Vanlife Shop

Welcome to Our Vanlife Shop!

The Vanlife Shop is a collection of all of the best Vanlife products together in one place. Many of these items we used for our van conversion to transform an old airport shuttle into our beautiful tiny home on wheels.

And we also included some of our favorite vanlife furnishings, gadgets, and lifestyle products that make our life more comfortable.

In this vanlife shop, we break down the categories into: our top choice, a budget-friendly option, and the best overall choice.

For our ‘top choice’ we often go with the product we own and use, unless there is a product similar that we would recommend instead. When we built our camper van, we tried to strike a nice balance between price, comfort, and longevity.

Our ‘budget-friendly’ picks are products we would recommend for vanlifers on a tight budget. Most products will be off-brand, not covered by company warranty, but will save you a pretty penny. We list products that should be good enough to get you out and enjoying life on the road!

Lastly, in the best overall choice category, we list the name brand products that are the tried and true vanlife staples. These are the brands that primarily make products for life on the road. Many camper van and RV owners lean toward choosing these brands when building out their camper van conversion because of their high quality, good warranties and are built to last the ruggedness of life on the road.

Our goal in this vanlife shop is to provide you a quick and easy way to find the best products for your camper van conversion. We also list many helpful articles that will provide much more detail for which vanlife products are best for you.

Note: some of these products in this vanlife shop are sized specifically to fit our 2010 Ford E-350.  Be sure to verify that products will be compatible with your van.  If you’re purchasing things on Amazon, they have a helpful feature called “Your Garage” where you can enter your make, model, and year to verify that products will work for your vehicle.

This post may contain affiliate links. Disclosure policy.

Best Vent Fans For Camper Vans

Vent fans are important for providing ventilation in your camper van, especially for managing moisture. Humans, pets, wet clothing, cooking, and propane heaters are some of the main sources that combine to create loads of moisture inside your van.

Clearly, we think Maxxfan creates the best vent fans for camper vans. But here is a whole guide for choosing the right vent fan for your van conversion.

Best Insulation For Camper Vans

Insulation is one of the most important item anyone can add to their campervan. It helps keep you warm in the winter and cool during the summer.

But there is so much more to choosing the right insulation for your camper van. In this vanlife shop, you will notice three different insulation options. We personally used Havelock Wool and can speak highly of it.

Wool strikes a nice balance of price, R-Value, and benefits. Havelock Wool manages moisture, fire resistance, pest resistant, non-toxic, eco-friendly, and easy to work with. It also absorbs VOC’s from the air, so it can actually improve air quality.

XPS is our budget friendly option. It’s great for under flooring because it’s cheap, flat, and weight bearing. But it is not ideal for round or awkward curves (that most vans have). Polyiso foam board is another foam board product that is arguably better than XPS, but costs more.

Last but not least, professional spray foam is probably the best overall option for best insulation for camper vans. Overall, it has the highest R-value, acts a vapor barrier, and significantly reduces thermal bridging.

But a professional spray foam job is the most expensive. And there is off-gassing, which can not be super great in such a small place.

We highly suggest getting it done professionally, because it eliminates any user error. However, for DIY jobs, the small cans you can buy at the hardware store are useful for filling in awkward cracks. But I wouldn’t try to do an entire van with the cans.

Best Fridges For Camper Vans

Finding a camper van fridge is one of the most important items in the kitchen. This vanlife shop is meant to provide you with 3 great fridge options. We personally have the Vitrifrigo Fridge and absolutely love it. It strikes a nice balance of size, budget, and it has a built-in freezer. In our review of the Vitrifrigo C51i we cover the pro and cons and our experience.

The Alpicool is a solid budget-friendly option for best camper van fridges. It comes with similar qualities you would find in a name brand fridge such as thick insulation, low battery protection, internal basket, internal light, and LCD controls but at a fraction of the price.

The best overall fridge option is the Dometic CFX3. It’s a chest fridge-freezer combo and is top of the line. This version comes in 75L or 95L meaning there such be tons of room for all your groceries. Plus Dometic products come with a 3-year warranty.

We have also discussed campervan fridges on a much deeper level, helping fellow vanlifers decide which refrigerator is best for their camper van conversion.

• Best Fridges for Camper Vans
• Off-Roading Fridges
• Budget-Friendly Van Fridges
• Best Van Fridges with Built-in Freezers

Best Mattresses For Camper Vans

Having a comfortable bed in your camper van is probably one of the most important vanlife items. Especially when living in a camper van full-time, you want to make sure you can get a good nights rest every night. The best mattresses for camper vans are products that are easy to cut to the correct size.

Jake and I have the Lucid 4-inch mattress topper that we pair with a 2-inch high density foam. The best feature of the Lucid 4-inch topper is it’s infused with bamboo charcoal. Charcoal is know to wick moisture and be odor resistant which can have big benefits for vanlife. The topper does have a ventilation design to let air flow through the mattress.

For a more budget-friendly option in this Vanlife Shop, we suggest the Amazon Basics memory foam mattress topper. This bed consists of 4 inches of hard foam, 1 inch of soft foam, and 1 inch of memory foam. The only drawback is there isn’t very good air flow, so this bed might sleep very warm and not wick moisture well, which is important in a camper van.

A great overall choice is a latex mattress topper. Unlike memory foam which eventually breaks down, latex will withstand time. It can also be quite firm providing soothing pressure point relief. Another benefit for latex is it’s hypoallergenic, antimicrobial, dust mite-resistant, and doesn’t off-gas toxic chemicals. The only negative is that latex is somewhat bouncy, and some people don’t prefer that feel.

In our camper van mattress guide, we break down the best bed options for every style of mattress. There are tons of great options for the best mattresses for vanlife.

Best Toilets For Camper Vans

Having a portable toilet in your camper van can be a game changer to full-time vanlife. There are tons of options such as cassette toilets, composting toilets, and some unique budget-friendly camper van toilets.

Personally, Jake and I have a cassette toilet and really wouldn’t change to anything else. You can learn TMI all about the ways we go to the bathroom in our van. But we don’t use the cassette toilet for #2. If we can’t find a public restroom, we use poopoo powder and these double toilet waste bags, or follow Leave No Trace guidelines out in nature.

A super easy toilet option for any budget is the Reliance Luaggable Loo. This toilet is essentially just a bucket with a toilet seat. We highly suggest lining the bucket with some sort of trash bag. Or you can use the poo powder and waste bags listed above.

For the vanlifers not on a tight budget, a Nature’s Head Composting Toilet can make all your bathroom needs easier. How a composting toilet works is by using some sort of material that can break down waste. You do NEED to separate the liquids from the solids which this composting toilet is designed for. Composting toilets for vanlife do come with some flaws.

In this comprehensive guide on great toilets for vanlife, we cover every type of toilet and the pros and cons. Find out which toilet is best for your bathroom needs on the road.

Best Showers For Camper Vans

There are actually pretty easy ways to find shower options on the road in vanlife. But we find it very convenient to have our own portable camping shower. Therefore, this section of the vanlife shop covers 3 of the best portable showers for camper vans.

Our top choice is the Nemo Helio LX. This shower uses the sun to heat and can be pressurized with just your foot. What’s especially nice about this shower is that it can just sit on the ground, and doesn’t need gravity to flow the water.

A shower we first started off with was the Advance Elements Summer Shower which is a great budget-friendly portable shower option. It also uses the sun to be heated, but does require to be hung on a branch or side of your van overhead because it uses gravity for the flow of water.

A top of the line portable shower option for vanlife is the Rinse Kit. It’s rigid design makes it one of the best options. Plus it has a heater rod that heats up the water instantly.

In our ultimate guide for best portable showers for camping, we cover all the best showers including pros and cons of each.

Best Stoves For Camper Vans

Having an easy way to cook your own food in vanlife can be a great way to stay healthy and save money. Personally Jake and I love cooking our own meals. One of our favorite things to cook in our van is stove-top pizza.

Our top choice for best stoves for camper vans is the Camp Chef Mountain Series Everest 2X. This is essentially a newer version of the stove we own. The Camp Chef Mountain Series comes with two 20,000 BTU’s burners. Which essentially means, it packs some serious power and heat. Plus it has matchless ignition making it super easy to start cooking. We do recommend this flexible hose adapter for it though.

The Coleman Gas Stove is a less expensive version than the Camp Chef. Main differences are that it only puts out 22,000 BTU’s between both burners and it doesn’t have matchless ignition.

Our best overall camp stove/oven choice for vanlife is the Camp Chef Deluxe Outdoor Camp Oven. With an oven a two burners nothing can hold you back for cooking your favorite vanlife meals. Each burner puts out 7,500 BTU’s, and the oven puts out 3,000 BTU’s with reaching a high temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Look into our detailed post about camp stoves to find the best stove for your camper van.

Best Water Filters For Camper Vans

Having good drinking water on demand in your camper van is basically essential. And luckily there are multiple ways one can do this. Either by always filling up from safe drinking water locations or having a water filter.

While Jake and I often fill up from safe drinking water spots (such as grocery stores, campgrounds, gas stations, etc) we still like to make sure we are filtering out anything harmful. (It also helps with the taste). So we use the Filtrete Maximum Under Sink Water Filtration System. It super easy to install and you just have to change the filter every 6-months. Which can also be a drawback, because you need to buy a new filter twice a year which can add up.

If you want an easy fix to clean drinking water, then you might consider investing in a one-time purchase of a Larq Water Bottle. In our Larq Review we uncover all the pros and cons of what this UV light self-cleaning bottle can do. For a brief overview, the UV light breaks down any DNA that is formed from bacteria growth or viruses and eradicates 99.9999%. It does sanitize the water so it’s safe to drink, however it doesn’t physically filter anything out.

And for the top of the line water filter for vanlife, the ArrowMAX 1.2 UV-LED Water Treatment System is basically the integrated version of the Larq Bottle. You just hook it up to run your water line through a UV light that removes removes 99% of chlorine, lead, VOCs and odors. Plus 99.999% of E.Coli bacteria. And while it might be a high up front cost, one filter can dispense up to 100,000 liters of water in its lifetime, which is estimated to last up to 7+ years.

Best Water Pumps For Camper Vans

Water pumps are a vital part of your camper van sink plumbing. There are electric pumps, foot pumps, hand pumps, and even really basic ways such as a turn handle spout. But if you are going to be living in a camper van full-time, we highly suggest investing in an electric pump.

They are usually under $100 and should last you for many years. We have the Shurflo 4008 and it has always worked pretty great (4+ years in now). It is noisy every time we pump water, but it’s never really bothered us since we only use it during the day.

Shurflo does have stronger models and pumps that can filter sediment and are much quieter. For example the Shurflo Aqua King is more of their top of the line model that will provide all their best features all in one pump.

A more budget-friendly option is a foot pump. No electrical wiring needs to be hooked up, and it should be pretty easy to install and be ready to go.

If you are completely overwhelmed by plumbing, don’t worry because we have a step-by-step guide for how to install sink plumbing in a campervan.

Best Tires For Camper Vans

Your camper van is you tiny home on wheels, so you want to have good tires on there.

Overall, the BF Goodrich T/A KO2 are probably the best all-terrain tire for camper vans. They have thick tread and should be able to get you out of some sticky situations. The one negative is they might be a little noisy on the highway at fast speeds.

Our top choice for all-terrain tire that is morree highway oriented is the Michelin Defender LTX M/S. These are the tires we have on our van, and these puppies have been great. The only problems we have is with especially bad mud, snow, and sand. But we have the proper off-roading recovery essentials for camper vans to always get ourselves out of those situations.

Lastly, if you are on a tight budget, then the Hankook Dynapro AT2 are a solid budget-friendly choice.

Best Recovery Traction Boards

Maxtrax are the tried and true, most trusted recovery board on the market. But they will run you a pretty penny. Overall, they are probably the best option if you plan to do a lot of off-roading over your time in vanlife.

But for us, we just wanted a solid recovery board that would help get us out of those one-off situations. So the X-Bull recovery boards are the perfect option for us. (Read our in-depth review about the X-Bull Recovery Traction Boards).

For example, we got stuck on a beach and the X-Bull Tracks saved us from having to have someone pull us out. Our camper van isn’t awd or 4×4 so we don’t take our van to through many situations where it will get stuck. But if you are deciding whether or not an awd or 4×4 van is right for you, we wrote a detailed guide helping you choose.

For a more budget-friendly option, we suggest the Bunker Indust. They are about half the size of a regular traction board. So ultimately, that it probably why they are about half the price of the X-Bull traction boards. They will take up less space, but they might not be as helpful as the full-size recovery boards.

Best Heaters For Camper Vans

Having a heater in a camper van can literally decide where you can camp in your camper van. Live is good when the weather is warm. But when winter comes you will be happy to have a heater.

Most vanlifers and RV’ers are considered snowbirds because they chase the warmth. They head south toward states like Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, California, etc to escape the winter. But if you add a heater to your camper van conversion, then you can chase the ski slopes instead!

Our top choice for best heaters for camper vans is the Happybuy Diesel Heater. This heater is actually really affordable, but can be a pain to install. It’s basically the “budget” version of our best overall choice of the Esberspacher Espar Airtronic. But it’s a fraction of the price.

Although, the Eberspacher Espar Airtronic does have a 1 year warranty which can be very helpful when installing the heater yourself. You do need to be very careful when installing these heaters, as they need to be properly hooked up to gas to run properly.

Our budget-friendly option for camper van heater is the Mr. Heater Buddy. It’s a propane heater that can heat a small place pretty easy. But do take precaution as you need to have proper ventilation to run a propane heater in a camper van. It’s very important to have a Carbon Monoxide Detector. And they create lots of moisture, which is already a problem in cold weather. So we really don’t recommnd these unless you have no other choice.

Best Interior Lights For Campervans

Lighting in a camper van is what sets you apart from just camping. (Okay, maybe one of the things). Being able to have electricity is an absolute game changer. Our top overall pick is the acegoo recessed lighting. They are little puck lights that mount into your campervan ceiling really easily. We wrote a whole guide for installing 12-Volt lighting for a camper van conversion.

An even easier way to light up your camper van is the budget-friendly Ehome Fairy Lights. They just plug in via a USB outlet, so no DIY electrical wiring needed. If you want a few more choices for camper van lights, we have a detailed guide for choosing lighting for a camper van conversion.

We have a whole vanlife shop dedicated to the best solar products.