Plumbing Design for Van Life Conversion Build Camper or boondocking How to do a van build series

Vanlife without a little water would be a difficult. Just as every van build or conversion will be different in some way, so will the way the van lifers use their water. Some will want a complete system just like home, with lots of fresh water on board. The may want a toilet plumbed into the system. This will require a black water tank. Because vanlife is mobile, there will need to be holding tanks for all the water in the van. A holding tank for fresh, unused water. And then at least one tank for the water that have been used, or even the liquid waste you generate as you travel. Water is heavy - weighing in at 1 kilogram per liter or 3.78 pounds per US gallon. Carrying a lot of water will impact the performance of your van. You’ll need to locate it in the correct place for balance and ride, and you’ll need to make provisions for sloshing as the levels of the tanks change along the road. One of the best things that happened in our van build was not being able to complete the plumbing before our first major road trip. We expected to need a lot of water. We thought we wanted an indoor and an outdoor shower. We thought our hot water heater would be used for showers inside and out and doing dishes and washing stuff. We bought tanks for fresh water and tanks for waste water. In turns out that after 8 weeks living in the van, driving almost 8000 kms. We use the van very differently than expected. Not once did we want to shower in the van, in fact not once did we use a toilet in the van. We only made sandwiches inside. We didn’t cook one proper meal indoors and never did the dishes inside. I recognize that not all van lifers will live as we do, but we bought and did the van conversion because we really enjoy the outdoors. We live as if we are camping but use the van to carry all our stuff and to relax and sleep in. Now that it’s time to do the plumbing we have much better idea of what we need .

[@vandaddy-o2732]

It's amazing, to me at least, how much goes into every single little thing one does in the course of a build. Tasks or projects I look at and think will take a day or two end up taking 5-6. If course the first one is always the hardest.

[@VanOfAction]

Van Daddy-O - so true - everything is a "one off" - LOL that's why we didn't have plumbing last year !!!! be well

[@garykreutzer1239]

I always run blue and red pex. Makes it real easy to distinguish one from the other. I live in rural NM and I can relate to not being able to source locally. Thank God for the internet. Don't know if your going to winterize your rig, but if you do, keep in mind to heat tape and insulate BEFORE you run your pipes. Once they are in, it's MUCH harder. Voice of experience speaks...

[@VanOfAction]

LOL Gary - thanks for sharing !!! I love it when experience speaks !!! I kept my plumbing pretty centralized and the runs are easily identifiable. ( and I had less waste ) but coloured pipes would make sense in more complicated install. Because we're in the mountains winter driving is not on my agenda .... winterizing for me a bit different ..... here's the video czcams.com/video/yaEyihiL2lw/video.html ..... there was some experience speaking some wisdom in that one too ...... be well .... Dave