mechanics, expectations & the fine print
how we sell campers — and what that means for you
we build beautiful, hand-made camper interiors into vehicles our customers already own. that comes with trade-offs, and we’d rather tell you about them now than have an argument about them later. if there’s ever any confusion, we go back to the written contract we both signed — that’s what we hold to. read this page before you commit to anything.
this page is updated constantly as we learn and as rules change. it is a plain-language summary, not a contract. for anything specific about mechanics, condition, paperwork or the sale contract itself, email us directly at hello@floridavanlife.co — we answer honestly, and we’d rather you ask twice than assume once.
first, what we actually are
we build camper interiors. that is the entire business.
we are not a used car dealership. we do not hold a motor vehicle dealer licence, we do not buy vehicles to resell, and we do not broker vehicles for anyone. we don’t sell vans. we build out the camper part in the back of a van that already belongs to someone else.
here’s how it works. you own the vehicle. you bring it to us titled in your name, and we build the interior — cabinetry, bed, kitchen, electrics, finish. it stays in your name the entire time it is with us, and it goes home in your name. at no point do we take title to it, and at no point are we selling it to you.
in six years we have completed 70+ camper buildouts. that is what we do and what we are good at. the vehicle underneath it was somebody else’s purchase, somebody else’s history, and somebody else’s responsibility — before us and after us.
what we are responsible for — and what we aren’t
we are responsible for the camper buildout we agreed to do, as set out in your build contract. that’s it.
we are not responsible for the vehicle itself: its engine, transmission, drivetrain, brakes, suspension, chassis, electrical system, title history, mileage, prior accidents, prior repairs, rust, or anything else about it. we did not build it, we did not sell it to you, and we cannot warrant it.
the buildout work is supplied with no warranty of any kind — express or implied — unless a warranty is specifically written into your build contract. if it isn’t in writing, it isn’t a warranty. and there are no returns: a completed buildout cannot be un-built.
take your time before you commit. ask everything. have an independent mechanic look at your vehicle before you spend money converting it — we’d genuinely rather you find a problem first than discover it in our shop.
🔩 mechanics, recalls, and buyer beware
we take vans to trusted mechanics before and after a buildout, but here’s the honest truth: a vehicle has thousands of individual parts, and there is no way for anyone — us included — to verify that 100% of them are working perfectly at the exact same moment. even a brand-new car straight off the dealer lot comes with recalls sometimes. that’s not a knock on the manufacturer, it’s just mechanical reality.
part of owning any vehicle is understanding there’s ongoing maintenance. that’s not us dodging responsibility — it’s the reality of adulthood, and it’s true whether your van came from us or off a factory lot yesterday.
you are more than welcome to bring your own mechanic to inspect the work before you commit — we encourage it. we don’t guarantee anything about the vehicle itself, and we don’t hide anything either. we’re an open book: it’s on you to do your own research and your own due diligence. we are here to build campers. we are not here to guarantee a car manufacturer’s work from 25 years ago.
your state’s rules are your responsibility
this is the single most important thing on this page, and the thing people most often get wrong.
we build in florida, and florida’s requirements for emissions, safety and inspection are among the most relaxed in the country. every other state sets its own rules — and some of them are strict.
converting a vehicle can change how it is classified, inspected or registered. a van that is perfectly legal here may not be registerable where you live once it has a camper interior in it. it may need modifications, inspections, certifications or paperwork we cannot provide, or it may not qualify at all. the same goes for any country outside the united states.
we do not guarantee, warrant, promise or advise that any converted vehicle can be registered, re-titled, inspected, insured or legally driven anywhere. we are not experts in other states’ vehicle codes and we will not pretend to be.
before you commit to a build, check with your own state’s dmv or equivalent authority. it takes one phone call. do it before you send us money, not after.
we’re artisans, not a factory
we are a small boutique shop. our vans are hand-built by a handful of people who care enormously about them — which means they are full of character, and they are not machine-perfect. seams are hand-cut. wood is real. paint is applied by humans. the base vehicles are used, and used vehicles have histories, quirks and wear.
if what you want is a factory-finished vehicle with uniform tolerances, a dealer network and a bumper-to-bumper warranty, we are genuinely not the right shop for you — and we’d rather say so now than take your money and disappoint you. go buy from a large manufacturer. no hard feelings at all. we mean that.
