We’ve built over 140 vans now at Roost Vans. We’re primarily a van interior product company: an ecosystem of products that all mount to our Smooth Rail Mounting System, installed into Sprinter, Transit, and soon RAM ProMaster class B camper vans. We don’t chase heavily customized one-off work. Instead, we’ve built a standard product line with a lot of modularity, which lets us build high-quality vans quickly and lay them out in a lot of different ways at a tremendous value.

Start With Priorities, Not Products

Layout planning starts with assessing what you actually want out of the van, roughly in this order of impact on floor space:

1. Seating — has the single biggest impact on layout
2. Sleeping — side to side, front to back, dinette or garage, next biggest impact
3. Kitchen — How functional, or how simple
4. Storage — What cabinets to use vs open space to keep
5. Power — How long do you want to be off grid vs how much do you want to spend

We use a detailed client questionnaire to work through this, and almost every one comes back wanting everything. That’s completely normal, but a class B camper van doesn’t defy the laws of physics. Something has to give, and figuring out what matters most to you is most of the work.

One detail that surprises people: within the Sprinter and Transit lineup, body length doesn’t scale the way you’d expect. The 144 Sprinter and 170 Sprinter sit at opposite extremes, while the Transit’s regular 148 wheelbase and extended 148 body land in between. A layout that works beautifully in a regular 148 (technically a 148L) won’t necessarily translate to a 144, because you can simply run out of room.

Zone by Zone

Seating: A second-row bench seat gives us a mounting point for a much larger Lagun articulating table, since we can anchor to the seat’s frame instead of the wall.

Kitchen: Our Flip-Up Kit bed system at bike and counter clearance can store a bed panel over the kitchen, extending your countertop by up to 24 inches when folded up. Exposed only when you need it. A standard passenger-side kitchen cabinet adds exterior fridge access and a flip-down outdoor table, which pairs well with an awning.

Sleeping: Three main approaches: a dinette, an elevated Flip-Up bed platform, or our hanging Strap-Up Bed System, which raises to the ceiling or lowers to the wheel wells and can level itself out even when the van’s parked at an angle.

Storage: We’ve found sliding pull-out trays look great on paper but tend to bind once a van is actually loaded. Our Flip-Up Bed gives comparable garage access without that problem.

Power: We’re strong proponents of portable power stations, Goal Zero and EcoFlow especially, because for the price you get an inverter, engine charger, up to a roughly 400 amp-hour battery bank, and a solar charge controller in one simple unit. Versus building an equivalent custom system component by component at more cost and more space.

What Real Builds Look Like

We walked through around 15 builds across four categories: short vans with extra seating, short vans with just the factory two seats, and the same two categories in long-body vans. A few patterns stood out:

• Short bench-seated (family) vans (144 Sprinter, 148 Transit) can fit a dinette, a second-row bench with an articulating table, and either the Strap-Up or Flip-Up Kit bed, sleeping up to four. A small Kitchen size depends heavily on wheel well placement, Transit’s wheel well sits further back, so it can often fit a full two-module kitchen where a Sprinter fits one and a half. There’s still room, but not much so it needs to be planned carefully.
• Long bench-seated (family) vans open up enough room for a full dinette, a two-module kitchen on the driver side, and a walk-through compact cabinet on the other, without sacrificing much of anything.
• Short and long couple vans (no extra seating) get the most flexible layouts. With more floor space freed up, we can add compact passenger-side kitchen cabinets, bigger dinettes, or even dual water tank setups for owners who want to rinse off dogs or gear after every trip.

Across nearly every build, swivel seats, articulating tables, and inset paneling did the most work to make a small space feel bigger and more livable at the best value.

Not Sure What You Want? Rent First

Our best advice for anyone still deciding between a Sprinter, Transit, or ProMaster: go rent one and live in it for a few days before committing. Outfitted rental marketplaces like Outdoorsy are a great way to test different layouts and platforms firsthand.

If you want more on the Sprinter vs. Transit decision itself, we covered that in detail in an earlier webinar, now up on our YouTube channel.

Let’s Talk Layout

Every build starts with the same conversation: what do you actually need this van to do? Reach out to us at sales@roostvans.com, or browse our full DIY product lineup, knowing more is available for in shop installation, to start getting a feel for what’s possible.

Every once in a while we finish a van that’s a really good example of what a complete Roost build looks like when you stack everything together the way we intended it.

A recent 2024 AWD Transit is one of those vans.

Instead of walking you through it panel by panel, I want to zoom out a little and show you what’s actually happening underneath the pretty parts, because that’s what matters.

A full build isn’t just cabinets and a bed, it starts with the Core.

At the center of that is our: Smooth Rail Mounting System

Everything mounts to it:

• Cabinets
• Bed system
• Upper cabinetry
• Lower cabinetry
• Even future accessories

If you want to add something later, you’re not drilling random holes into your van and hoping for the best. We built it this way because people need change, and we don’t like building vans that paint you into a corner.

Power

Here’s where people either overspend or underthink: Power.

In a full build like this one, we scaled it up to power and include:

• 800 amp-hours of battery to power an autonomous Dometic RTX 2000 air conditioner
• Engine, Shore power, and Solar charging
• Victron monitoring
• Espar heater

All of that runs through our: Power Panel

The idea behind the Power Panel is simple… bring all your wiring to one centralized spot so it’s clean and expandable.

It’s not magic… You still have to wire things correctly. But the heavy lifting is done and you’re not creating a spaghetti monster behind your cabinets. If you want a deeper dive into how we think about batteries, solar, and what actually drains power, I wrote a full piece on it here: Deep Thoughts: On Power in a Van 

Most people don’t need as much battery as they think they do. Unless you want to run A/C off-grid for hours. Then we need to talk.

Paneling

There was a time when van paneling meant three weekends, a YouTube tutorial, and a lot of regret. We don’t do that anymore. Our paneling integrates with the Smooth Rail Mounting System so you can remove a panel later without tearing apart the van.

Upper, mid, lower: finished bamboo, unfinished bamboo, HexPly, fabric wrap… whatever direction you want to go.

In this build, we paired HexPly flooring with powder-coated trim and Minicel underneath. It’s durable, serviceable, inexpensive, finished, and best of all, it doesn’t squeak.

If you want the full rant on paneling, it’s here: Roost Vans Thoughts on Paneling

Short version: it should be clean and serviceable. Not traumatic.

We often upgrade to stranded (fossilized) bamboo countertops. They hold up, and they look good. We hide kickplate drawers in the base cabinets because there is nothing worse than wasted space in a van.

Everything ties back to the van rail system. So if something needs to change later, it can.

Sleep

Beds in vans tend to take over, ours doesn’t.

The Fu-Kit Bed System paired with our Mattress can be configured two-panel, two-and-a-half, or three-panel. You can also add our Flip-Up Kit, which gives you a sofa and garage access. Plus you gain 24” of counter top space on each side.

Keep it Simple Stupid

This build runs a 20-gallon over-the-wheel-well tank with interior fill:

• No unnecessary holes punched in the van body.
• Fresh water monitoring.
• Battery monitoring.
• Pump switch.

= Straightforward.

For toilets, we stick with the Loo Bench.

Paired with the Stansport EasyGo Loo. We like this option because there are no chemicals. no composting fans pulling power 24/7, and no diaper-genie situations.

If you want the long explanation of why we don’t overcomplicate toilets, it’s here:
Roost Vans Thoughts on Toilets in Vans <link to blog

Most people just need a place to pee at 2 a.m. Let’s not turn it into a science experiment.

Climate Control

With 800 amp-hours and proper charging, we can run:

• Dometic RTX 2000 A/C
• Espar heater

Heating and cooling are only complicated if the power system isn’t designed for it. When it is, it just works.

Full Build

A full Roost build isn’t about cramming every possible feature into a van.

It’s about layering systems correctly:

• Rail system
• Power infrastructure
• Modular paneling
• Intentional cabinetry
• Flexible bed system
• Right-sized water system
• Simple toilet solution

Everything builds on the previous layer. That’s what you’re seeing in this Transit. It’s not flashy for the sake of being flashy. It’s built so you can use it… Fix it… Upgrade it… And not be scared of it.

We’ve embedded the full walkthrough video below so you can see how all of this actually comes together in a real van.

If you’re thinking about a phased build, a DIY install, or having us do a full conversion, this is a solid example of what’s possible.

You can explore all of our systems and products at: roostvans.com

Build it simple.
Build it serviceable.
Then go use it.