One Of The Cheapest New Camper Vans In America Drives Like A Car, Fits In A Garage, And Won’t Piss Off Your HOA

For several decades, those wanting to create lasting memories without blowing a gazillion dollars have piled into vans and crisscrossed the globe. The modern camper van is an achievement of engineering, too, as manufacturers have been able to fit what are more or less studio apartments into vans. But here’s the thing: These vans often cost more than a house. It’s hard enough to afford a house these days, so doubling that spend on a camper van is too big an ask for a lot of would-be customers.

I have found what could be the answer. The Ford Transit Connect DLM Mini T Campervan is one of the cheapest new camper vans in America. It drives like a car and fits in a regular garage. You could even park it in your HOA-ruled neighborhood and nobody would care.

The pandemic changed how countless Americans view recreation. With resorts closed and cruises a danger to health, many Americans rediscovered the outdoors. The camper van became such a huge craze that even automakers like Ford got into the camper van game with the Transit Trail. Sadly, that van is dead now, but the Class B segment remains strong. These are the smallest class of motorhome that your money can buy, yet they often cost much more than substantially larger units. I’ve written about camper vans that cost more than $300,000. My brother just signed for a mortgage on a really nice multi-story house for that price. It’s hard to picture spending the same on a van. Even “cheap” vans like the Thor Freedom are still over $80,000 and that’s if you force yourself to drive a Ram ProMaster.

That’s why the Mini-T Campervan by DLM Distribution seems like a good idea. You can get one of these Transit Connects complete as a camper van for the rock-bottom price of $55,500. That’s a shockingly low price in the RV world. You’ll spend more than that on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter before you add a single thing into it. Yet, there’s a huge catch here.

Wait, From Who?

The Mini-T Campervan is the work of a small business in Lake Crystal, Minnesota. DLM Distribution has been around since 2006 and its whole deal is building and selling cheap camper vans. This is a company that’s so small that you won’t find it at a major RV show. Instead, the company advertises on places like Craigslist.

DLM Distribution’s founders Dave and Cindy Mellon give us a little about their story:

Our genesis was fueled by our personal passion for camping and traversing the spectacular landscapes of National Parks across our great nation.

Our guiding vision is simple yet profound – to craft memories, joy, and boundless opportunities for adventure. We endeavor to accomplish this by providing you with our ingeniously crafted, cost-effective, and easy-to-navigate Ford Transit Connect Mini-T campervans, and Chrysler Pacifica AWD Campervans (AWD All-Wheel-Drive Camper Vans) designed to fit snugly into your garage, ready for the next spontaneous journey.

Our team is veteran and woman-owned with a combined blend of industry-certified professionals, holding Master Certifications (ASE) in light and heavy-duty automotive and trucking, as well as FAA Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) licenses. Our collective expertise spans the automotive industry, trucking industry, and the technical and electrical facets of aircraft production, including the construction of light aircraft. With this wealth of knowledge, we introduce a level of reliability, proven systems, and worry-free solutions to the Campervan RV market that remains unparalleled.

The Mellons say their camper vans excel in being vehicles that can be both campers and daily drivers. A van from DLM is the ultimate in stealth camping. The company works hard to ensure that the vehicle has no real outside indicators that the person is driving a camper van. Basing these builds on tiny vans like the Ford Transit Connect also means that you get a camper van that easily fits into a standard garage and has driving dynamics closer to a car or crossover than a big work vehicle. DLM sees its vehicles hitting up grocery stores just as easily as they could be used for a cross-country road trip.

The Mini-T Campervan

DLM Distribution’s main product is the Mini-T Campervan. The Mellons have been building these for several years, first on the Ford Transit Connect and now on the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. The Transit died after the 2023 model year, Yet, DLM still has a handful of new 2023 Transit Connect builds for sale, sitting and waiting to start their adventures.

If you were to go with one of these and not the more expensive Pacifica builds, you’ll get one of the coolest small work vans to be sold in modern times. DLM’s Transit Connect builds usually start with a higher-end model like the XLT Premium. These are pretty nice vans with adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, a lane-keeping assist function, blind spot monitoring, and dual-zone climate control. You also get leather power seating, alloy wheels, and a snazzy color, all of which help take the Transit Connect away from its working roots.

