Let’s Talk… $$$ How Much our DIY Van Build Cost.
One of the most common questions we get asked about the van that we are currently living in is, “How much did it cost?”
This is a little bit of a complicated question, and honestly, it doesn't have a quick and easy answer. We don’t specifically like throwing a number out without context because we have seen too many people leverage unrealistic budgets for more views online or to seem more accessible to the majority of people. Unfortunately, misrepresenting how much a build will cost only leads to unrealistic expectations as other DIYers approach their builds and budgets. For this reason, we’d like to take a deeper dive into some of the associated costs of our build, where we were able to save some money, and where our expenses added up the most. Before we dive into this, I would like to say that prices have drastically changed in the last few years. Some vehicles and products have almost doubled with the recent boom in vanlife (at least in the US). This blog post will be based on current retail prices in 2023 and is aimed at a DIY builder who is interested in what it would cost to build a van similar to ours right now. For reference, we did all of the work on our van ourselves, including the heater, charging the AC, and skylight and window installations.
The first and largest cost of any build (unless you are having the van built professionally) will typically be the vehicle itself. Used vans (Ram, Ford, Mercedes) with decent mileage will range anywhere from $25,000 USD to $55,000 USD, or a little more for an AWD package. If you do choose to go the used van route, we would highly recommend sticking to about 20–30k miles or so. With a purchase in this range that has good maintenance records, you are typically going to get a van that will last several hundred thousand miles after the build. Going higher will obviously save money but may end up costing more for maintenance in the long run. Our first van cost $7,200 USD (in 2018), but we have also put about $8,000 into maintenance now and have had breakdowns on the road and other issues that can be a real drag when trying to travel.
A new van will range anywhere from about $50k for a shorter-wheelbase Promaster or 2WD Transit to $75-100k for an AWD Transit or Sprinter. Personally, we chose to go on the lower end of the new vehicle route with a Promaster 159 EXT that cost $62,000 MSRP. We spent $61,750 with all our taxes and fees to register it (we had a relationship with the dealership from previous purchases and were able to waive the dock fee and some other fees while purchasing). While looking at used 159 extended Promasters, we were seeing anything from 50k to 57k for the van model we wanted and ultimately decided that the new vehicle was the way to go for only 5k extra and no mileage or wear. We also got the warranty with it, which gives us a little extra peace of mind while out on the road. We were able to pick up another customer order that they backed out of, so they had already placed a deposit on it. Essentially, we saved ourselves the initial deposit by doing this. The van we chose also had been debadged, was painted black, and had a rim, camera, and CarPlay package that we liked a lot, so we pulled the trigger. We spent several months watching it before making an offer and partially financing this van (for a few months; we have since paid it off). Obviously, $60k is a huge expense right up front, but if you are looking to purchase a new or lightly used van, these are really the prices you should be expecting to pay in the current market.So you spent $60K and are sitting in your empty cargo van questioning everything… but wait, there’s more…
Next comes the build.
For ease of understanding and a simpler read, I will condense this down to five major costs of the build.
Constriction materials (insulation, lumber, windows, skylights, etc.)
Appliances (refrigerator, oven, stove, heater, AC, sink, faucet)
Electrical (batteries, solar, wiring, other components)
Water (tanks, pipes, water heater, fittings, pump, filter)
Finishes and Misc. (paint, veneer, fabric, rattan, tools, screws, mistakes, epoxy, anything that you didn’t initially plan for)
Obviously, depending on the features and finishes of the build, it could cost a lot more or less than you anticipated. For example, an AC unit can cost $8k retail to purchase and install, whereas vented windows and a MaxxAir fan are only $600. Choosing the features and materials that work best for you is the number one reason to build your own van and is an important part of the budgeting process. Since we had built out 11 vans previously, we knew that we wanted to max out our systems and go heavier on the appliances since we anticipate living in this van for the next 5+ years full time.
Construction materials - $17,670
This is one of the parts of a build that will add up quickly if you aren’t careful. Since we had a fair amount of building experience, we knew this would cost us the most since we wanted to use the highest quality materials possible. We chose to go with baltic birch plywood for our main construction, prioritize excellent insulation, and add some more luxury finishes like heated tile floors. We also added a full shower to this build and used kerdi board for waterproofing, which is a phenomenal product but quite expensive. This pushed the price of the basic materials up quite a bit. We also included not one but two boat hatches as skylights, which cost a total of $2,900, including the shade and adapter rings. Features like this add up the fastest and should be the first to go if you are on a stricter budget, in our opinion! The total materials break down roughly into:
Insulation: $1,200
Lumber: $7,000
Skylights and windows: $3,500
Floors, Hardware, Shower, and Extras: $6,000
Appliances - $11,500
The appliances can be costly as well, but this is where you have the most wiggle room to tailor a van specifically to your needs. One of the things we did to save money on this particular part of the build was source some components. We bought our sink, faucet, and AC unit used, and our refrigerator was refurbished. It’s always a bit of a risk to buy from eBay like this, but luckily, in our case, it worked out in our favor, and we were able to save over $6,000 by doing this. For the sake of this budget, I have included what these appliances would cost if you purchased them retail from the manufacturer.
