We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Blake Prince. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Blake below.

Blake, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a customer success story with us?

Recently, we had the opportunity to build a van for an entrepreneur couple who wanted to travel in their van to ski resorts in the winter. As avid skiers, and small business owner who can work remote, we knew their van build would need to key items for them to be successful.

As with all our builds, we ensured that they van was well insulated for winter travel with Havelock wool, and a Webasto heater to keep them cozy after those long days on the ski hill. But what we added that was different than any of our past builds was a mobile office set up. Here’s what we included: a permanently mounted Starlink with the 12v adaptor (so they don’t need to run their inverter to use it!), a fold away work station with USB ports, and added seating so they can both work from the work station. Plus, this work station can fold away when not in use OR double as a dining area after hours.

Our happy clients are set up for winter adventures for years to come!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We started building custom adventure vans in 2021 after realizing that traveling in a big RV no longer suited our family’s travel style. We loved being able to easily get up and go, to travel in our rig year round, and to be able to be off grid as much as possible! So we started building custom adventure vans for family, couples, and individuals like us who want to spend the weekends adventuring.

We really took all the luxuries of an RV but removed all the complexities of RV life. We like to call our vans your Airbnb on wheels!

As a small family owned business, we build only three vans a year. We spend the rest of our time helping DIY customers and current van owners with upfitting, repairs, and consultations on their DIY builds. And of course we spend a lot of time adventuring ourselves, testing out new gear, and getting outdoors as much as possible.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Seven years ago, I met the woman who would become my future cofounder and business partner in Adventure Life Vans… my partner in life and my wife – Erica Davis. Erica was visiting Boise from the Portland area to check out real estate here, and we randomly met through a Meet Up group outing at the roller rink of all places! It was love at first sight and over seven years later, we are now running a successful van building business, raising two kids, and spending as much time as possible together enjoying the great outdoors in Idaho and beyond. We both have backgrounds in running small businesses and entrepreneurship. So it was a natural evolution to start a business together!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

A couple of things that set us apart from our competition…

First off, we build exclusively on the Ford Transit chassis. This is something we’ve gone back and forth on for a few years, but every time we question this decision, we keep coming back to this as a core aspect of our brand identity. We do not have any sort of brand sponsor/ambassador relationship with Ford… we simply believe that for us, this is the right product to work with when building custom camper vans. We have heard endless horror stories from van customers who have chosen to build on other platforms. What sealed the deal for us was a road trip across the US when we realized that even in the smallest towns in America, you can find a Ford dealership and Ford parts. We also love the drivability of the Ford and their partnership with Quigley for aftermarket lifts and suspension upfitting.

The second piece is our focus on high quality custom cabinets. Our background is in home construction and so this attention to detail in the interior quality and aesthetic of the van has been a key distinguisher from other van builders. We want our customers to feel comfortable and at home inside their van!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adventurelifevans.com/
• Instagram: @adventurelifevans
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBJUXq6_KuA&t=137s

Image Credits

Abie Young at Creative Co Studios