You add insulation to a van for the same reasons you add it to a house, to reduce the transfer of thermal and sound energy. Many established methods for insulating traditional homes exist. Unfortunately most of these methods don’t apply to vans as they have metal walls, lots of single pane windows, and lack large HVAC systems.

For the #vanlife community insulation is the most debated topic. You have many options: fiberglass, rigid foam board, Reflectix, recycled denim, spray foam, 3M Thinsulate, vapor barriers, CLD sound deadening material, and many more. Each material has pros and cons and doing the necessary research can be overwhelming.

Tricia here, writing my first post! Over the weekend we tackled the daunting task of permanently modifying Gidget by installing a roof fan. Neither of us have had the pleasure of cutting a huge hole in a vehicle, so it was a little nerve-wracking.

When planning our van build we decided not to install a rooftop air conditioning unit. They tend to remove any notions of stealth, are loud, and need a lot of power to operate. But we also want some level of comfort so we settled on a roof fan. After significant research we discovered there is only 2 serious manufactures: Fan-Tastic and MaxxAir. We went with the MaxxAir MAXXFAN Deluxe 7000K fan because the lid can be open when its raining and when driving.

A swivel seat adapter allows your front factory seats to turn and face the back of the van. In such a small space being able to have one of us sit in the passenger seat and face the living area is crucial.

We bought the swivel adapter from SwivelsRus as that is the only provider in the US. These swivels are for the base level mechanical seats, not the 10-way power seats which we have. But this was the only option available so we bought it anyways with the hope we could make it work.