Silas and Ned Tuckett, Oxley Gap, since 2011
140 vans. The same two brothers built every one.
Silas is a cabinetmaker. Ned is an electrician. For fifteen years they have built ten vans a year on Sprinter and Transit in an old grange garage on Scarrow Road, and nobody else has ever touched one.
Full builds from $78,000 plus the van. $10,000 deposit, twelve weeks in the shop.
No. 140
On Silas’s bench this week. Sprinter 144, garage bed, 600 Ah of lithium. Leaves in October for the Selkirks.
15 years
in the same shop on Scarrow Road
140 vans
built, numbered and logged since 2011
10 a year
and never more, so two vans share the floor
2 base vans
Sprinter and Transit, because we know every bolt
One brother for the wood, one for the wires.
In 2011 Ned needed a van to live in while he worked a season of line jobs up north. Silas built the inside in their dad’s garage, Ned wired it, and a stranger at a gas station in Dawson Creek asked who made it. That was No. 1. The dad’s garage became the grange garage on Scarrow Road two years later, and it has been the two of them ever since.
Silas Tuckett, cabinetmaker
Eight years building kitchens before the first van. Every cabinet is glued and pinned so it does not shake loose on a washboard road, and every drawer has a latch he designed after No. 12 emptied its cutlery in Utah.
Ned Tuckett, electrician
A licensed journeyman who wires a van like a house: fused circuits, marine grade cable, everything labelled. He keeps the wiring diagram for all 140 vans and still answers the phone when one of them throws a fault in the rain.
Every van we’ve built, and where it went next.
Each van gets a number, a build sheet and a place in the log. Owners keep writing to us after handover, so the log also records where the vans have been since. Here are twelve of the 140. Filter to the van you are thinking about.
Showing 12 of 12 sample builds from the log of 140.
No. 140
In the shopSprinter 144 AWD, garage bed
600 Ah lithium, 7.7 kWh
On Silas’s bench now
Cabinets are in, Ned wires the galley next week. Leaves the shop in October for a winter of ski touring in the Selkirks.
No. 131
2025Transit 148 AWD high roof, garage bed
600 Ah lithium, 7.7 kWh
Greer, 19,000 miles
Fly rods under the bed and a summer of lakes in the Wind River Range. Sends Silas a photo from every trailhead.
No. 118
2024Sprinter 144 high roof, dinette
460 Ah lithium, 5.9 kWh
Casimir and Lupe, 31,000 miles
San Diego to Tofino up the coast road in its first summer, then back down for a winter in Baja California Sur.
No. 109
2023Transit 148 AWD high roof, rear bed
460 Ah lithium, 5.9 kWh
Deshawn, 44,000 miles
His office. A desk that folds into the galley, 800 watts of solar and video calls from 38 states so far.
No. 97
2022Sprinter 170 high roof, family bunks
600 Ah lithium, 7.7 kWh
Pieter and Maud, plus two, 37,000 miles
Shipped from Baltimore to Antwerp for a year in Europe, from the Algarve to the North Cape. The bunks came home with crayon on them.
No. 88
2021Sprinter 144 high roof, garage bed
400 Ah lithium, 5.1 kWh
Sunniva, 58,000 miles
Three boards under the bed, every surf break on Highway 1 and a standing booking for a pre-winter check each November.
No. 79
2020Transit 148 high roof, dinette
400 Ah lithium, 5.1 kWh
Hector and Henrietta, 66,000 miles
Retired the week it was delivered. Winters in Big Bend, summers on the Oregon coast, grandchildren on the dinette bed.
No. 66
2019Sprinter 170 high roof, garage bed
400 Ah lithium, 5.1 kWh
Ximena, 92,000 miles
Two mountain bikes in the garage and 41 national parks written in pencil on the inside of the wardrobe door.
No. 58
2018Sprinter 144 high roof, rear bed
300 Ah lithium, 3.8 kWh
Second owner, Torvald, 104,000 miles
Sold on in 2023. Torvald found our build sheet in the glovebox, called the shop to say hello, and booked a battery check.
