Sportsmobile Adventure Van 1st Gen

Sportsmobile is the original adventure van company. It began converting vans in 1961 and has built custom campers continuously since, which makes it the oldest name in a field now crowded with newer brands. Where most competitors sell a fixed set of floorplans, Sportsmobile remains a true custom shop. A buyer specifies the chassis, the layout, and the systems, and a build typically takes six to twelve months between deposit and delivery.

Two things define a Sportsmobile. One is the Penthouse, the pop-top roof the company introduced in the 1970s, which adds standing height and an upper sleeping area and can be raised from inside the van. The other is the 4x4 conversion. Sportsmobile's four-wheel-drive Ford vans built a reputation among desert and backcountry travelers over decades, and that capability now lives in the Classic 4x4, built on a Ford cutaway chassis with a steel-reinforced fiberglass body. Sportsmobile describes the Classic as the only way to get its full 4x4 build.

The modern lineup converts the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Ford Transit, Ram ProMaster, and Chevrolet Express. The Sprinter and Transit are available with factory all-wheel drive, an always-engaged system that handles dirt roads and weather without driver input, while the Classic keeps the traditional, driver-selectable 4x4 with low range. Because every van is built to order, specifications vary widely by commission.

Sportsmobile competes with custom upfitters like Outside Van as much as with the production adventure vans from Winnebago, Storyteller, and Airstream. Its position is experience and customization. It offers a depth of configuration the production builders cannot, backed by six decades of doing only this work, at the cost of the longer wait and higher price a one-off build carries.