Sweet Bee is her name. She's cute inside, and her amenities go above and beyond.
Here are some of the rare amenities you'll find in Sweet Bee.
- 6'4 standing room. I cannot tell you how important it is to be able to stand in your van! Be careful to check the interior height of any van you're planning to rent.
- Composting toilet. I lived without a toilet for 6 months and I'll never do it again. Trust me. And the composting kind is so much more convenient than a camping toilet (it better be, for $1K!). Just throw your solid waste in any trash can, since it's composting!
- Microwave AND Keurig. Life's little conveniences keep you from losing your mind on the road.
- A very large fridge. Watch any van life "day in the life" videos on YouTube & you'll see them struggle to fit essentials in their fridge. Not Sweet Bee! Her fridge is huge. This comes with a lot more power consumption, though, so if you want to use the fridge 24/7, make sure you've got somewhere to plug the battery in to recharge nightly.
- Window AC unit. That's right... AC in a van. A true luxury. For extended use, AC should be plugged in to external power source, because it's a battery drain.
- The perfect, manageable length. Sweet Bee fits in a normal parking spot. This is important. She can navigate those tiny state park parking lots. She can even parallel park on a city street. Bigger rigs need to find multiple open spots in the back of the lot, an inconvenience that can cut into your time to enjoy vacation.
- A plug-in cooktop (along with pots and pans) for scrambling eggs or cooking whatever your heart desires.
**Note: Sweet Bee has a speed maximum set to 65 mph. I bought her that way. It's actually pretty common for pre-owned vans because many start out as delivery vehicles in fleets, so companies who buy them have Ford set a speed max. It can be annoying on the highway - you'll want to stay in the slow lane. But it's way safer on surface roads, since she's so tall, it protects drivers from flip danger.