Owners of Boho Vans, Brett Ellenson and David Sodemann, join host Dr. Denis Phares for an episode of the Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast. Together, they discuss Brett and David’s success on Shark Tank, how they quickly grew Boho Vans following the pandemic, and their latest van conversion!
Boho Vans Adventures in Innovation and Collaboration
A trip to Maui in 2018 and an adventure in a camper van sparked a passion that would forever change the course of David Sodemann and Brett Ellenson’s lives. After David convinced Brett to help him build out his own camper van, they decided to rent it out when they weren’t using it to recoup some funds. Just a few months later, the van was being rented so frequently that they couldn’t even use it. The success of their first van led them to continue building camper vans for rent and their company, Boho Vans, officially began.
Following an incredible investment from an episode of Shark Tank and the movement to spend more time outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boho Vans quickly took off. With hundreds of van builds under their belts, they don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. Brett and David are passionate about creating comfortable spaces for new and experienced adventurers alike to get outside and enjoy uninterrupted time in nature.
In this episode of the Li-MITLESS ENERGY podcast, host Denis Phares welcomes David and Brett to discuss their journey from the inception of Boho Vans to the success that they’re enjoying today. The episode also touches on their shift from AGM to lithium batteries, working with Battle Born Batteries to enhance the reliability of their vans. They recount their collaboration with Tom Green, who outfitted his van with their system and used it to record music in the desert. David and Brett chat with Denis about how their complementary skills, shared vision, and organic growth approach have been crucial to their success. Their story is a testament to the power of passion, adaptability, and seizing opportunities in the face of challenges.
Listen to the full episode, and be sure to keep up with Boho Vans on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!
Podcast
(Intro music 0:00-0:09)
Denis Phares 0:11
Welcome to The Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast. Today, it is my pleasure to welcome David Sodemann and Brett Ellenson.
Brett Ellenson 0:19
Yes, sir.
Denis Phares 0:21
Founders of Boho Vans, and it’s such a pleasure to have you guys here in Reno. You drove all the way up here in this?
Brett Ellenson 0:28
Yep. Technically, we shipped it. We did. We got to be fair. We got to be fair. [Inaudible 0:37] Let it roll.
Denis Phares 0:36
Well, that’s why it looks so good.
Brett Ellenson 0:40
Yeah. So, we brought it up here to visit you guys.
Denis Phares 0:44
Well, tell me about this. What is this?
Brett Ellenson 0:46
So, this is actually called our King Canyon model. It puts the sink on this side, more kitchenette space on that side, bed over there. It’s a full-size bed, 75 inches head to toe, but full… I can live in it in the middle of summer with this package in Arizona because we got a 19,000 BTU air conditioner. We got the heat for the winter when you go up to the mountains, shower, refrigerator. You name it, we got it.
Denis Phares 1:15
It’s a beautiful van. It’s got a kick-ass electrical system, we’ll talk about that later. We go back a little ways. You guys are using Battle Born Batteries on your vans, but let’s step back. You guys make really cool vans. So let’s start with the inception of Boho Vans. When did it start?
David Sodemann 1:35
2018, I went to a trip to Maui, and we rented a camper van. It was the first type of RVing I had ever done. It was my fiancé, or my girlfriend now fiancé. We explored the Island of Maui in a camper van, it was an old 2001 Dodge Ram 3500. Something you’d see driving to the airport generally. Low roof. And we just had the most amazing time exploring the islands. Our trip felt like… It was five days, but it felt like two weeks. We got to see more than we would just staying at a hotel. We were all excited. We came back to Arizona and said, “Hey, we would really like to have one for ourselves.” I’m not a builder, Brett is. We’ve known each other for a long time. And so we decided, “Hey, why don’t we build one of these, and we’ll have one, and we could rent it out in Phoenix, maybe we make some of our investment back.” And that’s what we did. We spent nights and weekends building our first van. We put it up for rent before it was done, booking started rolling in. And we realized, hey, not only do we have a van we can use very rarely because it was so booked, but we had a business opportunity. And we just kind of rolled…
Denis Phares 2:40
You thought it was a good idea right off the bat?
