Real photos from the build, added as it goes. Right now that's the leveling legs — twelve of them, and the one job on the whole build that needs a tool most people don't own.
Everything bought for this build, with the price actually paid in July–September 2026 — not a list price, and not an estimate. Prices move; treat these as what a build like this really costs, not as a quote.
Legs, feet & leveling 4 items
Twelve feet, one per leg. ±½" of travel around 1" nominal, turned by the stud's own fixed hex collar. Four packs bought.
$13.99 each ×4
The tool this job actually needs. The threaded insert's own drive is 10 mm (1 cm) — not 3/8", not 7/16" — and it's the one tool on the list you're least likely to have out already. This set covers 1.5–10 mm plus the SAE sizes, in chrome-vanadium with a case. Long arm matters: you need the leverage to start an insert square into end grain, and a stubby key will not give it to you.
Site leveling at the wheels — the frame feet only trim the last ½". Pairs with the
block calculator.
$28.76
Pitch on the bed platform rail, roll on the rear-pantry deck edge. Two spares in the pack.
$8.99
Frame hardware & fasteners 7 items
Four per panel frame across three panels. Two packs bought, four spares.
$9.49 each ×2
Diagonal racking stiffness for Panels A and B, which have no fixed top of their own to brace them.
$7.99
The piece that turns three loose modules into one beam — two per seam, low on the bottom-rail band.
$14.99
Anti-rattle at every module seam and between stacked drawer units. Cheapest quiet you can buy.
$8.99
Strap anchors screwed inside Panel B's bottom rails, holding the spare-tire stack down.
$12.99 each ×2
The best decision on the build: the custom plywood pantry was replaced by four bought drawer units, stacked two wide and two high on Panel C's deck and held by a cleat pocket and one cam strap. Nothing to build, about 27 lb lighter, and each unit lifts straight out. Match the size, not the brand — 12.1 × 14.3 × 8.4" per unit is what the deck depth was drawn around, so measure before you order.
~$61 2 packs
Bundling every cord run, and tying stacked drawer units to each other so the top row can't creep under braking.
$13.49
Drawer & appliance slides 4 items
The fridge slides. These lock both closed and fully extended — non-negotiable for a 40 lb appliance that pulls out over an open tailgate.
$79.20
The Panel A battery drawer. Only one pair needed — the 5‑pack was cheaper than a single pair.
$46.99
The shallow kitchen drawer hung under Panel C's deck.
$13.48
One per drawer, so nothing opens itself on a corner. A slide's own detent is not enough in a moving vehicle.
$5.99
Anchoring & restraint 5 items
Bolt-on anchor points on the anchor board. Made in USA, and the load rating is printed on them — buy restraint hardware that tells you its numbers.
$39.99
Flush deck anchors for the pantry and battery-drawer straps — nothing to catch a shin on. Three packs across the build.
$29.19 each ×3
Two over the kitchen unit into its own notches, three forward into the third-row striker loops. These are the straps holding the whole platform to the van.
$28.34
Lighter-duty jobs: over the spare stack, across the pantry drawer fronts, around the battery in its drawer.
$14.99
A Sienna doesn't come with a spare. This one stows flat in Panel B right at the axle, where the weight belongs. The single biggest line on the list, and the least negotiable.
$349.95
12 V electrical & fridge cooling 9 items
The one distribution point for every DC circuit. Fuse assortment and labels included.
$17.98
Three needed — fridge, cooktop, fans — on one small control panel. Lit, so you can see what's still on at 2 a.m.
$8.99
Runs the fridge-bay fans on temperature instead of leaving them on all night. A $10 part that pays for itself in battery.
$9.99
One intake, one exhaust through the fridge bay. Ball bearing, not sleeve — a sleeve fan on its side in a hot cabinet has a short life.
$13.99 each ×2
Low intake on the front wall, low exhaust in the cabinet door. Without these the fans are just stirring the same hot air.
