Van Lab: Building a Mobile Tech Lab on a Budget

This meeting we had community member Eric take us inside his most ambitious side project yet — converting a 2002 Chevy Astro van into a fully functional mobile tech lab.

As a remote worker who already owned the van, Eric saw an opportunity to turn it into something more: a self-contained setup with custom flooring, a mini fridge, cellular Wi-Fi, and an always-on web server — so he could ditch the coffee shop and work from a lake, a forest, or anywhere in between without sacrificing his setup at home.

Eric walked us through the full build journey, the lessons he learned the hard way, and how a side project that lived in his head for years finally became something real 🚀

Key takeaways from his talk included:

1. Stop planning, start building — Eric spent months measuring and shopping with almost zero progress. Real momentum only came when he started cutting wood and drilling holes. Planning has diminishing returns; doing doesn’t.
2. Done beats perfect — The interior ended up looking like a hunting shack. He shipped it anyway. Waiting for the ideal outcome is just a slower path to the side project graveyard.
3. Constraints are a feature, not a bug — Knowing he had to return to Houston every two weeks shaped every design decision and helped him build smarter instead of bigger.
4. Community accelerates everything — A fellow builder from Code & Coffee showed up and helped him work on the van mechanically. Your network is a resource — use it.

Thank you Eric for sharing your journey with the community 🚀

Thanks to community member He Zhu, you can view a full recording of this session below: