Question to RVers/van-lifers: is it conceivable to build a van that supports living in a Nordic/Scandinavian coastal city to sustain climbing through most of the year while also being equipped enough to go to Norway for snowboard trips in the winter months? I worry about humidity/condensation and rust mostly, but are there other things I should be mindful of?
I'd prefer the smaller size of a van to get to climbing crags even if that means losing out on shower opportunities although showering would be nice. Most skiing/snowboarding destinations I've been to do not seem to have dress rooms so I guess if push to shove one can always self-clean using snow brr
Definitely should be able to. I'd recommend getting a professional to spray closed cell foam insulation.
I have a diesel heater. It's hooked up to a heat exchanger with my engine coolant loop, runs to my hot water heater, also to the forced air fan, and also throughout the entire floor. I laid pex down in the floor so I have floors that I can get up to 80 degrees F. I rarely use the forced air as the diesel heater barely sips fuel and keeps the floors nice and toasty. The advantage of the heated floors in van is that it's a thicker radiant heat, so it heats the cabinets and the walls. Then when you open the door it doesn't let all the heat out.
I would say definitely with the right van build. I lived in a self-converted van for two years with my partner, and we spent both winters ski bumming in the Northeast US and Colorado. We saw temperatures down to -14F and could keep the van a balmy 65 inside. We heated the van with an externally exhausted 16k BTU propane furnace (blew dry heat) and that thing could really crank out warmth.
As for showering, we never did in the winter because external grey tanks freeze. We did have a showerpan embedded flush in the floor so it didn't take up any space normally day to day. We would just have to set up shower curtains around it before we did. I actually showered more outside of the van for that reason.
Mostly we would just clean ourselves with hot towels for a few days before we had to wash our hair.
You can open the doors every day for some natural ventilation or install active ventilation that uses fans to pull outside air in and push the stale air out. The latter is probably preferable in winter, although it all depends on what you're able to tolerate I guess.
As for rust, I haven't experienced any significant amounts of undercarriage or panel rust on any of my 20+ year old vehicles in Western Europe, but we don't get as much snow (and salted roadways as a consequence) as Scandinavia does. You can look into undercarriage coatings for this though.
I'd prefer the smaller size of a van to get to climbing crags even if that means losing out on shower opportunities although showering would be nice. Most skiing/snowboarding destinations I've been to do not seem to have dress rooms so I guess if push to shove one can always self-clean using snow brr