Brett Ellenson 2:43
(Laughs) It took a little bit of coercing from David because we were busy with work, but I was like, “Yeah, no, it sounds like an interesting fun project, to be honest.” And with the possibility of David saying, “Hey, I think we can recoup some of our money if we rent it as well,” I think, “Oh, that makes sense.” And rentals and stuff, that little revolving income. Sounds fun. So, like David said, he wanted it to be able to use. And he’s like, “I think I can pay you back, or we can get our money back on it if we rent it once in a while.” And then it was, basically, from there, we just couldn’t use it because it got rented so much.
David Phares 3:19
So, how did you finance it just right off the bat?
David Sodemann 3:21
So, we decided to go 50/50 on it. And I was gonna buy the van, and it ended up being a 2000 5e Series van. We still have it. I put the whole thing on a credit card. I had 15 months, no APR. I said, “Okay, we got 15 months to recoup this.” Brett came in and he funded the material side of it. And so, yeah, we started in the hole. And I think it was in the first six months we realized, “Hey, we’re a month away from being green on this investment.” And that’s when we bought another van.
Denis Phares 3:53
Okay. This was 2018. Before the end of 2018?
David Sodemann 3:55
Yep.
Denis Phares 3:56
Okay. And then 2019, well, something crazy happened at the end of 2019 and 2020, COVID kicked in. So, I think the timing was pretty incredible. So, I did watch your guys’ appearance on Shark Tank. Was that pretty much a catalyst, or could you have done it without Shark Tank?
Brett Ellenson 4:14
I would say that it definitely helped us. It gave us a boost. When we went on Shark Tank, we actually just became profitable probably a few months before we went to go do our taping. So, we weren’t even sure that we wanted to take a deal with anybody, because who knows? It was scary thinking, “Do they just take over your company? Are they hard to work with?”
Denis Phares 4:35
Did you apply? When you were thinking, “We have to raise some money here, we might be in the hole for a while.”
David Sodemann 4:40
No. We really just applied because we saw it pop up online, and I was in charge in marketing. Still, I’m in charge in marketing and I said, “Hey, this is the biggest marketing opportunity ever.” So, we applied. It was like, “Fill out this, tell us about your business in 30 seconds,” or so. And then, it just kept getting more serious. And I think what made it so less… It was a very high pressure experience, maybe we’ll get into that. But what made it very low pressure was that we didn’t need the money. We just had this idea, and it was growing organically, and we felt really confident that, whether we got a deal or didn’t get a deal, we were going to be okay. And so, it was really low pressure. And just like, “Hey, here we are, here’s our idea. Jump on board, if not, we’re good.”
Denis Phares 5:23
That’s a great way to go on Shark Tank.
Brett Ellenson 5:27
Yeah. Especially feeling like you’re just nervous, like, “Are they gonna tear your business to bits?”
Denis Phares 5:32
But they didn’t, they loved it.
Brett Ellenson 5:33
Yeah. We actually had sharks fighting over each other. We ended up getting the deal with Barbara Corcoran, and she’s great to work with. She is probably the coolest one that we could have gotten because she lets us run the company how we want, and she does give her insight. And probably one of her best attributes and she listens really well, and she gives feedback. You wouldn’t think that she would really know anything about building a camper van or maybe some of the marketing that goes on our side of it. But yeah, I think that’s probably our biggest asset because she’ll come back with a very intelligent answer of, “I think maybe your pinch point is this, maybe we try that.” And you’re like, “Yeah, that actually probably is something we should throw in the hopper to try out.”
Denis Phares 6:14
How much of the company did she get?
Brett Ellenson 6:18
10%. So, she got 10% for 150,000. And then there’s a $150,000 loan that, if we ever needed any time, we could take. But we’ve never taken that 150,000, we just kind of let that sit there because we didn’t want to take on any more responsibility overhead. Besides David’s initial fun credit card adventure that he did, we never actually worked with any loans or anything like that. We’ve grown organically, and just let the company grow with the funds that we produced.
Denis Phares 6:48
And she still has 10%?
