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We rolled an empty 2021 Mercedes Sprinter 2500 into a garage and stared at cargo walls. Gas, 170-inch wheelbase, high roof. There was no clay and no cabinets. The van was still a map, and the first job was not pretty.

We bought this chassis so the garage under the bed could hold a house bank, a hydronic heater, and Aladdin, while the living space stayed cool with HVAC running when we hike. I designed the systems. Brittany designed the interior. This conversion post is the order of work. The insulation stack, the EcoFlow wiring, and the Nomadic install have their own posts. Use this when you are trying not to do the job in the wrong week.

The van we bought

XPLRE is a 2021 Mercedes Sprinter 2500, gas, 170-inch wheelbase, high roof. The body is white and the hood wrap is black. Two of us live in it. We chose gas because that is the van we could buy and service, and we chose a 170 high-roof so the garage is a real room instead of a slot.

The roof rack is a Flatline Van Co Safari drop-front for Sprinter 170, SKU SP0108B, about $4,595. It sits on the factory points and gives later roof holes something to land against. I am not walking the rack as a product guide.

Who lives in it

Austin and Brittany live in it. Rambi is sixteen and she still comes. Tilli Forkie came out from under a pallet a week before we left. Torro rides behind the driver's seat. Aladdin is fourteen and lives in the garage with the induction exhaust. HVAC stays on while we hike because they stay in the van.

Order of work

We did the work in this sequence, and we would do it again in this sequence.

Roof holes went in first, while the shell was empty: the Nomadic X3 opening, the Arctic Tern electric over the rear bed, and a MaxxAir-style fan. You want those cuts, and those raw edges painted, before wool and clay exist.

Six-layer insulation went on the empty shell next. The stack, in order, is on the insulation post.

The EcoFlow Independence Kit 10kWh went into the garage after that. We paid about $15k. We did not buy Get Set. We did not buy Prepared. How we landed the kit is on the EcoFlow post.

The Nomadic X3 24V went on the roof next, fed from the 48V kit. That install is on the air conditioner post.

Rixen's Comfort Hot hydronic sits in the same garage. Heat lives there with the bank. The hydronic install is its own job.

Brittany's Roman clay, wood, and arches came last. There is no clay recipe here.

Holes before anything closed up

You cut the roof before wool and clay because a leak under finished walls is a demolition job. Do the holes while you can still reach metal from both sides. Paint the raw edge the day you cut it. Only then start coating the shell.

Over the rear bed we installed an Arctic Tern electric skylight. The receipt was $1,905.88: $1,699, plus $99 shipping, plus $107.88 tax. The opening is about 500 by 700 millimeters. The interior faceplate is white. We use it for airflow and to crawl out onto the roof.

We also cut a MaxxAir-style fan hole, white interior faceplate. The Nomadic hole had to exist on this roof at the same time. The air conditioner post owns that install. Do the three roof openings while the van is still a cargo van.

The garage is a systems room

The bed sits on a black 80/20 aluminum frame with a plywood top. Under that lid, the garage is a systems room, not leftover cargo space.

EcoFlow lives on the right side of the bay. Rixen's Comfort Hot lives on the other, a silver reservoir labeled Comfort Hot by Rixen's Enterprises. A framed white fresh-water tank sits with it, with blue and red PEX running out of the bay. Aladdin rides in here, and an induction exhaust fan pulls air out the rear. Batteries, a hydronic heater, and Aladdin sharing a sealed box is a bad experiment, so the fan is part of the room.

Wire the bank on the EcoFlow post. Leave the boiler for its own work. Here I am only naming what shares the bay.

Brittany last

Brittany's work is Roman clay, a wood-slat ceiling, and arches: the garage arch into the living space, the wet-room arch, a pet cutout by the kitchen, and a guitar niche. Clay goes on after the shell is insulated and the systems are in, because you cannot chase a roof leak through finished walls. She waited until the holes were cut, the stack was in, and the garage already held power and heat.

The van stays cool on a hike because we followed that sequence, not because the clay looks finished. The empty-shell stack is next, on the insulation post.