Our Story

(First shop in James front yard 2020. We built this covered space in just under a week AFTER we landed our first big job)

The Open Road story began in late 2019. What started as a side hustle for two people in a front yard quickly evolved into something bigger. We started with three very simple rental vans. All we really wanted to create was a cost effective way to use these vans, for our own travel and hobbies when they weren’t being rented.

Then the pandemic hit…. We got a phone call from a local family of 5 that wanted to travel the US with their 3 kids full time. Hoping to create an experience and lessons that no classroom could provide. They were eager to hit the road. Overly excited and unsure of how we would pull this off… we said YES. We quickly assembled a team of misfits and got to work. What we lacked in experience we made up for with determination. We knew that each build that came through the shop would buy us a couple more months of what felt like freedom.

Yes we both had building backgrounds (electric and masonry) but nobody had a van building background. We learned that building vans was unique and not easy. As we built our team, we spent days figuring out the build process and nights researching the best components. After that first Sprinter left the shop it was game on!