Brett Ellenson 6:49
Yeah, she does.
Denis Phares 6:50
That’s awesome. What a great advisor to have.
David Sodemann 6:53
Yeah. She likes to have fun. I think she’s been and worked with a lot of companies over the years, and she’s just kind of at that point where she wants to have fun and like, “This is a fun company. People have a lot of fun in these vehicles.”
Denis Phares 7:05
Okay. So, 2020 hits and COVID happens. I can imagine, but how does that affect your business?
David Sodemann 7:13
Yeah. So, it was funny because the government shutdowns happened March 2020, that’s when they really came out, and it was the week of our Shark Tank episode airing. And so, we were going to have a company party, and we couldn’t because you could only have 10 people at an event. So, we weren’t really sure, nobody really knew what was happening. Everybody was a little scared. But it was crazy because we thought we were going to be the first company to air on Shark Tank and then have a drop in sales. Because, after it aired on a Friday, came around on a Monday and nobody could come to Arizona with their pre-planned rental trips. So, cancelation, cancelation, cancelation. Just anytime the phone rang, we’re like, “Oh man.”
Brett Ellenson 7:50
The whole calendar wiped out for a month. And we were like, “No.”
David Sodemann 7:54
So, we were like, “Yay, we’re on Shark Tank, but, oh, we’re losing money.” And Brett and I actually sat down and looked at our runway and we were like, “We think we got about eight months where we can sustain this with the savings that we have that we’ve made over the last few years.” But then things turned. People realized this is a great way to vacation with lockdowns, or not being around people, or just the whole self-quarantine nature of this type of experience. And so, we saw a rise in people looking to purchase. And so, purchases started coming in. People started booking more rental trips. Locals; we saw an increase of locals from Arizona booking trips because, “Hey, I want to get outside. I want to go somewhere. It’s summer, I need to go north. Probably got to rent a car.” Hotels, “I don’t know if I can stay in them, I don’t know if it’s safe. This is totally safe.” And so, in the beginning, it was scary, and then it became a catalyst for what we are now.
Denis Phares 8:51
And the nice thing about this is you really make it very livable. First of all, the woodwork is beautiful, the build quality is really good. Of course, a great electrical system. So, how early were you guys in terms of lithium?
Brett Ellenson 9:05
At first, we started with AGM. But that was because we basically didn’t really hear of the lithium advantages for a little while. And then, when we first started lithium, we started working with Battle Born. And that’s probably like the catalyst to how we’ve grown today as far as having a more reliable product. So, the lithium batteries basically jumped in about a year and a half into our business. So, we’ve been using the Battle Born lithium batteries for close to four and a half years now, almost five years. And, honestly, it’s like a reliability thing because we could have renters kill because that was the whole baseline of our company. We started off as a rental company, and then we moved into end user. End users are more user-friendly with their stuff, and they learn their product better, so how to better take care of it. So, inherently, a renter is going to be short on exactly how to take care of a product where the Battle Born Batteries… That was something that, actually, the battery protects itself. So, it’s kind of renter-proof in a way, and it creates a safer environment for the customer that maybe they need to get heat because it’s really cold out, and can the heaters start because your batteries are dead or not working? That was what really led us into going down the lithium rabbit hole.
Denis Phares 10:25
Right. But just the idea of making it livable, I think, power is such an important part of it. And, obviously, we’re glad that you found us, or we found you. I don’t know how that worked, but…
Brett Ellenson 10:35
Yeah. Almost, probably, is the universe bringing it together on both ends.
Denis Phares 10:40
That’s what it was. Thank you to the universe. And then, actually, the first time I heard about it personally was when Tom Green started talking about it. So, Tom Green, I think, right around that time, he was looking to leave the city, and COVID was already happening, and he was, at that point, ready to go anyway. And he got one of your vans with some of our batteries on and started talking about them.
Brett Ellenson 11:03
Yeah. Absolutely. So, he called in and left a voicemail.
