In hindsight, the logical order of events for our midlife crisis, “sabbatical,” career escape, play-harder-than-you-work adventure would have been to buy a van and THEN quit our jobs. As it turns out, banks are not keen on financing a couple of vagabonds who have no proof of income, particularly if you are buying a Ford Transit van they think should be a commercial vehicle. A $100,000 tricked out F-150? No problem. Our credit scores would have let us walk out the door with anything else on the lot, but not an empty cargo van. Hence, despite having great credit and the savings to prove we are good for the loan, we initially walked out of the dealership without a van. After the guys at the dealership kept making calls and we talked with some more banks (we had talked with our banks in NH but not the local banks here in OR), we had some options so we only lost a couple days on our adventure.
We want to send a big shout out to Roger, Justin, and Joe at Legacy Ford in La Grande, Oregon for a) letting the van sit on the lot for six weeks while we got ourselves here, and b) working all their creativity and angles to find us the best offer they could. On October 18th, yup my birthday, we traded in our Tacoma and welcomed in a new era of #vanlife!
The HUND
Hund (pronounced hoond) comes from Sennenhunds, a group of dog breeds originating in the Swiss Alps, one of which is the Bernese Mountain Dog.
I told everyone I really hoped I could say that we had a midlife crisis and bought a Mercedes, but in the end, the gas Transit was a better match for our needs than the diesel Sprinter van. So we are now the proud owners of a 2017 Ford Transit van, AKA The Hund, ordered to our specs and manufactured in Kansas City. It looks like a big, white, empty bread truck, but we prefer to think of it as a blank canvas.
Kenai: The back of the truck was my favorite place to spend the day, mostly because I hope my people will take me somewhere fun to play. I was a little sad to think I wouldn’t have it anymore, but this van thing seems like it will be okay.
This is even bigger than the truck! Is it all mine?
Keep an eye on the #vanlife section of our site. It’s time to start documenting our build progress because now that we have the van, I guess it is time to figure out what to do with it!
I always thought if I was going to convert a van I would have a set up similar to the website link as my “false floor” for extra space. With the headroom provided in that van you may be able to use 8-12″ for the subfloor storage plan and still stand without hunching over… which is the whole idea of a nice tall van!. It would add quite a bit of extra time to your build so that’s the downside.
I look forward to following along on the journey. Give me a heads up when you’re headed my way and I’ll try to set up some tandem hang gliding/big sur camping. Love that place!