Van conversions · Bend, Oregon · since 2017
We build the inside of your van slowly, in one shop, by hand.
Two of us, one bench, three vans at a time. Each one goes back to bare metal and comes out ready for months on the road.
Mara
Starts book
7 to 9 months ahead
Three vans in the shop at once, so dates go in the order deposits arrive.
How a job runs
Five steps from the first note to handover. The long version is on the workshop page, with how the four payments fall.
Write to us
The van, its year and wheelbase, how many of you, and whether there is a dog.
Sit down in the shop
Two hours at the bench for $150, credited against any build.
Hold your date
25% fixes a start, usually 7 to 9 months out.
The build
10 to 14 weeks in the shop, with photos every Friday afternoon.
Handover
Half a day in Bend. Before it we hang a cast iron skillet from the galley rail and drive the washboard stretch of China Hat Road, listening for rattles.
At a glance
What it costs, how long it takes and what we won't do
Current build prices, how far ahead we book and the lines we hold. The tiles with an arrow open onto the page that explains them.
Full build · 10 to 14 weeks
From $38,000
On a 144 inch wheelbase, up to $72,000 on a fully specified 170 inch extended van. Everything in the weekender, plus:
- Galley with a two-burner induction hob and sink
- 20 gallon fresh water tank
- 12V fridge drawer
- Diesel air heater mounted under the floor
- One cut-in window
- Full cabinetry and overhead lockers
- 300Ah electrical system
Fuel
All electric. No propane inside, ever.
Induction to cook on, a diesel heater bolted outside under the floor for warmth. Nothing in the room you sleep in runs on gas.
Booking ahead
7-9 months
A 25% deposit holds the date. Write and we will tell you the next open start.
In the shop
10 to 14 weeks
For a full build. A weekender takes 4 to 5, power or insulation alone 2.
Detail A · Wall build-up
Three inches between you and the weather.
a steel skin, b closed cell foam, c wool batting, d birch ply. The cabinet against it is where Mara spends her best hours.
Weekender · 4 to 5 weeks
From $14,500
Insulation, wall and ceiling panelling, a fixed bed over storage, a 100Ah lithium iron phosphate battery, 200W of roof solar, lights and USB points. $16,800 on a 170 inch wheelbase.
Power system · 2 weeks
$7,800 to $11,200
300Ah of lithium iron phosphate, 400W of solar, a 2000W inverter, alternator charging and shore power, behind a labelled panel.
Capacity
Three vans in the shop, never four.
Two bays and a bench room. A fourth van would only come out of the hours spent on yours.
Since 2017
74 vans
The first ones from a rented two-car garage, the rest from the current shop.
Workmanship
One year on everything we built.
If it comes loose or stops working, bring it back and we fix it at no charge.
Design session · 2 hours
$150
Your layout drawn to scale at the bench in Bend, and credited in full against any build you go on to book.
Hours · Bend, Oregon
Tue to Fri 8:00 to 16:30, Sat mornings by appointment, closed Dec 20 to Jan 6.
From Mara
Why the shop stays small
I started Nomadqo in 2017 in a rented two-car garage, after a winter spent rebuilding the inside of my own van, and that winter taught me that van work goes wrong exactly where it gets hurried. In 2020 we moved into two bays and a bench room, and Teo came over from ten years of building kitchen cabinets. We could squeeze a fourth van in if we parked it at an angle. We don't.
Three vans means one of us is nearly always at the cabinet bench, which is the part of the job I'd do for free, and nobody's drawer fronts get rushed so the next van can roll in. It also means saying no to some work: propane, pop-tops, other people's half-built conversions. If you want to know where the lines sit before you write, here is what we fit, and what we don't.
Mara