Paddling Life's Adventure Van the White Knight

Our 2019 Nissan NV serves as PaddlingLife.com / family adventure mobile.

Avatar Metal Works accessories: Drop Side Steps, Narrow Gap Roof Rack, Single Jack Front Bumper

This van has been such a fun project and worked so well in it’s Paddling Life role as well as family adventure van. “The White Knight” name came from a good friend and it’s kind of stuck. He envisioned a giant Knight with a lance graphic down the side but that’s definitely not happening.

We bought the NV3500 new and had TD Nissan add the 4×4 and a remote start. Then we lifted it 3″, added 35″ tires, replaced the center console with a fridge, and of course added the Avatar accessories.

Being in the online forums I’m going to go a step further and add lots of details here because I get the same questions over and over. Now I’ll just point back here.

PaddlingLife.com Adventure Van stacked with Hala river SUPs

The rim and wheel setup.

First off, let me say that my setup was more complicated then it needed to be and other setups would be easier. Now that it’s done I love it but it was work.

I wanted functionality for off road so I went with 17” rims and 35” tires. This has allowed us to climb Jeep roads (with in reason) and sand. We’ve been all over Moab, Sand Hollow, Pismo Dunes, and the Jeep trails here in the Steamboat Springs, CO area.

Rims – Method 315 – 17×8.5 | 8×6.5 | 25/5.80″.

Tires – Nitto Trail Grappler 35r17x12.5

Here is the lift kit I used

So why this was all problematic for me. The rims were a guaranteed fit from Method. And they did fit. Just not with my monster tires. The tire rubbed the control arm. So that means I then needed to add a spacer. It turns out a 1/4” spacer was all that was needed. So my +25 are now +12.5 (or there about).

But with the spacers I now needed longer studs. It turns out there was only really one option for these and they were standard thread. So different lug nuts were then needed then originally ordered.

All that and the door rubbed so I ended up trimming the door panel. Now the door fully opens.

Replace the center console with a fridge.

This is by far the best modification. Super easy, or at least it starts out that way, and used constantly.

Euromy 55L fridge in the center console space of a 2019 Nissan NV3500 van.

We went with the Euromy 55L. I’d never heard of them either but they were cheap and it fits perfectly. So far no complaints. Works perfectly. It has a built in sensor that is adjustable so you don’t drain your battery. The only issue is that I like my drinks extra cold and on that setting it would drain my battery if parked mid summer over a couple of days. So I added 100W of solar and haven’t had an issue since. So solar is likely optional here but I like projects and because of the Paddling Life aspect it’s awesome to have cold beers in the van after getting off a multi day river trip.