Cooking & Water
Due to the limited space in the van we had to change our plans for a kitchen with a sink. We ended up deciding to just use a propane stove, cooler, and water jugs. We are going to be using the stove outside the van on a folding table. For groceries we are doing a clear bin under the bed for dry food and a cooler for cold foods. Right now we have two water containers. One is a 5 gallon Igloo water cooler, this will be used just for drinking water and have ice in it. We also have a 6 gallon jerry can water container, this will be mostly for cooking and cleaning.
Power
When it came to power in the van we wanted to do solar panels on the roof but once we got the van and started working we didn’t have the budget. Instead we decided to get a portable battery that we will charge off of the 12v in the van. We got a 240 watt battery that will work for what we need. later on we are going to add solar to the van and have a full electrical system.
Lighting
Since we don’t have a full system to run the lights off of we needed to figure out a way to have lights. We talked about doing string lights that used batteries but didn’t want to constantly be buying batteries. We decided to go with outdoor patio lights that have their own small solar panel. The lights are 24 feet with shatterproof bulbs. We put the solar panel in the back window of the van, we chose this window cause there is no tint on the rear windows and so we can control them from the bed. We got hooks that we screwed into the walls of the van that the lights hang on.
