savannals

In December of 2024, I bought a 2021 GMC Savana cargo van. She's going to be a camper!

Her name is Melinda May, aka The Cavalry. Because she's gonna be kind of a badass.

I wanted a GMC Savana (the same thing as a Chevy Express) because it's a tried-and-true, super common model that doesn't try to do much more than Be A Van. There's very little in the way of fancy electronics or features. I will admit to being somewhat spoiled by those things in my RAV4, but I think in this case the simplicity is very appealing. Fewer things to accidentally break while we mess around with stuff.

We haven't done much with her at all yet--we've been trying to get our bathroom remodel finally wrapped up (two+ years later...) before we start on this project. So far just a couple things done:

• Removed the partition behind the front seats. We want to be able to swivel the front seats around when the van is in Camper Mode, to add more space to the interior and allow for some built-in seating options.
• Removed the running boards/side steps. While these are helpful for getting in and out, the side-to-side clearances for parking are very tight and these stuck out quite a bit.

First on the list of actual work on the camper is cutting holes in the van! We need to make a 14 x 14 inch hole in the top for the vent/fan, along with a few more holes for more venting, solar panel wires, and a port for plugging into shore power (campground power hookups).