Camper Build 1.0 — The First Interior Layout

Every van conversion goes through a v1 — the layout you build to *learn* the layout you actually want. This is ours.

The constraints

The Astro cargo interior is 116" long × 51" wide × 46" tall behind the front seats. Small. But when you strip the assumption of standing height, a lot becomes possible.

What we built

Fixed driver-side bed. 74" × 30", raised 20" off the floor. Under-bed storage runs the full length. Sleeps one of us on the bed, the other on a pad on the passenger side when needed.

Passenger-side galley. A narrow counter with a two-burner propane stove, water jug, and a slide-out drawer for cookware.

Rear pull-out drawer. Accessed from the barn doors. Holds recovery gear, tools, and dry goods.

Cedar wall and ceiling cladding. In progress. HushMat sound deadening + Thinsulate insulation went in first. Full write-up coming.

What works

• The barn-door drawer is the single best decision we made.
• Sleeping in a raised platform bed with storage below is worth every inch of headroom it costs.
• Cedar smells like a cabin. Every time we open the doors.

What v1 taught us

• We need more counter space, not more storage.
• The two-burner propane stove is going to move outside eventually — cooking inside a van is fine in theory and miserable in practice.
• Power is our next bottleneck. Which is why we upgraded from the planned Jackery to an EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus in Chapter 12.

The rule

Build v1 with a plan for v2. Don't over-engineer the first pass — you don't know what you don't know yet.