We’re about two weeks into owning the Promaster now. I’m beyond excited to dive into the build, but it’ll still be a few more weeks before anything major starts taking shape. Since picking up the van, I’ve already placed a bunch of orders for Phase 1 — the MaxxAir fan, solar panels, Starlink, and a few other roof components are either already here or on the way.
Once everything for the roof and exterior shows up, I’ll start tackling the installs. I also reached out to a van builder near Chicago to get a sense of labor pricing for some of the stuff I’m either not confident handling myself or won’t have the time/resources to take on. They’ll likely be installing one or more windows around late June or early July.
So what’s the plan for the next 2–3 months?
I’m heading out of the country for vacation at the end of August, but I also have a weekend in August where I’ll need the van in a usable state. It doesn’t have to be fully finished or fancy — it just needs to be functional enough for that trip. After I get back from vacation, I’ll probably have to hit pause on the build for a few weeks due to missing work and catching back up. Until then, build days will be pretty limited, but I’ll keep posting updates here whenever there’s progress worth sharing.
I'll detail more in the Phase 2 or 3 post, but I've also decided on a few high quality pre-built cabinets. This will speed up the build significantly. I'd like to have the build finished by October of this year.
P.S. I’ve set up a YouTube channel for the van build, but I probably won’t post much there until I’m deeper into the project. Updates will be few and far between early on, but I’ll share videos here once there’s some solid progress to show.
Next week I’ll dive into the planned power system for the build. Until then :waves: