Not a miner here, just remembering the mining farms in various videos that generally produce noise and heat. If you want to run mining in a van 24/7, this factor needs to be considered for the comfort of the van's occupants.
Furthermore, considering the max potential hashrate of Mini 3 (37.5TH/s @800W), the chance of hitting a jackpot from solo mining is very low. Not to mention the maintenance of crucial components of the van itself, like solar panels, batteries, and converters. If it were me, joining a pool would make more sense.
He is not into solo mining, he just used a friend as an example to prove that mining is possible on a fan, the friend he is talking about choose solo mining but not him, he is someone who travels alot and he want to make money using the sun daily or weekly.
With mini 3 it is possible to get something out of it every week, $50 to $100 per month is possible with mini 3 miner, which is good enough for him and it doesn't generates heat like the main Asic miners.
Joining a pool is the best I believe too, there is no converter needed because he is using a all in one power station which comes with inverter and and charge control, I guess he must have choose that to limit wiring in the fan.