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It's tempting to fly through the steps of cutting and assembling materials for that new bed frame or any other build project. This talk is about the how and why of protecting yourself while building.

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12 Volt Refrigerators for Campervans

80/20 Aluminum Extrusion on Amazon

👍 Campervan Storage Ideas and Cleaning Tips

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👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

It's easy to let dirt get out of control in the campervan.

I'll help you make it easy to maintain a clean and tidy living space while out on the road.

Episode Transcript

How do I keep my camper van clean?

I find it a constant struggle to keep loose dirt under control in the van, especially my current mini camper. In some ways that's an advantage.

The bigger the van, the easier it is to lose track of messes.

But it's so easy to allow some dirt to accumulate on the floor, and then pretty soon it's in the bedding and then it winds up in cooking gear or wherever

And so try to be constantly vigilant and at war against little piles of dirt here and there, wherever they may come from.

Typically, it's shoes. It could also be something like mountain bike wheels or beach gear, or whatever your sport is… hiking shoes, hiking boots whatever. I mean, it's so easy to track dirt in.

I have a, a little stunt kite I carry around and that thing will sometimes be half full of sand when I bring it in.

Camper Van Cleaning Super Powers

My superpower tools for keeping dirt under control are

• Whisk broom

• Small dust pan

• Handheld 12 volt vacuum cleaner

I keep a whisk broom and dust pan behind the seat pocket in my van. That means it's always within reach. So, that's nice.

And when I see, oh geez, I tracked something in, I can real quick grab the broom and either just whisk it outside or it has a dust pan with it.

And then of course the vacuum cleaner is just awesome. It's so great. When I see some dirt or even if I don't see it, I'll run the 12 volt rechargeable vacuum cleaner over the floor real quick every once in a while.

You can even run it over your dashboard, door panels and pockets and center console… Through your drawer of cooking gear or whatever… any storage box anywhere, you can run that vacuum cleaner through there and reduce dust and dirt very quickly.

But if that's not charged up, I'll grab the whisk broom or if it's just a small mess.

You can head over to Vansage.com and just use the search function to search for “vacuum” and you'll see some of our recommended products for that.

And I'll put the, a link in show notes to camper van storage ideas, an article we wrote with lots of cool cleaning tips as well.

The Number One cause of dirt in your Camper Van

What else? Shoes. This is the next kind of main point here with regard to loose dirt management: How to deal with shoes.

I actually try not to wear shoes in the van at all, and definitely not in the living area. And I'll wear sandals or slippers up front during a long drive.

You know, shoes nasty. No matter how clean they look, they're down on the ground all the time when you're walking around and they're picking up gawd knows what.

And so I'm really diligent about what I do with my shoes when I come in the van.

I try to take them off and then I put them in some kind of a sealed container. And by sealed I just mean, with a lid or in a plastic bag.

And I actually store all my shoes in a plastic bin. That way they're not banging around on the floor and having dirt knocked off of...

✅ Laveo Dry Flush Toilet Pricing and Product Details

Laveo Dry-Flush Toilet owner Doug Rice interview

What we talked about in this episode:

• Background of Doug Rice in the printing industry
• Doug's acquisition of the Dry Flush Toilet company
• The creation and manufacture of the Dry Flush Toilet
• Dry Flush Toilet diversity and use in a multitude of scenarios and environments

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Transcript for Episode #139 of The Campervan Podcast. Interview with Doug Rice of Laveo Dry-Flush Portable Toilets

After a successful career as a groundbreaking entrepreneur in the printing industry, Doug Rice bought a portable toilet company called Laveo Dry Flush, where he continues to exercise his generous, creative approach to business growth.

Please enjoy this candid discussion and glimpse into the methods and experience of a true industry leader and innovator.

James Petersen (author, interviewer): So, Doug Rice! Can we start at the start? You were in the printing business?

Doug Rice, owner of the Laveo Dry-Flush Toilet Company: Yes. In 1979, I graduated from college, went to go to work for my father's packaging company, and he did not have an opening for me and he said, why don't you go start your own company.

Labels like for cupcakes, labels for soup, labels in the grocery stores, shipping labels...

