With some new upgrades and having a much too long winter this year, it was time to hit the road and do some climbing in the Boondocker demo van. We were excited to get it out on the road again with the graphics and new features.

First stop on our list was, as it many times is, Bishop California. We did some hiking and biking around the Bishop area, thoroughly enjoying the ease of storing the bikes in the van. And with the wind in the Bishop area while we were there, it was hard to beat having the cushy interior to lounge about after a long ride or hike.

Boondocker in the Buttermilk Country

Boondocker in the Buttermilk Country

After some cardio workouts in Bishop, we headed down to Los Angeles to visit with friends and show the van off. One of the best things about the Mercedes/Dodge Sprinter van is it’s friendly street manners. Even driving on crowded Santa Monica streets is no problem – you almost feel like a regular compact car.

Finally it was time to hit the rocks. Vegas was next in order. Climbing in the Vegas area is incredible. The first two days we spent in Black Velvet Canyon in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It’s fantastic to be able to climb in 70° temps in the canyons while Vegas roasts at over 100°!

Boondocker camped in Lovell Canyon outside Pahrump/Las Vegas

After doing some multi-pitch, it was up to Mt. Charleston, just north of Las Vegas. At over 8,000′ elevation, it’s always nice and cool up there. It’s an absolutely breathtaking area, with tall limestone walls and pine trees everywhere. Honestly, one of the most beautiful climbing areas anywhere, in our opinion! While a bit “manufactured”, the climbing is fantastic. Super athletic and difficult, it was nice to be able to spend some quality time here and actually send some routes.

Dave climbing Straight Outta' Compton, 5.13a at Mt. Charleston, Nevada

Boondocker camped at Mt. Charleston, Nevada

After Mt. Charleston, it was off to Maple Canyon Utah, always fun climbing. On the way, we cruised through Zion National Park. Zion never fails to impress – one of these days we’ll have to make a trip specifically to do some canyoneering and climbing there!

Boondocker in Zion National Park

Boondocker in Zion National Park

Five days of luxurious camping and climbing in Maple Canyon yielded us some good, fun sends, but no pictures. I guess the familiarity and fun of Maple Canyon had us focused on the climbing and not sharing the Craftsman Vans experience through the camera and our blog! One of the highlights of Maple Canyon, however, was the unexpected 10 or 15 people that showed up in our camp to check out the Boondocker van. We’re used to giving tours of the van to a couple people, but 15 people at once was fun!

Until the next trip…

“This thing is a freakin’ mansion!”. Yeah, we tend to agree, but we like to call it a “van-sion”. Brian was pretty psyched to be heading out with us on the inaugural run of the “Boondocker” demo van. And the van really does feel like a mansion – at least to us! The plan for this month is for 3 dudes to hit the road – first to Ten Sleep Wyoming to climb for 10 days. Then head down to Maple Canyon Utah to get some steeper climbing in. After that, it’s over to the Sierra’s in California for, yup, more climbing, but also some backpacking and cycling.

The first thing to do was to fill up and weigh the van. With 3 guys, a bike, tons of climbing gear, full tanks of gas and water, the van weighed in at 8300 pounds. Not bad – still decently under the chassis GVWR.

Driving the van, we easily forget that it’s nearly 4 tons of steel. Changing lanes, cornering, parking lots – the Sprinter takes it all in stride, making life easy. The van is nice and quiet on the road too. It’s easy to hear the driver/passenger conversations even when you’re sitting in the back seat, 6 feet behind them and doing 65 mph!

We just hit Missoula Montana and have only had to fill up once in Lewiston Idaho. Thus far, we’re getting ~21 miles per gallon, driving 65 mph on the freeways, and 55 mph on the smaller highways. Yes, the Dodge Sprinter chassis and it’s Mercedes diesel engine is by far the best way to travel!

Here’re some photos of the Boondocker on it’s maiden voyage. Nothing like diving straight into the deep end with the project rig!

Boondocker on the road near Wild Iris climbing area

Boondocker camped somewhere in northern Utah

Boondocker at the trailhead to Arrow Canyon outside Las Vegas

Parked at the Clark Mountain climbing area

On the way down from the Clark Mountain climbing area - yeehaw!