$9.97
The fridge's DC run — and the SAE plugs double as the quick-disconnects at each module seam, so the panels still lift out.
$19.94 each ×2
Every wire passing through plywood gets one. Ten pass-throughs on this build.
$9.99
Houses the switch panel and thermostat display so nothing lives loose behind a panel.
$9.89
Spares for the van's own fuse box and the build's. Keep them in the glovebox, not in the shop.
$10.97
AC power & cable management 7 items
Two of them — one on the deck edge, one at the battery. Individual switches mean no phantom draw from whatever's plugged in but idle.
$29.99 each ×2
Deliberately short. The cooktop and power strip sit right beside the Sienna's rear AC outlet — long cords would just coil somewhere and get stepped on.
$8.07 each ×2
Splits the van's single rear outlet between the cooktop and the power strip.
$5.99
The AC channel. Screw it down — adhesive-backed raceway does not survive a hot vehicle.
$28.32
A separate channel for the 12 V runs. Keeping DC and AC in different ducts costs $23 and saves a lot of head-scratching later.
$22.99
Screw-mount, not adhesive. About a dozen used; the rest are cheap insurance.
$8.99 each ×2
For the long bundles nothing else reaches around. UV rating matters if anything ever sees daylight.
$6.99
Kitchen, fridge & galley 7 items
Bought rather than built — a plywood galley with a sink, a folding table and its own slide would have taken weeks and come out heavier. 26 × 20 × 11.8" closed, and it has four of its own strap notches and D‑rings.
$379.00
28 × 17.7 × 15.8", 40.6 lb, 60 W max, reversible lid. Bought direct from the manufacturer — a launch coupon took $27.99 off the $399.99 list, which beat every marketplace price we found. Learn from our mistake: a 30‑quart was ordered on Amazon first and had to go back — measure your fridge bay before you order, not after.
$372.00 $402.69 w/ tax · list $399.99
Induction over propane: no combustion, no CO, no tank, and it drops straight onto the kitchen's stove tray. 18.1 × 9.1 × 4.3". Check your power budget first — 1800 W is most of a 15 A circuit.
$189.99
Handles come off, so the whole set nests into an 11 × 11" footprint. In a van, how something stores matters as much as how it cooks.
$39.99
Sized to the shallow kitchen drawer. Loose cutlery in a moving van is a rattle you will not forgive.
$17.96
Real cutlery. Cheaper over one season than disposables, and it doesn't blow away.
$35.97
Sized for the camp kitchen's counter, not a house sink.
$16.79
EcoFlow power & climate 4 items · $1,876.78 all in
The heart of the build. The
DELTA 3 Plus is a 1024 Wh base station running the fridge, the cooling fans and one power strip; the WAVE 3 is a 6100 BTU air conditioner and heater in one box, quiet enough to sleep next to. Buying them as a bundle beat buying the two separately by a wide margin. The
power planner is how this got sized.
$1,377.00
Another 1024 Wh, chained to the Plus for 2048 Wh total. Running an air conditioner overnight is what makes the second battery necessary rather than nice — the base station alone will not see you through a hot night.
$409.00
Came free in the same order. Lives in the glovebox for phones — thumb-sized, so it doesn't take a drawer.
$0.00 included
The part that makes a portable air conditioner work in a vehicle at all: a window seal with duct pass-throughs, so the hot exhaust goes outside instead of straight back into the van. Ordered separately, and the piece most people forget.
$39.00 $40.11 w/ tax
Sleeping & shelter 6 items
Doubles the living space off the open tailgate and stands alone on the ground. A pole-frame tailgate tent was tried first and went back — inflatable pitches faster in the dark, by one person.
$299.99
Cut to the 2021–2026 Sienna's glass. Privacy and heat, and far less fuss than making your own Reflectix panels.
$59.99
Personal comfort on the power strip for nights the air conditioner is overkill. Whisper-quiet was the whole reason for it.
$69.00
Clothes storage that hangs instead of taking floor volume. Two bought.
