DIY Box Truck Mobile Office/Hotel Room - Levitating Desk & Retractable Deck

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so the deck is about five by five i've

built in a number of projectors this is

the funnest part of the van

what's up guys my name is quinn schrock

i'm a traveling photographer by trade

and this is my box truck so it's

basically the same vehicle that u-hauls

are made out of let me show you guys

around

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so stepping in there's this huge step so

i only used a small portion of the step

and a lot of it was left over i felt the

need to use that rest of that space

for a shoe stash down there

holds about i don't know five pairs of

shoes

if i really cram them

and then up from the shoe stash

this is where all my electrical is so we

got charge controller bus bars all that

good stuff and then the rest of the

electrical actually

um just goes down from there

so then we got the inverter and the dc

to dc charger and the batteries so

i have a 2000 watt inverter 300 amp

hours of lithium and a 60 amp dc to dc

charger

stacked four deep right there

and then next to it is the toilet that

slides out

and it all functions as a bench just

like that a little bit more storage in

here

up here we got

a

light so i i put in these lights

just to kind of have like a glowing

window aesthetic so it's all very

japanese and soji screen like rice paper

here

um so

right now it's it's light outside so

it's a little hard to see but at night

it definitely has that glowing

um kind of cozy feeling

um so we got the inverter switch on and

off battery monitor we're at 100

up here this is the main storage of the

whole build

so

all three of these open up and it's just

this huge open storage this whole build

is meant to be kind of like an office on

wheels that converts to a hotel room

it's not meant to be a full home build

so the idea up here was to

pick up a friend maybe they have a

suitcase and to keep it as open as

possible to be able to throw in that

suitcase so it's not as

compartmentalized as most of my builds

are it's just kind of meant to be left a

little bit more open and

ready to adapt to a suitcase or

something like that all the wood that i

use in here is poplar wood it was quite

a lot of work

for instance like this panel

poplar doesn't come in

come in plywood sheets or anything like

that it comes in long strips so i had to

glue together

probably about five inch

slats to make all these panels up here

this is the vent fan i built this frame

for it so that i could have a blackout

curtain that pulls across i've always

wanted a

easy way to black out a vent fan like

that right here this is the door to the

cab this fabric also can go up into this

cavity so that i don't have to deal with

that flapping around if i have the

windows open or something like that it's

not flapping in my face

for the most part i keep it down like

that

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i've been a traveling photographer since

