/building · 2019

Climbing van conversion

van conversion · climbing

In 2019 I converted a Ford Transit Connect into a small climbing van: reflective insulation, plywood storage, and a six-foot bed made from two pet mattresses.

In November 2019 I downsized my life and bought a Ford Transit Connect. The Transit Connect is the small one, which is the point. It parks in a normal space, drives like a car, and fits at a trailhead without announcing itself, and in exchange you get a cargo bay that is barely long enough to lie down in.

The empty cargo bay of a white Ford Transit Connect with the rear doors open — Day one.

Six feet of bed out of two pet mattresses#

The bed came first, because everything else has to fit around it. A full mattress does not fit and a mattress cut down to size falls apart at the cut. What does work is two Purple pet mattresses, which are made of the same material as the human ones, laid end to end into a bed a bit over six feet long.

Two mattresses still in plastic, laid end to end along the insulated floor of the van — Checking the bed length before building anything, and the first plywood layout going in.

Plywood shelving and a stepped platform installed along one side of the cargo bay — Checking the bed length before building anything, and the first plywood layout going in.

The rest of the first build-out is plywood and basic power tools. Reflective insulation on the walls and window panels, a platform along one side, and storage underneath the bed. Nothing here is joinery. It is cut, check, adjust, screw down, and accept that the van is not square anywhere.

The van parked outdoors with the rear doors open, bed made up and climbing gear stowed — What it is for.

The measure of the whole thing is whether you can arrive at a trailhead after dark, open the back, and be asleep in two minutes without moving anything first. That worked, which is why the first version stayed the version for a long time.

cd /building