$39.99 each ×2
The dimension the whole platform was designed around — 79¼" of deck length exists to swallow this. Washable waterproof cover included.
~$530 planned
Blackout curtain and tension rod for the cab dividerstill to buy
Separates the cab from the living space. Last item before the first real trip.
~$40 planned
Safety 3 items
Even with induction and no propane on board, you are sleeping in a sealed metal box near an idling engine and other people's generators. $24.
$23.99
Rated for electrical, textile and grease — the three fires a camper van can actually have. Mount it where you can reach it from the bed and from outside.
$11.96
One on each keyring. $6 for the tool you hope never to reach for.
$6.28
Sienna-specific & vehicle 9 items
The part that makes seat removal legal-feeling instead of nerve-wracking. Pulling the second-row seats leaves the airbag and seatbelt-pretensioner circuits open, and the SRS module reads an open circuit as a fault: warning light on, stored codes, and a system you no longer trust. Each emulator presents the 2.2 Ω the module expects, so it sees a healthy circuit. Connector type is the thing to get right — they're sold by connector, not by vehicle. Four units covered our two seats: two round, two square. Check yours against the seller's compatibility table before ordering, and confirm the light stays out and no codes are stored before you drive it.
$80.00 4 × $20
The Sienna's console is a cavern. This makes it usable while driving.
$19.99
The exposed door-track hinges are the first thing to catch grit when you're living out of the side doors.
$49.99
Backing into a dark site is most of van life. The factory reverse bulbs are not up to it.
$20.79
Lights the tailgate work area — where the kitchen and fridge actually get used.
$13.99
Dome, map and door lights converted to LED — brighter, and a fraction of the draw when you're on battery.
$21.75
The festoon fittings the T10 bulbs don't cover. Check which your van has before ordering either.
$14.49
Sand and crumbs are the actual enemy of living in a vehicle. Runs off the battery stack.
$65.99
Unglamorous, and the difference between a tidy van on day four and a bad mood.
$7.99
Tools the build actually needed 9 items
The 48‑89‑9222 kit — a #1 and a #4 jam-free step bit plus eight 1/16–3/16" twist bits. Step bits are what you want for the vent holes, grommet pass-throughs and every sheet-metal or thin-panel hole on a build like this: one bit walks up through a range of sizes and leaves a clean round hole instead of the triangle a twist bit chews in thin stock.
Every curve, every inside corner, and the fillets that keep the one-piece anchor board from tearing. Corded on purpose — no battery to run flat mid-cut.
$54.00
Reverse tooth cuts on the down-stroke, so the good face of the plywood doesn't tear out. Worth it on Baltic birch.
$8.08
The rough-cut pair to the blades above — for breaking a sheet down fast where the edge doesn't show.
$10.72
Panel frames go together square or they don't go together. These hold the corner while you drive the bracket screws.
$28.98
The bit that makes plywood joinery work: ¾" ply is never actually ¾", and an undersized bit cuts a groove the sheet fits snugly.
$13.95
Every edge you'll brush past in the dark gets eased with this. Cheapest comfort upgrade on the build.
$9.95
Pilot, clearance and countersink in one pass. Hundreds of screws go into this build — a split rail costs more than the set.
$31.18
Trimming bolts flush and cutting the L‑track stock down to length.
$19.52
S'more's Outdoors may include Amazon and other affiliate links; if you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices shown are what we paid in July–September 2026 and are not current quotes. S'more's Outdoors is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any manufacturer, vehicle maker, brand, or retailer whose products or trademarks appear on this page; all product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This is a build log, not engineering guidance. Everything on this page is what worked for one specific vehicle, measured on that vehicle. Two things in particular deserve your own judgement:
New photos and progress go up here as the build moves. Next up are the three panel frames and the no-drill anchor board — the part that decides whether this thing is safe.
Got a question about a decision on this page, or want a tool built for something the build ran into? Get in touch, or use the tool-idea form on the home page — several of the calculators on this site started exactly that way.