So I basically did that and he thought in one year I'd be broke and I'd come back to him and he'd have an opening.

Well, the interesting thing about the label industry, there's about six label companies on every corner in every city. So I did not realize the competition was so fierce. Very early on, I decided to change the model.

Back then in 1979, 1980, delivery was three weeks minimum. I decided to be five days or less all the time. And everyone thought it would fail. I couldn't maintain that level of service, but I realized I had no plan B, I just couldn't compete with all these people, and not manufacturing labels for the first five years made even more difficult.

So, For 38 years, we ran five days or less, and grew the company exponentially with a plant in Connecticut, plant in North Carolina, shipping cross country.

I traveled all over the country picking up accounts because the onset of club stores made the demand for hurry up and make me some brownies for say, Sam's Club.

The suppliers had a tough time getting labels in time and we always came through including putting a person on an airplane to send 'em across the country with labels just to get them through on time.

We did whatever it took, and it paid off large dividends.

James: Wow, interesting. Briefly, can you give, give us an idea of, of how you overcame that?

Sounds like a longstanding framework that had been place for a long time. There must have been a reason for that. And so how did you kind of beat that problem?

Doug Rice: It's very good analogy, going to the doctor. You're never the only one in the waiting room.

Because doctors like to stack up a waiting room because they don't wanna miss any billing minutes. So conversely, on our label printing operations, no one wants their printing presses to go idle. So they stack up jobs three,...

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• Parker's background building food trucks and vans, his education and more
• The CUULE mobile kitchen unit
• The history of chuck boxes and mobile kitchen units
• How CUULE works with a multitude of vehicle types
• Water supply, cooktops and other mobile gear
• Seeking funding for Moonshot Modules
• Entrepreneurship
• Dometic GO Hydration portable water supply
• Moonshot Modules Home Page

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

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▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• Continued: Designing products to be reproduced on a CNC machine
• Production factors in building custom campervans at Humble Road Vans
• The future of campevan values
• Is there a vanlife and RV life bubble?
• Covid and the Vanlife bubble
• Future plans for Humble Road Vans

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▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• Humble Road Production Campervan Project
• Ram Promaster City as platform for solo campervan travelers
• Ford Transit Connect as Campervan build platform
• Humble Road Vans custom (secret) Campervan air conditioner project
• Campervan Air Conditioners
• Xantrext and Victron invertors
• Designing products to be reproduced on a CNC machine

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

✅ Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting
▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• Continued: Building with 80/20 vs wood
• How to edit an 80/20 Estruded Aluminum cabinet build
• Lock nuts and threadlocker
• The Humble Road process for keeping cabinets and other build features tight and stable, long term
• Humble Road Youtube channel as marketing for Humble Road Custom Vans
• How to sell complex, high end products using Youtube
• Humble Road Production Campervan Project

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

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▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• 
  
• Georges background and experience re learning electrical
• 
  
• 
  
• Campervan toilet design and function
• 
  
• 
  
• What size van should a newbie get?
• 
  
• 
  
• What to expect when transitioning from a home to a van or other RV
• 
  
• 
  
• Building with 80/20 vs wood
• 
  

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

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▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• The near and distant future of electric vans and battery technology
• Humble Road Build Philososhy re RVIA and Yachting Counsel Standards
• Electrical standards and build quality at Humble Road Vans
• Lithionix Victron and Xantrex power systems for campervans
• Wiring solar in series vs parallel for Lithium batteries
• Georges background re learning electrical

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

✅ Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting

▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• Requirements for being a Humble Road Custom Van Client
• Why Humble Road Vans don't include propane (LP Gas) for heat or other appliances
• The current and future state of batteries for campervans
• Humble Road electrical system philosophy for integrity and safety
• The Humble Road Vans Planning and Build Philosophy for long term client satisfaction

👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

✅ Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting

▶️ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel

What we talked about in this episode:

• George's beginnings in building and improving RV's and Campervans
• His career in the still photography and film industries
• CAD. Cardboard Assisted Design: How to pre-plan your campervan layout for perfect end results
• The Humble Road Vans Planning and Build Philosophy for long term client satisfaction

👉 HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

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👉 HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

Do camper vans hold their value?
Are Camper vans worth the money?
Are campervans a good investment?
We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment.