David Sodemann 11:06
Like, is this really the Tom Green? And it was, we talked to him on the phone. The first thing was, “Hey, I heard there’s some really powerful battery technology out there where I could, in theory, just keep going in my van and power up all my stuff, and maybe even record an album out there in the middle of the desert, is that true?” And we were like, “Absolutely, it’s possible.” And that’s what started the whole project with him. And, sure enough, we worked with him and installed a bunch of… I think we did 400 or 500 amp hours of Battle Born lithium batteries. And, sure enough, when he created an album, you can probably see some of his songs on the YouTube.
Denis Phares 11:40
He has got a studio in his van.
Brett Ellenson 11:44
Totally. And that was actually built with your team, starting with Brandon. And giving him the wattages of the audio deck we had to put in, and installing all that. And then, we drove the van out to Tom because we had to install the speakers in the correct location for the correct acoustics that he wanted. But you met Tom, how was your experience with some of the battery stuff you put in out at Tom’s? He seems pretty well-versed when he comes to things.
Denis Phares 12:10
Yes. He’s so excited. He’s so enthusiastic about the whole thing. And I think he was giddy like a little boy talking about his toys. And so, that was a lot of fun. And then, of course, for us, he expanded it from his van to his Barn Cast. And he’s got our prime batteries around his property now for various purposes. So, yeah, that’s a lot of fun. That was a great connection. He’s such a nice guy too.
Brett Ellenson 12:36
Yeah, he’s great. I think he’s got a comedy special coming out, a show coming out, and, let’s see, he’s touring all over again. Tom’s back at it. He’s got a resurgence of the Tom Green. And in probably maybe a little different shade than he had before, but kind of became friends with them through the process, as you saw, like you just said how genuinely nice he is. I think you guys had a birthday party with him.
Denis Phares 13:02
We happened to be at his barn on his birthday. His parents were there, and baked him a cake, and we sang happy birthday. It was kind of surreal to celebrate Tom Green’s birthday with him, but it was a lot of fun. They were such nice people and great hosts. And we were there to do some battery work, actually, and to get the battery installed in his barn because he wanted to do the podcast, the Barncast from his barn and it’s like an 1800s structure. It’s a big battery. It wouldn’t fit up the stairs, so we had to put it on a tractor and kind of lift it up, and we were at the window trying to maneuver it. It was all pretty surreal. It was a weird visit, but it was awesome. It was great to be there. And, like I said, he was just so enthusiastic about the whole project.
Brett Ellenson 14:02
Yeah, as he does. Tom gets real excited when he gets real excited about something. And so, from starting his own Webo-Vision, to the initial podcasting, and to where he is today. Tom, he’s kind of somebody that you look up to a little bit if you have a passion for something, you just go in that direction. Just do it. And I think that’s kind of what… We’ve kind of tried to do some research on you and found how you started in a garage, and you kind of came up. Your start was pretty interesting to David and I. We’ve both been talking like, “Oh, we gotta ask some questions.” So, inspiration for us, again, the pile-up of starting the company, the growing pains, scaling. That’s honestly a question we have for you, like, your startup in the garage, right?
Denis Phares 14:51
Kind of. The company did. I went from being a professor, a tenured professor at USC, to, to my wife’s dismay, building batteries in the garage. Like, “What the heck are you doing in the garage now? Are you gonna get a job?” Like, “No, it is…” She was very supportive, actually. But I think in terms of having the enthusiasm, you need something to justify taking risks. And I was passionate about it. What led me to leaving a stable job to go and taking this risk of being an entrepreneur, I think, requires some level of passion and enthusiasm for just the work, for what you’re trying to do. What were you guys doing before you started Boho? What were your day jobs?
David Sodemann 15:48
I was a marketing director at a dispensary group. And it’s funny because, before that, I worked in alcohol sales, and then gambling. And so, my dad always jokes, he’s like, “What kind of vice is this? Is this a cover for something?” But no, I’ve always, basically, been in marketing, and I always kind of had an entrepreneurial spirit. And it’s funny that the one idea that landed really started from just more of a ‘I don’t want this to be a business, but I want to just travel in one of these things.’ And it’s funny how passion then leads into a real thriving business.
Denis Phares 16:28
Gambling, alcohol, weed, to vans.
