Cyrus Sutton is a master at living life on the road. 10-years-ago, the Korduroy.tv founder made the decision to up sticks and settle into a home on wheels.
His last van was a specially crafted space and now, with a much larger Mercedes Sprinter to play with, (which he bought off two traveling surfers in Death Valley) he's well and truly upgraded our perception of the perfect surf van.
Below are Mr. Sutton's key points for creating the ideal living space on wheels.
1. Install a wood stove: you can’t beat the dry heat and pleasing aroma of a wood stove. Propane stoves are always a nightmare in my experience with fumes and wet heat that sinks to the ground. I bought a house with some land in Washington state earlier this year so I knew heating would become a concern, even in the deserts of Southern California this past winter the 20-something degree Fahrenheit nights became unbearable at times, a result of poor insulation and no heat source.
2. Insulate with EPS foam and wood: EPS insulation doesn’t break down with road vibrations and wood walls make it easy to accessorize the walls with shelves and hooks to get stuff off the ground.
3. Make a functional kitchen: I never had a kitchen in my van and I really wanted to have a nice space I could store, clean, prep and cook food. Over the years I’d grown to cook a lot as a way to save money, eat fresher and save my consumption of packaging waste.
4. Install a solar system: Although the solar system I had in my Ford was nice for my electronics when the weather was fair, I wanted more power. As part of my kitchen, I wanted a refrigerator to store perishables and not have to deal with always getting ice and emptying a smelly warm cooler after it all melted. I also wanted to connect the 12V fan and vent that came with the van.
5. Make a space I could walk through the whole way: It seemed like a shame that I couldn’t take advantage of all the height and floor space of my new van in the current design which had a huge and heavy wood rack separating the back from the main compartment.
6. Keep it clean: I wanted to make an organized, easy to access place for my short surfboards and longboards.
7. Have a good working space: Make a work desk so I can have a clean space to work on my projects.
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