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👉 HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

Do camper vans hold their value?
Are Camper vans worth the money?
Are campervans a good investment?
We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment.

👉 Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting
Do camper vans hold their value?
Are Camper vans worth the money?
Are campervans a good investment?
We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment.
👉 Article: Campervan Maintenance for trouble free Vanlife journeys

👉 Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting

👉 Product: Black and Decker Portable 5000 BTU Free Standing AC

👉 Article: Campervan Air Conditioners: Staying Cool for Vanlife

👉 Podcast Episode: Are there any portable air conditioners that don’t need to be vented?

Hey, thanks for tuning in to the camper van podcast. Once again, I'm glad you're listening. Another question about air conditioning. Can you use a portable air conditioner in a camper van?

So can you use a portable air conditioner and camper van? You, you absolutely can. There are advantages and disadvantages.

The biggest advantage is that there's no installation. You simply go buy a  110 or 240 volt portable air conditioner, the freestanding kind that you see in people's homes and offices and shops, et cetera.

And you stand it up in the van, you plug it in, you run the vent hose that comes with your freestanding, portable air conditioner out through a window or a hole cut in the side of the van. And now you're cooling down at 5,000 BTU's or 7,500 or 10,000 BTUs, depending on how powerful your portable AC unit is.

Another advantage of using a portable air conditioner in a camper van or RV is they're reasonably priced.

There are also several disadvantages. The number one disadvantage is the power consumption. They're not built to be as efficient as the RV , camper and campervan specific AC units that are available such as the ones that Mount to your roof, or the Marine style that mount in cabinets and are vented through the hull or side of your van.

What I mean by that is, the fans and the motors in the RV and Camper van specific air conditioning systems are balanced, lighter weight, they tend to be better insulated and they're designed to withstand the vibration of a motor vehicle such as an RV or Campervan.

RV air conditioners are built to be more quiet and run more efficiently because the manufacturers know that you have less power at your disposal because oftentimes if you're running off battery and solar,

Also, you need the thing to be quiet because it's right above your head in the camper or RV when you're sleeping. So there's another disadvantage of DC powered portable air conditioners. they're going to be louder.

Another disadvantage aside from the power consumption and the noise is that they take up more space. They stand in the middle of the room and, and I don't know about you, but I don't have room for one of those.

That's why so often air conditioning systems are mounted to the roof of campervans because they need to be up and out of the way.

That also solves the venting issue because it's not even in the van. It's outside of the van. So the venting takes care of itself with a camper van air conditioner.

Another issue with regard to portable air conditioners is that they are not durable since they're made for homes, they aren't made to be joggled around In the rolling earthquake that is the back of your camper van.

So aside from the fact that they take up a ton of space, the thing's going to fall apart over time or quickly.

Now, granted, you could set it up on the mattress every time you're driving and make sure that it...

How do I mount a TV in my Campervan? Details and tips for mounting a TV in a campervan or other RV
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👉 Product: PERLESMITH Campervan TV Mount

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👉 Article: Easy Campsite Recipes: 7 One Pot Van Life Meals

👉 Article: Campsite Cooking Equipment: The Ultimate Guide

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👉 Article: Campervan Air Conditioners: Staying Cool for Vanlife

Air conditioners are not magic.

Well, it's that time of year again. No, I don't mean Christmas. I mean, when our camper van air conditioner articles and questions and traffic goes crazy, many more people are much hotter than they normally would be.

So, yeah, I thought I'd answer a couple of common questions. And specifically this one, are there any portable air conditioners that don't need to be vented?

The answer to that question is no. What do I mean by that? Why am I so cursory? Why am I cutting to the chase like that? The answer is no. Well, because when a compressor style air conditioner goes through its compression process and all the other stuff that it does to make warm air cold, it generates heat and that heated air has to go somewhere doesn't it?

The idea that you can plop an air conditioner in the middle of a van or a room without having a vent going outside... What that would mean is that the hot air would just be going back into the room, canceling out the cold air that's being generated at the cost of a lot of power usage.

Therefore, I completely disagree with these small portable compressor units, and I won't name any names other than to say that we don't promote them on Vansage.com.