but if you want something with a soul, made by people whose names you’ll know, and you understand that “handmade” and “flawless” are different words — you’ll love it here.
do your homework
before you buy a vehicle to convert, we strongly encourage you to:
- have an independent mechanic inspect it properly
- run the vin and check the title history yourself
- call your dmv about registration, emissions and inspection — before and after conversion
- speak to your insurer about covering a converted vehicle
- budget for mechanical work separately from the buildout
- ask us every question you have, twice if you like
we’ll tell you honestly whether a vehicle looks like a sensible base to build on. what we won’t do is make a promise we can’t keep about somebody else’s vehicle.
what we do tell you
we will always tell you, honestly and up front:
- what the base vehicle is and what we know of its history
- what we built, replaced or repaired during the conversion
- any faults or quirks we’re aware of
- what we don’t know — and there will be things we don’t know
we’re not interested in hiding anything. a happy owner two years from now is worth more to us than a sale this week.
who we work best with
we’re a small team and we like our work. the people we build for tend to be flexible, curious and easy-going about the realities of an older vehicle — the kind of people who see a quirk as part of the story rather than a defect to litigate.
if you need certainty, guarantees and a warranty department, that’s a completely reasonable thing to want — it just isn’t what we sell. please buy from someone who offers it. nobody is being pressured to do business with us, and we’d much rather you find the right fit than force ours.
and while we’re being honest — please don’t call us a year later because a 25-to-35-year-old vehicle developed a mechanical fault. we did the camper buildout. we did not manufacture the vehicle.
if your water pump goes twelve months after we finished your interior, that is not an us problem. if you have an issue with something chevrolet, dodge, ford, gmc, mercedes-benz, ram, nissan, toyota, freightliner, isuzu or any other manufacturer built decades ago, that is a conversation to have with them. we have nothing to do with how those vehicles were designed, engineered, assembled or maintained before they reached us, and we do not warrant, guarantee or take responsibility for any part of them.
we also do not warrant the buildout itself unless a warranty has been specifically written out and agreed in your build contract. if it isn’t in writing, it isn’t a warranty.
bringing us complaints like that is annoying, and it isn’t very van life. and just because we’re a us-based company doesn’t mean we’ll fold the moment someone reaches for a lawsuit — we have an attorney, and this isn’t our first rodeo. come to us like an adult and you’ll find us genuinely easy to work with.
🫀 a van will not make you happy
we need to say this plainly, because nobody else selling you a van is going to.
buying a camper van does not buy happiness. it is not a cure for a hard season, a job you hate, a breakup, or feeling stuck. if you are unhappy or depressed where you are right now, living in a van is usually harder, not easier — you are removing the small luxuries that were quietly holding you up. a hot shower whenever you want one. a kitchen with counter space. a door that locks on a room that is yours. air conditioning you never had to think about. those sound trivial until they are gone.
van life will push you. it will make you genuinely uncomfortable. it will hand you problems at inconvenient times and expect you to solve them.
here is what we will promise: it will force growth. it will teach you patience, self-trust, and how to figure things out on your own. you will be more capable in a year than you are today, and a lot of people look back on it as the most meaningful chapter of their life.
but that is a journey, not a mood. we will not promise you happiness, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does.
van life does not create problems — it reveals patterns. patience gets clearer. frustration gets louder. joy gets deeper. come in with your eyes open.
📸 what the photos show
- sunrise coffee with a perfect view
- spotless, styled interiors
- carefree road trips
- remote campsites all to yourself
- storage that stays organised
- golden hour, every night
- work-from-anywhere vibes
- smiling photos, no stress
🚐 what the day actually looks like
- dishes in a very small sink
- dust, sand and clutter, constantly
- breakdowns and maintenance days
- crowded campgrounds sometimes
- reorganising the same shelf again
- weather that does not cooperate
- finding signal takes planning
- freedom and responsibility, together
🌡️ a van is not a house
no matter how much insulation and tech we throw at it, mother nature wins. the inside temperature follows the outside temperature. insulation reduces heat and cold — it does not eliminate them.
think of it as somewhere between camping and living in a very small apartment. the upside of a small space is that it heats up or cools down fast with a fan or a little heater. the downside is that extreme climates take planning, and comfort is something you actively manage rather than something you set and forget.
living in a van is never as comfortable as living in a house. it is almost always more fun. both of those are true.
every build can be specced with an a/c and heater upgrade — roughly $3k–$8k depending on the solar, inverter and battery you pair it with.