2014

and it was pretty clear right in the

very beginning

when i took off i had a toyota corolla

and it was pretty clear that i wanted

something bigger and i started to see

sprinter vans and all kinds of vans on

the road and it's just like

that was it that was the the way to go

it was kind of like the no brainer of

what i needed at the time i didn't have

any money

so it was just kind of like i stored it

in the back of my head this is the goal

this is

what i want to do eventually is to

finally be able to afford a van

so 2014 that was my thought by 2016 i

got my first van so yeah i mean in the

end i got into van life just for

convenience of being able to

take more photographs on the road to be

able to stay out longer and be a little

bit more comfortable so that i could

focus on my craft of photography i

didn't want to feel like i was

sacrificing to be on the road i wanted

to take all the conveniences that i that

i wanted on the road with me so that i'd

be able to stay out for

you know weeks on end to get that

perfect shot

so when i was talking to my friend about

designing this he wanted me to do an

office on wheels so we started to think

you know what does a an office usually

have in terms of a kitchen

and we determined that a fridge was a

necessity and somewhere to warm up

leftovers so

right here this is the fridge

and then this is the freezer

that's a dometic cfx

dual zone

75 liter it's a pretty big fridge for a

small van like this

and then up here we have the way to warm

up leftovers in this small little

toaster oven that was originally the

idea for the kitchen since then i

realized i kind of wanted

a little bit more to the kitchen so i

added in some of these

makeshift features to make it more of a

kitchen

with a flip up counter

and a flip down water jug

and i just bought this thing off of

amazon this is kind of a pop out sink

throw it up like that

and then you got a little sink like like

that so the only thing it doesn't have

is a drain

so unfortunately when i wash dishes or

whatever i have to take this and throw

it out the door

but other than that

it's kind of like a half mini kitchen

in this build

overall

that's not the main focus

main focus is the

the desk setup and the ability to work

on the road also in the kitchen

if i want to cook i can raise this up to

counter height flip this out and back

here i have a bunch of stuff stored

behind the

um the fridge i have this induction

stove with a plug right here

throw this pot up there i can cook up

some eggs or whatever i'm feeling have

a cutting board and also

a broom

that extends out

a full length room down there also down

here i have a wabasto

gas powered heater

the heater turns on

right here

and it comes out down here there's a

little outlet down there so when i'm not

cooking usually this thing is down a

little lower

i built in some drawers here

this first drawer is usually where i

keep my camera equipment so it has this

locking feature flips up like that

able to lock this drawer

down here this is just some

some food

and

down here are some

kitchen utensils

cups plates all that good stuff

so along with the office on wheels theme

of this van i've built in a number of

projectors so one of the projectors

comes down right here

the whole thing just covers up this area

the official projector unit is right

behind the camera here i'll show you

that in a minute all right in keeping

with the japanese aesthetic i added some

floating lantern

lights that are both dimmable

and the other main lighting

is around the skylight here on top of

the lights are

wireless chargers so you can throw your

phones up there and charge them when you

need got a little pop-up outlet right

here you hit that button and it pops out

like that so the main desk setup usually

incorporates

this table i'm gonna move this table

put it into this lagoon mount here all

right so this is the main desk you can

fit a good number of people maybe six

people in here

um

and we got that projector screen that i

showed you you can bring that down and

give business presentations so this is

the this is the desk setup the whole

thing also converts into a bed so i

would say it's an office that converts

into a hotel room that was the overall

concept of this van

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the first fan was a terrible experience

i switched that for a honda element

and that was actually a better

experience than my first band and in the

process of making

that

i guess third van i realized that i just

love the process of of designing and

making vans so since then

it's just become a passion and a hobby

of mine to continually redesign small

spaces vans basically

into exactly what i would want and need

it's just become a fun hobby and

creative outlet for me

so when i get burnt out with photography

i start designing vans and when i get

burnt out with vans i go back and take

photos so it's nice to kind of bounce

off of each other have two different

creative

things when making vans it feels like

i'm actually creating feels like i'm

actually physically you know creating a

space and a feature the creativity that

that i experienced while making vans is

was probably a more pure creativity

where i'm actually

physically constructing something and i

love that aspect of it alright so one of

my favorite features maybe my ultimate

favorite feature of this van

is the back deck

so

this whole section is on what's called a

happy jack system it's a bed lift system

i'm able to raise and lower this so i

raise it up and that frees the back deck

to pull out

just like that

expanding the square footage from

10 feet to 15 feet

so the deck is about five by five i also

have flip down legs

these are called stage legs they're used

to make

stages for events like new year's eve or

something like that if you have a big

stage you need to build it

they use these stage legs so that's the

back deck and then you can

lower this back down

you have a whole walk through space

makes it feel quite a bit bigger more

square footage

my favorite use of the deck is pulling

up to the beach and pulling it onto the

sand and all these benches

are our free-floating benches so the

whole bench can actually

just lift out and slide out onto the

back deck

you could actually make the bed out on

the deck too i've always wanted to pull

this out over like a like a stream in

colorado or something have this nice bed

set up right over

rushing water

so that's on the bucket list with this

van

one of the first things i did to the van

was cut a huge hole in the roof

this hole was i think five and a half

feet by

20 inches or so um so this is an

ultimate custom skylight um i would not

do this again

it leaks and it's gone through probably

five different iterations

but it is really cool it lets in a lot

of light and if you haven't noticed

there's no windows on the van

so even

when it doesn't look like there would be

much natural light in here this lets in

a ton of light

so i'm still perfecting the design

but let me show you how it works so it

has

three latches on each side

that you can pop off like that

that side's

free let's do this one and then the

whole piece of glass which this is

plexiglas

pops out

you can slide up onto the solar panels

here and then you have a full open

ceiling now let me show you why i wanted

that open ceiling this is the funnest

part of the van

um i showed you that

it's on the happy jack bed lift system

when the skylight's off

creates that big opening and at any

point

you could go straight through the roof

while you're working

on the desk

this is one of the most ridiculous

features i've ever made

my friend tim who i made this for wanted

to be able to levitate through the roof

so this was a total experiment and i

would say it

generally worked

i don't know how often i'll actually use

this but it's really fun and cool to be

able to do it so

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by the time you get to the top you're

