ADVENTURE AWAITS! This is my 2006 Dodge Sprinter 3500 T1N converted beautifully into an offgrid camper. Just turned 200,000 miles!!! I had the most wonderful adventure, just me and my dog. Now it’s time to share this adventure mobile with someone else.

The Van:
This is a 2.7L Turbo Diesel Dual rear wheel (C rated tires) Sprinter. The van runs beautifully, but not without faults. Runs, drives, brakes and gets you there. Has a BRAND new battery, brand new windshield, newish brakes and tires and newish tune-up. I recently replaced the rear shocks with KYB adjustable shocks. If the ride is too rough for you, you can adjust these. There isn’t much to say in the bad category. The turbo and turbo actuator has been replaced. It has a trailer hitch. It has been undercoated and sprayed with bed liner. The color is Desert Sand and Black (not perfect). It is chipping away in a few spots, but should be an easy fix. The sound system has been upgraded and it comes equipped with a cell phone signal booster, dash cam and is wired to a backup camera. They call the T1N van the million-mile sprinter. If you keep up with the maintenance and fix things when they brake, these vans tend to run for a long long time. This was produced the year before DEF fluid was introduced, so you will not need DEF.

The bad: The ABS and Speed sensor light is on. I checked this out a little while ago and I was told it was the ABS return pump, so I replaced it, and the light came back on. I drove with these lights on from Massachusetts to California and back twice, through Colorado and Utah, in Telluride, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Texas, Key West and everything in between. I had no issues. It may have something to do with the wheel sensors. At some points, I was over 13,000 ft elevation up and down mountains and hills. There is no check engine light. The doors can be finicky. Sometimes, if you’re parked on an angle, the doors will have trouble closing properly. Otherwise the van is solid. I would go through it before taking it on a long adventure.

The Camper: I built this van. It is equipped with an oven/stove, running hot water, a shower, a portable toilet, a full sized bed, a slide out canopy and a diesel heater. I have camped in the winter in this and was sweating at night with the diesel heater. There is an auxiliary line for the heater running to the fuel tank. There is a roof rack and traction boards. The Mattress is new.

The front seats swivel and the “couch” area converts to a dining area with a butcher block table. There is storage underneath. I would probably recover the seats at some point. They’re fine for now, but they are starting to age.

The water to the sink and shower runs off of a 2.5 Shureflow pump and is heated by a 2.5 gallon Bosch water heater. I am not a fan of this method because it draws a lot of power from the batteries. I had planned to convert it to a marine cholorifier, but never got around to it. I suppose you can also switch to a propane system if you wanted to as well. The lines are all PEX tubing. The toilet is a portable toilet. It works just fine.

The water bank has a 40gallon water tank,, and a 7 gallon grey water tank under the shower. The sink has a separate grey water tank that stores and drains.

The battery bank is (2) 100W LifePO4 battle born batteries. They get fed from a battery isolator when the motor is running and 400 watts of solar energy on the roof with a renogy solar charge controller. They can also be plugged into a 110 system through a power converter. The 12v system is wired to a blue sea 12v fuse block. There is also a 110 fuse box for the water heater, hot water tank heater and the 4 outlets inside the van. They are powered through a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter.

There is a slide out step for the bed under a storage area. It works great for a dog or for assistance getting up into the bed. The cabinets have hydraulic lifts and the drawers are all on slides.

The refrigerator is a 12v/110 chest fridge and freezer that slides out from the kitchen area. The kitchen has a tiled backsplash and a propane oven/stove. You can fit 2 standard propane tanks in the van.

There is an LED Tv with remote that swivels out from the wall near the bed and a vent fan that spins in both directions up ahead. The lighting consists of LED puck lights with two separate dimmer switches.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a hundred things, but this was a home-built project and served its purpose. Make it your own and find your adventure. This is a great platform for a wonderful adventure van.