A family outfit, badge and all.

It started with our own rigs

We did not start with a shop full of customer builds. We started with a white Ford E-Series and a list of places we wanted to take it. We lifted it, set it on off-road wheels and all-terrain tires, mounted a roof rack with storage, and added a light bar up top and LED pods on the grille. That van became the travel rig, and it taught us what actually matters when you live out of a vehicle for days at a time.

Then came the big one. We took a bright yellow box truck and turned it into a full camper. Inside: a kitchen with white cabinetry, a deep single-basin sink with a residential pull-down faucet, an induction cooktop, LED task lighting under the cabinets, and real counter space. A cushioned bench, a dinette with a wall-mounted swing table, a wall-mounted TV, and a control panel on the wall so you can check your systems at a glance. Outside: a full matte graphite respray, four round LED pods on the cab-over, an 8-foot Iron Man 4x4 awning, and a sasquatch-on-a-bike decal, because every rig should make at least one stranger smile at a gas station.

Proven where it counts

We drive what we build, and we drive it hard. Snowboarding mornings in the Mt. Hood ski lots. Winter runs to Sunriver and Bend. Sunrise drives through the Columbia River Gorge. In fall 2022 we pointed south and looped the desert: Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. We have parked at Huntington Beach and spent plenty of nights at Oregon coast and lake camps.

Every one of those miles is a test. A cabinet that rattles loose on a forest road gets rebuilt. A layout that fights you while you cook dinner in a ski lot gets rethought. Nothing goes into a build because it looks good in photos. It goes in because it held up on the road.

Fewer moving parts, more miles.

Simm-plify your life

Our badge reads "Simm-plify your life," and that is the whole philosophy. A van should not be a second job. Every system in a build has to earn its place: simple to run, simple to fix, hard to break. When there is less to fuss with, you spend your weekend driving instead of troubleshooting.

That is how we built our own rigs, and it is how we would build yours. We are now taking build inquiries. Tell us where you want to go, and we will figure out the van that gets you there. Find us on Instagram at @simmvandesign.