We're not interested in reviewing them or talking about them. We could make a lot of money from that if we did, because so many people are so excited about a little portable air conditioning unit that you just set on the picnic table and magically it cools down the entire park.

I'm being a little bit glib about that, but. Is that how the marketing is for some of these portable, unvented units where it shows an air conditioner sitting on a table outside.

That's madness. There's no way that can have any impact on you personally, maybe if it's pointed right at your face. And that's what I've heard actually, is that the very low BTU compressor style air conditioners really do need to be within a few inches of one single person for them to work at all.

But I would argue that again, the heat that's generated from producing that small amount of cold air is making the entire van warmer at the same time. Your air conditioner needs to be vented outside so that the hot air doesn't get recirculated back in the room.

Again, they take up so much energy. They require so much power to do their job, that it pays to do air conditioning properly. It really does to an air conditioner that's built for your particular camper van or RV, and make sure that it's set up right with proper venting or it's just mounted on the roof.

Now, there are some really cool Marine style air conditioning units that are mounted inside. Up against the hall of the boat or the outside wall of the van or the floor of the van. And they go in a cabinet and they are vented directly out.

And then you can point the cool air wherever you want, including through what would normally be your heating ducts.

They're expensive for a 5,000 BTU plus unit to really do its job and cool down a very hot van. And oftentimes they are also 240V.

They are kind of pricey, but at some point we plan to review some of those. And kind of create more access because they're a great solution for camper vans. If you have the skill and know how to install them and to maintain them, and you want really high quality air conditioning that isn't...

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👉 Varnished Oriented Strand Board as Flooring

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👉 Article: Campervan Maintenance for trouble free Vanlife journeys

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🚐 Article: Used Campervans for Sale by Owner

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📷 How to Take High-Quality Product Photos With Your Smartphone

📦 Top 39 Order Fulfillment Services

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👉 Campervan Showers for clean & tidy Vanlife

This is a question that people often ask Google, on Forums, on Reddit, Facebook, and other places on the internet.

It's a question that is asked by people who are thinking about getting a camper van or renting one. And so I thought I'd just talk about it for a minute, from that perspective.

Now, obviously, if you. If you have an onboard shower or experience with this I'll include some tips for those who have an onboard shower at the end of the episode.

A shower is a very high value feature, obviously. Yet it's one of those things that's easily overlooked in the lead up to a trip.

So the question, how do you shower in a campervan, is a high value question because it's a high need issue.

And I thought I would just talk about it because it's worth the effort of working through how it is that you plan on showering while out and about in the van.

So my first suggestion is to decide on a few methods and then commit to them and, and do that before you go anywhere.

It doesn't matter if you're renting or owning. If you're building, if you're throwing together a bag of gear to throw in the back of an empty van and head out with your air mattress and your sleeping bag and your Coleman stove and your cooler. And that's it. Now I'm van life. That's great!

Nonetheless, before you do that, stop and think about how you're going to shower, because you're gonna wish you had.

Why you need to be able to shower while traveling in a campervan:

Van life pictures of the guy laying, on top of all of his pile of stuff in his van, reading a novel with his filthy feet sticking out the back... Well, people walk by and get grossed out.

But there are more reasons...

• You're going to feel better when you're clean.
• You'll feel better going to sleep when you're clean
• It saves your clothes
• it saves your bedding.
• It's better for your social life
• it's better for your interactions with whomever you're traveling with

So yeah, humans used to shower and bathe less. But this idea that things used to be better a long time ago, that's just not true, and it doesn't make any sense at all.

We have better healthcare now. We have better equipment, better gear, everything, including how to keep clean and why we should keep clean.

So, so yeah, that's not an argument, in my opinion. I like to should shower at least once every two days, preferably every day. Or at least a washcloth cleanup in between showers every other day.

Moving on...

Let's talk about the types of showers available. Obviously there's the built-in shower such as the shower toilet combo or the dedicated shower inside high roof vans such as a Sprinter or Ram Promaster campervan shower. Awesome. That's the best thing in the world, but it's not absolutely necessary and obviously not available to everyone.