No. 38
2016Sprinter 170 high roof, family bunks
400 Ah AGM, since lithium
Joaquin and Oona, plus three, 131,000 miles
Two school years on the road, Baja to Newfoundland. The youngest learned to walk holding on to Silas’s galley drawers.
No. 21
2014Transit 148 high roof, rear bed
300 Ah AGM, since lithium
Solveig, 149,000 miles
Up the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks twice, and one winter parked in Whitehorse at thirty below. The diesel heater never missed.
No. 6
2012Sprinter 144 high roof, dinette
220 Ah AGM, since lithium
Ambrose, 212,000 miles
All of the lower 48 and 212,000 miles. Back in 2020 for new batteries. The cabinets are the ones Silas built in 2012.
Twelve weeks on Scarrow Road, and you can drop in on any of them.
Two vans share the floor at a time, one in wood and one in wire. Owners get a photo update every Friday and are welcome on any Saturday morning with coffee.
Weeks 1 and 2
Stripped to bare metal
Rust treatment on every seam, sound deadening, then wool insulation packed by hand into the ribs. Roof fan and windows cut in.
Weeks 3 and 4
Ned roughs in every wire
Cable runs, conduit and fused circuits go in before a single panel does, labelled at both ends and drawn onto your build sheet.
Weeks 5 to 8
Silas builds the cabinets
Baltic birch ply, solid ash edging, joints glued and pinned rather than screwed through. Every piece is cut in the shop to fit your van, not a template.
Weeks 9 and 10
Power, water and heat
Batteries, inverter, solar and the diesel heater are commissioned. Water tanks inside the heated space, so nothing freezes at twenty below.
Week 11
A 300 mile shakedown
One of us sleeps in it for two nights up in the pass. Anything that squeaks or rattles comes back to the bench.
Week 12
Handover, two hours of it
We walk you through every switch and valve, then hand you the build book: wiring diagram, parts list and a phone number that one of us answers.
$78,000 plus the van, and here is what that buys.
Most of our builds land between $78,000 and $96,000. Bring your own Sprinter or Transit, or we find one for you at cost. We have never added a line to an invoice that was not agreed on the build sheet first.
- Full insulation, walls, ceiling and floor, with a birch ply interior
- Galley with sink, 12V fridge, induction hob and 20 gallons of fresh water
- Fixed, garage or dinette bed, or family bunks for up to four
- Lithium battery bank from 400 Ah, 400W of solar, inverter and shore power
- Diesel air heater and a roof fan with rain cover
- Two years on the build, lifetime on Silas’s joinery
- $10,000
- Holds your slot. Refundable until we order your materials, eight weeks before your start.
- 40%
- The day your van rolls into the shop.
- Balance
- At handover, after the shakedown and your walkthrough.
The next open slot is March 2027.
Ten slots a year, booked in order of deposit. A $10,000 deposit holds your start month and your build number.
- October 2026No. 140 and No. 141 in the shop
- January 2027Taken, No. 142
- February 2027Taken, No. 143
- March 2027Open
- May 2027Open
Owners write back from the road. Some of them for ten years.
Sample reviews, written for this concept.
“Ten years and 131,000 miles on No. 38. Three kids have grown up in it and not one drawer has come loose. When the heater threw a code in Newfoundland, Ned talked me through it on the phone from the shop.”
“I visited four builders. Silas was the only one who pulled a drawer out of a half-built van, handed it to me and asked me to find a screw. I could not.”
“I bought No. 58 second hand. The Tucketts had the original wiring diagram on file and fitted new batteries to the exact spec in an afternoon. That is the whole reason I would buy new from them.”
Come and open the drawers yourself on a Saturday.
There is nearly always one van in wood and one in wire, and usually an owner back for a service. Pull things out, lie on the bed, ask Ned about amp hours.
- 418 Scarrow Road, Oxley Gap. Park on the gravel by the ply shed.
- Saturday 9am to noon, walk in. Weekdays by appointment.
- Service and battery checks for any Tuckett van, whoever owns it now.
- (555) 014-2011
Tell us about the van you have in mind.
Silas reads every enquiry and replies within two working days, usually with photos of the three past builds closest to what you describe.
Rather talk? Call the shop on (555) 014-2011. If we are both under a van, leave a message and one of us calls back that evening.