above the

roof and you get the view of wherever

you're at

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so when you get up here admire the view

take in the breeze

got all this deck space that you could

throw drinks on or whatnot

and just imagine that i have a laptop

right here i could work with the view so

even though the van is done being

converted at any point you can adjust it

to whatever you're doing at the time so

if you want to embrace the outdoors

you can

set up the the benches and work outside

here you could work up on the roof

you could even set up the bed out here

you could set the bed up inside so let

me show you how the bed

converts how the benches convert into a

bed and that's kind of like the hotel

room

version of the

box

to convert it to a bed i have this piece

of folding wood that goes right in the

middle

to create that platform and then the

cushions get rearranged into making a

bed first i have to take off

this part

and relocate it over here and then i'm

good to convert it

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so there we go that's the bed setup and

in bed there's also another projector

to use while you're chilling so this is

the second projector

hooks in with the hdmi cable

and it broadcasts right onto that

rectangle so i use this one all the time

when i'm laying in bed

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so one of my best friends his name is

tim sykes i travel i travel the world

with him honestly i've been traveling

with him for six years

he's a he's a stock trader and he's a

really big personality so one day we

were we were road tripping i think in

georgia or something like that

and he basically said

you never stop talking about vans why

don't you just make me a van

and so

that's kind of like when the whole

collaboration idea started i started

asking tim

what would you want in a van

and he started throwing out the most

ridiculous ideas like i want to push a

button and the walls to fall off and

then all of a sudden i'm outside i'm

like ah yeah most of his ideas were kind

of just me shaking my head and laughing

you know and and then one of his ideas

was you know if i make a good trade

because he's a stock trader if i make a

good trade i want to be exalted through

the ceiling i want to just like raise up

into the heavens and with that one i was

like wait well

there is

a happy jack system that

enables you to lift up and down so maybe

i could work with something in that so

that was kind of like the nugget of the

idea for this van

so i told tim like i'm going to look

into it maybe you could

you know hit a button and go through the

roof and my next eight months were spent

trying to make that happen

so

that's that's this van he's stoked on

the van i'm stoked that he's stoked

and we film videos in here he he can do

online tutorials with all these

projectors that i put in here and

overall i just wanted to

make him a pimped out office on wheels

kind of like pimp my ride style i loved

watching that show growing up so this is

my version of that

and the japanese theme is because we've

traveled to japan together and it's

tim's favorite country

he wants to do a full like sushi chef

episode in here where someone comes in

and makes sushi on the table so i've

left the outside blank just to for that

anonymity i've always thought about

putting a big decal on the side like

bob's towing company or something like

that but just never got around to it

kind of like how blank it is generally

to blend in especially like right now

we're we're in this industrial park this

thing

blends in perfectly so i full-time live

in a sprinter this is

a collaboration that i did with a friend

of mine

it's interesting that in certain places

like where we are right now in this

industrial park this is the van to have

to blend in

and then in other places like at the

beach or higher end neighborhoods

they really don't like seeing this but

when you pull up in a sprinter they're

excited to to talk to you about it and

just happy to have you in their

neighborhood so

i've noticed that

different vehicles you can kind of

leverage the type of vehicle that you

have to the location depending on where

you're trying to sleep so when i got the

van this side door wasn't here and the

back doors was a roll-up door i had to

cut out that roll-up door put in

swinging barn doors and this side door

is actually the one that i use ninety

percent of the time

so

has a little

connection there

for it to stay open in the wind

and that's our main entrance thanks for

watching my tour guys uh if you want to

follow me on instagram i'm at quinn's

van i'm currently working on my seventh

van it's a 4x4 sprinter

so follow along there if you're

interested

and maybe i'll see you out there on the

road

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you