David Sodemann 16:30
Yep.
Denis Phares 16:32
And how about you, Brett?
Brett Ellenson 16:31
I grew up and I did tool and die starting in a machine shop since I’ve been 13, 14, years old. And I did that all the way up till I was 20, and I actually started working for a machinery sales company. So, then I started selling the manufacturing equipment to larger manufacturers. So that brought me out to Arizona, and when I moved, the company I worked for, we kind of grew the division that I was in enough to… I moved out to run our operations in Arizona, and then a friend of ours, mutual friend of ours, was like, “Hey, you should hit David up about seeing if he wants a roommate.” So, basically, we lived together for a couple of years, and, in that time, we found out we had the same exact birthday because it was a Saturday, call it, and it was like, “I’m going down to Mexico Rocky Point, which is like three hours south of Phoenix.” And Dave is like, “Oh, yeah, I’m going down for my birthday.” He’s like, “Saturday, the 11th?” I was like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “What…” I’m like, “86.” He’s like, 80… We have the exact same birthday.” So, for a while, we thought we were born in the same hospital, the same day, which you would have been because we grew up in the same town, and everything. But it just turns out David was born down in Waukee, and I was born in Waukesha. So, maybe call it 45 minutes away from each other. We were born only like eight hours apart from each other.
David Sodemann 17:51
And we weren’t really friends until we both lived in Arizona, and then lived together kind of briefly, and then became camp buds. But realized what works with us with our business is that we have very different skill sets. You’ll never see me in the van installing something, I’m usually on the computer trying to get people to give us a call and order one.
Denis Phares 18:11
That’s why you’re still friends.
Brett Ellenson 18:13
Yeah.
David Sodemann 18:13
Exactly. It’s very easy to know whose responsibilities are what.
Brett Ellenson 18:16
And each other takes that responsibility very, very seriously. So, to further your question, I’ve done a lot of custom fabrication and metalwork. And then when David asked me to build this, I’m like, “I can read the tape measure, and cutting wood is pretty easy, I don’t need a CNC machine to do that.” So, that’s how we built the first van. As we watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to do it, and then we sat in milk crates, and we were trying to sit up and be like, “Well, we don’t want our head to touch the ceiling when we’re sitting on the bed, so we have to make the bed this height if we want a four-inch cushion on it.” We literally did it just by moving ourselves around the van, and then went to the marketplace and said, “How big is a water tank? How big of a water tank can we fit water pumps, inverters, batteries?” And that’s how we built the first van. And so, the side that I bring is a manufacturing background.
Denis Phares 19:08
Can this go global?
Brett Ellenson 19:11
I would definitely think so, and that’s actually kind of our long-term projection of partnering with you guys on electrical systems, and batteries, and the capability of our vans, and our new manufacturing processes that we’re really honing in on. We’re looking that there could be an honest global aspect to this. The third van that we ever built is actually in London, England. And so, speaking of electronics…
Denis Phares 19:38
Which side is the steering wheel on?
David Sodemann 19:39
It was just a regular Econoline van.
Denis Phares 19:42
Can you do that?
Brett Ellenson 19:45
Apparently, because the guy that…
Denis Phares 19:47
I don’t know the rules.
Brett Ellenson 19:46
Yeah. We weren’t worried about the rules, it was for him to figure out. But he was actually on a Harley tour with some buddies around the southwest, saw us in an article. So, kudos to David for getting his eyes on us. We met up with them in a hotel parking lot. And his buddy that was a mechanic looked around the van and said, “Wow, it’s quite tidy under there.” And so, we were like, “Okay, I think we got a deal. Let’s hammer it out.” And we were driving away, and I was like, “Ah, dang it.” And Dave was like, “What? What did we miss?” I was like, “Everything’s 220 over there.” I was like, “I think I could figure it out, I think there’s programmable inverters that can get it figured out.” So, we figured it out with a programmable inverter up to 220, and that was basically…
Denis Phares 20:27
Yeah. That’s not gonna meet the sticking point.
Brett Ellenson 20:29
No. We wanted sales, and we were hungry and just ready to go.