I, I am actually designing a sprinter, 1 44 chassis and my shower is going to be in the floor. And you'll remove a grate, and then lift up a shower ring, attach it to the ceiling and then pull the water supply over from the sink or some other source and shower inside that shower curtain under the ring and it'll drain through the floor.

That's because in a 1 44, everything has to be tucked...

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👉 Cuisinel 12" Inch Cast Iron Frying Pan

👉 More ideas for cooking perfect burgers from Saveur.com

🔥

Campsite Cooking Equipment: The Ultimate Guide at Vansage.com

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👉 The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

👉 Be Ready: FREE Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting List
👉 Amazon Basics Microfiber Cloth 36 Pack
👉 Carrand Deluxe Car Wash 10" Dip Brush with 65" Extension Pole
👉 Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash
👉 Car Talk: Use the search function to find/join lots of great discussions about washing your vehicle

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👉 TICONN Campervan Faraday RFID Signal Blocking Cage
👉Lucky Line RFID Signal Blocking Key Hider Pouch
👉 Campervan Hide a Key Blog Post at Vansage.com

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😴 Best Campervan Mattress for Perfect Vanlife Sleep
👉 Rust Repair Series on The Campervan Podcast

Listen in for how to stay motivated and moving forward on our campervan build.
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Details about choosing the best product niche to sell on Etsy .

👉 Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing
The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows:
👍 BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator 
👍 Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator
👍 ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator 

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When deciding on the best campervan mattress for your unique conversion van build, It’s important to keep the following in mind:

• Do you need to customize the size of your mattress? If so, you’ll need either a foam mattress, or a futon that can be cut.
• If your bed frame allows for a standard mattress size, aka Single, Double, Queen, King…, you can use any mattress style.
• You can create the perfect mattress for your personal sleep needs by combing foam rubber, memory foam, futon mattresses, and wool or cotton mattress toppers.

Probably the number one issue for camper van design and build with regard to beds and mattresses is that it's very likely that your mattress size will be a custom shape.

So that eliminates the vast majority of manufactured beds that aren't basic foam. That is, foam that can be cut.

You'll find on our site an entire episode about how to cut a foam mattress. And I will link to that in show notes. So I won't talk about how to cut foam in this episode, but I will talk about which foam or which type of mattress can be adjusted in size.

But getting back to the best mattress for a camper van, my advice with regard to beds and mattresses in general, because I'm a very light sleeper, personally, the smallest sound wakes me up, and if I'm on an uneven surface or in some way, the surface is uncomfortable, then I'm awake and it's that simple. So beds are very important to me.

My advice, is always to prioritize your bed design and the quality of your mattress over just about everything else in your campervan design and build and that would include the size of course of the bed and the fact that everything lays perfectly flat and smooth so that when your mattress lays flat on the bed platform.

Getting back to specifically which mattress is best for your campervan, It's the one that is going to be most comfortable for you personally.

Okay. If you're one of the very, very fortunate people who can sleep through anything under any circumstances, that's wonderful. I'm so I'm so happy for you for first of all, and I'm also so jealous.

But for the rest of us, we want the mattress that works best for you personally. And so I'm just going to take this from the perspective of kind of the average sleeper. You know, your home mattress is probably going to be at least six inches thick.

Typically in this day and age, more like 10 or 12 inches thick eight would be the absolute minimum for a home-style mattress. And so to make a mattress really work well in a camper van, you know, we want to be in the eight inch range and if you're going with a six inch mattress or thinner, then you'll probably want to combine that with a mattress topper.

Mattress toppers, by the way, can completely transform a basic slab of say six inch foam from something that's barely sleepable into something that's wonderfully comfortable.

For example, a high quality wool topper will allow your

Details about choosing the best product niche to sell on Etsy .

👉 Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing
The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows:
👍 BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator 
👍 Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator
👍 ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator 

What is the best toilet for a campervan travel? A frequently asked question and one that really does need to be thought through carefully.

The best toilet for your campervan will depend on the size of your van:

The best toilet for a minivan campervan

• Folding portable toilet

The best toilet for a low roof cargo van

• Dry Flush portable toilet for campervan
• Small portable cassette toilet

The best toilet for a high roof van such as a Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit or Promaster

• Dry Flush portable toilet for campervan
• Larger size cassette toilet
• Composting toilet

You know, we've got a great article on best portable toilet for campervan travel over at and we talked about just how great it is to have a toilet on board.