Power comes from a 2.0-liter four good for 162 HP and 144 lb-ft of twist backed by an eight-speed automatic transmission. By all accounts, a mini Transit should be a perfectly fine camper and daily driver. These vans also get decent fuel economy for what they are with an EPA rating of 24 mpg city and 28 mpg highway. It’s a shame the Transit Connect is gone because it was a great little vehicle.

DLM’s conversions are refreshingly simple. The Mellons slide a futon into the van, which takes up most of the room. Behind that bed is a thin shelving unit holding a microwave, a sink with running water, and a 25L refrigerator. Directly next to your compact kitchen area is a TV/DVD combo unit. DLM says you’ll use the area under the bed for storage and for some additional good news, that’s where you’ll find a cassette toilet.

Additional features of a DLM Mini-T include two house batteries, discrete solar panels, USB ports, a roof fan, and a shore power plug. You also get a trailer hitch good for towing up to 2,000 pounds.

What I love about this is that all of the parts are easily accessed and wouldn’t require an engineering degree to repair. There’s very little to break in this van and if you are unlucky, I bet even a novice wrencher could figure out how to fix things.

I also love how stealthy these vans are. One of DLM’s biggest advertised selling points is that you can park these pretty much anywhere, including an HOA neighborhood, without getting any negative attention. To any outsiders, you just have a regular van. Being able to fit said van in a garage is another huge plus. RV manufacturers throughout history have attempted to market their rigs as multi-purpose daily drivers and the Mini-T might be the apex of that idea.

DLM says you get all of this for a price as low as just $55,500, which is practically a steal in the camper-van marketplace. If you’re looking for a more dedicated camper van, these appear to be one of the cheapest ones you can buy new.

I have a bit of a problem with these vans, however. If you ignore the price for a moment, you’ll realize that you’re paying a lot of money for relatively little content. As I noted before, the Transit Connect has been dead for a couple of years and examples on the used market are becoming very affordable.

If you go to a site like Autotrader and sort by mileage, you’ll find Transit Connects with basically no miles on their odometers for around $30,000 less than a DLM Mini-T Campervan. For example, here’s a 2023 Ford Transit Connect XLT with only 980 miles for $27,995. And here’s a slightly older 2020 model with just 2,295 miles for an even cheaper $23,900.

I will also note that while most Mini-Ts still have just delivery miles on them, some aren’t built on the freshest Transit Connects. For example, the one being sold for $55,500 has 6,738 miles on the odometer. At least you do get whatever’s remaining of the factory warranty and DLM warranties its conversion for a year.

So, the big question then becomes whether or not DLM’s conversion work is worth around $30,000, and I don’t think it is. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to shove a futon, basic shelves, a powered cooler, and a residential microwave into the back of a van. The heaviest costs here are probably cutting the hole for the roof fan and adding the twin battery bank. I bet a DIYer could do all of that for $5,000 or so.

The Chrysler Pacifica-based version above is a little better. A Pacifica starts at $42,450 and the DLM versions cost $65,000 and up. The gap there is smaller, but the build isn’t meaningfully different.

So, that leaves me with a bit of a convoluted conclusion. The DLM Distribution Mini-T Campervan is a great idea. It’s a tiny fuel-efficient van that you can use as your daily driver and as your camper. It’s also so stealthy that you wouldn’t be getting unwanted attention. You get all of that for a price that’s cheaper than any other pre-built camper van. That’s awesome! On the other hand, if you have any sort of DIY skills, you can easily come out on top just by making one of these vans yourself.

At the very least, I’m immensely happy that there are firms trying to cater to the lower end of the market. Not everyone has the cash to spend $300,000 or even $150,000 on a van. RVing should be for everyone of all budgets, so I’d love to see even more of this.

Update: A reader has tipped us off to an even cheaper camper van. That’s going to be a story for a different day.