Denis Phares 20:35
Cool.
David Sodemann 20:35
So, when you started, did you have a founder? Was it just you in the garage?
Denis Phares 20:43
Yeah. Originally, it was me in the garage because it was a technology company. So, it was basically me in the garage making cells, the actual cells, the electrodes that go into the cells. It was really a science-based company, and I was trying to get venture capital. I couldn’t go on Shark Tank. I didn’t have any revenue, I had patents. So, I was trying to figure out how I was going to finance this. And so, I was trying to get venture capital interest. Driving down to Sand Hill Road and just looking for angel investors, or something. And I couldn’t really get any traction there. Lithium-ion batteries weren’t popular in 2012, 2013. A lot of battery companies were actually going bankrupt. And so, then I decided to assemble battery packs to kind of fund this, and that’s when I started bringing on partners. And there were about five of us, initially, a couple of engineers. I had worked with a guy I met in business school, Sean Nichols, who worked with me for a long time afterwards, actually. And he was pretty critical in driving the early marketing and growth of our brand. And, basically, that was sort of the nucleus. Got some investment to really grow the business from there. And worked out perfectly because that funded the technology. And, ultimately, that’s why we ended up becoming a public company, was because we had a large technology upside, but a profitable revenue-driven business.
Brett Ellenson 22:32
And that’s the biggest thing that is a startup company, and Dave and I’ve realized and we got early on. It’s like, you need cash flow. You need cash flow. And that’s how we started as a company, as a rental company. That’s such a great thing because you can have a great idea, but if you can’t fund it to get there, that’s the uphill battle that you gotta really face is how do we fund this to get to that golden egg? And that’s a cool thing that you’ve inherently just pivoted naturally with your entrepreneurial spirit.
Denis Phares 23:04
When you’re growing, you still have the cash flow issue because you have to fund the growth. And, for us, especially through Covid, we were barely hanging on all the sales that we were getting. And you’re either running out of cash or running out of inventory. And it’s like threading the needle. From the beginning, it’s always just been threading the needle. Is that how you guys feel?
David Sodemann 23:29
We deal with that too because we both rent and build for sale, and we’re always trying to balance that. How many rentals do we put into the fleet? And every time we build a rental, we’re foregoing a build for clients, and…
Denis Phares 23:41
But that rental revenue’s got to be nice.
David Sodemann 23:43
Yeah. It’s a good cash flow. And what really helps is, really, at the end of the life cycle of the rental is we sell it used, which opens up opportunities for people to purchase something that we build at a discount. Not everybody wants new, they’re okay with having a year or two old chassis with 30; 40,000 miles on it, and that’s exactly what they’re looking for. So, it’s nice to be able to have that aspect of the business as well where, “Hey, we have it new, you can rent one, but you could also buy a used rental.” And so, it’s kind of hitting the price point on a lot of different levels.
Denis Phares 24:18
So, what’s the next step for Boho?
Brett Ellenson 24:21
Global takeover.
David Sodemann 24:23
Drive this thing around, show us the love.
(Laughter)
Brett Ellenson 24:28
Let’s think short-term. We’re gonna go hang out in this thing, and go turn on some lights in the woods, and see if we can’t find a Sasquatch. The growth is, like you said, threading the needle, we are just trying to continuously expand our rental fleet. It’d be beautiful to expand to other cities, and always expanding on our capabilities of our manufacturing processes. This van right here is really solidified, basically, next generation of our building capabilities with different materials and the speed at which we can put them together. I think we already shared with you that machines go down sometimes. We had our CNC machine go down for cutting all of our materials for about two weeks at the beginning of this build, and we were fully committed to making the deadline at the first show that we were all supposed to be at. So, we had three weeks to build this van, and we got it done. There was a lot of late nights. There’s a lot of midnight 1 A.M, 2 A.M shifts to get it done. But it really kind of speaks to the progression that we’ve done. We could have never done this how we built things two years ago or three years ago, with the processes that we had before. So, this is really a testament just to the fast-paced growth that we’re experiencing. And if we’re going to exponentially be able to kind of increase our production because of this new building strategy, we’re holding all of our quality of all of our material, all the strength of all of our material, just using more expensive material. But since we can produce it so much faster and assemble it so much faster, it actually cuts down on our building cost. So, it’s growing our ability to service more customers, building more vans for end users, as well as expanding our rental fleet faster as well.