👉 Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing

Some of the really obvious advantages are, if you have a toilet on board, you never have to worry about campground toilets or truck stop toilets, restaurant toilets, will they let me use the toilet, et cetera.

So, it's really great to have one on board. So the question of, should you have a portable toilet for campervan on board I think is pretty cut and dried; you definitely should if you can.

I think the answer is yes, unless all you're doing is boondocking and you can always go outside for most people.

Just the issue of being able to relieve yourself in the middle of the night is huge. But there are a lot of other reasons to have a toilet in a campervan.

What is the best portable toilet for campervan travel? It depends on your van and this is a very important thing. So you'll want to give some serious thought to this.

Now, if you've got a Toyota Delica mini campervan, you may not be able to use a toilet inside at all.

I'm running a mini camper right now and while I can relieve myself in the van, I prefer not to. So that's an issue. The smaller the van, the more difficult a toilet becomes. Probably the cheapest and simplest portable toilets for campervans are folding toilet bucket toilets.

And then what I call a full squat tray toilet. I actually prefer this method. A couple of years ago, Squaty-Potty’s for home toilets were all the rage. They made it possible to, instead of sit on on the toilet, you could more or less squat over the toilet and it really is a much healthier way to relieve yourself.

Now, not everybody is physically capable of doing a full depth squat. I hadn't really thought about it until I started lifting weights and got into squatting for, for exercise. And then.

Yeah. Spending time in Asia, where people will sit in a full squat all day while they work. I've seen motor motorcycle mechanics that don't even have a stand they're actually squatting all day long and they can do it and it doesn't destroy their knees. That's a myth. It actually makes your knees more flexible and stronger.

But anyway, I digress, except to say that if all you have is a shallow tray, And maybe a plastic liner, then that can be a great portable toilet for campervan solution. If you have the physical flexibility, you just use your tray and you wrap up whatever waste you've created and take that out to the garbage, which is what most municipalities want that just dumped in the garbage and that's it.

So then moving on… There are also bucket portable toilet for campervan and that's just a toilet seat that fits on a five gallon bucket. You'll want to use plastic bags. Now you can get into a variety of mediums for that. You could do a homemade composting situation with the right medium.

You could use kitty litter and cover it up there. You know, there's a lot of ways you can deal with...

Okay today, we're going to talk about the best 12 volt refrigerator for a minivan camper, aka 12v fridge freezers for mini camper vans.

I’m Well suited to answer this question at the moment, because I'm driving is a Toyota Sienna minivan camper.

The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows:
👍 BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator 
👍 Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator
👍 ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator 

And I love it, it's great. for a while, I was very much considering moving on to a full size, full height, sprinter van, and I will be doing that actually very soon, but, for now, my minivan is awesome and I can't recommend enough people building out minivans for camping because they're just wonderful. It's just great to be able to drive anywhere and park anywhere, but I digress.

We'll get back to the 12 volt refrigerator issue and I'll just talk a bit about what I think the best refrigerators are for minivans and give you some guidelines for your personal mini camper refrigeration needs.

Now, if you're more than one person, you need a larger fridge freezer. It's really that simple, unless you can manage to do all of your cooking or the vast majority of your cooking without having to refrigerate or freeze anything. And that's fine. I mean, if you can do that, awesome. If, if you can get by with just some milk and even then maybe you're into alternative milks and your milk doesn't have to be refrigerated.

That's great, but most of us want fresh food and most of us want some cool drinks and a cold beer now and then. So choose your refrigerator, your 12 volt fridge freezer based on, how many people you have in your van and the kind of cooking you like to do and the foods and drinks you want to keep cold.

As you know, as I've talked about a lot, I love to cook, especially at the campsite, and I want fresh food.

I want fresh want fresh vegetables and cheese and milk and cream and things like that, so that I can cook really great food at the campsite. Even if I'm cooking over the fire, not in the van, not on a portable stove. I still want all of the wonderful, fresh foods. So I sacrifice space because I want a larger minivan 12v fridge freezer.