Outside Kennedy Meadows California

It’s about the little things. After living in our vans so much of the time, we’ve come up with a bunch of little things that, we think, make Boondocker much more livable while on the road. Here are some of the little things we think help:

• Bookcase – we add a small bookcase and map holder behind the drivers seat. When you are heading to new crags or a new mountain biking area and have a few guidebooks to carry, this makes life a lot easier.
• Gear Loops – in the cargo area, we’ve installed velcro gear loops on the walls. This allows you to keep camp chairs and other gear up, out of the way. It gives you more space for bikes and backpacks in the main cargo area.
• Tuffy Lock Box – Who doesn’t travel without expensive equipment and worry about it in their vehicle these days? We all go backpacking and leave our laptops, cameras and other expensive items in the van. So we’ve tried to ease fears of theft by installing a large Tuffy lockbox in the cargo area of Boondocker. Not only does it give you peace of mind, but it also doubles as a table for cooking or preparing food on when you extend the drawer out.
• Blackout Curtains – Boondocker comes equipped with blackout curtains, for those times when you want to sleep in past sunrise! Sorry, we don’t think the standard RV curtains cut it. Not only do blackout curtains let you sleep in, but they also make it easier to stealth camp, since people outside the van can’t tell someone is inside with the lights on.
• Under-Sofa Storage – Instead of filling the under-sofa area with water tanks and other electronic gear, we’ve left it open. Now you’ve got a whole lotta’ storage available inside the cabin for food, gear or whatever else you can think of.
• 12v Electrical Outlets – We like efficiency, so whenever possible, we use 12v adapters for all our electronic gizmos instead of running off the household AC inverter. Laptops, iPhones, and a lot of other equipment can be run directly off of 12v cigarette lighter style adapters. To make that easier, we add at least four 12v DC outlets throughout the van interior.
• Reading Lights – We’ve placed four reading lights that can be aimed on the ceiliing of the van. Aim these wherever you are at and you have a nice, warm light to read by. While these are standard bulbs and aren’t the most efficient, from what we’ve seen, the light is just so much more pleasant to live in. LED’s still have a harsh light that we think just isn’t worth the gains in efficiency. Plus, with the 450 amp hours of battery and 520w of solar, these little lights aren’t going to make much of a dent in our power!
• Flush Mount Lights – For over the sink/kitchen area, we’ve used flush mount fluorescent lights. They are efficient and good looking, fill the area well, and have a reasonably warm temperature. No cheap looking surface mount lights here.

Reading lights and flush-mount lights

Under-sofa storage

All in all, we think it’s ideas like this that make the Boondocker van the most functional, comfortable conversion camper van on the market.

Now that we have the electrics and plumbing roughed in, it’s time to get the walls up. First off, we’re going with Ultratouch Cotton insulation instead of fiberglass in the walls. We think this is a better choice environmentally as well as for it’s sound deadening and insulation properties. In the ceiling, we’re using 2″ closed cell foam with a layer of reflective bubble insulation below. This should keep the heat out when the sun is baking the top of the van, and it very light weight, keeping our center of gravity lower than if we were to heavier fiberglass or cotton insulation on the ceiling. And finally, we like to cover the walls with fabric – it gives the interior of the van a softer, more comfortable feel.

And now that the walls are up, we’re installing the bed platform in the rear of the van. The bed platform is 6′ long and the full width of the van. We’ve placed the bed platform just high enough to fit bikes underneath, in the cargo compartment. The wall under the bed platform has been crafted to have two cabinets. We’re also using the bed platform wall to house the electrical components like the solar charge controller, water tank gauge, on/off switch for the water pump, radio amplifier and subwoofer and the inverter remote control unit.

In front of the bed platform wall goes the two person sofa. This sofa folds down into a bed. Because the sofa isn’t as wide as the van, we’ve created a cubby hole at the same level as the sofa. When the sofa folds down into a bed, it is even with the cubby top and can sleep another person.

And finally, we’re installing cabinetry for the galley. The cabinetry gives us four drawers for ample storage in the galley. We’re also using a sink which is plenty large for rinsing fry pans – try that in the standard itty bitty sinks found in most conversions! And next to the four drawers, we’re going with a four cubic foot Norcold refrigerator. We don’t mess around with the smaller fridges – with our battery bank and solar system, we’ve got plenty of juice to run it. And with 3 or 4 people road tripping in this van, it’s definitely good to have space for fresh food.

And the finished product…