/2" plywood.

We built the bed frame of metal angle iron that holds a bunkie board, a slatted, breathable bed frame. The metal frame carries the board 1/4" above the minimum height required to fit our bikes under the bed. A wooden frame would have taken up precious inches that would rob from either our seated-in-bed headroom or the thickness of the mattress. We opted for a full queen mattress permanently mounted lengthwise in the van. At 6' 4", sleeping width-wise wasn’t going to work for me. The extra inches alongside the mattress were used for two drop storage cabinets, where bags of clothes, etc. are stored, their draw strings clipped to drawer pulls accessible at the top.

The top horizontal counter surfaces of our cook and sink stations are wrapped in copper flashing for an interesting surface that cleans easily and shifts color with use. The visible vertical surface of our cabinet drawers are cut from a single piece of plywood (per drawer section) so the natural wood grain flows from one drawer to another. Our drawers all lock with nautical hardware that locks flush without any protrusions to snag clothing.

We opted to build in both a toilet cabinet and an internal insulated propane cabinet that prevents any propane leak at the tank from intruding into the van. The toilet has a fan that pushes air from the cabinet interior through the walls of the van to exhaust outside, underneath the van. We built a set of drawers topped by a table that is mounted underneath the bed. The table slides out to serve as our work desktop and dinner table, with the aforementioned cabinets functioning as seats. The lower of the two drawers in this cabinet is mounted on sliders and wheels. It pulls out to create a bridge between the two seats, forming a wide seating/lounging area.

We have used two types of wall covering over the plywood walls. On the broken surface of the window wall, we’ve installed fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). The sink station is along this wall and the FRP behind it is easy to clean. We also covered the back doors with this material to hold up against the weather when the doors are open. The door wall is covered with a wool carpet, hand loomed with bold stripes that bring color into the interior. The stripes on the walls and flooring visually lengthen the van interior, giving the illusion of greater space. The sliding door is covered in the luan plywood of the ceiling, this also stands up to the weather when the door is open and exposed to rain.

This is our removable metal bed frame, constructed for a queen size bed. It sits on a length of angle iron that is bolted through the plywood to the van’s horizontal wall brace. The frame was lifted to the desired height along the wall by adding a 2x4 to the top of the angle iron. The right side of the bed frame is supported by a short wall that separates the under-bed garage from the small slice of storage accessible from above. We call this our drop storage. We store clothing, etc. in bags in this narrow space, with the draw strings of each secured near the top. The hole in the wall near the wheel well is the exhaust port for the toilet.

I separated the drop storage into two separate areas and installed drawer pulls to accept carabiners attached to each bag’s draw string.

One half of our overhead cabinets. This section will hold one compartment of toiletries and three compartments of food. The adjoining section has two large compartments for clothing and a small electronics compartment.

The overhead cabinet installed. Prior to installation we glued up fiber reinforced plastic wall covering as a protective barrier.

On the other wall we glued up wool carpeting. This carpeting was hand loomed in Ukraine, hence some minor misalignment. The weavers allowed us to swap out some colors to better match our flooring. Both the floor and this wall are striped lengthwise along the van to help visually extend it.

A view from the back showing the early build with all the interior skin applied. The rear doors were also paneled with wood and covered with fiber reinforced plastic which sheds water when exposed to the weather.

This is the seven chamber pot, named for it’s seven discreet sections: the soon to be lidded seat section, the TP storage section, the sawdust hold, the exhaust fan chamber, the pee bottle chamber, the upper bucket chamber and the sealed off lower bucket chamber that also serves as an air passage through to the sink station. Once lidded, the toilet serves as a seat to accompany the pull out tabletop.

At this point I’ve mounted the propane/shoe storage cabinet and the non-lidded toilet cabinet. Between and under the bed is mounted a two drawer cabinet with a pull out table topper. To the right I’ve built in a three bottle wine closet. Fronting the drawers and the wine closet is a low wall with two entry points, one for garbage and one (behind me) for cool under-bed pantry storage.

Next came the cook station with a copper covered counter top. The stove resides behind the top pull down door when not in use, providing extra usable counter space. The cook station overlaps the side door entrance to aid in ventilation and to provide visual stimulation to the cook. The overlap reduces the side door opening to two feet . Our Maxxair fan is mounted above and in front of the cook station for quick ventilation. The two holes in the lower right of the cabinet are vents to our propane alarm.

The cook station in all its glory. The left hand door swings out to provide potential future access to a small sized microwave oven. There is an outlet in the back. The copper nub in the back, near the wall, is what we call the periscope. It serves as a propane access point for the stove.

This is the periscope, lifted to reveal the propane connector to the stove.

The lower under-bed storage drawer, what we call “deep space”, is topped with a board and serves to connect our two seats to form a comfortable lounge area.

Preparing the sink station copper countertop.

This view of our sink station reveals our limited on board water storage. The blue bottles store seven gallons of potable water each. The green bottle captures our grey water. I installed a foot pump instead of an electric pump to help conserve water. It shortly became natural to pump just the right amount of water needed to rinse a dish. The downside is the work involved with filling large containers with water. To the right of the sink is our junk drawer, designed to overlap our cooler.

Alongside the sink station, I installed what we call our lift table. It’s a copper topped counter extension that lifts up out of the way to allow us to rotate the driver’s seat around to face back. The table can also be placed mid-height to serve as a standing work station.

The lift table in a mid-height position.

This view captures the length of unistrut, to the right, that serves as the anchor point for the lift table at its various positions. The table has an adjustable metal mount that tightens down on the unistrut. Another mount, not pictured, sits above the table, designed to anchor a secondary computer monitor. This view also shows the rolling base under the cooler. This allows easier access to the cooler bins as well as the ability to change its orientation when the driver’s seat is rotated.

To the right is our above-cab storage with blackout drapes hanging below. When not deployed, the drapes stuff easily out of the way into the storage unit.

The electrical cabinet was placed in back, away from the main living quarters. It can be opened by dropping the front face of the cabinet to allow full access to the electronics inside, or from the side. A storage drawer was added inside to better make use of extra room within.

Inside the cabinet: 2 lithium 100ah batteries, a Victron MPPT controller, a Sterling Power battery to battery charger, a Samlex inverter and a separate converter for AC to DC power charging.

In our build, everything is carried in the interior of the van. Instead of a large water tank mounted below or in the back, we have opted for two seven gallon jugs stored under the sink next to a six gallon grey water tank. This allows us to easily fill our jugs at filtered water stations outside or inside of grocery stores, etc. We use a foot pump for maximum control of our water flow. No water flows unless there is something below the faucet to make use of it. When necessary, we augment our minimal on-board water supply with thin plastic water containers that fold flat and stash neatly away when not in use.

Our stove is a simple, extra wide, Eureka propane camp stove. The stove can be set up either inside or outdoors and is easy to level in the interior of the van, even when we are parked on a slanted surface. The cook station counter is usable space when the stove is not deployed. The propane stove connector is hidden in a periscope feature that is easily accessible but out of the way when not in use. We use a 20 lb tank for the stove that will last for four to six months. We carry two refillable one pound tanks that are used outside with either the stove or our grill. The propane grill allows us the freedom to cook outside, even when there are fire restrictions.

Our garage area is packed tightly, carrying two bikes, two inflatable paddle-boards and all our backpacking gear. There is also a box full of tools, another full of outdoor cooking gear and another of toys. We also store recovery and road emergency gear, a table, two chairs, a ladder and several sets of bocce balls in this space.