Welcome to our series of blog posts featuring our brand new camper conversion project! We’ll be posting throughout the process different elements of the conversion. This will cover everything from what we went for and why, before starting to document our adventures!
Finding the Perfect Any Van
We spent ages picking the right van. We scoured Facebook marketplace, Autotrader and Gumtree, but always found a reason to not go with one. The very few that passed our stringent criteria ended up selling before we had a chance to view them. It was anarchy!
After realising we were getting nowhere, in March we upped our price range from around the £3k mark to anything less than £5k and started looking in dealerships. Whilst this price point is actually quite low for a van, we didn’t want to spend too much initially, as neither of us have any experience in engineering, electrical work, plumbing or even carpentry. We would be learning as we go so a smaller financial commitment made us feel a bit more comfortable giving things a go throughout.
Finally, after a few garage visits narrowing our search to either Vauxhall Vivaros or Ford Transits, we found a 62 plate Ford Transit. Slightly over budget at £5.5k, but in really good condition for the age and mileage (just over 157k). We took it for a test drive and put a deposit down; we weren’t letting this one get away! Travis was secured, and a week later, we picked it up and took it home.
Adventure Debut
Fortunately we had both booked a week off work over Easter and after picking the van up on the Thursday, had a camping week in Snowdonia planned from the Saturday. No time (really) to get any form of conversion done, so we thought it was a great opportunity to see what we want from our conversion and experience a little van life adventuring!
I’ll now caveat our ‘conversion-less camper’ piece by saying we didn’t just hop in a crew cab Transit and drive over to Snowdonia, we set up a couple of home comforts.
First Purchases
Top of our list for immediate needs was somewhere to sleep. Fortunately, behind the crew seats and bulkhead was a surprisingly good condition ply-lined load space. We picked up a sofa-bed style mattress from Ikea, which we wanted for when we make our bed further down the line, and stuck it in the back. Bedroom, for now, sorted. Oh, once the fairy lights went in of course…
The next ‘necessity’ in our eyes was a fridge. We need our morning coffees to function effectively, and with our action-packed week planned this was a high priority. Not only did we want something for our milk, but being able to keep fruit, meats and cheese (obviously) as cold as possible was important. We picked up a Hi-Gear 28L electric cool-box from Go Outdoors. This has both a 12v car socket and 240v mains plug so we could keep everything cool for a while. Plugged into the mains though, this was pretty much a fridge and we had the joys of ice cold milk!
Finally, to go with our nice new cool-box we needed a way to plug it into a 240v supply while away. Go Outdoors also had a Eurohike UK Mains Conversion Lead which allowed us to plug into a campsite hookup and run a standard extension lead. This would do, for now.
Hitting the Road
When it came to taking our new mattress, cool-box and standard camping kit (less tent) on the road it felt a bit strange. The back seats just had boxes all over them and we were just driving to the Peak District for a walk and overnight in the van. We went for a rather relaxed stroll up Mam Tor, taking a particularly dog-friendly loop, then headed into Edale to find somewhere to stop for the night.
We slept in a 24 hour car park, after taking a walk up to the local pub for some dinner and a nice cold pint. Probably as cold as if we had one in our cool-box! Due to the load area being not-quite long enough for the mattress being laid out flat, we had a restful, yet slightly uncomfortable, night’s sleep. This would be a recurring theme across the trip…
Lessons Learned – Where do we go from here?!
I’m not going to steal the thunder of the whole Snowdonia trip. I’m pretty sure we’ll have a couple of posts from the places we went and the hikes we did. This is a conversion-less camper post after all! Instead, here are a few bits this trip highlighted to us as essential first steps on our conversion project. Some of these we were already aware of and had in our plan, though some gave us food for thought when it comes to finalising our design.
1. Being able to sleep out straight is ESSENTIAL!
Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more important than a good night’s sleep. Especially if you’re spending time taking part in outdoor activities! As I mentioned, we had restful sleep, though not the most comfortable. I’m not the tallest person but my knees were sore by the end of the week from curling up. When we design our foldout bed/bench, we’re making sure there’s enough space for stretching out and then some!
2. Wind slows down your cooking. So does rain.
We had a couple of meals in restaurants/pubs, however most of the time we were outside cooking on a little Campingaz stove. Despite the weather actually being pleasant, we had a couple of showers and quite a bit of wind! It took a ridiculously long time for the water to boil for our coffees and dinner was even worse! When it comes to cooking, we know we need an awning on the side. We’ve steered away from cooking inside to save some space, so this addition will be included!
3. Water, water, water.
Now here I know how important water is. We went prepared on this trip with a 5L drum full from ASDA and we filled it up where we could. We even left the house with more! My camelback took a tasty 3L and our individual litre bottles took us up to 10L. Overkill? Yes. However, once we got through some coffee, Mam Tor and plenty for our shih-tzu, we were glad we had it! We have now decided to add a sink with running water into the van. This will probably just be a 5L container with a water pump attached. Nonetheless, it’ll mean we have a nice supply on tap (pun intended) while off-grid.
4. Insulation is for more than just the warmth!
We have already planned our insulation for the van. Granted, we haven’t measured out the dimensions for quantity, but we know what we’re putting where. Without putting anything in for this trip, we wanted to see how cold it got at night with nothing in, so we have an idea of how many blankets we’ll need worst-case! On the whole, we were pretty comfortable under the duvet each night. Thankfully. Though come the morning the cold condensation drops from the exposed metal roof were a bit of a rude awakening. We dried it each morning to prevent rusting, but it highlighted the importance of insulation. Not just in keeping heat in, but preventing the build-up of moisture on the van. Our de-humidifier didn’t exactly do much for us in that department…
5. The UK is gorgeous.
Finally, here’s one we knew before we even left the house. We had initially intended to go back to the Lakes but we wanted to visit friends in Anglesey. Also, Snowdon with a tiny shih-tzu sounded like too much of a challenge to pass up! This trip allowed us to experience both the Peak District and Snowdonia in some beautiful weather. We walked up hills, explored some coastline and star-gazed in some crystal-clear skies. Everything we did on this trip embodies why we bought a van to convert. However we design and build this, nothing will change our purpose. The more we can get out and explore our country, the better! And the more windows and doors we can have to be able to enjoy the scenery, the even-better!
