This Ingenious System Turns a Cargo Van Into a Home on Wheels in Minutes

Folks, we’re sure you’ve heard of Happier Camper before. After all, they’ve brought us the retro HC1 and Traveler camper trailers. But along with those two mobile homes, this team has created an entire system that gives those trailers their modular abilities.

It’s called Adaptiv, and yes, it’s trademarked. Once you really understand how the entire system works and feels, you too will probably say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, guess what? Someone's already beaten us to it.

Before we continue, have a look in the gallery and at the video below, then come back to the text to get a better understanding of what you’ve just seen. All good? All right, let’s get started, shall we?

If you paid close attention to the video below and photos, then you understand how all of this works; it all starts with the floor. To understand what function the floor plays in all of this, imagine you just bought yourself a new Lego set and now must build something. But to do so, you have a baseboard upon which to begin the construction. That’s the flooring; think of it like as sort of foundation for your bedroom, kitchen, living room, and party floor.

That floor is composed of 1.5-inch (38-mm) thick honeycomb fiberglass that is both strong and light. In the center of each panel, we can also see round grooves; it’s here that part two of the story takes place. Each groove is responsible for holding in place all the components that make up the living space inside your van.

Part two of this magical story belongs to the components themselves. Now, just like Legos, Adaptiv includes a sort of cube-like construction for everything. And, as if the gods willed it themselves, one cube fits perfectly on top of one floor panel.

Let’s start with the simplest structure we see, the storage cubes. Each one occupies a base of 30 square inches. Actually, all of the components have a base of 30 square inches, it’s just that some, depending on their purpose, are taller than these base cubes.

Let’s take the toilet and kitchenette, for example. The toilet is about knee height, like any toilet should be, and is contained in the 30 inches. The kitchenette, however, is contained in that same 30 square inches but lays atop another storage cube to raise the sink and burner to normal levels. There’s even a cooler cube that is available for storing cold goods.

As for the bedding, it’s all set on top of cubes too, but this time, the use of cushioned lids create a sleeping structure suitable for two adults or more. There's even a bunk bed feature set up with the same principle. A dining area is complete in the same fashion with a tabletop feature.

But what’s really nice about Adaptiv is that most of these components can be taken out and simply placed outside your vehicle. This means you can enjoy dinner with your loved one under the stars, and, with full bellies, you can easily create your bedroom in a matter of minutes. If you think you're going to need the space for a wilder time, just leave some of the furniture outside.

If you want to find out more about the sort of layouts you can complete with this system, click here and have fun. Do look into how much this will cost you, as you might be in for a surprise, though.