🔧 participation, not perfection
we work mostly on vintage vans. owning one is an active thing. it asks for attention, curiosity and care, and it rewards the people who show up for it.
before a camper leaves our shop it is inspected by two independent mechanic shops plus our own in-house mechanic. we do not hand over vehicles with known major mechanical problems. safety matters to us.
inspections reduce risk. they do not eliminate future wear. put enough miles on any vehicle and things will come up. that is not failure, it is ownership. estelle broke down five times living on the road, and some of her favourite stories come from those days.
keep up with routine maintenance, and get yourself a roadside assistance plan before you need one.
💵 what it actually costs to keep one
a van is not a fixed monthly number. budget for it the way you would a house.
- light use: roughly $1,000–$2,000 a year in maintenance
- travel use: roughly $2,000–$4,000 a year
- heavy / full-time use: varies with how hard you run it
set aside a few hundred dollars a month as a maintenance buffer even when nothing is wrong. fluids, small repairs, diagnostics, tune-ups, wear items. money you did not have to spend is still a win — the point is that a repair becomes an errand instead of a crisis.
🗓️ your first 30 days
do not make your first trip the big one. take three short local trips first, and test one system at a time.
- learn your battery system, inverter limits, water system and where the fuses live
- practise plugging into shore power, charging while driving, and checking fluids
- find a local mechanic now, not when you are stranded
- enrol in roadside assistance
- save your build documents and system diagrams to your phone
this is the single best thing you can do to avoid first-trip disaster syndrome.
🛠️ normal, less common, and rare
knowing the difference is most of the peace of mind.
normal and expected: sensors acting up, a cabinet latch loosening, a battery needing replacing, a small leak, electrical quirks.
less common but possible: transmission issues, major suspension work.
rare but serious: accidents, total mechanical failure.
and separately — inconvenient is not the same as unsafe. rattles, flickering interior lights, a fridge that needs adjusting, a sensor light with no change in how it drives: inconvenient. overheating, brake trouble, steering problems, major fluid leaks, sudden loss of power: stop and get help. when in doubt, slow down and ask a professional.
🔑 after you drive away
once the van leaves our shop, ownership fully transfers to you. that is not us abandoning you — it is autonomy. you choose your mechanics, your timelines, your repairs, your road.
so, plainly. after purchase florida van life co. is not:
- a warranty provider
- a roadside dispatch service
- an on-call mechanic
- a therapist
- responsible for how, or where, the van is driven
who to call when something goes wrong: an immediate safety issue → roadside assistance or emergency services. a drivability concern → a local mechanic. a check engine light → an auto parts store, most scan the code for free. lifestyle questions → google, youtube, the forums. emotional support → a trusted friend. us → when it is contractually relevant.
one more thing, and we mean it kindly: after a big purchase some people get a wave of second-guessing. what did i just do. that does not mean you made a bad decision. confidence comes from experience, not from certainty — give yourself time to settle into the rhythm.
the legal bit
florida van life co., llc is a camper van conversion business. it is not a licensed motor vehicle dealer, does not hold itself out as one, and does not buy, sell, broker or take title to motor vehicles. the customer owns and holds title to the vehicle at all times; florida van life co., llc is engaged solely to perform conversion work upon it.
all conversion work is supplied as is, with all faults. to the fullest extent permitted by law, florida van life co., llc disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, workmanlike performance, or conformity to description, except any warranty expressly stated in a signed build contract.
florida van life co., llc makes no representation or warranty whatsoever regarding the vehicle itself — including its condition, mechanical fitness, safety, roadworthiness, title, history or suitability for conversion — and accepts no liability arising from the vehicle or from any component not installed by it.
we make no representation that any vehicle complies with the registration, emissions, safety or inspection requirements of any jurisdiction other than the state of florida. the buyer accepts full responsibility for determining and satisfying those requirements.
no statement made by us, in conversation, in writing, on social media or on this website, creates a warranty or modifies the terms of sale. the signed bill of sale and any accompanying sale documents are the complete agreement between us.
this page is a plain-language summary provided for your information. it is not legal advice and it is not the contract. the signed sale documents control.
questions about a specific van, its mechanics, or the paperwork? ask us. we’d rather have a straightforward conversation before the sale than after it.
email us