Keeping the Cooking Surface Adaptable
At Coastal Mountain Vanworks, we believe that the best campervan is one that is modular and flexible to fit your individual needs. That includes the cooking source. Our galley cabinets, built for Sprinter and Transit vans, do not include a built-in stove providing owners flexibility to use a portable stove of their choice to cook in or outside the van. I am a believer in cooking outdoors as much as possible. Weather permitting, I would rather cook outside any day! With a fixed stovetop built into the countertop, owners are limited to cooking inside the van or having a secondary portable stove, and as we all know, storage space is limited.
More usable surface
Turns out, you don’t need any new gadgets or fancy spices to improve your kitchen; all it takes is the right amount (and organization) of counter space. – Bon Appetite (Counter Proposal 2015)
Though you may not be seeking a gourmet experience in your van this advice from Bon Appetite rings true – more counter rules. Without a built-in stove CMV countertops are much more usable, organized, and safe. All of our galleys are also built with an undermount sink for the same reason that countertop space is valuable. With the sink covered by the cutting board insert, you gain more working surface to plan and prepare your meal or spread out your latest project. Flexibility is key.
Cooktop Choices
Three of the most popular fuel sources for cooking are, induction, butane, and propane. Induction cooktops are the safest and many van owners love them. However, they require a large battery bank and an inverter is needed to convert 12v power to 120v. Because they need to be plugged into an outlet, they are less portable than the other two. If your van does not have the electrical power needed for induction, and you want to keep things simpler and more portable, butane stoves like the Iwatani 35FW or a propane camp stove such as the Coleman Cascade 222 are very reliable. When cooking with a combustable fuel inside your van make sure you have good ventilation to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. Always keep a window/door cracked open and use a ventilation fan if you have one.
Any of these three cooktop sources can be placed on top of our galleys and is one of the reasons our galley cabinet height is set at 34 ½”. We have intentionally decreased our galley heights so that when a stove is placed on the countertop your cooking surface will be closer to the standard 36” height.
For more information on our galleys and products, please visit Coastal Mountain Vanworks.