Heater: $2,300
AC, $7,000 (The unit we installed costs $7,000 retail, but we were able to find one used on eBay for $1,750.)
Refrigerator: $1,300
Oven: $400
Sink/Faucet: $450
Electrical - $17,500
The electrical part of the build can end up being very expensive and will sneak up on you if you aren’t careful. While it may feel like you have made your largest purchase when you add your batteries to your cart, the truth is, the wiring, other components, and solar can cost just as much, if not more! We completely maxed out the electrical system in our van, installing an 810 amp hour system, a Cerbo GX, a 3000w Viltron inverter, and many other extras that added up quickly. On top of this, running a system at 12 volts requires large cables that can cost up to $40 per foot! Since we included some luxury features like the heated floors, oven, and AC, we had to have a battery bank that could back up usage of these appliances. This is one more reason to really think through everything that gets added to a van since costs often trickle down when you add things like higher-draw appliances.
Walkable Solar: $3,200
Batteries: $7,500
Victron Components: $4,500
Wiring: $2,200
Water - $7,000
Water is an important part of any van build and shouldn’t be overlooked when budgeting. Because of our open concept floorplan, we chose to install our water tanks underneath the van and ended up with a total of 48 gallons of fresh water and 30 gallons of gray water. To get close to 80 gallons under the vehicle, we had to design and construct a pretty intense water system that combined a total of 6 tanks across the fresh and gray. This ended up costing significantly more than a single tank system since we had to install heating pads and heat trace cables as well as fabricate multiple brackets and tank holders to secure them to the bottom of the van. We also insulated the tanks and put skid plates over them since they are located outside of the van. In addition to the complex nature of installing the tanks, we also had to reroute our exhaust pipe. We did this by cutting it near the muffler, bending it, and then installing the tip to redirect it along the side of the vehicle. The total breakdown of our water system comes to:
Water tanks and brackets: $4,000
Water heater, pump, accumulator tank, filters: $1,500
Plumbing and fittings: $900
Heating elements and tank insulation: $650
Finishes & Misc. $6,500
The finishes we chose for this van, like everything else, seemed to be on the higher end. We chose to go with an insanely high-quality real red oak veneer, a 6-stage application of roman clay with sealer, removable seat cushion covers, and high-quality lighting. In addition to the costs of screws, glue, and other common-use materials, these finishes were pricy. That being said, since we had 3 years and 11 van builds of experience, we made very few mistakes and were extremely precise with our planning. This resulted in us not spending as much as a first-time builder would because, truth be told, you will make mistakes. We have lost thousands of dollars over the years to mistakes, and even on our 12th van, we had to refinish the counter tops three times because we had never worked with epoxy before. Things add up quickly when you have to build inside a van since everything has to be so precise. One of the ways to minimize these mistakes is to template with cardboard and spend lots of time in the planning and design stages.
Roman clay: $2,000
Veneer: $1500
Lighting: $1,000 (includes tracks, wiring, switches, etc.)
Mistakes: $2,000
So… HOW MUCH?!
$122,200. Or at least it would have if…
We had purchased everything retail with no previous build experience. See, we had run a van-building company for over 3 years when we built this van. Because of this, we had a lot of connections to suppliers and could get products at a lower cost as a business. This, along with shopping for used products to save some cash led to some savings we are very thankful we were able to tap into.
The total cost of our van for us out of pocket was actually $87,956, including the van itself. However, this number does not include the 5 months of 12–16-hour days (2,700 hours total) we spent working on the build, our shop rent, liability insurance, garage keepers insurance, tools, and utilities that allowed us to actually build something like this. All told, we spent an additional $16,000 for the time we were working on this van.
'That brings us up to $104,000. So how much did we spend? I have no idea. It’s complicated since we had rent costs associated with our business, and not every dollar we spent to get this built went directly into the van itself. To build something inspired by this van without any connections in the industry or ability to get at-cost products would likely cost around $130,000 USD as a first-time DIYer. To have something with these specs built out for you by a company could easily cost over $200,000 USD. One of the reasons we shut down our shop space and building business was because of all these hidden expenses that pop up while building. It was difficult, if not impossible, to put a price on the design, effort, and overall work that went into each van. The passion quickly sours when you start adding up those expenses.
In addition, upon selling our vans in the past, the taxes were so high that we only walked away with between $4,000 and $7,000 on each of our builds, which is simply not worth the time and effort it takes to build a van unless you are going to enjoy it yourself! This is why we always caution people to not go into a building thinking that you will make any money if you eventually plan to sell your DIY van. Hopefully this blog gives some perspective on not only our decision to leave our shop space and van building business but also what it may cost to build a high-level “luxury” van on your own. Sure, we could say we only spent $87k on our build, but I don’t feel that this is an accurate gauge of how complex these builds can be and how easily things can add up as you build out your own van. The goal is always to encourage and empower others on their vanlife journey, and personally, we feel that it would be a great disservice to our community to underplay how much money vans like the one we live in cost to build these days.
