We love our little SUV, but we knew that taking a 30-day road trip that would lead us through the hot and dusty desert of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, to the cold nights at Grand Canyon National Park and every other stop along the way of our 7155-mile round trip adventure, we would need a little more space for both storage and comfort.
Being quite a few years from retirement, investing in an expense RV rig that would only see the open road 5 weeks out of the year was not an option, so we decided to buy an extended length passenger van and do a quick conversion just 3 weeks before we departed.
Although the SUV had enough internal length to sleep 2 wide and 78″ long, climbing in and out required a bit of gymnastics and rainy days left us with little to do than lay in bed and read. Knowing we would probably not have ideal weather every day on such a long trip made having a little elbow room all that more important.
We now have a permanent full-size bed, a portable toilet for those nasty nights when you just don’t want to leave the van, plenty of underbed storage to bring along as much food, clothes, and gear as we need, and an incredible amount of ventilation. The only thing we are lacking is the ability to stand up, but since we don’t cook where we sleep this really hasn’t turned out to be much of a sacrifice.
We hope you enjoy the tour of our new home away from home, “The Beast”.
For a video tour of the no-build conversion on the SUV we used from 2018 to the spring of 2021 visit our Gear Page.
PS – We just fired up our YouTube channel and could really use some subscribers. If you like reading about our adventures, consider watching our videos and maybe even subscribing by clicking the link HERE.
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FREE THE MCGEES 
Looks great! Congrat!
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