David Sodemann 26:15
Get more people inside, that’s the name of the game for us. We want to inspire adventure and embracing technology. Being able to go off-grid longer. Stay cool, stay warm. Make it totally four season, which this one is. I think it just opens up the world for our clients, our renters, and, yeah, anyone that wants to work with us in the future.
Denis Phares 26:38
Well, it’s happening and you guys are on the forefront.
Brett Ellenson 26:40
Yeah, definitely. We’re at the forefront. We get to talk about the battery system at all, or…?
Denis Phares 26:46
Let’s talk about the battery system. Why not?
Brett Ellenson 26:48
Yeah, let’s talk about that.
Denis Phares 26:49
This one is pretty cool because this is actually the first full build that I’ve seen with our intelligence feature, the batteries with the intelligence feature. So, we’ve been wanting to put this out for quite some time. We’ve been shipping them out to our OEM partners. And this one is the first one that I’ve actually seen completed. So, thank you for bringing the van up. It looks great.
Brett Ellenson 27:17
Thank you. Thank you.
Denis Phares 27:18
So, 48-volt system. We’ve got our Wakespeed, 500 Pro. We’ve got our 48 to 12 conversion. This has the works, so I think your customers are gonna love it. There you go, plug in my own product now. I’m plugging my own product their
(Laughter)
David Sodemann 27:36
We can’t wait to show it off. I think I’m going camping in it in a couple of weeks, and then we’re going to a couple of shows, Bend. And we’re going out to Redmond… Wait, is Redmond Colorado? Yeah. And then, we’re going to be out there for people to see it, and show it off, and, yeah, just continue to see what it’s made of. It’s very impressive to start, and we’re very thankful that we were able to put one in and test it out and just be like, “This thing is powerful.”
Brett Ellenson 28:05
Yeah. It’s not a shameless plug because it is a statement, the electrical system that we have in here with the amount of power, 13 kilowatts of power. And so, when you start talking to people that are looking, they’re a little bit awestruck because, first, we try to put together to really showcase those components; so the wake speed with the new intelligence batteries, and really getting them on display for people to see. So, it is a big showpiece, and people are like, “What is that? How powerful is it?” You start going through it, and if they know anything about their system, they’re probably like, “That’s…” I’m really generalizing, but it’s probably three and four times as powerful as most rigs out there. And talking about the time you can run your air conditioning, which is always a big thing, especially with us in Arizona.
David Sodemann 28:56
109 degrees there.
Brett Ellenson 28:59
With this system running it at 48 volts, we’re running a 19,000 BTU air conditioner by Cruise N Comfort. Chris builds them down in Arizona by us. Super reliable, robust system. And we can run that, and it runs at 23 amps. And so, we can run that thing for… I don’t know how long we’re staying, we’re over a few days or something like that. So, it’s very impressive that’s why, hey, there’s no shameless plug on that. It’s a showpiece, and it definitely gets people talking.
Denis Phares 29:33
I’d just rather hear it coming from you.
(Laughter)
David Sodemann 29:37
We talk about it.
Brett Ellenson 29:38
Yeah. Well, then we need to ask more questions about how great did you think the wood panel…
Denis Phares 29:43
This is fantastic. It’s beautiful. I’ve already said this, this is true workmanship here. So, no, you guys make a great product. I really do think that you’re on the forefront, and it’s in a growing industry.
Brett Ellenson 29:56
Thank you.
Denis Phares 29:57
So, thank you for coming on the podcast.
Brett Ellenson 30:00
Yeah. Appreciate it.
David Sodemann 30:00
You got it.
Denis Phares 30:01
Brett and David from Boho. Thank you for listening to The Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast. Be sure to subscribe on any of your favorite podcast platforms.
(Outro music 30:09-30:18)
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