Introduction
AEON RV builds all-season off-road camper vans out of Reno, Nevada, and the 2025 model is their most refined version yet. It’s on the new Ford Transit cutaway chassis with all-wheel drive and carries over 20 improvements from the previous year. Jim Richie, CEO and co-founder, walked through the build on Hunter Lake Road about five miles from the manufacturing facility.
The Builder
AEON RV is based in Reno, Nevada. Jim Richie co-founded the company and does the walkthroughs himself. They partner with another Reno company, Battle Born Batteries, for their 24-volt battery system, and they use the same Hunter Lake Road area for real-world off-road testing before delivery.
Vehicle Platform and Base Specs
The 2025 AEON RV is built on the Ford Transit cutaway, all-wheel drive, one-ton rated, with a 9,950 lb gross vehicle weight. It comes with a 2-inch lift kit from Van Compass and the tires have been updated from BF Goodrich KO2s to the new KO3s, which are larger than the stock Ford tire and add a bit more lift on top of the Van Compass kit. The steel wheels come off the truck, get chemically stripped, and are powder coated in a semi-gloss finish that ties into the overall look better than the stock silver.
Optional exterior upgrades include a Ford Raptor grille to replace the standard Ford grille, Baja Designs lights on a front light bar, ditch lights on the sides, and a Vancus intercooler skid plate. The exterior on this build is finished in a paint protection wrap, thicker than a traditional vinyl wrap, with a matte sheen and a 10-year warranty. It’s self-healing against chips. A black hood wrap is also installed, which cuts down on glare off the white hood and integrates a subtle logo. For 2025, all trim elements have gone to black, including the door clips, exterior lights, and the trim strip between the body and the cab.
The storage box on the exterior has been reduced in height by two and a half inches, which improves the visual profile and helps with off-road clearance. Bedliner coating runs along the lower body to match and protect against rock strikes.
Electrical System
This is where the AEON RV gets genuinely unusual. The whole system runs at 24 volts natively, which means the refrigerator and water pump run at 24V without needing an inverter or step-down converter for those loads. Everything else runs off 12V through a step-down.
The brains of the system is a Victron Cerbo GX with a touchscreen display. It monitors batteries, solar input, power consumption, water levels, and interior temperatures, all accessible from the screen or through an app. The Victron inverter-charger handles both inverting 24V battery power to 120V for regular appliances and charging the batteries from solar and the alternator. The MPPT solar controller and a solar disconnect switch are also in the electrical bay.
For alternator charging, AEON runs a unique setup. They pull power off the Ford Transit’s CCP2 connection, up to 150 amps at 12 volts, run it through a charging inverter that converts it to 120V, and then the Victron inverter-charger converts that back to 24V to charge the battery bank. For 2025, that charging inverter has been bumped from 2,200 watts to 3,000 watts, giving it more headroom and running it cooler inside the electrical box.
The battery bank is eight Battle Born 24V 50Ah batteries stored under the dinette, with room to add two more for a total of ten. That’s a serious amount of storage, and between the 800 watts of solar on the roof and the alternator charging capability, running the system down would take some doing. The 50-amp, 120V breaker panel handles the AC side, and all fuses on the 12V side are labeled and include LED indicators that light up if a fuse blows, even with the panel closed.
Self-heating batteries are no longer used. Because the batteries live inside the vehicle’s thermal envelope, they stay at interior temperature, and in consultation with Battle Born’s engineering team, AEON decided the heated battery option added complexity and cost without a real benefit in this installation.
Ventilation fans inside the electrical bay are regulated by the Cerbo GX and kick on automatically if temperatures climb above a set threshold. That threshold is adjustable through the touchscreen. Wiring throughout is high-quality stranded copper tinned wire from Ancor, and Ancor connectors are used as well.
The cab has been set up with a dedicated switch for alternator charging, a 30,000-lumen rear light bar for off-road night parking, and switches for the ditch lights and the front-facing Baja Designs lights with high and low settings. Two blank switch plates are included so owners can add their own switches. The optional Brand Motion full-view camera system adds a front and rear dash cam and doubles as a rear-view mirror display since the Transit has no traditional rearview mirror.
Solar
The roof carries 800 watts of solar across four 200-watt rigid panels rated at 25% efficiency. That’s an upgrade from the flexible panels used in previous years, which were rated at 23% efficiency. AEON is offering the new panels to existing customers at cost, and according to Richie, they’ve already retrofitted more than 20 vehicles.
Kitchen
The countertop is a solid surface in a color called Reno, and the sink is deep stainless steel with a pull-out hot and cold faucet and a soap dispenser. A switch near the sink controls the water pump, and there’s a separate switch to heat the hot water tank off shore or battery power. The hot water heater itself is a marine-style stainless steel 8-gallon tank, insulated and installed inside an insulated box. It heats off the engine coolant line when driving, so there’s no energy cost for hot water on the road. The box around it has been redesigned for 2025 to make access easier, and a bungee cord now keeps items secured on the shelf above it.
Cooking is all electric, no propane. The induction cooktop pulls out and can be used inside or on the optional exterior table. An optional microwave fits in the upper cabinetry. A pantry keeps food close to the cooktop, and a built-in garbage and recycle bin sits nearby. The appliance garage has a new retainer shelf so nothing slides out on rough terrain.
LED lighting throughout has been updated with diffusers on the 2025 model for a cleaner look. Windows are Turn Overland dual-pane acrylic with integrated bug screens and shades.
Bathroom
The bathroom includes a fold-down sink with a separate faucet. When you lift it, it drains directly into the gray tank. The medicine cabinet has new full acrylic doors with sliding handles, a light, and a 20-amp circuit for high-draw items. The shower door is built into the bathroom door to save space.
The show model has the Separett Tiny urine-separating toilet as an option. There’s no black tank and no cassette. Solid waste goes into a biodegradable bag in the bowl, and urine drains directly into the gray tank. For multi-use situations, desiccating material goes in the bag, and an optional vent fan switch is installed in the bathroom, with an indicator light showing when the fan is running. The fan vents under the vehicle.
The gray tank has a 1.5-inch ball valve for dumping, with a hose and fitting sized for standard RV dump stations. The automated ball valve from previous models has been removed for the 2025, replaced with the manual valve.
A 12V tank heater for the gray water tank is accessible from the electrical panel and is self-regulating, so you just turn it on in cold weather and it handles the rest.
Skylight and Interior Details
The powered skylight from previous models has been replaced with a mechanical unit. It locks open in two positions, has a built-in bug screen, and a blackout shade. The mechanical design removes one more potential failure point.
Cabinet colors for 2025 are two options: a light color called Simplicity and a medium-dark color called Union Peak. Window shades are now installed with threaded inserts so owners can swap the direction they open or close with four screws, no special tools required.
Storage and Sleeping
Storage runs throughout the build with drawer systems, overhead cabinetry, and the pantry. The exterior storage box, though slightly shorter than on previous models, is still a functional option. The dinette area houses the battery bank underneath and serves as the main living and dining space.
Capabilities
The AEON RV is designed to go places and stay there without managing power. The 24V native electrical architecture, 800 watts of solar, and alternator charging via the CCP2 connection make it genuinely set-and-forget for most users. The all-wheel drive Transit cutaway with the Van Compass lift, KO3 tires, and skid plate option handles the rough access roads that get you to those places.
Final Thoughts
The 2025 AEON RV is a tightly executed evolution of a system that was already well thought out, with most of the changes addressing real-world feedback from existing owners. It’s a serious electrical build in a relatively compact package, and the all-electric cooking and heating setup means there’s no propane anywhere on the vehicle.