As far as brands go. If you're in a minivan, you probably have less power supply. And so you might consider something like the iceo icooler, which I've done an episode on already. And I will go ahead and include that in show notes, you'll see a link to our 12 Volt Refrigerator and to the iceco icooler. The reason that I think that's a great way to go is because, A- it's a larger 12 volt fridge freezer and B- it has maxed out insulation.

You can run it less or it runs less to keep your food cold. Caveats to that, with regard to brand and design, you know, Dometic does a great job of building 12 volt fridge freezers in a multitude of sizes with a lot of different features that also...

👉 Western Active Honey Badger Drop Point Folding Flipper Pocket Knives
👉 Opinel Stainless Steel Folding Knives with Beechwood Handle and Safety Ring, Multiple Sizes
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A discussion about every day carry knives for vanlife

👉 Check out our full review of MANY Campervan toilets, including Composting
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A question we get a lot Vansage.com as well as one that I see all over the internet is, Can you use a composting toilet in a camper van?
Yes, but there are pros and cons, as follows:
• Using a composting toilet in a campervan requires a vent hose with an outlet through the floor or side wall
• An electric fan is required to vent the air from the composting toilet reservoir to the outside
• Composting toilets often need to be permanently mounted, not portable
• Composting toilets require a special medium that breaks down human waste
• You cannot put paper or other debris in the campervan composting toilet
Of course like so many things regarding van life and campervan design and build and outfitting, the answer is not cut and dried. It depends on your van and your lifestyle.
So we'll get into a few tips that will help you decide if you can use a composting toilet in a camper van. First of all, some of the advantages of a composting toilet that will help you decide if you can use one in your van.
Probably the biggest advantage is that you can go longer between emptying the reservoir.
So in that way, it's more like a “normal” RV or full-size RV toilet where they fill a black water tank over a long period of time, maybe a week or longer, and then they pull into a dump station and empty the tank all at once and they're done with it. They don't really have to think about it other than cleaning the head.
So that's nice to be able to go a bit longer. And one of the reasons you can do that is because the composting medium masks smell very well if you're handling it properly. We'll get into that in a second here. The medium. That is.
Then another advantage is that there's less environmental impact.
A lot of people are concerned with using a lot of plastic bags or nasty chemicals in a basic folding toilet or a portable cassette toilet. And so they like the idea of creating compost where basically what comes out is dirt, instead of this slurry of again, chemicals and human waste. So that's an advantage as well.
And then the fact that you have this toilet that is not too bad in terms of smell and requires less emptying. It means that you have kind of more normal access to a toilet in your van.
It's important to understand that a composting toilet requires some installation. So basically you can think of it kind of like an air conditioning unit, good air conditioning doesn't result from just putting a freestanding unit in your van and turning it on. You need ducting.
Well, it's the same with a composting toilet. It needs to be ducted.
It also needs a fan to be wired. So the way a composting toilet works is there'll be a fan that pulls air out of the reservoir and then pushes it out through a tube and that tube is connected to a hole that you've either cut in the floor or the side of the van.
There's both wiring and ducting to deal with in terms of installation, those aspects also limit the portability and location, obviously, of your composting toilet.
So you need to choose a spot in your campervan where the toilet will live more or less permanently.
And I say more or less because it is possible to install a composting toilet with some portability and you could even have it completely portable as long as you're willing to have a kind of extension cord and then to run your hose outside each time you use it or to have it where you can...

👉 New snap knives on Amazon
👉 6" x 40" x 82" Foam Rubber on Amazon
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In this episode of The Campervan Podcast from Vansage.com, we answer the questions:
• How do you cut a foam mattress?

• What’s the best DIY way to cut a foam mattress?
• What tools are need to cut foam?
• How do you measure and cut foam?

And this applies to us because so many of us are creating custom campervan mattresses and cushions and bed sections. There are a lot of people asking this question online.

I've cut many pieces of foam myself for custom mattresses, bed sections and cushions. And it's not difficult. You can do it.

The best DIY approach to cutting a foam mattress is with a snap blade knife because the long sharp, thin blade will easily cut through the foam while allowing you to maintain a straight accurate cut.

