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.