Search for the Van

Recreational camping has many levels. You can go camping with $100 worth of gear or $1 million. At the end of the day, it's sleeping in the wilderness, away from your regular life.

I've done a little of everything: motorcycle camping, backpack camping, car camping, a rooftop tent on my GMC 2500 Z71 build, Jeep camping in the Qatar desert and the mountains of New Mexico, hammock camping in Oman, and a ton of things in between all over the USA.

One trip made me realize I was missing out on a convenience I hadn't considered before.

The trip that started the idea

We took a weeklong California trip, starting in San Diego, traveling up the Pacific Coast Highway and making our way into the redwoods. It was an amazing vacation, and we saw the coastline up close and personal along the way.

Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica Pier, the Hollywood sign, Malibu, Solvang, Pismo Beach and Morro Rock were all part of the trip. We went as far as we could up Highway 1 before backtracking because a mud and rock slide blocked the route toward Big Sur.

Along the way, we saw Sprinter and ProMaster camper conversions at all levels of build. It made us think: that would be an amazing way to travel.

Flights, rental cars, hotels, food and entertainment add up quickly. I believe that week cost us close to $7,000 all said and done, almost $1,000 a day to be on vacation. Surely there was a better option?

The goal was to cut our daily travel costs and bring our kids along: Charlie and Murphy, our Poodle and Doodle. We didn’t have the budget to buy a finished camper van outright, so we decided to build one ourselves.

About a year of looking

Once we got home, we put together a long-term plan to find a van and do something different. We kept an eye on Marketplace and looked at options for about a year.

We talked about a small overlanding trailer or a slide-in camper for my truck. There were a couple of ways we could make the plan work. The van idea still seemed like a dream, almost unreachable.

Then one day I was looking through auctions and spotted a 2012 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

Looking over the auction van

I sent the listing to Allyn. The bidding was at a pretty good price when we first looked, but we could also see it getting unaffordable quickly.

The VIN wasn't published, so I went to inspect the van and get it. I immediately recognized the Midwest conversion. I checked it out as well as I could, but there were no keys and no way to start it or drive it before bidding.

The gamble was possibly having to buy an engine. I wasn't scared of that, but I figured it would probably add about $5,000 to the van right away.

I sent the VIN to Midwest, and they sent me the build sheet. Their original-specification MSRP sheet lists a $163,194 subtotal, including $40,201.50 in options. That gives an idea of what this van was equipped with, even though it doesn't tell us what the original buyer actually paid.

Looking at the equipment and pictures of comparable vans, man, this thing was a sweet unit at one time. Tailgater package, leather reclining seats, TVs, subwoofers, satellite TV and a mini-bar. Back in 2012, someone like Sir Mix-a-Lot would have rolled up to a venue in this thing.

All that stuff was useless to me. But I could see the potential for a full camper build.

There was almost 16 feet of floor space behind the front seats. Maybe too big? Nah, room for more camp gear!

The last day of bidding

We talked about the potential, watched a couple of build videos and decided we could do this if we got the van for the right price.

We set a maximum budget of $10,000 to buy it at auction. We had no idea whether it would sell for $1,000 or $15,000. We waited until the last day to bid so we wouldn't show our interest early. The auction ended on August 6, 2025.

Sure enough, other people brought the bidding up: $1,500, then $2,000, then $3,000.

I kept my bids easy to enter: $1,111, $2,222, $3,333, $4,444, $5,555 and then $6,777. The auction would bid on my behalf in $25 increments above the competing bids, up to my maximum.

My thinking was that most people would enter round numbers like $2,500 or $4,000. I wanted a little room above those round numbers instead of matching them.

Eventually, there was only one other person bidding against me. After about 20 minutes of back and forth, I think he gave up. We won BBV, the Big Black Van, for $5,825. The buyer's fee brought it to $6,407.50.

Big-time score!!!

Allyn was on the phone with me while I was bidding. I think she was a little speechless, but she was pretty excited. This was something we could both share and use.

Winning a bid is like winning a lottery, except you have to pay money for something.

Bringing BBV home

We were excited, but the work had just begun.

The next day, Allyn brought the funds for the van. I went to pay for it and arrange transportation home to Georgetown.

This thing needed a full-size tow rig. The tow yard had the right equipment and charged $400 to bring it home. That was much better than me trying to fit it onto a trailer and pull it with my GMC 2500. I happily paid for the tow.

That was $6,807.50 for the van, buyer's fee and tow, before any other ownership or build costs.

BBV arrived in one piece. We parked it and started making the build plan.

It's Allyn's van. I'm the builder, driver and free labor.

Follow the build

Forthcoming in the BBV build series: teardown, floor, electrical system, cabinets, water system, bed, ventilation, heater, and camping tests and repairs.