Conversely, the best professional approach to cutting a foam mattress is with a foam cutting tool. Well, here's the thing with foam cutting tools: They cost several hundred dollars. The only advantages to using a foam cutting tool are that the cut will be slightly more straight or clean, and you can make the cut quickly.

So just real briefly, first of all, there's no reason to spend several hundred dollars on a foam cutting tool, unless you're going to get into the foam cutting business.

Don't spend the several hundred dollars for a tool that you'll use once every several years.

And as far as the speed and accuracy of the cuts go, here's what you're going to find:

When you use your snap blade knife, or some of the other tools I'm about to talk about here, you'll find that the cut will be a little bit imperfect.

You'll find that cut is somewhat imperfect, but you're going to cover it up with a mattress cover or a cushion cover. And no one will be the wiser.

The only people who know that my foam mattress cuts are a little bit jagged are me and you. So don't worry about that. It's not a big deal.

Again, the, the characteristics you're looking for in a cutting tool for foam are
• The knife should be thin and long and very sharp.
• So it is possible to use something other than a $2 snap blade knife, such as a chef's knife or a bread knife, but that knife has to be very, very sharp.

Snap blade knives: The nice thing about them is that they provide a long, straight, very sharp, almost razor-sharp edge. And of course you would want your snap blade knife to be new.

So you extend it all the way. If you're not familiar with snap blade knives, the way that they work is the reason that they are called snap blade knives is because you come out maybe it's an inch and you use this section of blade for a while until it's dull and then you snap it off and then can slide the knife out, another click and there's another section of blade there and it's new and sharp.
Well, when you're cutting foam, you just extend the snap blade knife all the way, and it comes out four or six inches or so.

When cutting foam, the length of the knife doesn't have to be the same as the thickness of your foam.

In other words, if you have a six inch piece of foam, six inch thick piece of foam, your knife, even if it's only three inches long, that's fine because no matter what, you'll need...

This episdode teaches you a simple method for cleaning and storing letttuce and other soft greens so they last for many days or even weeks in your Campervan refrigerator.

👉 Click here to see details and pricing on the OXO Salad Spinner

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A Vanlife guide to how to sell on Etsy for more financial freedom and control of your time.
We focus on what to sell and how to sell as a traveler and remote worker.

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👉Click for E6000 Adhesive Price & Availability
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Don't get stuck waiting for roadside assistance for hours. Get organized and efficient for quick, easy spare tire changes.
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👉 Click here for self etching primer available on Amazon
👉 Click here for RUST CONVERTER available on Amazon
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👉 Click here for self etching primer available on Amazon
👉 Click here for RUST CONVERTER available on Amazon
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📖 The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick, by Seth Godin
👉 Nomadland review at Radioland.com
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Spoilers. Part 2 of 2 of a review of the film 'Nomadland' directed by Chloé Zhao, staring Frances McDormand, based on the book 'Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century' by Jessica Bruder.
👉 Nomadland review at Radioland.com
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🚙 This is part 3 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com.
The 5th and final episode of my interview with Evan Hopkins of Outdoorsy. Today we get into why Evan loves Austin Texas, and he shares his top tips for getting started with renting out your campervan.
🚙 Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy
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🚙 This is part 4 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com.
Today we talk about listing Campervans for rent vs other RV classes, is renting a Mini-van a good idea, and Evan shares a somewhat counter intuitive approach to renting an RV for a relaxing, stress-free getaway.
🚙 Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy
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👉 Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE

🚙 This is part 3 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com.
Today we discuss how Outdoorsy puts RV renters and owners at ease by carefully vetting renters, educating owners, and by implementing thorough insurance coverage.
🚙 Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy
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👉 Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE

🚙 Evan Hopkins, VP of global sales and customer service at Outdoorsy.com talks about how Outdoorsy helps vacationers rent RVs, and owners earn money from their rigs.
🚙 Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy
👉 Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing
👉 Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE

🚙 Evan Hopkins, VP of global sales and customer service at Outdoorsy.com talks about how Outdoorsy helps vacationers rent RVs, and owners earn money from their rigs.
🚙 Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy
👉 Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing
👉 Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE